Stockholm Part 1

It was 6 in the morning, and I decided to go find my hostel. It was about a 10 minute walk from the train station, and really easy to find. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 8 am, so I sat down on a park bench nearby for a while until I decided it would be better to stay at the train station where it was actually warm.

I sat down on a bench at the train station, and faded in and out of consciousness until shortly before 8 when I decided I would head back to the hostel. As I was leaving the building, I passed by one of the convenience stores and decided that some food would be good. I went in and saw the rows of candy, and remembering Kaycie's candy and grossly lacking impulse control while that sleep deprived, I grabbed a bag and started shovelling all kinds of different candies into it. Then I got a Coke and a chocolate bar. That was my breakfast.

I got to the hostel, and checked in, but I couldn't get into my room until 2 pm, so I put my backpack into the luggage storage, and then hung around the hostel for a while and went on the Internet and tried to figure out what I wanted to do for the day.

I eventually decided that I would head to the dance museum that I had found a pamphlet for. It didn't open until 11 though, so I still had some time to kill. I started walking anyway though, and found the tourist information office to grab a city guide.

I ended up finding the main shopping street, and going around there for a while. There was one intersection that I found that had an H&M on 3/4 of the corners. And I found some good candy shops.

It may be a little hard to see, but there are actually 3 H&M's in this photo!

I headed to the dance museum, and I enjoyed it, but most of it was not quite what I was expecting. I was hoping there would be more of the collection dedicated to modern dance styles, but a lot of it was about traditional dances from around the world. That was interesting, but a lot of the styles didn't have (good) videos, so it was mostly just costumes to look at. Then I found that they had a decent loop of videos playing in their modern dance section, so I watched clips of everything from ballet to Broadway, from the early 1900's, to clips from just a few years ago.

Antique dance shoes.

Pretty costumes!

They had a lot of displays like this and although I found them interesting, I preferred the ballet stuff.

Then I also realized that they were showing a film about a competition at the Bolshoi Ballet in the 1960's (I think) which seemed pretty interesting, so I watched that. There were some really neat clips of Mikhail Baryshnikov in it, and just a lot of good dancing.

After the museum, I made my way back to the hostel to check in, shopping a little along the way. I put my stuff into my room and then decided to try out the little café that was in the reception area of my hostel. I tried to pay with a credit card, but for some reason the machine wasn't working. I grabbed a bill out of my wallet, but it was an old issue from a trip my grandma went on about 10 years ago, so it's no longer valid. Which meant I actually had a lot less money than I thought I did. However, it also meant I got a discount on my food because the woman working was feeling bad that it was their fault I couldn't pay with a credit card, so I just gave her all the money I had.

The food was good, but I went out right afterwards to get more money because I didn't have any. Then I walked around a little, and shopped a bit in the old town before I came back to my room and crashed for a nap.

I had a late supper (at Max again) after I woke up from my nap, and then went back to my hostel. I didn't feel like trying to meet random people in the common area, so I just went to my room, and ended up going to sleep pretty early. My room had 12 beds, but I quite liked it, although I think I shared the room with 8 guys that night.

View from my bunk - nice room.

I got up early and had to get myself checked out of my hostel by 10. At 10, I went on a bike tour that I had signed up for given by one of the women who works at the hostel.

It was pretty good, although I'm really in no shape to ride a bike, and I couldn't find my camera in my bag, so I didn't take any photos (maybe just as well to focus on my biking). We saw a bust of Astrid Lindgren in a park nearby our hostel (she used to live in the neighbourhood, so a lot of her stories take place there). We saw a plaque where the Swedish Prime Minister was assassinated in 1986, and a monument to a war hero that died after being taken prisoner in Russia. We got to hear a bit of the story of the Vasa, and then we had a little picnic on a dock. They had said in the description that it would be coffee and traditional Swedish cinnamon buns, but the buns were actually cardamom buns, which just aren't as good as cinnamon ones.

