Winter Copenhagen
Copenhagen
The final tenth trip of 2018 fell to Copenhagen. These were probably the most painful transfer tickets. UIA managed to cancel this flight twice in the last two months. As a result, a one-day trip to a very expensive capital turned into a two-day trip, and then into a one and a half day trip with two overnight hotels. In general, 2018 set an absolute record for the number of canceled flights and problems with hotels. Every second trip suffered significant changes in the route. But, there was only one insurance and it was exhausted on the first trips). Moreover, I noticed that flight cancellations often occurred in the range of 6-2 months before departure. When Dasha and I synchronously received SMS on our phones, we already understood that it was from UIA and now another chitchat will begin) But this can be classified as “pleasant chores”. Still, you try hard for yourself. Hotels for the year also excelled. Booking technical support will probably soon recognize me by my voice. But nevertheless, all planned trips took place and the plan was unexpectedly overfulfilled, as a result, this year we spent two months and two days traveling.
A one-day trip to the European capital has acquired the genre of “adventure” right at the Boryspil airport. At first, Dasha's mobile phone fell out when she got out of the taxi, and the car left with the mobile phone. The taxi driver could not pick up the phone for a long time, as he drove onto the highway. Fortunately, we were not pressed for time before departure. As a result, having made a circle, the man brought us a phone. As in the best performances, the situation with the phone was just a warm-up before further fails. I successfully passed the frame, but our things on the X-ray of the officer caused dissatisfaction. He immediately reported that we were transporting prohibited items. Of course, I was very sure that I had everything under control and objected with a smile that I definitely had nothing forbidden. The guy, smiling, assured me that for the experience of working on X-rays, he would not confuse sparklers with anything. He asked me to take them out of his pocket. Dasha looked at me in surprise, not believing that I was really going to get sparklers out of my pocket. But I felt like I was at a performance by a magician in front of a surprised audience, when, after a magical rite, I have to get something unimaginable from my ear. When I took out the pack, the border guard made a victorious expression on his face, and I realized that after yesterday's snowman modeling, I forgot them in my pocket. It's good that even crackers yesterday beat everyone. The only thing I thought to say to the employee, passing the sparklers - "Happy New Year???? ".
The performance with tricks continued, in the next issue Dasha's gloves evaporated, and Dasha went to the frame that was at the entrance to the airport to look for them. While I was waiting for Dasha, the guy continued the show, saying: “Now put the scissors out please! ”. If it seemed to me that after the situation with sparklers, there could be no shame, now I was afraid of catching fire in front of the guy. ” Um, but I have scissors…” But after the situation with the lights, I no longer spoke so confidently. Moreover, the magician knows better what will happen next in the room. He and I began to look for these insidious scissors. But either the trick failed the first time, or the scissors have not materialized yet. Search attempts failed. But if the guy was right about the lights, then defining scissors is kindergarden. While looking for scissors, I found gloves) "So, let's scan your things in parts. " Using the golden ratio method, the search was narrowed down to one package. It was a bag of disposable slippers. The maestro took the scissors out of his slippers with a light wave of his hand.
Just as Dasha came up, I stood guilty with gloves. But after that it was Dasha's turn to explain about the scissors in slippers. We counted, and decided that we were even in this whole incredible and ridiculous situation. And as in the best performances - the finale. The man tells me don't forget your belt and phone. But I have my belt and phone with me. “Whose is this? ” Another customs officer said that these were the things of the curly-haired guy that the first customs officer had just checked. But the customs officer objected that he did not check any curly-haired guy, as he was fiddling with our scissors and lights all the time. Now the most confident magician among the three of us stood in confusion. Who would have thought five minutes ago that in the whole story with a mobile phone, gloves, lights and scissors, the curly-haired guy with a mobile phone, or rather without a mobile phone, would be the victim.
To the city!
We arrived in Copenhagen late in the evening, the weather was surprisingly warm. It was a couple of degrees outside and there was no wind. We walked about three kilometers to our hotel. Part of the way was along private houses, we walked and looked at how someone decorated the territory for the Christmas holidays. Someone hung everything with garlands, someone dressed up a cactus. The Christmas atmosphere was right in the air. I wanted to go straight to the city more than go to bed in a hotel. But you need to sleep and early in the morning on the road. I had a package of cottage cheese with me, which had to be kept in the cold until the morning, the issue was solved by engineering - I hung the package on the back side outside the hotel window. The main thing was not to forget about it in the morning, so that the cottage cheese would not roll down on anyone's head on the tiles. In the morning the cottage cheese was just right. In addition to cottage cheese, we had a lot of provisions, it’s dangerous to fly to the most expensive countries without your own breakfasts) Now you need to take the metro to the center.
