Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

March 21-23

Ehh, it wasn't that wonderful, I just had that song in my head the entire time I was there. Well, not really that song, more like that one line. Since I don't know any of the other words.

Speaking of songs stuck in my head, I had that one line from "The Producers", "I was born in Düsseldorf, that is why they call me Rolf" in my head the entire time I was in Düsseldorf. The worst part about that was that I know other words to the song, but that line just kept running through my head. It's probably not a good idea to go around quietly singing "Springtime for Hitler" in Germany.

Anyway, Copenhagen. A warning to anyone thinking about visiting: it is REALLY EXPENSIVE. And not like when people say Italy is expensive. No. Much much more expensive. We thought it was expensive before we even knew the true exchange rate. We thought it was about 7.5 Kr to 1 USD, but it's really 4.5 to 1. Umm yeah. Here's an example: a one-day public transportation pass costs 115 Kr. That's about 25 USD. Granted, you could travel anywhere in the system with that (including on real trains), so that may not seem so bad. How about this? A standard meal at McDonald's (burger, fries, drink) cost at least 50 Kr. That's more than $10. Need more convincing? We ate at a restaurant one night, but I decided to just get a bowl of soup (which was listed in the appetizers section). It was a fairly normal-sized bowl of soup, one I'd probably pay about 3 € for in Germany. Not at this place. It was 65 Kr, which is more than $13. Recommendation: don't go to Copenhagen until you have money.

Short summary:


Day 1
I met up with Jonathan in the train station as soon as my train got in. It was so great to see him! We hadn't seen each other since December, when we only spent 1.5 days together. This time wasn't much better (2 full days), but it was still good. We were both tired (me from the night train, Jonathan from an international flight) and it was freezing out and raining, so we decided to not do too much. We ate lunch, halfheartedly looked at a palace, went to a (free) museum for a half hour, and then went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at a fast-food-type Indian place because we (mistakenly) thought it wasn't that expensive. I figured out later
that that meal cost us about $40. Great.


Day 2

Thousand-year-old ship in the Viking museum


Jonathan and the Roskilde cathedral

Neither of us had really been that impressed with what we saw of Copenhagen the day before, so we decided to go to Roskilde, a town about 30 km away, to go to the Viking Ship Museum. We hadn't been sure if we'd be able to go because we thought there'd be tons of stuff we'd want to do in Copenhagen, but we thought it would be good to go to a museum since it was sort of raining. The museum ended up being a great choice, and it ended up being a really nice day! Of course it was still freezing and windy, but at least the sun was shining. We walked from the train station through the town of Roskilde to get to the museum. It was weird to see snow on the ground, especially since just a few days before it had been so warm! The Viking Ship Museum wasn't large, but it was cool. It was built specifically for 5 ships that were found in Roskilde Fjord. They had been scuttled in the fjord about 900 years ago to create a blockade (in Viking times, Roskilde was not only the capital of Denmark, but also the most important city in the country). The boats were discovered about 30 years ago, restored, and the museum built specifically to display them. The museum also had quite a bit of information about Viking history and culture, which was nice, since I pretty much knew nothing about them before.


Day 3

I'm guessing a statue of King Christian (I have, like, a 90% chance of being right)


Nyhavn: Now this is the Copenhagen I imagined!


Changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace. BTW, they were the lamest guards ever. Some of them were chatting with each other during the ceremony!

Jonathan and I said goodbye early in the morning (awww, sad). He had to get a flight back to Atlanta so that he could be on reserve that evening...talk about a tight schedule! Even though we didn't get to do too much in Copenhagen together, it was really nice to just be able to spend time with him.

After he left, I checked out of the hotel and went on a self-guided walking tour that I found in one of the maps Jonathan left me. It took me most of the day to do the whole thing, and I saw a ton of stuff. I discovered pretty fast that Copenhagen is a lot nicer than we had thought from our experiences the two days before. I saw a bunch of churches and palaces (Copenhagen has a ton), a bunch of statues of kings named Christian (seems like all of them were named that), the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace (the official residence of the royal family), the Little Mermaid, the only Episcopal church in Denmark, a really cool preserved fortification, some former barracks, a couple ports, and some other stuff. Overall, it was a nice walking tour, but again, of course, it was FREEZING. It was better than both of the days before, but still. At least it was sunny and nice out. It also gave me something to do on Easter, since nothing else was open (although the Guinness Book of World Records museum was...I contemplated going in, just to get out of the cold).



Overall, Copenhagen was a little disappointing. It's a nice city, but not as different as I thought it would be. It looked like many other European (and specifically German) cities that I've visited. I guess I thought it would have some kind of Danish flair...? Not that I know what "Danish flair" is. I also think I would have liked it much better in the summer, or at least temps above freezing. It definitely seems like a summer place, with all its ports and promenades.

As for working, the past few weeks have been nuts! I got back from Berlin on Sunday night and obviously I've been working since then, but in the previous two weeks, I had only worked 4 days. Man, I love traveling! All these trips have given me a much-needed break from the oppressive smallness of Heuchlingen and Heidenheim. Now that it's starting to get warm, though, I think I'll enjoy it more here. It'll be much more pleasant to be outside.

Up next: trip to Amsterdam this weekend. Hopefully once I get back I'll get all caught up with trip posts.