Day 25

8:00amish - woke up and took a shower - made a terrible mess in the bathroom but that was unavoidable really LMFAO

9:15amish - went to breakfast. Had a few different things today - (tasty) brownies instead of the chocolate coffee cake, some different kinds of fruit. I tried a passionfruit. It was really sour and normally I would probably like it, but I wasn't really in the mood haha.

9:45am - went to the train station and took the S-tog (aka commuter rail) 2 stops to Norreport station. Covered by my CPH card but no one checked tickets anyway - that seems to be a common thing here - no one has checked lots and lots of my train tickets, it's a little annoying actually. Anyway, Yes I know the first o of Norreport (and Norrebro) is supposed to have a slash through it, but I'm lazy :( :p

10:00amish - found Rosenborg Slot (castle) and got my ticket - free with CPHCard. Went into the castle with the Rick Steves self-guided tour, only to find that only the first floor (of 3) of the castle was open. It was nice, but only like 4 rooms. Disappointing :( But it was interesting to see a really old toilet…. Aka a wooden hole in the ground? LOL! Something I found interesting was that they allowed pictures, if you paid 20kr for a license. Didn't care enough. Saw someone taking pictures of stuff that was behind glass. With a flash. Good one dude, those pictures are gonna come out well. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

So after the disappointing castle I went downstairs to the Treasury. Here we go. The crown jewels. Amazing. Not much else to say but of course pretty expensive stuff from hundreds of years ago is awesome. Plus it was kinda cool to be in like the basement of a super old castle hahaha.

Then I discovered that there were these huge gardens behind the castle. Lovely and open to the public, which seemed really nice as they could easily charge or at least make it part of the castle ticket. Wandered around a bit and took some pictures. There was a Hans Christian Andersen statue that was actually made during his life and he approved it, so that is kinda cool. Walked through the much smaller but pretty Queens Garden, sat down and read some materials and looked at the map and left. When I was walking through the big gardens, I saw this family of parents and 2 young kids and each parent was taking a picture of the other parent with the two kids. I heard them speak English, and it was obvious what they were trying do, so I was like, "would you like a picture of all of you together?" They were very grateful, it was cute. They spoke English well, but weren't American. So maybe they were like "Wow that American girl was so nice" and they will think better of Americans or something :P Anyway that was my good deed for the day. HA!

11:15am - wandering back to the Norrebro area, found this thing that looked like a park. No, it was some kind of free and open to the public botanical gardens!! It looked HUGE. There was some map/guide to poisonous plants throughout the garden. Oh my. I wandered just for a little bit, quite beautiful but the one in Amsterdam was better (of course, that one cost to get into. LOL). Didn't want to waste precious feet energy looking at more plants.

Made my way to the Norrebro area, which I read was fun and multicultural. I felt a little let down. It was multicultural indeed, but I was expecting a lot of action at this time of day (around noon), and a lot more eateries. I thought there would be street vendors selling falafel and things like that, but nothing :(

12:30ishpm - walked around a bit and found a bus stop with a bus going to the train station. Waited for it and then got off at the station and started walking down the Vesterbrogade - a main street going away from the station - my hotel is off of this street. I was getting hungry so I looked for a place to eat. Finally I found a place that wasn't too expensive called "Vagabondo's" - yes the name made me nervous but I was hungry, my feet hurt, it was raining, this place had pizza, and it was cheap (by copenhagen standards). So this is what it would be.

1:30ishpm - had a pepperoni pizza. Not the world's greatest but it was fine. They charged me 10kr for a glass of water. LOL! I had read in Rick Steves's book that they might charge for tap water here because it is so expensive, but I thought it would say on the menu or that she'd tell me. Anyway no big deal, still cheaper than a soda :)

Got on the bus and took it back to the City Hall Square and walked up the Stroget again. Sorry mom, no Holmgaard (or anything similar) store, nor any store that I could see that sold little glass animals :( Maybe they are gone and your little guys are worth a lot of money :D Took a detour (on which I found a lovely bakery and bought tonight's wienerbrod!) to see the Christiansborg Ruins (underneath the palace I went to yesterday which was built in the early 1900s, there are ruins from old castles that burned down). There's not much there and if it were included on my CPH card I wouldn't have bothered, but it was, so I went. It was interesting to see this underground ruin from the 1100s, underneath the opulence I walked through yesterday. Made my way back to the Stroget and walked to the end where Kongens Nytorv is. Had read a lot about how nice this area was but maybe I'm missing it. Maybe it's stuff off the square or something. The square is pretty don't get me wrong, I just don’t see a whole lot there.

