Les Hannah, day 21, part final

This morning was the first day of Potato Week break. I wrestled with what to do; I had entertained the thought of taking a trainventure throughout Scandinavia. The original-original plan was to go to Germany, but then the US State Department travel warning was issued and I reconsidered. What truly swayed me was the personalized travel warning I received from the Danish Fulbright Commission. So the next original “plan” was to purchase a Scandinavian flexi-pass and ride the rails as long and as far as the pass would take me. Well, in a complete circle that is because the goal was to end up back where I started. I wrestled with the idea for a while; took my time getting out of bed, and then pondered even more what to do. I started loading my backpack and then quit, talking myself into an “I’ll leave tomorrow” state of mind. But then I re-evaluated the situation and finally determined, “No – I’ll leave today.” So I finished loading my backpack with several days’ worth of clothing and my toothbrush.

By this time it was around 9am Esbjerg time and beginning to warm some outside. The cold was part of my initial hesitance to begin the adventure today, but now determined to explore Scandinavia I set off walking toward the city centre and the train station. I made my way over to the beach and down the slight incline to the walkway. I strolled this the entire way into town. The view was beautiful, watching the birds hunting for their morning meals, seeing the ships exiting the harbor and heading out to sea. The breeze was still a bit cold, but the walking in my long coat easily combated that. In fact, I found myself getting hot after only a short ways; I had to stop and take my large coat off and carry it.

It took me about ninety minutes to walk the entire way from the house to the train station, but once there I set about initiating the adventure. I purchased my flexi-pass (that I would later discover was the wrong type, but it was fixed in Copenhagen – more on that to follow) and began the first leg of the adventure: Esbjerg to Copenhagen.

Several trains make this run daily, and the fastest of these take only about three hours to go from the farthest point west to the farthest point east. The slower of the trains take about five hours, more stops is why. This was the sort of train I was on, the more stops variety. I was really in no particular hurry, just wanted to get to Copenhagen to switch trains. The goal today was to make it to Stockholm, Sweden. I had planned to stay the night there, explore that city the next day and then head to Helsinki, Finland.

With all the stops between point A and point B my train rolled into Copenhagen around 3pm local time. I quickly made my way to the departures board, chose a Stockholm-bound train, went to the ticket window to get a seat assignment, and then grabbed a quick bite to eat and something to drink as I awaited the passing of just under two hours before my Stockholm train’s departure. There I sat, eating, drinking, and writing in this journal. Occasionally I would look up to see the people going by. Just watching them out of curiosity. I like to watch people; students who have taken creative writing classes with me know this is how I create some of my characters – people watching.

Well, I did that for the nearly two hours wait time, fascinating way to kill 120 minutes. However, as I was making ready, actually as I was walking to the platform where my Stockholm train was to depart I heard an announcement over the PA, first it was in Danish of course so it meant little to me in that moment, but then the English version of the announcement came and announced that the train to Stockholm I was to be on was inexplicably cancelled. What the …? Now what?! So I checked the departures board again, found another Stockholm train and went back to the ticket window for a seat assignment there. No luck – no seats available on this train. So I ended up staying in Copenhagen for the evening. I found a hotel near the station, checked in and settled down for a bit of a rest.

After a little while I went out walking around the immediate area of the station, just a few blocks to see what there was to see. I stopped in at a coffee shop for a quick pick-me-up, then walked around a bit more before heading back to the hotel for the evening.