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Even before arriving at this continent, I knew there was one place I wanted to go; it was Sweden. Why Sweden? Two main reasons, firstly I know Sweden is as hockey-crazed as Canada, so that was a big insentive to go, and secondly, I wanted to see if its true what they say; a country full of gorgeous blond haired blue eyed women. My roommate Kevin has always wanted to go to Copenhagen, Denmark, and so we decided to go, and while over there check out Sweden at the same time, since there is a bridge that goes to Malmo. I wanted to go to Stockholm, but this was a good compromise.

Malmo, Sweden

The moment we got to the Copenhagen airport, we took the first train to Malmo, Sweden. When I got sight of the ticket prices, I knew this country wasn’t going to be cheap; $20 for a train pass to go over the bridge. So, we bought a ticket, and took the first train to Sweden, with no idea where we were going to stay for the night. The first thing I see when I arrive is a Burger King, and if you know me, that made me very happy; until I saw the prices that is. A Whopper combo came out to an equivilent of $12 CAD. I like Burger King, but not that much. But, it turns out that these are the typical prices in this city, everything is extremely expensive, the cheapest thing we found was $3 CAD for a muffin and a coffee.

Kevin with our coffee and muffins in a burger joint called Max

So, with caffeine in our system, and our stomachs slightly more filled, we decide that its time to explore the city. Now, while in Scandinavia, we didn’t do the typical tourist thing, like find specific monuments or find places where Vikings died, we just went off and explored (although one thing I found that was pretty cool is when you actually find a statue/historic area, there is a number that you can call and a voice recorded message tells you all about it, might be a good idea in other places of Europe as well). There were a lot of things about Malmo that reminded me of Vancouver, there were plenty of nice parks, there was lots of green, and the buildings were significantly more modern then Prague in most areas.

Town square

After a couple hours of exploring, we decided it was time to find a place to sleep for the night, and while exploring we did step into a bunch of hotels to get some prices, but when we asked a lady at a Best Western where the cheapest place to stay was, she directed us to a hotel on the other side of the Central Station. We went to check it out, and hey, what do you know, she was right, it was the cheapest place to stay for the night (~$55 CAD for the night, yeah, Sweden is expensive). But, not only did we have our own room with two beds, but we got a free all you can eat breakfast the next day, and all you can eat waffles all day long. This was the deciding factor in choosing our hostel.

Waffles, we could made these all day, any time. Awesome.

So, after getting settled in, we went out to buy some food and beers from a supermarket we randomly found when taking the wrong direction back to the city (starving student style). After having a few, we decided it was time to see what the nightlife had to offer. It turns out Sweden was stricter then we had initially hoped, not strict by North American standards, but definitely by European standards. Alcohol was no where to be found on the side stores, the only drink we could buy were beers that were 3.5%, quite a weak beer. We went to a couple pubs in the main area, but unfortunitely the pubs were quite expensive, and we couldn’t find any real clubs. After a bit of bar hopping, Kevin and I found a big line into a building, so we decide to go check it out.

Line in the distance

We ended up meeting a really awesome Swedish guy who answered a lot of the questions we were having. We found out that we couldn’t get beers over 3.5% because that was the maximum any corner store could sell, any more and you have to buy alcohol from a designated liquer stores, just like Vancouver. We also found out that the clubbing age in the city is 20, meaning I made the bare minimum, but Kevin wasn’t old enough, so the line we were in was completely pointless… We headed back, and went back to the burger joint were we got the coffees in the morning, and got a couple burgers and finished off the night talking to a forty year old Swede who was completely out of his mind.

Frustrating night in Sweden

Copenhagen, Denmark

The next morning, we took the train and headed over to Copenhagen. This was almost the same situation as Sweden, we had arrived in the city and really didn’t know were we were going to sleep that night. The plan was to stay with one of the girls that Kevin and I had met in a bar in Prague, but we were still communicating back and forth, unsure of anything. Copenhagen was a very gorgeous city, large and full of cool looking landmarks. A big bonus was that in this city, we could get alcohol almost anywere, and therefor the guy we met in Sweden was right; Denmark has a much better drinking culture. But the big downside was the price of this city, a Whopper meal came to ~$15 CAD.

The architecture to me seemed like a mixture of Amsterdam and Vancouver

Turns out that we had a place to stay for the night, Sille (danish girl) came through, so for night two, we had a bed. The house was on the outskirts of the city, a decent bus/train distance away. The house itself was very cool, made of brick on the outside, and the inside was filled with what you would see in a typical family house; kids drawings on the wall, a couple rooms, and a (interesting looking) furnace. Luckly the family wasn’t there that weekend, they were in Sweden, although I wouldn’t have minded meeting a full Danish family.

