Day 6 in Denmark - 3rd September
Hmmm, today’s been quite a different day! Finally on my own! Feels a little strange…especially after being so well taken care of this entire last week. Then suddenly one is totally on one’s own, in a country where people speak a language you don’t understand, and where you cant read any of the signs on the road :) Very interesting indeed….
Jacob and I left together at about 11 – we checked out, and left for the train station, from where he took a train to the airport and me to this place called Odense. I took only a backpack with me, leaving my other stuff at the hotel to be able to pick up later when I get back. Odense is about an hour and a half from Copenhagen, and I wanted to make a quick stop there for a couple of hours – primarily to check out the Hans Christian Andersen museum there. Odense is the hometown of the writer – and quite proud they are, about it too!
The train ride was very nice. Trains in Europe are awesome – they’re just so fast – and yet so quiet and smooth. Totally put our beloved bay area Caltrain to shame…:) Let alone Indian trains…..americans and Indians have something to learn from the Europeans….
The ride was also quite beautiful – saw a lot of the Danish countryside, and again fell in love with it – it’s a beauty that neither photos (esp those taken from the train) nor words can really capture. The green – oh the green…..i know I keep talking about it, but it just never fails to have an impact on the me…the kind of shades of green one sees, the sort of intensity of the color is just something I’ve never seen….just way too ethereal…
Odense is on another island, and so we actually crossed over the sea to get there from Copenhagen. Part of that is underground, and then the rest is over the sea. Again, totally stunning of course…..
On reaching odense, I checked my backpack into a locker at the train station, as suggested by the guide book, and then hit the streets. The town is of course much much smaller than Copenhagen, so much quieter. The museum was pretty close to the station, so just walked there. The museum was quite enjoyable – not too big or elaborate, but very nice. A lot about Hans Christian Andersen’s life, how he grew up, his writings, poetry, etc. Apart from his famous fairy tales, he wrote a lot of poetry, some novels, and even drew quite a bit. All that stuff was on display. There was this whole room with a library full of books by him and on him. And then of course the usual sort of curios – his hat, and his shirt and so on…:) Typical museum stuff…..they also had a place where you could listen to recordings of his fairy tales being read out by different people. That was really nice. I listened to a couple – the princess and the pea, and the emperor’s new clothes….Really brought back memories!!
There was a movie made on his life also which was being screened, which I saw – that was pretty good as well. All in all, I guess it wasn’t anything spectacular as a museum, but somehow just struck a chord somewhere – sort of brought back childhood images, and just a tinge of nostalgia, I guess…..so totally worth it….
After leaving the museum, I went to a nearby church which was quite nice too – and seemed pretty old as well……well, most things here seem to be quite old anyway….
Then I walked through some of the side streets, some that just went through some residential areas and were very quiet and quaint…the usual narrow cobbled stone paths……and as usual giving it the complete old town feel….
After that I decided to move on, so went back to the station, picked up my bag, and caught the 3.30 train to Aarhus. But the damn train got quite delayed – what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour journey ended up being 2.5 hours! So trains in Europe get delayed too!!! And its quite like India – once it was delayed, it kept stopping outside every station waiting to get in. So that was kinda irritating….As for the scenery, more of the usual stuff – I should just stop talking about it…….weather was pretty beautiful along the way, raining at times, a mix of cloud and sunshine at others……Oh what a beautiful world we live in……..
Reached Arhus at around 6.30, and spent some time looking for the hostel at which I’d reserved a dorm bed the previous night. Finally found it close to the harbor, and got checked in. Very different from our 800 kroner (about 150$) room in Copenhagen!! At about 1/5th the price, this was of course pretty down the ladder…:) Have a bed in a room with 5 beds, 3 of which were already occupied. Pretty interesting guys – 2 of them vacationing from Switzerland, and one guy from Spain.
I spent some time trying to figure out things like internet – obviously they don’t have free wireless here, and provide wireless at some randomly high rate – about 50kr/hour. They have one computer downstairs with internet for 20kr/hour – so used that to check email quickly. So unfortunately as I cant use my comp to get online, doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to blog all this today – and no way I’m going to sit and type this out sitting online wasting money!!!
I wandered around for a while…turns out this is the time when the famous Arhus festival is happening – and so there’s a lot of music and all going on all voer the place. Outside the cathedral – which is actually the largest in Denmark – there’s a huge tent set up, with all sorts of musical and theatrical performances happening…I briefly checked it all out.
Then had a quick dinner at a local pizza place (was quite bad actually – cant remember when I had such terrible pizza. You’d think being on the same continent they’d at least learn to make it properly!!) and got back to the hostel room. There spent some time chatting with these guys, and it was actually pretty interesting. The Spanish dude, Hector, had a guitar and we sang some songs, and he sang a couple of songs he’d composed and all….Thats the cool thing about these hostels, I guess – you get to meet so many different kinds of people from all over. So that was really nice….
Anyway, that’s mostly it for the day. Its been a strange day – and do feel a lil strange. Traveling all alone is a lil boring at times – and ever so slightly depressing. But then I guess over the next couple of days I’ll get adjusted to it. And then with so much to do and see, should be quite fine!!!
