Thursday, September 11, 2008

Hamlet's Castle

Today we woke up even earlier than the day before, so we are slowly adjusting to the time zone. Our plan was to take a trip to Kronborg, a renaissance castle and fortress. Although we left earlier, we had to take the train again, which was a bit of a longer ride, so we ended up arriving shortly before 3. A lot of the time, we have to walk from the train station to the place we're visiting, which can take about ~20-30 mins. We only had 2 hours to tour the castle, but we decided that we would go through each section quickly.

This castle is famous because it is the setting for William Shakespeare's Hamlet. First we visited the main part of the castle which had displays of what the castle looked like when royalty used to live there. There were lots of paintings and tapestry, which I found smelly. The difficulty with old artifacts is that you cannot wash them as it might deterriorate and what ends up happening is that over the years, they beging to smell musky and damp. We learned that a lot of oriental ornaments such as porcelain, china, and oriental style dressers/wardrobes were considered as valuables by the wealthy.

The next part of the castle we visted was the Danish Maritime Museum, which had lots of info on the history of Danish shipping. This country is really into shipping, we always see tons of sail boats and ships out in the sea. Half way through the Maritime museum, we were supposed to go up the telegraph tower, where you can look out from the top of the castle. The view was spectacular as there was amost a 360 degree view of the sea. The first time we went through the museum, we totally missed the stairwell into the tower, so we had to go back to the begining and find the stairwell again. It was a long climb to the top and because I am so out of shape, I ran out of breath really quickly!

After the maritime museum, we only had about 8 minutes to see the casemates, which is undeneath the castle and an undergroundd network of corridors and rooms that served as solider quarters during times of war. Although there was virtually no windows and quite a gloomy place, Jenning and I wished we had more time to explore it. It was really hard to see anything and as we were making our way through the corridors, the guide was literally putting out the lights behind us!

We were the last tourists in the castle, so once we left, they locked the doors. Jenning and I decided to explore the outer perimiter of the castle a bit and there was a nice little rocky beach where locals were fishing. We decided to sit on a rock and eat the sandwhiches we made earlier. It took us about ~30 mins to walk back to the train station. We decided to treat G out for dinner tonight. We ended up going to have Shawerma, which was pretty good. Everything here is super expensive. One Shawerma without a drink costs about 35 DK, which is around ~$7 CAD, and this is considered cheap here. A bottle of water is about $4! Now I know why people here look pretty healthy. They walk and bike a lot and since food is expensive, they don't gorge on food like North Americans.

G started doing a 30 minute work out with Jenning and I on Monday. Jenning and I are hoping that all the walking and biking will help us get a little healthier.

Viking Museum

On Wednesday, we woke up just a tad bit earlier than the day before. Our plan for the day was to visit the Viking Museum in Roskilde, which is an ancient Danish capital, used by vikings as a route to the sea.

We had to take a train to the city, which was half an hour away. We bought 2 day passes and it took us a little while to figure out which train to go on. Because we are familiar with the transit system back home, I think it made it easy for us to figure out the train system in Copenhagen. We were also not afraid to ask people questions, which helps a lot.

The museum was quite interesting as they had displays of 5 viking ships that were excavated over the last 50 years. It was very interesting to see how they brougth the ships to surface and preserved what they could find. They have also re-built replicas of some of the ships and we watched a video about a group of Danes who basically sailed these viking ships around Europe last year. It is definately not for people who easily get sea sick. Last year, when Jenning came, he wasn't able to go on the viking boat tour cuz there were a whole bunch of boy scouts in town and the tours were booked. This year, we found out that we couldn't take the ship tour cuz they only have it in the summer months (they need about 8 strong people to row the ship, and there were only about 2 hands full of people at the museum).

