Day 27

Thursday August 23

7:45am - woke up and took a shower, making more mess of course

8:45isham - went down to breakfast. Same as previous days. Went to the train station and caught the bus 26 to near Amalienborg Palace.

9:40am or so - walked over to the place where the palace is - it is a huge complex with silly-looking guards and everything. The palace has a museum that has some kings' studies and the like opened to the public. It opens at 10am and at about 5 til, more guards came out and they did some stuff. A tour group of (what I am just assuming were) Japanese people scurried around the guards like mice to cheese LOL But what was funny is that they didn't go in the museum when it opened at 10. What's the point?!

10am - went into the museum. It was neat to see the kings' studies just as they were apparently left. They also had an exhibit of something to the effect of 60 years of fashion of a particular queen. Anyway it was nice but once again if I had paid 50 krones to see it I would've been pissed.

10:30ish am - walked a few blocks to the Kastellet - it's like a star shaped area. I still don't understand what it was but it looked like some kind of army barracks or something. But very pretty area, snapped some pictures, and kept walking. Found St. Alban's church, an Anglican church. It was open and when I walked in these two ladies offered me this sheet to read about the church. One of them goes "Do you want Korean?" If I had been drinking water, I would've spit it out. The other lady says something to the effect of "Does she look like she'd want korean!?" so I am laughing and I am like "no I am from the US" and she laughs and says "Sorry, there were a whole bunch of people who wanted a Korean card" - I was very amused. Anyway, pretty church, took a couple pics, yada yada yada. Right next to it was a gorgeous fountain - that's where all the Koreans were LMGDFAO!!

Right across the street was the Museum of Danish Resistance, I knew it was free, so I figured I'd check it out. It chronicles what Danes did to undermine the Nazis. Interesting perspective and pretty interesting museum - considering it was free, it was better than a lot of the things that charged! Plus something that was nice was that there was a sign specifically ALLOWING pictures. I was pleasantly impressed by that, so I snapped a few. I didn't realize all the things they did, like printing things illegally, sabotaging railroad lines, making their own rudimentary weapons, etc. It was interesting, and I liked the place's attitude, so I dropped a 10 krone coin in the donations box.

11:30ish am - caught a bus to Kongens Nytorv and walked across the square to Nyhavn - the recently gentrified old sailors part of town that used to be all strip clubs (only one left now lol). Saw the Canal boat company's main dock so I bought my all day hop on hop off ticket for 50 krones. Saw one was leaving at noon so I waited around and got on that one.

12:50pm - got off the waterbus at Gammel Strand, which is right by the Stroget. A local on TripAdvisor had recommended this little restaurant right near there as a great place for lunch so I tried to check it out. Found the place easily enough but it was so busy that if you didn't have a reservation the wait looked like it was going to be long :( Bummer. Reservations to eat at what is essentially a sandwich place. LOL!! No way was I going to wait, so I decided to go the short distance to the Stroget to try another kind of polse after my disappointment the other day. On the way, I passed one of the Konditoris (bakery) that I bought the yummy bun thing with chocolate and nuts, so I went in and bought another one of those for tomorrow morning when I have to leave really early for the airport before the hotel's breakfast starts. I also bought something that looked like an oblong sugar donut called a "Berliner" - ah well, an experiment :p Found a polse cart and bought the "polse ristet" - ristet means fried. I had assumed deep fried, but really it just means cooked on a griddle instead of boiled or whatever. Found this out again from the local on TripAdvisor. Anyway this hot dog was MUCH Better than the first one. Quite yummy actually :)

Walked around a little bit and bought my magnets - one is a wooden and fuzzy viking. HAHAHA!!! I went all the way down the Stroget to City Hall Square and took a bus back up to Nyhavn (ok, I was literally the only person on the bus the entire time I was on it - 6 stops. It was really weird!). Wandered a bit and got a little cone of ice cream. I wanted to make it out to see the Little Mermaid and a waterbus going there was leaving at 3pm so I just wandered around into the big department store on Kongens Nytorv and into some little shops in and around Nyhavn until the bus arrived.

