The devil is in the details

I sound "tan"

I woke up this morning excited about my first day of being on vacation in Copenhagen (and about being away from the boss...) Checkout of the hotel was at 9, so I got myself ready and checked out around 8:30. The hotel/conference center was a ways away from the city, so I needed a cab back. I asked for a cab at 9 and I proceeded to attempt to check email on the hotel computer (an exercise in futility) and take some pictures around Hvidøre. I mostly wanted to take some pictures from the porch area behind the dining room, so I went up to the dining room, where breakfast was nearly over. In fact, there was only one person still there eating breakfast...my boss. I had planned on skipping breakfast since I'm not really a breakfast person, but he yelled at me to eat and almost made me miss out on having time before the cab ride to take some pictures. Then I took a cab back to Copenhagen to go to the hotel where I'd be staying while sightseeing.

It was still relatively early so my room wasn't ready, but they let me drop off my luggage. Then I walked around for a little while (bought some souvenirs and a Copenhagen card, which gets me free admission to a lot of the tourist attractions as well as free rides on public transportation). The meetings were a ways north of the city, on the way towards a town called Helsingøre, which had some important things to see. I heard quite a bit about Helsingøre at the meeting, so I decided to take the train from Copenhagen to see the sights there.

What is Helsingøre, you ask? Well, the English translation is Elsinore, and it is the town that was the setting for Hamlet. The most famous sight in Helsingøre is Kronborg castle, the castle that was actually the castle that Hamlet theoretically lived in.

I am SO glad that I went. I enjoyed the train ride immensely because I got to see some of the countryside of Denmark outside of Copenhagen. The entire town of Helsingøre is wonderful...so pretty and so different from anything that you'd find in the US. Other than the castle, the town features some old houses and an amazing medieval monastery. Helsingøre as a city is important to Denmark because it is near the northern tip of the country (it looks like the closest point to Sweden on my map.) Once upon a time, all ships that wanted to pass through the area had to pay high taxes in Helsingøre, so it was at one time a very rich merchant area.

Kronborg is an AMAZING castle. It is quite possibly my favorite castle that I have ever seen. Hamlet, Prince of the Danes certainly did well for himself (yes, I know that is fiction, but still.) I had a wonderful time touring the castle. You can tour the royal residence, the cellars, the chapel and the grounds. All of them were very nice, although the cellars were a bit creepy. I don't recommend going there if you get scared easily. It was fabulous!!!

After I got back to Copenhagen, I checked into my hotel room. I found this hotel on Expedia and I am very impressed with it. The hotel itself is extremely nice and it is in a perfect location. My room is a little small (particularly the bathroom, which is unbelieveably tiny...but that's Europe.) but still quite nice. I spent some time unpacking and unwinding in the room (that is when I posted the other entries) and then I sat down on the bed to plan out what to do for the rest of the day.

When I woke up two and a half hours later (oops), I realized that I was quite hungry and that I wanted to do something else for the day. I ended up going to Tivoli, one of Copenhagen's most famous sights. It is actually a very nice amusement park and gardens in the middle of the city. It is totally awesome. I stayed there for about two hours (and got some food while I was there) and then went back to the hotel, with the plan being to chill for a little while and then sleep well before a big day of sightseeing tomorrow.

One of the little things that I had to do was to call my friend J. who was also in Copenhagen. J. is a fellow graduate student in the immunology program in my year and is one of my best friends. He has been dating a girl (P.) from Denmark for quite a while now, and it just so happened that they were going to be vacationing in Copenhagen during these same few days. I called J.'s Danish cell phone (that tells you how often he is over here) to try to set up a time to get together...I was hoping maybe to have dinner tomorrow night. We ended up deciding to go out for beers tonight. We had a FANTASTIC time sitting outside at a bar catching up (there was defintely news to be shared!). I had two of Carlsberg's special beers (as opposed to the one available in the US) that were excellent. J. and P. recommended some places for me to go sightseeing tomorrow and then we decided to all go out to dinner and to the Carlsberg brewery tomorrow. J. even gave me his Danish cell phone to use for the time that I'm here, since the only person who ever calls him is P. and they will not really need it since they are moving her into an apartment in Copenhagen tomorrow.

The moral of this story is that I had a GREAT day today and I am sure it will continue to be a wonderful week. Apparently after I talked to J. on the phone, he told P. that I sounded "tan", which they took to mean super-relaxed. He says that he has never seen me this calm and happy before. I can certainly understand why...it's great!

As for people who have asked about pictures...no worries there. I am taking pictures at a pretty alarming rate. I am shocked by how many I've already taken, so you should all have nothing to worry about. There will certainly be copious pictures when I return. :)

posted by Immunegirl @ 7:50 PM