The train out of Berlin was totally uneventful. We made a brief stop in Hamburg, then we were off again. It wasn’t until we got to the border with Denmark that something interesting happened. That ‘something interesting’ is that our train went onto a boat.

Our train went onto a boat.

I figured we’d go into Denmark the long way, which went over land. When it was clear we were heading for the strait, I thought, oh interesting, they must have a huge bridge there. Nope.

Our train went onto a boat!

We recently told this to someone we’d met who was from the Netherlands. And she was as surprised by it as we were. Which, I’m glad! I’m glad she wasn’t all like, “ah yeah, trains on boats, yeah we do that all the time, of course.”

Erika and I giggled as the train crept onto the ferry. We got off the train, walking through the large vehicle compartment on the bottom of the ferry, and went upstairs for a more comfortable and scenic way to spend the hour-long crossing.

We’ve had some interesting border crossings on this trip. This one is definitely on the short list.

All About The Benjamins

Copenhagen is expensive. Like, oh my god expensive. We ‘knew’ this, but we just didn’t know the scale. We couldn’t find anything for any kind of reasonable price that two people trying to travel around the world could afford. Hostels were over 100 Euro, and not the kind of hostels we’d want to stay in either. Just stupidly expensive!

So, instead, we stayed in Sweden. In Malmö, specifically. Malmö is just across the strait from Copenhagen, and the train ride is only about 30 minutes. There, we got a very nice AirBnb, owned by a very nice German girl who had moved to Sweden. And, the cost of this AirBnb, plus the cost of trains back and forth from Copenhagen, was still considerably cheaper than just staying in Copenhagen. I’m telling you, it’s stupid.

Great Expectations

Erika and I were both very excited to see Copenhagen, as we’d always heard good things. It’s one of the happiest places on earth, best places to live, all that. So it’s safe to say we had very high expectations going in. Erika, especially, had huge expectations.

And… eh, I’m sorry to say it just didn’t live up to them. Maybe our expectations were just too high. Maybe the overcast, dreary weather we were unlucky to have played a part.

The streets seemed dirty, and after the pristine cleanliness of Switzerland and Munich we’d just had, it stood out. The people we encountered seemed grumpier… though, to be fair, it was almost certainly all tourists we were encountering and not locals, there were a number of big events going on that weekend.

Oh, and did I mention it was expensive? Cause it is. We wanted to have lunch one day we were there–actually eat one meal in the city. And, the thing to look for in Copenhagen supposedly is open-faced sandwiches. All the rage. So we looked up a place that was recommended, and seemed low key, to try them. We went there… and they were small, and ran about 25 USD each. Noooooooooope!

And… I don’t know, it was disappointing. Erika, especially, took it hard–the disappointment matched the expectations, apparently. I wish there weren’t so many festivals that weekend, because the crowds were definitely a drag. And I wish we’d had better weather. But we were expecting to find our next place to live and… well, maybe not.

Alright, enough being such a negative Nancy, because we did have a good time in Copenhagen and it is a great place.

Walking Tour

First things first, as per usual for us, was a walking tour. Once again, we went with Sandemans. So we took the train into central Copenhagen, and walked to short distance to Rådhuspladsen to meet with the tour.

And much of the square was fenced off for one of those aforementioned festivals, which was a huge drag. Both because walking around it was more difficult, plus it just looked terrible. Anyway, we threaded our way through the fenced areas, and found the start of the tour.

Our guide was a bit scatterbrained, but funny, and fun. He spent a lot of time talking about that renowned Danish happiness, and their general acceptance of others. And it led to discussion of the concept of hygge.

Hygge (pronounced sort of like ‘hoo-ga’) is a word that doesn’t really translate to English. But it’s just an overall concept, or mood, of coziness, contentment, warmth. It’s a way of thinking, leading to happier living.

So, imagine it’s snowing outside, and you put some socks on, curl up under a blanket, drink a hot chocolate, and read a book. That’s hygge. Or maybe you’re sitting next to a nice, warm fire, having a nice simple conversation with a good friend over coffee. Totes hygge.

All the Scandinavian countries have this sort of concept, and words for it. I guess when winters can be so cold and dreary, it’s how you get by. We’ve fully adopted it ourselves, too. I have a pair of super cozy yoga pants I’m traveling with that we now call my ‘hyggelys’ (that’s, ‘hoo-ga-lees’). Co-opted!

Sight Seeing

Naturally, the tour went through Nyhavn (pronounced ‘noo-haw-n’… Danish is weird). Nyhavn is what you’ll certainly recognize from all pictures of Copenhagen, the beautiful, colorful houses and buildings in the harbor. It’s a beautiful mask of revitalization over what the area used to be: a red-light district.

The tour continued, and was fine, though uneventful, I guess, as I don’t remember a lot of other highlights. It finished at Amalienborg, the palace complex where the royal family of Denmark resides, which is a beautiful complex.

From there, Erika and I walked the short distance to Frederik’s Church. Look at that, a church! In Europe! Seriously, though, it’s beautiful and worth a step inside.

Next, we walked to Kongens Have, a beautiful park, for our picnic. To save money, we’d brought a picnic with us, rather than buy lunch in the city. So we had a lovely time sitting in the grass with our lunch.

Copenhagen Pride

We headed back for Rådhuspladsen, and found that the festival they’d been setting up for was in full swing. It was Copenhagen Pride, an annual LGBT festival, which apparently is huge. There were a massive amount of people there. According to the internet, there were more than 300,000 people in the streets for it in 2017.

We had fun with it! There were rainbow flags everywhere, so we grabbed a few to mark ourselves as proud allies. The music stages were thumping, so we listened to the bands for a little while. The festival wore out its welcome, though, when we were ready to leave, and pushing through the giant crowds was nearly impossible. Get me back to Malmö!

The Little Mermaid

The next day, we headed back into Copenhagen, to take the long walk across town to the famous Little Mermaid statue. Inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story, the statue is one of the most famous sites in Copenhagen, sitting on a rock in the water.

From central station, it’s a long walk. We hiked across town, making our way around a damned Ironman course (the other festival going on that weekend… it was really busy, I’m telling you), through the weird star-shaped Kastellet, through the drizzling rain that started during our walk. Finally, we were there: The Little Mermaid!

…is that it?

It’s pretty underwhelming. It’s small, not terribly beautiful, large crowds around it. Like Copenhagen itself, coming up short of too-high expectations.

What About Malmö?

We didn’t really do anything in Malmö, sadly. We wanted to, we really did. But, by the time we’d get back from Copenhagen in the evenings, we were tired, so we’d just cook dinner in our apartment and relax. We had a really nice apartment.

But Malmö seemed lovely. We were in a cute, walkable area (#europe), just a short walk from a few train stations, including the one we needed for going to Copenhagen. When we left Malmö to go on to our next destination, we walked about a mile through town to the train station, and the town was beautiful. I wish we’d had more time (pretty much the book title for our European trip) so that we could have done more in Malmö. Next time, though!

What’s Next?

I found myself liking Copenhagen more as I wrote this story. I’d love to go back, see it in quieter times, actually stay in the city. Things like that. But, as it stands, it was one of my least favorite parts of Phase 3. Then again, Phase 3 was awesome.

We were sticking around in Sweden for a little while longer, and actually doing stuff in Sweden, too! That walk through Malmö to the train station was to catch our train to Stockholm, a city I’d long been very, very excited to go to. Check it out next time on the blog!