Copenhagen, part 2

It's a little before 7 PM on Saturday. I'm in Toronto, waiting for my flight back to Philly. With the six-hour time difference, I got up at 7 AM in Copenhagen and now have been up 18 hours. Flight doesn't leave until 9:20 PM.

Anyway, the soccer game on Thursday night was awesome! I got a little lost getting there 'cause I hopped off the bus about four stops too late. Fortunately, I asked a guy about to hop on his bike (that's so Copenhagen!) how to get to the stadium.

The location of the stadium reminded me of the Sports Complex in South Philly -- it's surrounded by a mainly residential area in the city limits. That's the cool thing about Copenhagen, how everything isn't in the suburbs . . . even the airport is in the city.

It was a playoff match, so there was a bit of crowd: at least 20,000, I'd say. Once inside, I grabbed a bøfsandwich, which is Denmark's version of a hamburger. It had roasted onions on the bottom of the burger, and ketchup and gravy on top of the burger. Really good!

I wasn't in the front row like in Malmö, but in the eighth row, about halfway between midfield and a corner flag. The game started promptly at 6 PM with The Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays" playing but with reworked lyrics and the crowd sang. Here's a pic I took before or after that song:

And here's another pic, this one of the supporter before kick-off:

It was a good game, with F.C. København (FCK) getting a clean sheet. They either scored three or four goals. After every goal, the PA system blared the "woo-hoo!" part of Blur's "Song 2". On the first goal somebody on the upper level threw their beer on us -- a little wet my Hertha scarf and my neck.

Oh, and another cool thing was that when FCK had a corner kick, a lot of the fans fished out their keys and jingled them.

After the match, I headed to the shop. I had tried buying something before the game, but it was jam-packed. I wanted to get a training jersey because it doesn't have their sponsor, Carslberg, on it, but they didn't it in my size, so I got their secondary jersey with Carlsberg on it.

Once again, I got a little lost heading to the bus stop. I actually passed the U.S. Embassy with its abundance of security cameras and high walls.

I eventually found the bus stop. There was some guy waiting there already. Nice chap. He's from Lawrenceville, NJ.

As I was waiting for the bus, my hay fever started acting up. By the time I got back to the hotel, my eyes itched like crazy and my nose ran like a runaway bike.

Copenhagen, part 1

It's a little before 1 PM on Thursday. Time to catchup. . . .

Yesterday morning I had breakfast again in Malmö — just a slice of toast and OJ again. I hung out in my room until about 10:45 AM, stopped at Wallander's Cafe for the same treat as yesterday, then grabbed the 11:30 train. I was taking my time 'cause check-in at the Richmond Hotel in Copenhagen wasn't until 3 PM.

I got off the train at the the Malmö Hyllie stop. I was hoping it was liking Malmö's main station, but they didn't really have any concessions. Basically just a stop, not a station. So I hopped on the next train to Copenhagen.

Copenhagen's station isn't as nice as Malmö's. No real place to eat, mainly 7-11's, low-end coffee shops, and tons of currency exchanges. I did swap my Swedish Kroner for Danish Kroner. I had something like 130, and I got back around 80. Whatever.

My hotel room wasn't ready yet, so I wandered around from 1 to 3 PM. I withdrew 100 kroner from an ATM and ate a caesar wrap at an Espresso House. I went back to the hotel around 2:45 PM and picked up the card for my room 15 minutes later.

At 5 PM I started walking to Famo, which is 1.2 km away. I got there a little before they opened at 5:30 PM.

I was in the mood for Italian and, boy, does Famo fit the bill. Most of the staff have heavy Italian accents! Definitely on the high end. Not much of a selection. You have your choice of two dinners, one with an additional serving of food. I went with the first option with more dishes. I think there were two starters, an antipasta, two main courses, and dessert. The servings were relatively small. The food just kept coming. I didn't leave until after 8 PM. It came out to 450 kroner ($68) but I left 550 kroner on the table because the service was awesome.

