As you know from my last post: We traveled to Copenhagen for the day. Here is what happened:
Episode 1, 9.30: leaving the boat
We got off the boat and quickly moved towards the surrounding buildings. Since Monday was so crazy, we had forgotten to go to an ATM and get some cash out, so now, that was the mission: finding an ATM. Our first stop was Nestle’s headquarters (convenient, right? – A said, that he had seen an ATM in there but I believe he was just guided by their intoxicating wonderful smell), the receptionist pointed us towards the train station, she said, ‘it would only be a 10 minute walk, we would find an ATM there’. So, off we went. The walk seemed like forever, through the sketchy part of the town, next to the railroads, no signs as to where we were or what we were looking for. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the train station, we were greeted by a closed bank and an out of order ATM. We considered our options and decided to head towards the aquarium (you got it, we were traveling to Copenhagen just to see the aquarium…). There again, we asked at the train station, where the next ATM was and this lady too, pointed us somewhere and said, ‘Only 10 minutes of a walk’. Judging by our previous encounter it dawned on us, that in Copenhagen ‘everything is just a 10 minute of a walk’. About 20 minutes later we found a working ATM and finally made our way to the aquarium.
Episode 2, 10.45: the aquarium
By the time we were on our way to the aquarium, we already walked about 45 minutes with three backpacks and a camera bag and with the not most comfortable walking shoes to and from and around several train stations, but the walk didn’t end just yet. Neither A nor I had any clue as on where we were or how to get to the aquarium, so I asked a passing woman, where to find the aquarium. She pointed us towards the woods and said… yeah, only 10 minutes of a walk. Again, after about 20 minutes later we finally arrived at the aquarium. The outside of the aquarium advertised the shark-exhibition, so A and I got super excited. As we entered, were we greeted by a school class of 6 year olds roaring at the tanks, knocking at the alligator and playing hide and seek with the turtles. The most exciting part was however the giant octopus. I don’t know if every aquarium in the world has some but somehow this one just seemed remarkable. We even witnessed the feeding and the tank-keeper holding a giant squid. But after about an hour and a half of screaming kids and a non existing shark exhibition, we decided to head to the city and get a well deserved lunch.
Episode 3, 12.30: bus driving skills
This time we thought we were being smart and instead of walking back, we took the bus to the city center. For the longest time A tried to read the map and figure out, where exactly we were until a nice asian-looking girl was kind enough to help us. She explained where to get off and where to go afterwards but I could see in A’s eyes that with every ongoing minute of her talking, A developed a huge craving for Chinese food. Well, at least we now knew what to get for lunch.
Just fyi, if you are encountering problems with a public bus, that just seemed to work fine a minute ago, in a(n un)known city, there are two things, that could cause the problem:
1. the bus driver has a problem
2. the bus driver is the problem
Ours was the second. Two minutes after the bus drivers switched, an elderly, rather rude lady took over the bus we sat in, she claimed that the bus, that was working perfectly fine, now had a defect. We didn’t stick around long enough to find out whether we or her were right, but let’s just assume we were. So we were on our quest to find Chinese food. We walked and walked, for what seemed like an eternity.
Episode 4, 13.30: Eating with sticks
A couldn’t stop talking about Chinese food. Ever since we left Philadelphia last August, we hadn’t eaten any Chinese food. So we looked and looked and looked and finally found a Chinese buffet in the middle of the city. As we entered we were greeted by a Chinese woman, who told us, that if we didn’t eat everything on our plates, we will have to pay double for lunch and that we have to order drinks, no matter what. I tilted my head but I could see, A was basically already inhaling food, so I didn’t argue with him. (Never mess with a hungry A.) We ate and ate and ate. We got seconds, and thirds and fourths, soups, desserts, you name it. A even thought me how to use sticks (yeah, pretty sad, 23 and JUST learned how to eat with sticks). We ate more than we probably should have but it was just so good… After the restaurant we walked around a bit, gazed at the beautiful city and enjoyed the vivid street life. Seriously, Copenhagen in March is just gorgeous.
Episode 5, 15.00: Lego & Irma
From afar A noticed a red & yellow sign and instantly started walking faster. And then he stood in front of the Lego shop. He pointed out several things (especially the star wars collection) and looked at it lovingly. Lego had this super cool technology where you can scan the box of Legos and the screen will show you how exactly it will look like in 3D. After playing around with that for about 30 minutes, I finally dragged A out of the store, after all we still had to go shopping for our return-cruise. So we walked and walked and walked again, not being able to find one single grocery store. After circling the same block 3 times already (oddly enough it was the block with the Lego store in it) and still no grocery store there, we expanded our search and found Irma – the grocery store. I felt like my hamster does, when I put a bowl of fresh food into his cage: complete aw and trying to put everything in my little cart, that was possible. We ended up with a good amount of food, all kinds of goodies, beer, wine, chocolate, the usual and then it was time to return to our boat.
Episode 5, 15.30: return to the boat
Halfway into our day trip, A realized, that our cruise offered a shuttle service to and from the boat. So us walking and walking and walking, was completely unnecessary. Anyways, I trusted A completely with leading us to the right shuttle service. We slowly walked through the city and enjoyed the beautiful weather, walked along the canal and then stood in the middle of the road, wondering why there wasn’t a shuttle service to take us to our boat. After gazing at the canal for a while, it dawned on me that the shuttle service we were supposed to take, wasn’t the same one the DFDS tourist boats offered. After that realization I saw A panicking. Wrong place, in a city, we don’t know and only one hour until they close the check-in, this meant: run, run fast! He mumbled something, that sounded kind of like, ‘No, why, I don’t understand, I don’t know where to go, please help me’ (at least I imagined that’s what he said), I looked at the map, said something about, ‘Mhm… that’s where we are… that’s where we have to go’ and then – luckily – found the shuttle service we were supposed to take. Luckily it was only another… 10 minutes of a walk. So we picked up the speed and finally arrived, where we were supposed to be. Needless to say, that finding the bus was not an easy chore either. We had to look left and right and finally, after 10 minutes, saw the bus from across the street. So we ran, caught it and finally, were on our way back to our cruise… Maybe Copenhagen is a little too big for us after all.
A bird loves a fish 