Oh The Places We’ll Go

I left Bruges yesterday to head to Denmark but had a fantastic time while I was there.

Bruges is a medieval town so most of their big sights were built hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  Its not like there are a lot of THINGS to see, per-se, since I felt like most of the museums and things would be a throw away, but the atmosphere was wonderful.  Tons of little local shops lining the streets and as many chocolate shops as I have ever seen in my entire life!  Plus, tons of pubs and things for the delicious Belgian beers (another thing the Belgian people are known for).  All in all, a very pretty very cute little town.

After I got into Bruges I settled down and just hung out my first day.  It was incredibly rainy and overcast so I didnt feel much like going anywhere or doing anything.  Plus I figured with a cold walking around in the freezing ass rain would be unwise.  Wouldnt you agree?  Instead I chilled around the hostel and fell asleep.  The second day I ended up meeting a few nice Canadian girls who I got to chatting with and hung out with for a while.  I took a walk around town and had some food.  Eventually I got to chatting with an Aussie, Zoe, who was also staying in my room and the four of us ended up sitting around having a good chat about traveling, seeing sights, and Bruges in general.  We got together and decided to go out for a beer, come back and watch In Bruges, a very funny black comedy with Colin Farrell.  Once we got to walking around Bruges, as it turns out its not a very happening place.  Haha.  Note the sarcasm: of course Bruges is a dead city.  It was built a billion freakin years ago!  Anyways, we finally found the ONE hangout spot for young people in the city and hung out there for a while.  You can smoke in pubs in Bruges so of course everything STANK of cigarettes, including us after we left.  We headed to another pub full of Italian guys and travelers, which was fun and relaxing with good music.  Afterwards we all went back to the hostel and I ended up watching In Bruges alone since everyone else fell asleep.  Party poopers.  The movie was great- go out and rent it tonight.  Very funny and Colin Farrell is especially funny in it.  Plus theres a lot of comedy about Bruges and all the sights they were at IIII went to!

My last day in Bruges I went and did all of my touristy stuff.  There was actually only one touristy thing that I did the whole time I was there, but it was incredibly physically exhausting.  I climbed their fame clock tower- all 366 feet worth of stairs to the very freakin top to get the best view of the city.  JESUS that climb was exhausting.  Not only was it so many stairs, but they were incredibly steep AND windy with little room for passing people on the way down.  I was afraid of falling the entire time I was climbing up.  There are too many people coming up and going down at the same time it gets a little cramped.  Once you’re at the top, though, its all worth it.  The view is amazing and you can see EVERYTHING.  Thank god I waited for the good weather to climb to the top!  Going on the overcast day would have sucked.  The only other mission I had in Bruges was to have hot chocolate, and boy was it delicious.  Very chocolatey, but they give you a water shot for afterwards so it all works out fine.  At first I was like, why are they giving me water for this hot chocolate, but after you drink it you understand.  My night that night was spent doing laundry and falling asleep really early since I had to wake up the next morning at the ass crack of dawn.

Of course some ASSHOLE was yelling outside at 3 in the morning so my already early wakeup call was interrupted and made even freaking earlier by some dumb girl who forgot her key into the hostel.  Ugh, not happy about that.  I was already awake by 5am for my wakeup, got my pre-packed bag together and headed towards the train station for my full day of traveling.  I hopped on 3 different Intercity trains before I got into Koln in Germany.  From Koln I went into Hamburg to catch a train to Copenhagen.  Like I said, lots of trains.  The first leg of traveling went down without a problem.  The trains to Koln were on time and comfortable, relaxing, all of the above.  I managed not even to use my iPod for the entire 4 hours of train travel into Koln, which I think is pretty impressive.

The problems started from Koln into Hamburg after the train was late.  I only had 10 minutes in between the train into Hamburg and the train OUT to Copenhagen, so the train being late was VERY stressful.  The one out of Hamburg was the last one, so I could NOT miss it.  THEN, some creepy European guy got on the train and sat across the aisle from me on the train and after 3 hours of IGNORING him he proceeded to FLASH ME as I left the train.  Yes, you read that right, and I was traumatized.  I mean, I guess in retrospect its pretty funny, but if you knew where my head was at at that time, it was anything but funny when it happened.  Here I am, traveling alone about to miss my train in a country where I do not know anyone OR speak the language and some CREEP is off sexually assaulting me or whatever.  Not cool and made me even MORE freaked out about that stupid train to Denmark.  Thankfully they held the train in Hamburg for transfers SO I didnt miss the train into Denmark.  Phew!  The trip over was really easy and relaxed, plus included a ferry boat which they drive the train onto?  I still have no idea how they did it but they did, and it was pretty cool. 

The train into Copenhagen was an hour late, which sucked, and I couldn´t transfer my money into Danish Krones until today, but I found the hostel easily enough so that was good.  It’s more of a HOTEL than anything else since it has over a thousand beds, but I am the only one in my room.  Cool and not cool at the same time since I get this big room all to myself, but I havent met anyone the whole time I have been here.  I fell asleep as soon as I got into Denmark yesterday and all day today I have been just walking around checking out the sights.  I am going to the movies to see Monsters vs. Aliens in about a half an hour, my big trip for the day, but all by myself.  They assign seats at the movies here, btw.  How weird is that??  She asked me where I wanted to sit and was so confused I just looked at her like she was crazy.  Plus the money here is all funky.  The coins have holes through the middle of them, which I thought was very amusing.  I guess no one else does… I told a guy ‘these coins have holes’ and he goes ‘yeah- theyre supposed to be like that’.  Haha.  He mustve thought I was an idiot or something.  Oh well.

Most Danes speak English which is nice and easy… I get around pretty well here.  Loads of shopping and even 7-11s!!  I couldnt believe my eyes!  AND THEY HAVE SLURPEES!  My life is complete.  Plus, they use the network 3 here, which is my phone network, so my Skype works on my phone here.  I officially love Denmark, even if that is the only reason it is cool. 

Tomorrow is my sight seeing day, which basically includes the mermaid statue and something to do with H.C. Andersen, who is like the only famous Danish figure from history and everything is named after him, including the address of the hostel I am staying in.

If anyone has Skype they can call before the morning of the 22nd and I will be able to chat, so do it then!  Otherwise the Skype wont work again until I get into Austria, I believe, since 3 is also in Austria. 

Will update more tomorrow since I found this amazing little internet cafe here.  Plus, I probably will have nothing else to do with myself! 

-Catherine