Ben woke Tess and I up around 10 because we had plans to go up to Elsinore (spelled Helsingør in Danish) for the day. We got up slowly, had a little coffee and some bread for breakfast. Ben had woken up a bit earlier and gone to a bakery to get some rolls and ham so we could make sandwiches and save on the expenses up in Elsinore. We got off a bit later, and caught a train up to Elsinore right around noon.
We headed straight up to Kronenborg Castle, which for all you literary buffs, is where Hamlet takes place. (Now you’re beginning to see why I wanted to come up here.) There remains no evidence Shakespeare was ever in Elsinore, let alone even in Denmark by all accounts, but it was still pretty cool to go to this huge castle/fortress at the northernmost point of the Zealand island. Across the water was Sweden, though when Kronenborg was built, Denmark controlled the southern part of Sweden.
The castle was really cool. It reminded me of a Danish version of Versailles, though most of the decorations from the inside were long gone. We got a tour of the dungeons/basement where over time soldiers, prisoners, slaves, and serfs were all held/housed. Really eerie and awesome.
The main palace part of the castle was really interesting too. Like I said, most of the decorations are long gone but there are still a few tapestries hanging and some furniture from the kings and, later, the governors and generals who resided there. The tapestries were pretty interesting because they depicted Danish kinds from the 900’s through the 1600’s. Apparently Christian the IV (I think) commissioned tapestries made of every Danish king, so something like over 200 were made. A few still survive in the National Museum, about 15 are at Kronenborg, the Swedes took some when they sacked Kronenborg in the late 1600’s, and the rest have disappeared or been destroyed. I was really interested in the history depicted in each tapestry but Ben and Tess seemed to be a bit bored so I didn’t study all of them.
The castle closed around 3 or 3:30 so we took off and walked back into the town of Elsinore. Predictably, not a whole lot was open as it was a Saturday—European shops aren’t open after like 2 on Saturdays and are closed completely on Sundays, something that always boggles my American mind—and about as far away as one could get from tourist season. But the three of us found a restaurant and sat down and had some coffee and planned out what to do for the rest of the day, especially as it was getting dark. We decided to go look for this punk rock club Tess heard about and see if/when it was open. We found it and it looked like a pretty cool dive-y, dirty place but it was closed this weekend. We then walked around looking for some traditional Danish food, something I really wanted. Couldn’t really find any as my guidebook was a few years dated, so we settled on an Italian restaurant and had some gourmet pizzas and salad.
After dinner we found a bar called Manhattan. I thought maybe it would have a slight New York theme or at least something American-related. Nope. Just a dirty neighborhood bar with a few pool tables. We played a couple games, had a few beers, and then sat down and played some dice games. Around 9 we decided to try to find our way back. We looked at the bus schedule but the bus driver seemed to be absent when the bus was supposed to leave so went over and took the train instead. During the whole time Ben and I thought about just getting a six-pack, hopping on the train and saying “take us to Lyngby” (we had a connection somewhere else). Then we thought about going over to the ferry to Sweden and saying “Ferry till Lyngby?” (ferry to Lyngby?) Then that turned in to us musing about going back to the bus, knocking on the empty windows and repeating our question. We ended up catching the train without incident.
Once back, we were all pretty pooped from the long day and long night before but we managed to go to the basement bar in Ben’s dorm and grab a couple beers. Then we “rolled for drinks.” What that means is one is given two dice and rolls first to see what type of alcohol one gets, i.e. if you get a 9, the bartender counts from left to right nine bottles and then pours two shots in the drink. Then you roll again to see what the mixer will be. Then again to see what flavored syrup it’ll be, and then you roll to see if it’ll be topped off with whip cream or not. Lastly, one rolls three dice to see how much it’ll be, so the max you can pay is 18 kroner (a little over 3 bucks) or 3 kroner (about 50 cents). My first drink was pretty good, I think it was like a captain and orange juice with lime syrup and no whip cream. Ben’s wasn’t too good from what I remember. Emboldened by my first drink, I rolled for another and got something called Fanta Branca (I think that’s how it’s spelled) which is something between licorice flavored alcohol and the devil’s diarrhea. My mixer was coke, the syrup was black currant, and of course there was whipped cream on it. It was quite possibly the nastiest drink I’ve ever had. But I wouldn’t let it beat me so I finally finished the drink after numerous assurances from Ben, Tess, and the bartender that I didn’t have to. After that, we went back upstairs and went to sleep.
It was pretty cold out but the walk was nice, we meandered through the residential streets of Lyngby. After about an hour we got back and put on Pride and Prejudice, evidently one of Randi’s favorite movies. Of course I was willing and able to watch it. Then we played a little poker for about another hour. Lastly, we heated up some of the leftovers from Randi’s dinner the night before and I had some traditional Danish Christmas food: roasted ham, brown sugared yams, sweet red cabbage, the works. It was pretty tasty.
Around 8 I took a bus back to the train station and then went back to Tess’s. We watched a little TV that night, didn’t do too much, and then went to sleep.
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