As Cassie and I arrived in Copenhagen we were confronted with a really confusing subway/train ticket situation. After figuring it all out we made it to the main train station, and found some lockers to store our stuff in for the day. We spent the day attempting to find cheap food, since we quickly found out that Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in the world! We settled for what seemed like a decently priced buffet, until they gyped us by making us pay for our drinks. Ugh.

The rest of the day we spent walking, exploring the city. We went to the national museum, and ran into some lady in the bathroom who was also from Ann Arbor. What are the odds of that happening? But, we also found out quick that the national museum is rather large, and impossible to see in one day. We abandoned our efforts of seeing everything to continue on our walk to see the Little Mermaid! On our way we walked along the canal, which was filled with tons of Danish people drinking, enjoying the beautiful weather. Also, we got to see the Queens palace and some really cool guards.

Finally we made it to the Little Mermaid, and so did the rest of the tourists for the day. We patiently waited our turn to take our picture with her, while witnessing some young teenagers dressed for a dance take pictures with her too. Did you know she's the most photographed woman in the world?? I guess next year Copenhagen is trading her with some other monument with China for like 4 years. Interesting.

This fact above I found out only because we stayed with a wonderful lady named Katrine. Cassie and I decided to save some money we would test the waters with Couchsurfing. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a website where you make a profile and search for people that live in the city you're interested in visiting. You send them a message, telling them a little about yourself and ask if they would be willing to open their home to you while you're in the area. At first I was quite hesitant about using this system, because there are obvious risks involved. But we figured if we ended up with someone we were really uncomfortable with then we could leave and find a hostel. Luckily, we ended up with Katrine and the experience turned out to be great! It was so awesome to talk to her, and learn from her directly about Denmark. She told us all about the Royalty, and even taught us a bit about current event that we were a little behind on. She even gave us some tips on what to see, and what to save your money on.

Friday night we spent just talking, eating a whole lot of chocolate, and planning out the next day. Cassie and I woke up and headed to do a bunch of touristy things like climbing the Round Tower, and seeing the castle. Meanwhile, Katrine had practice and we eventually met up with her to check out a festival that was going on. I can't really remember what the festival was for, but there was a bunch of loud music and we got to cook our own sort of hot dogs wrapped in fresh dough over hot coals. If we hadn't of been with Katrine then we probably wouldn't have known about it!

After the festival, we headed back to cook some dinner. Unfortunately, Katrine ended up losing her key card for her dorm. So we stayed in again for the second night, but we watched some good movies, ate a delicious dinner, had some great conversations, and of course ate a ton of chocolate!

Sunday Cassie and I decided before she left (she was leaving a day before me, and my plan was to stay in a hostel for the last night), that we were going to check out Tivoli. Tivoli is an amusement park located in the middle of the city, but it's surrounded by huge walls so you can't see in. Luckily we didn't spend the money to get unlimited ride passes. No offence to Tivoli or anything but it's NOTHING compared to Cedar Point. They had one decent rollercoaster, which was like a mini Maverick. Either way, it was still neat to walk around and see the park. It was decorated really well. However, Cassie and I decided to leave and do some more walking around. At this point we stumbled into a part of Copenhagen called Christiania. Pretty much the hippy slums… Wikipedia it.

We had enough of the slums and decided to try out some Carlsberg beer, and do what all the Danes do. Sit on the canal wall and drink. It was quite enjoyable, but we had to leave so Cassie could catch her flight to Berlin. Where she had to stay overnight in the airport, before catching another flight back to Frankfurt-Hahn. This is what we get for booking cheap flights!

So my plan for the night was to stay in a hostel near the airport. I walked for about ½ hour before I realized I was walking for way to long, so I turned around. At this point I realized I missed it, because I dismissed it for what looked like a condemned house. I knew it wasn't going to be a luxury hotel, but the plywood fence, and broken plant pots in the front yard sort of threw me off. I walked into a dark corridor and a little makeshift desk with a sign on it that said "Ring Bell for Service." Of course the bell was broke. So I took some chances and knocked on the door behind the desk. A guy a girl emerged, who looked like they had just been sleeping. The girl had me write my name on a random piece of paper and I paid my 15 Euro. Then the guy proceeded to walk me upstairs to a room that had no lock on the door, no lockers, smelt of B.O., and handed me just a sheet. No pillow, nothing.

At this point, I felt extremely uneasy and started to get a little worked up about being a girl staying in this shady hostel alone. It would have been completely different if I would have been with someone else. So I called Katrine, really upset, pretty much begging her to let me stay at her place again. She was extremely nice, and didn't hesitate in saying yes. I really don't know what I would have done if I wouldn't of known her. Slept in the airport maybe? I headed back to Katrines and spent the night talking to her and her really nice boyfriend.

The next morning I got up and headed to the airport to catch my flight back to Frankfurt. Scandinavia was quite an adventure…

Up Next: Frankfurt for a night