The ticket vending machine apparently thought we wanted to buy the whole train, including the driver. Taxi, is it really impossible to get to the center cheaper. Whom to ask, there was a girl from India standing nearby, who also could not believe the numbers on the screen. We went to a nearby shop, the seller explained to us that it wouldn’t work out cheaper, but at the same time she knocked us tickets out of the box office a little cheaper than in the machine. We reached the center in 20 minutes and made an unsuccessful attempt to check into the second hotel earlier. But the hotel agreed to leave things with us until checkin for money. Well, these Scandinavian countries have everything for money. Not far from the hotel is a beautiful-looking amusement park.
Entrance to the park costs 120 crowns per person (16 euros each) plus you still have to pay for each attraction. Apparently we don’t really need to go to that park. The central street and squares are already decorated with New Year's paraphernalia, and in Hard Rock a snowman sits on the reels. We never found out how much fun it was in the missed park, but it was fun in the big Lego store. Lots of interactive activities and incredible Lego figures, I especially liked the big picture.
Among the heaps of monumental sights of the center, a tower was found with a free observation deck at the top. It was unexpected here, usually in Europe the parks are free, and the observation decks are torn to the fullest, but here it’s the other way around) What I liked about Copenhagen was massive smoking factories against the backdrop of giant windmills.
On the one hand, it's kind of like green electricity and all that, and right next to it, clouds of smoke come out of the pipes. Against the backdrop of an overcast sky, it looks like a special installation in a museum of some kind of dystopia. Plants with pipes during walks caught my eye more than once, and for some reason it really gave rise to mysterious and positive emotions in me. Surely the smoke goes through hundreds of filters and is not as harmful as it seems.
Christiania
Among the capital of Denmark is a small independent state of Christiania. To Christiania from the center to go about half an hour. We walked not through the official entrance, but along the picturesque lake. At times, in addition to the early winter-lake aroma, the smell of weed that is smoked made its way. Over time, busy streets began to appear, and we realized that we were already at the goal.
Everything began to become festive and New Year's. As soon as we took the first photo, the guys came up to us and explained that it was impossible to take pictures. We were a little surprised, but okay, your state - your rules. I wonder what would it be? But after walking a couple more steps, the questions dissipated in the air as easily as clean air in a haze of grass. The grass here was sold literally every 5 meters in the open. And in order to lure visitors, the joints on the shelves are simply set on fire. Along the street are barns, in which there is either a shop or pubs. The smoke in the pub is so thick that my attempt to go to the toilet almost ended up flying on a space owl to distant galaxies. Moreover, the contingent here is not only young, but also elderly people. But here is what unites everyone, everyone is sitting happy, not a single sad one. There are many more where there are stickers depicting a woman beating a policeman. Amsterdam is clearly resting here. Dasha and I are very against this lifestyle and drugs, but nevertheless I want to note that the atmosphere here is friendly and positive. One of the native Africans suggested that I buy something from him on the layout. I don’t know what exactly it was and what to do with it, but it looked like halva. To say that Copenhagen surprised us is to say nothing. What else is interesting here? A hefty barn with a healthy circular saw glued on. Well, there is clearly something civil. We went inside, it turned out to be a hardware store. Not interested. Come on. And then we were waiting for the same queue as in the film "Eurotour" was in the Louvre. Dasha stood in line for every firefighter, and I went on an endless hike to the end of the line to find out if it was worth standing. Days turned into nights, months into years, empires rose and fell in the labyrinths of time, rulers ascended the throne and were treacherously overthrown, and I kept walking along the endless line. But here it is, the end! The line ended at the entrance to another barn.
What is there so mysterious and alluring. “New Year's Fair” the guy answered me. I clarified whether all these people are standing in such a queue just for the sake of the fair. The guy assured me that this is a very famous fair, and the queue will pass in just ten minutes. We usually do not stand in lines, but here curiosity got the better of us. I went back on an endless hike. The fair turned out to be really cool, it at least differed from the stenciled fairs in the center of Copenhagen, there were a lot of handmade, original and unusual things.
Evening was approaching very close and it was necessary to solve the problem with dinner. In expensive countries, the main thing is to find a restaurant with the “All you can eat” system. One of these was located in the center, you can, of course, take the metro, but we are brave guys, we will overcome the whole of Copenhagen on foot. The restaurant is called Dalle Valle until 16:00 the buffet price is 89 CZK (12 Euro). We liked it very much, we tried all the national and non-national dishes. When the dish ended at the buffet table, a completely different one was put in its place. Only one red fish fillet stuffed with Philadelphia was worth something! In the evening it was especially pleasant to watch the edition of Orel and Reshka in Copenhagen, when they tried all the same dishes that we had on the buffet today in the most expensive restaurant.
