Day 4 Copenhagen
Today I head to Poland for a couple of weeks.
My ferry isn't til 1.30pm so I slept in a little and took my time checking out of the hostel. I then headed to the Rosenborg Castle to check out the Danish Crown Jewels.
I quite liked the castle from the outside but the interior wasn't really my cup of tea. It was just completely overdone. Paintings or murals or something covering every surface and many very gaudy or tasteless decorations. This place just goes to show that taste does not come with money or rank.
So I made my way up the 5 levels of the castle to have a look then headed down to the basement to get the money shot.
The Crown Jewels though were pretty nice and there were many good examples of various types of metalwork in the treasury room so the place wasn't a total bust. I liked this golden drinking horn though I'm not sure it was ever used for actual drinking.
It was time to head to the port to catch my ferry and make my way to Poland. However - I had this sinking feeling that I was going to the wrong place. I'd spent a fair bit of time the previous day trying to figure out exactly where the ferry leaves from to go to Poland and I wasn't able to pin down a location.
So I just headed to the port and hoped for the best, trusting that the Flying Spaghetti Monster would help me out. Alas, the FSM was a total dick.
Turns out the ferry company stopped their direct services from Copenhagen about 5 years ago and the ferry from Copenhagen -> Poland is actually a bus to Sweden then a ferry from Sweden -> Poland. This wasn't mentioned anywhere during the ticket booking process mind you though I did find it later on a page I hadn't previously visited on the website.
Fuckery. Don't I feel like a dickhead.
I wasn't going to be able to get to Ystad in Sweden in time to catch the ferry so I emailed the ferry company and the lovely Marta at Polferries kindly switched my ticket to the 10.45pm ferry and booked me a cabin berth for the overnight trip. I cancelled the accommodation I had planned for my first night in Poland and then headed to the train station to catch a train to Sweden.
I do like this European thing where you can just hop on a bus or train and end up in a different country in a couple of hours without needing to really plan anything.
So I hop on a train and a couple of hours later I'm in the town of Ystad in Sweden. Ystad is not a large town and there wasn't really enough going on to keep me occupied until the ferry left. Thank goodness for alcohol!
I walked around town and saw a couple of interesting buildings. It started to rain pretty heavily so I took shelter in a coffee shop for a while and had their soup of the day and a pretty good espresso.
The main cathedral in town looked pretty nice but there was a funeral going on so I couldn't check it out.
I did however go and look at a nicely preserved Franciscan monastery in town. Grey Friars abbey was built in the 1200s by the Franciscan monks. It's still in use as a church but is also has a nice little museum about the abbey and the region. The museum happened to be free entry on the day I was there which was a nice little bonus. It wasn't a bit museum but was interesting and trod the line between too much and too little information quite well.
After the museum I wandered around town a bit more, tried to go to the local brewery which has apparently closed down then ended up at a pub on the other end of town for a few brews and a meal before the ferry. It was a pretty lively place because there was some sort of sportsball game on that Sweden was involved in. They were flicking between ice hockey, European handball and soccer. I think the soccer is what everyone was interested in though it didn't start until after I left to go to the ferry.
The boarding process wasn't intuitive and involved me sitting around in a room with a bunch of random polish people waiting for something to happen. A couple of other ferries departed around the same time and the waiting room slowly cleared out. I was hoping I hadn't missed the ferry again when some dude in a Polferries jacket came out and collected everyone for boarding. Near departure time some American chick who lived in Copenhagen came into the waiting room and started talking to a friend on the phone and she didn't shut up for the entire 45 minutes until we boarded the ferry. I know a lot about her life and what she thinks about Europe now (not flattering).
Eventually get onto the ferry, find my cabin which I'm sharing with 2 polish guys, walk around the ship for a bit then go to bed. I do wish I'd got the earlier ferry which was only going to be 3-4 hours because I had a nice hotel room booked in Poland for really cheap but hey ... serves me right for not reading the fine print. The bunk is better than some of the hostels I've been in that's for sure.
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