When we finally got on the train back to G&K's place, I was looking for my train ticket cuz G had told us that it is similar to the GO train where attendants may randomly check for your tickets. After searching every pocket of my purse, I quickly realized that my ticket was missing, I have no idea what happended to it cuz I was carrying all of our things and was constantly taking items in and out of my purse. Jenning was a little annoyed cuz I was telling him about pick-pocketers and I was the one who ended up losing my ticket! He told me that I would have to talk my way out of the situation, so I said ok, I'm not gonna worry about it until an attendant shows up. Next thing you know, we're being checked for our ticket! When the lady came by, I had a worried expression on my face and said, "I think I'm gonna be in trouble, I can't find my ticket". She replied and said something like, "Oh, don't worry, I'm not gonna hang you for not having a ticket, it's ok, just keep checking your purse to see if you can find it and I will come back". I kept searching for it for the third time and couldn't find it. After a few minutes, the lady walked past us and a passenger across from us gave us a don't worry look, flicked his wrist and whispered, "I don't think she's coming back"! I was really luckly that we totally looked like tourists cuz apprently the fine is 600Dk for not having a ticket, which is about $120 CAD. Thank God the lady was so nice! Jenning and I have agreed that I should let him keep both of our tickets from now on.

Deer Haven

On Tuesday, we had excellent weather, so the plan was to bike to Deer Haven. Although we woke up a little bit earlier than the day before, we didn't really have to worry about time so much cuz the park wasn't going to close at 5.

Deer Haven is a park that use to belong to the Royal family and they use to hunt deers on their little holidays. It took almost 2 hours to cycle there and although I had the best bike, my ischial tuberosities (bony promineces of the butt) were really getting sore! It took us almost 2 hours to get there cuz we had to take breaks. The path was really beautiful since we were riding right next to the sea. Jenning was advising me to put my weight through my legs, instead of through the butt, but it was too late, cuz I did not have enough strength to put all my weight through my legs after a while.

When we went through the park entrance, we immediately saw a herd of deers, so Jenning went up to them and took some pictures. There was also a male deer that was making some kind of a call and I didn't feel too comfortable with getting close to it so we cycled on. We went on a path that led us to a huge house that was apprently where the gardener of the park used to live (I am not so sure about this cuz the house was pretty nice for a gardener!). This house was on a hill and you could see a lot of the park and the sea from it.

I had requested that we take a train back to G&K's place and when we got to the station, they only took coins and their credit cards requried pin numbers, which most North American cards do not have currently. I sucked it up and told Jenning that I would just cycle back, which I am glad I did cuz we got to see other parts of the city as we took a different route. Jenning even suggested for us to take an ice-cream break, which I think was his way of rewarding/encouraging me. I felt so tired after our bike trip that I wasn't able to do much else that evening.

Rundetarn (Round Tower)

On Monday, we woke up at 2 pm, so there was very little time to see anything since most places close at 5 pm! Our plan was to go on the canal tour and visit the Round tower, but since we only had 3 hours to explore, we had to prioritize.

We are trying to not over-spend during this trip, so we needed to go to the grocery store to figure out what to cook for some of our meals. Jenning also wanted to send some postcards, so we thought we should go to the store and post office first, since they were going to close at 5. We spent about an hour running errands and then decided to go to the canal tour. When we got to the canal, we found out that we just missed the last tour of the day, so that plan didn't work out.

We decided to check out the Round tower, a building that is attached to a church, and which was used as an observatory by the university many years ago. We had to go up spiral ramps until we got to the very top, where we got to see a lot of the city. The tower also had a couple of little museums displaying art work from Nordic artists and one with artifacts such as compasses, telescopes etc. For most of the time, it seemed like we were the only people in the tower, but after we reached the top, a few group of kids showed up, it seemed to be a popular hang out spot for them! We decided to leave once more kids started showing up.

