Day 7 - Sep. 8th.

Though we'd enjoyed Sweden, we were ready for a change of pace.  We gave the house a final cleaning and as we were getting packed, I realized I'd neglected to take any pics beforehand, so I got a few before we left.

The main entryway, living room/dining room, washroom, and kitchen downstairs

The living room, and comfy chaise

The back patio

Second floor, master bedroom on the left (with my crap on the bed), bathroom on the right

Staircase leading to third floor loft area

We probably left the place cleaner than we'd found it.  And we left Magnus a linen fee--it was the first we've ever seen an AirBnB place charging a linen fee, but whatever, it was still a pretty good setup.  He also wanted to charge us for any food that we used, so we made sure to leave exactly four eggs like we found, and hard boiled the rest to take with us. We left some ice cream, he better have enjoyed it.

Though we'd known about Magnus' penny-pinching ways prior to departure, it still left a sour taste in our mouths (especially when the guy was able to afford two residences in Sweden, and left his Audi parked in the reserved spot).  It turned out to set the tone for the morning, and I think it's safe to say that it was the beginning of the low point in the trip for me.

We packed up the car and headed to Gothenburg's central station.  Fortunately, there was a Hertz rental car agency there, and unfortunately, we were only able to find one gas station nearby.  Again, it was the choice of diesel, premium, or the tantalizing-yet-unusable E85.  Actually, there was an option for V-Power too--I don't know what that is, but don't want to ask.

Quick American math, that's about $50 for a little over 6.5 gallons, or about $7.50/gal

I knew it was going to be pricey, but still the reality of it was still a tough pill to swallow.  But hey, it's probably still better than what the charge would have been for them to fill it up.

We went into the train station and had a little time to kill, so looked into renting a locker so we could leave the luggage and wander around the city for a little bit.  I expected it to be a reasonably extortionate fee, something like $8 or so, but I was silly and naive.  It would have cost around $20.  There are times I think it's OK to splurge, but spending $20 on a locker for a couple hours wasn't one of them.  So, we decided to hang out in the station.  Fine, it was a nice enough station and we'd be headed out soon anyway.  Therry needed to use the bathroom, but of course, nothing is free in Sweden.  $2 to pee.  That was the final straw for me.

Sweden truly had some great things going on, but the charging for every little stinking thing, and then having the audacity to charge extortionate prices for each thing--it just struck me as petty and relentlessly aggravating.

I didn't want to bring Therry's spirits down with me, but I think she was a little sick of it too.  She left me to stew with my book, while she wandered around the station and got some feel-good pastries.  (I didn't ask how much they were, and that was probably a good idea).

The lipstick building making another appearance

Nutella, take me away

We had some cash left to spend before leaving the country, so spent entirely too much for some touristy trinkets.  I got some postcards to send back to folks back home and did my best to not convey my aggravation in the text.

Soon enough we were on the train, and on our way to Copenhagen.  As is usually the case with trains, it was very roomy and comfortable, and in this instance, nearly empty.  I've always enjoyed my trips on American trains, but it's safe to say that the Swedes do it better.  If nothing else, they go a lot faster.

That's about 105 mph, and it went faster

Grumpin' can be tiring

We had a stopover in Malmo, and Therry insisted I take a stroll around the city by myself, just to take in some sights.  I was still grumpy, but didn't have any compelling reason for not heeding her advice, so I struck out for a little walk.

The main town square

I wandered into this old church

They had a nave that was off limits with some 400 year old paintings

I can't quite make it out, but I'm confident that it's old

Obligatory organ pic

I was still grumpy when I got back to the station, but did feel better for having gotten fresh air and a modicum of exercise.  We soon were due to board our train to Copenhagen, with some confusion as to which train was actually ours.  Fortunately the train station employees werre friendly and fluent in English, and assured us that we were indeed boarding the correct train.

Soon we were on our way to Denmark, and got to cross the famous Oresund Bridge.

Not the easiest picture to capture at high speed with shitty camera

Scandinavians and their renewable energy, psh.

If you look closely, there's a huge windfarm out in the middle of the water. Pretty cool.

It was a short ride from Malmo to Copenhagen, and we were soon in the heart of Copenhagen.  We were going to be staying with Gelo (pronounced like Jell-O), Therry's long time friend from the Phillipines,  Gelo lived in the middle of downtown Copenhagen.  Whereas in our previous stays, we were technically in the cities we were visiting, we were more accurately in more suburban regions.  Not the case with Gelo's place, everything here was old, and very active.

We had a good little walk to get to Gelo's, probably a little over a mile.  It wasn't a bad walk, but Copenhagen is a very pedestrian friendly city, and we had to do our best to navigate the crowds while rolling our luggage over cobblestones.  Eventually we got there though.

An interesting facet to our visit to Gelo's was that he was actually in the process of moving out, and had to be out of the apartment on the same day that we were flying back to the US.  Naturally, we didn't want to be an imposition, but he insisted we stay, so we figured we'd help him pack and clean as a way of saying thanks.

Gelo wasn't home when we got there, and we were a bit surprised to see that almost nothing was packed.  In fact, it didn't really look like it had been cleaned since Therry's last visit a little under a year ago.  I didn't care though, it was generous of him to offer us a place to stay, and the location was sublime.

We hung out and relaxed for a bit, until we decided it was time for dinner.  We wandered around Copenhagen's maze of streets and stumbled upon a Mediterranean buffet.  It was somewhat pricey, but not unreasonable, about $16 per person.  I also had a large beer, which in retrospect was a mistake.  It was 750 mL, which was nice, but the beer was just generic European lager, and of course, expensive.  The food was good though, and we stuffed ourselves.  Besides one somewhat creepy Dane who stared at us and left shortly after we arrived, the restaurant was empty.

We went back to Gelo's and he showed up soon after.  We were introduced, and he brought us up to speed on his most recent exploits.  He'd just taken a trip to Iceland for a gathering called "Bears on Ice," and he was in love with both Iceland and an Icelander that he met there.  To make things just a little awkward, I apparently bear an uncanny resemblance to the guy.

Nonetheless, Gelo was very welcoming, and we hit the hay soon thereafter.  A consequence of living in such a prime location, I quickly realized, is that the city doesn't quiet down for you when you're ready for bed.