On the walk back to the hotel, I took stock of my right foot. The top right of it hasn't been feeling too hot since my first or second day in Malmö. I think I had tied my sneak too tight and fucked up my foot. I've been ignoring it, hoping it would get better. I remember when I was younger it would happen but wear off within a few hours. Getting old sucks. Feels like my body's breaking down, with my shoulder problems, pre-arthritic back, and now this foot.

I spent the rest of Wednesday night at the hotel. Before going to bed I watched a Beatles special by Ron Howard and featuring a little bit of Philly newscaster Harry Kane.

Thursday I had breakfast at the hotel. I originally wasn't going to do it 'cause it's $16 but there are no breakfast joints around here. I ate a few bacon strips and a couple sausage links, then drank a petite glass of OJ.

I wanted to spend the rest of the morning doing laundry. First I walked about a quarter-mile to the train station and picked up a 48-hour city pass. When I got back to the hotel, I packed up my dirty drawers and company into my suitcase. I walked a couple blocks and caught a bus that dropped me off a few blocks past the restaurant I ate at the night before.

The place is called the Laundry Cafe. It's a little gimmicky: laundromat and cafe combined. They have three washers and three dryers; one of the former and two of the latter were broken. A woman with an Australian accent was using the two washers. They still had 40 minutes and 44 minutes to go, and she said they were going to be using the dryer. After mulling it over for a minute, I decided to split.

Back at the hotel, I googled other laundromats. By the time I made up my mind, it was 10:45 AM. I decided to hold off. Maybe I'll do it Friday morning, maybe I'll just wait until I get back to Philly (though I've been wearing the same thing since yesterday, Wednesday).

For lunch I picked up a tomato, mozzarella and pesto sandwich from 7-11. Don't snicker, the food in there is comparable to what you might find in Starbucks or Whole Foods back in the States. The cashier heated up my sandwich in that contraption they use at Qdoba to warm a tortilla.

Afterwards, I decided to write this and just relax at the hotel, give my foot a rest. Research I did last night said you can ice it, but keeping off of it is best way to recover. It only really bothers me when I walk. I'm going to see Copenhagen F.C. tonight, so I'll be standing a bit — might as well rest.

Ystad, Sweden

It's 8:30 on Tuesday night. Thought I would start to write what I've been up to the past couple of days.

Before I do, something I forgot to mention in Malmö is that during the game, one of the supporters' chants had the drum beat of the Hoodoo Gurus' "Like Wow Wipeout", then they shouted, "MALMÖ!"

Anyway, yesterday morning I didn't do much. Had breakfast again at the hotel in Malmö. That time I had their pancakes, which were palm-sized pitas, as well as a croissant and toast. Polished it off with OJ again.

I just hung out in the hotel room until checkout: 12 PM.

Check-in for my room in Ystad wasn't until 3 PM, so I took my time at Malmö's central train station. They have a little food court there. I got a slider and a can of Coke.

I hopped on a train to Ystad, which left Malmö around 1:25 PM. The ride took about an hour.

I wandered around Ystad a little bit, looking for my hotel. My directions had me lost, so I went into the Tourism Office, since it was right there across from the train tracks.

The hotel was about 50 yards from the Tourism Office. I just had to cut through an alley and it was right there:

After dropping my gear off, I hit an ATM nearby. I didn't want to use my credit card for every purchase. Took out 1,500 kroner (about $160USD).

I spent the rest of the afternoon deciding what I was going to do the next day . . . Monday was pretty much a travel day.

For dinner, I wandered around for almost an hour. Couldn't find any real restaurants. Some cafes that closed at 4 PM, several Asia food joints, and restaurants with "pizzeria" on their windows. I eventually settled on a Thai place. Sad day for me, they're a cashless establishments. Damn you, tech heads, and your phasing out of dollar bills!

