One Shy of Seven: Denmark & Sweden

Its strange to think about it but it has been eleven years I last stepped foot in Denmark. I had a friend in high school whose family was half Norwegian and half Danish. I was lucky his family invited me to stay with them at their summer home. I headed off to the land of blonds and beers with wide eyes. That summer was a blast! I was sixteen and although I could drive at home I wasn’t allowed to in Denmark. I was however allowed to drink! And drink we did! We walked our high school butts to the small town center and hit a few local bars every other night or so. Its funny thinking back on those times because those were probably some of the first times I really began to understand how much alcohol I could consume. Like most American teenagers I was fascinated with alcohol. All of my friends were. We were however, unlucky that none of us received fake IDs from older brothers and we never figured out how to buy one. So booze was in short supply back in Barrington for my group of friends. I always wondered how many of the other kids at my high school in different social groups got their hands on it? It always seemed like there was a party going on at someones house each weekend where there was going to be booze… in hindsight I realize a lot of that alcohol came from their parents. It was either stolen from them or given to them.

So I spend a few weeks as a sixteen year old drinking in Denmark. What an experience. I can say eleven years later it was a different experience. After spending three weeks in Germany drinking amazing beer by the liter we decided to cleanse our bodies in Copenhagen. We checked ourselves into the Generator Hostel and immediately headed out for a run through the public gardens in the center of town. It became very apparent on that first run that Copenhagen has more bikes than it does cars! They have their own ROADS for bikes. We’re not talking bike lanes we’re talking bike ROADS! What a cool idea. What do they do in the winter?

Side story on winter biking. We met up with two dutch girls last night at our hostel and they told us how hilarious it is after the first snow in Holland every year. Apparently most primary or elementary schools are within walking distance of most students in Holland. When you go to high school most students begin biking to school. Yup, they pony up their new found whips and head right out rain or shine. So on that fated first snow of the winter season the older students get a huge kick out of watching all of the freshmen fall over in the snow. They explained it always happens on major turns. Boom… boom… BOOM! One after another like little lemmings they all make the same rookie mistake and their wheel slides out from under them. The rest of the students just bike on past as if nothing happened. I guess this is a right of passage in Holland. Perhaps on my European adventures in the future I’ll come back for one of those first snows.

So we did the touristy things in Copenhagen. We took a walking tour with a brand new tour guide. She was good and we got to take in all of the sights. We hit up the major churches, alleyways and canals. The city is beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The only problem is the cost of freaking EVERYTHING here! After speaking with a few Danish people they explained most things are expensive but everything touristy like restaurants and bars are extremely expensive. Alcohol has an extreme “sin” tax on it as well so we’re talking $12 a pint at the pub.

The next segment of our journey took us across the bridge from Copenhagen to the Lund/Malmo southern Sweden area. Paul had Swedish live-in opers (sp?) growing up and we were lucky enough to be put in touch with one of them, Marie. Marie invited us to stay with her at her home in southern Sweden for a weekend. We headed over to the Nestle office where she works a few days a week in Copenhagen and hitched a ride with her over the border.

It was a much-needed R&R weekend. We didn’t too a whole lot but that was just fine and dandy for Paul and I. Marie has a daughter, Tilda, who is four and a half so we played live in American uncles for the weekend. Although Tilda couldn’t speak any English and we couldn’t speak any Swedish we all got along just famously. How hilarious to be playing super Mario brothers with a four-year-old Swedish girl and actually be able to communicate back and forth with pointing and smiles.

She also schools both Paul and I in the game memory. What is it about children and memory games? They’re so good at them!?

On Monday morning we were up early to catch our flight up to Stockholm. When we landed the weather had cleared (it has rained the past few a weeks all over Europe). We headed out to walk around the city and get a feeling. There were less bike lanes but lots and lots of canals. As it turns out Stockholm is situated around a huge group of islands!? I guess those Vikings needed easy access to the sea, huh? Monday was the “queens day” so we enjoyed a twenty-one cannon ball blast salute at noon. The royal changing of the guards followed this. We’ve seen so many “changing of the guards” now and I don’t know why we always flock to it? Do we have anything like this in America? Can you see the changing of the secret service at the white house?

We are running a bit low on extra cash so Stockholm was a visit full of long walks and hostel food. We fell back into a bit of our Australian backpacking mentality while in Scandinavia. The cost of living was so high for us that we ended up having lots of pic-nics, playing lots of Frisbee (free!) and walking all over town just “looking” at everything (also free…). I think a lot of people would look at this and think we missed all sorts of activities and museums but after seeing museums, religious structures, castles and wildlife all over the world you get to a point where it all starts to blend together.

We’re on our way to London now. We meet up with our old friends Shari & Te Anna (see Paris photos or Vietnam photos). They’re hosting us for a few days until we head north of London to meet up with Dawn and Chris. Dawn and Chris are giving us a true British holiday by showing us the non-London part of the country. They’re also generous enough to help us getting to Edinburgh and Dublin! Its crazy to think I only have ten days until I head home. This second part of the voyage has gone by so quickly!