After we came back from the picnic, I tried to get my things ready to head to Finland. I did some laundry and went on the Internet and ate at the hostel café for lunch while I was waiting. Then I went on a bit of a shopping walkabout before I came back to get all my things packed up and head off to the ferry.

I got to the terminal by taking the metro, and went to buy a ticket. I asked for the cheapest one they had, and the woman told me that would be a shared cabin, so I said "Okay," and paid the 90 SEK reservation fee (the rest was discounted by my Eurail pass). I got a drinkable yoghurt and tiny chocolate bar as I waited to get on the ferry.

While waiting to board the ferry.

Next up - the ferry to Finland.

Farewell Denmark, Hello Sweden!

I managed to wake myself up at about 6:30 am Sunday, and got myself up by about 6:50. I checked out, and was hoping to take the bus to the train station rather than make the 30 minute walk with my big bag, but it turned out I had just missed the 7:30 bus, so it would be at least as fast if I just walked.

I hopped on the train that was headed to Malmo, and I got there at about 9. I headed out almost straight away to find the Turning Torso (Scandinavia's tallest building). I walked and walked, and I could see the building in the distance, but it felt like a mirage that was never getting any closer! Finally I turned a corner, and I could see the whole thing, and I eventually made it all the way there. It was a really cool building. After that, I headed back to the train station to grab some food and reserve a ticket for the night train to Stockholm.

Turning Torso.

I explored the area around the train station a little, and then I called Kaycie to warn her that I was going to be on a train heading to Ystad very shortly. Kaycie is 4 years younger than me, but I know her from high school, and she's on an exchange in a little town called Ystad, so I decided it would be neat to go visit her and see the town! Before I left Malmo, I bought myself a sandwich that I'm pretty sure was made with the liver spread stuff that's popular in this part of the world.

I got to Ystad and had a lovely little visit with Kaycie as she gave me a tour around the town. It was nice to have a tour guide, and the town was adorable! She's a lucky girl to get to be there! We saw the old churches, the theatre, the park, the harbour, the school, and lots of adorable little houses. She introduced me to Swedish candy (there were a couple stores there with a FANTASTIC selection of candy), and we had fika (a fika? Kaycie says it best translates to coffee date, but can have a wide variety of meanings) at a little coffee shop.

Inside one of the churches.

Kaycie's school.

Train and bus station.

View from the dock.

When she had to go home for dinner, I explored a little more and grabbed a Peanut Butter Cookie Dough ice cream bar as I was waiting for the train. We had been talking about peanut butter and ice cream, so it sounded especially good right about then. I was really glad I stopped for that little visit! Ystad was such a cute little town, and I would never have seen it if I didn't know someone who was there!

In Ystad.

Random, cute house.

I headed back to Malmo, and started looking for a restaurant. Kaycie had said that Max had good food (especially fries), so when I saw one, I decided to go in. I got a falafel burger with fries and it was delicious! Then I found out that they have free wireless internet here, so I stuck around to take advantage of it. All of this so far has been written at the Max.

After I left the Max, I just went to the train station and got my backpack out of a locker then hung around until my train was ready to leave.

I was in a sleeper cabin because that's apparently all that the train had. It was a 6 bed room with a bunch of strangers, but I slept better than I would have in a chair. We got into Stockholm at 6 am, and I'll continue the story next post.

Google Translate says that this sign says that you ARE allowed to flush the toilet while the train is standing in the station. But it still makes me think of that song.

Last Day in Copenhagen

**Warning, this post contains photos of delicious food. Don't read it if you're afraid it will make you hungry!**

On my last day, I decided that I had seen quite a bit, so I didn't need to get up early. I slept fairly late, and then got ready slowly, and didn't head out until about noon. Everyone who had been in my room checked out, so by the time I was ready to go, there was no one else in my room!!

This is looking towards the door. I was on the bottom bed of the bunk that I was standing behind to take this photo. 9 beds in a tiny little room!

