Back to Copenhagen

Disclaimer: there is sensitive information in this post that may not be shared with certain people. Specifically my grandparents. If you know George and Gerry or Dixie and Arthur, please do not share the information contained in this post. It is better for them this way. Thanks in advance.


Our flight took us back to where we had started. Copenhagen! from being there before we knew what we wanted to do. First stop, Christiania. Walking out of airport security we we're approached by a guy our age from Canada who was solo traveling and asked if he could tag along with us. With it being mine and Mickalyas last day together (here is where the sensitive info starts) we hesitated a little bit, but in the end we decided to let him come along. We took the bus into town that seemed to take forever. And got back to city center. It was nice to be in a place that felt familiar. We wandered our way down to Christiania taking our Canadian friends down the streets that we loved. We had visited Christiania before but only at night and my biggest draw to it was the art, which we couldn't see very well at night. So I was very excited to soak it all in during the day. We walked in and it was like a whole other place from when we had been before. Art covers basically every inch of everything there. Which is like a dream land for me. (However there is a no photography rule so we didn't get many pictures) 

We had been told that occasionally the police try to crack down on the drug selling in Christinia (rumor has it you can get anything you want there. Not just the weed. The police use the "other" category to be able to confiscate and make arrests) but it doesn't happen very often. While we were walking through the streets we saw a group of guys take off running down the the street away from the center but didn't think much of it until we saw a huge group of police in raid gear running through the main streets. The people of Christiania were filming the police and the police were filming the people of Christiania. We saw one man and at least 6 big paper bags being carried away. 

After going to the top Christiansborg Palace to check out the view. 

Through the streets of Copenhagen you see carts selling varietys of hot dogs. We decided it was time to try them. They poke a hole into a long roll and fill it with condiments then goes the bacon wrapped sausages we ordered. 

We spent our remaining hours wandering Strøget and drinking coffee watching the people walk by. 

As we got back to my hostel we sat and talked about our trip together and how amazing everything had been. The hardest times mixed with the beyond best of the best. I wouldn't change a thing. I hugged mick good bye as she got into her taxi. I was alone. (Sensitive info alert) I then celebrated by proceeding to pass out from pure exhaustion for the next 12 hours. 

High point: Christiania art work

Low point: saying good bye to Mickalya 

Brussels And Bruges

(Photo in Bruges)

High point: waffles?

Low point: where he hell are we?

There really isn't much to say about Brussels, as we didn't spend much time there. We got in late afternoon and we're both pretty exhausted from bouncing around from place to place so fast and lack of sleep. Travel can be exhausting.  We had decided on an Airbnb apartment close to city center. From the point we arrived to the apartment we had about a 45 minute walk. In which our Airbnb host called us multiple times to find out where we were. So we just tried to get there as quickly as possible. Brussels had a very different vibe to it and definitely didn't feel as safe to me. And was a lot more dirty then other places we had been. We did make time to stop at a market to get bread, salami and cheese. Our apartment was a nice loft style place with a huge deck and incredible view. We ate our makeshift dinner and decided that a bath sounded nice. We took turns using a lush bubble bar and relaxing in the tub. Afterwards we passed out really quickly. In the morning we decided to take the recommendation of the Australians from Milan and not spend much time in Brussels itself but to head out to Bruges instead. We took the time to look at the center square in Brussels which was very nice.

At the train station a man helped us buy our tickets and told us where to go. I asked him how many stops it would take and he told me to calm down. We went tot the platform he told us and jumped on the train. After about 2 hours we started to wonder if we had missed our stop. We started to wander around the train looking for a map. As we did the train pulled to a stop. It was the end of the line, and there was nothing around. It was pretty obvious at this point something was wrong. Our location on google maps showed we were no where close to Bruges. We wandered up the platform looking for the ticketstation to try to figure out where to go. There were no tickets to Bruges so we figured it was best to just jump on a train going back to Brussels central where we had come from. 2 hours back we couldn't figure out which station was the one we started on and ended up going one too far. It was a much bigger station and one we weren't familiar with. We talked to an attendant who told us we had a little bit of time before the next train left. We got coffee and found a phone charger because we were both out of juice. We went back to see if it was time for our train and...we missed it. The attendant told us when the next train would be and we went down to the platform. But the words above the platform did not look like the one for our train. We asked someone else waitin if it was for Bruges and she said NO. We ran back upstairs to check with the attendant who told us it was correct and we ran back down.....missed it. Back up the stairs and back down to barely miss another train. We asked the attendant to give us a train that wasn't leaving as soon and finally got one where we would have plenty of time. We didn't leave the platform until it came. And then we jumped on. Finally we were on our way to Bruges. After a little over an hour we pulled into the right station and headed off to explore! Bruges is like a little story book town. 

