Danish Delights

Fritzels dungeon in Vienna…..the horror show of staying in a favéla in Belgrade with its broken windows, loose dogs and construction of our beds whilst we waited……sweaty and smelly cross border sleeper trains in Prague……40 man dorms with all the noises that comes with that in Berlin…….a tent in Varna where there’s a 50/50 chance you leave with a tattoo of the hostel logo - these are the sorts of places where we have laid of weary heads after a long days touring and tried to get some precious beauty sleep - so when we arrived in Copenhagen and headed to our hostel our expectations weren’t high. Would we be sharing with any “businessmen”??? would we have to shower in the kitchen in front of each other??? Would the place be run by a ladybird?? These were all questions entering our minds as we walked in the beautiful September sunshine in Copenhagen.

All our fears vanished faster than the whip in an Irish bar when we saw the amazing place we would be staying. It was called Next hostel and if Charlie built his factory for the pleasure of children then Mr or Mrs Next has built the Valhalla for 40 something men! It had everything you’d want - well stocked bars at every turn….an indoor five aside pitch!! A pizza restaurant……dart boards….cinema rooms for sports….pin ball machines…..arcades…..a gym……and best of all - at 6 o’clock they wheel a mobile bar outside in the sun and give you free danish lager for an hour! Unbelievable!!

As we slipped on our free beers in the Copenhagen evening sunshine we wondered - could life get any better? The moment couldn’t even be ruined by a Welsh guy trying to but not succeeding in trying to persuade us he and his mates (aka chairmen) have there own Jimbotour on the go - I switched off when day spas were mentioned and Shaun got up and left as he was reminiscing about a hot air balloon ride.

This hostel is truly amazing and I will be looking to see if they open any in future tour destinations. It has set the bar very high for martins first night on tour…..luckily I have something special booked for our next night which should be more ‘on brand’!

The rooms are tight but the beds are super (thanks RP!) cosy plus you get a free performance of moulin rouge from the inhabitants in the building opposite. 

We did have a small mix up with the automated check in which meant that we had an unexpected guest in our room which meant me getting woken and dragged out of bed by stevie at 4 in the morning and having to check myself into another room.

Copenhagen is a big and bustling city. There are tourists everywhere but everyone seems super (there it is again) happy. The locals are beautiful- both men and women.

We spend a lovely day wandering through the streets taking in the history and stopping every so often for ice cold beers to relieve our weariness.

As we were queuing to climb the 1881 steps to the top of the round tower I posed a question to my fellow travelers……shall we climb the tower or go to another country - I wander what the answer was??!!……..