First I went to the Royal Palace. I didn't explore the area in great detail, just because I've been seeing and doing so much, that my brain's starting to get a little overloaded. I went to the stables and met the funniest horse. I went up to his stall, and he looked me in the eye. I held out my hand, and he sniffed it and bit and then immediately turned and pressed his side up against the gate so I could rub his neck and back. I loved the fact that he was communicating with me so clearly!! I went around to a couple other horses, and then back to my friend, and he did the same thing again! I patted him for a while, and my fingers turned pretty black from the dirt, but luckily there was a bathroom right by for me to wash up.

The palace.

My horsey friend. See how he stood next to the gate for me?

Dirty fingers from an apparently dirty horse!

Next I headed off to Christiana. On the way there, I saw a little flea market which was pretty cool.

Christiana is a really interesting little place. It's its own municipality within the city of Copenhagen, and it's a pretty hippie place. They had lots of neat little booths selling interesting clothing and jewelry and things, but I refrained from buying anything.

After that, I decided to find out what Charlottenborg was. I'm still not quite sure. It was kind of an art gallery? I didn't feel like going into the exhibit, so I walked outside and realized that I was right beside where the canal tours start. I thought "Why not?" and bought a ticket and hopped on the boat. It was pretty cool. As in both interesting and cold. It was really cold and windy out on the water, but I got to hear and see some neat things that I would not have otherwise. Unfortunately, the Little Mermaid statue is currently in Shanghai, so there was nothing to see there. I was glad I hadn't tried to walk to it, because that would have been an awfully long and disappointing journey.

At Charlottenborg. How many times can you spot my name in this photo?

The tour did give me a good view of  the Theatre and the Opera House, and I learned a little about a couple of the buildings that I would not have known otherwise. It started right near where Hans Christian Andersen lived, and I wouldn't have know that if I hadn't gone on the tour!

Hans Christian Andersen's home.

After the boat ride, I grabbed some fresh roasted almonds, and then checked out a little markety thing nearby. There were lots of neat little food booths, and I bought myself a huge cinnamon cookie. Then I kept walking and found a little fruit stand, so I bought some Danish strawberries. They were so amazingly good!! They were so shiny and red that they looked like plastic, and they were sweet and juicy to back it up. Yum!!

And I don't have little hands!

The most beautiful and delicious strawberries I've ever eaten.

I made my way slowly back to the hostel and took a bit of a break before I decided to head back out for my last Danish supper. I walked all the way back to the area by Tivoli, and got myself a proper Danish hot dog from a vendor there. She was really nice too! She asked me where I was from and was telling me what I should have to make it a proper Danish hot dog. It was so good too! Danish hotdogs are bright red, too long for the buns, and only properly topped when they have ketchup, mustard, remoulade, fried and raw onions and pickles. It was incredibly difficult to eat, and I lost some toppings along the way, but it was totally worth it!

Danish hot dog, YUM!

I topped my dinner off with a slurpee that seemed to be honeydew flavoured or something random like that, and then I headed back to the hostel, and got some of this blogging stuff taken care of before I went to bed.

I was just starting to really enjoy Copenhagen (and not suffer through sore legs everyday!)! Too bad my time was up!

Århus

So I managed to wake myself up at pretty much exactly 7 am (cause I'm magic like that), and I got ready and out the door quite quickly.

Side note "About this hostel": Kinda cute, kinda sketchy. It's toeing a fine line. The common area is pretty nice, but the bedrooms are a little sketchy. I wasn't feeling like much of a backpacker when I had a sleeper coach on the train and my own shower on the ferry, but now I feel like a backpacker. I am on a 3-person bunk, and there are 2 toilets and 4 showers in the bathroom that serves approximately 80 beds (a couple more if every one is full). This means that you have to get up really early to beat the rush. There is a Muslim girl in my room (who is from Malaysia and is studying in England), who gets out her prayer mat usually before anyone else is awake.