Where I slept; Sille’s sisters room

After we were all settled in, it was off to the city to see what the nightlife had to offer. Sille went to go meet up with some friends, while Kevin and I went to go to a bar that offered cheap drinks for a Sunday night. There wasn’t many people in the bar, but we made friends with the bartenders, whom we bought drinks for. One was a Columbian who came to Copenhagen on a student exchange, loved it so much he decided to stay and bartend (a big insentive was minimum wage is equivilent to $20 CAD). The other was a gorgeous blond haired blue eyed bartender, the one who initially cought our eye when we were passing the bar, we later found out that she sang as well, and was pretty decent. The bartenders recommended us to some event, and so they marked it on a map and wondered across the city to this place, which ended up being an hour and a half walk, and it turns out it was were Sille was going as well. Along the way, she tells us not to go there, but to go to the bar she was at, and so we headed over there instead. This bar was quite a grungy bar, and we were definitely the only tourists in the area, we later found out it wasn’t the safest area in Copenhagen. While in the bar, I noticed three Danes who wanted to play fooseball, but clearly needed a forth man, so I offered my services, and they were happy to have me. We played a couple games, and for each game, the loser bought the winners a round of shots; my partner and I won twice.

Foosball partner; Turns out his wife is Persian, and he spent a lot of time telling me to go to Teran, Iran

Afterwords, we headed back with Sille on a bus, and thankfully we were with her, because there is no way Kevin and I would have found it on our own using the bus, it was a big maze. We went back, passed out, and woke up to a new day. Sille made us coffee, I took a shower, and we were on our away. Her parents were coming back that night, she said it would be fine to stay another night if we couldn’t find a place to stay, but we didn’t want to overstay our welcome.

Thanks for taking us to Danish secret nightlife, and the free place to stay. We owe you one Sille!

We ventured into the city, and we needed to figure out what to do. The question was, do we find a place to sleep, or do we tough it out and stay out all night. We decided on the latter; we figured we were getting back late anyways, we would really only get 4 hours of sleep at most, and considering the cheapest hostel was ~$60 CAD, it wasn’t worth it for us. That night in Copenhagen, we were homeless. We walked over to the Central Station, bought some lockers, and kept our bags there for the night. The first thing we decided to do was to finally get something to eat, we had been living off the food we bought in Sweden for the last couple of days (bananas and nuts). We found an amazing middle eastern all you can eat buffet, and surprisingly for a decent price.

All you can eat dinner, the candle in my opinion was kind of misplaced, but who cares when you get unlimited food. But having so much food made me realize how much my capacity to eat has gone down. I may not eat the most food at the next Christmas eve dinner…

We decide to look for a pub, and to our surprise, the bar has the same deal that it had on Sunday. This time, we tried a bunch of Danish shots. One tasted like licorice, one tasted like childrens medicine, and one tasted like something I can’t compare, its a drink that old people drink; I hated it, Kevin liked it. It was a little more lively this night, a lot more locals. After about eight shots or so each, we decided to find a different bar. We wondered around aimlessly, and we happened to see an middle aged couple, and we asked them if there were any good pubs in the area. They said they were heading to a jazz bar, and we were welcome to come of we’d like. So we followed along.

Myself, Kevin, Henrich and Henne

We ended up spending a couple hours with this couple, they bought us a couple rounds of beer, and we did likewise. They also bought everyone a shot of the old people drink; I wasn’t very excited about this, but I’m not one to turn down a drink. We found out that they were both teachers; Henne was a teacher for the disabled, and Henrich was a history teacher. They told us a lot about their lives, and Copenhagen as well, they marked a couple places for us to go. Afterwords, we headed out, and almost everything was closed, so there was nothing left to do but find a place in Copenhagen to sleep. The first place we found was a little enclosed space we had previously ran into when going the wrong away, we saw it and figured it would be a good place to sleep.

Tighe passed out, I didn’t sleep here, I wasn’t tired so I played Wolfenstein on my iPhone instead

While we stayed there, a white truck pulled up, and it kind of freaked us out since we didn’t know who it was, and we were in an enclosed space with no other way out, so we got out of there as fast as possible. The next stop was to see if we could sleep at the Central Station.

Central Station

Unfortunately, we were kicked out by a security guard. The next thing we decided to do was to go to a early morning breakfast place that the Danish couple told us about, and it was a pretty far walk on a cold night, but we decided to give it a go. We get to the exact location that she marked, but there was no breakfast to be found. We found a church and slept on the outside bench instead. It ended up being too cold to sleep, I couldn’t do it so we continued to walk. We found a bakery that was opening in an hour, so we slept outside of it until it opened. I figured, if I bought a sandwich, they wouldn’t mind if I rested my head on the table for a bit, but I was wrong, they kicked us out after I paid for a $10 CAD sandwich that was worth about $2. By the time that whole ordeal was over, we found an open McDonalds, bought some burgers, and took a nap. Clearly, I can always count on McDonalds to save the day.

