Snuckkerpuffins!

Okay so were onto Copenhagen. We left the great city of Jonkoping on September 8^th and headed for the mecca of bicycles. Those of you my know I have a slight leaning towards all that is green and sustainable so I was quite excited to see what Copenhagen had to offer. We trained there in the morning and arrived at lunch!!! The train only took about three hours to Copenhagen which was AWESOME! I have discussed this fact with a lot of Swedes and Europeans on my stay so far. When you have a long weekend or even a normal weekend off when you’re in Europe you can go visit just about any other European country! You can just jump on a plane (assuming you paid for the carbon offsets), a train, or a bike (if you’re as fit as me) and go to a totally new country with a dramatically different culture, people, and language. I am extremely envious of these European perks and have been trying to exploit them as much as possible. Now I know some of you are getting a bit defensive and are thinking “HEY In Victoria you can drive 3 hours and see a lot of cool stuff!” but going to Vancouver or up to Parksville to see a bunch of sand expertly piled on top of…… wait for it…… more sand just isn’t the same! There is so much diversity, culture, and history spread over such a small stretch of land it’s amazing. 

P.s. Parksville sandcastle building contests are super cool and should not be demeaned….. that was a low blow, my bad.

There were four big highlights to this trip which will help me unravel my miraculous tale. 

Highlight number 1: The amazing green infrastructure and outlook of the people of Copenhagen

  I could not believe just how well equipped the whole city was for bicycles! Everywhere had three separate lanes for transportation. There was the conventional road which houses the terrible single occupant automobile, a whole separate lane for bikes and then a large side walk for people to walk and run on. The whole city was like this. It is no wonder that nearly one-fifth of all trips in Copenhagen are by bicycle, and for home-to-work commutes, 36 % of all trips are by bicycle. They have the infrastructure there so it makes economical, physical, and environmental sense to do it. Also people seemed extremely nonchalant to the whole biking phenomenon. The people that I talked to said that of course they bike? “Why would I drive? Its costs so much, biking keeps me fit, its way more fun, and its better for everyone? All it takes is a bit more planning which is easy”. Of course we Victorians don’t have it as easy due to our urban sprawl it is a bit more challenging to do the whole commuting thing but still very possible. It was just amazing to be in such a compact complete city. I was also very impressed with the commercial residential mix. The high density housing was apparent all over the city, there would be stores and shops on the ground level the three or four levels of housing on top. I wish all cities where built and created in such a forward looking complete way. Instead all we see in Canada is suburbia after suburbia sprawling outwards. Moral of the story, don’t be lazy! Try biking to work or chess practise instead of driving. Here are some cool pics of all this fun stuff! 

Highlight number 2: Hanging out with the beautiful, funny, and always slightly offensive super team “Edela” (Eden Dearing and Michela Byle)

Michela offered up her floor to the Jonkoping boys. Some may call us cheap but I supported the idea because it was just bottom line more sustainable! More high density living and less use of energy is always a good thing. So we rolled into Copenhagen at around 1 got lost in the downtown core, we somehow dangled Michela’s number (travel tip number 53 if you’re going to go stay with someone in a foreign country tell them when your arriving and get there phone number) met up with her at a popular MacDonald’s downtown. It was here that I ordered my first and last meal of euro MacDonald’s. I tried the Mac nuggets which did indeed taste different but still not enough like real food for me haha.

We then headed back to Michela’s new digs and hung out there for awhile. We unpacked and got ready to hit the club, which brings me to the next highlight.

Highlight number 3: Kulor Bar

Thursday night we met up with the rest of the cats who are stay in Copenhagen Jess, Sean, Raff, Murat, and BOB. We went to their residence and play some classic drinkin games than they took us to “KULOR BAR” now let me just say that this was the best club/bar combo I have ever been to! It had two levels. The top consisted of three bars, a massive multi level dance floor, (which was terrible news for some people, but I’ll get to that later) and a bunch of lounge areas. The bottom floor had a big outside patio, a ton of games like pool, darts, video/ arcade games, a big bar, and a small dance floor. But all of this isn’t what made this club a Mecca of awesomeness! When you arrive at the club you pay 60 Danish kroner which is about $10 Canadian and they give you a stamp and a big beer mug WHICH YOU CAN REFILL AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT UNTIL 1 IN THE MORNING!!!!  Lets just say…………. Well im not going to beat around the bush, we all got black out at one point that night haha! It was a fantastically crazy night, we destroyed Danish girls at pool, we danced our faces off, some of us who’s names will be not be said (Michela and Jess) fell off some pretty tall dancing blocks haha, and we all met a ton of new people and consumed a fair amount of alcoholic beverages. The night ended with all the Canadian crew and Edela at 7/11 making a huge ruckus and buying multiple cinnamon buns or what we like to call “Snuckker-puffins”. If you ever go to Denmark BUY THE 7/11 Cinnamon buns you can thank me later ;). We arrived home around 7 am the next morning just in time for sun rise. We slept till probably around 1 or 2 then went out and had a great brenchinner at a classy Italian place. Here are some pictures of that hilariously hangover meal. 