I got to the train station, and it took me a little while to figure out what was going on with my Eurail pass (even though I had used it to get discounts in Norway, no one had ever really looked at it or stamped it, so it only got activated now). The ticket counter man told me that I didn't need to have a seat reservation in Denmark, but in Sweden I probably would.

So the reason to get a seat reservation in Denmark is so that you don't have to stand. Because they really don't care how many people get on the train. The cool thing about Denmark is that every seat has a little lit tag above it saying where that seat is reserved from and to. I got lucky and managed to get a seat for about the first half of the trip before I had to go stand.

I got to Århus about noon, and got a little distracted by the mall that was attached to the train station, but then I started exploring a little. I walked up and down a couple streets and then ended up back where I started to get some information from the tourist office. I picked up a little city guide with a map and then I decided that I would try to find the Art Gallery since it looked close by.

Barfing pig fountain. I thought it was funny.

I loved the Art Gallery! It was too bad, because a couple of their exhibits were closed, but their special exhibit was absolutely wonderful!! It was an artist named Julie Nord, and her stuff was all very detailed and cute but usually had a touch of evil to it. There was also a video explaining a bit of her thought process while she was working on one of the pieces. It even had the perfect music to compliment the art. I thought it was all great!

View from inside the Art Gallery.

One of Julie Nord's works that was on display.

They had some good classic paintings from Danish artists throughout the years, and some contemporary art that was arranged in a really neat way, but like all modern art, kind of hit and miss. They also had this giant fibreglass sculpture of a boy that was pretty creepy. In the very basement, there was this really creepy "light display". There were all these dark hallways, and a few really dark rooms that had some sort of videos playing. And the scariest thing was this little bridge in a room that was all mirrors, so it looked like everything went on infinitely!

Creepy giant fibreglass boy.

The mirror room that was so scary I couldn't even look. This is the floor.

The darkest room. It was so scary. Even my camera flash could hardly light it up.

I bought myself a copy of the book of Julie Nord's exhibit, and a couple postcards and grabbed lunch at the cafe in the gallery before going off to explore more.

I found a little museum that was almost all local history. It didn't have much that was in English, but there was almost no one in the museum (I saw about 3 other people total), and the lady at the front reception was super nice. She explained what all the exhibits were about and warned me that there was only English in one of them, and even gave me the student discount just because I said I was a student (I was ready to dig through my bag to find my ID card).

Model of the city that was at the museum.

After the museum, I decided I was pretty tired, so I would just hop on the next train back to Copenhagen. The train was super crowded, and I didn't get a seat. It was super hot too, I was sweating buckets with just my tank top and everyone else was all bundled up. There was a girl who tried to ask me something in Danish and when I told her "I don't speak Danish," she said "But English?" and I said "Yes," and she said "....why..." and I don't think she spoke English well enough to figure out how to ask me what she wanted to ask me, so she just trailed off and left it at that.

When I got back to Copenhagen, I pretty much went straight back to my hostel and worked on getting things onto my blog before I headed to bed.

Busy day in Copenhagen

**Heavy on the writing and light on the photos! My camera was having some issues!**

Even though I was still sore and tired from carrying my backpack the day before, I got up and headed out in a decent amount of time. First I headed off to the National Museum. Downtown is about a 30 minute walk, and I got to the museum about 5 minutes before it opened at 10.

Entrance to the museum.

Model of the museum.

The museum was awesome! It was free, and absolutely huge! I blitzed through most of it because that's how I go through museums (I'm not really into reading most of the stuff), but it still took a really long time to get through the exhibits, and I didn't even get through them all!

They had a neat exhibit about Danish ancient history that talked about the evolution of the people and their lifestyles. And lots of coffins and mummies. Like bog people mummies/skeletons.

They had another neat exhibit that recreated interiors from the 1800's. The museum building itself was originally the residence of the crown prince (I think), so some of the rooms were recreated.

