The Swede Life of Jo and Simba: Denmark Weekend

After practice Friday night, Meghan and I headed to Denmark for the weekend. The drive went very smoothly. There is a toll to get across the bridge from Sweden to Denmark. It was a $60 toll!!! We stayed some friends’ apartment, Emily and Chelsea. I know Emily from the January Bring It Tour I went on. Meghan played club volleyball with Chelsea. We made some paper snowflakes!

If you do the math, it is a little more than $8 per gallon!!!

Meghan and I woke up early Saturday morning, 7am! This is on average 4 hours earlier than my normal wake up time. The reason for our early awakening was Meghan’s dad landing in Copenhagen. We picked him up from the airport with no problems and headed into downtown Copenhagen. After a long search for a free parking spot, we were walking the city. Meghan and I felt like pro’s knowing our way around to see all the sites since this was our second visit to this city. We walked past Tivoli (Meghan and her dad went there that night to see the Christmas lights) and down the main shopping street. We stopped to get some breakfast where I had a real Danish danish! This took us to Nyhavn, the famous canal street, which was already decorated for Christmas. We walked along the water heading towards the Little Mermaid statue.

We returned to the car so that I could grab my bag before hopping on a train to go to Vordingborg. My friend, Tara, plays volleyball in Vordingborg, but she lives in a very small town close by called Præstø. I was a little bit nervous for this trip because I was traveling by myself with no phone. Meghan texted Tara telling her what time my train was supposed to arrive in Vordingborg, and I just prayed that she would show up. I read my book during the hour-long train ride. My train arrived right on time. I started to get nervous after waiting for Tara for 20 minutes. I was already devising a plan for what I would do if I never found her. I filled with joy (and relief) as soon as I saw her walking from the parking lot! We had lunch at a little café where I indulged in some nachos. Lots of places in Denmark will only take Danish credit cards so Tara was forced to pay for both of us after my Swedish card was denied. After the short tour of Vordingborg (it’s about the same size as Ljungby), we headed to Præstø to Tara’s apartment. We hung out there for a bit before heading to the gym with two other Americans on Tara’s team to play some doubles volleyball. It was fun to just get in the gym and play around. We had pizza for dinner before heading back to Tara’s apartment. We stayed up until 2am watching a Lifetime movie on her computer, Marry Me. It was a super cheesy movie, but it was cute. I enjoyed it!

Sunday morning we headed to Fredricksberg for Tara’s volleyball match. I read my book until Meghan and her dad showed up. We went to get some lunch before the match started. I was thrilled when we found a bagel shop!!! I had an asiago cheese bagel with pastrami, sun-dried tomato cream cheese, mustard, jalapenos, and some other veggies. It was very delicious!

We returned to the gym to watch Tara and her team win in three. She played great! After a bazillion hugs, I said goodbye to Tara. It was so great to get to spend the weekend just hanging out with a good friend.

We took a different route home so that we could stop at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, Denmark. This castle is famous for being Hamlet’s Castle in the Shakespeare play. In 2009, Jude Law took part in a performance of Hamlet at Kronborg Castle. The security guard that we met later on actually met and talked with Jude Law while he was there. I’m jealous! We arrived at the castle a little before 4pm, and it was scheduled to close at 4pm. We quickly made our way to the castle. It is situated at the entrance to the Baltic Sea so that the Danish king could control who entered and exited the sea and charge them a fee.

Map of the grounds of Kronborg Castle.

Inside the main square of the castle.

We were inside the castle square when a security guard started yelling something to us. After the usual response “we only speak English”, he told us to wait and he would show us some other places that he already locked up. He had a ring of skeleton keys, which he used to unlock a giant red door.

Through all the fog, you could barely see a couple of lights across the water that was coming from Sweden! This is the narrowest passage from Denmark to Sweden; it is about 2.5 miles wide.

The security guard let me help take down the Danish flag. It was pretty cool minus all the bird poop on it!

We headed back to the exit, but the security guard had more in store for us. There was a rope blocking one passageway with a sign that said no one beyond that point. This did not include us! He led us through the dark passageway with his flashlight and unlocked a metal jail cell type door.

There we saw a famous statue of Ogier the Dane. There is a myth that this Danish king went to Kronborg castle where he just slept until he was needed for something.

We went back to the exit, which was an even bigger red door than earlier, but he had already locked it. Good thing there was a little Alice in Wonderland type door!

There is no bridge from Denmark to Sweden here. Instead, we had to take a ferry across. I believe this is my first time on a ferry like this where you drive your car onto it! Depending on which side of the boat you were on, you could see lights coming from both Sweden and Denmark.