Copenhagen, Lund, Denmark & Malmo, Sweden 20.04.2024

 Next stop. Copenhagen & Malmo, Denmark & Sweden..

Travel Day (20th April 2024)

Here we go ! Solo trip number 3. 

12am start due to an early flight from Gatwick, up dressed, packed and ready to go, I'm ready too early as always but hey ho rather be 10 hours early than 1 minute late. Got to Gatwick about 3am, through security nice and quick and had some breakfast. Number one priority as well was getting my Brewdog Gatwick stamp whilst I was there, completed 🙂.

Flight was good and got to Copenhagen at about 10am, through border control which was nice and quick after what felt like a 20 mile walk through the airport 😂.

Got outside and didn't really know what to do and how to get to the city centre so i just sat for a minute and gathered my thoughts, once I'd had a look round I managed to find the bus i’d planned on getting prior to arriving, was proud of myself for just stopping and thinking, finding my way rather than panicking.

Bus journey took about 20/25 minutes and the bus stopped right outside the hostel which was perfect. Went in and put my bag in a locker as it was too early to check in. I looked up where all the colourful houses were and decided to walk there. They are in a place called Nyhavn, which is about a 30min walk from the hostel. Luckily  it was nice and sunny and was a lovely walk, I felt safe the whole time, never felt awkward or wary of people, it's funny as you see people looking through the bins and the reason they do this is because they are looking for plastic bottles, you can get money for recycling, they have very strict rules in Denmark.

Nyhavn was as amazing as expected, the houses/ shops looked so beautiful and colourful, the boats looked great as well, I really enjoyed walking round there and would 100% go back. There were so many bars and ice cream shops along the way.

Once I'd finished walking round I made my way back to the hostel as I was so tired after the early start, I managed to check in at about 14.45 and get to my room, I was impressed how nice it was (Hostel: Next House Copenhagen and cost me £60 for 3nights) and also had some privacy as my bunk was like a capsule, I actually really liked it, think I was spoilt with my first hostel experience.

Day 1 (21st April 2024)

Another early start as I am off to Sweden! Had to get to the train station by 9am ready for the coach, of course I was REALLY early but in this case it was actually lucky, I forgot my Brewdog visa. So I walked back to the hostel to grab it and still got back to the pick up point 20 mins early. There were 30 of us on this trip so it was a good size group, not too small and not too big, also a range of people from the USA, Spain, Italy and of course UK. (From Copenhagen: Lund and Malmo - £110)

The coach driver/ tour guide Mario was lovely, gave out free bottled water to everyone and a guide for each stop.

First stop was Helsingor, Denmark, this was a lovely little town with kronborg castle and a lovely street food hall. I walked round the castle and each stop thereafter with a lady called Sichitha, she is from the USA. In the food hall there were so many options, I tried to choose different ones but could resist the lamb gyro and glad I had it as it was just amazing, tasted so good.

Back on the bus and time to catch the ferry over to Helsingborg, Sweden, it was only a 15 minute journey so just time to walk up to the top deck on the ferry for a few pictures before getting back onto the coach.

Once docked, off we went, did not need our passports in the end as border control wasn’t there so that saved a bit of time. Second stop: Lund, Sweden. This is apparently the place that does the best Swedish meatballs in Sweden, so much so that the Swedish royal family comes here regularly from Stockholm to have them, so although I’d only eaten about half an hour ago, I had to try them and totally lived up to expectation as they were lovely, much better than Ikea meatballs 🤣. 

Meatballs finished and time for a walk as I felt so full, unsurprisingly! but I couldn't go to Lund and not try the meatballs, at least that filled me up for the day and I didn't need any more food. We had a look around the cathedral which was really nice and then back on the bus and off to the next destination. Third stop was Malmo, Sweden. Was around 30 mins from Lund so it didn't take long to get there and went past Zlatan Ibrahimovic house on the way through. Once there of course, first things first, We walked to Brewdog and got my stamp.

After a quick beer we went for a walk round the town which was really nice, a lot to see, the town hall looked really nice, the buildings abroad always seem to look much nicer than in the UK. Felt safe walking round here as well, never felt worried about anything.

Once everyone was back on the bus it was time to head back to Copenhagen with 2 quick stops on the way back, 1st being the turning torso building which looks pretty cool, our coach driver had some interesting knowledge about the building and took some photos for everyone before we got back on the coach to out next destination.