They had a big exhibit about the Danish people through more recent times (1600's-2000) that had a lot of interesting things in it.

Other exhibits included things from people all over the world (mostly indigenous costumes and knickknacks, even included some things from the Pacific Northwest! [I guessed Haida as soon as I saw it.]), the royal coin collection, ancient things (Greece and Egypt mostly), and the exhibit I didn't go through that sounded like it was just another bunch of things from people all over the world.

This is hard to see, but the reflection on the tube looks like a proper portrait of the king!

After the Museum, I went to the National Gallery, because my camera was acting really strangely and I thought the batteries were run out (something in that museum possessed it), so I wanted to try and visit museums rather than other things that would have more of a need for a camera. I didn't feel like paying for a ticket, so I didn't get to see the special exhibitions, only the permanent collection.

I dunno, I wasn't super impressed with this gallery. They did have a pretty massive collection of beautiful paintings, but the way things were organized was really annoying. Mostly because it seemed like nothing was organized at all. Rooms filled with paintings would span eras, styles, nationalities, maybe something was getting lost in translation, but I found it confusing. The other really annoying things was that they piled the artwork all the way up and down their walls! It made it really hard to see anything because so much of it was way above your head.

After that gallery, I headed over to the Ripley's Believe it or Not and the Hans Christian Andersen museums. Since they're in the same building, you can get tickets for both and get a slight discount. Since I still had some time before they closed, and it didn't seem like either one was particularly big, I decided to go for the 2.

The Ripley's Believe it or Not museum was pretty much like others I've been to, except this time I was just super creeped out the whole time! I felt like I was in a haunted house at Halloween! I was so sure that things were going to jump out and attack me! I rushed through that museum, and I probably shouldn't have bothered buying the ticket, although there were a couple cool miniature things in it.

The Hans Christian Andersen Museum was small, but I thought it was adorable and I loved it. I actually read everything (in English) in the museum. They had a little information about him at the beginning, and then they had his stories throughout. Some of the stories had robotic animated displays and you could push a button and hear the story being read as the display moved. I read every story, and I didn't realize how many big fairytales he had written! Course, a lot of his stories were a little morbid. I think I like the Disney-fied version of The Little Mermaid better than the original.

After the H.C. Andersen museum, I decided that I should check out Tivoli Gardens just to be able to say that I did, if nothing else. I decided against buying ride tickets, and wandered around the park. I actually loved the time I was there! They had lots of little gift shops (one had all sorts of name items and apparently Charlotte is way more common in Denmark than Canada because my name was everywhere! The best was a little piggy bank with a panda on one side and my name on the other! I would have bought it except I had no idea how I would ever get it home in one piece.), and restaurants in addition to the rides and carnival games.

I got dinner at a burger place they had, and my burger was fantastic! It was pretty gourment, and I was quite impressed.

I seriously considered going on one ride that looked like a version of West Edmonton Mall's "Swing of the Century" on crack, but decided it would be too scary, and too expensive for me. It was swings, but they circled this post, and went up and down it (a tall post almost like those Space Shot-style rides). It looked insane.

The part that really made Tivoli Gardens for me was the entertainment! At 7:00, they had the cutest little ballet/pantomime with a live band! I loved it so much! It was called "The False Housekeeper" (not sure why...) and the story was about a boy and girl who were in love, but the girl's parents didn't want them to get married (at least, I think that was the story), as well as a clown who was always getting into trouble (like pretending to be the housekeeper, although that wasn't the main part of the story).

I loved this so much! Just on it's own, it made the visit worthwhile!

When that was done, I managed to catch the end of a little orchestra concert after some shopping, and then found another one at 8:00! This little band was the same (or mostly the same) people that had been playing for the pantomime. They were having such a great time, it was just so much fun to watch! The conductor was just grinning and dancing the whole time! And sometimes the musicians would stand up and spin around once with their instruments.

These guys were so cute! They just looked like they were having so much fun!

