Sausage Galore and the Pissoir!

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The search for all things Princess Mary Royal began in the early hours of the morning at Gatwick Airport. Very quickly I came to my first obstacle as the easy jet lines went the distance of the entire airport terminal. There were many frustrated flyers, including myself and I automatically began to think of back up plans in case I did not get on my flight. The only way the line kept on getting shorter was when the airline called a rush on each flight and passengers were escorted to a new line to try and get them checked in. My rush call happened eventually and after one and a half hours of lining up I was finally checked-in and on my way to Copenhagen.
It was smooth sailing the rest of the weekend, except for the weather. Perfect on Friday and Sunday but pouring rain and freezing cold on Saturday. Luckily I have my travelling preperations down to a fine art these days and had seen that the weather would be very irratic. I not only packed accordingly but also made plans to do outdoorsy stuff on the forecasted sunny days. So as soon as I arrived at my hostel I dumped my bag and headed to Nyhavn for a canal ride in the sun. Nyhavn is a street lined with many bars and restaurants facing out to a picturesque harbor. In warmer weather people fill every available table in the outdoors seating area in front of every restaurant and many bring their own beers to sit along the canal edge. It was here that I downed my first Danish Hotdog which is an experience in itself.
Ok. When I eat a hot dog I expect a bun that fits the hotdog inside it and loads and loads of sauce. What I got was the tiniest bun I have ever seen. The very thin sausage hung 80% out either side of the bun, loads and loads of sauce, mustard and springled with bacon bits. It was delicious! As I scoffed the bun I sat down and took in all the fancies along the street including a very friendly popcorn seller dressed in a smart suit and selling the freshly popped buttery stuff, which of course, I could not resist. After my morning snack. YES! I did say morning snack. I jumped on a canal boat and took a 1 hour tour around the city. Copenhagen is rather small so it is very easy to see most significant sites from the canal. Besides the gorgeous sun that I was lapping up the best part of this tour was the opportunity to see the Royal Palace and the Royal sailing boat which had made a rare appearance in Sydhavnen. The Danish are at the cutting edge of design and they are very good at turning the old into the new. So as you go along you see lots of modern twists on old building and the new Opera House and their 'Black Diamond' royal library. Both newer buildings built in recent years take centre stage along the main harbour.
After my canal tour I sat at the ice creamery at Nyhavn and ate a nougaht ice-cream. The danish really like their ice-cream and their idea of small is my idea of gigantic! Even the waffle cone it comes in is big and tastes better than any ice-cream I have tasted before. I think I sat there for about 2 hours enjoying the awesome weather before I took a walk down Strogent. It is basically the central street for shopping and is very very crowded. It was the worlds first pedestiran only street. Unfortunately you can find the same stores in any major city in the world with the exception of the souvenir shops and a stunning looking fine china shop Royal Copenhagen. I have really become good at avoiding these places but enjoyed the stroll.
When I got back to the Hostel I had the opportunity to meet one of my weekend room mates. Along your travels you get to meet loads and loads of people. Some pass by without leaving impressions but I was lucky to meet two people that I hope to maintain contact with. First of all I met Rich an australian dude from Melbourne who had been living in the hostel for the last 6 months. Wow! don't know how he does that. He lives there as a trade off for him playing his guitar during happy hour at the hostel bar on Tuesdays. He also has to earn money busking at the Strogent each evening so every night he goes out about 11 pm and does not come back to the hostel until about 5 am in the morning. The second person I met was Ilana. Ilana is travelling and comes from south america. We could not believe it when we started talking and realised the we were both currently living in London and only one tube stop away from each other. I am sure we will catch up again.
As predicted the following day rained. I jumped on a double-decker hop on- hop off bus and did some sight seeing from the comforts of undercover protection. One of the buildings in the town square actually has the markings of a weather gauge down the side of it and at the top when it is sunny a bronze lady comes out riding a bike and when it rains the bronze lady comes out holding an umberella. It is very old and very cool. Needless to say the gauge showed the bronze statue holding a bronze umbrella on this particular day. I used the hop-on-hop-off bus on both days and was able to see the Little Mermaid which I was told would be disappointing. But it wasn't. Maybe because I went with low expectations. But there were stacks of tourists around and it was really hard to take a tourist free photo. I also went on foot to the Amalienborg Palace to see if I could see Princess Mary again but once again had no luck. She was at home because the Danish Flag was raised but she was staying closely hidden behind the walls. Unlike Buckingham Palace you can actually walk through the middle of the palce grounds which makes you realise how close the royal family is to it's people. Only a few royal gaurds protect both entries to the Palace. I took the time to go to the Calrlsberg brewery and the Rosenborg Castle. It started out as a tiny hunting castle for King Christian IV (ruled 1588 - 1648), and was built in 1606-17. It was expanded continuously until it became a castle and was the favourite residence of King Christian IV, who demanded to spend his last days alive here. Today Rosenborg houses the Royal jewel collection in the vault in the basement. The grounds around the castle are extra special and the fish in the dam are so huge they scared me half to death when I was trying to take some photos. I also did a fly by visit to Christiana which is a Freetown and a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, in the borough of Christianshavn. From an official point of view, Christiania is rather regarded a large commune, but its relation to the authorities has a unique status in being regulated by a 'special law.' Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalising the legal status of the community have led to conflicts. The buildings are an attractive sight for most tourists as they have used anything and everything to make colourful and interestingly designed homes. Would love to have spent more time wondering around but a weekend just does not permit everything. I had to take a photo of the very un appealing public toilet with the word pissior on it. LOL pretty sure pissoir is danish for toilet but they really have a literal language adding a posh 'oir ' to the act of pissing! he he he
That afternoon I devoured hotdog number 25 but this time I headed for the high end of danish hotdogs and ate Nimbs famous gourmet hotdog which was much more like what I am used to eating. Even the mustard was divine. Well worth the 49 kronsies I paid.
On the satuday evening I joined my new friends Rich and Ilana for some dinner in the hostel kitchen and to my suprise what began as a quick meal before heading out ended as a long dinner of red wine and good company. A few other groups joined us, two french, two swiss, a canadian and some americans and between us we went through about 12 bottles of red. Without going into great detail I found it very interesting meeting the two french guys. This may be generalising but I have heard people say that the french can be rude and there are times when they do not help their cause. When I met these guys the first thing one of them said to me was 'you australians have a terrible english accent'. Not sure what I was meant to say to that but I just answered with 'well it is nice to meet you too'. My reaction kind of broke the ice and I soon discovered that they were both really friendly guys but not so good at making first impressions. LOL We finished the evening watching the eurovision final which brought the fact that I am in europe back to home. It was a memorable night and what back packing is all about. I will probably never see most of those people again but for one night we were able to come together a share our stories. Suprisingly, we didn't make it out of the hostel to hit the town that night.
On my last day in Copenhagen I found my own little Palace! The Tivoli Gardens. One of the oldest amusement parks in the world.
Tivoli's founder obtained a five-year charter to create Tivoli by telling King Christian VIII that when the people are amusing themselves, they do not get involved in fights and sure enough Tivoli stopped a civil war.The monarch granted Carstensen use of roughly 15 acres. Tivoli includes a variety of attractions: buildings in the exotic style of an imaginary Orient: a theatre, band stands, restaurants and cafés, flower gardens, and mechanical amusement rides such as a merry-go-round and a primitive scenic railway. After dark, coloured lamps illuminate the gardens. Even today they still show italian Pantomime. You stand in the open, the stage being inside the building. The theatre's "curtain" is a mechanical peacock's tail. This tradition, which is dependent on the Italian Commedia dell'Arte has been kept alive, including the characters Cassander (the old father), Columbine (his beautiful daughter), Harlequin (her lover), and, especially popular with the youngest spectators, the stupid servant Pierrot. Tivoli is steeped in original charm and traditions. Walt Disney during a trip overseas visited Tivoli Gardens. Walt was so impressed with the Danish amusement park, he immediately decided Disneyland should try to emulate its "happy and unbuttoned air of relaxed fun." The gardens saved me a visit to the Chelsea Flower show... (which I will go to next year) and I walked around admiring the gardens for over 3 hours. Unbelievable amounts of photographs of flowers! I decided to splurge on a traditional danish lunch which was an open sandwich consisting of dark rye bread, pork and caramelised onion with cucumber dressing and a Pint of the gold stuff which I am getting better and better at drinking. I also got swept up in the endless amounts of sweets, popcorn, fairy floss and ice-cream. It really reminded me of a better version of Australias Wonderland because even though times have changed it still maintains the old fashion values of fun including a marching bad and orchestra playing music in the main garden.
After hours of watching people ride roller coasters and crash into each other on the dodgems it was time for me to head to the airport and back to London. I was home by midnight and struggled to get up for work the next day. In reflection, Copenhagen has been one of my most suprisingly favourite trips. A weekend is almost all you need to see it's beauty and enjoy been a child again.

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Photos

Flowers at Tivoli
The colours of Denmark

Marys' Palace
The Amalienberg

Summer Palace
The Rosenborg Palace

Street Performer
all handmade instruments