20th Anniversary European Bike Adventure: Day 8, Hamburg to Copenhagen
Where were we? Ah, yes, the Hamburg Train Station at midnight on a Friday. (To be fair, at the time I had no idea it was a Friday. We pretty much never knew what day of the week it was.)
After we got off the train, we started looking around for signs that would point us to where we would catch our bus to Copenhagen. There was no urgency, because we had 3 hours between our train arrival and our bus departure. Plenty of time.
I assume this place is mostly lit by skylight during the day, because it was SO DARK at night.
Except we couldn't figure out where the buses were. After looking at signs and diagrams, we decided to take a break and eat, because being hungry wasn't making us any better at searching and being patient.
As much as we tried to eat local and pick things that were unique to the places we were.. when you're in a foreign country, don't speak the language well, and you're lost in a train station after midnight, sometimes you just eat the easiest thing available. Also the only thing open.
Thank you for being open 24 Stunden, Badonnels. Sorry, girl who didn't know she was gonna be in a photo.
I didn't get a picture of the glamorousness of us eating while standing up next to our bikes in a train station. Because there was inexplicably no place to sit in the train station.
After we ate, we resumed our hunt. There was a sign that pointed outside and said "Buses", so we went outside. And we did find bus stops out at the road, but they were all local buses, not the "IC Bus" that we needed to catch. So we went back inside, and looked for someone to ask. All the information booths were closed. Everything was closed except for McDonald's. So we looked at more signs and diagrams. We even searched google for things like "Seriously, how the hell do I get from the Hamburg train station to the Hamburg bus station!?" But all we could find for buses was that arrow that pointed out the front door. So we went and looked there again. And even after walking around the entire outer perimeter of the train station, we couldn't find any sign of a bus stop that might be for our IC bus.
At this point we've been wandering around this train station for 90 minutes, and we're starting to get a little concerned that that 3 hour buffer we had between train and bus might not be enough. And it's not a fun wandering. The inside of the station is really ambiently dark. It's full of loud people, many of whom seem pretty drunk. And the outside is even worse. Everyone is smoking, and most of the people loitering out there also seem pretty drunk. It smelled terrible. And we're having to wheel these giant bikes around all those people, many of whom are sprawled out on the ground.
We finally found a train station employee who was sweeping the floor, and he had enough English that he pointed us in the direction of the bus. Which was the same way the sign was pointing. So we dutifully went out there again, hopefully it would magically appear this time. And it did not.
We had passed a sign a few times that pointed to a police station, and even though I was completely convinced it would be closed, since everything else was, we wandered over there. And it was open! Matt went in and asked, and they very kindly and patiently explained the bus station was actually across the street and two blocks away, really not even visible from the train station. Actually after Matt pointed to where it was, I STILL couldn't see it until we crossed the street and went around a corner.
But we walked over there, and there it was. THANKFULLY. With an hour still to spare.
Loitering outside closed businesses with locked down seating.
A pretty terrible hour. At 2am, the inside of the station isn't open, nor are any of the shops/restaurants around it. There were two benches outside, both of which were full, and everyone sitting around them was smoking. The ground was gross enough that even in my unshowered, disgusting state, I still wasn't willing to sit on it. And we couldn't leave our bikes and bags (we'd taken the bags off in anticipation of putting our bikes on the bus).
So we stood there and tried not to breathe for an hour. Or fall asleep.
But then the bus showed up! On time! And even though it looked like there could not possibly be room for two bikes, they found places to put our bikes!
Not my most instagrammable of photos, but it does blurrily show Matt's bike on a bike rack and my bike shoved horizontally into a tiny compartment!
We boarded up, uploaded a few photos via the bus wifi, and then went the hell to sleep.
Aaaaand woke up about an hour later, because our bus had driven onto a ferry, and we weren't allowed to be on the bus when it was on the ferry. All the bus inhabitants Zombie Death Marched up into the ferry, and many people immediately stretched out on one of the benches and went back to sleep. We got coffee (I got hot chocolate) and stared at our phones.
Exhaustion: staged.
Exhaustion: not staged.
And enjoyed how light it is outside at 4am.