I caught the first orchestra a second time after that, and there was the cutest little baby watching. He loved everything, and he was just running everywhere. There was a big concert after that, but I wasn't super into the music, and it was getting pretty late, plus I was still really sore and tired, so I decided to go back to the hostel.  But it did sound like the band was playing "Amish Paradise" as I was leaving (though I couldn't hear the lyrics, I just filled in the ones I knew).

I surfed the web for a while and then headed to bed, but had already decided that there was no way I was sticking to my original plan of leaving Copenhagen on a 6:50 train.

Next - Adventure to Århus!

To Denmark I go

So I checked onto the ferry, which turned out to be more of a cruise ship than a ferry, and got comfortable in my room. I took advantage of the free internet, and then when I thought the ship had started moving, I headed up on deck with my camera to take some farewell photos of Oslo.

My room! (There really wasn't much else other than the bathroom.)

Bye Oslo!

After that I explored a little. There were a whole bunch of different restaurants on board, and a big store filled with clothing, perfume, make-up, booze and candy/junk food. And most of it was super excessive. Like HUGE packs of candy and MASSIVE cases of booze. And they didn't really have anything touristy which was kind of what I was hoping for. You know, the cheesy tourist crap that has the country's flag emblazoned across it 40 times? Nothing of Norway or Denmark (though I'm pretty sure that ferry is a Denmark thing, not Norway).

Part of the shop.

I mostly hung around in my room after I got some food, until I thought that it was probably sunset time. Then I headed out on deck, even though it was cold and windy and snapped photos of the sunset like mad!!

So for real, I was in love with every picture I took. It was hard to narrow down.

After that, I took advantage of the Internet some more, and then I crashed pretty early (10:30ish?). I got up fairly early as well to go to the breakfast buffet (decent, but I had been hoping for more sweet things like pancakes/waffles), and then buy some Danish money from the exchange desk.

When we landed in Copenhagen, I decided I would walk to my hostel because it was not even 10, and even though my hostel was really far, I couldn't check in until 1. I started walking, decided I was going the wrong way and went back before I decided that I had been right the first time.

Good morning Denmark!

Copenhagen!

Along my walk, I got to see a few things, and I stopped a few times (it's hard carrying such a huge, heavy backpack!!). By the time I got to my hostel, it was only about 12:30, but I was so exhausted that I didn't care if I had to sit on a step waiting to get in, I just needed a break. Google maps says I walked about 5 km, and I figure I was carrying about 30-35 pounds worth of bags, so I was reeeeeeally tired.

Some park. I think it's close to the Little Mermaid statue.

Rosenborg castle.

The building with my hostel (the windows with the blue cards are where my hostel is. I'm not sure what the rest of the building is.

After I put my stuff in my room, I decided to go explore a bit and look for food. I found a couple vintage shops nearby, and bought some food at a grocery store before deciding I was way too tired to do anything else. I came back to the hostel and sat in front of my computer until I had mustered up enough willpower to get going again.

Apparently this place cuts Ricky Martin and Nick Carter's hair because that's who was on their sign. LOL.

When I had had enough of a break, I just decided to start walking, and see what I could see. I walked and walked and walked some more, and got to know where a few things were downtown. I found a huge (6 story?) department store called Magasin (I thought it would be a mall because calling a store the French word for store just seemed way too literal for me), and bought myself a facecloth. I even got a 10% discount by showing my passport (not like that makes much of a difference on something that costs ~$4).

I thought this was funny. What a resounding endorsement of their beer!

The best part about this was not that it was Toy Story, or that it was made out of Lego. The best part was that my camera's facial detection recognized his face!!

I walked a bit more before I decided to go back to the hostel, and then I crashed at about 8 pm. I actually just came back from my walkabout and crawled straight into bed. I was so tired and sore from all the walking and backpack-carrying that I didn't get up until 8 am. Yay for sleep!

Next up - Adventures in Copenhagen!