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Tak, København
Just like that, the trip to Copenhagen is over.
While we felt we had done everything we wanted to do, there was still a niggling doubt in my mind that we might have missed something big, so it was nice, while sat in the park, that a woman came over to us – to rest, apparently. I felt sure she was out to scam us, she seemed like the type to suddenly break out a clip board asking for donations to some obscure cause – but ultimately, she seemed to just genuinely be looking to chat.
She asked us where we were from, how long we’d been here, “had we done everything?”
We told her we thought so, but weren’t sure.
“Have you done the castle? (we were sat next to it), The mermaid? Chrstiania? … She named a couple more places, which have slipped my mind, but the answer to them all was yes. “Ok, bye”, she replied. “You’re done. You’ve done it all. Copenhagen is not that big.”
‘Check out’ of the AirBnB was painless, we went for food in the morning, and were back in the apartment for around 12 – the time we’d said to Lone to come meet us. She showed up. We said goodbye and we were off.
I was a little worried about doing this trip with just one other person. Having done trips before with just two people, the confines of a trip can be exhausting, but I think the fact that we were able to ‘escape’ each other when we got back to the apartment (and the fact that we were comfortable spending a day alone) meant that that strain didn’t get to be too much.
Copenhagen, before I went, wasn’t somewhere I’d ever really considered before. While I don’t necessarily want to rush back, it’s only because I have other places I’d like to visit first. I’ll definitely recommend it as a destination for other people.
So, thank you, Copenhagen… or… Tak, København. Mange tak.
Do Not Feed The Animals
On our last full day in CPH, we split up. The weather, having been amazing for the first two days we were here, was now terrible with torrential rain.
I had considered doing a museum or something – something indoors, something dry… But, in the end, the zoo was closer, even if it meant getting soaked.
I didn’t bring any waterproof clothing on this trip (not that I really own any anyway), so with just my hoodie for protection, I set off in the direction of the Copenhagen Zoo.
I quite like visiting zoos in different cities, they’d never be my first port of call, but if I’ve done the things I want to do and have some time? Tell me where your zoo’s at.
The zoo in Copenhagen was an interesting mix of new-style enclosures and old-style. All the animals appeared relatively happy and well cared for, unlike some zoos I’ve been to (looking at you, Rome), but certain enclosures left a little to be desired.
I wasn’t really paying attention, but I can only assume I was getting a few weird looks from other zoo patrons as I walked around. Everyone else in the park was wearing several layers of waterproof clothing, ponchos, umbrellas, etc.. I was walking around in jeans and a hoodie, with the hood down and the sleeves rolled up.
At the giraffe enclosure, they had set up branches for them near the fence, which the giraffes were stripping of the bark. If you wanted to, you could have reached out and petted them and while I didn’t opt to do that (do giraffe’s bite? I didn’t want to find out), I did strip a little bark off the branch, which the giraffe gladly took out of my hand.
It was only later that I noticed the sign at the top of this post – but that was next to the rhinos… I assume it referred almost exclusively to the rhinos, not the giraffes. Right?
After a couple hours there, in the rain, I decided to head back to the airbnb. Drenched. But I fed a giraffe, so it was all worth it, no?
Make Mommy Proud – Use The Bin
Not content with the 16 odd miles we walked yesterday, we walked a further 11 or so today. We set off around lunch time, having had breakfast at Dyrehaven, a small cafe-bar just down the street from the AirBnB.
Our first stop of the day was to be Christiania, I’m not sure what I expected it to be, but it what I got wasn’t what I expected. The place looked cool and had a relaxed vibe to it (helped along, I’m sure, by the amount of pot going around). We stopped to eat, for the second time, at a juice and sandwich bar, inside Christiania – is there a mandate somewhere that requires all juice/smoothie bars to be painted in the same shade of green?
Both the Smoothie I had, and the Turkey sandwich were delicious.
After Christiania, we started to make our way through the streets to Copenhagen Street Food, a large warehouse, essentially, on the docks, inside of which is row upon row of street food merchants, selling pretty much every type of food you could possibly want. We ended up with some ice cream, and I got a brownie – a dessert to our Christiania main, if I come back to Copenhagen, it’s definitely somewhere I’d re-visit and get more from though.