Roughly 45 minutes later, we got back on the bus and tried to go back to sleep, only to be interrupted again by Surprise Customs Officer. Because, hey, we're in Denmark now! New country!
Fortunately everyone on the bus seemed to have their affairs and documents in order, and we dozed back off again.
But neither one of us could really sleep at that point, so we just tried to rest as much as we could until the bus finally pulled up to the curb in Copenhagen. New country, new city! And a brand new day! 7:30am! Ready to go see the world!
Bikes off a bus, bags back on bikes!
Except, you know, we're completely dead tired, and we can't actually check into our accommodation until noon.
But you know the drill. First order of business, breakfast.
Food? Wifi? Outdoor seating? Sold.
Fortunately the bike lanes in Copenhagen were plentiful and kind, and it was early on a Saturday morning, so we managed to not hit anything or get hit, despite Riding While Exhausted.
We killed as much time as we could eating breakfast, and while we were there, I came up with the most brilliant and riveting idea, because I am a super exciting person: Let's go do laundry!
We were too tired to really enjoy anything scenic, and we had all our stuff with us so we couldn't wander easily, so why not go do a necessary chore, where we could also presumably sit and be brainless for a while?
Except, HOLY CRAP, Danish laundry robots are complicated and written entirely in Danish!
Beep boop.
We managed to get it figured out and got our clothes a-washin'. I took the opportunity to make a vlog for the last.. however many hours.
I pet a dog that was parked out front.
And we helped a little Australian couple figure out how to use the laundry robot, with the little knowledge we'd acquired. (We totally speak Australian, so this wasn't as hard as most foreign language encounters we'd had.)
Once our clothes were clean and mostly dry, we decided to head over in the direction of our accommodation, just so we'd know where it was, and maybe find another coffee shop to kill time at.
Beautiful waterfront running trail. Beautiful buildings in the background. 10 gazillion political posters.
Look for my upcoming book: Coffeeshops of Europe
Conveniently, shortly after we got to the coffee shop, we got an email that someone could meet us early and get us checked in to our airbnb! I was practically giddy about actually having a Place after being so displaced since.. uh.. the tiny house in Groningen? Which seemed like it was a week ago at that point.
Even though it was good to have a Place again, this was probably my least favorite place we stayed during our trip. It was fine. It was definitely huge compared to where we'd been the last few nights. But it was just.. like someone else's apartment. That they'd just stepped out of a few minutes ago, after having sorta tidied up a bit. It was clean, it was big, it was fine, but it was Somebody's Apartment.
And hooboy, was that bathroom tiny. (But frog shower curtain.)
This was one of the worst bathrooms for shower/toilet proximity, and the wet feet resulting therefrom.
This place DID have a giant-ass tv, though, which meant we finally had a place to watch the Game of Thrones finale! Which meant we could actually start reading The Internet again if we were so inclined. (I was mostly inclined to ignore The Internet the entire trip.)
After a much-needed shower, and a short unintentional nap, we took a break from the bikes and headed out into the city on foot to see some sights and eat some dinner.
(Did we eat lunch that day? Maybe we had pastries at the coffee shop. It doesn't seem like us to skip a meal.)
Walking around Copenhagen was lovely. The buildings are so giant, ornate, and lovely. There's little pockets of color, art, and beauty everywhere. Churches.
Historic buildings.
Freaky-ass playgrounds.
Poor Matt. He thought I was taking a picture. Instead this became one of my favorite videos of the whole trip. Which I titled "Bad At Slides".
We'd waffled over where to eat dinner quite a bit, but Matt found a place that sounded promising, so we headed there.
We actually got there just before they opened, but they let us sit inside the little bar area awkwardly waiting.
Once they seated us, we immediately got some drinks, because after the last 48 hours.. we needed drinks. We toasted to successfully navigating one of the experiences we were both most nervous about. Even if it hadn't exactly been flawless. I think it's a minor miracle we got through it and still liked each other.
Dinner was really delicious.
After dinner we meandered back to Someone's Apartment and settled in to watch the Game of Thrones finale.
And.. well, then that was out of the way. Ugh. And we finally got to really sleep.