I settled on chicken and vegetables. Of course it came with white rice. It was a bit spicy and fell in the fast food column, IMO, and since I was right next door to Denmark, I ordered a Carlsberg beer. Disappointing that it was a green plastic bottle and not completely cold. Didn't even finish it. Maybe for the best, since I had a drinking problem up until March 1, 2012.

After dinner I wandered around a bit. At one point I crossed the train tracks and took this pic at 8:23 PM:

Today, Tuesday, I had breakfast here at the "hotel". I put it in quotes because it's basically a boarding house. My room is super tiny. There's about a foot on three sides of my bed. Like the old sitcom line goes, "Now I realized why it was so cheap."

After having toast and OJ for breakfast, I got a shower and split around 9:30 AM. Near the Tourism Office is Wallander Cafe. I hopped in and bought a little triangular treat and a can of Coke.

Next I walked about a mile to Ystad Studios, where they shot some of the Wallander episodes and films.

There wasn't a tour, per se, you just kinda walk around on your own, though the two women there were helpful. I was kinda bummed they didn't take cash, only electronic payment. The twenty-something who took my "money", led me to an area behind the front desk where a 10-minute film ran with an Ystad police officer talking mainly about the Swedish TV show and a little about the BBC production. Oh, real quick, before the film started, I was talking to the twenty-something girl and she mentioned that Denmark and Sweden weren't joined by a bridge until 2001. WHAAAT?!!!? Before that you had to take a ferry. And I did mention I've been watching the Danish TV show UNIT ONE, which started around the year 2000. She said it was very popular at the time and the first of those type of crime shows. Her parents used to watch it.

The tour was pretty cool. It wasn't all Wallander. Apparently the studio is still active, though the salad days are behind them with the two Wallander productions. One exhibit was really cool: a video interview with Henning Mankell.

Before I left, I asked the other Ystad employee, a woman about my age, maybe younger, though at least 40 years old, about local Wallander shooting locations. She mentioned she was in Philly around '95 while working for UNICEF. She stayed with a family in the suburbs but couldn't remember the town. She did say our Penguins were doing well. Had to tell her they're on the other side of the state, yo!

After making a pit stop at the hotel, I walked to an Espresso House for lunch, but they didn't take cash, so I headed a block away to some fast food joint called MAX. Bought six chicken nuggets and a kid's box of apple juice. I got lost on the way back to the hotel because I tried taking a back way . . . but it's so confusing with the serpentine streets.

I ate my lunch at the hotel and the nuggets were a mistake. Gave me wicked indigestion.

I skipped to the Tourist Office again to buy some souvenirs for my mother and nephew, the latter whose birthday is in June. Took a while cuz I wanted to get it right and make sure it won't get damaged in my suitcase.

Then I walked in a couple blocks to a pool that's being renovated into housing, I think. I just wanted to check it out because in the BBC Wallander, it was used as the exterior for the police station. Pretty cool.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel. For dinner I went to a restaurant that's across from yesterday's ATM. I ordered garlic bread for a starter and a main course of salmon, vegetables and potatoes. Interestingly the salmon was cold. Guess that's how they roll in the sleepy seaside town of Ystad. The meal came out to 299 kroner but I gave the girl 400 cuz I need to get rid of this cash before I leave — different currency in Denmark . . . still called kroner, though.

After dinner I walked to 10 Mariagatan Street, where in the Swedish TV show, and maybe in the books, Wallander lived. Cool pic, I think:

On my way back to the hotel, I saw there was a race going on. It was seven o'clock at night. You Swedes so crazy. Guess that's what you get with a town of 20,000. (There were at least 100 racing.)

Malmö, Sweden

It's Sunday night, about 9:15, in Malmö, Sweden. Let's catch up, shall we?

My flight left Philly for Toronto on Friday around 4:30 PM. (I took Canada Air.) The sixyty-ish woman next to me on the plane is from Lafayette Hill, which isn't too far from my apartment, and mentioned a great vacation she had recently to Israel and Jordan. She has four kids and was visiting her one son who has been up here for 10 years after marrying a Canadian.

