Danish Impression
Sunday, 11. May 2008, 20:22:35
Today, we arrived at the Copenhagen airport of Denmark at 8:50 in the morning. Our journey lasted about 27 hours in all, including all the transit times. Can you imagine that? haha This is my first time to get on a long haul flight. Manila-Hongkong-Zurich-Copenhagen was our flight itinerary. From Hong Kong to Zurich, we were on the plane for 12 consecutive hours. This might not seem too much for most frequent travelers, but this sure is the first time I'd ever experienced this.
By the time we finally arrived at the airport, I kept having this sense of achievement
You see, its such a long and tedious journey, I hope you'll understand me 
During our brief 45-minute stop over Switzerland, we almost had to run to catch our transit flight to Copenhagen, not to mention having had to take the SkyMetro (like subway) within the Swiss airport to reach the boarding gate. I had no time to take much pictures, as we were on the run, except for some while on the plane waiting for the takeoff. I glanced out my window by the plane and took in the splendid view laid before me- rolling green hills, excellent forestry. I almost regretted why we didnt arrive a few days in advance to take on a tour by ourselves first before heading to Denmark.
Yes, words cannot describe how excited I was when we landed on Copenhagen. Until now, I still can't believe that my dream has really came true - I'm standing by the river bank outside our hotel, in Copenhagen, the fairytale land. My mom felt the same way. We got all excited when we saw the low-rise cartoon-like houses colored in brick red, white, and all sorts of colors. While on the other side of the river, you can see great contrast as buildings of extreme modern/contemporary architecture were constructed. These structures make use of glasses a lot. I was wondering why, then I came with a conclusion. Perhaps its related with the cold climate of Denmark and the rare occurences of sunny days, thus the glass walls were there to elevate light penetration into the building and add to the wide visual feeling to make the tight, compact interior look more spacious. I admit that these structures are truly a wonderful sight to see. Walking by the river, with the cool wind against my face and warm sunlight shining on my back, everything feels to dreamy and ideal...this land full of mysteries made me want to learn more about it...
Well, I have noticed some rather peculiar things, or not. The Danes love cycling. Now why did I say this? When we our out this afternoon on our stroll by the river side, almost everyone there were with bikes. Thats actually a good thing, its environmental friendly you don't emit any carbon gas. Then I uncovered one dreadful secret burried within the depths of this fairytale land -- ultra high prices 
I can't help bu gasp each time I see the menus of the restaurants To make it more realistic, how about some examples. In McDonald's, an ordinary burger costs 40dkk (which is about 10USD). Gosh! a small cup of coffee at Starbucks costs 40dkk also...these prices are like 10 times higher than we had back home. That is a huge minus to add to the pros I'd mentioned above. Although one good thing was that the tap water here are actually drinkable 
anytime you wanna drink water, just turn the faucet and you have it (hot or cold) I wouldn't buy bottled water if I were you, coz it costs 20dkk (about 5USD) per bottle 
I'm wondering how people here live...how much do they earn? They must all be so rich, coz McDonald's was almost full!
As if that was not enough, bad things always come together. Yes, we had safe and enjoyable plane trip, but God just had to take it back and then awarding us with a group of old people as our fellow travelers who had also enrolled in the same tour program with us. I kinda had that feeling that this was gonna happen, but I didn't put much thought to it, not until I attended the welcome drink "party" tonight, and saw for myself for the first time, so MANY old, retired, skinny old people all grouped together in a room No offense to the old people out there, but please do understand, I'm only 18, it is really quite hard to take in that kind of disappointment without much hesitation. There were 37 of us, the only young people are two other guys, one from Australia who is maybe around 18 and another from India who is 14 and their parents who are about mid 40s to 50s. Many of them came from Australia 
, a few from Canada, some from USA and the Indian family and the 3 of us. This sucks! If I'd known this, I'd have gone backpacking myself 
Then there was the self-introduction part which did not help alleviate the situation, but instead made everything worse.
Anyway, I hope our succeeding trips to Norway and Sweden would change my impression. Sweden, don't make me hate you Denmark has already been blacklisted by me now 
its 22:00 now in the night, the sky was still not dark an hour ago, quite fascinating indeed, as compared to the 18:00 sunset we had back home. Temperature today was about 18C. Tomorrow we will start our first day of this tour. We will be going to the North Zealand Rivier/Castls tomorrow morning, and also take a canal tour by the city center 
I am looking forward to this, although it still wouldn't help Denmark from making it out the blacklist I'm very pissed off now...(I rarely use this word, but I had to this time ) Good night all, have to wake up 18:00 tomorrow Will keep you posted for the succeeding trips, including the photos as well see ya!