Looks wise it was one of my favorite places. Small cobblestone streets lined with rows of cottages and unique architecture. Of course we wanted to have two things while we were here. Frites and waffles. We started with frites in a little shop that it was all they sold. The man who helped us also seemed like he was out of a story book with big eyes and a super excitable personality. We sat down and plugged in our phones. The frites were pretty amazing. But it could have partly been because we hadn't eaten all day. After we wandered around the square at night to look at all the lights. We set our sites on waffles and tried to find a place that was still open. It was a very posh place and we looked pretty homeless and we could tell that they weren't very excited to help us. 2 Belgian waffles with ice cream. Oh..my....gosh. The best waffle I have ever had. We devoured them. 

We had two options at this point. Try to find a place to stay in Bruges but it was already late and there didn't look like many options, plus we had an early flight and would barely be able to sleep if we did stay there. Next option, go back to Brussels and try to find a place to stay there, closer to the airport. We chose neither and ended up deciding to stay at the airport so we didn't have to pay for a place at all. At the train station we got help getting the right ticket that would get us back to Charleroi airport, and they told us we would have to get off and get onto another train. Back to where we first started. We saw a bus that was the same one we had taken from the airport and battled if we wanted to t to take that or take the train they told us to. We opted to once again trust the locals. Supposedly once we got to the next stop there would be a bus that would take us right to the airport. This second train ended up taking us further away from the airport and when we arrived to the bus station we were told no busses would be coming for about 6 hours. Well....we made the wrong choice. 

Wait in the freezing cold, get a taxi or walk for at least 1 hour at 1am through. We thought taxi was our best bet. 

Our taxi deprived was crazy! Blaring French rap music and cruzing through lanes. He gave us a French lesson and told us about his family. We got there very quickly. We walked in and there were people laying everywhere. Security was closed. The only area we had was the arrival waiting area and there was about 60 people competing for space and plugs. We settled in next the girls bathroom where there was a plug inside that we could plug into and watch from outside. We had at least 5 hours before we would be the airport would open. It was going to be a long night. Between cold hard floors and the fear of our stuff being stolen. Sleep didn't go to well. However as the time for the airport to open got closer I did finally pass out out. Sprawled out across the floor, drool all over my face I was woke up by Someone kicking my foot. In a sleep drunk haze I look up and see four gaurds all in uniform carrying ak47s. That woke me up very quick. They told me I had to get up and get off the floor then moved on to wake up others. Needless to say I wouldn't be sleeping anymore. Finally when the airport opened we hurried in and grabbed food just after security and bought gifts from the store. After relaxing in the cafeteria area for another couple of hours it was finally time for us to leave Belgium. 

Milan

High point: our second hostel and the friends we made there . 

Low point: lost....why are we always lost?

We arrived in Bergamo at 1 am. We got through customs easily and moved to find out bus. From the station it took us to there was about a 45 minute walk...and we had 1% battery. Google maps once again took us on a loop everywhere we didn't need to be. Mick was wearing her bright pants(pictured below) that got a LOT of attention from people everywhere. (In London people would stop and stare, give weird looks, whisper, SING and even a security guard carrying a gun walked up to us very aggressively, but ended up commenting on the pants.) We were getting a very similar amount of attention in the middle of this night in a 'not so nice' area of Milan. Some how, by the grace of God we made it to our hostel before our phones died. In the morning we got up for breakfast of little packaged cakes and bread (aka mostly air with a little bit of grain) we were ready to move on to our next hostel. It was a rainy day in Milan, as well as a Sunday so there wasn't as many people on the streets or food places open. When we found our hostel(about an 1 20 hour walk) we were soaking wet. We took a minute to dry off and charge phones so we could get out with out being stranded. Our main plan was to get to Luini's and the Duomo. Google maps got us again(you would really think we would have found a different option by now) and turned what should have been a 15 minute walk into a 3 hour trek through the pouring rain. Now imagine the extreme disappointment after we had just gone through that and we found out Lunini's was closed. Luckily it was right by the Duomo. At this point we were so soaked and so tired that after about 10 minute there we dicided to go back to our hostel and get changed and showered. 3 wrong ways later, maps got is back to our hostel. A total of about 6 hours spend lost in the rain. 

