Jan - CS #20

Today we began our adventure to Scandinavia!

We spent the morning in Hamburg wandering around on foot (!) by ourselves, as we didn't exactly invite Alex and Martin had to work and the Peruvian girls were headed back to Barcelona. We had a few hours to kill before our train in which we did some enthused window shopping before finally finding a cafeteria/food court/grocery store type of thing. We figured we could be warm and dry inside, so after buying some vitamin C cough drops, more Maoam's, and that amazing coconut candy that Steph left on our pillows, we found a table that we could loiter at. We got some Chinese food for an early lunch, and grabbed some German pastries on the way back to the train station.

It was a really quiet, kind of boring morning but that's alright sometimes. We luckily got a comfortable spot on the train and I continued the process of playing catch up with blogging. The train ride was going normally, until they made an announcement that the train was getting on a ferry, and all passengers had to get off for the crossing of the water. What?! Hahaha. So, the entire train (which I think was only 4 cars long or so) parked itself on a ferry, and we all got out with only our valuables and headed up to the ferry decks. I didn't even know trains did this!!! Going through the English Channel tunnel we all stayed on the bus, which drove onto a train that went through the tunnel. But a train rolling on to a ferry? So bizarre and funny.

It is FINALLY sunny out and the water looked gorgeous. It made me a bit nostalgic for SAS seeing the great expanse of water in all directions and not being entirely sure exactly where I was. The ferry crossing was only about 45 minutes long and then we all piled back onto the train, which was now magically in Denmark. The scenery is beautiful so far and I am so very excited to finally be this far north and to see Scandinavia! The only bittersweet thing is that being here means that we have only a short month left before this amazing trip comes to an end...

Our newest host, Jan ("Yahn" - he's a guy) greeted us on the platform and as soon as we came into view he revealed the three Carlsberg beers he was holding! BY FAR the coolest way we've ever been greeted by a CouchSurfing host! We set out bags down at the station and got right to the point enjoying Danish culture...and by culture I mean beer. We clicked instantly with Jan and spent the next half an hour just laughing outside of the station. It's always so wonderful when you get along with a host so well and you can just tell that your stay in that city is going to be a lot of fun.

Jan is 26 and is working on his master's thesis which involves researching and studying things relating to tourism and transportation. He is originally from Germany and has a tendency to break into spontaneous songs and dances. The first such song was a terrible little diddy that now has a terrible tendency to get stuck in my head. There is a music video in case you're interested, but the part Jan always sings literally goes, "McDonalds! McDonalds! Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut! McDonalds! McDonalds! Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut!" And YES there are definitely hand motions / a dance that go with it. Yeah...

Unrelated to anything, while we were lounging in his flat chatting and trying to figure out the internet password (which was Johnny Cash, but not spelled correctly - spent hours trying to figure this out), I heard Treble Charger come on. I was like, "WHAT?! You know them!?" They're a band from Canada that I loved in high school, and Jan likes them. Crazy. More point for him!

We arrived at Jan's flat in Norrebro (which he lovingly calls "NorreBronx" - complete with gangsta hand motions) and he announced he was making us tacos. No complaints there! I always offer to help prepare food and Jan let me work on the guacamole. However, I had already halved the avocado before realizing it was wayyy not ripe enough to make real guacamole! The solution to this, since it was far too hard to mash with a spoon, was to put little chunks of hard avocado through a garlic press. Extremely creative, if you ask me (Jan gets the credit for this genius idea). Soon we sat down to a hard shell and soft tortilla feast with chicken and all the toppings. So that was delicious.

After dinner, we decided to go out for a beer at a small bar close to Jan's flat. We had heard that Scandinavia was expensive and wow - people weren't lying. A beer here (not in the center of town!) was 40 Danish Crowns which are about 6 crowns to the dollar. So almost $7 for a normal half liter of beer! Yikes! It was good beer though, and over said beer we tried learning some Danish. Turns out Danish is extremely difficult. It's funny how you can hear something repeated so many times and still not be able to make the right sounds with your mouth.

I have not been feeling 100% healthy lately (I have a slight cough) so after this beer we called it a night and walked back home. It is so weird, this far north there are not that many hours of darkness! It doesn't get pitch black til about 11 or 1130 PM and it's already getting light again by 3 AM. This dusk light makes it feel like it's 8 PM for hours, but then all of a sudden it's late. So days are long here, but we only have two of them so we need to make the best of them!


Quotes:
"Seriously? Whoa. Wow where's the knife ya'll?" - Jan, in response (I think) to Laura saying she was from the 'hood

"Sometimes I'm in a hip hop phase and I come home and am like, yea yea yea yeah what up YO!" - Jan, about what kind of music he likes

"Just smack the door on your way out." - Jan, funny English moment

"Really, Danish is much easier to learn after a couple of beers." - Jan, about some of the more difficult Danish sounds

"Car-yeah...." - Laura (we have a tendency to say the exact same thing at the exact same time; it's embarrassing. I had just said "Cards would be fun" and Laura was literally about to say the same thing but only got to "Car" when I beat her to it...it was really funny when it happened).

Accomplishments:
Took a train on to a ferry.
Made it to Scandinavia!

Travel Tip:
Cards seriously would be fun, I maybe should have brought/bought some!