Realized I had missed the road to go to the Round Tower (a, well, round tower that you can go to the top of not by going up stairs but by walking up a circular uphill ramp. Covered by my CPHCard but no freaking thanks!). So went back and discovered that the road to get there off the Stroget is also pedestrianized and has a ton of stores. So stopped and browsed along the way. This road actually goes out to the Norrebro area where I had been this morning. Guess it is a pretty small city center area if I keep stumbling upon places I already went haha.

3:30ishpm - For the rest of the afternoon I just walked around this area and browsed in the shops, went into a church or two that I had missed yesterday, sat for long periods and people-watched, which was interesting and restful for my feet. Found a store called Netto, which is like a discount supermarket. Found CHEAP water! 1.75 krones (or like 20-25 cents or something) for a smaller glass of water, about double that for a 2-liter bottle…. If only I had been near my hotel! But it was reassuring to know that there was cheap bottled water LOL.

5:30pm - Passed a restaurant just off the Stroget called Det Lille Apotek that I wanted to try but they serve pretty big meals so I might save it for my last night here in a couple days. But right next door was a place I had read in Rick Steves's book and some other places called Riz Raz. It is a Mediterranean type place that has a lunch and dinner vegetarian buffet for pretty cheap (79kr at dinner). They also have meat dishes for not that much more money (a chicken skewer including the buffet was 119kr - cheap for copenhagen I guess lol). But since I wasn't all that hungry, I just went for the buffet. Even though I don't eat a vast majority of the things on it (lots of different grain salads - couscous, rices, some other grains, and all kinds of weird cooked veggies and salads), I had PLENTY to eat - pastas, regular salad and raw veggies, greek olives (mmmmm), homemade pita bread, and FALAFEL!! Yummy. On their menu they would give you a half liter of water (advertised as "with ice and lemon" LOL) for 5kr (or just under $1) or a full liter for 8kr. At least it was on the menu. Anyhoo, I got the full liter so my big expensive meal was 87 kr or about half of what it was last night. Not nearly as fancy or high-quality of course, but very tasty nonetheless. And the people next to me had a chicken skewer, it looked quite good.

7:15pm - walked back towards my hotel on the Stroget - earlier I had noticed that something included on my CPH Card was some kind of Hans Christian Andersen thing that was open til 10pm, so I was like hey, I'll check it out. It was in the same complex as Ripley's Believe it or Not, right in the City Hall Square, so my expectations were low. But wow, it sucked. It was like a fantasy thing touring you through some of his stores and tales. It was so lame I can't even really describe it. Maybe I was in there 15 minutes. If I had paid specifically for it (which of course I never would've anyway), I would've been sooo pissed. Walked by Tivoli and was planning on going in again but didn't really have the energy. Tired and going to Sweden tomorrow for a long daytrip so figured I'd be better off just coming back to the hotel, eating my wienerbrod and catching up with my blog and pics and just relaxing a little tonight and try to get to bed early.

7:45pm - so here I am back at the hotel for the night. Something interesting is that my laundry is just NOT drying here!!! It's been 2 days and it's still mostly all wet. What a pain. But at least I did it my first night here so it will be dry by the time I have to pack it up and leave. Just remembered. I walked by this place today (A Chinese food buffet) that had a sign by the menu hanging on the outside that said something to the effect of "only take what you can finish or you will be charged double!" That really just blew my mind.

Oh and the other night I saw this hilarious game show from Sweden called Big Words (the show is in English) - check it out http://www.ur.se/Ung/Bigwords/Startsida/ - if you click on "Titta på Big Words »" you can watch episodes!!! You won't regret it!!! LOL!!!