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Published: November 14th 2011
It’s been much too long since the last update, and thus much too long since the last trip. Although we did sneak out to the Pacific Northwest in May and climbed Mt. Rainier, I never got around to travel blogging. Maybe I need some international flavor to motivate me to write. Anyway…
My girlfriend Kristen and I left lovely Newark and flew to Brussels. This was my second time flying this route with Continental (now it’s United, but it seems both are used interchangeably). Unfortunately though, I didn’t have a full row of three seats to myself like I did last time. Furthermore, two rows ahead of us, some French people sitting in an exit row couldn’t understand English, and the flight attendants were saying that they must move to a new seat to comply with the regulations. We quickly volunteered to switch with them to take advantage of the leg room and the flight attendant pretty much gave us the okay. But then she moved two other random people in from the “Economy plus” section. But not to complain, we were on our way to Europe.
After landing in Brussels, we took a small flight to Copenhagen, our
first stop on our 3 ½ week Euro tour. Taking the metro into the city center was efficient enough to be faster than baggage claim, something that might be a first for me.
We ultimately made our way to the Østerbro section of the city and met Sean, our Couchsurfing host. His apartment was really nice and my favorite part was the heated bathroom floor. We got acquainted for a bit and then went for a walk to check out the city.
We didn’t really have a good map, so we were aimlessly walking more or less. First we found the citadel. It had a cool windmill in the middle, much like what you see everywhere in Holland. On the river bank at the citadel, we also checked out the Little Mermaid statue. Hans Christian Anderson is probably the most famous Dane of all time, the Danes are very proud of this and the statue is one of the big tourist stops of the city. It’s pretty unfulfilling though, just a smallish statue in the river. Sean says her head has been cut off a few times by some pranksters.
Then we saw Tivoli, the second oldest
amusement park in the world. The oldest is also in Denmark. It was closed for the season though so we couldn't walk through unfortunately. I am most grateful of Denmark for creating amusement parks and Legos.
We also checked out a place called Nyhavn, which is a tourist trap of a street with overpriced bars and restaurants, but it is also very charming. It’s a reminder of Amsterdam with its canal and narrow, colorful buildings lining both sides.
Despite partying with Sean and his friends well into the night, we woke up early the next day to tackle Copenhagen. It was Sunday morning so everything was closed and very few people were out and about. Copenhagen is a pretty clean place but there were broken beer bottles everywhere and more vomit than we cared to see, proving we weren’t the only ones making the most of the previous night. Also of note, it is legal and completely acceptable to drink anywhere in the city.
The city doesn’t offer too much in terms of tourist sites, but the best site in my opinion is the spire of the Church of Our Saviour. It features over 400 steps to
the top, with the remaining portions spiraling on the outside of the spire. As you approach the top, the stairway progressively narrows until you literally can’t fit between the spire and the railing. The views are amazing and the number of church steeples defining the skyline is countless. Red stucco roofing is huge business here. After spiraling back down to ground level, we rented a car and drove out of the city limits in search of some insight on rural Denmark, and most of all, castles.
We took a scenic road along the east coast of Zealand. Despite the gloomy weather, joggers, walkers, cross-country roller bladers (literally cross country skiers with wheels), and even a few kayakers were out in droves. It was quite noticeable how many people were being active compared to our huge, lazy population back in the states. Across the street, we passed some incredible homes, no doubt some of the wealthiest real estate in the country.
We approached the northern tip of the coast and Kronborg gradually appeared through the fog. Kronborg is a castle/fort most known as the setting for Hamlet. I’m definitely not a Shakespeare buff but there’s no denying that makes
for an impressive resume. Its prime location attributed to its significance back in the day because it controlled the entrance to the entire Baltic Sea. It was a good stop, but not the most impressive place I’ve seen.
We then drove west for about an hour and came upon Frederiksborg, a huge castle/palace. We thought this was much more impressive than Kronborg and we had the place almost to ourselves. (We got some questions about why we were traveling in November but everything is cheaper, it’s not scorching hot, and there aren’t any lines of busloads of tourists.)
After arriving back in the city, we crossed the river and walked around a part of town called Christianhavn, and a smaller section called Christiania. This is a very interesting place with very interesting people. It’s nestled away from the rest of the city, a little bit hidden in the woods and surrounded by fences. It seems there are no rules here and hippies and all kinds of other counter cultures have little makeshift shops selling things that would be illegal almost anywhere else. Live music and political activism cannot be avoided. It looked a little sketchy at first but,
as with the rest of the city, it feels very safe and the people are friendly. When you go back out towards the street, there is a sign sarcastically welcoming you back to the EU.
Overall, Copenhagen wasn’t one of my favorite cities as it was a bit lacking on things to see and do. But the Danish people are incredibly friendly and also extremely proficient in English (literally maybe even more proficient than Americans), and very forward thinking. I have never felt safer anywhere else in the world than I did in Copenhagen. Most noticeable was that no one locks their bikes up on the street!
I am growing to love Scandinavia and its people. I was constantly reminded of Iceland, and Stockholm – our next stop – would prove to continue the trend. They have virtually no crime, some of the highest life expectancy rates and highest standards of living in the world.
So, onto Stockholm. We took the train across the massive Øresund Bridge. I was excited to see the views but we were in a cloud of fog the entire time, and visibility couldn’t have been more than 50 feet at any time.
We arrived at the central station in Stockholm and walked about ten blocks to our hostel.
We wandered around our first night with no plan other than to feel out the city. As previously mentioned, Stockholm is no doubt Scandinavian. It feels extremely safe day or night, cameras out in dark alleys and everything. Something that was immediately noticeable to us was the number of American style diners, pubs, and restaurants. Furthermore, Swedish and Scandinavian restaurants are almost impossible to find. Instead, foreign restaurants dominate the city. We chose an all-you-can-eat Mongolian Grill, which also featured all-you-can-eat sushi. I was in pain from the amount I ate.
