14 Dec 2014
Copenhagen, Denmark

It was Sunday and it was the day Rebecca and Solveign sent me off to my hostel. And just like the day before, we walked. It was also the day I really felt like a serious backpacker because I was carrying a big backpack behind me and a small one in front of me. Pretty heavy stuff I had on my body and to walk 20 minutes with two heavy backpacks was not fun, at all.

The hostel I stayed was Generator Copenhagen. It was easy to locate from the Dronning Louises Bro. We walked past a renaissance castle – the Rosenborg Slot – and turned left at a junction. I was told my bed would only be ready by 2pm. It was only 10am so I dropped my bags off at the locker room and headed out to Nyhavn with the girls.

If you don’t know Nyhavn yet, it is a famous waterfront in Copenhagen where rows of brightly coloured townhouses dated 17th/18th century are located. It is featured on the front cover of Lonely Planet – Denmark. We were surprised to find how close Nyhavn was from my hostel. I didn’t take picture of Nyhavn though because firstly, I didn’t feel like photographing at that moment and secondly, I could return the next day for pictures.

To be honest, I didn’t have a to-do-plan on this particular day. I knew what I wanted to see but since my two Danish friends were here to accompany me for the next 6 hours, I let them do the planning. After all, they had been planning about it the night before.

So we strolled along the Nyhavn canal. I was admiring every single detail in silence. The colours, bars, bistros, stalls, the smell of gløgg, coffee, churros, and cinnamon, and the people. As we continued walking, we reached a harbour where a theater building was located. Walked past it to a construction site and exited through the back alley and to a junction that led us to Amalienborg, the home of the Royal family.

Lonely Planet listed Amalienborg as a place to visit while in Copenhagen. There were probably four or five buildings in Amalienborg. Each building has a flag and according to Rebecca, if one does not see a flag, it means someone (a Royal person) is not home. Whether this was true or not, I nodded. The road to Amalienborg also brought us to the famous Little Mermaid. It took us 10 minutes to reach it after passing an old church and some statues.

The mermaid is arguably the most photographed statue in Copenhagen. Tourists and visitors alike come here to take a picture of her or with her. We took a different route back to the city centre and got lost. It was really cold but we managed to locate Østerport Station and stopped at a cafe to have a coffee. It was already 1.30pm.

On our way to the city centre, we saw paramedics attending a man on the ground. He was badly injured and covered in blood. Solveign presummed the man was homeless and drunk and fell to the ground or got hit by a bicycle. Whatever it was, I told them I am putting saw a badly injured man in Copenhagen in my checklist.

We spent another hour at Magasin (a shopping mall in Denmark) then stopped by at a Turkey restaurant for a kebab and had random conversation about the weather, travel, education, and life etc etc. Because Rebecca needed to take a bus to Aarhus, we bid farewell to Solveign and headed to Norreport Station to catch a train to Valby Station.

Later, I made my way back to the city and got lost on my way to the hostel. The buildings looked the same and when the sky turned dark, it got colder. After about 30 minutes of walking and turning from one junction to another, I gave up.  I stopped a tall handsome man for a direction and apparently I was just a block away.

I stayed in a 6-bed female room. Three beds were occupied but there was no one in the room when I finally settled in. Then, a lady came in with a backpack. Her name was Cecelia and she was from France.

Because Cecelia could not converse in English, I had to use Google Translate while she used her French-English dictionary. Nevertheless, we went dinner at the hostel cafe and had a word by word conversation.

I had a great evening. Went back to the room and met Courtney from China who just settled-in. I then realised travelling alone was not so bad afterall. This was just the beginning.