The last time I left the country was the fall of 2019 when I went to Romania to make a video for a missionary organization. One of the many things covid interfered with was my travel momentum; first not being able to travel, and then not feeling confident about it. I spent 2023 wandering around the U.S., but at this point, “travel” equals international travel. After finding a good deal on airfare last summer, I planned a 10-day trip for March of 2024.
Beer (and everything else) was tres expensive over there, but, being overly sensitive to caffeine, pubs were some of the only spots where I could sit indoors and rest, hence most of my Instagram stories had a pint glass in them.
My friend Daniel is a fantastic photographer who’s traveled much more extensively than I have. His favorite European city is Copenhagen, so that’s where I decided to go first. Sweden is right across the water from Denmark, so I decided to go ahead and book a train up to Stockholm as well. When my return flight was changed to include an overnight layover in Helsinki (Finnair), I thought what the heck and booked a train to Oslo to make it an even four-country trip. Make up for four years without leaving the country.
I pretty much just walked around exploring different neighborhoods; steeples and church domes gave me something to aim at.
After the guy in front of my on the plane kept his seat reclined all the way back for the entire 10-hour flight, I made it to Copenhagen tired and very grumpy. It was easy getting a metro into town, but my hotel room wasn’t quite ready yet so I dumped my bags and walked around a bit. I only made it to about 6:30 p.m. local time before I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I slept off and on for about twelve hours, which didn’t really alleviate the jet lag, but it was enough to get up and start exploring the next day.
Instagram…
Reality
I picked Hotel Alexandra in Copenhagen because Richard Ayoade and Noel Fielding stayed there on the Copenhagen episode of Travel Man. I was initially surprised at how small the room was, but it was actually plenty comfortable. If it had a theme, it was “famous Danish furniture makers,” and the lobby was pretty stylish. You could get a free glass of wine in the evenings, and it was a cozy spot to sit and read for a bit. All of my hotels on this trip were covered by credit card miles, which was nice.
I walked a ton on this trip, probably 10-12 miles per day, which my sedentary self wasn’t ready for. I do regret not going to any art museums in Copenhagen, but in the moment, I didn’t feel like going inside just to walk more. By the end of the trip, I had done something to my achilles, and I was limping badly. Exercise and better shoes are in order for the next one.
Copenhagen looked like this pretty much the whole time.
Anyway, Daniel gave me a bunch of recommendations that were much appreciated. I had my first (and second, and third) cardamom buns there, my new favorite pastry. I noticed them in Trader Joe’s the other day, but theirs are too sweet. The only restaurant I knew I wanted to try in Copenhagen was Baest, a pizza place I’d seen on Instagram because the owner had been on an episode of Mind of a Chef. It was quite good, but Neapolitan-style pizza will never be my favorite. Plus, it was a little lonely eating alone at the bar in restaurant crowded with couples and families, but that the reality of solo travel (for introverts anyway…or maybe just me).
Almost every church in Copenhagen was open (and empty), so I saw a lot of great architecture. Almost every church in the other countries was closed, except for one in Sweden where a funeral was underway. Oops. My travel mantra is “always try the door.”
I think I was pretty much eating only one meal a day, partly because everything was expensive there, and partly because I was chickening out about eating by myself and dealing with Danish menus and waiters. The exchange rate was around seven Danish krone to the dollar, but a beer (for reference) could easily be 70 krone or more, about twice as much as here. I’m cheap by nature (for some things anyway), so it was hard not to focus on prices, but next time I just need to let it go.
Bikes, bikes everywhere…
The metro was really easy to use there; I just got a pass for the week and hopped on and off at will. I couldn’t pronounce the names of the stops, but that’s where my phone came in handy. It was a bit like trying to remember the names of Ikea items...
It’s true that almost everyone speaks English there. No one had an attitude about it with me, but not everyone spoke it very well (not complaining; I’m the dumb, monolingual American). This was my first time being solo in countries that primarily speak a different language, and I did feel that limited me in some ways, especially being alone.
Smorrebrod, or elaborate open-faced sandwiches. The ones I had looked better than they tasted, but they were fine.
After a few days of walking around, it was time to catch a train to Stockholm. Before the trip, I was nervous about catching my trains on time, finding the right platform, car, seat, etc. but it was all pretty easy. Leaving Copenhagen, the train crossed a bridge into Malmo, Sweden, and then up to Stockholm. From what I saw out the window, it seems like Sweden is mostly farmland, and the landscape reminded me a bit of rural Oregon.