Me outside of the bakery, extremely tired

There were a couple more places we slept, like the park, and I’m sure there are more that I can’t remember. Overall, it was a ridiculous night, and I have new found respect for the homeless, its not easy out there. We headed back to the airport, and our Scandinavian adventure had come to a close.

So, a couple of weekends ago I went to Vienna, and it was great. It was more of a low key trip, did more and drank less for once. We took the student agency bus, it wasn’t as long of a bus ride as Budapest, maybe about five hours or so. We stayed at the Wombat hostel, which is located at the end of the main shopping street in Vienna, a street most women I know would kill to shop at. I was more impressed with the donairs.

Donairs, 3 Euro

The hostel was fantastic, it was very clean, and very modern. When we walked in, we awoke a sleeping Korean man, who was startled by our entrance. Hora and I talked to him, and it turns out he was in Vienna for the International Atomic Energy conference! The first thing I thought to ask was “What the hell are you doing in a hostel?”. But I guess scientists don’t make as much these days. The beds were very comfortable, more so then my own bed at the Kolej. This hostel had a great bar in the basement, on the first night we went down and ended up playing fooseball with the bar tender, who had the key to the machine and kept the ball rolling all night. He was pissed of when he lost though, it was Greg and I vs Hora and him.

Hostel

During the day we went exploring, and it was very different from Prague in a lot of ways. The city was quite a bit more modern looking in the main downtown, the buildings not quite as old as Prague. Another thing about the city was that it was it was more spaced out, much less cramped then Prague, although I’m not sure if thats a good thing, they definitely didn’t get the most out of the land, but it was a nice change. We walked down the main shopping district to get to the main downtown core. Once we got there, there was a ton of buildings to take a look at, most of them we’re pretty cool.

Some castle I thought looked nice

Later on that night, we went to a Hukka bar and smoked some flavored tobacco with the rest of the students who were on this trip from the dorm. Apparently there is a large Turkish population in Vienna, so these kinds of bars are quite common. We also had some beers and just chilled out.

Chillin’ at a Hukka bar

The next day, it was an amazingly sunny day, the first time I’d walked outside in Europe with just a t-shirt, and it was about damn time. We walked to Schonbrunn Palace, which is the palace that Kaiser Franz Joseph lived in. This palace was absolutely enormous, so big that it had its very own zoo inside, and it wasn’t just some small zoo. We spent almost all day at this palace, both inside and out.

All the land in this picture is part of the palace, not even close to the total amount

Huge bat

Random cool lookin’ fish

Later on in the night, I went out with the students to a bunch of bars, and I wanted to go to the main bar district called Bermuda Triangle, but no one else wanted to go. I was fine with it because I figured I’d go out there myself the next day and meet some random Germans, but little did I know that Vienna practically shuts down on Sunday, almost no bars were open… Oh well, I know the next time I go to Vienna.

One of the bars we went to, the sign says “Put your phone in your ass”. Double you tee eff.

The next day was the night I found out the Bermuda Triangle was closed, but we did find a different cool bar, and it was playing hockey! It was the playoffs for a Austrian team, the hockey definitely wasn’t NHL calibre, but it was fun to watch none the less.

Pub

The next day we had to check out at 12, so we packed our bags and headed on over to an amusement part that was beside the bus station. The way it worked was a lot different from the PNE. Basically, you don’t have to pay to get in, you walk in for free, and you pay for each individual ride set by the company who leased the plot of land on which they build their ride. Each ride was four to five Euros, but most of them were worth it, especially this one in particular:

I also enjoyed this one, it was a combination of the swings and the hellevator:

I got a pretty good view of the city from up there

Afterwords, we kind of ran out of money, so we went exploring until our bus came. We walked across a bridge that leads us to more of a residential/industrial area of Vienna, which was pretty cool because we found a random Microsoft conference where they were going to talk about Windows 7. We took a couple flyers and watched them set up, but unfortunitely it started when our bus came…

Overall I had a great time in Vienna, it would have been nicer (especially in the palace) if it was Spring, but it was still great. Good beers, interesting people, and great food, that’s a good combination for a great city. I ate at least 10 donairs, I kind of went to town in that country when it came to food, significantly more then I spent in Copenhagen, which was after this trip, but that blog post will have to wait for another day. To see the rest of my pictures, go here:

Vienna Album

Random graffiti