Arriving In København (That's Copenhagen!)

Flew into Copenhagen with Asia/Katie, but I ended up hanging out at the airport for a few hours so I could meet up with Ari/Jeremy. Once they arrived we headed out through customs/immigration (man, one thing I don't like about the EU is that you don't get stamps on your passport everytime you enter a new country--lame!). We ended up catching a local transit bus from the airport into downtown Copenhagen; our destination: The Dan Hostel in downtown Copenhagen.

The Dan Hostel is a HUGE hostel (we met someone later who called it the Hilton of hostels). This wasn't a tiny hostel, it was a huge skyscraper, and when we arrived at the lobby, there was a throng of backpackers, punk rockers, and other people swarming the joint. The huge rock festival Roskilde had just ended so tons of people were invading Copenhagen after several days of rocking out and lack of showering.

We hung out in the lobby for a bit. Had our first taste of Danish beer (a draft of Carlsberg), and then checked in. We were up on the 15th floor and had a hostel suite. It was a minimalistically-decorated room, and we were happy with it and the view it had. We chilled for a bit and then went to explore.

We headed to Nyhavn (this is the famous area with a canal and colorful building). Now our stay in Copenhagen happened to coincide with a jazz festival. We were able to catch music at various places within the city. On the way to Nyhavn there was a Dixieland band playing (near the Absalon statue. Here we had a Danish sausage and hung out. While here, Ari (barefoot) and Jeremy busted out some of their swing dancing moves. It was very cool, and they ended up stealing a few ovations from the crowd.
From here we then had to go see The Little Mermaid statue (for Ari). To get there we walked along the water and saw several neat things. There was a really neat fountain called the Gefion fountain (with a woman and a group of bulls). Once we made it to The Little Mermaid, we all snapped some pictures, and Ari paid homage to her namesake. :)

Langenilie (angle statue)

On the way back to the hostel we went a different route. We went through Kastellet--a Danish fortress (complete with a cool-looking windmill!). Copenhagen is such a cool city. There are so many cool things to see, and it is so conducive to walking.

In Scottish: "A neh-ul & lay-ee bug" (aka a nettle and lady bug)

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We had a quick break at the hostel and then set out for dinner. This is when we found out something about Copenhagen: it's expensive here! We walked around several areas too find modestly-priced food and we had a rough time. We eventually found a place which served a popular Danish dish: open-faced sandwiches. I believe mine had liver in it and it tasted pretty good. Ari had one with curried herring, and it didn't agree with her. Oh well---we can't all be vikings! :)

After dinner we walked the streets a bit more. We found a place which served home-made ice cream and we pounced on it. They were playing some Brazillian music here, so I ended up asking the person behind the counter what she was listening to--hey, she was cute! ;)


After our ice cream our mission was to find a Karaoke bar. Asia and Katie had already scoped the place out, so they knew where to go. Sam's Bar is where we went. There were only about 4-5 people in here, but they were singing. So, we decided to stay put. I decided to buy a round of beers...this is when I discovered Copenhagen is EXPENSIVE. With the exchange rate, a pint ended up costing something around $10! Oh man, this was going to be a hard town. We milked our beers and some of us cheered on the Danes who were belting out the likes of Elvis, Elton John, Michel Buble, Ole Blue Eyes, etc. Asia eventually worked up the guts and was brave enough to take the stage. She sang Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools", and she rocked. We all cheered her on. There was even a Dane taking her picture with his phone! We ended up splittle a little bit after Asia's performance. While hanging out on the street outside of Sam's Bar, one of the karaoke singers approached us. Turns out he was a New Yorker who had been living in Copenhagen for the last few years. He was pretty funny. I don't know how it came up, but he asked if I was Greenland-ish---I told him I was Indian. We also told him we were staying at the Dan Hostel, and he called it the "Four Seasons" of hostels. :) Anyway, our experience at Sam's Bar was awesome. And it was a good end to our first night in Denmark.