May 6, 2010 – May 9, 2010
After several days in Germany, William and I parted ways: he returned to Saudi Arabia, and I boarded my flight to Denmark to visit my friends studying on an exchange program in Copenhagen. The view from the plane as we approached Scandinavia was beautiful. The water was clear, and the coastline peppered with greenery. Surprisingly, my Easy Jet evening flight wasn’t delayed, and I arrived in Denmark before nightfall. I met up with Jason, and we had dinner and dropped my stuff off at the residence hall building. I hung out for a bit before properly outfitting myself to endure the frozen tundra that is Scandinavia. I definitely hadn’t planned for weather that cold and coupled with the rain, that miserable. We took the bikes (mine borrowed from Jason’s friend) and went to Student House, a club/bar/lounge hangout place frequented by mostly college students, local and exchange. I met a bunch of his friends and we danced, talked, and played foosball. Not even kidding, they take foosball seriously in that country.
The next morning, we headed out to several bakeries for delicious pastries. First on the list: a Danish, which, unsurprisingly are not called “Danishes” here. They’re winerbrød. And they’re heavenly.
Then, we wandered toward the center of town, to the longest, most famous walking street in Copenhagen – Østergade. These streets are pedestrian only, prohibiting motor vehicles and bicycles. Sounds cute, the concept is nice, but sometimes, it’s raining and you really just want to ride your bike because you’ll get to point B more quickly. Except getting fined by the police is just no good. The beginning of Østergade:
We went to the classic, H&M, where I procured a pair of much-needed leggings for increased protection from the freezing winds, and we walked down past St. Peter’s Church and several of the buildings of Jason’s Uni. The walking “tour” continued, stopping at yet another bakery. I had an eclair-shaped pastry that was nothing like an eclair. It had a peanuty-rum filling and a chocolate shell. Apparently, it’s a pastry of local origin. I had coffee with it, rejoicing at my cup o’ almost-Joe. We took a trip over to the train station to coordinate an adventure to Sweden, and wandered by Tivoli Gardens, the amusement park. I got authentic Danish food, the name of which escapes me but it’s essentially a piece of bread with butter and mayonnaise, lettuce and then various sets of toppings. I had the vegetarian, obviously, which was slices of hard-boiled eggs, tomato, and onions.
And then we took a day trip to Sweden! Originally, I had wanted to go to Stockholm, but it was quite the trek away, so I made a compromise and decided to check out the city of Malmö, in southwestern Sweden. Located on the coast, and only 35 minutes from Copenhagen, I figured it was worth the day trip. We saw the Turning Torso, Malmöhus (the old city castle, which houses a strange array of museums on everything you’d ever want a museum on), the three squares (Gustav Adolfs torg, Lilla torg, and Stortorget), Slottsträdgården (the castle gardens), and walked through the Gamla Väster (the part of town between Lilla torg and Malmöhus). I most definitely went to H&M, a Swedish company, in case you didn’t know, and bought a $7 sweatshirt. Quite wonderful, and also necessary. Despite wearing several layers of clothing, I was still freezing the ENTIRE time I was in Scandinavia.
Strange sights abound in Sweden. 
Another night with Jason’s friends at Student House and Kant and another day in København passed with a large helping of sightseeing, picture-taking, and Danish-pastry eating. Elizabeth, Jason and I got coffee near Christianshavn and after coffee, we walked through the hippie commune of Christania. I lost several games of foosball, consoled only by the fact that I was still better than a Danish man, so not all hope is lost for me in the competitive foosball realm.
Okay, let’s be real, it is.
