Berlin to Copenhagen

Day 32: Berlin to Copenhagen: We travel across Germany and on a ferry to Denmark for our final night in Copenhagen. Why not join your crew for a last night farewell dinner?. (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Belaegnin Youth Hostel
Breakfast: open Bags to the bus/depart: 8:30

I was up a little early this morning and after my shower went and had breakfast before packing my bag. At breakfast I spoke to Warren who said Yvette had gone out the night before and seen the Reichstag while the rest of us were at the boring bars, hmmm, I think I missed out. Before leaving we had to say some goodbyes this morning. Skye and Ted, who although fought with each other, were both very nice and each brought something totally different to the tour, I would miss both of them. Michael was also getting off here, and well, he could never be replaced, he's such a nut. This was also Warren's last stop. Bye guys!!!!

We drove till 11:45 where we took a ferry to Denmark, but had to wait till 1:00 for the 2 hour ferry. The ferry was interesting... First everyone got lunch then a couple of us went to the shop, but brought our drinks, but not our receipts. After wandering the shop and spending some of my remaining money I left. But I came out at the end of an incident. When Renae left she had her drink in her hand and got stopped for shoplifting, someone went to get her a receipt while she argued with the guy. Then someone else came out who also had a drink and brushed the guy off and kept walking, and Renae followed. As this was happening I walked out with my drink. Well Renae pointed me out, thanks. But by then he'd lost control of all of us and no one got into trouble. But it was fun to tell the story, everyone got a good laugh at us all almost getting arrested on a boat.

At 5:00 we arrived where we began a month ago, the adventure of a lifetime was coming to an end. My first thought when I saw the tank in the parking lot was how when when we left a month ago I was mad I hadn't taken a picture of it. Now my opportunity was here and I really just wanted to go back into time to when I was mad I hadn't taken the picture.

For my last night of tour I was rooming with Leah and Tania, and the atmosphere was totally different now. We had 2 hours to get ready before going into Copenhagen for the night and there seemed to be something going on everywhere and no ones door was closed, it was nice. At 7:00 we left for town and in honor of my birthday the next day Maggy played a bunch of Happy Birthday songs, Yea for my birthday! My birthday present was that I got to be an honorary Aussie for the night. Which makes more sense when you consider the fact that we were going to watch the Aussie World Cup game tonight.

We were dropped off near Central Station to get dinner before meeting for the game. I was torn tonight, there were so many people that I wanted to spend time with since it was our last night but people were going in different directions. I ended up going with a bunch of people to Central Station before going to the all you can eat pizza place, which was convenient to Central Station and our after dinner meeting location. At Central Station I bought myself a new giraffe, I named him Rasputin, in honor of the tour. Just a note - he is the actual traveling giraffe as he always travels with me. At dinner I ate with Lis, Leah and Tom, a good group for my last night, too bad we couldn't get a bigger table, but but it was crowded at the restaurant.

After that we went to a Scottish Pub to watch the Aussie Vs Croatia game, which was a tie, moving the Aussies to the next round, Yea! So I was in Copenhagen in a Scottish bar watching a game involving Australia and Croatia that took place in Germany - how international! We got back to the hostel at 11:50 and pretty much everyone stood around till midnight to sing Happy Birthday to me, how sweet. Thanks guys! But since it was cold out and most people were getting up earlyish, everyone scattered after the singing.

Everyone said goodbye to Brittany, who was woken up for all her goodbyes, Tom, Kate and Andrew who were all leaving early in the morning. Although I had only gotten to know Brittany well the last few days I would miss her, she was a nice girl with a good head on her shoulders (wow, I sound like an old lady saying that, but it is true). And Tom, Kate and Andrew had been such good friends the whole tour, all those Uno games, gossip sessions, the night I flipped out on Corey, and touring cities together. They were leaving early in the morning, I hoped I would get up to say goodbye to them, but knew it probably wouldn't happen, so I had to make it count tonight.

Copenhagen

Day 3: Copenhagen Sightseeing: Our sightseeing tour includes Copenhagen's famous sights like the Geffion Fountain, the Royal Palace and the Little Mermaid. Perhaps a visit to the Carlsberg Brewery this morning. (Breakfast is included)

Hotel: Belaegningen Youth Hostel

Breakfast: 8:00, Bus departs: 8:30

I woke up very early this morning, 6:30, and decided I should take a shower as there were only 2 showers for all the girls in the building (the hostel had us spread out into 3 different buildings). At 8:30 we left for the city and started with a driving tour of the city to orient ourselves. The city seemed much nicer this morning, between the sun shining and not being lost, I almost liked Copenhagen. On the driving tour we were shown Tivoli, Christianborg Palace, the National Museum, Radhuspladsen, Nyhaven, Amalienborg Palace (photo stop), Rosenborg Palace, Geffion Fountain (photo stop), the Little Mermaid (photo stop) and had a drop off at Tivoli for those who were not going on the tour of Carlsberg Brewery. I was excited to see the Little Mermaid, but not nearly as excited as Jilly, it was like a pilgrimage to her, and that made it even more exciting.

We had an 11:00 reservation for Carlsberg Brewery, and did the self guided tour. I don't think I learned much about making beer, but the tour included 2 free beers, which made it a good deal. First I had a Semper Ardens Abbey Ale, which was awful, and decided to cut my losses and get a Fanta after that. Though I did try someone's Winter Something, which was a little better, but I really just don't like beer and a tour of Carlsberg Brewery wasn't going to change that. We left a little before 1:00 and were dropped off at Tivoli for our free day.

