A Sensational Weekend in Copenhagen

    Getting to Copenhagen was not as bad as I had anticipated. I took the last train of the day to Rome and spent the night in the PopInn hostel since my flight from the Ciampino airport was departing to Billund, Denmark at 7:35am. The hostel itself was nothing glamourous but after my experience in Scotland I decided I should lower my hostel standards so I would avoid being surprised in the future. That being said I have to give the PopInn hostel credit. The sheets were clean, the staff was friendly, my all female room was inexpensive, the wifi was only one euro per hour and the walk from the train station took all of 90 seconds. Plus the reception was open 24-hours so I had no problem checking out at 4:30am and the airport shuttle picked me up right in front of the hostel.

After boarding another Ryan Air flight I went about reclaiming some lost sleep and woke up a few hours later as we made a very dicey decent into the Billund airport. This was when things got a little hairy. After extensive Googling I knew that I needed to take the 244 or 907x bus to the Vijle train station….but after about an hour of standing in the freezing cold I began to realize that a) I had done a really terrible job packing and b) the buses weren’t coming as scheduled. Finally a friendly couple (I found almost all Danish people to be very friendly and helpful) offered to split a cab with me to Vejile. 150 Kronor later I was at the station and 156 kronor after that I was on the train headed to Copenhagen. There were only two things I disliked about Denmark. Number one: Their currency is the all-time "funny money." The size of the coins bears no relevance to the worth, some even have holes in the center and the exchange rate was anything but in my favor. Secondly, their language. Apparently Danish is the second hardest to learn after Chinese. 

I arrived in Copenhagen a little after 2:30 and immediately craved a baked potato from the stand outside of the train station called Mr. Potato (In Danish of course) After my 45 kronor lunch (about 6 euro) I figured I should take a cab to the hotel since I couldn’t seen to find a map at the train station. When I got out of the taxi I realized it was time to buy a thick sweater and some gloves to combat the cold. Brrrr!

Top 3 Best Baked Potatoes EVER.

I met up with my friend and her travel accomplice at the hotel. After checking into our room and getting settled we decided we should walk around and find some dinner and then call it an early night. We ended up going to a Vitnamese restuaurnt, which initally I had my reservations about. (I still haven’t forgotten about the Chinese food catastrophe in Munich) However I must say my first experience with Pho was pho-tastic. For those of you who are unfamiliar or leery about pho, it’s basically a gourmet top ramen, and you can add all the hot sauce you want. No judgement. After dinner we went back to the hotel and fell asleep to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The following day we got up and headed out to sightsee in Copenhagen. Being there reminded me of Edinburgh a little bit and it just seemed like a cool place to live. Plus everyone rides bikes, which I think is awesome. However I was a bit annoyed after the recent theft of my own bike in Florence to see that not all the bikes were locked up. There was a sea of bicycles at the train station, half of which I would guess were free for the taking, literally. Too bad I couldn’t take one back to Florence with me.

Don't walk in the bike lane!

After strolling around for a while we found a really cool church that had a tower that could be climbed for only 25 kronor. After a zillion stairs we finally reached the top and the reward was a fantastic view of the city. (The wind made it a little scary though) Afterward we made our way back to the hotel and started to get ready for Sensation White.

Climbing up inside the tower

That's my new sweater. Very Danish right?

I’m not sure how to describe Sensation White. For those of you who don't know, it’s essentially a rave but instead of being at some sketchy warehouse it’s at a huge stadium and everyone has to wear white. Roughly 35,000 people just rocked out to house music (a sub-genre of techno) for eight hours straight. Eric Pyrdz, the DJ responsible for the uber popular “Call On Me” song played a hour set along with other famous DJ’s like Chuckie and Mr. White himself. This guy:

Getting my dance on. Note the snap fingers.

Of course no event like this could go on without a wide variety of bizarre people and circumtances. The outfits some people had on were pretty interesting. Everything from navy officers, the NYPD, classy guys in suits and ties, the shirtless Scandinavian version of guidos (jacked, tan and arrogant) Girls with hardly any clothes at all, people in bunny suits, polar bear costumes and then there was just a bunch of creepy people wearing white masks and hazmat suits. I opted to make use of the white jeggings I bought at Zara in August and a $5 Forever 21 V-neck. Both items along with some fake keds I scored in Florence wound up in the trash the next morning. 

A little after 3am the lights came on and everyone made their way out of the stadium. After a mere hour and 15 minute walk we finally made it back to our hotel and passed out around 5:00am, only to wake up at 9:45 and get ready to leave. Initally I had booked my return flight out of Billund but the only trains available were at 2:30am and 6:40am. Not happening. I ended up bagging the Billund flight and booked a Climber Air flight from Copenhagen to Rome, which would have been perfect if it hadn’t been delayed for over an hour!

Finally I arrived back in Rome and took the train to Roma termini. Unfortunately the last train to Florence on Sunday night was at 8:30, which was about the same time I was getting off the plane. Of course I was annoyed and exhausted at this point but I kept my cool bought a train ticket for 8:45 the next moring. I made the short walk back to the PopInn hostel hoping to score a bed for the night. Naturally all the dorms were booked so I wound up in this room….the lovers suite. Perfect.

Circular bed, black sheets and a heart shaped chair. Sweet dreams!