Over and out for now!!
Jacob and I left together at about 11 – we checked out, and left for the train station, from where he took a train to the airport and me to this place called Odense. I took only a backpack with me, leaving my other stuff at the hotel to be able to pick up later when I get back. Odense is about an hour and a half from Copenhagen, and I wanted to make a quick stop there for a couple of hours – primarily to check out the Hans Christian Andersen museum there. Odense is the hometown of the writer – and quite proud they are, about it too!
The train ride was very nice. Trains in Europe are awesome – they’re just so fast – and yet so quiet and smooth. Totally put our beloved bay area Caltrain to shame…:) Let alone Indian trains…..americans and Indians have something to learn from the Europeans….
The ride was also quite beautiful – saw a lot of the Danish countryside, and again fell in love with it – it’s a beauty that neither photos (esp those taken from the train) nor words can really capture. The green – oh the green…..i know I keep talking about it, but it just never fails to have an impact on the me…the kind of shades of green one sees, the sort of intensity of the color is just something I’ve never seen….just way too ethereal…
Odense is on another island, and so we actually crossed over the sea to get there from Copenhagen. Part of that is underground, and then the rest is over the sea. Again, totally stunning of course…..
On reaching odense, I checked my backpack into a locker at the train station, as suggested by the guide book, and then hit the streets. The town is of course much much smaller than Copenhagen, so much quieter. The museum was pretty close to the station, so just walked there. The museum was quite enjoyable – not too big or elaborate, but very nice. A lot about Hans Christian Andersen’s life, how he grew up, his writings, poetry, etc. Apart from his famous fairy tales, he wrote a lot of poetry, some novels, and even drew quite a bit. All that stuff was on display. There was this whole room with a library full of books by him and on him. And then of course the usual sort of curios – his hat, and his shirt and so on…:) Typical museum stuff…..they also had a place where you could listen to recordings of his fairy tales being read out by different people. That was really nice. I listened to a couple – the princess and the pea, and the emperor’s new clothes….Really brought back memories!!
There was a movie made on his life also which was being screened, which I saw – that was pretty good as well. All in all, I guess it wasn’t anything spectacular as a museum, but somehow just struck a chord somewhere – sort of brought back childhood images, and just a tinge of nostalgia, I guess…..so totally worth it….
After leaving the museum, I went to a nearby church which was quite nice too – and seemed pretty old as well……well, most things here seem to be quite old anyway….
Then I walked through some of the side streets, some that just went through some residential areas and were very quiet and quaint…the usual narrow cobbled stone paths……and as usual giving it the complete old town feel….
After that I decided to move on, so went back to the station, picked up my bag, and caught the 3.30 train to Aarhus. But the damn train got quite delayed – what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour journey ended up being 2.5 hours! So trains in Europe get delayed too!!! And its quite like India – once it was delayed, it kept stopping outside every station waiting to get in. So that was kinda irritating….As for the scenery, more of the usual stuff – I should just stop talking about it…….weather was pretty beautiful along the way, raining at times, a mix of cloud and sunshine at others……Oh what a beautiful world we live in……..
Reached Arhus at around 6.30, and spent some time looking for the hostel at which I’d reserved a dorm bed the previous night. Finally found it close to the harbor, and got checked in. Very different from our 800 kroner (about 150$) room in Copenhagen!! At about 1/5th the price, this was of course pretty down the ladder…:) Have a bed in a room with 5 beds, 3 of which were already occupied. Pretty interesting guys – 2 of them vacationing from Switzerland, and one guy from Spain.
I spent some time trying to figure out things like internet – obviously they don’t have free wireless here, and provide wireless at some randomly high rate – about 50kr/hour. They have one computer downstairs with internet for 20kr/hour – so used that to check email quickly. So unfortunately as I cant use my comp to get online, doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to blog all this today – and no way I’m going to sit and type this out sitting online wasting money!!!
I wandered around for a while…turns out this is the time when the famous Arhus festival is happening – and so there’s a lot of music and all going on all voer the place. Outside the cathedral – which is actually the largest in Denmark – there’s a huge tent set up, with all sorts of musical and theatrical performances happening…I briefly checked it all out.
Then had a quick dinner at a local pizza place (was quite bad actually – cant remember when I had such terrible pizza. You’d think being on the same continent they’d at least learn to make it properly!!) and got back to the hostel room. There spent some time chatting with these guys, and it was actually pretty interesting. The Spanish dude, Hector, had a guitar and we sang some songs, and he sang a couple of songs he’d composed and all….Thats the cool thing about these hostels, I guess – you get to meet so many different kinds of people from all over. So that was really nice….
Anyway, that’s mostly it for the day. Its been a strange day – and do feel a lil strange. Traveling all alone is a lil boring at times – and ever so slightly depressing. But then I guess over the next couple of days I’ll get adjusted to it. And then with so much to do and see, should be quite fine!!!
Over and out for now!!
posted by Nikhil | 1:06 PM
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