A bunch of us headed over to the Church of Our Savior (AKA the inside out church) for a view of the city. On my last tour I missed one or two sites with views of the cities and I regretted it, I didn't want to make the same mistake again. Che warned us that it might be closed, but fortunately for us it was open. The stairs up were rough, all those days I spent on the stair master didn't seem to make it any easier, but the view was great and worth the stairs. Right after leaving it started to rain, and where do you think my umbrella was? At the hostel, so I ended up spending 40 Dkr on an umbrella. But I did trade the umbrella with Kevin for most of a danish, cutting some of my loss. Eventually we found a place to eat lunch - McDonalds, it was raining on and off and it was quick and easy. Leah D. was confused when she ordered the cheeseburger meal and it came with 2 cheeseburgers, instead of one. Apparently in Australia a cheeseburger meal only comes with 1 cheeseburger, well I saved her by buying one of the cheeseburgers off of her. But I was apparently the only person in our little group that was used to getting 2 cheeseburgers with there cheeseburger meal, see McDonalds can be a cultural experience!

After eating lunch we headed down Stroget for shopping, then to Nyhaven and back to Magasin (department store) to look at the legos, they apparently have the largest collection of legos in Copenhagen outside of Lego Land - I expected it to be a bigger collection. I bought a lego police man to add to my collection, one more thing to check off my list of things to get/do. In Magasin we found a little Hans Christian Andersen museum where we watched a little video about his life. Then it was time to head to the all you can eat pizza place most people were meeting at at 6pm. For 66 Dkr you got all you can eat pizza and salad. Then we went to an Australian bar to kill time until our 8:30 pick up. Unfortunately we never made it to Tivoli, since it rained on and off all day, and it was a bit pricey to enter Tivoli (and more to go on a ride) it didn't seem to be worth it. We had a good time at the bar, and I got to know people a bit better, so far everyone seemed cool and the group was starting to gel.

We were picked up at Tivoli at 8:30 and were back at the hostel by 8:50. I hung out in the hallway for a bit talking to Samar, Danny, and Skye, then met Karl in the TV room for a glass of wine. On the way back to my room I got on the internet for a bit, so I could let everyone know that all was well and finally got to bed at 11. Overall Copenhagen wasn't as bad as I thought it was the first day, but for some reason I still didn't love Copenhagen, something about it just didn't grab me.

Scandi and Russia - Getting to Copenhagen

Here is the start of my travelogue for my Scandi and Russia tour. I will try to sprinkle in some posts about other stuff since this was a 33 day trip.


Day 1: Depart the Europe. This evening I depart from JFK airport at 8:30pm on a British Airways flight bound for London, England.

I did some last minute packing today (well most of my packing), found out I had too much stuff and had to dump some of it, who needs jeans anyway?

I got to the airport early, and everything ran smoothly, so I ended up sitting around for a while waiting for the flight. On the flight I end up sitting next to a little bit of a strange guy... at one point I hit the button on the screen, and he opened my tray table for me. I still don't get it, but he must of thought I didn't know how to open the tray table. He also seemed to have missed the airplane etiquette lesson, he was leaning onto me to look out the window when we were landing. Otherwise the flight was fine. I watched Casanova and some of Walk the Line, got about 3 hours of sleep and got to eat my dinner and breakfast, which were pretty good.

Day 2: Arrive Copenhagen: After checking into your youth hotel, the remainder of the day is at leisure. Join your Tour Manager and fellow travelers for an important meeting at 6pm followed by an included dinner. (Dinner included)
Hotel: Belaegningen Youth Hostel

The plane landed in London around 8:25am (local time) and then I walked for what felt like forever to my connecting flight to Copenhagen at 9:55am. This flight had no entertainment and the lunch they served wasn't very good, so I only ate the fruit. I managed to doze off for most of this flight, which was good since there wasn't anything else to do and I needed sleep if I was going to make it through the day. When I got off the plane I got my passport stamped (yea!) and was on my way. I followed the directions I had, which were NOT to the hostel. I had to ask a random person on the street how to get where I was supposed to be. Fortunately, English is widely spoken in Copenhagen and I was sent to a bus that would take me to Central Station, naturally it started raining once I realized I was lost. I wanted to sit on my suitcase and cry at my predicament, but realized that wasn't going to get my anywhere. At Central Station I decided I had had enough with finding my way around on mass transit and took a cab. I finally got to the hostel at 3:45 and was the first one to check into my room. The hostel seemed nice enough, with 2 bunk beds, but only 2 showers for the girls in the building, the mornings would be interesting.

After settling in I headed over to the TV room and found a bunch of people from the tour. I introduced myself and was promptly asked how old I was, and was asked if I was from America, it was a little bit of a strange introduction to the group. I grabbed a chair, had a seat and everyone else introduced themselves. At the time I don't think I really retained anyone's names, but I now know I met Chris, Jacqui, Ben, Lis, Jilly, Nancy, Renae, Ted, and a couple of other people. Most people were from Australia, a couple from Canada, one from South Africa and they thought there was another American. I would have preferred more Americans, but you can't have it all.

After a little while I headed back to my room to get myself together for our 6:00 meeting and dinner. At my room I met my roomies, Kellie, Wendy and Stephanie. At the meeting Che introduced himself, Andy (the driver) and Dion (our Super Cook), and took us over to dinner - Tacos. After dinner we had a pre-tour meeting. Che told us that it was different up here (Scandinavia), and the function of the tour manager was more organizational. He also told us that it would get colder, that there was usually hot water, and after we visit the cities we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, he didn't really paint the nicest picture, but it wasn't anything I wasn't expecting. Then he collected our information and sent us on our way. Some of us hung out for a bit getting to know each other, then I sent a quick email home and was in bed a little after 10.