The Little Mermaid

I did not end up getting any sleep on the first night since I was jet-lagged. So, I basically laid in bed until everyone else woke up. On our first full day in Copenhagen, G&K (Jenning's sister and bro-in-law) took us out for brunch at Cafe Norden. There was quite a bit of food from what we ordered. Our order came with Danish Rye bread and regular bread, which I could not finish. There was also some ham and bacon, which I found a little salty. Our meal came with some tasty cheese & fruits (I can't seem to remember what else I ate cuz I was half asleep). We got to meet a few of their friends from work, who were mostly from the US/Canada.

After the brunch, G&K took us for a walk around their neighbourhood. They live in a pretty convenient area right in the "downtown" part of Copenhagen. The area is 'pedestrianized', so you hardly see cars in the walking streets. Afterwards, we headed back to their place cuz K had to catch a flight to Hong Kong for work. After K left, G took us bicycle riding. We saw the Little Mermaid statue, which is really little, and passed by the queen's palace, the harbour and some museums. The city is very clean and pretty, all the bulidings look like they have a lot of character. The bike ride was just what I needed to help me stay awake so that I could adjust to the time zone better.

That night, Jenning and I made an itinerary for the rest of the week. G&K also have lots of DVDs, so Jenning and I have been staying up to watch movies almost every night.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Journey to Copenhagen, Denmark

A couple of months ago, I was wrapping up in school and Jenning and I felt like going on a vacation. I finished my last placement on August 22/08 and the plan was to take a holiday sometime in September, so that I could study for my National exams all of October. At first, we were thinking of going on a crusie in the Caribbean [*for some reason, my brain thinks it's spelled Car-rib-ean?-- just googled and I was wrong!]) , but as we searched for deals on the days we were available, there weren't many. Most of the cheaper packages were during hurricane season, so we decided to ditch that idea.

Jenning was telling me that his sister G & brother-in-law K, who are currently living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark, were only going to be here for one more year, so we should take advantage of this. Since I just finished my studies, and could only go on holiday with a budget, I thought this was a good idea. I have been to Sweden [which is just north of Denmark] a couple of times and really enjoyed the slower pace of life. The both of us were interested in going on a relaxing vacation, so we decided that two weeks in Denmark would be relaxing.

G&K were asking us if we were planning on going anywhere else in Europe, we said that we'd be interested, only if there were deals. K found a roundtrip airfare deal to Paris for only $80 [taxes included], which we were excited about, so G emailed and told us to look for hotel deals. We spent about a week searching for deals and quickly realized that hotels in Paris are uber expensive (decent hotels avgeraging over $200/night!). Then after all the searching, G emailed back and told us that all the seats had jumped to over $300/person, so we scrapped that idea.

Jenning and I have not created an itinerary for this trip and decided that we would just wing it. So, we have no idea what we will be doing in the next 2 weeks, but we do know that we want to go out everyday and explore as much as possible. We also have a goal of doing a lot of walking and cycling. Copenhagen is one of the world's most friendly cycling cities, I think almost all the roads have bike only lanes, which will make our goal easier to achieve. Also, G&K do not have a car, which is good, because that means we have to walk to get around.

Our journey began on Friday, September 5th. Jenning had to work a half day, so I ended up spending that time packing our bags. G&K had asked us to bring crappy lugggages so that we could chuck it out when we arrived and they would send us back to Canada with nicer luggages which we would give to family on behalf of G&K. We searched for crappy luggages, but no one had any, so we decided on using duffle bags. Luckily, I found one in my parents' basement and Jenning already had one of his own. I managed to cram two weeks worth of clothing for the both of us into one bag and the other was used to store gifts of G&K. Jenning's parents came early and we took them out for dinner. We ended up eating Indian, which they enjoyed, and they dropped us off at the airport.

