Copenhagen

The weekend of October 8th, three of my classmates and I decided it would be an excellent idea to go to Copenhagen (I have to admit, I was mostly excited about being able to make dip/Robert Earl Keen Jr. jokes at the city's expense). I had just recently bought a Eurail pass (insert Euro rail/ your rail pun here), which gives me 15 travel days on European trains to use any time I want over the course of two months- an excellent deal! Copenhagen seemed like a great way to inaugurate my shiny new pass, so off we went! We left on Thursday afternoon, and having decided ahead of time that it was going to take too long to to get all the way to Copenhagen that night, we decided the stay the night in Hamburg (in north Germany). We got there too late in the evening to do any sightseeing, but we DID manage to accomplish the most touristy feat possible; we ate hamburgers, IN Hamburg! Granted, we did eat them in an American themed diner...and, admittedly, hamburgers don't actually come from Hamburg...but we thought it was pretty awesome all the same! The diner that we ate at had named all of their hamburgers after famous actors/actresses; there was the Humphrey Bogart, the Cary Grant, the Marilyn Monroe. I, of course, got the Jimmy Stewart :). We stayed that night at what we had thought was a hostel, but was really a guest house-thing inside an apartment building...but the beds were warm, and the room was clean, so it ended up being pretty good! Friday morning we took a train to Copenhagen. Having neglected to actually look at a map before we left Germany, I failed to realize that the most direct route to Copenhagen is over water. So I was, of course, very surprised when our train suddenly stopped, and we were all directed (in German AND Danish, neither of which helped my level of confusion very much) to get off the train. It was then that I realized that our train was on a ferry. For whatever reason, being on a train that was ON A BOAT was just amazing to us, and we spent the entire ferry ride completely in awe of modern modes of transportation. We got to Copenhagen late in the afternoon, went to city Information to get all the obligatory touristy maps and pamphlets, withdrew Danish crowns from an ATM, and immediately realized how EXPENSIVE our trips was going to be; lunch at a little cafe was almost 100 crowns, which equals about 15 Euro, which equals about 20 USD. We checked in to our hostel (a very nice, not at all sketchy one this time), immediately set off to find the national history museum, and failed miserably. Having walked in circles for hours, we pretty much gave up, and instead just walked through the city. It was so beautiful! Copenhagen is famous for its canals, and with good reason! The city's streets were lovely, wide, and clean, and the architecture was really quaint and adorable. For some reason, the people matched the city; I've never seen so many beautiful people in one place! The men in particular were absolutely gorgeous....must be something in the water! That night we went to the Copenhagen Ice Bar which is, as the name suggests, a bar. Made of ice. They give you these incredibly warm poncho-coat thingies, and then you go in to the (admittedly tiny) bar, in which the walls, chairs, bar, and even glasses are made of ice. It was, again, ridiculously expensive, but it was well worth it for novelty's sake! On Saturday we tried to pack in as much sight seeing as was humanly possible. We started off the morning with a boat tour through the canals, which turned out to be an excellent idea! It started at Nyhavn, which means New Harbor in Danish, and which is the place with those little narrow colorful buildings on the canal that you always see when you see pictures of Copenhagen...you know what I mean. The boat was hop-on-hop-off, which meant we could get off at whatever stop we wanted around the city, and then just catch the next boat a half hour later. We ended getting off the boat at the place where the statue of the Little Mermaid should have been, only to discover that she was in China in some sort of exchange exhibit. Sad day :(. But we did end up stopping again at the Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church) which, instead of a normal steeple/tower pointy thing with stairs you could climb on the inside, had a gorgeous spiral staircase going up the outside of the steeple! We, of course, took that as a challenge, and, despite the incredibly low clearance of the staircases inside the church, the steep steps, and angry sounding wind, made it to the top with only minor casualties. The view was well worth it! Copenhagen is beautiful from above. That afternoon we again tackled the "where the heck is the national museum" problem, and, armed with two different maps and the advice of local business owners, managed to finally make it after getting lost only twice. Again, it was well worth the trouble it took to get there! The museum was absolutely amazing (and free, which automatically doubles any places' enjoyment value)! They had excellent exhibits on Danish pre-history, archaeology, vikings, medieval artwork and church artifacts, and a really cool exhibit on cultures around the world. All of it was presented in a really amazing way, both displaying their REALLY awesome collection, as well as providing great interpretive information, general enough to make sense to someone with no previous knowledge of the subjects, and interesting and specific enough to make anyone already familiar with the content of the exhibit even more interested and informed! The best part, however, was the exhibit on danish peoples and culture over time, going back from the dark ages to 2010. It did an EXCELLENT job of covering all the major events and changes in danish history, while still focusing on the lives of every day people, including groups not usually represented history until recently (aka, women, the poor, children, anyone other than christians, etc). The best part, though, was the exhibit design work! They did an AMAZING job of grouping items from their collection into meaningful, thematic groups, explaining their significance, and doing it all in an absolutely beautiful way! If I ever get lucky enough to design my own exhibit, I'll definitely be taking notes from the Danish National Museum. Saturday evening we went to Det Kongelige Teater (The Royal Theater) to see the Royal Ballet company perform Swan Lake! I had, very cleverly (or so I thought) managed to get tickets online for only 7 euro a person with a student discount, and was smugly reveling in my deal-finding genius...until we arrived at the theater. Turns out European ballets have a standing room only section. After spending two days walking around (read here: getting lost in) the city, standing for three hours was NOT our idea of a good time. We powered through the first act, though I certainly could have enjoyed it more. We were all set to stand again in the second act, when a man in a suit waved us over, started speaking to us in rapid Danish (though the speed really didn't make a difference- we couldn't have understood him if he was speaking in slow Danish - though I did manage to learn the word for 'thank you' while I was there; it's 'tak'!), and pointed out a row of empty seats to us. Apparently a bunch of people had left at intermission, and we were able to sit for the rest of the performance! I thought the second act was much better than the first (though being able to actually see the whole stage in the second half may have had something to do with my preference). When Sunday finally came around we made our way back to Germany (again, on a train which was on a boat!), and traveled most of the day. We're getting pretty good at figuring out the train system at this point- knock on wood- and we've been having a blast on our adventures. Next post: fall break trip to Italy, including Rome, Florence, and Venice!