Finale: Last Day in... Scandinavia!

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So it finally arrived, and I am still alive and well. Yesterday was my last full day on my adventure and there are definitely some bitter sweet feelings.

But I still have a full day ahead of exploring, so I don't dwell on the future too long.

Thursday I decide to take a short train trip out of the capital, and visit a place on the northern tip of Denmark, called Helsingør, to escape the city atmosphere and see some more of rural Denmark.

This trip has solidified the fact that I really really don't want to live in a big city, and that the outskirts of town are definitely where I belong.

So I took the train, only about 45 minutes north (isn't it great how everything is so close over here?!) and got off to explore the main attraction of my destination, the Kronborg castle, a.k.a. Elsinore Castle from Shakespeare's Hamlet! It was super cool!

I first walked around the perimeter on the fortress walls and checked out the surrounding area and the building from the outside. It's truly impressive and not hard at all to imagine why Shakespeare chose to write of this place. It is situated almost on an island, with the Baltic Sea on 3 of 4 sides, and there were tons of people fishing, apparently for cod that flock to the area this time of year.

I enjoyed being by the water and the enjoyed the view and then headed inside the castle to the courtyard before beginning my tour.

The first entrance you could take leads you up to the royal apartments, basically the living and lounging quarters of the castle back in the day. Like the other royal estates that I visited, there were a bunch of old chairs, paintings of dead guys (and girls, we're very feminist over here, in Scandinavia especially!), and signs suggest you don't touch.

The castle is set up in a rectangle with a courtyard in the middle, like I mentioned, and through the first entranced I was able to walk all the way around and explore.

The dining hall was probably the coolest, currently being set up for an event that evening; cause you know, when you're a rich firm with lots of money to blow, you rent a castle dining hall for your events!! Who does that?!?

The next entrance led to the casemates, the system of underground tunnels that was utilized during battles and as storage. It was seriously the creepiest thing ever, I swear. It was almost completely dark, and there were tunnels leading off in all directions they you could easily get lost in and never be found.

I was genuinely relieved to get out at the end, and just as I expected wen I asked an employee, they do deck the place out for Danish Halloween each year... I would lose my mind!!

Anyways, it was an overall awesome experience and I capped it off by eating my lunch atop the fortress walls outside, facing the breeze (more like really strong wind) coming off the water.

I left the castle grounds and wandered into the town a little to explore, and ended up in the Elsinore Cathedral not too far away, it was also pretty cool. Sorry that I'm running out of descriptive words, aha.

Anyways, I continued on through the town and walked up and down the main drag there checking out the small shops along the way. This was more my type of place for sure... Not too crowded, lots of nice shops and cafés and a small town feel.

However, I had business to do back in Copenhagen ( and by business j mean trying to find a pair of shoes just for the sake of buying a pair of shoes ), so I boarded the next train, again they're like every 12 minutes or something so you are basically never stranded anywhere, and headed back to the city.

There was one more thing that I had been told about by a friend that j had not yet seen, and I imagine that for many, it would not be a trip to Denmark, Copenhagen specifically, if you don't go and see the little mermaid... The original little mermaid perched upon a rock just of the shore on the tip of Copenhagen.

So I first visited the tourist information to reap the free wifi and located the half fish half women.

The way there was more impressive to me then the actual thing, to be honest. The path around yet another castle was lined with cherry blossom trees, I think... I don't know pretty pink trees that made me sneeze a lot, so whatever those are called!

I came, I saw, I snapped a few pics and then headed back to the city centre to find shooooooooes!!

Which I didn't end up finding, therefore, I blew a bunch (but much less then I would've if I did get shoes) of money on food instead. Becca, this is for you, and also anyone else who has discovered the world of churros.

Spoiling my appetite for dinner, but not really cause I still ate a bunch, I ended up with a bunch of mini churros topped with soft ice cream as a nice afternoon snack.... Soo good man, so good.

After befriending a unicef spokesperson on the street earlier, I went back to her to ask for directions to this supposedly amazing restaurant called Madklubben that a Swedish guy at an Italian shoe store told me about in Copenhagen the day before, aha. I'm really getting my culture fix in, that's for sure!

So I found this place, set menu, 3-courses... 300DKK... Alright, on to the next place! They didn't open for another half an hour anyways, so I went back to my unicef friend and asked for another suggestion. She pointed me towards a fancy place just outside of Tivoli with the best burgers in Copenhagen, and I agree, maybe even better than flippin', but don't tell the Stockholmies.

And this restaurant, this restaurant could have a whole blog post in itself, but I will choose a few key moments only to share with you.

First of all, the employees probably wondered what the heck a kid with a backpack and a tshirt on was doing at such a shmancy restaurant but as long as I was a paying customer, does it really matter? No, I think not.

So I am seated and given a small card on which I am to indicate my steak choice, side choice, etc. with the provided pen hanging from the table. Already too fancy for me, and then the server comes, places down a wooden bread bowl with fresh bread, and a couple of small dishes. In one of the dishes, about 7 olives, into which he pours some olive oil in a swirling motion, and retreats back to the kitchen.

At this point I'm half like, what have I gotten into, and half like, yaaaa look at me go 😊

Soo write down my burger, it comes and I enjoy with a fork and knife because that's what I feel expected to do, and after I'm finished, I order an Irish Coffee for dessert, because they have frequently been advertised all around the city and the advertising worked.

This whole time, and definitely not to be racist, just descriptive, there is a a table of 8 Asians right next to me, who I feel are constantly judging me in between taking endless selfies and pictures of their place settings and other random things in the restaurant.

Darn, you might actually have to socialize with each other, I think to myself, as the server notifies them that no, they do not, in fact, have wifi there.

So back to my Irish coffee. Assuming this is going to come out like any other drink ever, the server proceeds to wheel out this cart with all the various accoutrements involved in creating an Irish coffee, which to be honest, I'm not really sure what it consists of.

This, of course, attracts the attention of the table beside me, and you know, basically the whole section around me. I try really hard not to laugh, but I'm grinning ear to ear as he mixes up this drink in front of me and enjoy it very much.

I'm going to leave and notice that the bill I have payed was the wrong one and I've payed an extra 70ish dkk, not a huge deal as I need to get rid of my currency anyways, as I'm leaving he next day.

So I quietly let the server know on the way out and walk out like a boss to an appreciative 'good evening.'

Ill try and wrap this up now...

So back at the hostel, I get into my ro and there is another Canadian (imagine that), this time from Edmonton area, and another Venezuelan having a in depth conversation about politics, social issues, etc., you know all the fun stuff... So I apologize for the late post yesterday, but it was because I was talking with these gents. I grab one last (well that's what I thought at the time, I'm currently drinking another, aha) fanta from the vending machine and wrap up my account from the day before, before headed to sleep for one last time in a foreign bed.

Time for the signature, thanks Denmark, it's been real and time to say goodbye. There will be one last blog to come, a short description, provided nothing goes wrong with my transportation, of my trip back home.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading and following along with me, and I hope that you enjoyed your trip as well!

- NB

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