It was raining pretty much the entire stay but that didn’t stop us. We then went sightseeing and here is some pics I took of the city. 

We went and got ice crean at this place called "Paradis" and IT WAS! Second best ice cream I have ever had! I got forero roche ice cream and it rocked my socks. 

Near the end of our exploring we went to Christiania which is a district of Copenhagen where the cops don’t go to. It reminded me a lot of the gypsy camp in Snatch but with a lot more drugs and tourists. There is an understanding that no police come into Christiania and the people there try and keep it as calm as possible. Let’s just say If I wanted to buy a B64 guidance chip for a Korrikov missile I would go to Christiania, I probably wouldn’t get one, but while I was there I could by a shit ton of illegal drugs and paraphernalia. The city for some reason pays for the electricity that goes into the district and it is a very big topic for debate between residences of Copenhagen. We visited and may have purchased a grenade or two and then went on our way. They don’t allow pictures in the little camp so I got nothing for ya except us going in. 

Now before we stopped our day's adventure we wanted to grab a quick bit to eat. We stopped at a Irish pub that looked reasonable. Long story short it was the worst service ever and we have to pay about $4 each for tap water and Graham made the deadly mistake of ordering a.............. Coke which cost $9.

Saturday we did some more sightseeing in the rain then found some super cheap train tickets back to Jonkoping  so we grabbed them.

Highlight number 4: Snuckkerpuffins!

That morning we waltzed into the 7/11 by the train station and as soon as we walked in the 7/11 staff were pulling out a tray of freshly made Snuckkerpuffins. We may or may not have ordered the days supply but if we did we weren’t EVER SORRY! IT WAS GLORIOUS! 

We said good bye to Edela and headed back home to get our lives in order for the weeks ahead. 

"Stockholm more like SOCK-HOLM!!! right ? right?..... no?..... ok"

You are all in luck. As an extremely characteristic move on my part I have been ignoring my blog and for that I apologise, but "once it hits your lips...... IT'S JUST SO GOOD". So yes I 100% blame my blog tardiness on my newly acquired alcoholism. At least it's a cool excuse though right?

But fear not my simple readers I have discovered how to add pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure!!!! Exciting I know, but before you  joygasm let me just warn you that this post will be quite long because I am going to attempt to catch you all up to the present day! I know it will be a bold move, but were down in the 9th inning and someone has to take this game into their own hands!

So on September the 3rd the Canadian Crew (for those of you unaware that consists of Andrew Hall aka the General, Ihop, or General Ihop, Graham Rogers aka Goose, Z-Money aka Cheddar, and yours truly Derek aka THE GARDEN ROBBER) jumped on a beautiful bus which took us all the way to the capital of Sweden STOCKHOLM!

Now there is something you should all know about Sweden. There is a bit of contempt for the Stockholm Swedes which comes from.......... well all the other Swedes that don't live in Stockholm. This was told to me on account less occasions by my new Swedish friends. Apparently Stockholm Swedes think they are better then the rest. I asked how a typical Stockholm Swede acted and I was told the typical Stockholm Swede was a bit stuck up, threw money around, was ignorant of other people, a bit rude, and often had long gelled back hair if the specimen was that of an XY chromosome. Now I don't like to confirm generalizations but for we did encounter instances where these accusations were true. We had a couple of incidences dealing with some very snobby people who indeed had gelled back hair. But if you go to any city you will find some bad Swedish meat balls so maybe we were just unlucky.

