A Thrilling Day in Denmark

For those who don’t know, I am currently living in the quaint little town of Svedala in Skåne, Sweden. It is strategically placed twenty minutes away from Malmö, the third biggest city in Sweden. Because of this, I regularly take the train to Malmö on the weekends to go shopping and meet up with the other exchange students in my area. The nice thing about Malmö is that it is one bridge away from Copenhagen, Denmark. We aren’t allowed to go to Denmark by ourselves, but when accompanied by an adult, we can see the city. I have been to Copenhagen three times now. The first was when I first arrived and landed at the Copenhagen airport, the second time was on a school trip with my class, and the latest was this last Saturday. All of the exchange students in Skåne were invited to go to Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park in Denmark for the day and then spend the night in Malmö before taking a train on Sunday morning to another Rotary trip. On Saturday morning, I woke up early and packed for the weekend before taking the bus to the Svedala train station and then the train the the Malmö station. Once there, I exchanged enough Swedish cash so that I could buy my ticket into Tivoli. Shortly after, the rest of the exchange students arrived together at the station and we all got a ride to the houses we would be staying at that night to drop off our stuff. Then we were given lunch made by the Canadian exchange student, Caleb, who also happens to be in the cooking program at his gymnasium (Swedish high school). The lunch was a beautifully presented smörgåsborg, a wide range of foods, typically sandwiches, displayed in a buffet style. A typical smörgåsborg, which is especially common around the holidays can be packed with herring, sandwiches, potatoes and more. After eating, we all took the bus back to the station and from there, the train to Denmark. I absolutely love going over the bridge connecting the two countries and watching the boats drift. halfway across the water the view cut off as we dipped into a tunnel for the rest of the ride to Denmark. Once there, we walked to Tivoli and finally made it inside the giant gates to the park. The first thing I could see once inside was the extensive amount of Christmas decorations. I was so excited about the holiday decorations that I didn’t even buy tickets for the rides. I was happy just simply being able to spend the day with friends in a winter wonderland. This must have been the thought of literally everyone else there as the park was absolutely packed. You couldn’t walk five feet in any direction without running into another excited attendee. Despite the unrelenting crowd, I could still enjoy the decorations as intended. The group of Exchange students stopped at the first ride we saw. The exact name is lost on me but it was a large swing ride where everyone sat on a swing and the ride slowly started spinning and accelerating until we were a few stories up and spinning almost horizontally. I was one of the few people screaming on the ride and by screaming I mean banshee shrieking. I did not go on any more rides that day. The other student and I who didn’t buy ride tickets were the designated bag holders for the rest of the day and I took my duty seriously. While the others enjoyed their fear-inducing death-roller coasters and so on, I enjoyed sugar and cinnamon-coated churros. After a few hours, we all took a break from the rides to explore the entire park and see all of the decorations. We strolled among ornament-clad trees and string lights illuminating the fake snow. While navigating through the park together, to avoid losing each other or getting lost, we made a train with a leader pulling us through the crowds, each person holding onto the bag of the person in front of them. The longer we were in the park, the more packed it became, most likely from more people coming to see the Christmas decorations after dark. It did indeed become a more magical place without the sun dulling the thousands of lights. After sunset, which was around four, we did another lap around the small artificial lake and could truly admire the willow trees wrapped from top to bottom in lights reflecting off of the water. My favorite part of the park was a small gingerbread village with various overpriced shops and stands. In the middle stood a tall Christmas tree and Christmas music could be heard playing over all the speakers. Even though the holiday cheer filled me with warmth, it was not quite warm enough to ward off the insanely cold wind that nipped at our toes and fingers. We decided to take a break inside a large building which sold hot chocolate and giant gingerbread cookies before calling it a day. We all huddled together while waiting for the adults near the entrance so we could leave the theme park behind. Although a blast, we were all excited for some real food and warmth back in Malmö. After taking the train back to the house where we would be staying the night, we eagerly awaited the pizza that was ordered earlier. When it arrived we were all called to the front door for a picture because we were randomly selected for free pizza that night! It was the perfect way to end an equally perfect day.