By the time we finally arrived at the airport, I kept having this sense of achievement
You see, its such a long and tedious journey, I hope you'll understand me During our brief 45-minute stop over Switzerland, we almost had to run to catch our transit flight to Copenhagen, not to mention having had to take the SkyMetro (like subway) within the Swiss airport to reach the boarding gate. I had no time to take much pictures, as we were on the run, except for some while on the plane waiting for the takeoff. I glanced out my window by the plane and took in the splendid view laid before me- rolling green hills, excellent forestry. I almost regretted why we didnt arrive a few days in advance to take on a tour by ourselves first before heading to Denmark. Yes, words cannot describe how excited I was when we landed on Copenhagen. Until now, I still can't believe that my dream has really came true - I'm standing by the river bank outside our hotel, in Copenhagen, the fairytale land. My mom felt the same way. We got all excited when we saw the low-rise cartoon-like houses colored in brick red, white, and all sorts of colors. While on the other side of the river, you can see great contrast as buildings of extreme modern/contemporary architecture were constructed. These structures make use of glasses a lot. I was wondering why, then I came with a conclusion. Perhaps its related with the cold climate of Denmark and the rare occurences of sunny days, thus the glass walls were there to elevate light penetration into the building and add to the wide visual feeling to make the tight, compact interior look more spacious. I admit that these structures are truly a wonderful sight to see. Walking by the river, with the cool wind against my face and warm sunlight shining on my back, everything feels to dreamy and ideal...this land full of mysteries made me want to learn more about it...
Well, I have noticed some rather peculiar things, or not. The Danes love cycling. Now why did I say this? When we our out this afternoon on our stroll by the river side, almost everyone there were with bikes. Thats actually a good thing, its environmental friendly
you don't emit any carbon gas. Then I uncovered one dreadful secret burried within the depths of this fairytale land -- ultra high prices I can't help bu gasp each time I see the menus of the restaurants To make it more realistic, how about some examples. In McDonald's, an ordinary burger costs 40dkk (which is about 10USD). Gosh! a small cup of coffee at Starbucks costs 40dkk also...these prices are like 10 times higher than we had back home. That is a huge minus to add to the pros I'd mentioned above. Although one good thing was that the tap water here are actually drinkable anytime you wanna drink water, just turn the faucet and you have it (hot or cold) I wouldn't buy bottled water if I were you, coz it costs 20dkk (about 5USD) per bottle I'm wondering how people here live...how much do they earn? They must all be so rich, coz McDonald's was almost full! As if that was not enough, bad things always come together. Yes, we had safe and enjoyable plane trip, but God just had to take it back and then awarding us with a group of old people as our fellow travelers who had also enrolled in the same tour program with us. I kinda had that feeling that this was gonna happen, but I didn't put much thought to it, not until I attended the welcome drink "party" tonight, and saw for myself for the first time, so MANY old, retired, skinny old people all grouped together in a room
No offense to the old people out there, but please do understand, I'm only 18, it is really quite hard to take in that kind of disappointment without much hesitation. There were 37 of us, the only young people are two other guys, one from Australia who is maybe around 18 and another from India who is 14 and their parents who are about mid 40s to 50s. Many of them came from Australia , a few from Canada, some from USA and the Indian family and the 3 of us. This sucks! If I'd known this, I'd have gone backpacking myself Then there was the self-introduction part which did not help alleviate the situation, but instead made everything worse. Anyway, I hope our succeeding trips to Norway and Sweden would change my impression. Sweden, don't make me hate you
Denmark has already been blacklisted by me now its 22:00 now in the night, the sky was still not dark an hour ago, quite fascinating indeed, as compared to the 18:00 sunset we had back home. Temperature today was about 18C. Tomorrow we will start our first day of this tour. We will be going to the North Zealand Rivier/Castls tomorrow morning, and also take a canal tour by the city center I am looking forward to this, although it still wouldn't help Denmark from making it out the blacklist I'm very pissed off now...(I rarely use this word, but I had to this time ) Good night all, have to wake up 18:00 tomorrow Will keep you posted for the succeeding trips, including the photos as well see ya! 
(23%)
WIDGETIZE
Nikko # 11. May 2008, 23:57
Anyway, you first day seemed fun, albeit the "old" people you're going to be with for the next two weeks...
Please do post stuff about Copenhagen as detailed as possible...
I can use it as a "Lonely Planet" travel guide by Shirlina Ang in my trip to Copenhagen a few months from now mwahahaha
Good luck and have fun!
Winter # 12. May 2008, 15:03
cliff christian # 12. May 2008, 15:17
cliff christian # 12. May 2008, 15:20
Winter # 12. May 2008, 15:33
Give me some opinions and recommendations?
Nikko # 13. May 2008, 06:11
Regards
mwahahaha
Winter # 15. May 2008, 13:14
YES! But it's not that bad really, when you start getting used to the prices and all that hahaha the place is really clean, and the air, my gosh, I don't think there is anywhere in the world with cleaner air than you can get in Denmark or anywhere here in Scandinavia!
@Kyosuke:
Haha well I'm fairly satisfied with this trip so far. I'm just happy that I finally get to visit this fairytale land
I'll be writing another post in a while