Copenhagen and Train Travel (September 25-26)

I took a train from Bergen to Copenhagen, and, after panicking that my Kindle was stolen only to find that it had dropped out of my bag in the bathroom, the trip went off without any complications. I was delighted by the way the Norwegian Railway Service gives you little inflatable pillows (What? Genius!) for night journeys, and that no one sat next to me, so I was able to stretch out and get a solid few hours' sleep. On Wednesday (September 25), I rode through Sweden, which, not to belabor the points made in my last post, but I might as well have been looking at Iowa, after Norway.

I arrived in Copenhagen at 3:30 pm, with just enough time to check into my hostel, go exploring, get promptly--though briefly--lost, and be back in time for the communal hostel dinner (free food, hooray!), which had the added bonus of leading me to meet an Italian girl, a French girl, and an Australian guy, who I then embarked to find waffles with, which seems like a good ending to any day.

On my second day in Copenhagen, I went on a free walking tour and saw all the major sights (except not the Little Mermaid statue, I realized belatedly. Maybe my guide was just tired of looking at it?). My guide was actually from Arvada, only about an hour away from my hometown, and it was then I realized that, though undoubtedly there have been Americans staying at my hostels, this was the first time in almost a week that I'd actually spoken to another American face-to-face. Which is pretty cool.

A status of Christian the Somethingth, seen on the walking tour

In the afternoon, I went with a girl I met on the walking tour to Christiania, the commune/intentional community/sort of independent nation (?) that's been (as I understand it) continually functioning since 1962a. And it was awesome, all graffitied buildings and dogs wandering around everywhere (not strays, exactly, but free dogs!), and a whole street where you can buy pot from open-air tents, and a Portuguese man with dreadlocks made me a clip-on wire earring as a present for Christiania's birthday. Amazing place.

 

I liked Copenhagen. Still, only being there for one day, I feel like it's hard to really connect to/experience any place--or thing--in just that time. I'm glad I'm going to have about three days in most other places. 

Next I did the obligatory getting-lost-on-the-way-back-to-the-hostel, and then it was time to catch my night train to Germany. I had reserved my seat on a German website, so I wasn't really sure what I'd be getting, but I was thrilled by the Harry Potter-esque compartments with benches that then folded up into bunks. My very first sleeper car! I unfortunately forgot to take a picture, but I slept on the top of three bunks, and actually slept really well, despite police asking for our passports in the middle of the night, and I woke up for the first time since my hike in Bergen not feeling like my legs were about to fall off. Then I probably annoyed all my compartmentmates by repeatedly asking (at 6 am) how I would know when my stop was, and then I was in Berlin. 

Here are some more pictures of Copenhagen!