Along the night lakes, we walked to the front of our room. After such a feast, it was simply physically necessary to lie down. The beds in our room were like ship cabins. We rested 30 minutes in the cabin and again into battle!
This time we decided to go through absolutely all the main lakes of the city and get to the fortress. Although the road was long, we still decided to make this trip. In the evening it was not so warm, but the desire to get to the fortress warmed us from the inside. In one of the Chinese restaurants they played a cartoon about a woman and a live bao rice cake. The cartoon hooked us so much that we stood at the entrance and could not tear ourselves away from the plot. Together with the pie, we experienced all the difficulties and victories that he overcame! The cartoon was spinning in a circle, we reviewed it several times. It was still very far to go to the castle, but such a motivating cartoon! The pie was able to break through, and we can walk. Nothing will stop us now.
I'm going to the castle. The castle was behind a double ring of star-shaped moats. We moved to the first star island. The darkness here is impenetrable. The castle looks like it's completely closed. But it’s not for nothing that we started this whole campaign, we go to the end. The closeness of the castle was also hinted at by the walking guys with lanterns and weapons on the other side of the moat. We wandered a bit and finally found a passage to the side of the fortress. With almost no hope of getting inside, we crossed a deserted bridge. And, believe it or not, for true connoisseurs, this castle is open until late in the evening! It was just as deserted inside! And somewhere else guys with machine guns roam. On the one hand, the gates seem to be open - come in whoever you want, but at the same time it feels like we were not expected here. We walked uncertainly through the dark streets. The ominous night enveloped us in an icy breath. In the center of the castle stood a decorated Christmas tree tied to two cannons. Well, it seems like they got to the Christmas tree, and you can wrap it back. Somewhere in the dark nooks and crannies, the steps of military men with weapons were heard. From the opposite street, brightly shining with headlights, a car flashed along the paved road. And the headlights seemed so lifeless. So! We are obviously not expected here, we turned 180 and hurried to the exit.
Somewhere on the pier, the online map showed a tourist mark in the form of a camera. What could be there? Curiosity got the better of us, and we went along the sea along a long pier. The factories spewed more and more smoke, it seemed that heavy clouds of smoke would soon fall on the whole city.
The road to the mark turned out to be quite long, but the city seemed to have prepared a resting point for us. It was a door with a ladder between the two levels of the parapet. During the descent, we found two chic warm rocking chairs in the basement. And next to it is a door to free toilets. It was exactly what we needed. The chairs seemed to hug us. It was warm and cozy. We sat for about 15 minutes when one of the mysterious doors opened and a worker came out. The man looked at us in surprise and asked what we are doing here? I had the same question for a man, it was so outskirts of the city that people were not even visible on the horizon. He explained to us that he needed to close this marvelous lounge area with a key and gave us another 5 minutes to warm up. We continued our route to the mysterious mark. On the way, we came across a statue of a mermaid, but not the one that is famous here, but rather a parody caricature of her. Then we came across some more interesting sculptures, and when there were literally a couple of meters left to the mark, we realized that we had come to nowhere. It's like in that joke where a guy digging a well following the signs found a note, "Now try to get out. " And so we began a long route to the city. Along the way, we saw a real monument to the mermaid. Probably, not everyone can boast that he saw her sitting alone, and not surrounded by a crowd of photographing tourists. They didn't even take a picture of her, they didn't disturb her.
In the city center on the royal square, a chic hotel was waiting for us in the interactive windows of which it was snowing.
Then a fairy flew and turned the windows into numbers. It is worth noting that the royal square was royally dug up. Severe frost, of course, is not the best time for digging, but the desire of the king is the law. Oh, it's a pity the hotel is not ours. We wandered to our boat beds, which were located on the edge of the old city.
The morning greeted us with sunshine. It was still about 5 hours before the plane. We planned to visit more Malmö , but the desire to explore Christiania won. Well, you can also get to Christiania for free, but the train to neighboring Sweden will be felt on the travel budget. By the way, the decision to visit Christiania was definitely the right one, because on the way we got to the main pier, which is the hallmark of the city. For some reason, in the whole yesterday's route, we did not get there. The forests and lakes of Christiania are beautiful. We even found a residential area. The houses looked very old, but nevertheless kept design notes.
It was time to go to the airport, usually on trips you want to stay and not leave, but a little bit of good, when good is so expensive) This is probably our shortest trip of all trips. Copenhagen is interesting enough, but I would put it as a transit city for a day, so as not to pay for hotels.
Travel information
Date of travel: 12/14/2018 – 12/16/2018
Duration: 1 full day
Tour type: single day
Air tickets: UIA took almost a year
Hotels: Booking
Excursions: All by yourself
Difficulty of the trip: 5/10 (Average, a lot of walking)
