My second night's sleep began at 4:00 am, a slight improvement over the previous night. I kept delaying our move out time so I could sleep more. We arrived at Rosenborg Castle at 11:40. It was supposed to be open, so we doubled back to look for other possible entrances and then ended up back where we started. A group had gathered and so I had us wait until the turn of the hour. They opened the gates and we were the first ones in.
The inside of the castle was shockingly beautiful and had three floors full of things to view. Since the crowd moved like molasses, we were able to have each room to ourselves before moving on. My favorite was the top floor, which was one long hallway with an exceedingly beautiful white ceiling.
When we exited, we noticed that there was a second entrance, to visit the treasury. Our ticket declined. The worker seemed puzzled. He asked, "It says that you are scheduled for 20 after. You went through the whole castle in four minutes?" Yes, we were fast, but we weren't THAT fast. In any case, he made an exception and let us in.
We left and took a bus to the Cisterns in Søndermarken. This was a unique art exhibit that is held in a former reservoir. The bus made a turn that was the opposite of what Google Maps said the route was. We had to walk a little farther to reach the area. First, however, we stopped at Frederiksberg Palace, rated highly, and right across the street. We popped our head in to what definitely didn't look like a tourist attraction, and asked the worker. He informed us that it was a military installation, but you can see the palace gardens for free. We skipped the winter nongardens and the outside view of a palace and turned to the cistern.
It was a promising idea, with a spectacular first exhibit. Unfortunately, someone in charge became obsessed with wedding dresses, and 80% of the exhibits were spinning wedding dresses being sprayed with water.
The bus stop showed that the route no longer arrived there, and so we began walking to the nearest metro. At the first major intersection, we found out why. The road had been slightly dismantled, and so nothing could go in or out there. The metro took us right outside the sleeping grounds of the Tivoli amusement park. Miles identified a hot dog stand, and announced his hunger. They sold an incredibly good vegetarian hot dog.
Around the corner was the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which was a pretty neat art museum.
Afterward, we retired to our room. Something had been nagging on the back of my mind. Every time I had tried to look up subway routes on the ride home, it kept trying to show me one hour in the past. So, I googled Denmark time. We were an hour ahead! It all made sense now. The Rosenborg castle was opening ON TIME! It was us that was early, thinking we were late. I don't know when the time changed, but I have a theory. I manually adjusted my clocks when we arrived at Munich Airport. However, I did not switch our region to Denmark in the settings. Last night was daylight savings time change in the US. Since it still had me labelled as US, it changed my time an hour beyond my previously modified time. The time change wouldn't have changed the time I went to sleep yet, since it wasn't even midnight back home, but my wake up time was modified. Lame.
While hot dog eating and people watching, followed by our museum jaunt, I became hyper aware of just how in shape people are. 90% of the people in Denmark are what would be considered thin or skinny in the US. 9.5% would be considered mildly chubby in the US. .5% would still be considered only half as fat as a fat American. So, while on the phone with my parents, I did some Google research. According to what I read, most people here are part of social sports clubs, companies push sports clubs and gym memberships, and the Danish are not fond of fast foods. When you add in the ridiculous amount of bikers and the necessary biking lanes all throughout the city, it really is no wonder why they are in good shape. The cold weather does not seem to stop them one bit.
Just prior to going on this trip, I came up with the idea of hijacking the use of dating apps in order to meet up with locals, to learn more about the culture from the inside. After a match, I would simply explain that I was in town for a bit, and then asked to meet up to swap stories. After a measly two hundred swipes, I had a meetup scheduled!
She asked if I wanted to get drinks or something to eat. Since people can get all squirrely when I explain that I don't drink, don't mind them drinking, and I'll just order something else, I decided the safe bet was for food. She picked... a hamburger joint. Fine fine.
POPL Burger was just southeast of Nyhavn, across a bridge that Google Maps assured me had existed, while at the same time showing only emptiness over the water. There was indeed a very cool multicolored bridge, with biking and walking lanes only. At the restaurant, they served you a napkin with a QR code on it, which, when scanned with your phone, popped up the menu(with an English option!). I ordered the vegetarian burger while she gave me the evil eye and ordered a regular version.
She is from Germany and has been in Denmark doing research at a local hospital since just before the pandemic. I asked her questions about what it was like living here, what she thought of the people, and how the dating scene was. Of course, I asked many, many more questions, in usual UADarthmaul fashion.
She explained that the dating scene was difficult here, for three reasons. The first reason was that everyone has a busy schedule. It isn't work that has their time booked, it is their social life! Due to the fantastic work/life balance, they have so many social events, that they sometimes couldn't schedule a date for two weeks out. The second issue she found, was that in her experience, dating is almost always casual for a very long time, without serious commitments. The third difficulty was that, as a non native Danish speaker, she found that people grew tired of speaking English, and viewed her as just a temporary person in their country.
I had packed my camera gear, though I screwed up the settings of one of them, and so took a quick shot of the brown colored Playhouse and the Copenhagen Opera house, both of which were easily seen from the bridge.
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| Opera House |
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| Playhouse |
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