It’s getting close to the end of this trip.   It’s crazy to think that this trip only started a little over two weeks ago.   It feels like forever since it started.   I feel like my time in Amsterdam was so long ago.

But here we are – the final couple of days in my final city, Copenhagen.

I had to get there first…

An early morning

After spending one glorious night in Budapest, I had an early morning flight to Copenhagen this morning.

And when I say early morning, I mean gotta wake up at 4am kinda early.   I was a little worried because I didn’t get to sleep until 11pm last night but I was up and ready again before my alarm went off.

I quickly got ready, packed up the rest of my stuff and headed out the door.

And when I say packed up the rest of my stuff, what I mean is packed up everything except for my beloved ear plugs and a USB cable.

Guess which one I’m gonna miss more the next two days.

Hint: it’s the one I actually took the time to link to cause they’re so freakin awesome!

Anyway, I caught a 5am bus for the airport and, once again, I was way too early for my 8am flight.

Maybe I’ve just been lucky with airports or flights or maybe it’s because I haven’t had to go to any checkin desks this trip because I’m traveling with all carryon but each time I’ve been at an airport this trip I’ve had way too much time on my hands.

Having said that, I’d rather be too early than too late if ya know what I mean.

Hello Copenhagen!

By 10am we were touching down on the Copenhagen tarmac.

It’s a weird feeling arriving in a new city in the morning as opposed to late in the afternoon or the evening.

You have this feeling like you’re ready to hit the ground running and tackle the city.

However, I’ve learned my lesson and decided I want the next couple of days to be super relaxing and super easy.   I’m not planning excessively and I’m taking my time figuring out what I want to do.

I stopped by McDonalds for breakfast on my way to the hostel.   Yes, McDonalds.

Denmark is one of only 11 countries in the world that offer gluten free buns and, as I did in Amsterdam, I wasn’t gonna miss the chance to have some mickey d’s.

Breakfast was over by the time I got there so it was a good ‘ol Big Mac to start the day.   Just as I remembered it.   I was smiling.

The hostel didn’t have checkin til 3pm and that was still 4 hours away.   I had to figure out what I was going to do in the meantime.   There was a part of me that just wanted to hang in the hostel’s lounge as they were jamming 80s music but it seemed kind of silly to just waste away valuable hours on the tail end of my trip.

I looked at walking tours and while I had missed out on the 10:30 tour, there was a company doing one at 4:30.

A plan for the day started to form.

The plan: walk around the area for a bit and check out my surroundings, checkin at 3pm, grab some lunch, do the walking tour, and finish with some dinner.

Funny how most of my plans revolve around food but that’s me in travel mode.

I went for lunch at a Joe & Juice I had seen in the train station earlier.   It was the same restaurant I had visited in Antwerp a few days ago.   I had a turkey club wrap done in gluten free flatbread.   So good.

At 3pm I was one of the first to checkin and thank God I was.   While the bed they had assigned me was, in fact, not a top bunk like I had asked for, it was a standalone bed in the middle of the room.

Not a fan.   No sense of privacy and hard to just bundle up against a wall and fall asleep.   I needed my little bunk bed cocoon.

I noticed the two bottom bunk beds in the room didn’t have anyone in them yet so I quickly scurried back to the front desk to ask for a bed switch.   To my surprise the guy happily did it for me.   I honestly thought I’d have to pull teeth to get it done.   Not even ten minutes later the bed was taken by someone else who checked in after me.   Sometimes it’s all timing.

Time for the walking tour…

Free walking tour

The walking tour company I booked with was called Politically Incorrect Free Tours.   I was intrigued.

It soon became apparent why it was labelled “Politically Incorrect”.   The guide (and, in fact owner) for the tour told the same kind of stories that I’ve grown accustomed to hearing on tours but he told them in a laid-back, easy flowing way with the occasional swear word or inappropriate joke thrown in.

My kind of tour.

Here’s some cool things I learned while on the tour:

Car tax:   As many people know, taxes are pretty high here in Denmark but the craziest one is the tax on cars.   180%.   Yeah, you read that right.   Early on the powers that be decided to tax the cars in lieu of taxing the roads and the taxes just kept going up and up.

So happy:   Denmark is officially the #2 country in the world to live.   People are happy here.   Part of that may stem from the fact that they are also #1 in the world for prescribed anti-depressants.

Fins are happier:   Well, kind of.   They are #1 on the happiness list of places to live, however, they are also #1 on the list for suicides.   So…

Cut corners:   Early on, before collapsible ladders were invented, fire trucks had to haul long ladders on their trucks.   It was hard for them to get around the city’s narrow streets.   After a few fires that the trucks couldn’t reach, there was a law made that forced new buildings in intersections to have a angled (or cut) corner so the fire engines could angle around them with their ladders.

Dinner

I had asked my tour guide where I could find one of Denmark’s national dishes Stegt Flaesk.   It’s pork belly with potatoes and parsley sauce.

He pointed out a restaurant as we walked by it on the tour.   I made a point on my map on my phone so I could come back to it later.

After the tour I headed back to the hostel first to change.   Today was the first day I wore shorts all trip long and I was freezing my ass off on the tour.   Go figure, I spent so much time the last few days trying to find the shade and today I was looking for the sun.

Around 8pm I went back to the restaurant and ordered the much anticipated meal.

It sucked.

Hahahaha.

The pork belly was so crispy and dry it was hard to put it down.   I tried having it with the creamy parsley sauce and it helped except I realized halfway through the meal that the sauce had gluten in it.   Duh, rookie mistake there.

Oh well, at least I can say I tried the dish.   Hey, they can’t all be winners.

After dinner as I walked back to the hostel, I decided to get something for dessert I was craving.   A bookend of sorts for food today.

Soft serve ice cream at McDonalds.

Yeah, I started and ended the day in Copenhagen at McDonalds.

Don’t you worry though, I have some cool stuff planned for my last day tomorrow and let’s just say the dinner is gonna be amazing.

Till tomorrow…