Hamburg, Copenhagen, and Sweden

Leaving at 8.30 AM and arriving at 10.30 PM is something you cannot prepare for enough. Despite the number of layovers or their length, traveling for that long takes its toll.

We rode the train to Usti (Czech Republic), where we learned that the tracks were undergoing construction and we needed a bus to get to Dresden. An hour bus ride and we were in Dresden with enough time to board the train headed for Berlin. Our final German destination was Hamburg, and after some asking and research, we found that our train went straight to Hamburg. An hour in Hamburg and we boarded for Copenhagen. Two hours into the ride to Copenhagen and we were asked to disembark (we were on a massive ferry). Forty-five very cold minutes on the ferry to Denmark, and we re-boarded the train. Another two hours and it was 10 PM and we had arrived in Copenhagen.

Temperatures were in the low 50s, though they felt colder, and a slight drizzle was falling. We walked three kilometers on dark streets and found our hostel in the inner courtyard of a graffiti defaced building. The hostel itself was immaculate. Brand new, and the cheapest in the city by a long shot, I felt like I was entering an IKEA showroom. Everything was very clean, and very small. Our room for the next three nights was a two bunk-bed set up with barely enough space to fit in between and very little room for luggage storage. That night, I was asleep in no time.

The next morning, we set out with no map, looking to explore the city as we saw it. After some delicious breakfast pastries, we wandered into old town and found the Round Tower. We paid the $5 entrance fee and climbed the spiral ramp to the top. The round tower is the oldest observatory in Denmark, and was used in its heyday by Astronomer Tycho Brahe! Attached to the tower was a very neat art exhibition with some very interesting art, art that I actually liked!

Wandering the main arteries of the city, we purchased some candy at the Candy Megastore and snacked our way past the Rathaus and past Tivoli Gardens toward the train station. Tivoli was a 20 dollar entrance fee, plus a fee for riding rides, so we opted for an external tour of the grounds, admiring the several entrance gates. Armed with our Eurail passes, we boarded a train to Sweden (only 30 minutes). After a very brief stint at the airport for Starbucks, we ended up in Malmo, a small city just across the border. Wandering the three squares of the city, there was not much to see, so we snapped a few pictures to prove our presence, and meandered back for the most exciting part of our entire trip. Two stops down, we disembarked (still in Sweden) at the Hyllie stop. Walking along what may or may not have been considered side-walks, we made our way past a sketchy neighborhood to the parking lot of a real life Swedish IKEA.

Walking through what looked the same as a typical American IKEA, we began to feel hunger pangs. Luckily, IKEA has a cafeteria and to top off the irony, we each ordered Swedish meatballs. Got all that? In an IKEA in Sweden eating Swedish meatballs. What is more Scandinavian than that?

On the train, we picked up some maps and headed back to our hostel to plan our attack on Copenhagen. From Rosenberg Palace toward the Nyhavn Canal, we made our way up the river through pouring rain and plenty of fog. The Opera House was an impressive modern building on the river directly across from Amalie Park and the Amalienborg Palace. Walking through the courtyard of the Palace, we found all the tourists hiding under umbrellas taking pictures of the Palace guards. We then found our way to the Frederikskierk, or Marble Church only to find it closed and under construction. As we walked north, we made our way through the Kastellet (the oldest fortifications in Denmark), which was somewhat structured like Fort McHenry in the states. As we exited the Northern Gates, we made a short walk to the Little Mermaid Statue. Nothing impressive, the statue was situated on some rocks about five feet into the river and was crawling with tourists. The only real significance of the statue is to commemorate Danish author Hans Christian Anderson’s book that was adopted by Disney.

Our walk back South through the city put us back near the main arteries where we grabbed a quick dinner and rested for a bit.

The trip was a blur. Two hours into the trip, we were back on the ferry. Two hours later we were in Hamburg. Another hour and we were on the train to Berlin. Two hours and we were headed back to Prague. Exhausted, we arrived around midnight and my mind was already spinning on trying to plan our next trip to Amsterdam and Brussels.