Day 1: Champaign --> Chicago ---> London
Reading : A Tramp Abroad by Twain, which is about his travels in Europe, specifically Germany.
10:30/10:45 Amtrak (half hour late) to Chicago
En
route, I discover I am sans Eurail pass and call my housemate to see if
she can find it. She does, and we arrange for her to ship it to me at
my first hotel.
1:30 arrive in Chicago
Having done this whole Amtrak - to - O'Hare business before, I don't really double check that I know
how to get to O'hare, instead traipsing lost around the city until I
call my friend John and get directions to the nearest blue line stop. To
be fair, I was only about 3-4 blocks away.
3pm Arrive at the airport.
I get bumped up to the direct flight to London that leaves the same time as my two-leg flight to london. Woot.
6 hour layover? Not so awesome..
However! Our departure is delayed about 2 hours, so the layover in London is only about 4 hours.
Also,
that flight was cake. I napped some. Maybe 4 hours total? They fed us
two meals and supplied lots of beverages. I was very impressed. Also,
there were games and movies and stuff.
AND! Best 10 dollar purchase so far is clearly the inflatable neck pillow.
Day 2: London to Copenhagen
I
can already tell I'm in Europe (well, duh, but really...). People are
trendier and prettier and speaking different languages. The way Heathrow
is set up is interesting. We pulled into a terminal and had to walk
down and up a series of corridors and escalators...at least 8 of them.
Maybe 10. And then take a bus. And another corridor and two checkpoints,
one where they checked our passports and another being security.
Someone joking asked "Where's the cheese?"
Have
to say, London's got some pretty ground crew people. And quite pleasant
at 8 in the morning. They called us ladies and gents, told me to "come
on, love" when going through the walk-though scanner and called
rollerbags "wheely bags". The announcements were in four languages I
think (at least three) and the kiosks took US dollars (at an exhorbitant
transfer rate) so I was able to buy some food and get 2 pounds 53 pence
change for my 10$USD.
Ah, here's the neat thing --- they don't
announce what gate you're at until they're nearly ready to board you.
This is a good idea -- it forces people to use the (very nice) lounge
area, which they're probably happy about because it contains a lot of
shops, and it allows for last minute gate changes that don't affect
their customers.
Oh, and people clearly don't like Americans.
The UK woman in front of me (maroon passport cover) handed her stuff to
the flight woman, who smiled at her, and I handed her my stuff and she
got grumpy.
Copenhagen
Flying
into Copenhagen, I was greeted by a line of white windmills in the
water, nearby what looked like a bridge that went nowhere. I think I'll
ask around about that.
Danish is very foreign. A swedish woman
told me a while ago that it's very much like swedish, except the people
speak like they have a potato in their mouth. I would say the
announcements on the plane had a woman who spoke like her tongue was
stuck to a metal pole (ala Christmas story). It looks kind of Germanic.
(Wikipedia confirms my guess).
I took the Metro to the stop very
near my hotel. I have only noticed one person who clearly goes tanning
here, and she is pretty outside of the fact that her skin is clearly
damaged. Also, even trendy people are wearing socks with their sandals.
And, I think I saw some of the Danish version of hipsters.
So far, the Danes are pretty, and a lot of them are quite blonde. Probably the proximity to Sweden.
On
the train I didn't speak with anyone til a woman got on one stop before I
got off and said something to me in Danish, and I said "Sorry", so she
repeated in (very excellent) English "I'll only use up a little room"
and she asked if I'd waited for a while on the train, since there had
been announcements about a dog and something (I'd noticed a very large
dog at one of the stops and suggested maybe it got loose). She asked if I
was a tourist and I said I'm here for a conference, and that it was my
first time to Europe, which surprised her and she asked where I'm from. I
said the U.S. and she said "Our country is very small compared to
yours" and she said she's from Jutland (another part of Denmark.
Copenhagen is in Zealand, I think).
Found the hotel because of a
giant sign facing the water (lake? river?) I walked across. The
sidewalks are very wide, bordered by very wide bike lanes. Not much
traffic. I am waffling between exploring or napping. I think I'll do a
bit of both. It is current about 6pm here. We're 7 hours ahead of
Chicago (Central time), i.e. 1 hr ahead of Greenwich mean time.
========
UPDATE: I just bought a toothbrush, in Copenhagen. It cost $5USD. :P I was going to
buy a razor, but I'd have to buy a 5-pack which would run me a little over $20USD.
So, for the record --- Yes, Virginia, Europe is expensive.
Also, I really really really wish I had a bike. This city is meant for bikes.
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