- Travel on the Rail -

Part 1

In February, 1989, just before graduation from university, I left Japan for four countries in the Northern Europe. My main purpose of this trip was to get on such clean trains in each country as Miyawaki Shunzo, a Japanese famous essayist about railroads, expressed "filled with cleanness".

*The prices and any other data are all for my traveling at that time.

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At any rate, the seats of Aeroflot Soviet Airline are too small. It is OK that I am sitting on the window side and I can see the outside, but it is so hard to go to a rest room. I have to wake up the two people just next to me then. But actually, it is lucky for me that the people are girls.

They say that they are students in their fourth year at Meiji Gakuin University, and are going to their travel just before graduation, but not for the northern Europe. Yes, I know very few people are going to the northern Europe in mid-winter.

Outside does not get dark yet because this airplane is going to west. That means we are being headed for the sun, and it is something strange. Looking at the below from the window, I found the white land of Siberia extends there. There are no houses as far as I can see. The track that stretches straight may be Siberia Railroad. I hope I can meet my friend over there, who said he was going to Europe by Siberia Railroad. Somebody said,
"You, a real mania for railroad, should go by Siberia Railroad."
However, I had to give it up because it takes a month to get a visa and 10 days to get from Japan to Europe, and also it will cost more money than we expect. So, thank you for your understanding that.

Finally, it turned into night outside. After the flight from Narita for 10 and a half hours, SU580 landed on Sheremetye-2 Airport in Moscow at 7:30 pm after a delay of 30 minutes. The impression of my first flight is,
"It was scared!"

I will stay at the transit hotel 3 minutes from the airport by bus, which is only for passengers who are changing to other flights. It is free so I feel lucky, but what a dirty hotel!

Here, I have to part from the girls of Mei-Gaku Univ. For tomorrow's flights, they will go on board the plane for Frankfurt, and I will do the one for Copenhagen.

The stuff of the hotel came to my room to let me know it would be the time to leave soon. It is just dark outside of the window.

I wonder how to unlock the key! I cannot open the door even after trying several times. When I woke up the man that had been still sleeping in the same room and we tried for about 5 minutes, finally I managed to open it. Now, I got how to unlock; turning in the same direction twice.

Going back to the airport and drinking coffee (50 yen a cup!), it turned 30 minutes before leaving, but our boarding has not begun yet. Soon it turned the time to take off, but there are no actions around us. Casually seeing the outside, I found bad fog there! I really do not want our plane to flight in such fog.

After a while, the fog has gone, and SU215 for Copenhagen took off Moscow at 9:00 am after a delay of 2 and a half hours.

There are bigger seats for only 2 people each on this plane than the ones for 3 each on the one till Moscow. And the space for each seat looks wider. Also it is not crowded. How fine! But when I ate the served meal, I was so discouraged because it was so bad, though the meals till Moscow were very good...

As thinking about that or something, we are coming to the height to see the land below. There are fields as far as I can see! It is in Sweden?

We landed on Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen at 11:00 am, after a delay of 2 and a half hours as well. The impression of my second flight is,
"It was scared again!"

Anyway, I could arrive in the first country Denmark in the northern Europe. What I have to do at first here is exchanging money. At the bank in the airport, My 100 US dollars was turned to 686 kroners and 90 ore. 1 kroner is 100 ore, which is about 20 Japanese yen. Kroner and Ore are used as the currency not only in Denmark but also in Norway and Sweden, and we can exchange them with around the same rate each other, but each spelling is a little different; Kroner in Denmark (DKK) and Norway (NOK), Kronor in Sweden (SEK). Of course, we cannot use other country's currencies except at the international ports and so on.

OK, I am ready for going to the center of the city. I will go with two Japanese students, who were (men!) on the same plane. I hope they were girls...

Combined S-train/HT bus ticket

We are going by a cheaper city bus (HT bus) than a limousine. It costs 12 DKK to the city hall by the bus (21 DKK by the limousine). We got on the bus after getting the ticket from the driver. This is a combined S-train and HT bus ticket, and we can change to any other trains or buses within an hour by this ticket.

As seeing the passengers in the bus and the buildings made of stone out of the window, I could get the first feeling of my being in the foreign country. But then, I saw a convenience store that I can often find even in Japan. It is letdown!

We got to the city hall after 30 minutes. The city hall is different a lot from the ones in Japan that are just offices. It has a steeple so looks like a church. When I could feel its history from it, I found the signs with TOYOTA, NEC and so on on other buildings. They let me down, but also I am proud a little of such Japanese companies that are advertising even in the foreign country far from Japan. There are lots of Japanese cars there as well.

For the moment, we have to find a hotel for tonight, so went to the cheap hotel district at the west of the station. We can find many people with something of dangers around here, and many police cars are also. We decided to stay at "Saga Hotel" in such district. It is 130 DKK each for a triple room for one night. It is supposed to be one of the cheapest hotels in the northern Europe with higher prices. I must have hard times to find a cheap hotel on the further way.

Copenhagen Station

Leaving our baggage in the room of the hotel, we first went to the station. Copenhagen Station, made of brick, is a very nice station. I can feel the weight from its looking. And there are a bank, a post office, restaurants, a super market, and anything in it. It is useful!

By the way, we have not decided where to go. We could not decide though talking with a guidebook on our hands, and as soon as leaving the station for the moment, it started to rain. Also it is windy so cold. But all the local people do not use an umbrella as a rumor, so we do not too, although it is just because no one of us does not have an umbrella.

We got to the national museum at the moment. It is free. In the northern Europe, the taxes are so high, but it does not cost to do cultural things or go to hospitals.

Even so, too many things in the museum for us! It has three floors, but we went out of it after watching only on the first floor. The rain and wind have got harder.

We lost our way in such cold rain and wind. It is difficult for us to walk in this city. After walking around here and there for a while, we met the Japanese student that was (a man too) on the same plane to Copenhagen Airport. He said that his uncle living here is giving him a tour in the city. The uncle said,
"Aren't you hungry"
So we went to a pizza restaurant together. The pizza was so big and so delicious, but we had to pay by ourselves for each. You should pay for all, right?

After that, it was a bother for us to walk, so we went back to the hotel with talking badly about that uncle though it was still around 4 o'clock. And we were not aware of going to sleep on the bed without supper. Thus, my first day in the northern Europe ended up before I knew well about that.

To be continued

Part 2 ->