Arrived In Copenhagen in the afternoon and hiked about 1km or so to the hostel. Hotel Jorgenson was cheap but hadn’t got great reviews and I could see why. The security was terrible, windows opened straight onto the street outside and the bathroom with communal shower looked more like something out of the movie “Saw” than even the most basic of hostel bathrooms. Spent the afternoon doing my washing in the local laundry mat to avoid the rain. This gave me a chance to experience how expensive Denmark is after buying a few bits and bobs form the local shop to get change for the machines, and doing a load of washing I had spent about 12 quid…ouch. That eve met 3 French guys who were staying in the same dorm and had a few cheap cans of beer and a few games of pool in the hostel. Later we hit town to find some bars…..
Walking round town you got the impression that Copenhagen was a special city. Canal lined streets with interesting buildings, a bit like Amsterdam but not a quirky. Found a cool park with lots of statues and some of the ornamentation on the older buildings was amazing. The nerd in me especially liked the various bronze busts of dragons around town.
We started of in a pizza joint and ordered too much pizza , came to about 40 quid between four of us and we struggled to finish. Afterwards feeling extremely bloated we looked round town for a happening bar. Mon nights in Copenhagen aren’t the liveliest and the best place we could find was a small smoking bar called,( appropriately given the company ) the Eifel bar. After three quarters of a beer the smoke in the bar became unbearable…an had to get out of there . I was really missing the smoking ban. Another 45 search failed to reveal a better bar and ended up having an early night to sleep off the pizza excess.
The next day after using the facilities in the torture chamber set out on my own to explore town. The weather was a bit better. I toured the red light district that had none of the charm of Amsterdam and was basically just a seedy skid row. Then went to the national museum. Easily the best pre-history exhibit Ive ever seen. The amount of flint tools and stone axe head was impressive. The boggy conditions in Scandinavia have meant that the preservation rates are high, and considering the museum was free Ive got to conclude it was one of the best ive ever been to.
After that I went to an area of town called Christiania. Basically a large park of old workshops that had been taken over by hippies in the 70’s and declared a free country.
No photos were allowed inside due to the amount of drugs that were freely available and tolerated by the law. The vibe of the place was more that of a festival than one of vice, and there were plenty of artist workshops, restaurants and bars inside. Strange to see families on days trip amongst the hard core hippies and burn outs living in the commune. A really surreal place. When you walked out you passed through an archway that said “ you are now entering the EU”
That evening headed out with the French dudes again to try and find a more happening drinking spot. The first 3 bars we went to were equally as dead as the night before. The highlight being one of the French guys being hit on by a woman old enough to be his grandmother who didn’t speak any English….hilarious! We did manage to find some action in the end though in a student bar round the corner. Saw some of the best table football players ive ever seen and had a good chat with some of the local Danes who tried to give us pointers on how to drink…..wish I hadn’t listened ……was out until after dawn with chrissy-bado making a rare appearance…remember dropping a pint glass in a random bar at some point and not much else of the evening….the next day had to get up quick fast and get a 10.20 train to Stockholm was still feeling rough when I woke up on the train at 2pm in Sweden.
After sorting my head out a bit and arranging a night train to Oslo the following evening made it to the next hostel, which thankfully turned out to be one of the best of the trip so far. Had a nap and a shower and headed out for a bit of sightseeing around 6pm……Wow Stockholm is amazing like a Nordic version of Prague but built on various different islands. There are some amazing views over the bays and the northern sun seems to intensify the colours…..That evening was too spent to go out and regrettably missed my only chance to see some Swedish nightlife on this trip…cursed myself for overdoing it in Denmark but a good nights sleep was had, despite someone’s alarm clock playing the first 8 bars of ode to joy repeatedly between 5and 6 am ….thank god for earplugs…..
The next day spent the whole day sightseeing in Stockholm was even more impressed with the city. The architecture was almost a beautiful as the local women . Went to the Swedish history museum and saw an impressive Viking exhibition and then toured the old town a winding block of medieval streets on an island in the centre of the city. . The sun was out all day but was at a bearable intensity at the northern latitude we were at ….and the prices were cheaper than in Denmark …a really good day.. Stockholm is in the top 3 best cities now hope the photos can do some justice….wish I had longer to stay, another night would be good but having decided a full day in Oslo was in order ( just staying there one night) pressed on and caught the night train so as to arrive in Norway at 9.30am the following morning………
Thanks for sharing your experiences ... great stuff!
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