Most of the hotel options in Stockholm that I was seeing online looked like your standard Motel 6 rooms, so I decided to try my luck with a room on a boat. As you can see, the room was tiny, but it was plenty comfortable and had a nice view of the water. They had a Thai restaurant on board that I ate at a couple times for convenience, but it wasn’t very good.
I went for a walk and was immediately struck by the architecture in Stockholm – older, more ornate, and more interesting to me than Copenhagen. I headed to Gamla Stan, which appears to be the oldest part of the city and sits is on its own little island. There were a lot of tourists there, but I didn’t mind; I loved the narrow streets and old buildings. The next day, I had probably the best meal of the trip in Gamla Stan at the Ardbeg Embassy, a scotch whisky bar. It was essentially a fancy version of the Swedish meatball plate you get at Ikea, but it was very good.
I had one full day in Stockholm and spent it walking all over the city. There’s not much to describe specifically, but, sitting here, I can recall all these little memories and vignettes of the city. Things I didn’t really notice or appreciate at the time but that are really valuable now. I love that I can be sitting in Texas and suddenly visit another country in my mind. I think that’s the real prize of travel and the reason I believe it’s one of the very best things you can spend money on.
The next day, it was time to catch a train to Oslo. The landscape out the window was the same as it had been coming to Stockholm, but I really think it started snowing almost exactly as we crossed into Norway. It got prettier and prettier until we got to the city. I had been feeling pretty confident riding the metro in Copenhagen and Stockholm, but Oslo seemed to use trams or cable cars instead. I couldn’t find where to buy a ticket in the train station, so I gave up and walked the mile and a half to the hotel. The icy sidewalks and snow blowing straight into my eyes the whole weren’t fun, but I dumped my bags, got back out, and walked around anyway.
Oslo seemed much more modern than Stockholm, and I didn’t like it nearly as much overall. There seemed to be a lot of foreign embassies in the neighborhood around my hotel. I was imaging Jason Bourne running around there somewhere, but instead I heard a couple young kids speaking English in an American accent as they played in the snow.
It was sunny the next morning, which drastically improved my mood. By that point in the trip, my feet were really killing me, and most of the sidewalks were still iced over. I never ate it, but I came close a few times – lots of windmill arms. There was a botanical garden with very steamy greenhouses that was kind of cool, but mostly I just wandered aimlessly again.
American football in Norway?
The next day, I actually ended up visiting all four countries from the trip. I had to get back to Copenhagen for my flight to Helsinki. There was no direct train from Oslo, so I took a bus to Gothenburg, Sweden, which was pleasant enough. I was feeling pretty worried because I would only have ten minutes to catch my train in Gothenburg, but it turned out that my seat was in the first car of the first train I came to. Nine minutes to spare.
I got into Helsinki around 10:00 p.m. and took the metro into the city – another unknown that was very straightforward and easy. My hotel was quite close to the station, and it was nice enough. The interiors were a bit sterile, but the hotel breakfast the next morning was pretty epic. They essentially had two full buffets, one more Western style and one, I assume, was more traditional to Finland. Not amazing food, but plentiful, and very welcome since I hadn’t eaten much the day before.
I didn’t have much time to form an opinion of Helsinki, but I wandered around and saw what I could. Helsinki was snowy like Oslo but the architecture seemed older like Stockholm. It’s not at the top of my list, but I think it would be worth a second visit someday.
I walked past some kind of spa where men and women were coming out a sauna and jumping into icy water – it really seemed like it was just part of their pre-work routine. Crazy. Another example of “always try the door” was this older building I almost walked past not knowing what it was. But something intrigued me about it, and inside was a cool looking (if somewhat touristy) indoor market. Among many mysterious words (Finnish sound very strange, even compared to the other Scandinavian languages), I saw a sign in English for reindeer spring rolls and had to try one. It didn’t taste like much, but at least it cost a lot. I also got some reindeer jerky to share with my coworkers.
Back to the hotel, back on the metro, back to the airport. Flying west, it was daylight for the whole flight, and I think I finished an entire book. I don’t know why I never feel like watching movies on planes, but I almost never do. All in all, I didn’t have a ton of “fun” on this trip per se, but I’m glad I’ve seen these places, made some visual memories, and exercised my travel muscle a bit. I’ll have a lot more confidence going into the next trip. I turn 40 next April, and I’m thinking I want to take a big trip in the spring. Maybe Iceland or hit multiple cities in the UK. Time will tell. Especially if you’re reading this in the future.
P.S. you can see some of my film photos from this trip (which I like better than these) on Instagram @jackotrains