Train transfers and jetlag (Denmark Day 1)
I know I told some of you that I'd post every other day. I should've added an "ish" at the end of it. I can't sleep well on planes. That meant that even though my overnight flight (because it's a 9 hour time difference) landed on time at Copenhagen Airport about 9:30 AM on Monday, I didn't do much of anything that first morning. Luckily, Copenhagen has world class transportation infrastructure, so getting to the hostel (Generator Hostel, Copenhagen location) was easy.
I simply walked through the airport into the train station to start my day in Denmark. One thing that they do well here at transport hubs: provide excellent way finding. What's way finding? It's a combination of built and graphic design that help people figure out where they are relative to where they want to go and how to get there. A shorter explanation is that it's very well done signs.
I forgot to take a pic in the airport, but here's an example from the train station that I exited in the central city. It's clear where I was at (Kongens Nytorv), where I could go (the system diagram and individual line diagrams), and where to head to next to reach my destination.
At the airport, I experienced a small hitch in my smooth plane to train transfer because of a system bug at the ticket kiosk. After selecting my preferred language, the area of the city that I wanted to reach, my exact train destination, and what type of ticket I wanted, the system kept saying the service was unavailable. A couple of service personnel were nearby to help travelers figure out which ticket they needed, so they explained about the bug that day. The immediate solution was to keep trying for a ticket until the system worked. It took about 25-30 tries, but I eventually got my ticket. The helpful attendants had a friendliness paired with efficiency that I've not experienced in the US outside of the excellent folks in DC. (It's not their fault if their subway catches fire every year when TRB is in town.) Getting my ticket at Copenhagen Airport all worked out fine in the end.
After a very brief walk to the hostel and storing my bags in a locker, I took a nap on an available hostel sofa until they let us check-in. It was a pleasant surprise that they didn't shoosh me or any of the other napping travelers out.
Next up: Day 1.5, We get our bikes.
Best random item on the train: A rowing machine. (Dude checked this on a plane?!)
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