The terminal in Toronto seemed familiar. I was in there before. I think it was last year when I flew to Austria and Germany.

The flight to Copenhagen left around 9 PM. About an hour in they served dinner. I opted for chicken over pasta 'cause I had pesto tortellini the night before. It was good, but I couldn't sleep during the flight. Don't if it was because I was excited about the trip or eating so late. Bummer, since I purposefully booked a window seat to sleep.

This time of the year, Denmark is six hours ahead of the East Coast. The plane landed after 10 AM on Saturday (4 AM Philly time). I took a half-hour train to Malmö, Sweden. My hotel, 

Elite Hotel Esplanade, isn't that far from the train station, but it took me a while to find . . . different city and all that.

I probably checked in after 1 PM. Check-in was officially 3 PM. Thankfully my room was ready. Nice place. Four-star hotel.

Despite there not being a ton of people around for the city centre, I walked a block away to a restaurant called Victors and got an Angus burger. They were cashless establishment, so I paid by credit card. Not cracked up about that 'cause I'm gonna get hit with fees.

Afterwards, I headed back to my room and tried to take a nap. Pretty much tossed and turned from 3 PM to 5:30 PM. I'd fall asleep for 10 minutes then would snap awake.

I asked the front desk if there was a good restaurant close by for fish. I couldn't find it, so I wandered around for about an hour. I eventually settled on an Indian restaurant called Tandoori House. My stomach hadn't been feeling too good, so I figured I could do something with rice that wasn't too spicy. I was the only one there beside a group of five who left about when my prawns arrived. It was OK.

I then rested at the hotel for a little bit, and eventually walked about a quarter mile to the train station for some ice cream. I bought a strawberry vanilla ice cream stick. Sort of like Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake on a stick, but different:

On Sunday I got up around 7:30 AM and headed downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. Ate five strips of bacon, a few three-inch sausage links, and drank a glass of orange juice. Getting the OJ was a bit hi-tech. There was a tablet next to the dispenser. You tap one of four options, (OJ, apple juice, water, and something else) and the liquid pours into the glass that you hold with your hand.

My stomach still wasn't feeling too hot, so for lunch I walked between a quarter mile and a half mile to a stand called China Box and got some white rice. On the way back I stepped into a joint called Espresso House and ordered hot green tea.

After lunch I planned on how to get to the soccer stadium for Malmö FF's 5:30 PM match —that's at 17:30 for you Europeans. At the train station I bought a 24-hour bus pass for 75 kroner (about $8 USD). There were a few buses I could take, but I opted for the 3 line. It was little less than a half-hour ride and dropped you off right at the stadium.

I hit the store before heading into the stadium. I bought a training jersey and a pen.

Getting into the stadium was a pure delight. No metal wands or security pat-down. They just scanned your ticket, which is the way it should be.

Before the match I ordered from a concession stand a hot dog in which only a third of it fits on the bun, Pringles and a Coke. Good stuff, though I only ate the hot dog that fit in the bun.

The game was awesome! Though for the first half the sun was in my eyes. I had bought a front row ticket in midfield for 500 kroner ($50 USD). Here's a pic from about the 75th minute:

And here's outside the stadium as I was leaving:

I caught the bus right away outside the stadium and got back to the train station around 8 PM. I went inside the station and got a frozen ice cream from the supermarket COOP.

On the way back to the hotel, my hay fever started to set in and I thought about Malmö. Even though it's the third biggest city in Sweden, it's a little sleepy. There are people around but not as many as would think. Reminded me of Portland, Oregon.

What's also interesting about Malmö is that it's pretty much a cashless city. Apparently there a lot of tech startups here. I hadn't see any ATMs, so I bought everything on my main credit card. Hopefully the add-on fees aren't too out of control.

The rest of Sunday night I spent in my hotel, my hay fever coming on strong with itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose.