The Marathon: Copenhagen

Arriving in Copenhagen we saw the second sunrise of the trip (2 too many if you ask me). As soon as we arrived in Copenhagen we had to deal with the next of our great challenges, currency exchange. Denmark has staunchly avoided converting to the Euro, and that left us in a pickle. We had already converted our dollars to Euros (paying an exchange rate) and then we had to convert them again into krons at the airport. I felt like I could see the money just dripping out of my bank account every time we had to purchase something. The coins were pretty cool; they kind of looked like fake money. Copenhagen is already a decently expensive city, without us having to double convert our money.

After dealing with converting, we took the metro (another weird honor system situation) to our hostel, called Sleep in Heaven. Needless to say, there were plenty of jokes about how it was nothing like sleeping in heaven. Especially after we had to pay some absurd amount like 7€ to rent sheets… Copenhagen was actually a really pretty city, and I’m glad Sona pushed for us to add it to our trip. Our first tourist destination was the graveyard with the graves of Hans Christian Anderson (writer of famous fairytales) and Kierkegaard. While we were looking for H. C. Anderson’s grave, an Old Danish man approached us and asked if he could help direct us. He asked us if we knew anything about Denmark, and we kind of shrugged and said “No, that’s why were here.” He started with “Well, the first thing you need to know about Denmark is that we have 4% unemployment.” He also said “We also have really good welfare, the government will pay you to sit around on your couch for 2 years.” He reassured us that they were not communist, and definitely a democracy, somehow implying that the US wasn’t. He managed to make us feel incredibly guilty about not knowing that much about Denmark and only speaking English and some Spanish. He told us about Denmark’s 2 UNESCO world heritage sites, Kronborg Castle in Helsingr and another one site near a Viking museum. Eventually he let us go with the advice to not walk around like a bunch of Americans, hurrying and taking pictures of everything, but to slow down and enjoy everything; to walk slowly through the graveyard and take it all in.

After that encounter of the Danish kind, fresh with the knowledge of how to say good-bye (“favel”) and thank you (“tak”) in Danish, we headed to the center of the city. We crossed a bridge over a beautiful river full of swans. We stopped there to eat our snacks from the grocery store, bread and cheese. What can I say? I always travel in the lap of luxury, and I spare no expense.  Sona directed us to the Rundetaarn (the round tower). It is one of the tallest buildings in Copenhagen and has Europe’s oldest observatory at the top. The round tower has not elevator, so Sona and I climbed the winding, whitewashed spiral walk (aka no stairs). Jake and Maya were exhausted from travel and waited for us at the bottom. We were able to see amazing views of the city.

Afterwards Sona, Maya, and I overpaid for a sandwich and a salad, and then the 4 of us headed back to Sleep in Heaven for another nice siesta. We slept soundly until 5pm, when we headed out again. Sona and Jake had both gotten tips of things to see from friends who had lived in Copenhagen, and both of them suggested we go see the anarchist community of Christiana. It is a small part of town where cars are not allowed (there are 14 parking spots for 800+ residents) and the people generally chose not to pay taxes. It was a weird mix of toontown and Telegraph Ave with huge signs everywhere banning you from taking photos. The community’s only rules are no photos, no fighting, and not hard drugs. It was an interesting part of town to walk through, but we didn’t stick around long.

We stopped at a pizza place for dinner and then ate it at Nyhaven (“Newport” in Danish) along the dock. We saw a beautiful sunset and enjoyed it with some delicious pizza. So delicious that Maya and I had to go back and order another one to split. One quick stop at a bar to try a glass of Danish beer, (when in Denmark, right?) and we went to bed. We were still exhausted from travel and were all asleep by 10.

The next day we were up early to do something I never thought I’d be able to say I’ve done, we were up early to follow the advice of a man in a graveyard. We took an hour train up to Helsingr to see the famous Kronborg Castle. We never would have thought to gone if graveyard man hadn’t suggested it to us, and I’m really glad he did. It was a beautiful castle right on the coast of Denmark; you could clearly see Sweden across the sea. It is the famous castle of Elsinore from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was absolutely stunning and definitely deserved to be a heritage site. We spent hours there looking at it before it was time to head back to the airport.

Once again we took on budget travel and took a Norwegian airlines flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam. Interesting to note was that no one in the airport, neither airport security nor the airline, checked the id for my boarding pass. I could have had a ticket for “Jane Doe” instead of “Brooke Weisenberger” and no one would have been the wiser. Not the most comforting of thoughts.