København, New Years 2007
After the previous night’s New Years festivities, BostonBill and I made it up by noon and to Schiphol to get our 14.40 flight to CPH. Short and sweet, we were there by 16.00, and navigated our way into the city and to our ‘hotel’, the Euroglobe. It was already well into darkness as we walked from the train station, without map… it made it interesting, but we finally found it, but ran into a problem… The reception was closed, hardly any lights on in the building, and in what seemed a slightly shady area. After some poking around, we started banging on the door and someone came to let us in. It turns out they close reception at 17.30, and it was now 18.15. Close at 5:30 in the afternoon? A hotel? What the hell? But more importantly, we had our room… for 550 Dkr… for what resembled an upgraded prison room. There were 2 beds with not much mattress, hardly any sheets to speak of, in an all white-peeling-painted room. Also a desk and ‘closet’… some slabs of plywood nailed together, with peeling paint. It did have a sink, but the toilet and shower were across the hall. There were no curtains or shades on the windows, that didn’t quite close all the way, and no heat from the furnace. This wasn’t
exactly 4 star accommodation. At least it was only for one night until we got to the hostel. Being New Years Day, nothing was really going on, so we just chilled, talked, made a plan of attack for the next day, and ate some gas station food. Later I ventured out to an Irish pub to grab a beer. They had a seasonal local brew, so I decided I should probably try it. The Tuberg Julebryg is a darker ale and goes down smoothly. 40kr for a pint… about $7… I knew I was going to have to watch spending because Scandinavia is expensive, and this isn’t looking good.
At least there was breakfast in the morning before we checked out to go to Danhostel, which was luxury living compared to the previous night. Clean, stylish, modern… my first HI hostel experience, and I must say, it was pleasant…. and for half the price of Euroglobe. We got there around noon or so, but had to wait until 14.00 to check in, so we dropped the bags off and went exploring.We walked to Rådhusplads and down Strøget, the large pedestrian shopping area, and onwards towards Kastellet and den Lille Havfrue, the Little Mermaid statue from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairly tale. The Danish are very proud of the fact the ol’ HC is one of theirs… they sure don’t let you forget it… On the way, a procession of Danish military on horses rode by, so we followed them to the Royal Palaces. Turns out they were rehearsing for the next day, when they’d be presenting some diplomats to the queen or something like that. And then we continued on to den Lille Havfrue… something your ‘supposed’ to go see in København, but really, it’s no big deal. It’s a nice walk, but not really worth going out of your way for. But, I did get to see Danish marketing in progress, as there was a photo shoot for some beverage happening at the Little Mermaid. After checking it out, we took a different route back, checking out more scenery of the city. I noticed that a lot of the architecture was similar to the Dutch, and later learned the large influence the Dutch had on Danish culture. Unfortunately, the weather was also similar to Amsterdam… cold and wet… But, what else should I expect of northern Europe in the winter?
That evening was ‘Thirsty Tuesday’ at the Scottish Pub down the street. Cheap beer and live music, it said, so Bill and I were game. By cheap, they mean 25kr beers. Not ridiculously expensive, but not what I’d call cheap. But still the cheapest in town, so we can’t complain much. The live music was a guy with a guitar, singing your typical bar tunes. His talent seemed to increase proportionally to our alcohol intake. And then Bill decided it was time to bestow upon me some of his knowledge the finer points of single malt scotch. By the time we left, the guy was playing some damn fine guitar.
My friend Emil from the conservatory is Danish, and at his parents for the break, so I met up with him and he took me to a place with a fuckin awesome burger. It was, of course, ridiculously expensive, but I bit the bullet. It was damn good. After, we met Bill back at the hostel and headed out to Christiana, a socialist state in the middle of København. Strange situation… some hippies started squatting some military land, and just didn’t leave. They wanted to set up their own self-governing community, and eventually the Danish government let them. They have their own businesses and schools and things. There’s several cafes and restaurants, some booths selling hippie garb… up until a couple years ago, drugs pot and hash were openly sold in vendor stands on the streets, but the Danish government cracked down on that. There’s no open selling anymore… We went to one of the cafes to have some coffee and chill for a bit. They don’t have a liquor license, so no alcohol, but the place seemed to be very reminiscent of Amsterdam… hmmm… 😉
Emil next took us to the Nørrebro neighborhood to find some bars, and ended up at the Nørrebro Bryghus, a micro-brewery. I tried their stout and IPA. Quite nice. And quite alcoholic. They have a nice chill bar area that looks to some of their container vats. Gezellig. We ended up at several more bars through the course of the evening, thanks to the guidance of some Danish girls that kept insisting we follow them to the next bar as we closed out the previous. Eventually we had closed out all the bars in the neighborhood…
In the morning, Bill headed out to some other museums he wanted to see. When I ventured out, I headed back towards the Nørrebro area to see it in the day. Pretty much just walked around, found some familiar areas from last night, chilled in a cafe and ate a lot of Arab food from the good restaurants in that area.
