A Change of Plans

This morning I discovered that I had made a hostel reservation for Monday night at a hostel in Mons Belgium, not Mon Denmark, like I had thought. Oops! Fortunately I can cancel my Belgium reservation and I only lose my 0.88 euro deposit and don't have to pay the rest of the fee. Sadly though, there is not a room at the Mon hostel in Denmark so I will not be venturing to that town as planned. :( It's probably for the best though since the train and bus ticket there would be quite expensive for the short one night stay that I had planned. I looked up some pictures of the cliffs online and decided that that would suffice for now.

I've started doing a little re-arranging with my schedule and am waiting to hear back from one of the girls I will be staying with (couch surfing) tomorrow night to see if I can stay an additional night with her. If not, I'll try to get into a hostel up there. Oherwise I'll come back to Copenhagen and stay another night here. It'll all work out, just perhaps a little last minute (don't freak out Eddie, I'll be alright). :) I also think I'm going to re-arrange some of my German itinerary. My cousin let me know about a few friends she has there that I might be able to stay with. I'm all about a free bed/couch for the night, even if it means I need to get up a little earlier in the morning to get where I need to be in town. If it saves me $20, I'm there! :) I'll let you know how things progress.

I spent most of my day inside planning and prepping for the next few weeks. I did make an attempt to get in touch with a friend who is living in the Netherlands who happens to be in Copenhagen for the day. Unfortunately I couldn't get the number to go through, so we didn't get in touch. So sad. :( I did venture out into the city some. I mailed some post cards (expensive - $9 for 5 cards) and walked down to the waterfront a bit. I finally found a fruit stand that wasn't too ridiculously expensive and splurged and bought myself some blueberries to go with my lunch. They were 20 Danish Krones (about $4) for a little basket, but much better than the usual 30-40dkk that I've see advertised ($6-$8). I also found a jewelry store that was going out of business and found a charm for 70% off!

In case you were unaware, I collect charms from different places that I travel to and put them on my charm bracelet. I have other charms on the bracelet as well from significant events in my life, but the majority of them are from places I have traveled. The bracelet is really full. I think I might need to start another one and put charms from places on just one and significant events on the other. I'll have to evaluate once I get home and see how much room is left.

Anyway though, I had been looking for a charm of the little mermaid (I always try to find something that goes with the place I've visited - i.e. a wedge of cheese for Tillamook, OR or a gondola for Venice, Italy, etc). I had found a few mermaids but they were upwards of $40 and I didn't want to pay that much. I just stumbled across this jewelry store and discovered that they were having a huge sale! I figured they wouldn't have any charms left as the store looked rather empty, but I found the little case where they were stored and lo and behold there were a few left!

They didn't have any mermaids, but they did have the marble church, which was great because it's way less touristy than the mermaid and I have discovered that I'm not a fan of the touristy. Anyway, the charm was normally 285dkk ($54), but on sale for 85kr ($16)! I bought it and now just need to pack it up in my bag somewhere safe. I'm going to have quite the collection when I come home!

I am starting to hit my afternoon lull as I'm calling it. The last two days I have been really tired between 5pm and 7pm. Thursday I took an hour, hour and a half nap, and yesterday I went to bed early at 7:30pm. Obviously I am the cool one in the hostel. :) My goal tonight is to make it until 9 before I have to turn in. I need to pack up my bag a bit better tonight before bed so that my departure in the morning is easy.

I leave for Hillerod fist thing. I have to wait to buy my ticket in the morning and the office doesn't open until 8am, so I'll at least be able to eat breakfast here before I begin my adventure for the day. The S-tog (subway like train) takes about 45 minutes, I believe, and will take me really close to the castle I plan to visit. After I finish touring the castle I am hoping to make it to an English service at a church in town. Then at 3 the girl I am staying with (couchsurfing) is going to pick me up at the castle and show me around a bit. I will stay with her for the night (possibly two nights) and then head to Aarhus to stay with my next couchsurfing location. I'm hopeful for this whole couchsurfing thing. I haven't done it yet, but think it could be a great way to meet some new people!

I have found that it is not as easy to meet people in the hostels as everyone says, although maybe it's just me. I have always said that I'm not the most outgoing person in the world. I am more than happy and eager to talk to people, but I have a really hard time initiating conversation. I smile and wave and acknowledge people, but I don't get much more back from anyone. I did chat with a guy here in the hostel for a bit today, but he initiated it. I'm pretty content on my own though, so it's fine with me if I don't become best friends with the other hostellers. I am however looking forward to some conversation with the couchsurfing community. Should be fun. :)

Anyway, that's the update here (it's a long one, sorry)! I have posted more pictures on facebook, again the link is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063092&id=42900023&l=3d269a82bc or you can just click here.