We arrived in Stockholm in the late morning and were quite famished. So we kept our eyes open for an establishment that would sufficiently suphunsafy us all (ya you can use that its real I just don't know how to spell it) and low and behold the good lord directed us to a PIZZA HUT BUFFET! Now if there is any doubt in your mind that we didn't have a pizza eating contest........... ERASE IT, BECAUSE WE DID!!! As these picture illustrate it ended ..... swimmingly. General Ihop was the winner followed not so closely by me haha.

As I have previously mention we have already given each other nicknames and not all of them can be explained. They just kind of happened. Andrews nick name Ihop was conceived on our way from the pizza buffet to the train stations (I know......... so romantic!). Here is a picture of Andrew HALL being dubbed IHOP!

 We then met up with Jen Zap and Courtney Smith who are on exchange from UVic and studying at Stockholm school of Business and Economics. They had gone to one of Stockholm's best clubs called Cafe Opera the previous night and were..... a bit "tired" but they manged to get us all back to Andrew Sorowkovsky's dorm in one piece. We hung around the campus for a bit and met up with Andrew and Cam McQueen than went off and explored the city. Here are some of my favourite pictures from the day

       The Royal Palace

We then went out to dinner with a guy named Patrick Bourke who Graham was told by a friend to get in contact with once we arrived in Stockholm. We met Patrick at really night Italian restaurant down town and had a great time talking to him about Stockholm and his transition from living in Victoria Canada to the largest city in Stockholm. We then all went back to Andrew Sorows residence and continued to drink and be merry. We of course played one of my favourite pass times ..... thats right kids DODGE BEER! Patrick and myself teamed up and were unstoppable! Z and Graham also made this nifty (this is a great word, I'm trying to bring it back everyone should start using it more!) Handshake.

After this fantastic pre-drink we went to a house party on campus which I have dubbed Stockholm Dude Fest 2010. I seriously have never seen so many guys at one party before haha it was so funny to watch the handful of girls being swarmed by the hungry drunken males. Sorrow found a piano and did a great rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". As you can see the General helped out.

Here is a great picture of us leaving Stockholm Dude Fest 2010 and Patrick "not" pushing Courtney out of the frame.

We may or my not have interacted with the near by livestock which were oddly enough on the campus grounds haha.

 

The next day we went out and did some more awesome sight seeing. We first went to Gamal Stan which is the old part of Stockholm the streets are very narrow and all the buildings are really old and very quaint looking.

 

Now on our way through Gamal Stan we came across a man husseling money by getting people to guess where a white ball was under 1 of 3 boxes. Here is a video, do you think it would be an easy way to make some kronor? 

I KNOW RIGHT!! Me and Sorrow got 10 in a row right so we decided to throw some kronor down and make some skrilla............. We may or my not have lost 500 kronor? haha it was an experience. Ask me sometime how he did it and I'll explain the whole story. 

  

On a side note. Speaking of stories, the next time you see me and you want to hear a funny story about my exchange just get me to tell you the "MacDonald's story".

We continued on and saw the Royal Palace, the largest royal palace in the world I'll have you know! We got to see the changing of the guards and we went into the palace to see some of the sights and tours but it was pretty expensive and not everyone was up for it. 

 

We ended the day to a trip to the Vasa Museum. This was definitely one of the highlights to the trip. The Vasa was an "old wooden ship" that sunk in the harbour of Stockholm on its maiden voyage in the 1600s. The king commanded the engineers to put another level of cannons on the boat when it was getting built. This made the ship to tall and bottom heavy and thus allowed the boat to flip and sink. I know what bummer! 300 years later the ship was taken out of the ocean and brought to port. they built a massive museum dedicated to the ship and that is where we went.

 

That night  we went out on a night on the town to go to a awesome Stockholm night club. Unfortunately CLUBS IN STOCKHOLM SUCK and we were denied entry to one because we weren't on the guest list or over 23 and to another because we weren't 23 or older. I felt like I was 18 again. after an hour or two of walking around and seeing two drunken Swedish girls being wrestled to the ground by polis we found a club called debaser and had a great time.

The next day before we left we went to see the city hall which is called "Stadshuset", which was my favourite place in Stockholm. It has one massive tower near the water and a back courtyard that over looks the waterfront and the rest of the downtown. It was an amazingly beautiful place.

 

So I told you I would catch you up tonight but I am extremely tired due to last nights festivities. I was up pretty late reading and doing homework and drinking A LOT of water! So I'll fill you all in on our travels to Copenhagen soon. 

Later days!