So my travels began on a coldish, July morning. In my infinite wisdom I had decided going travelling the day after finishing school would be a good idea. So I hopped on my fun little flight to my favourite airport (love Schipol - how sad is it I have a favourite airport?) and then another little hop over to Berlin!!
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| Gotta love the window seat |
First thought - okay I don't speak ANY German. When we were learning basic German in school I had 4 weeks off with chicken pox, so when I came back I had to take an exam which I failed of course and got stuck in the bottom class - which equals spending a year learning colours (which I forgot) and how to say a cup of tea - eine tasse tea! So anyway, turns out Berlin airport is horrible, stood around for an HOUR waiting for bags til some dude says we are at the wrong belt . . . in German, but I worked it out. So finally got bags, jump in taxi and make to to Plus Hostel Berlin.
Plus is a pretty nice hostel, apart from the fact it is literally across the road from a nightclub. The thud of base until 6am takes some getting used to. I met my first Contiki there, Rachel from Sydney, we had some Italian food at a restaurant with a cooky little owner and later that night got our final roomate Avneet from Canada.
Next morning was day one of Contiki Scandinavia and Russia. An earlyish start on the bus, everyone was really quiet on the bus which I found hard! I like to make a friendly welcome, the vibe of this trip was becoming clear early on. We drove to the Baltic Sea and took the first of many ferries on this trip. Ferry thoughts - Danish people LOVE shrimp sandwiches, sausages and pretty much nothing else. More foreshadowing.
We made it to a rainy Copenhagen in the early afternoon which gave us time to settle. In (yet more) foreshadowing they had messed up the rooms and tried to fit 3 girls plus big luggage into a tiny room. So I got to repack and move rooms. Yay. I hate packing.
First night was a buffet dinner and sightseeing tour - the Royal palace, little mermaid etc. It was still raining so we played dodge the raindrops. We ended the nights with some drinks at a cosy bar on Nyhavn- once haunt of sailors and prostitutes and now a cosmopolitan and lively spot for locals and visitors alike. And yes, alcohol in Scandinavia is very expensive. But more on that later.
Day 2 in Copenhagen started with a city tour - got to see the City Hall which is apparently heavily featured in the TV show 'The Killing', which is apparently really good so I'll be looking out for that. Next a few of us headed to the Amalienborg Palace (or 'Slot' as they call palace) where you can go underneath and see ruins of the old palace. The Danish royal family were pretty careless with their palaces in the past - this one alone burned down twice previously. After this we headed to the Church of Our Saviour which is one of the tallest buildings in the city. Yeah, was a bad idea . . . you have to climb a million stairs and then these wooden ladder type things, the staircase is very narrow and all the while people are pushing in each direction. Once you reach the top the balcony around it is only about 70cm wide. The foolish can choose to walk up the spiral bit (see below) to the very top. But I decided to decline on this occasion.
That night we visited Tivoli which is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. It's full of rides (old style and new style), bandstands playing music and drama, restaurants and little side show games and shops. It's very pretty and fun to wander. But wait, I forgot about the scouts . . . Ever since the ferry over to Denmark we had been seeing Scouts everywhere, like whole troops of them. Turns out the International Scount Jamboree was being held in Sweden in a few days time. So we get to Copenhagen and they are like swarms of locusts, worst was Tivoli, there must have been at least a 1000 of them - if I'd have paid for a ride ticket I'd have been annoyed as the queues were massive - and full of scouts. Anyway, minor moan over! We rounded off the night with amazing icecream in freshly made cones, ready for a morning at the brewery.
Okay, last stop Copenhagen as to be CARLSBERG!! Okay few facts, Carlsberg was named after the owners son (Carl funnily enough!), famous symbols are the elephant and crazily enough the swastika (pre nazi of course) and they don't actually sell Carlsberg in Denmark -it's Tuborg. The brewery museum is fairly dull, but you get to see the worlds largest collection of beer bottles :) At the end of the tour you also get 2 free drinks, which can never be a bad thing!
So on a slightly tipsy note, we leave Denmark and head over a really big bridge for a Swedish pit stop and then onto amazing Norway!