That night, we went to the famous Icebar in the city. It gets a lot of mixed reviews due to its extremely high cover charge and is often billed as a huge tourist trap. I usually avoid things like this and this especially wouldn’t have been on my list because they really only make vodka drinks, which I hate. But Kristen wanted to see it, and I’m so glad she did. Yes it is a tourist trap and yes it’s overpriced, but it was awesome inside. The blue lights reflecting within
the ice made for a great ambiance and there are ice sculptures everywhere. And when else do you get the chance to go to an ice bar? I forced down my vodka, cringing with every sip. We spent some time in there and met a German couple, and the four of us went across the street for some drinks at another bar.
The following day, we started early to make the most of our time, much like our long day in Copenhagen. First we went to the Vasa Museum, just in time for the 10:00 opening. Simply put, this museum was incredible and the highlight of the trip for both of us so far. The Vasa is a Viking ship from the 1600s adorned with over 700 wood carvings. It sunk on its maiden voyage and sat at the bottom of the harbor for 333 years until the Swedes conducted an ambitious project to resurrect the Vasa and preserve it in the museum.
The ship is incredible. The carvings are everywhere and are ornately detailed. There are several stories of the museum, allowing you to view the ship from multiple angles and levels. There are skeletal remains of
some of those who perished when it sunk, and descriptions of who they were and what their roles were on the ship. There is also an original sail preserved in a giant frame.
Next we decided to do a tour of the Town Hall despite the dull, prison-like appearance on the outside. Mainly, we wanted to see the Nobel Prize hall which was supposedly located inside, however this was misleading because the Nobel Prize is actually awarded somewhere else in the city. We were disappointed by this at first but we ended up pleasantly surprised because the interior was very impressive.
The Nobel Prize banquet room was what we saw first, with the marble staircase that the award recipients enter on. We also saw rooms that the Swedish government use and another huge room decked out with gold mosaics. I’ve never seen a building that looked so bad on the outside and so good on the inside at the same time.
That night we roamed around Gamla Stan – the old town – and it was really nice. I love old towns and Stockholm’s was no exception. We found a supermarket and bought some salmon to cook
ourselves back at the hostel. Salmon is famous in Sweden along with herring, but it wasn’t very good due to our nonexistent skills in the kitchen.
Next we flew to Gdansk on Poland’s Baltic coast. This is definitely the most exotic destination of the trip and blaring contrasts to Scandinavia were immediately noticeable. First of all, despite it being more south, it was much colder – and also dark and wet. Also there was almost no English whatsoever. The people seemed very cold, not only to us but to each other. Smiles were rare to see and to be honest, it wasn’t a great introduction to the city.
We managed to find our hostel eventually and immediately set out for some Polish food. Because of the cold, wet weather, I was happy to quickly learn that Gdansk is a soup city. Every restaurant had at least three or four different soups, including Zurek, a polish sour soup I remembered from a couple years ago in Krakow. Other Polish staples such as bigos and pierogies were in abundance and it was nice to finally be in a country with a strong domestic cuisine.
The architecture of the old
section of Gdansk is amazing, particularly on what is known in English as Long Street. We walked, admired the incredible buildings and ate soup in constant cycles for the next day and a half.
We decided to take a trip out to Westerplatte, a peninsula about 30 minutes outside of the city, famous for marking the beginning of World War II. Come to find out, Gdansk is quite significant in World War II history. There are old bunkers in varying states of destruction now and there is a tall monument on top of a hill near the tip of the peninsula honoring the Polish soldiers who defended Westerplatte from the German attack.
Our second night in Gdansk, we were booked for a train departing for Berlin at 4:44 am. Instead of booking a room that night, we decided to stay out late at the bars. We found a bowling alley and bowled until it closed. It was really strange, the pins were attached to wires and were pulled up after you knocked them down, and some pins would fall due to wires from other pins. Anyway, we bowled and drank our way to 4:44 am and then got terrible
sleep on the train on the way to Berlin.
Berlin was a top destination for me that somehow had eluded me up until now. The first thing we did was go to a sushi restaurant. Not very German at all, but a great decision because it was shockingly cheap. Apparently, such is true for sushi throughout the city. We had some long awaited German beer and got to sleep early that night because of our exhausting 12 hour commute into the city.
With a good night’s sleep, the next day we decided to do a four hour free walking tour of the city. The tour works on a tips only basis and you are free to pay whatever you think it’s worth, a philosophy I greatly appreciate. Our tour guide was a British guy, something I was apprehensive about at first but he was great. The tour started at the Brandenbourg Gate, and continued past the newly constructed Jewish Memorial, the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby from, the location Hitler killed himself, a remaining section of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Humboldt University, and Museum Island. The tour was great, the guide was great, and we’re going
to consider doing tours with the same company in subsequent cities on this trip. After the tour, we climbed to the top of Berliner Dom, which is an amazing church (might make my top 5) and one of the best viewpoints of the city.
We finished the night off in a German restaurant and brewery and I had amazing pork knuckle and sourkraut, my go-to meal anytime I’m in Germany. Oh and I assume I don’t even need to mention how good the beer was.
Still to come: Prague, Bavaria, Paris, and Brussels.
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James
non-member comment
Sounds like a good trip
Hey dude sounds like u guys are having a great time enjoy the rest of your trip have a franzikahner for me. James Ps the niners beat the giants and are now 8-1 I know your not too big into the american football anymore but it's a pretty sweet start