24 Hours in Copenhagen

Quick recap of why I'm going to Copenhagen by myself:

1. We're doing 8 weeks in Europe on a shoestring budget.
2. My MasterCard will cover car rental damage for rentals of 14 days or less. So I save on insurance, but have to limit the rentals to less than two weeks.
3. We needed our final car to be returned in Copenhagen the day we fly back to Florida.
4. It's much cheaper to return a car to the same place you rent it.
5. It was cheaper for me to fly to Copenhagen (by myself) and drive the car back to Hamburg then to rent a car in Hamburg and return it in Copenhagen. Much cheaper.

Quick recap of why I needed to spend a night in Copenhagen:

1. I booked a flight from Hamburg to Copenhagen on Easyjet for July 28.
2. I then realized that a 14-day car rental ending on August 12 needed to be picked up on July 29, not 28.
3. Easyjet is nonrefundable.
4. So I'm flying to Copenhagen on Monday, and I can't pick up the rental car till Tuesday.

I'd been trying to get a couchsurfing host for this one night in Copenhagen for months, to no avail. I refuse to overgeneralize and say that Copenhagen couchsurfers are not as welcoming as couchsurfers in other places. It just never worked out for the ones I requested. Luck of the draw.

Mette had offered to contact some of her Copenhagen contacts if push came to shove. So as the 28th neared, and I was debating whether to pay for a dumpy hostel or sleep in the airport, Mette came through. One of her Copenhagen colleagues, Lindsay, agreed to let me crash on their couch. Victory!

I left Martin's before the kids woke up. I had set my phone alarm for 7, but never heard it go off. I checked at 7:30, and jumped up and got in the shower.

 I didn't have time for breakfast at Martin's. I knew airport food in Germany would be cheaper than airport food in Denmark, so I splurged. I saved the chocolate croissant for later. This place was pretty reasonable. I think these three things cost about 4 euros.

No problems turning the Volvo in. I'll miss that car.

After my breakfast, I bought a few things to hold me until dinner so I wouldn't need to eat in the Copenhagen airport. A bag of almonds. A chocolate bar with hazelnuts.

The plane was delayed an hour. That would have been extra blogging time had the free wi-fi in Hamburg airport worked.

 I took this selfie to send to Bella, but I didn't mean for it to look so depressing. I was trying to be subtle so the people sitting beside me wouldn't wonder why this idiot grown man by the window was taking selfies.

The first thing I noticed when I stepped off the plane in Copenhagen (Easyjet deplanes on the tarmac) is how hot it was. I was immediately glad I hadn't brought my jacket.

The airport was packed. Took a while, but I found a seat and got out my laptop. I had a little bit of business to tend to before I did any blogging. Lindsay (she's from Louisiana) and her husband Sune (he's Danish) work till 4 and then pick up their kids from school. So they recommended I arrive at their place around 5ish. I got to CPH at 1:15, so I had a few hours to kill. First order of business: figure out where exactly Lindsay lives and what bus or train to take to get there.

For 80 DKK (about $14) I bought a 24-hour City Pass, which gives me unlimited rides on buses, trains, etc. Paid for it online, and they sent a text message, which you use as the bus ticket. Nice.

I wrote up a couple of days worth of blog posts before finding the metro.

It was super hot on the train. Like sweat dripping down your neck hot.

The first thing I saw when I got to my stop was a Netto. I wanted to get Lindsay's kids a treat, so I bought a couple of 3-packs of Kinder Surprise eggs. These are chocolate eggs which have a little toy inside. They're banned in the States because the toys are chocking hazards. Whatever. I know my kids love them, so I hoped they would too.

Next, I spotted a coffee shop called Cafe Au Lait. It looked cute. And they had a sign out front that advertised "to go" coffee for 12 DKK (2 bucks). For Denmark, that's pretty good. I had never seen coffee here for less than 25.

I ordered a large (the size of a normal household mug) and it was...25 kroner. Ha ha. I'm guessing the 12 kroner coffee was a small. Well played, Cafe Au Lait.

It was so freaking hot, that I wished I'd bought something cold instead. What was I thinking? A couple came in at one point and ordered a Coke (in a glass bottle). I considered getting one after my coffee, but I didn't.

The wi-fi was free and strong. Drank my coffee and got some good blogging done before time to head to Lindsay's. I sat at a table under a big vintage poster of Sophia Loren, rockin' the hairy pits like no other.

A quick check of Google maps showed that Lindsay's house was just a few blocks away. The shortest route was to walk through the University of Copenhagen botanical gardens. I had my rolling carry-on with me instead of a backpack. I could have rolled it through the gardens, but it was really noisy on the paved path. The gardens were so beautiful and so QUIET that I couldn't bring myself to disturb the many people who were lying on blankets or otherwise enjoying the day. So I carried it.

 Massive greenhouses

 Near Lindsay's house, I marveled at how big the bike lane was. Sune said during rush hour the bike lane is absolutely packed with bikes. Some bike lanes in the city are wider than the car lanes.

 Very close to their house, I stopped to take a picture of this. I thought my Sofie would appreciate it. I then got a text from Lindsay saying "Did you get lost in the gardens?" Turns out I was about 20 feet from her front door.

 Because of the heat, we had dinner in the courtyard behind their flat. Another family was eating at the second table.

Viggo and Sofia loved the Kinder eggs. They each opened (and ate) one egg. Viggo's had a little motorcycle. Sofia's had some sort of top launcher, but we couldn't really get it to work well.

Though Lindsay was born in Louisiana and lived there for 18 years, she speaks with a slight British accent. She went to UNC-Chapel Hill and then lived in England for her Master's. That's where she met Sune. They're a lovely family.

View of the lakes from their flat