Fall Break in Denmark

I started out fall break not having any plans and without a bus card, but I managed to make enough plans for myself and it ended up being an amazing break!

On my first day of break, my friend Josie and I decided to go to Odense to hang out. Josie’s from Chicago, but her mother’s danish, so she’ll be living here for a semester to get the feeling of Danish high school. She’s just plain awesome, and I’m so glad that I’ve been getting to know her! We went on the train and went straight to a fancy restaurant where we ate Danish nachos. Most fancy restaurants have these super delicious nachos that are so good that I can’t even explain them. (But I’m going to explain them anyways) You get a huge portion of the actual chips, which are seasoned, and you usually get sour cream dip, guacamole, and salsa…even the picture can’t do it justice! After we left, we walked around the shopping streets of Odense. In Denmark, all the stores close before 4:00 on the weekends, and 6:00 on weekdays, so we only ended up going to about 15 stores. One of the stores was called Monki, a girls clothing store that has so many mirrors on the walls that you just get disoriented and confused, thinking to yourself, “is this real life?” Afterwards, we went to the train station, where we bought Elderblomst smoothies, which is a fruit that is used all the time in Scandinavia, but usually not anywhere else.

On my way back to my train home, a confused pregnant woman ran by me in the train station while carrying a decent sized tree……and on the train back, an old woman was talking to herself and practicing her British and squirrel accents. Denmark never fails to amuse me.

To give you an idea how expensive hanging out with friends is in Denmark, here’s the money I spent: 26 kr for a ticket there, (It’s usually 52kr, but I pretended to be a child to get half off) 105 kr for the nachos, and 15 kr for water (Yes, they charge for water at restaurants here) 40 kr for the smoothie, and 26 kr for the ticket back. The total is 212 kr, which amounts to 38.50 American dollars. So yes, when I hung out with friends this week, I pretty much used up all of my Rotary money for the month, and I didn’t even buy any clothes!

But on the flipside, I could get 20$ tickets to Italy, Poland, Norway, or London.

For the majority of the next two days, Sunday and Monday, I spent my time relaxing, and watching Doctor Who, because my Danish friends got me obsessed with it. Shame on them. (And thank you!)

I did, however, have big plans for Monday night: Going to a party boat in Odense! After lots of planning, I went with my friend from my class, Cecilie, and a friend from another class, Luna.

The only issue with getting there was that there was an hour and a half gap between when my bus arrived at the station and when the train would come. My phone was about to die, and it was freezing outside, so since I’m an odd person, I spent the whole time singing to myself inside the empty dark train station. It had a very nice echo. And yes, you have full rights to judge me.

Once we arrived in Odense, we just followed people who “looked like they were going to a party” and somehow ended up at the harbor where the boat was. We waited in line for about 30 minutes outside and got into the club, which was pretty crazy inside. Around a thousand people were there, spread out between the main floor and the deck on the top floor. Of course, the two main differences between a Danish party and an American party is the alcohol (though you had to be 18 to get it) and that the music is actually good! I ended up having an amazing time hanging out with and getting to know my two friends, and the party was really awesome! I can honestly say that it was the most fun I’ve ever had on a Monday night!

Since the party ended at 2:00, we had to get a home, and trains stop running at 10:00, so we had to get a taxi. The annoying part about taxis is that it costs a krone (20 cents) per second, so a 15 mile car ride can be extremely expensive. We had to pay 600 kr (Over 100 dollars) but we lucky could split it 3 ways, which made it slightly more affordable.

On Wednesday, I had no plans, so I just decided to bike into town and figure out what to do. Henrik had mentioned a really nice road to bike on, and I thought I’d find it and try it out for a few minutes. It turns out that I really enjoyed biking on the route….my short bike ride ended being a 44 kilometer (27.5) bike ride. That’s probably more than I’ve ever biked in America put together. Clearly the biking Danes have converted me.