Kobenhavn (a.k.a. Copenhagen)

Copenhagen is an interesting city and has some of the "classic" European things including a castle, a palace, and a windmill. I think compared with other major cities I went to, it has a bit more of an urban, yet still historic feel to it.

* I attended Church and fortunately had all the meetings translated in English with the use of some interesting headphones, amazing technology!! Luckily I wasn't the only one who was wearing them. I still had the opportunity to slaughter the Danish language by attempting to sing the hymns. The Copenhagen temple was around the corner from the chapel and I was glad I could see it. Another highlight for that Sunday was seeing the original Christus statue (as replicated in LDS temple Visitor's Centers). It, as well as the statues of the 12 Apostles by the same artist in the same church, are wonderful works of Christian art. I attempted to catch a Carl Bloch painting but that shall have to wait until a future trip.

I had a nice walk along the harbor and was able to see the Little Mermaid statue. Hans Christian Andersen (no known relation to myself) is the famous Danish author of the tale. Tourists swarmed the statue but I was fortunate to get a few shots.

Fredericksberg Garden was a lovely park to spend a Sunday afternoon in. It even has hammocks! I rocked out, literally.

Copenhagen was still a pretty busy place at night and was bustling with tourists who were enjoying the end of the weekend. There was a long pedestrian street with lots of shops and some museums (I did stay away from the Erotic Museum). Other sites included the Round Tower (one of the oldest observatories in Europe, dating from the 1600s) and the World Clock Tower (supposedly one of the most accurate clocks). I set my travel alarm clock to it, but unfortunately a couple nights later it fell and the battery came out. Oh, well. Someday I would definitely like to go to the top of the Round Tower to get a sweet view of the city.

Some other random observations:

* Outside the train station I saw a male bike-taxi driver wearing a shirt that said "BYU Women's Track" which included the old BYU cougar logo. I thought it was pretty funny. (I know this must seem like an inside joke for some readers.)

* I don't like Copenhagen laundromat dryers. I couldn't get the dryer off of the "cool down" setting. At least the dryer was in English, unlike the washer with which I had to take a complete guess on how to operate.

*It was my reminder to put on sunscreen. Th sun seemed to be on steroids and I did get burned. I had a really nice ankle-sock line the next day to show off with my sandals.

* I cannot praise the strawberries enough. So good! And so good looking!! Not quite like the genetically-induced-oversized - mutant-looking strawberries that I have grown accustomed to in California.

*This was my first time staying at a YMCA hostel. I really had the urge to start singing the YMCA song and do the dance, but I settled for a more discreet whistling of the Village People tune.

*Danish danishes (the pastries, they're not called danishes in Denmark) are, not suprisingly, better in Denmark than the United States. I made sure I bought one at the train station before I left for Norway.

That's Copenhagen in a nutshell. Stay tune for Oslo, Norway next.

Notes on the train

I may have mentioned before that I spent a lot of time on trains while in Europe. A lot of time, some journeys consuming practically my whole day. Most of the time it wasn't bad at all. In fact, one of my favorite parts of my trip was the train ride between Oslo, Norway and Bergen, Norway. I knew Norway was beautiful, but I was practically floored. Here are some of my notes that I wrote while on my journeys:

*Copenhagen to Oslo (a trip that took me four hours longer than I previously planned, one of the rails was closed so I had to hop a bus in Goteburg, Sweden, and take one or 2 more trains from Sweden to Oslo.)

One of the cool things that I noticed as I was standing in a very crowded Swedish train to Goteborg, was a mother and son, both in full back-packing gear. I thought, how cool is that? What a great bonding experience for them both. I'm guessing they were German. The boy, who looked no older than 8 or 9 years old had his own large backpack with a tent hooked to it. Clad in typical outdoor wear, including a bandana around his neck and his shaggy hair poking out from his hat, he looked like he could be a model for REI. They finally were able to get a seat and there was such a tender moment to see the boy napping on his Mom's lap. I really was tempted to take a picture, but circumstances wouldn't let me, and I had no idea how to ask their permission in German. It was a sweet moment. I had seen a lot of young adult backpackers, but this moment was special.

As I spent a lot of time looking at the scenery (and I apologize for lack of pics in this blog, my windows on the trains would not open), it would start to bring out an inner poet. As I was accomplishing my 17 year dream of going to Norway, I could not help expressing some of my thoughts, so here are a couple...
"I stare at the horizon where my dreams and reality meet,
A view only attainable by the hills I climb.
The heavens above watch over me like a protective parent,
Reminding me of its consistency and infinite presence..."

Oslo to Bergen route
It's hard to describe some of the beauty of Norway in English, but here is an attempt with some words that I wrote down:
"Wildflowers of purple, pink, yellow, and white against the green back drop of fields, hills and fjords. Pine tree needles hanging from the boughs like the oversized sleeves of a wizard or the wings of angels. Patches of snow in late July cling settles in the crevices of the hills. Lakes and streams of emerald green. Grass-covered roofs, some occasional livestock, and capsized row boats catch my attention." For a moment I considered living out the rest of my days as a Norwegian shepherd in such scenery, but I realized this would not pay off my loans.

Some notes based on random thoughts from 7/30/08:

"The train system has not been as easy as I thought it would be. I'm stuck in a tunnel on the way to Bergen and we've just been advised to open the windows, (I was in that tunnel fo almost an hour, that's when I broke out my notes and camera and kicked off my shoes a seen above). Oh, and did I mention there's no air-conditioning? I'm beginning to worry about my trip from Bergen to Stockholm, since I jus have such a short window of time to catch the train from Oslo. From one end of a country to the end of another... "
In regards to eating on a shoestring in Europe: "They say man cannot live on bread alone (that's all I had on my train ride). Well, maybe kebab-pitas, an occasional hot dog, water, and chocolate milk can be sufficient. Not very well-balanced, I know. I still await mytaste of the famous Norwegian strawberries (bought at the fish market in Bergen, I liked the ones in Denmark better, but they're soooo good! And little too! And beautiful - almost took a picture of the Danish ones, but was holding out for the Norwegian ones.) I have become a con osier of Scandinavian chocolate milk. My favorite was called Chocio, which I believe was from Denmark. I have also discovered that there is such thing as hot dog dressing. Some dressing comes with a bit of a garlic taste, it was quite good. Sometimes potato salad might be added to the hot dog wrapped in a Scandinavian tortilla. That was new. "
"Phillips batteries stink - will not buy any more of them." I bought 2 packages of Phillips in Copenhagen for my cameras, none of them worked. I tried to uphold this oath when I was looking for camera batteries in Stockholm. Four or five stores - all Phillips. Finally got some more expensive German batteries at an electronic store, but oh, the peace of mind.
"Train seats are more comfortable than airplane seats." I had painful circulation issues on the flight over that kept me up most of the flight. Love the space of train seats.
"Why does a cool lightening storm have to begin once I get back to my hostel?"
"Scary, I'm starting my new job a week from now/ Luckily I have my Tarascon Outpatient Pediatrics pocket book. Something to rotate between my pocket Book of Mormon and Norwegian phrase book."
"Dutch guys rock!"
"Time to liberate my feet from my shoes. They've been so good to me. On Sunday I counted about 6 blisters. I curse my sandals!"

I'm going to leave it at that for now. I'll probably post more thoughts traveling between Bergen and Stockholm.