[Volcanic Trip, Part 4] Goal 2: Denmark

We arrived in Amsterdam unexpectedly by plane. This was a glorious thing to be so far north, and luckily, our previous couchsurfer Sacha was able to host us, last minute. We rested up at his place for the night while getting advice on how to hitchhike. We knew from our last time here that hitchhiking in Germany was easy, so we were going to give it a shot to avoid an expensive hit to the wallet in order to buy a bunch more train tickets. We were headed to Copenhagen again...

Goal 2: Hitchhike

We went to a place off of an onramp looking to get on the road through Germany from there. However, after an hour of waiting, we moved to a gas station, where I asked a kind lady where a better gas station would be. She directed us to a better position at a 'Liftplatts,' a designated area for hitchhikers.

This is me making some signs. That Amstel in the background became more of a burden than anything.

From the 'liftplatts,' this man picked us up and took us to another station on the A1. This guy started his own company. I don't remember if he said what it was, but we didn't ride with him long.

From the station on the A1, this man took us almost to the border of Germany. He's a retired director of a music school in the Netherlands. Now he does volunteer work for refugees.

And from that station, this car (filled with a man) took us to Hamburg, Germany. I don't know anything about cars, but apparently this is the luxury class Volkswagen Phaeton with a V12 engine. The best part about it was that we got to speed down the motorway of the autobahn with the driver of this vehicle. The driver was a horse trader, international.

This is how I got to Hamburg. Because of how late it was, the sun had set and we didn't feel like spending our time in Hamburg in the cold, so we bought a bus to Copenhagen from there. Hamburg was a nice little city.

Of course this is Hamburg, so we had to eat a hamburger.

This was the nicest thing to look at in Hamburg.

Copenhagen

We stayed with really nice couchsurfers in Copenhagen. It was a big flat with lots of room. We arrived by overnight bus at about 7 am, and we started walking.

The Opera House

Some Canal

This was the huge conference building that we found free coffee in.

This is a windmill in the middle of one of the oldest, best preserved fortress in Europe.

This is me with Antlers.

Eating a Danish Danish in Copenhagen.

Christiania was a really cool place with lots of chill people who built houses themselves.

This was a castle.

More castle.

We went to a bar that had a comedy show. I didn't understand anything anyone said, but I laughed all the same.

The canals that ran through Copenhagen were really excellent and beautiful.

The Little Mermaid is basically the most famous thing in Denmark for some reason. However, it's currently in Shanghai for the World Expo 2010. I had no choice but to stand in for her.

Some of the architecture was super modern and awesome, and it fit right in.

There was a hobo exhibit in the park. The fountain was pretty interesting, it had water flowing from that woman's nipples.

Copenhagen was interesting, but not really that eventful. Lots of seeing cool stuff. The biggest event that happened in Copenhagen was getting stranded outside of our couchsurfers house while we wanted to make dinner. We also went dumpster-diving, but didn't find anything good.

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Travel to Sweden - Settle in Västrås

Depart from Albuquerque Sunport (ABQ) - 12:32pm MST 10/01/13

6-Hour Layover in Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) 10/01/13

Vodka Shots at "Skybridge Restaurant and Bar" ~6:12 pm CST 10/01/13

Depart Chicago O'Hare (ORD) - 10:05 pm CST 10/01/13

Depart Copenhagen (CPH) - 17:10 CET 10/01/14

Upon arriving to Scandinavia I realize something very quickly:

It's much better here.

The Copenhagen airport was a monument to interior design and architectural beauty. The dark wood floors and glass walls set this place apart.

Arrive Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) ~ 18:10 CET 10/01/14

Notice the Swan chairs and design prints at the SAS gates.

Stockholm for the night and half of the day - 2010/01/14-15

Train to Västerås and Hike to Mälardalen University. Arrive ~ 17:14 CET 10/01/15

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Welcome to Sweden

This has been quite a lengthy trip so far, but we've settled at last. A total trip of about 22 hours, with total time from doorstep to doorstep being about 47 hours. I've since moved into my good sized, 10 square meter bedroom. Luckily, I somehow managed to sheist my way into an excellent room. Not only does my radiator have fins, but my previous occupier left me a bed full of blankets, a desk covered in lamps, and a bottle filled with pee.

The building we live in, Junior, is completely occupied by international students. Of which I've met folks from Mexico, Finland, Lithuania, Thailand, Pakistan, Romania, and Spain. Life will take a little adjustment, but not much.

• The toilets have two settings: Piss or Dump.
• The showers have two knobs: Power and Temperature.
• The outlets will blow if you try to plug in an 85W computer to a 50W adapter.
• The markets all close at 18:00.

The town is riddled with skybridges. We found this out when we went to buy food. While in Stockholm, we decided that we must rid ourselves of the SEK (Krowns) to USD (Dollahs) conversion at every transaction (7 SEK ~ 1 USD). So we took some notes:

• Nice restaurant lunch = 99 Krowns
• Lunch buffet = 79 Krowns
• McDonalds Hamburger = 10 Krowns

Bingo on the hamburger find. A nice, easy amount that gives a good benchmark for everything else. From now on, everything will be measured in how many hamburgers we can buy with the same amount of krowns. That being said, we purchased the basic food's we'll need for the next few weeks for a mere 364 Krowns (36 Hamburgers). That included a 1 krown mortgage on Kenneth's Orangina Soda.

Studying begins this week, at which point I will be able to complete my first task of the 101 goals I have for the next 1001 days. More to come then.

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