Day 1 Skagen
I'm away from Aalborg this morning and on my way to Skagen. Aalborg was nice enough but not really an interesting place for a short stay. I think it'd be a nice place to live but not exciting to visit unless you want to party.
Skagen is a laid back beach town on the northern tip of Denmark which has a couple of interesting things to see.
I'm kind of hopefully that if the weather is good there's a possibility I might see the northern lights as well. I don't think I'm far enough north but there won't be a lot of light pollution in this area so it's probably the best chance I've had so far.
I leave Aalborg and therefore arrived in Skagen a little earlier than planned. I like to get there early when I'm travelling places by train or plane or ferry or whatever so I have time to get organised. I was in fact so early that I got the previous service which was an hour earlier than the one I was aiming for. Whoops!
A very pleasant 2 hour ride to Skagen and I headed towards my accommodation. I've got a private room in what turns out to be a very nice little guesthouse for a very reasonable price. It's a bit of a self service place and since I arrived so early I beat the email giving me my room number and the code to the key box but I knocked on a couple of doors and the cleaner pointed me to the caretaker who called the owner and got me sorted!
Bags stowed and a cup of tea in me and I'm ready to hit Skagen! Skagen however was not really to hit me back. It's Sunday afternoon in a country town. There's not much open and not much happening. I had planned to hire a bicycle like the true Dane I am but none of the bicycle hire places were open. There aren't even any local buses running! About the only things open were a few cafes and a few clothing stores and the local museum. Even the local brew house was closed (which was odd because all their signage indicated they should be open).
I didn't really care enough about Skagen's history to go check out the museum so instead I did what I normally do which was to simply walk around and take in the sights.
It's a very picturesque little town. Small winding streets and well looked after plots of land. I'd say 90% of the houses had the same yellow with white trim and red room colour scheme. Local council rules to maintain the historic appearance of the place? The remainder were either red brick or there were a few outliers who just went crazy and chose a different colour.
I ran across a small clothing store down by the harbour called Nordic Expeditions who were having a sale so I went in and I managed to pick up a couple of things I was looking for. I got a pair of waterproof pants for Svalbard and Iceland and a couple of pairs of nice wool socks. Waterproof pants will come in very handy apparently and were something I hadn't really thought about. They might even do as ski pants in a pinch.
I wouldn't mind a wool sweater as a good warm layer but bag space is at a premium again after adding these pants and my ski jacket that Julian brought over from Australia.
It's only 1 jacket but it takes up a surprising amount of room and adds a surprising amount of weight. I now have 1 jacket too many (hoodie, coat, ski jacket). I may end up ditching my Russian hoodie and just wearing the thermal top I bought in Vladivostok if I need another layer until I get really close to Norway. That will give me a little bit of space and it should only be getting colder now. And I'm sure I can pick up something for not much money in the next couple of countries I'm planning to visit.
I stopped in at a cafe for a beer on the way back which turned out to be both quite expensive and their own brew. I'm not sure that's right since house beers are usually cheaper but I'll have to take their word for it.
Stopped in at a market and got some cheap lunch and a beer from the local (closed) brewery then went back to the hostel and gave my feet a break.
I wasn't really hungry later but was getting restless so I went out for a walk to see if anything was going on in town. It was not. I did see a lovely sunset though. So I kept walking to a part of town I hadn't covered, found the ocean and a beach I couldn't see, then sat down and had a nice night in front of the TV listening to an orchestra play since it was the only thing that wasn't in Danish.
I think I've made up my mind that after Denmark I'm going to visit Poland and Lithuania. I was going to throw Germany in there as well but I just don't think I've got the time. So I think I'm going to take a ship from Copenhagen to Swinoujscie (how the hell you pronounce that I have no idea) then do about 12 days in Poland and about 7 days in Lithuania before heading to Norway.
I'm about 2/3 of the way through my trip now and it's starting to feel like the end is in sight :(
Wonder if they need anyone in the Copenhagen office?
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