BootsnAll Travel Network



Josh and Jenny’s European Adventure 2009 – Day 7 Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm Sweden

Today was our last semi-full day in Copenhagen.  We have our overnight train tonight from Copenhagen Central Station to Stockholm via Malmo, Sweden.  When we woke up we anticipated heavy rain, but were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to slightly overcast and no rain in sight.  We had to check out by 12PM and wanted to get to Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen’s famous fairytale amusement park) by 11AM since this was the first day it was opened all season.  After we had our free buffet breakfast, we gathered up all of our remaining items made sure they were packed and went downstairs to checkout and store our luggage in the hotel’s luggage room in the basement.  To get into the luggage room you had to be buzzed in by reception so I felt extremely comfortable leaving my stuff in there for the day.
Checking out was a slight issue.  Our credit card wasn’t going through.  Jenny thought that the receptionist wasn’t entering the card details correctly and after I used skype on my iphone to call MasterCard, the lady from MasterCard figured out what the receptionist was doing wrong and we were all set.
We got to Tivoli just passed 11AM and surprisingly there wasn’t much of a line.  We bought an all-day multi-ride ticket which included admission to the park for a whopping 570kr for the pair of tickets!  We started to walk through the park and quickly noticed that a lot of the rides wouldn’t be open until 2PM.  The first ride we were able to go on was this swing that first launched us up very high into the air, giving us a great view of the city and then swung us around for a few minutes.  Jenny and I were laughing the entire time partly because it was a great ride but partly because it was freezing cold that high up in the air and Jenny was a little scared being so high up there.
After the ride was over we took a little break, walked around and then came across a smaller, wooden rollercoaster that was open.  It was situated inside a faux mountain and was really fun.  I enjoy old school wooden rollercoasters.  The best part was towards the end of the ride they took our picture which we didn’t know about and since our faces were so funny we bought the picture and will take it home to share with everyone.
At around 1230-1PM we wanted to leave the park.  We went to the ticket collectors and asked to have our hands stamped so we could gain re-admittance into the park.  The collectors said that starting this season they no longer stamp hands in such fashion.  Ironically yesterday as we were walking by we asked a worker of Tivoli if we could get our hands stamped to get back into the park and the guy said “sure.”  Yet today the collectors were telling us that we could  not get our hands stamped.  I wasn’t going to just leave the park, lose out on all that money and go away empty handed.  So I went to the customer service center and explained the situation.  EVEN THE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE did not  know that the rule had been changed regarding the stamping of the hands.  After spending a few minutes on the phone the girl came back and said sorry the park no longer stamped hands.  I calmly explained to her if the workers of the park did not know that the rule was changed how is the public supposed to know?  She responded by saying “well I’m telling you now.”  Instead of getting angry and further pissed off, I stayed calm and asked the representative if there was anything else she could do for us?  After thinking for a few seconds the girl asked for my receipt that was used to purchase the tickets.  I handed the receipt to her and she said “I can give you back the entrance fee to the park, you can use your bracelets again when you return (the multi-ticket ride bracelets were good for the entire day regardless if you leave or not).  I said thank you and she handed me the 170KR needed to get back into the park.
I felt vindicated and left the building with a big smile on my face as Jenny and I left Tivoli to head to the Carlsberg brewery located a little outside of the city center.  We hopped on Bus 6A and when we got on we asked the bus driver if he could let us know what stop to get off at.  After around 30 minutes Jenny kept saying that the driver probably forgot about us and that we must have passed the stop.  Since I didn’t exactly know where the brewery was I wasn’t sure if we had in fact passed the stop or not.  Eventually I got up and asked the driver if we had passed the stop.  He made a bad face and said that he had forgotten and that we needed to have gotten off 5 stops ago!  He told us to get off and catch the same bus back in the other direction.
We just happened to catch bus 6A after crossing the street and getting to the bus stop.  Again we got on the bus and asked the driver to tell us when we needed to get off for the Carlsberg Brewery.  In case he forgot I asked him what the name of the stop was so when it came up on the monitor I could press the “stop” button and not miss the stop for the second time.  He gave me the name and when we got to it he announced that this was the stop for the Carlsberg Brewery.  As we were getting off he told us to make a right and walk down the street for two minutes or so.  When we got to the end of the street the building said “Carlsberg Museum,” but looked closed.  We then saw a sign “Carlsberg Visitor Centre 400m to the right.  We then walked to another street and made a left.  Saw another sign for the visitor’s centre and then found the entrance.  When we got inside the visitor’s centre we were caught a little off guard.  The reason why we left Tivoli, besides the fact that we needed to kill several hours until all the rides were opened and our train was leaving (1030PM), was that it was supposed to be free.  When we got there the lady at the desk explained to us that this was the visitor’s centre and that it wasn’t free but the museum (which said was crappy in so many words), was closed.  After we asked what was included in the price of admission she ended up saying “and you get 2 free beers or choices of soft drink at the end.”  That was enough for us and we decided to get two tickets.
