So thanks to my cheap or rather “frugal” Asian side, I searched far and wide to look for the cheapest tickets possible. And there was this one Chinese travel agency I went to that offered me a package to fly into Spain for about “$1600 and I throw in these barbecue pork buns!” $1600 was a little out of my budget but I did take 3 barbecue pork buns. They were bomb. And free. WIN! But I did eventually find the cheapest price for about $1200 on cheaptickets.com. But I had to sacrifice cost for time and that meant 2 layovers there and 1 layover back. It was a 2 hour layover in Washington D.C. and a 7.5hour layover in Denmark before arriving in Spain. Coming back, it was a 4.5hour layover in JFK airport in NYC. When I think about it…I should’ve paid an extra $50 for shorter layovers because reading PC Magazine and Men’s Health for 4 hours in JFK was pretty brutal.
But let’s fast forward and skip to Copenhagen! So I actually did a lot more research for my layover in Copenhagen than I did for Spain (where I would be studying). I only had 7.5hours in Copenhagen, but it IS a relatively small city and I wanted to get the most out of it.
So after hours in the Washington D.C. watching airplanes take off and land and many more hours on the plane, I finally arrived in the city of København! As soon as I landed, I was already amazed at Copenhagen’s futuristic airport. They don’t have revolving doors, but a bunch of small gates that open and close as you approach and leave, sort of like a carwash.
The one thing that I instantly liked about Copenhagen was its transportation system (I would later learn to love European transportation). There is a metro station at the Terminal 3 of the airport that takes you to the city center Kongens Nytorv in about 15 minutes which costs about $6 (warning: you can only purchase the ticket through a machine, which only accepts card).
And so I arrived in the city center at about 8AM and as soon as I walked out, I was greeted by complete emptiness surrounded by Danish architectural buildings. Nobody and nothing was out at this time except…drunk teens wobbling around the streets. No longer than I had pulled out my camera to start taking pictures did two drunkass teens come up to me and mockingly greeted me with “nihao.” It was kind of crazy too see nothing, not even bakeries or coffee shops, open at this time of the day. The only people who were out were people who had just come out of a club. It’s kind of crazy because partying doesn’t really start until 2AM and it’ll last into the morning.
Without a Lonely Planet at the time, I relied mainly on the free map provided by the metro station, which was more than enough as Copenhagen is really a city you can traverse by foot. But it was 8AM and the stores open at 10, so I didn’t have much to do except walk around and appreciate Copenhagen’s architectural beauty and environmentally friendly atmosphere. I had read earlier that Copenhagen was known for being a “bike city,” where a third of the people bike to work or school. They have this system of bikes called “city bikes,” where you insert 20kroners to rent out a “city bike” and when you return it to any one of the city’s bike racks, you’ll get your 20kroners back. Pretty cool. But I wasn’t cause I was too chicken to do it. But yeah…walking is so much better because you get have time to see and appreciate the city instead of swooshing past.
Hans Christian Andersen (author of “The Little Mermaid”) wrote many of his famous fairy tales in Copenhagen and everyone said that the Hans Christian statue next to city hall was a must see. So I rushed to see that first but when I got there…I saw it. And it was indeed a statue of him. I mean it was cool I guess. But I ran a half mile to see it. And it actually wasn’t that cool. Shit. But the Little Mermaid is still cool.
And so I kept wandering around for a few more hours until the stores started opening and then I headed back to Strøget, which is located in the center and is the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe. When I got back, it was filled with tourists and locals and street performers. I decided to go look for a snack as my stomach was kind of grumbling, so I went towards the place with the biggest crowd and it turned out to be an ice cream stand. And so I paid $4 for a scoop of ice cream. Damn I swear like if you populate a restaurant or food stand with hella people around but they sell overly expensive shit food, I will still buy it. But I had to say…that was some pretty damn good ice cream…or maybe I made myself believe it was good since it was so expensive…
It was nice walking around and going into souvenir shops but I’m not much of a “shopping” person, especially when a plain white t-shirt costs about $20 at H&M. So I headed towards the famous Nyhavn waterfront port. Maybe it was because I was at a port because I had a sudden urge to pee. And then I really needed to go. And there was no McDonalds around. And it wasn’t China so I couldn’t pee in a bush or something. So I had to pay $0.35 to use a public restroom. Aghh…all better.
After taking the best piss of my life, I decided to use the rest of my Kroners on a boat tour around the city. It was a pretty nice day and the boat tour is definitely one thing you shouldn’t miss when you hit up Copenhagen. We went by Hans Christian’s old house and also Noma’s, which was named the best restaurant in the world. Lunch there will cost you about $105 and dinner will run upwards of $170. And our boat guide was some Vietnamese chick who explained to us the history of Copenhagen in 4 languages, which was pretty hot.
By the time the tour ended, I had just enough time to go to a souvenir shop to pick up a shot glass and leave. And so that was that…Copenhagen in 7hours. Not a bad layover.
Bottom Line: Copenhagen is a beautiful city in all aspects from its architecture to its natural surroundings. Danish people are generally super nice and friendly. It’s the perfect place for a layover because of city center’s proximity to the airport and the city’s super convenient transportation system. But one day was definitely enough for me. I’m a broke college student and I cannot survive on ice cream cones for lunch. I honestly enjoyed Copenhagen a lot and it was the “Europe” that I imagined, but there’s not much fun for young people. One day was definitely enough for me and if I come back, it’ll be years down the road.
0 comments:
Post a Comment