Feeling discouraged because our only full day in Milan did not go as planned we sat in the common area eating cake to solve our problems. This is when our night started to turn around. We met an Australian girl named Stephanie who was also indulging in pre-dinner cake. Next a man from Portugal working at the hostel stated to chat us up. Then a man from Algeria. The group just kept growing. We bonded over a free meal in the hostel. Some Korean boys sat by us for a time and made us laugh. Then another Australian. We chatted for a long time until we decided to go out for gelato. At which point a crazy Moroccan man joined us. 2 Americans, 2 Australians and 2 North Africans walk into a gelato shop.... It could have a great punch line. From the 'ultimate selfie' to the Moroccan man asking if he could 'make a pee-pee' on the statue, to the Algerian man asking me to come to Paris with him so he could "show me a great time and sleep together" (which I turned down, which turned into him saying his trip was ruined and over and he was going home In the morning) this night was so full of random moments. Drinks, snacks and laughter continued as we sat around the table back at the hostel. One by one we moved up to our rooms. 

The Algerian was talking about how he had a room all to hisself and we thought that was so crazy because we did too...then we walked into the same room. He kept saying it was "so embarrassing" that we were sharing a room. Then somehow all the girls gravitated up in the kitchen to eat left over pasta, dance and talk about the nights events. Back in our room our Algerian friend was nowhere to be found. We thought he was hiding waiting to jump out, which wasn't actually the case. He walked in got in his underwear wrapped a towel around his waste and went to bed. 

The next day we didn't have much time to get everything done (we were determined) so we woke up early and headed out to the Duomo, aka Milan cathedral. Enjoyed the beauty and snapped some pics...

And moved on to be first in line for Luini's... Which we were! Woot woot. 

We started walking back to the bus station to get back to the airport. Once again Google maps took us to the wrong location(it is really getting old at this point) and yet another uber got us to the train station where we got approached by a woman who asked us if we needed to go to the airport then got us tickets and pointed us to the right bus (finally something easy) one quick flight later we were on our way to Brussels. 

Day 5- London

High point: incredible street art. 

Low point: being frantically lost trying to make our flight. 

We woke up to the sounds of construction right outside out window. The night while in the melts chairs we had decided to try to go on a walking tour to see the street art(especially banksy) The starting point was about 1 h 20 min walk from where we were staying.  We got to see even more of the amazing eye candy veiws London has. 

We arrived early and exuded to get a "proper" English breakfast and slipped into the nearest pub we found. 

Poached eggs, sausage, ham, beans, tomatos/mushrooms and toast. We enjoyed every bite...maybe too much because by the time we finished we were too late for our tour. But that wouldn't stop us from seeing some amazing street art. We headed first toward the London bridge. It was so close to us and we wanted to check it off our list. We were much further away than expected but it still looked nice! Like a little castle bridge. 

We followed along the bank of the river to try to find the Borough markets that had been suggested to me by our English roommate. So many smells came from the carts of food being made and sold. Everything from sweets to grilled cheese to goats milk hot chocolate. Being so full from breakfast we didn't have much more than a few samples. 

Shakespeare's globe was right around the corner so we said "why not check it out" and set off on the river side road again. 

We started to see more street performers, including a man who was sitting on top of a vintage radio playing some old school music. He was playing a tuba that was shooting flames out of the top. A FLAME THROWING TUBA. 

We were very impressed with his show. There was a man making giant bubbles that we danced around in, dancers, acrobats and more. 

We spotted some street art and begun our self made tour. 

But we hadn't seen any banksy yet, who had been our main goal to find. Some Google research gave us a vague location. At this point my feet, specially my Achilles, were in so much pain I could barely walk. So I had gained a massive limp.

Limping around we peeked down a possible street and there she was! The falling shopper. 

