Backpost: Denmark
This is an entry I've had sitting in ~/journal for a while, and have only just now managed to write the last two paragraphs in order to finish it off. Been so busy!
Shirley was originally intending to accompany me to Copenhagen (København), but she had to go to Lisbon for opera reasons instead. I ended up going by myself, and staying in a hostel. The hostel had a thousand and something rooms; a big high-rise building. Not really a hostelly atmosphere. I flew in at about 9, went and dropped my stuff in my room and came back down to find that the hostel kitchens had closed. It turns out to be pretty difficult to find somewhere to eat at 10pm. But one of the staff at the hostel suggested some Italian place. It was alright; there were a couple of loudly drunk Finnish guys rambling on at the table next to me. Eating alone kinda sucks. Next time I go travelling I'm going to bring a friend.
I got back to the hostel and got talking to a couple of guys -- one American, Christian, and one Dutchie, Bart. Christian mentioned something about a Viking ship museum in Roskilde (near Copenhagen) he was going to the next day, which I'd heard nothing about. It turned out to be really awesome; the museum had found five sunken Viking ships in a river and had restored and displayed them. There were also some reconstructed clones of the ships under cover out the front of the museum, the intention being (I believe) to actually sail them during the summer. There was information plans to undertake a journey on one of the reconstructed ships from Denmark to either Iceland or England; I can't quite remember. The Royal Crown Prince of Denmark was mentioned as being a patron of the journey; which I found amusing as I believe he plays in the SCA.
After we'd seen the museum, we wandered out across the bay and stumbled upon a boat-building warehouse behind a cleverly disguised door. In it were a bunch of Danes building Viking boats. I thought that was pretty cool, though they were a little confused at why I would be visiting Denmark in the middle of winter. Roskilde itself was also quite picturesque. Cute streets and beshingled houses abounded, and there was also a funny-looking cathedral.
After wandering around aimlessly for a while, we decided that we were in fact hungry. We mooched in the direction of the train station and found a little sandwich shop, where we dined on what I'm told is (almost) traditional Danish food: dark rye bread with fish and salad inside. Except ours was with some other kind of bread. Anyhow, it was tasty.
Back in København that evening we found an Australian-themed pub that was allegedly doing cheap drinks. It turns out 'cheap' is relative, and that they were in fact pretty expensive. Still, though, we had a reasonably good time, and the decor was (for me) pretty amusing. They had paintings of "Aussie legends" on the walls and big pictures of koalas and such like.
The weather next day was remarkably shit. It was blowing a gale and raining these tiny drops that didn't really make you wet, just annoyed. I went to have breakfast in the café across the bridge, which was fancy and had big glass windows and was right on the river. It also happened to have free wifi. I had some very tasty and very elegant quiche, a double espresso and a shot of internet before deciding to see the Carlsberg brewery/museum.
The brewery was ~. Lots of blatant advertising, but also scraps of interesting stuff; mostly bits of neat-looking brewing machinery. The museum ticket came with two "free" drinks at the bar in the brewery, which was nice. Nicer was the open wifi I got there. I stayed a while uploading photos and avoiding the weather, but eventually I decided I should actually go do something. So I caught the train back into the city and saw the national museum. After cramming my fairly large backpack into a not-so-large locker, I ran and looked at their medieval section. Unfortunately I'd managed to get there about half an hour before closing, so I didn't have nearly enough time to see the whole exhibition (let alone the other exhibitions in the museum - it was huge!) There were lots of neat artifacts from pre-17th century europe, though. Lots of bits from churches.
After the museum closed, I went to a Wagamama's near the train station and had some overpriced low-quality Japanese food. Christian and Bart ended up joining me to say goodbye, but didn't eat. Caught the train to the airport and the plane back to Berlin and crashed, exhausted.
Shirley was originally intending to accompany me to Copenhagen (København), but she had to go to Lisbon for opera reasons instead. I ended up going by myself, and staying in a hostel. The hostel had a thousand and something rooms; a big high-rise building. Not really a hostelly atmosphere. I flew in at about 9, went and dropped my stuff in my room and came back down to find that the hostel kitchens had closed. It turns out to be pretty difficult to find somewhere to eat at 10pm. But one of the staff at the hostel suggested some Italian place. It was alright; there were a couple of loudly drunk Finnish guys rambling on at the table next to me. Eating alone kinda sucks. Next time I go travelling I'm going to bring a friend.
I got back to the hostel and got talking to a couple of guys -- one American, Christian, and one Dutchie, Bart. Christian mentioned something about a Viking ship museum in Roskilde (near Copenhagen) he was going to the next day, which I'd heard nothing about. It turned out to be really awesome; the museum had found five sunken Viking ships in a river and had restored and displayed them. There were also some reconstructed clones of the ships under cover out the front of the museum, the intention being (I believe) to actually sail them during the summer. There was information plans to undertake a journey on one of the reconstructed ships from Denmark to either Iceland or England; I can't quite remember. The Royal Crown Prince of Denmark was mentioned as being a patron of the journey; which I found amusing as I believe he plays in the SCA.
After we'd seen the museum, we wandered out across the bay and stumbled upon a boat-building warehouse behind a cleverly disguised door. In it were a bunch of Danes building Viking boats. I thought that was pretty cool, though they were a little confused at why I would be visiting Denmark in the middle of winter. Roskilde itself was also quite picturesque. Cute streets and beshingled houses abounded, and there was also a funny-looking cathedral.
After wandering around aimlessly for a while, we decided that we were in fact hungry. We mooched in the direction of the train station and found a little sandwich shop, where we dined on what I'm told is (almost) traditional Danish food: dark rye bread with fish and salad inside. Except ours was with some other kind of bread. Anyhow, it was tasty.
Back in København that evening we found an Australian-themed pub that was allegedly doing cheap drinks. It turns out 'cheap' is relative, and that they were in fact pretty expensive. Still, though, we had a reasonably good time, and the decor was (for me) pretty amusing. They had paintings of "Aussie legends" on the walls and big pictures of koalas and such like.
The weather next day was remarkably shit. It was blowing a gale and raining these tiny drops that didn't really make you wet, just annoyed. I went to have breakfast in the café across the bridge, which was fancy and had big glass windows and was right on the river. It also happened to have free wifi. I had some very tasty and very elegant quiche, a double espresso and a shot of internet before deciding to see the Carlsberg brewery/museum.
The brewery was ~. Lots of blatant advertising, but also scraps of interesting stuff; mostly bits of neat-looking brewing machinery. The museum ticket came with two "free" drinks at the bar in the brewery, which was nice. Nicer was the open wifi I got there. I stayed a while uploading photos and avoiding the weather, but eventually I decided I should actually go do something. So I caught the train back into the city and saw the national museum. After cramming my fairly large backpack into a not-so-large locker, I ran and looked at their medieval section. Unfortunately I'd managed to get there about half an hour before closing, so I didn't have nearly enough time to see the whole exhibition (let alone the other exhibitions in the museum - it was huge!) There were lots of neat artifacts from pre-17th century europe, though. Lots of bits from churches.
After the museum closed, I went to a Wagamama's near the train station and had some overpriced low-quality Japanese food. Christian and Bart ended up joining me to say goodbye, but didn't eat. Caught the train to the airport and the plane back to Berlin and crashed, exhausted.