Blog 8: Denmark is Pretty Great

This weekend had quite a rough start. First my train is cancelled so I had to wait 2 and a half hours for the next one. I was trying to get to Copenhagen but I don’t have Denmark on my eurail pass so I had to purchase a separate ticket for the Journey from Germany to Denmark. Unfortunately because of the cancellation I completely missed my train connection and the remaining trains for that day all had more than 3 transfers and didn’t arrive in Copenhagen until after 1am. Thank all that is good and holy for Hannah Shaw who was staying the night in Hamburg and let me crash with her. We woke up at 4:30am and began our travels. We split up on the Ubahn and I was officially traveling 100% alone. I ended up arriving at the Hamburg HBF more than an hour early. I was determined not to miss this train. The ride to Copenhagen was around 5 hours. It was a direct train though, so that was nice. Until we pulled on to the ferry and everyone began getting off. There were some instructions, but they were in German. I had to ask the woman next to me to translate. Apparently we were all supposed to exit the train, I didn’t realize the whole train was now on the ferry and that no one was allowed to stay on during travel. I found a nice spot on the ferry with a good view of the sea and did some journaling. When I arrived in Copenhagen I waited anxiously at the Starbucks for my friend to arrive. Her train was about 10 min late but when we finally spotted each other we hugged for about 10 min. First thing first was getting me a transportation pass for the weekend. I was using a pass called a reijzacord which I had to use to check in and out of all of our methods of transportation. We took a train to her neighborhood and then walked for about 10 min to her house which was right next to a castle…I'm becoming desensitized to the grandeur of castles.that night we went party hopping. It was the first day of summer for them so they were all living it up. We first went to a BBQ with her classmates and then we headed to a bar/club area that my friend frequents where she introduced me to even more people. Every person i met was excited to talk to a Texan and was super friendly. even those who wanted to talk about trump weren't rude one way or another they just wanted to talk. The next day was really relaxed. We just hung out and walked around the city, getting ice cream and catching up on life. That night my friends parents made some of the best burgers I've ever had in my life. One of the best things about staying with a friend is the free food and accommodation. In this case free definitely wasn't a a compromise. After dinner went to a pool hall and hung out for a while ending the night at a Danish Mcdonalds. The next day we had breakfast at a pier are known as Nyhavn. We got a little too comfortable and had to speed walk to the train station. After about a 10 min hug I finally got on the train for a 5 and a half hour ride. On the trip from Copenhagen to hamburg i was unable to get a second class ticket so I had to buy a first class one. It was more than I wanted to pay but still less expensive than a plane ticket. On the trip from Hamburg to Bonn it was a different story. The only space I could find on the crowded train was a small space n the floor in the bicycle car. After 4 hours on the floor I finally got a real seat for the last 45 min. The train experience is another good example of how this trip is going. Sometimes its really easy, sometimes its a bit more of a struggle, but all in all its an adventure