Czech Hockey Adventure: Copenhagen!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to have no hockey as pretty much our whole team was in China besides the foreigners. Why you ask? Well they were there trying to qualify for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Unfortunately they didn’t make it but in the other qualification tournament two of our teammates were playing for the Slovak national team and won, so they’ll be in the Olympics. It’s a pretty big deal as they have never even been in the A pool of the World Championships. So we’re all really excited for them.

Anyways, like the title says, I took a little trip to Copenhagen. I found a sweet seat sale and was able to fly there on next to nothing, which was a good thing cause it is not a cheap city! The main reason I wanted to go there was because a former teammate and friend of mine from Switzerland is now playing hockey and going to University there. Helga was an awesome host and we had the best time together. I hadn’t seen her since I was last in Switzerland so we had a lot of catching up to do!

I flew there on Thursday morning and was able to hang out with her for a little bit before she had to take off that afternoon to go to Sweden to watch a play for one of her classes. That’s right, Sweden. I had no idea but there is a bridge that connects Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden. I guess it’s a really nice city but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to explore there as well. She left me downtown which was awesome! I had so much fun shopping on their main street, as well as looking at a bunch of amazing buildings. The shopping was great as aside from Italy the people there are super stylish and dressed to the nine. So I finally found my pair of boots! It gets dark there around 4:30 so I spent most of my sightseeing that night in the dark. But the city is beautiful at night so had no issues with this.

On Friday we started by going to Helga’s gym, which is really nice. Way nicer than anything we have here in the Czech, so it was great to get a work out there. It was a good thing we worked out because after we had an amazing buffet at this Mediterranean restaurant. It was some of the best food I have ever had. Not to mention it was a buffet, as in all you can eat. They have not heard of such things here in the Czech Republic, or free water for that matter. Afterwards we did more shopping and sightseeing, going to some really old University buildings along with the old stock exchange, city hall, central station and Tivoli. For those of you who don’t know, Tivoli is kind of like a carnival/exhibition of sorts that is opened mostly throughout the year. But of course I was there when it was closed as they were getting it ready for Christmas. That was really disappointing as I had heard so much about it and how every Dane loves going there so I’ll have to go back. We also went to some really cool cafes and drank amazing cappuccinos. Helga is a coffee lover like me so every afternoon when she was like...you want to get a coffee? I couldn’t resist. Cafes in Europe are pretty amazing and everyone has a different feeling or ambiance to it. The ones in Copenhagen were pretty great as well.

On Saturday we started the day touring through the area called Fredieriksberg. This place was full of cool shops and cafes, kind of the artsy area. From here we had to make it over to Amalienborg, a castle where we saw the changing of the guard at noon. We went there by water bus which was pretty cool. It was a pretty good show, kind of the same feel as the one in Prague. Demark actually has a monarchy with Margrethe II as the queen at the moment. It’s crazy as they have a ton of different palaces throughout the city and they live in all of them throughout the year. From here we saw the Marble which is a super nice cathedral and then moved on to Nyhavn Street, the famous harbour street. This is one of the most beautiful streets/cannels I have ever seen. The street was lined with seafood restaurants and cafes so of course we had to eat there. Luckily for us we found a herring buffet. That’s right, I ate about 9 different kinds of herring. If you like herring this is the place to go. Thankfully Helga was there so she could tell me the different kinds of herring and what I was eating and how to eat it. We also had to have a small little glass of this herbal alcohol that I guess goes along with herring. I had no idea that’s what you eat with it, but it did taste good with the herring. My favourite kinds were the smoked herring and the dill sauce one, but I think I’ve had my fair share of herring for awhile.

After, I made Helga go with me to see the little mermaid statue from the story “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Anderson. I took a Hans Christian Anderson class way back in college where it was a video class. So the guy teaching it filmed it while he was in Copenhagen. It was a pretty interesting class and of course we read that story so naturally I had to take a picture. Helga warned me that it was nothing special which is kind of true but it was a great walk along the harbour to get to it and we were also able to see the Gefion Fountain along the way. That was pretty much it for the day as it started to get dark by this time.

All in all it was a great trip of course. It was super cool to be able to explore the city with someone who actually lives there, not to mention Helga is half Danish, and she was a great tour guide. The city is full of museums as well and only having about three days there doesn’t do the city justice so of course I’ll have to go back!