Total miles for day 8: 5.84 miles from the bus station to the laundromat to the coffee shop to the airbnb.
After we got off the train, we started looking around for signs that would point us to where we would catch our bus to Copenhagen. There was no urgency, because we had 3 hours between our train arrival and our bus departure. Plenty of time.
I assume this place is mostly lit by skylight during the day, because it was SO DARK at night.
Except we couldn't figure out where the buses were. After looking at signs and diagrams, we decided to take a break and eat, because being hungry wasn't making us any better at searching and being patient.
As much as we tried to eat local and pick things that were unique to the places we were.. when you're in a foreign country, don't speak the language well, and you're lost in a train station after midnight, sometimes you just eat the easiest thing available. Also the only thing open.
Thank you for being open 24 Stunden, Badonnels. Sorry, girl who didn't know she was gonna be in a photo.
I didn't get a picture of the glamorousness of us eating while standing up next to our bikes in a train station. Because there was inexplicably no place to sit in the train station.
After we ate, we resumed our hunt. There was a sign that pointed outside and said "Buses", so we went outside. And we did find bus stops out at the road, but they were all local buses, not the "IC Bus" that we needed to catch. So we went back inside, and looked for someone to ask. All the information booths were closed. Everything was closed except for McDonald's. So we looked at more signs and diagrams. We even searched google for things like "Seriously, how the hell do I get from the Hamburg train station to the Hamburg bus station!?" But all we could find for buses was that arrow that pointed out the front door. So we went and looked there again. And even after walking around the entire outer perimeter of the train station, we couldn't find any sign of a bus stop that might be for our IC bus.
At this point we've been wandering around this train station for 90 minutes, and we're starting to get a little concerned that that 3 hour buffer we had between train and bus might not be enough. And it's not a fun wandering. The inside of the station is really ambiently dark. It's full of loud people, many of whom seem pretty drunk. And the outside is even worse. Everyone is smoking, and most of the people loitering out there also seem pretty drunk. It smelled terrible. And we're having to wheel these giant bikes around all those people, many of whom are sprawled out on the ground.
We finally found a train station employee who was sweeping the floor, and he had enough English that he pointed us in the direction of the bus. Which was the same way the sign was pointing. So we dutifully went out there again, hopefully it would magically appear this time. And it did not.
We had passed a sign a few times that pointed to a police station, and even though I was completely convinced it would be closed, since everything else was, we wandered over there. And it was open! Matt went in and asked, and they very kindly and patiently explained the bus station was actually across the street and two blocks away, really not even visible from the train station. Actually after Matt pointed to where it was, I STILL couldn't see it until we crossed the street and went around a corner.
But we walked over there, and there it was. THANKFULLY. With an hour still to spare.
Loitering outside closed businesses with locked down seating.
A pretty terrible hour. At 2am, the inside of the station isn't open, nor are any of the shops/restaurants around it. There were two benches outside, both of which were full, and everyone sitting around them was smoking. The ground was gross enough that even in my unshowered, disgusting state, I still wasn't willing to sit on it. And we couldn't leave our bikes and bags (we'd taken the bags off in anticipation of putting our bikes on the bus).
So we stood there and tried not to breathe for an hour. Or fall asleep.
But then the bus showed up! On time! And even though it looked like there could not possibly be room for two bikes, they found places to put our bikes!
Not my most instagrammable of photos, but it does blurrily show Matt's bike on a bike rack and my bike shoved horizontally into a tiny compartment!
We boarded up, uploaded a few photos via the bus wifi, and then went the hell to sleep.
Aaaaand woke up about an hour later, because our bus had driven onto a ferry, and we weren't allowed to be on the bus when it was on the ferry. All the bus inhabitants Zombie Death Marched up into the ferry, and many people immediately stretched out on one of the benches and went back to sleep. We got coffee (I got hot chocolate) and stared at our phones.
Exhaustion: staged.
Exhaustion: not staged.
And enjoyed how light it is outside at 4am.
Roughly 45 minutes later, we got back on the bus and tried to go back to sleep, only to be interrupted again by Surprise Customs Officer. Because, hey, we're in Denmark now! New country!
