Copenhagen

So the bus ride was an interesting one. I got to the bus depot at 7am (which is pretty bloody early for me) and found that my bus would be running half an hour late, which was fine. but half an hour turned into and hour and an hour quickly turned into 2 hours! the reason it was late was because the police were checking it out for drug smuggling, which supposidly is quite common on buses that go to Hamburg. Anyway, on the way to copenhagen i couldn't get over the amount of wind farms on the coast of germany, they were everywhere! i don't understand why, theres plenty of wind why do we need to farm more? (only kidding) there was one guy on the bus that must have loved them because he was going photo crazy! the bus ride took about 6 hours and included a trip on a boat, which was a VERY rocky ride, i definately didn't pack my sea legs. but i got there in eventually.

Famous Author Hans Christian Anderson came from Copenhagen and i can totally understand why he wrote some amazing fairytales, because Copenhangen is like a fairytale. there a big fan of him too, there is a street named after him and a statue as well as a few statues of his characters like the Little Mermaid. The town centre is quite old and boasts the worlds longest pedistrian street in the world, which are full of cafes, restraunts, bars, clothing stores etc. there are some really beautiful old buildings in it and outside there is a mix of old and new. what i liked is the new architecture is really modern but so tastefully done it works really well. the Opera house is a really good example of this. i really liked the Rivoli which is a beautiful old amusement park, unfortunately it was closed when i was there so i couldn't go on any of the rides. but it didn't stop me from taking a peak at some of them.

i went to the Royal Palace and thought i'd drop in and have tea with Princess Mary, i thought she might like some Australian company, but she wasn't home. they love her here, shes always in the papers and magazines. while i was there and totally by accident i saw the changing of the guards which was kinda cool. i actually nearly walked into the middle of the whole thing because i didn't realise what was happening. the guards look just like the ones in England but have different colours. while were on the topic of the royals a funny little fact is the Danish Queen married a French guy, who is now King of Demark, but he was too lazy to bother to learn Danish.
a really nice part of town is the Kings gardens which are stunning, full of box hedges and lush green gass also its close to the Rosenburg castle which hold the crown jewels. there were plenty of guards there but they clearly weren't doing there job very well, i just walked in and wandered around, it wasn't until later that i realised i had to pay to get in.

An interesting part of town is 'Christiania' it was originally an army barracks until the 70's when hippies and squatters moved in (by the way, why are they called squatters? the only logical explaination i can think of is, when dogs mark there terriory they wee, and a guess it might have been the same for humans at one stage. if anyone knows, please drop me an email and tell me) Christiania used to be known for its drug problem and at one stage it was legal to smoke pot there, but today its still bohemian, especially compared to the rest of Copenhagen, but its pretty tame, fully of hippy stalls and artwork etc.

I found 'Retro Cafe' where 'Final days Society' (the band i met in Hamburg) were playing and check out there show, they were glad to see me and introduced me to there girlfriends who had come down to Copenhagen to see the show. they joked that i was a confused groupie because i had actually never seen the band play. they were all really nice and the guitarist Andreas and his wife invited to stay at there place in Växjö for a couple of days which was very nice of them. by the way the show went really well, they were pretty tight as a band i liked there music too, kind of indie rock i suppose. we wound up having a few beers back at the hostel, which they were also stay at. they had brought a heap of alcohol from Germany becuase they told me that its cheaper to buy it there because of taxes, and that many Swedes regularly go to germany fill there car to the brim with alcohol and drive it back to Sweden!

some of the bars here are pretty cool too. there is one in particular that i found, where you can actually drink and do your laundry at the same time, it was really popular, i suppose it makes you want to do the washing, maybe i should start a bar where you do the ironing while you drink? i imagine there may be a few burnt shirts after a couple of beers.
there are some really cool places to shop also, wheather it be for vinyl or for threads, there are heaps of vintage shops as well as new cutting edge clothing. i have to say, everyone here is dressed so well, there is just something about them that makes them all look REALLY cool.

as my first taste of Scandinavia, Copenhagen was brilliant! i would've loved to have stayed longer but it was just too expensive. it was pretty hard to find a cheap eat around, even in the areas out of town. i was reduced to jam sandwiches a few times there. maybe i'll come back one day when i'm rich... i might be waiting a long time. anyway, i'm off to Växjö to stay with Andreas (from the band) and his family for a couple of days which should be fun. more when i get there.