cologne and copenhagen

geez.. iv'e gone what, like 2 days without the internet? It's crazy how much I've always depended on it! Anyways, I'm here at our hostel in Copenhagen, Denmark and have picked up a free wireless connection on the laptop.. yay!

So the day before yesterday was the big day, Czech Republic vs. Ghana at the Rheinenergie Stadion in Cologne, Germany. The game was at night, so after our train arrived in the morning we spent the day walking around and exploring the city. Cologne has the huge Dom, this Gothic Cathedral that is the biggest Europe I believe. It's the first thing we saw as we came out of the train station and it was amazing! We did the little tour and climbed the 590 steps up this little narrow spiral stairwell to the belltower.The atmosphere in Cologne was incredible, people in all sorts of team jerseys breaking out into song, singing their countries anthems or team cheers.. every minute it seemed. All of downtown was a huge party. Cologne also had three huge sceens up for the fanfest, so there were huge crowds watching whatever games happened to be on. The game itself was awesome, even though Ghana won 2-0 =(

The next day, (yesterday) we had another full day in Cologne and then caught the night train to Copenhagen. It was a looong ride (11.5 hrs) so I'm glad we got a couchette to sleep in!

This morning we made our way to the hostel, which is pretty darn nice! We're already starting to think about sending stuff home.. these treks from the train stations to the hostels with our big honkin backpacks are not fun =(

We walked around, got oriented and decided to go bikeriding. I've never been so terrified to ride a bike in all my life. People here are crazy on their bikes! EVERYONE bike rides.. right on the roads. There are separate bike lanes with their own sets of traffic lights. The people aren't out for a leisurly ride through the park, they're on a mission! Doesn't matter if you're a kid or a man in a business suite you ride your bike wherever you need to go.. haha..They have these bike stands where you deposit a coin, unlock a bike and can use if for however long you want. When you return it, you get your money back, like a shopping cart. The only this is, these bikes are pretty old and clunky.. not the easiest to ride.. but that's ok, we're on a budget!

Our hostel has a kitchen, so we went to the store and bought pasta, sauce, bread, cheese, and a bottle of wine all for like 85 Kroner, (about $18 canadian).. Denmark, Norway and Sweden don't use the Euro, so we'll have the get used to the Kroner for a while! I think our next stop will be Stockholm.. I'll keep ya updated!

<3 shanon