The 2nd stop on the way back was to get a fab picture of the Oresund bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark, it's one of the longest bridges in the world, we did travel back across the bridge to return to Denmark, again Mario had a lot of knowledge about the bridge which he shared with the group.

Back in Copenhagen and dropped off at 7pm, had such an awesome day and so glad I visited Sweden whilst I was here, it was another fab experience and I loved every minute. I walked back to the hostel and went to bed as I was so shattered after two long days in a row, again felt safe walking back to the hostel, no issues at all. 

Day 3 (22nd April 2024)

What to do on my last full day, I could decide whether to walk to the mermaid or to the Carlsberg brewery, however of course in the end I chose Carlsberg, I had been told several times the mermaid was disappointing so didn’t worry about it. I couldn’t work out which bus/train to get and of course to anxious to get a taxi, so I thought I may as well walk, was about an hour away but was a nice easy walk and knew I felt safe walking around the city. I got to the brewery just before 10am just as it opened, had a walk round the shop and then got my ticket to walk around the exhibition and beer tasting, the tour was interesting, started and ended with a beer so couldn’t go wrong. The tour cost about £24 which seemed expensive but the tour was massive and again I added on tasting so I guess it wasn't really. Just seemed it at the time.

Then onto the beer tasting, loved that of course and had some lovely beers, oddly enough it started with Erdinger Weissbier which I always love, they let Carlsberg serve it as they partner up together. Jacobsen IPA was really nice as well, enjoyed that one and the last was a stout at over 8% which was nice but not my fav, the 2 other people that were trying the beers with me were also English and they enjoyed that one, we was lucky as there was only 3 of us we got to try an extra beer, this was just called 27 and a sour beer, that's all Carlsberg tell the people that try it so they can make a decent assessment of the taste.

As I finished the beer tasting and went back outside ready to walk back I noticed the next group ready for the tasting and there were many more people on that one so glad I did the early one.

Walked the hour back and stopped in at Anarkist craft beer bar on the way back, had a lovely beer in there and Pizza before heading back to the hostel, think I got back around 13.00/14.00, signed up for the solo traveller BBQ rib dinner evening which was at 19.30 so had a load of time to kill. I ended up sitting down in a quiet corner in the bar downstairs, had my beers I took away from the brewery and called family to check in with everyone. I ended up calling Nan & grandad, Dad, Tash and Mum & Steve, not all together but in separate calls which was nice.

19.30 came and I went for dinner, had a lovely rack of ribs, really enjoyed them but also met some lovely people, a lot of people seemed to be from USA, 2 from UK , 1 from Germany, weirdly she only lives round the corner from Karin and Tom in Munich and the other was from Australia, he was a lovely guy and is actually moving to UK (why!! Who knows). Once we had dinner I got invited to go to Tivoli gardens with them so I thought why not! All this was very much out of my comfort zone as I am believe it or not really introverted, prefer to sit in a corner and people watch but I've been pushing myself lately to do things I wouldn't normally do. We went as a group. There were 10 of us. Some of the group went on the rides but some of us just enjoyed the walk round.

We left about 10pm when the park closed and walked back to the hotel, we grabbed a drink at the bar (coffee & fanta) and chilled out chatting for a while before going to bed.

Home time (23rd April 2024)

Had a lay in this morning as I was so shattered after a good few days in Copenhagen. Stayed in the room until about 10 as check out was at 11. Got a bit bored hanging about in the room so I went and sat in the lounge area in the hostel and watched a tv show on my pad. I didn't feel it was worth walking anywhere as by the time I would have got there it would have been time to walk back, however in hindsight I had loads of time as I got to the airport way to early but never mind, I went through security and chilled out at a craft beer & pizza place in terminal 2, had a random but lovely pizza, was egg and bacon but the base I think was bechamel sauce and ohh it was amazing, I think actually one of the best pizza’s I have had. Everything was on time and ended up having a whole row on the plane to myself which was ace and the flight back only took an hour and a half meaning I arrived back at Gatwick early, I was through security and on the bus back to parking before the plane scheduled landing time which was amazing ! Got back home about 20.30, just grabbed a kebab as was hungry, unpacked and went to sleep, ready for work tomorrow!

Copenhagen I think has been one of my favourite places so far and would 100% go back, I felt safe and had no issues, the buses were easy to navigate once you know which you need and you ticket lasted 90mins i think it was for if you wanted to hop on and off.