We started making our way back to the AirBnB after that. Winding our way through the city streets, stopping off at The Round Tower, which has a viewing platform at the top, giving views across Copenhagen.
We got back late afternoon, and after the 27 miles of walking across two days, opted to stay in for the night, save for a quick shopping trip to the nearby supermarket for some snacks.
Copenhagen is a lovely city for walking around in. They do love cobbles though… Cobbles which I’ve tripped over multiple times now, though, as yet, I haven’t fallen flat on my face. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Must Have At Least 3 Working Limbs
Before coming to Copenhagen, people would ask me if I was excited about the trip – to which I could only respond, ‘not really’. That’s not to say I didn’t think I’d have a good time, or I didn’t think I’d like the city, just that I knew next to nothing about the place, so I had nothing specific to be excited about.
On our first full day, we wandered. Before leaving, I had looked at a map and planned a rough route to take, but I had no idea if that route would work out or not and being as we didn’t have anywhere we had to be, or had to see necessarily, the wandering method was sure to work.
And it did.
We walked through various different neighbourhoods, commenting on the fact that a lot of Copenhagen looks like a film set. Both in terms of it’s cleanliness, but also the buildings look like giant facades, to the point where if you could just get behind them, you’d realise there was nothing there, just plywood and scaffolding.
We also commented on the fact that we saw pretty much every demographic on a bike, young, old, men, women, different ethnicities… The only demographic we didn’t see were unattractive people, because there are none. Everyone is attractive. Sometimes too attractive.
On our meandering journey, we found The Little Mermaid statue. Which… Is a thing. I’ll probably never understand art, never understand why something like that is popular. I feel the same about the Mona Lisa in Paris. It’s nice, sure… But there are other more impressive pieces of art (to me).
At night, we headed to Tivoli gardens, one of the only things I had wanted to make sure we did when coming here. I’d read about the Friday night concerts they put on, which made the decision of what day to visit a no-brainer.
Once in the park, we went on a few rides and then had some food. Avoiding, the whole time, the 80ft chair-swing ride. Because, I’ll go on pretty much any other ride going, but I don’t trust those things.
I thought the music would start around 8pm. However, it was 10pm before Beth Hart took to the stage and midnight before she left again. It was interesting watching her with the crowd – the crowd that clearly knew who she was and knew the words to her music, as someone who had no idea who she was and knew none of the words to her music. I’m not sure I’d set out to listen to many of the songs again, but I enjoyed it while there.
After a day of wandering the city though, then over two hours of standing during the gig, everything was sore. Feet, back, legs.
Outdoor concerts should be a sitting down thing.
Vesterbro
A few days before were due to arrive in Copenhagen, I got a message from our AirBnB host to let us know we’d be arriving slap bang in the middle of ‘Distortion‘, that it’d be loud and crowded and that we should enjoy it while we could.
Our travel day started off at 7am, with the first of two trains to Edinburgh, followed by a tram to the airport – first tram experience, not bad Edinburgh. Though a tenner if you don’t get your ticket from the machine seems a bit steep.
The flight was delayed for a whole hour, because they couldn’t get a bus to get the people who had arrived on the plane, off the plane. Something the pilot was all too quick to point out before we took off – “Not our fault, promise!” I might not believe you, but your free wi-fi made up for it.
The first experience, having left the train that took us to our destination, was seeing a guy on the floor, vomiting on the ground. Welcome to Copenhagen(?).
Our host, Christina, was extremely attentive and helpful via text, making sure we were getting the right trains and helping us with directions the whole way. Not that that didn’t stop us taking some wrong turns and getting a little lost, but we made it in the end.
The apartment is small, but lovely (I will post more about it in a later post).
We ventured out into the streets, after being given the tour of the apartment by Lone (Christina’s Mum). The streets during Distortion are… Something. The ground was sticky. The crowds were thick. The bass of the music vibrated my rib cage.
At one point, I commented to Allan that I’d hate to be someone wearing flip-flops walking the street, due to the broken glass everywhere. Five minutes later, there was a guy picking glass out of his toes.
People were swaying around drunk, but the people we encountered seemed nice. One guy even stopping to welcome us to Copenhagen, after asking if we were tourists.
It was an unconventional start to a trip, but it was an interesting way to be thrown into the action.
New York City: Goodbye 2606
The alarms went off at 8:30 for the final time on the trip. We all lazed around, people got showered, packed some final things. Then it was time to say goodbye to 2606 (and 2602), head down to the Lobby and check out.
We had to be back at the hotel for just before 3pm, to get the shuttle to JFK, but we had a good few hours left before then, so we went for one last meal together, then had a walk around Times Square, and that general area, before going to get a drink and sitting on the Library steps for a bit.
We got back to the hotel, got our bags (which they’d kept for us after we checked out), and the shuttle arrived to take us away.
The drive was a lot less exciting on the way back, more tunnels, less bridges.
We made it to JFK.
Stuart had planned on stopping in London, to go to a friend’s wedding. He was booked all the way through to Aberdeen, but when Paula checked everyone in the night before, she had purposely not checked him in on the Heathrow to Aberdeen flight.
At the Self Check-in, it automatically checked him in to all the flights. He attempted to get out of it, but failed. Meaning he had to travel back to Aberdeen with us all (once through security, he started looking into alternate options for flying BACK to London the following day).
The good news is that everyone got their luggage in under weight limit (not something that was guaranteed with Paula & Hannah) and then came the wait for the plane.
The entire journey home felt a LOT shorter than the journey there. Less hold-ups.
On the flight back, I watched a heap of shows, but slept for only an hour. We were late getting into Heathrow, and a bunch of passengers had been told that they wouldn’t be making their connections (but that they had been booked on later flights) – thankfully, we weren’t one of those groups, but our connection time was still tight and we had no idea how long we would be at the border.
I called my Mum to say we’d landed. She told me that the flight was delayed. Which made the whole thing a lot less rushed – and sure enough, bringing up the BA app, it told us the 8:55 flight had been delayed until 9:17.
We stopped by a WH Smith to get something to eat and then went and sat, waiting for the gate to be announced.
I hadn’t eaten anything on the flight over – I didn’t want either of the hot meal options, something the flight attendant couldn’t seem to understand.
“This is the ONLY hot meal on the flight!”
Aye, and it’s not good, so no thanks.
Our gate was eventually called and it wasn’t too far from where we were sitting, so we went over and took a seat there, then eventually, boarded.
The flight back to Aberdeen felt super short. Just as I was considering trying to get some more sleep, they announced the final approach.
Once in the airport, we made our way to baggage claim – thankfully, everyone’s bag made it. Mine was at the front of the queue, which was a nice surprise.
My mum came and took Paula and I home. Where I went almost straight to bed and slept for 12 hours.
–
New York isn’t somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. There’s stuff there that I’ve wanted to do, but the idea of travelling to the city to do them hasn’t really appealed. I’m not a city person. At least, not when it comes to cities like New York.
That said though, I did enjoy it and I wouldn’t be opposed to visiting again, but I doubt I’d make it the focus point of a holiday again.
There was a lot of talk of living in New York when we were there and I wouldn’t ever want to do that. Out of the two cities we visited (New York & Philadelphia) I probably enjoyed Philadelphia more. It just felt… nicer.
I wasn’t sure how I’d get along with everyone, spending all day, every day with them – we spend a lot of time together any way, but I can always not come out/go home when it becomes to much. That was less of an option here.
It ended up being a pretty positive experience though. No (huge) fall outs, no-one got on my nerves (too much).
Still, one of my favourite parts of the trip was when I went it alone.
New York City: I’m a Fucking LOL a Minute
This morning Ryan, Allan and me went to Yankee Stadium, while the others did shopping or something.
We headed to Grand Central, got out our metrocard, ready to go.
Nope.
Insufficient funds.
The cards ran out at midnight last night. A quick trip to a ticket machine and we were on our way.
Once there, we got to the street and looked around.
Where do you think it is?
Ryan turned around first – I think it’s there. Allan and I turned to see A MASSIVE STADIUM on the corner.
He was right.
The tour was pretty cool, we saw the museum, monument garden, dugout, and the locker room. I think if I was actually a baseball fan, I would have found it a lot more interesting than I already did. At the end they gave us a Yankees keyring as a souvenir. Which was unexpected.
The three of us made our way back to grand central, then did some shops, starting with the Apple Store in the station.
I then ended up spending $130 on tshirt at the NBC store. After that, I went to the HBO store and headed back to the hotel.
When I got back, the door was slightly open, due to the latch being closed before the door.
A sudden panic set in, did it close like that when we left this morning, was the room going to be empty when I opened the door? Fuuuuckkkkk.
Opened the door. Stuart was lying on the bed. Hannah and Paula were due back soon, he didn’t want to have to get up to let them in. Lazy.
Hannah and Paula came back and we sat for a. Bit, before going and meeting Allan and Ryan at Times Square.
From there, we went to Madame Tussauds.
It was a lot creepier than I thought it would be, but still, pretty fun.
After, I went to Hard Rock again to pick up a tshirt, then back to the hotel before dinner.
Back at the hotel, the clouds darkened and then. LIGHTNING! The whole gang gathered in our room – best view – to watch the lightning. We watched it for far too long then headed to an Italian place for food.
The place was good but everything was double portions meant to share. It worked out well, but was confusing at first.
After dinner, Tain and I walked back to the hotel, while the others did some snack shopping. Stuart was first back, he’d been caught in the start of a shower. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I answered, both Hannah and Paula were stood there, soaked. Looking sorry for themselves.
Then… Came the packing… We leave tomorrow.
New York City: 69’s Good Right?
We all had to be up, out and at NBC for 10am, so we could make our slot for the studio tour.
We made it with time to spare. The tour itself was shorter than I thought it’d be, but it was still pretty cool. We visited Brian Williams’ news studio, as well as the SNL studio – which was tiny.
After we were done with the tour, we looked around the store, then headed to Pier 86 to get on the Circle Line tour.
The tour we went on was only the half circle, it took us down past the Statue of Liberty, around the bottom of Manhattan under all the bridges, and back again. The guy giving the tour was good, talked less about food than Madge though.
Ecause the tour was shorter than we expected, we went to the intrepid, which is docked next to where the circle line launches from.
The intrepid was hit by Sandy, but it was still cool to cool around, they have a concorde, and a space shuttle on board. Admission also included a tour of The Growler – a submarine.
After, we walked back to times square area. I then opted to go back to the hotel, where I ended up staying for the night.
The others did some shopping and went for Mexican food at night.
New York City: A Fancy Stroke
Today was Natural History Museum day.
We woke up to the news of Margaret Thatcher dying, or rather we woke up to the multitude of jokes about her dying.
We got a subway direct to the museum, which saved my feet a little bit. Got ti jets for the museum and planetarium and started to explore. Our planetarium time was 12: 30.
I had never done a planetarium before, it was pretty awesome. While I like Whoopi, I’m sure they could have found a voice with more gravitas, when talking about the beginnings of the universe and our galaxy.
After the museum, we went to ShakeShack, the food was good, but I’m not sure it was amazing, like everyone says it is.
After, we went through the park – Paula left us to meet someone, then the rest of us went to FAO Schwarz via the Apple Store.
FAO Schwarz seemed to be lacking in interactive stuff. I expected it to be more of a playground for kids and kids at heart, but it was more just a straight up toy shop. Still cool though.
After Schwarz, everyone else went shopping, I opted to go back to the hotel – my feet, by this point, were killing me. Blister. Generally sore muscles. Not a god combination for walking the streets of New York.
After a while of being alone at the hotel, everyone else came back. They had decided to go to Bubba Shrimp for food, then Top of the Rock after.
Bubba Shrimp was pretty cool. Obviously tourist orientated, but that’s what we are, so who cares? After that, we went to Toys R Us, where the Jurassic Park area had no JP toys in it. Makes sense.
We went to the Disney store after, where, after 5 mins, Ryan asked “is this the Disney store?”
What gave it away?
Then. Top of the Rock.
Entry was free with the pass, I had Leads just assumed that the famous picture of the guys on the girder was from the Empire State or Chrysler or something, but turns out it was from the rock.
The views at the top were awesome, definitely glad we opted to do it at night, too. Being able to see the Empire State at night, lit up etc.
Central Park looked weird but cool from the top. You could see all the pathways lit up within the relative darkness.
We have had our photo a lot in this trip, the pictures from Top of the Rock are the only ones we have bought.
Leaving the plaza, we headed back to the hotel.
My feet going back to killing me. Sweet.
New York City: If we’re not number one, who is?!
Today we all woke up pretty early (for us), got dressed and headed out to the Empire State Building. We wanted to get there early-ish to avoid any massive queues, which I’m glad we did, because walking through what would have been the queue area made me think about just how awful it’d be to have to wait in it. Though, if we did wait in the queue, we would have seen all the information/museum boards, which would have been interesting – instead, we walked right by them.
The views from the 86th floor (we didn’t go all the way up, cause it would have cost extra) were impressive. We walked around, taking photos and generally taking in the views for a bit, before heading down, exiting through the gift shop, as is customary at all attractions.
On the way down, we were looking for the SkyRide, something we had free entry to with the passes. We ended up on the ground floor, before being told it was back up the way. We eventually found it and got on.
It wasn’t good. But it was so not good, that it was actually kind of good. Kevin Bacon narrated it, so, y’know, there’s that.
After the Empire State, we went to find something to eat. Everyone apart from Hannah, Acloud and I were going to WrestleMania in the afternoon/evening, so we needed to get something quick, together, before they left.
We settled on the Tick-Tock diner, which was (and I’m sure still is) right next to Penn Station (where they’d be getting their train to Wrestlemania from). At the diner, we, pretty much, all had breakfast foods. Pancakes, etc. It was good. Allan and Acloud ended up sitting alone, cause they could only sit six of us together. It all worked out in the end though.
After, we said our goodbyes and the three of us left in New York headed back to our hotel to get organised, drop off stuff we bought at The Empire State building, all that kind of stuff. Once we’d done that, we all went to the NBC store and booked tickets for the Studio Tour – We had thought to do it the next day, but they couldn’t fit us in, so we ended up booking for Tuesday.
Then Hannah abandoned us.
Acloud and I walked up to Central Park and explored it a little more than we had the previous time. I’d marked a couple things on the map that I wanted to check out, so we hit them. Hannah was meeting with her friend from Uni, she text to say she was done and we arranged to meet.
We had talked about getting a night-time bus tour of the city, by the time we got to the ticket office, there was a bus due to leave not long after, so we bought the tickets and got on.
We went upstairs and sat at the back, an old woman came and gave us headphones, it later turned out that she wasn’t just the headphone giver, she was also the tour guide. Her name was Marge – or at least, that’s what Hannah decided her name was.
Marge was obsessed with food, not any particular food, just food in general. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican… She never shut up about food, except to talk about Jay-Z.
As we were driving through Brooklyn, she noted “Hip-hop fans may want to take a look to the right now, that building is the high school that Jay-Z attended. I’m not sure if he graduated, but…”
Acloud missed out on all of Marge’s little gems, as he’d taken out his headphones. When Marge wasn’t talking, she was breathing. Loudly. Down the mic. Sounding like something from the Ring.
I miss Marge.
After the tour, we decided we’d just grab a McDonald’s. We had thought about getting a pizza delivered to the hotel, but in the end, we were tired and just wanted food. Now. We stopped by Walgreen’s, then McDonald’s and went back to the room.
We lay and watched TV for a bit, before kicking Acloud out of our room, back to his and getting into bed.
I have vague recollections of Paula and Stuart coming into the room, but don’t remember them getting into bed or anything.
[this blog was written nearly a month after the events, due to it having disappeared the first time round]