Jenning had printed our boarding passes at work and realized that our seats were not together (mine was infront of his). We went into the check in counter and the lady told us that we had to go to the gates to ask to switch seats. When we got to the gates, another lady told us to return to the gates 1 hour before departure to switch. K had given us some Air Canada lounge passes, so we went around looking for this lounge. I took us almost ~1o mins but we finally found it. The lounge was really nice and relaxing. The perks included a lot of complimentry food & drinks [including alcohol, but since the both of us don't really drink this wasn't much a perk for us, however, we really enjoyed their finest, Minute Maid Cranberry cocktail!]. The lounge also had shower facilities, business centers where you could use computer/internet/printers, quite areas for sleeping, and tons of magazines. I browsed the shelves for a bit and ended up taking 6 complimentry magazines for the both of us, since we would probably have lots of time to read during the trip.

The flight was not very eventful [thank God] compared to the trip to India. I brought a neck pillow, which was such a very good idea [I find the airplane seats to be not very accomodating for those like myself, who are vertically challenged], for the first time, I was able to sleep for a few hours at a time on the plane [there was also no crying babies this time!]. We all had our own t.v. and were able to select whatever movies we wanted to watch. We watched Just for Laughs, which was hilarious. We started watching Kung-Fu Panda, but only saw less than 30 mins of it cuz the plane was going to land [It was pretty funny, so I need to remember to rent this when we return home]. We had a stop-over in Frankfurt, Germany for 2 hours. The security there was much more strict than Pearson. The little metal button on my pants set of their alarms, but never set off anything in Pearson. Also, I forgot to take out a second bottle of water which was left over from my first flight so that got thrown out. They also opened Jenning's bag cuz they saw funny squares. Jenning told the lady that they were moon-cakes and she read the box and said "Muun-cakes Ah!" and let us go. I think she had no idea what it was but she seemed interested. Our flight to Copenhagen was less than an hour and the plane was not full. All I remember is that we ate a lot on both flights. When we arrived in Copenhagen airport, we went to pick up our bags. It took a long time for the first bag to come out. We waited for ~10 mins and started to think that the 2nd bag [with our clothes] was not coming [I learned to pack a few days of extra clothes in our carry-on, so I was not worried too much if our bag was in fact missing], but since we saw a bunch of other still standing by the luggage belt, we were sure that one more load was coming and it eventually did arrive. The airport was quite busy when we arrived and there weren't any more luggage carts available, so we had to carry the duffle bags on our shoulders. We met G at the arrivals gate and she helped me carry one bag. We took the metro from the airport to their part of the city and the walk to their apartment was not too far.

K met us just as we walked through the front entrance. Surprisingly, I was not too tired and a little bit hungry! G said that she stocked the fridge and that we were going to make Pad-Thai for dinner. The first thing we did was open the gift luggage and gave them all the gifts, we got G 2 pairs of New-balance running shoes which she fit! She told us that her old running shoes were over 2 years old and worn down, so she immediately threw them in the garbage. I went to take a shower after this and once I was done, I helped G&K cut a bunch of ingredients for the Pad-Thai, we finished cooking really fast and had dinner. Jenning had brought hot choclate from Soma, and G selectd the nutty flavoured one, which was very delicious, I thought it was like a mousse [google says I spelled this correctly!]. G had also bought an almond cake, which was pretty delicious and light. I am really looking forward to tasting the famous Danish pastries in the next few weeks. I also have a mission to buy over 10 boxes of Mozart choclates for my family/friends. After dinner, I was supposed to go and unpack our luggages, but when I saw a bed, I said I just need to lie down for a bit and ended up sleeping for ~4 hours. I ended up waking up at around midnight and had trouble falling back asleep. I decided to start blogging to help empty all the thoughts on my mind so that I could fall back asleep. That's why this blog is super long now.

Anyways, the day before we arrived, K emailed and told us that he has to go on an emergency work trip to Hong Kong for 2 days. When we arrived, he told us that he will actually be gone for ~4 days but will return before the weekend. K also told us that he just found out that his company gets discounts on flights, but wherever we go, he has to come with us for the discount to apply. G mentioned Paris again, so we'll have to do some planning in the next couple of days. I found a hotel deal on TravelZoo and will have to see if there are rooms still available next weekend. I hope my mind is relaxed enough now for me to fall back asleep!