Fortunately everyone on the bus seemed to have their affairs and documents in order, and we dozed back off again.
But neither one of us could really sleep at that point, so we just tried to rest as much as we could until the bus finally pulled up to the curb in Copenhagen. New country, new city! And a brand new day! 7:30am! Ready to go see the world!
Bikes off a bus, bags back on bikes!
Except, you know, we're completely dead tired, and we can't actually check into our accommodation until noon.
But you know the drill. First order of business, breakfast.
Food? Wifi? Outdoor seating? Sold.
Fortunately the bike lanes in Copenhagen were plentiful and kind, and it was early on a Saturday morning, so we managed to not hit anything or get hit, despite Riding While Exhausted.
We killed as much time as we could eating breakfast, and while we were there, I came up with the most brilliant and riveting idea, because I am a super exciting person: Let's go do laundry!
We were too tired to really enjoy anything scenic, and we had all our stuff with us so we couldn't wander easily, so why not go do a necessary chore, where we could also presumably sit and be brainless for a while?
Except, HOLY CRAP, Danish laundry robots are complicated and written entirely in Danish!
Beep boop.
We managed to get it figured out and got our clothes a-washin'. I took the opportunity to make a vlog for the last.. however many hours.
Click to viewI pet a dog that was parked out front.
And we helped a little Australian couple figure out how to use the laundry robot, with the little knowledge we'd acquired. (We totally speak Australian, so this wasn't as hard as most foreign language encounters we'd had.)
Once our clothes were clean and mostly dry, we decided to head over in the direction of our accommodation, just so we'd know where it was, and maybe find another coffee shop to kill time at.
Beautiful waterfront running trail. Beautiful buildings in the background. 10 gazillion political posters.
Look for my upcoming book: Coffeeshops of Europe
Conveniently, shortly after we got to the coffee shop, we got an email that someone could meet us early and get us checked in to our airbnb! I was practically giddy about actually having a Place after being so displaced since.. uh.. the tiny house in Groningen? Which seemed like it was a week ago at that point.
Even though it was good to have a Place again, this was probably my least favorite place we stayed during our trip. It was fine. It was definitely huge compared to where we'd been the last few nights. But it was just.. like someone else's apartment. That they'd just stepped out of a few minutes ago, after having sorta tidied up a bit. It was clean, it was big, it was fine, but it was Somebody's Apartment.
And hooboy, was that bathroom tiny. (But frog shower curtain.)
This was one of the worst bathrooms for shower/toilet proximity, and the wet feet resulting therefrom.
This place DID have a giant-ass tv, though, which meant we finally had a place to watch the Game of Thrones finale! Which meant we could actually start reading The Internet again if we were so inclined. (I was mostly inclined to ignore The Internet the entire trip.)
After a much-needed shower, and a short unintentional nap, we took a break from the bikes and headed out into the city on foot to see some sights and eat some dinner.
(Did we eat lunch that day? Maybe we had pastries at the coffee shop. It doesn't seem like us to skip a meal.)
Walking around Copenhagen was lovely. The buildings are so giant, ornate, and lovely. There's little pockets of color, art, and beauty everywhere. Churches.
Historic buildings.
Freaky-ass playgrounds.
Poor Matt. He thought I was taking a picture. Instead this became one of my favorite videos of the whole trip. Which I titled "Bad At Slides".
We'd waffled over where to eat dinner quite a bit, but Matt found a place that sounded promising, so we headed there.
We actually got there just before they opened, but they let us sit inside the little bar area awkwardly waiting.
Once they seated us, we immediately got some drinks, because after the last 48 hours.. we needed drinks. We toasted to successfully navigating one of the experiences we were both most nervous about. Even if it hadn't exactly been flawless. I think it's a minor miracle we got through it and still liked each other.
Dinner was really delicious.
After dinner we meandered back to Someone's Apartment and settled in to watch the Game of Thrones finale.
And.. well, then that was out of the way. Ugh. And we finally got to really sleep.
Total miles for day 8: 5.84 miles from the bus station to the laundromat to the coffee shop to the airbnb.