Right in time to meet our time schedule. Off to the hostel to get our bags and the location of the bus station that would take us to the airport. It was about an hour walk. When we got close we started to notice a LOT of construction going on in the area. When we got to the place google maps was telling us we should be it was pretty obvious something wasn't right. Running to peek down streets and alley ways we had no clue where we were going. A man pointed us in the "correct" direction. Not actually correct because it took us on a giant look right back to where we had been previously. We were running out of time and getting more stressed out and the minutes went by. Many questioned strangers later we could see the top of the building we needed to go to. In the exact opposite location that the signs pointed to. Running in we found it was an enormous train station. Once again we had to ask many people where to go...and we were in the wrong place. We had to leave the building and run down the street to the bus station that was separate. By the time we got there we were too late to catch our bus. So uber it was...again. Our driver couldn't find us and ended up about 10 minutes away from where we were standing in the rain. I talked to him on the phone telling him the street names and that we were by the Starbucks. He assured me he had no idea where that was. Ha! We ran after and flagged down a Prius we thought was his, throw in our bags and go to jump on the car. Once again it isn't our uber. Back out we stood on the median of the road trying to flag down any Prius cars. Finally we could see him and ran and jumped in while he was sitting at a light. We both got stopped in security to get our bags checked and I wasn't sure we would make our flight on time. But we did! Off to our next destination: Milan, Italy. 

Day 4- London

High point: the architecture of London. 

Low point: the pain and damage my feet were experiencing. 

We had to leave Copenhagen at about 5 am to get to the airport in time for our flight. We had a hell of a time trying to get from the airport to downtown London. Little did we know there were 5(not sure on that number being right) airports in London and the one we few into was about 1.5 hours away from the city. We had say down after we got through customs to try to figure out what we were doing. As we had shown up with literally now plan. We found a hostel that we wanted to stay in but it looked like there might not be space there-we headed out anyway. When we exited the airport we looked for a bus or train that could take us downtown but the entire area around the airport was under intense construction and we couldn't find anything. We moved onto taxi, but still had 0% luck. After running through the construction for long enough to make us lose it we decided to pay the price of an Uber. But apparently the construction also threw the driver for a loop because he couldn't or wouldn't get to us. After he tried to call multiple times (we didn't want to answer because of foreign fees) we waited for him to pull up. As we ran to his car he asked "kela-lee?" In a very strong accent. We assumed he was trying to say Kayla so I said yes and we threw all our bags in the car. As we started to drive away mickalya asked him if he knew where he was going and we got a very different response than where we were supposed to be going. We then realized we were not in the right car. We jumped out quick and grabbed our things. Up ahead a different man waved us down. Turns out "kela-lee" was Kelly. And Kelly and his friend had got input uber and we had got in theirs. Same car, same color and oddly similar looking drivers. (they really could have been brothers) The ride to our hostel took a little over 2 hours because our driver "hated driving in the city because it was too busy" and ended up getting lost multiple times and turning down dead end roads that took about a 600 point turn to get out of because the streets in London as so thin. Finally he pulled down another dead end marked 'do not enter' and we were all over it. So we told him we would just get out and walk. As we stepped out of the car we noticed the hostel was literally right there. So hostel. Aka Soho-hostel was right in the middle of Soho. We were too early to check in so they took our bags and we hit the streets. Long streets with tall, bold buildings, filled with with busy people pushing down the streets. It was a very different feel from Copenhagen. Everyone here seemed to through caution to the wind and if the masses of people decided to cross the street, they were going to cross. There were always people quickly darling across the street befor a car would quickly whizz by. We needed food bad as it had been over 24 hours since we had last ate or drank anything. We wandered down the streets of china town, all decorated for Chinese New Year 

And kept running back and forth between to Vietnamese restaurants. Then somehow ended up in a tiny Asian buffet. Everything tastes SO good at first but by the end we realized we had been taste blind because of our hunger. The taste of funky chicken lingered for the majority of the day. 

Oxfor street- we decided to check out the world famous shopping street (are we drawn to the shopping centers of the wold? Maybe.) It was very bizarre because nearly every store that was on the street had more than one location, on the same street. We walked all the way up and down people watching and window shopping. London was significantly more diverse than Copenhagen and we saw a little of everything. Mick got ripped off by a "Buddhist monk" that forced her to pay for a gold price of paper after she took it from him. We she didn't have the 10£ he wanted he was very mad. We saw floating yoda street performers. My favorite was a man sitting on the middle of the sidewalk playing a traffic cone like it was a trumpet. I was impressed he could play more than one note and it sounded some what like a sad song. 

