Denmark Day 1: Frilandsmuseet

Right after Swedish classes on the previous night (Wednesday), I rushed back to Lappis to pack my bag and then rushed to T-centralen where Jenley, Zhiqiang, Dom and I took an 8 hour long bus at 10pm to Copenhagen. We rushed there about 7am in the morning, where we then met up with Chee How at the Central train station. Chee How's going to be our host in Denmark for next 4 days. Actually, the whole result of the arrangement was pretty unplanned. I only got to know Chee How through some e-mail and MSN exchanges and hadn't even seen him before. In the beginning, Chee How got my contact through a common friend, Wenkai, who's studying in Lund, another part of Sweden. Chee How was planning on visiting Stockholm and he asked Wenkai to host him. Since Wenkai is not studying in Stockholm itself, he gave Chee How my contact instead. Chee How then contacted me for the favour and proposed that he and his fellow exchange mates in Denmark return us the favour if we happened to come to Denmark. Cutting the story short, in the end, Chee How and his friends couldn't get away from their studies to pay Stockholm a visit and in the end, it ended up with us leeching on to them instead. Chee How (short form CH, getting tired of typing his name), was nice enough to arrange accomodation for all 4 of us with his other contacts in Copenhagen, since he couldn't make room for all of us in his student room. He even help one of his acquantainces from China edit her essay in return for accomodating Jenley, so I felt a little bad but very grateful that CH had gone to all this trouble. Jing Jing was actually quite reluctant in the beginning which is understandable because she is actually renting a room from a Danish family. So the thing is all 4 of us are staying with separate hosts. Me with CH, Dom with another 2 guys, ZQ with Boo Feng and Jenley with Jing Jing.

Most of the morning was spent organising everyone, CH had to bring each person to meet their respective hosts at their places. Later, we set a time to meet outside the Frilandsmuseet. Finally, I proceeded to CH's place, where we settled down and had some lunch.

At the Frilandsmuseet, due to poor planning on my part, we were more than 40 minutes late. It's also partially because the place was further than i expected and the walking took longer than expected. Later on in the day, 4 of us slowly understood that the timings giving by CH for transportation was never accurate, because the Danish people measure distances by biking time instead of walking. (more elaboration on Danish and bikes later on) So when CH says 5 minutes away, it ends up like a good 20 minute walk.

So when we got there 40 minutes late, the rest were no where in sight. We had no means of communication, so Ch and I went in first, just in case they were inside already. Frilandsmuseet, is basically an open air mususem of the traditional Danish cottages and farms, something like the Stockholm Skansen. But personally, I think Skansen is a lot bigger and nicer. I guess Stockholm is known for its Skansen, while Copenhagen is known for its Tivoli. All's fair, in case I've offended some patriotic Danes. We didn't have any cameras, cos mine was spoilt and I told CH not to bring his, which I kind of regretted. I ended up taking some shots with CH's phone.

It was only after more than half an hour did I finally meet up with the other 3 within the compounds. In the end, they actually, came in later than I did, because they had some problems finding the place. I, on the other hand, had CH, to guide me around. So finally! Here are some pictures:

Dandelions

Dandelions again!! It's spring!

I think this location reminds me of a scene in the Winnie the Pooh book. Like the river bank, where Pooh and his friends like to hang out.

After completing our round of the museum, CH tells us of a nice fountain, which is 5 minutes away, where couples like to go to take wedding photos. Alright! So we proceed on, only to take a 15 minute walk. We're all tired from the long bus ride and day and we come across.... ta da... it's a little sprout of water. Everyone is ready to strangle CH. He hurriedly tries to redeem himself, tells us the overall place, not just the fountain gives the korean drama kind of air.

Dominic pretending to punch CH.

Having a rest by the fountain. Check out the fountain!

Taking a rest at the fountain, I made some conversation with CH, asking him questions like which JC he's from. And then when he tells me he's from Hwa Chong, I immediately ask him if he knows Tianyun. Ok, maybe its cos the first close friend I'd think of from Hwa Chong is Tianyun, but then again, he seriously reminds me of Tianyun lah. Appearance, Gestures, Way of talking.. blah.. And then he says very matter of factly, oh Tianyun ah... She's my cousin. Unbelievable lah. Singapore is scary small. It's such a coincidence. Some new friend I made in Denmark, halfway across the globe from Singapore turns out to be my friend's cousin.

Now that we're all tired and hungry, we have some fastfood at a place Ch recommends. I have chimichangas. Then, we move on to a pub nearby for some beer. We end up playing ass-hole dai di and chatting for an hour or so.

Proceed to Denmark Day 2, Part 1