Greetings friends! I’m writing this blog on the plane back from Copenhagen, Denmark where I have been for a few days with some of my best friends from back home: Alyssa, Jacqui, and Emily. To say this trip was *eventful* would be an extreme understatement. The city itself completely exceeded all of my expectations and has definitely become one of my favorite places that I have traveled. Still, traveling with my friends from high school made it that much more memorable.
With Alyssa having studied in Copenhagen during college (which she was insistent to share with anyone and everyone we met), she was our own personal tour guide around town – showing us the best views, activities, landmarks, and most importantly, restaurants (it’s obvious why we’re friends, no?). Some of the funniest parts of our trip though involved Danish law enforcement. Having just touched down into the country, the three of us happily got off the plane, – now in hindsight – oblivious to our surroundings and the process of going through customs. While talking to the officer, due to language confusion and probably overtiredness, Alyssa thought he had asked her how long she had been here before to which she answered – “Oh I studied in Copenhagen, I was here for 5 months.” They eventually got on the same page and we all realized he had just asked her how long she will be staying this trip. Next up was Emily. In typical customs’ fashion the man asked her where she would be staying. Did we know? Of course not. Jacqui and I started scrambling trying to find the confirmation email from our hostel, unfortunately to no avail. Alyssa, realizing something wasn’t going right turned around and came back to help us, to which the officer proceeded to yell, “You can’t come back, you’ve just crossed an international border!!” We were then told to step aside, and, even though we were laughing, thoughts of being detained in the Denmark airport were not very far off. Finally though, we found the name and thankfully the officer was nice enough to let us through (phew). Fortunately, the rest of that day continued with gorgeous views of Copenhagen’s towers, adorable cafes, and delicious sandwiches (if you like restaurants on the water– you must go to Nyhavn).
Our next experience with Danish authorities (this time – the military) happened on our final day, when we were strolling around to take in some last tourist attractions before our flight. We were approaching the Rosenborg Castle, looking for the front gate. We eventually reached a main gate outside of the front of the castle that was wide open, just flanked by two Danish guards. With the gate open, we figured we could just walk right through to get up close. A few steps past the gate, however, the guards started yelling “no, no, no!” and coming towards us to block us from entering. After doing a quick back pedal out they were nice enough to explain where tourists could enter the main grounds (clearly not where we currently were). As we walked through the park of the castle, we quickly realized that what we were trying to walk into was a full on military base. In the end though, we got to fit in walking around Rosenborg before our flight.
Even though we had a few dangerous – and almost too American – moments, the trip was absolutely amazing. I highly recommend people to visit Copenhagen, and am so thankful and appreciative for my friends for visiting. Here’s to *hopefully* seamless interactions with law enforcement and many more traveling memories to come.