Next stop Trafalgar Square(Cameron's suggestion) Walking there our jaws were basically always dropped looking at the architecture. Everywhere you looked there was something amazing to see. Now I understand why people love London.

 

More street performers lined the square. When we were done looking there we saw Big Ben peeking over the buildings and decided to find our way down there. We when finally to to him, he was even better than I ever imagined (to be fair..I never have never imagined anything or had any expectation) the detail was incredible. 

While we were there we swung around the corner to see the London Eye but had no real desire to ride it. 

We moved onto Buckingham palace then strolled through a park and looked at all the night lights on our way back to the hostel.

 Now everything we went and saw we had got to by walking and we had started about 10 am and didn't stop till about 6 or 7 pm. So by the time we got back we were beyond exhausted. Not to mention the fact we were not used to walking that much and I had shoes that I though we're just not broken in but were actually really doing bad things to my feet. We looked like two sad, limpy dogs. We sat in the common area of Sohostel and melted into the colorful chairs tucked into the corner. Hours passed before we realized how long we had been sitting there zoned out. Our roommate was a man from England who was living in Copenhagen. I asked him half a million questions about what to do and see in all the places we were going and might go. Then talked about street art till I passed out. 

Day 3- Copenhagen

High point: being able to say "I am in Europe" and knowing that I had actually started out on something I'd wanted for so long and worked so hard for. It was all real. 

Low point: getting lost (google maps is the enemy) finally getting to the little mermaid and being so exhausted

 It was about 11 am local time when we headed out on the town. We walked through streets filled with old architecture and beautiful colors. 

We all commented that it felt so calm for a city. Even though we were downtown no one was honking and yelling. It was incredibly, surprisingly peaceful. The people all seemed to be very happy and kind. There were hundreds of bikes lined up in designated spots at least every block, sometimes more. Everyone seemed to have a place to be but weren't in any real hurry to get there. Yelp reviews helped the 5 of us decide on a restaurant called cocks&cow and we strolled down the streets that way. Stopping to stare in awe at buildings, sculptures and views. The restaurant was small and trendy. We say in cozy chairs while eating very fresh and flavorful burgers and fries. (Instead of a burger I got a sandwich cut pieces of stake and salt and vinegar fries. Everything was very different flavor a from anything I've had in the states and I loved it) We giggled about the names of the sandwiches, the American which was the biggest and obviously most unhealthy of the options, the Illegal a racy name but they didn't care, the treehugger a vegetarian option. We wandered down to Strøget which is famous for being the longest and oldest shopping street in the world. 

Peaking in and out of alley ways to find new surprises. We went back and picked up our packs and left the guys (who wanted to sleep but who has time for jet lag) and headed out to find more treasures. A lengthy walk (lengthy but with it because we got to walk down the street of colorful buildings we had wanted to see) 

got us to the little mermaid statue which is a popular tourist attraction in Copenhagen. Which is odd to me because it was the smallest and least detailed of any of the statues we had seen that day. 

Not wanting to walk anymore we called an uber to take us to the house of the couch surfer host's home (Mom don't look up couch surfers. Just know it's a trust worthy place to meet and stay with people that's all you need to know) His name was Delan and he had a great apartment right on the water in downtown Copenhagen. We got settled in and showered. Delan offered to show us around some of the places we hadn't seen yet. Starting with Christiania, a community in Copenhagen that is separate and also (mom close your eyes) a green light district. It was explained that weed wasn't necessarily legal, just that no one really did anything about it there.  We wanted to see all of the art that covered really everything there. What was saw was pretty whacky starting with open windows into a community bath house where we got an unexpected show. Then walked down rows lined with little shacks with fabric low enough to cover the faces of the people behind. Selling space cakes, rolled joints and "everything else". The rules posted in Christiania were 

-no photos 

-no running

-have fun 

Next we swung over the the opera house to look around at the architecture there and across the water. Copenhagen was beautiful at night. We had a flight to London early the next morning so we headed back and attempted to watch The Shining but ended up being a little too exhausted for that. When we bought our ticket to Copenhagen it was just because it was a cheap flight and had no expectations. We didn't think we would even really like it. But we fell in love with the city.

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