Day 5 – 12/6 Copenhagen – Göteborg

Arrival in Copenhagen also meant saying goodbye to the lovely sunshine of the past few days. Weather conditions are absolutely dreadful with rain pouring down heavily from the sky. First stop was the international tourist centre around the corner of the railway station to get myself a map and some leaflets with information about places of interest.
After some sightseeing, a visit to the National Museum of Denmark and a walk through the shopping street called Stroget I figured it was time to start the mission my dad, jokingly or not, suggested last Monday. I needed to get to the Mermaid, a symbol for Denmark after an idea of fairy tale writer H.C. Anderson, to take a picture with a Carlsberg and a Danish flag. I started my quest at Nyhaven (New Haven), a really cozy part of the harbour with on both sides a lot of restaurants. It somehow reminded me of “de Graslei” in Ghent as it radiates a similar atmosphere. I asked one of the shopkeepers whether I could borrow one of the flags fluttering on the façade and went to buy a Carlsberg in a nearby super market. In Denmark paying with coins in a supermarket is particularly easy, you just throw them into a machine that does all the counting and gives you automatically back the excess money. Then I started heading towards my goal through heavy wind and rain. Slightly exhausted, but satisfied I finally achieved the statue. Asking someone to take a photo was no problem since the place, however quite remote, is most of the time crowded with tourists. Mission Accomplished !

After spending the night on Mikkel’s couch, an IAESTE member I met in Istanbul, I went to visit the Carlsberg brewery. In the gallery below you can find some pictures. The exhibition includes the world’s largest collection of unopened beer bottles and of course the Belgian beers are widely represented. We might be only a tiny country, the biggest bottles in the exhibition are Leffe Blond and Duvel. After the exhibition you get to try 2 different special beers. Carlsberg Elephant Beer proved to be of a particular good flavor. You get the distinct Carlsberg flavor, however slightly more bitter with a hint of fruitiness. Definitely worth a try.
I’m now on the train travelling to Gothenburg, where I will meet my next Couchsurfing host Angel. On the way there I was reading a Danish newspaper and they have an interesting suggestion for a problem we have been facing in Ghent too considering bike crime. They are now distributing chips for free to the people to implement in their bike and if one reports it stolen the chip sends out a signal that can be picked up by police officers that happen to be nearby and an email is automatically send to the rightful owner saying they found his/her bike back and disclosing the location.
In the album you can also see some pictures taken at the “Signspotting” exhibition which was coincidentally in Copenhagen that day. Really my cup of tea, however no watch out for polar bear signs though. I put some online, but unfortunately they were already closing when I arrived so there weren’t that many left.

Day 5 - Kopenhagen

Take care!
Best wishes, Bram