If I haven’t mentioned it before, København has got to be very high on the ‘cities with most statues and monuments’ list. They’re everywhere. And some are rather bizarre, like these by the University of Copenhagen…
Stayed in that night, because we wanted to catch the 9.00 bus to Malmö, Sweden in the morning. Just an hour on the bus for 110kr, so we made it a day trip, across the 7.8km bridge built spanning the Öresund, the body of water separating Denmark from Sweden. Having no clue about anything once in Malmö, Bill made use of the tourist information desk and asked what we should do. I, got a coffee and a sandwich. Upon reconvening, we learned there’s a fort, and some nice areas to walk. The museum at the fort was closed for another hour, so we walked the grounds a bit, and ended back in the city a bit. As we walked, I spotted Erik’s Cafe… I noticed because my brother’s name is Erik… with a ‘k’… it was always kind of a big deal when he was a kid when we found things that spelled it that way rather than with a ‘c’… So, I took a picture for him and we decided to grab a coffee and sandwich. Good sandwich, decent coffee, nice decor… it was gezellig.
We headed back to the fort museum… not exactly what we expected. We thought it would be a museum relating to the fort. Nope. It was really an art exhibit… in a fort… But it was good. There were some nice antiques and instruments. And a whole theater with a bunch of klaviers of various types, with an impressive pipe organ in the back. There were some other contemporary art displays and an aquarium as well. Our ticket also gained us admission to the science and industry museum. There were various feats of engineering displayed, such as automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, ships, and their U3 submarine. I found their auto and motorcycle displays nice. I think that comes from my inner Detroit. I’m just naturally drawn to car shows. As it neared 16.00, we made our way back to the station to catch our return bus.
That evening we had goals. Hear live music and drink beer. Our first stop was made after hearing what might have been some jazz. Close. It was a ragtime sextet. Really nice stuff they were playing… but it was an old folks bar. Like, real old. I think even Boston Bill felt young. But it was cool. Good music and beer, we were on track. But, Bill decided it was time to leave when the old ladies started hitting on him. Our next stop was at a bar that reported having live jazz or something. Not quite… college kid with an acoustic guitar playing covers… and not particularly well. When we left there, Bill wanted to make one more stop. And where else? But an Irish bar. No live music, but at least there was Guinness. And cute girls, which of course made Bill happy. And before long, a live band was playing. Huzzah! A rock cover band, but actually pretty good.
The next morning we got up early, dropped our bags at the train station, and went to the Statens Museum for Kunst before our flight left at 14.00. They had an interesting contemporary art exhibit, and, it was free. Yay! Bill and I ended up taking the museum at different paces. The agreement was to meet back at the coat rack at quarter to twelve. Somehow this plan went awry. After not seeing Bill or finding him anywhere in the musem, by quarter after twelve I decided I had to get back to the train station. I hoped Bill would realize the same. Or already had. We put our bags in the same locker… so surely he would wait there knowing I would have to go there… so I hauled ass, nearly twisting my bad knee in the process. That could have really fucked up the plan. All the while Bill’s at the train station worrying that he’s going to have to take my bag with him to Berlin, his next destination. We find each other, and all is well. A little later than we wanted it to be, but it was alright. The airport wasn’t too far away, and we still had an hour and a half before our flights left. And once again, plenty of time once through security. I still ended up with a lot of time to kill before flying.
So I return to Amsterdam to go back to school and prepare for my friend Mara to come to town later in the week. Bill continued to Berlin, but had to return to Amsterdam the next weekend for his return flight… More adventures to come? Stay tuned…
Tags: copenhagen, Denmark, Europe, Sweden, Travel
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