3:00pm - got on the waterbus and it drove around the harbor the opposite way from the one I took earlier so that was nice. One place it went was this fortress in the middle of the water. Wild!! And then, something that was a surprise was that today is The Little Mermaid statue's 94th birthday! So instead of just wandering around going to the stops and back to Nyhavn, around 3:40, it stopped at the Little Mermaid and let us off to watch the festivities. There were people dressed up like Hans Christian Andersen and some kids and teenagers dressed up to act out some of his more famous fairytales, complete with singing and music. Then there was a little band. But the main attraction was that there were 94 girls who would jump into the (cold, not terribly clean) water and form the numbers 94. Wow. LOL. So we stayed and watched this and it was a fun little surprise. Copenhagen is obviously a very quirky little place LOL

4:00pm - got back on the boat and back to Nyhavn. Walked back across the Kongens Nytorv square and got on the Metro (very modern, sleek, and space agey) to Christianshavn, I wanted to see this "Freetown" of Christiania that I have read and heard a lot about. What happened was in 1971, a group of hippie potheads took over this deserted military barracks and turned it into a little community. More complicated than that but you get the idea. Well, wow. It's…interesting. When you leave, there is an archway that says "you are now entering the EU" LOL!! There was a market square with some stalls - some were selling some pretty jewelry and stuff, and some were much much sketchier. Anyway this was not really my thing so I stayed about 15 minutes. Nearby there is a church with a tower you can climb - the stairs are on the OUTSIDE. ARE YOU SHITTING ME.

5:15pmish - caught a bus to Norreport station - the closest place to where I had decided to have dinner. Got there and went to the restaurant (after missing the street by not paying attention LOL). Decided to try Det Lille Apotek, the place where they give you beef on a hot stone that you cook yourself.

5:45ish - get there and the place is really adorable inside. The placemat says it has been a restaurant since the 1700s and that it hasn’t changed in over 100 years. Cool. So I order the beef and since there's nothing particularly for the kitchen to cook, they just bring it out really fast. I mean wow, I had read about what it was, but it really was just a piece of meat (a nice hung of filet mignon no less!) plopped on an inordinately hot stone. You then cook it up how you want. It's not even seasoned, and they bring you a bowl of what looked like Béarnaise or some other creamy sauce (I say this because they have a filet already prepared with this sauce on the menu, I can't determine sauces just by sight. LOL). It also came with a little salad, a tomato plopped onto the stone, and potatoes. Well, I was hungry! LOL!! So it was very interesting and the tables around me looked at me like I was nuts, but it was very tasty and I managed to not overcook it and stuff.

So I get the bill and there is a 100 krone charge on there (I had gotten a liter of water for 15 krones plus my meal which was 158 krones), so I ask the girl "what's this" and she says "It's wrong, that's what it is" LOL. Anyway, she fixes it and I pay and that's that. I still have over 120 krones that I am not sure what I will do with before I leave (need 28.50 for the train to the airport tomorrow). So I leave the restaurant, which is right behind the church/university area in my pictures from a few days ago and there is a market!! It is a handicrafts market, probably the most beautiful crafts fair/market I've ever seen. All kinds of ceramics and some of the most beautiful jewelry I've ever seen. I was like oooohhh maybe I can spend about 80 krones here. HA, as if. Maybe 800 krones ;) So it was nice to walk through and look at all the absolutely gorgeous stuff, but that's all. On my way back I stopped at the Lagkagehuset bakery attached to the TI office right near my hotel and bought a "Sarah Bernard" pastry - NO IDEA what the name is about but it was a cookie topped with chocolate mousse enrobed in chocolate, or so the girl behind the counter said. I bought it the moment she described it (I asked what was inside since it could've been anything). Hey when you have extra money to spend might as well spend it on chocolate goodies right HAHA

7:30pm - came back to the hotel to start packing. Ate my "Berliner" and it was filled with something fruity, so I ate around it. LMAO. Weird thing, they didn't give me clean towels today (they had been giving me THREE a day!). Weird. I don't really need them but still it was odd.

going to Vienna early early early tomorrow. not sure what the internet situation will be there.