“Or imagine being able to be magically whisked away to…Delaware….Hi, I’m in Delaware”
So, the end of our Scandinavia trip ended not with a bang, but more of a whimper. We had a friend describe Denmark as the “Iowa of Europe”, and we liked Copenhagen much more than Sweden, so… yeah. We’re still very early in our trip and learning as we go, the thing that keeps slapping us in the face like a wet diaper is that our current style of travel is not a vacation. It’s not relaxing, it’s not refreshing, but, it is rewarding… especially when there are beer and chocolates involved.
After Norway, we needed a little space from the crowds and general hub-bub. So, we opted for a cabin in the woods. Horror and Joss Whedon references aside, it was a simple, incredibly tiny, cabin outside of the city with no one really to bother us save the wildlife and what I’m convinced was a Swedish axe-wielding maniac waiting for us to fall asleep. When we did venture into Stockholm via about an hour and half of public transit, we were impressively underwhelmed.
It was a city, a nice city even. But just a city really. The kind I picture people talking about gas prices and what the stock market did today. Nice, but not really that interesting. The one saving grace of Stockholm (that we visited at least) was Gamla Stan. Gamla Stan is the old historic part of town with narrow, cobble stone streets and tiny shops (and the tiniest statue ever!).All in all, the highlight here was the cabin and a little relaxation.
So, feeling recharged and ready for some social interaction (this is very rare for Trent) we moved on to Copenhagen, Denmark where decided to stay in a hostel. For those of you who haven’t stayed in hostels before, the general idea is that they are cheap beds usually shared in a big “dormitory” type room.
So, you end up sharing sleeping quarters (and bathrooms) with strangers, but usually like-minded ones. We’ll come back to this later. Copenhagen was lively when we were there. Situated on water, there are affordable canal tours to get acquainted with the city. They have an odd obsession with Hans Christian Anderson, with Little Mermaid statues and every other street or building somehow associated with the children’s book author. It felt a little bit how I imagine people in New Jersey feel about Bruce Springsteen.
New Haven (Nyhaven), an old harbor area lined with boats, and an abnormally large number of English speaking guitar players at bars, and Paper Island (where the paper factories used to be) were highlights. Copenhagen isn’t really known for its grub, so if you find yourself here paper island is a great place to go. Just a bunch of food-truck like places shoved into an old warehouse with seating on the harbor front. We had quite a few days to explore the “city of spires” so we took a couple of days and rented bikes and just explored.
We ended up in the city’s parks where a jazz festival was going on, sitting on the grass and noticing that Danish children are the spawn of the anti-christ. There’s something about kids screaming in a foreign language that really makes you want to shove them down and taunt them. Alas, we didn’t… yet.
So, let’s get back to the hostel. Hostels are great places to be social, some of them (including this one) are built around plying the residents with alcohol and having different events to help with being social. The first night this was great, we met some very cool people from Spain and from D.C., and generally had a great time. But, by the time we left, we were kind of over the dance parties and noise (the bar stayed open till 5am and we were on the 1st floor). On the brink of a nervous breakdown, Michele needed to switch floors or leave. They kindly moved us to the 6th floor where we could enjoy some peace. Not exactly. The floor was filled with early 20 somethings literally running amok from room and to room, screaming well past midnight. Michele in her “friendly” teacher voice kindly reminded them they were sharing the floor with other people. Their rager continued, but at least they remained in their rooms.
Around 12:30 AM a man entered the room. He seemed weary and confused. He turned the lights on and sat in a chair in the corner. Twenty minutes pass and he is still sitting there. Lights on. What the fuck?! Trent asked him to turn the lights off. He replied that he was trying to read (something on his phone). Well we are trying to sleep! Annoyed. Over it. He eventually turned off the lights and again, sat there. Sat there in a chair in the corner in the pitch black while the rest of us tried to sleep. He did not put his things in a storage locker, nor did he climb into bed. Aren’t all the beds taken? Was he lost? Was he there for ill-intended reasons? Our imaginations began to get the better of us and we both needed to take a chill pill. If this man wanted to sit motionless in a dark corner for a couple hours like a taunting vampire who are we to judge? Maybe we were overly tired from a complete lack of sleep the past 4 nights and our imaginations were getting the better of us. We already knew we were ready to leave Scandinavia, but this was definitely a nice way to cement that feeling.
