First off, Copenhagen is one of the cleanest and most beautiful cities I have ever seen! Everyone there looks happy, healthy, and active and there are seemingly more bikes on the road than people! The only city I have ever been to that closely resembles Copenhagen is Boulder, CO! The city is really cute, replete with multicolor row houses, canals, and a beautiful ocean front! With that being said, it is also incredibly expensive and makes both London and Paris look cheap! I guess the people here do not mind paying extra in taxes to have high standards of living... Go figure!
Now, today was really cool because I added another country to my itinerary, Sweden! Now, don't get too excited, it is really only 20 minutes away. Robyn and I hit up four cities (Copenhagen, Helsingor, Helsingborg, and Malmo) all in 10 hours. I managed to throw away $300, as I broke my camera and decided to buy a new one from the Sony Store in Helsingborg, and I am trying not to think about that right now!
Helsingor, which is in Denmark, had the claim to fame of hosting the castle where Hamlet took place. We then took a 20 minute ferry over to Helsingborg, Sweden, which boasts some beautiful coastline, medieval churches and castles, and really friendly people. We were there for about 2 hrs and then took a high speed train down to Malmo which is just opposite from Copenhagen. Now, what is in Malmo!? Not a whole lot; it is just really beautiful. It does happen to be the city we are flying out of tomorrow to go to Budapest (hooray for discount airline WizzAir !). Now, one last note on Malmo! Tonight, I ate my WORST meal of the WHOLE trip, a McDonalds chicken wrap and fries. Why would I do that, you ask!? Well, it was the cheapest meal I could find under $20, and this cost me 12! Yes, Malmo, Sweden is THE MOST EXPENSIVE CITY I have EVER BEEN TO! When Subway costs $15 and burger at a decent restaurant costs $40 ( more than NYC), well, McDs is fine! The Swedes have some of the highest standards of living in the world, but Sweden is definitely not cheap!
Three last notes about Denmark and Sweden... First off, there is sooooooo much more to Sweden than Ikea and meatballs. It is beautiful! Two, this was the first time on my trip where I did no do any WWI, WWII, or Holocaust history, and it was nice to have a break! Third, Copenhagen has a section of the city I referred to as " Hippieville"; it really is called Christania. Here, people smoke pot out in the open and it is almost a separate section of the city where basically anything goes. Yeah, Copenhagen is SUPER LIBERAL :)
Off to Budapest tomorrow!
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