The visitor’s centre was alright but basically you are paying 60KR each for 2 free beers at the end.  The bar had choices of several kinds of Carlsberg, including something of a micro beer called Jacobsen’s, named after the original founder of Carlsberg beer.  After we walked through the centre following the path provided for us in the pamphlet, we got to the bar.  Jenny and I ended up having two very nice beers.  We both got the same first one and then two different ones for our second choice, so we could try each others.
After leaving the bar and the brewery we got on bus 26, which we could have taken to the brewery from Tivoli and it would have dropped us off MUCH closer than 6A did and went back to Tivoli.  Again we expected there to be rain and long lines and instead it was partly sunny and no lines.
The rest of the day we spent going on all the rides at Tivoli.  The lines weren’t long and we definitely got our money’s worth.  We ended up leaving at 815PM and headed back to the hotel so we would have enough time to go to the supermarket to get some food and supplies for the train.  Before we could leave the hotel we needed to use our 100Kr voucher we received for choosing to not have our room cleaned which would help reduce CO2 emissions or something.  Anyway we didn’t know what to get and wasn’t so hungry, actually we were rather full after our late lunch so instead we got two bottles of fancy water; one bottle of Pellegrino (sparkling), Panna (still) and relaxed for a little bit.
After enjoying our free water we gathered up our stuff, rearranged some things and started our journey to Stockholm.  Our first stop was the supermarket which of course was closed.  Our backup plan was 7/11 which had a horrible selection of food.  We got some chips, a sandwich and a salad which all looked gross.  We also bought some bottles of water which we would need.  We then continued our journey to the train station.  When we finally figured out what the hell was going on we sat down and waited.  Since I kind of jumped the gun and got nervous that we wouldn’t have enough time to do everything we ended up at the train station way too early.  We decided to get some food at the train stain and wait.
Finally 1023PM rolled around and we got on our first of two trains.  We would ride this train for about 30 minutes and have roughly 8 minutes or less to find our next overnight train to Stockholm.  Right before we arrived in Malmo Central Station the conductor came through to collect our tickets.  Before I gave her our tickets I asked her what track the train to Stockholm was leaving from.  She told us the train would be leaving from track 7, I gave my thanks and handed her our tickets.
When we got off the train in Malmo, Jenny and I jogged to the train as we didn’t know how far it would be and we didn’t have much time to get on the train.  When we finally found track 7 I asked a nearby conductor where our carriage was.  He pointed us to the back of the train.  When we got to the carriage it was a little rough.  First, two drunks were passed out in our seats.  I didn’t know what to do so I told Jenny to sit in the next group of four seats next to the ones we were supposed to be sitting in figuring nobody would have reserved these.  Well I was wrong.  At the next stop tons of people got on and a couple said that we were sitting in their seats.  I explained that people were in ours and the guy kept saying “well we have these reserved.”  He said it over and over again I was getting agitated fast.  I was tired, hungry and just wanted to get situated for our upcoming 5-7 hour journey to Stockholm.
After lots of confusion and Jenny getting pushed around a little bit by the people trying to get into seats, I stormed out of the carriage and went looking for the conductor.  I explained to the conductor that the two drunks he had tried to collect tickets from before were passed out in our seats and there was no place for us to sleep.  He said “Ok, go get your stuff and your sister and come into this couchette.”  I said “thank you so much,” stormed back into the crappy carriage with seats only and no couchette’s and said to Jenny (making sure everyone else heard), “let’s go we are going to the other carriage.”  Everyone knew we had just been upgraded to the lap of luxury.  Well not quite, but we had a bed and a place to sleep vertical, as opposed to trying to sleep in a loud, smelly and bright carriage.  Jenny and I thanked the conductor numerous times and then immediately went into the berth.  I felt so good that we had been given two beds in a berth.  It looked clean, and the beds were pretty comfortable.  Definitely the nicest or second nicest (the Switzerland to Prague overnight train with Linda was pretty nice as we had the entire 6 person couchette to ourselves).
Anyway after we got into the couchette this drunk woman came in who had just bought a ticket for the bed.  Then an older couple came in and got the two top bunks.  There were five  of us in total, it wasn’t that bad since Jenny and I had a chance to get our stuff situated comfortably leaving the others to fight for the free luggage space.  The night would continue as a  rattling sound came from the top of the berth somewhere.  Throughout the night each of us had gotten up to see where the hell this rattling was coming from.  Also the air conditioning was not working and the berth was getting rather warm.  The rattling would persist until about 3AM when it suddenly stopped.  I had gotten a little sleep before it stopped and as soon as it permanently stopped I immediately passed out, this had been one hell of a day.



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