The thing about buffets is…
Ready to leave Denmark, we decided to waste a couple of hours and head to the movie theater for a familiar pastime. Side note, we saw the Mummy, the newest one with Tom Cruise. Meh. We were famished and in the heart of a business district with little options. We stumbled upon a pizza buffet in a mall. Let me repeat. We went into a mall and found a pizza buffet like a couple of pre-teens. We dined. Or should I say we buffeted. We are not proud of this (well, Trent is a little proud). No person needs to partake in all-you-can buffets. It didn’t help that Trent kept commenting on how “nice this buffet is.” Mall buffet lest you forget. You can take the man out of Indiana but you can’t take the Indiana out of the man. Trent swears this wasn’t his idea. The truth will die us. Needless to say, we left the buffet with aching guts and our heads down. Learning.
Belgium, there’s more than just waffles. There’s also chocolate and beer. Ah, quirky little Brussels. It’s little cheaper, a little seedier, and has more charm than our previous temporary homes. We got in very late to Brussels, and when we woke up the next day
we awakened to what felt more European-y than what we’ve seen so far. Old buildings, narrow cobble stone streets, huge gothic buildings in the middle of modern hotels and Starbucks. Quick side note, it’s blasphemy to get Starbucks while traveling. I get that. But, it’s the only place that gives you a proper sized coffee for the price instead of what amounts to little more than a jello-shot of coffee for 4+ Euro.
Brussels, seat of European Union, home to one of the most impressive public squares in Europe, and many other cultural marvels. That being said, easily the highlight of our visit was a 6-hour beer and chocolate tour. It’s probably not fun to read a description of going from one chocolate shop to another and then from one historic pub to the next, so I’ll spare you. But, if you ever go, this tour is a must. There were literally too many chocolates and probably just the right number of delicious monk-brewed libations and other local microbrews.
We met a great couple from Manchester during our tour and had a nice time swapping political musings from Brexit to our current U.S. President. What’s his name again?
Wrapping up our quick trip to Belgium we day-tripped to Bruges and Ghent. Gorgeous little towns, Bruges was serene but Ghent was the more interesting stop. A little bigger and more Gothic architecture and buildings.
Almost a month into this journey, crazy eh? It’s been a complete whirlwind. So much so, that we’ve decided to get back into our comfort zone. Next stop, London. Next event, music festival. This really is coming at the perfect time, we’ve been going so fast, seeing so much, that at times it feels like we are just hopping from city to city without really taking the time we need to soak it all up. Like butter on good toast, or, just a towel, or something that soaks things up. Anyway, finding the right pace for our travel is still a challenge, but we’re getting better. Longer stays are becoming a must, and finding events and festivals to see seems to be like fun way to pick our next location as well. Anyway, we can’t wait to get to London and keep moving along on this crazy trip.
Stats
Items lost: 4 (jacket, foot massage ball, razor, toothbrush)
Buffets: 1 shameful all-you-can-eat mall pizza buffet
# of times being pooped on by a bird: Michele – 2, Trent – 1
(Click images below to enlarge)
So would you rule out using hostels or do you think it was and isolated incident?
Ah, Billy. Great question. I think hostel is about as general of term as hotel at this point, so I can’t say that I’d avoid all of them. But, knowing myself and my (only slightly) advanced age I think the key is to avoid the hostels that are geared more towards partying, as they seem to have more of an issue keeping the restrooms clean etc. I think the #1 for me is that we have a room to ourselves. I’m kind of done having one bed in a room with 8 other people. It used to work fine for me, but not so much anymore.
I also think there are good an bad hostels just like hotels when it comes to comfort and security. The one in Copenhagen was actually pretty good, so I think the dude in our room was an anomaly. However, it’s becoming less and less worth the risk (for me) when air bnb’s and smaller apartment like places (also with shared baths) are usually cheaper than 2 beds in a dorm in a hostel. You can get the social interaction by just going on the tours the hostels offer or hang out at their bar (they’re often public bars) to meet people and not stay there imo. Later Billy! ~trent