Last weekend I had the pleasure of finally taking the boat to Denmark, something I believe at least half of Norways population has done, it only took me 34 years.
Now I’ve been to Denmark before, most Norwegians love Denmark and when I was a kid we rented a holiday home a few times. And then in my early 20s I did the same thing with a group of friends, and Denmark really is a nice country.
But taking "the Danish boat” was a first for me. And I went with my two sisters and three of my cousins, I’m very lucky to be so close with my family.
We met up at the terminal on Friday afternoon and boarded right away (ok, so right away for me, 4 of the girls were there a little before Therese and I, who managed to get on the same bus towards the boat, coming straight from work).
I started to get ready for the evening but went to join the others for drink before getting all dolled up, we sat in the huge room that is the columbus night club and I had a glass of wine as the boat was about to leave Oslo. After the drink we went by the taxfree to get some cheaper alcohol, for after dinner.
We had pre booked a table at the buffet and got a nice round table by the windows. The food wasn’t the best in my opinion, but we all found something to eat. And after dinner we went back to our rooms and had some great conversations before checking out the entertainment and the disco. We tried some interesting drinks, danced and 2 of the girls tried to win a bottle of prosecco in a game.
A few of the girls went to the room before me, but to my surprise they were in the hallway when I got down there. Turns out there was a problem with the lock and it took a while before they got into their room, and the lock needed to be changed.
We arrived in Copenhagen in the morning and were off the boat round 10am. We were really lucky with the weather, spring was in the air, the sun was out and there were yellow flowers everywhere. We walked by the water, and stopped briefly by the mermaid statue as I wanted a couple of photos. Then we headed towards Nyhavn to find some breakfast.
We ended up in a Scottish pub, mostly because it seemed they had a vegan dish or two on the menu for my sister, but this proved to be wrong. So unfortunately she only had fries, I was glad she later found a vegan burger at burger king, and that she really liked it. The rest of us had proper food at the pub though, my Club Sandwich was a bit dry, but it was alright. After breakfast we started walking towards the shopping street and New Yorker, I really wanted to do some shopping, since I didn’t find too much in Brussels a month ago. Along the way we stopped whenever someone wanted to go in somewhere, I found presents for my niece and nephew in the Disney store, and I was so happy to find New Yorker. For once everything I took to the fitting room actually fit, and I got all but one of the items. I took a bit longer in New Yorker than the others so when I was done I had gotten messages from the other girls saying where they were. I went to Burger King, where my sisters were, since one wasn’t hungry when we sat down earlier and the other hadn’t gotten too much food. I was dying for a chocolate milkshake so that fit me perfectly.
Then we headed back towards a supermarket and the boat. It was a lovely walk, although I mostly ended up a bit behind the others since I’m not walking too fast these days (Graves disease), and because I was taking some photos. We walked through Kastellet, an old fortress and parklike area.
Although the Danish krone is expensive compared to the Norwegian krone right now a lot of things are still cheaper there, especially alcohol and candy, we have quite high taxes on those in Norway. So we all found some snacks and most of us got some alcohol and candy. Turns out you can’t bring alcohol onto the boat though, apparently that’s a pretty new rule, so some of us were stopped and we had to give them the alcohol to put in taxfree bags, we could collect them before disembarking the next day. I had planned on having an alcopop or two after dinner, so I was a bit bummed about this, but at least I still had wine from the day before and I’d get it all back upon arrival in Norway.
After a quick shower and a bit of internet surfing one of my sisters joined me on deck to watch the sunset, which was absolutely beautiful, while the others were napping. Then we got ready for dinner, we had agreed to head up to the Italian restaurant at 7pm. Since we were 6 and didn’t want to be split up we had to wait for a bit, but it didn’t take too long. Unfortunately the lasagna was a bit burnt so it wasn’t as good as my sister and I had hoped, but I think the others were happy with their pastas and pizzas. At least it wasn’t an expensive meal. Again we headed to the room before “going out”, we talked and drank wine, then headed up to the night club. There were a lot more young people here today, we ended up talking to a few people and went to the night club again.
Arriving in Oslo I dreaded the walk to the train station and back home from the train, and rightfully so. I only brought a carry on type suitcase with me and it was full when I boarded the boat. But I shopped a bit, so I had a big nice shopping bag from the Disney store, but having that over my shoulder with all my shopping, including a few kg of candy from the tax free, was painful. I also had the plastic bag with my alcohol. But I got there eventually, and learned that I should do like my cousin next time, bring my backpack (the one for longer trips, how I’ll manage with just that for 2 weeks this summer I don’t know though).
So, to summarise, we had a nice trip and some lovely hours in Copenhagen. Traveling by boat is quite comfortable, be aware if you’re a young girl though; some older men can be a bit too much and you’ll get a lot of attention with a low cut or such. I do want to do this again, but I’d like to have a night in Copenhagen as well.
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