Beatlemania!

Sparknotes:

• Went to the Beatlemania Museum
• Took a train/ferry/bus to Copenhagen
• Met a cool guy from Boston who was couchsurfing in Copenhagen
• Hung out with Laerke and her awesome roomies

My next day in Hamburg was pretty easy going. I had breakfast at the hostel and lounged around doing computer stuff. I left around noon and made my way to the Beatles Museum. I’ve been a Beatles fan my whole life, so I was pretty excited to go to a museum dedicated to them. I also recently took a class at Cal Poly on the Beatles (sooooo amazing), so I was feeling pretty knowledgeable about everything I was about to see, and was excited to learn more.

The museum had 5 levels and lots of information, but it failed to impress me. L I thought it could have been structured much better, and had cooler exhibits that you could interact with more. Oh well. The cool parts included seeing lots of photos of the Beatles I’d never seen before, watching videos of girls going nuts screaming for the Beatles, posing with the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album Cover in real life, and checking out the insane amount of Beatles memorabilia! They had Beatles everything!!! I had no idea there was a board game called the “Mop Tops” haha There was also lots of Beatles jewelry, lunchboxes, binders, room décor, combs, and everything else you’d ever need. Haha

I then explored the city center for 1.5 hours or so. I didn’t have much time, but got to see a decent amount of stuff in the city. It’s pretty cool/huge. Apparently it got bombed to nothing in WWII, so everything looks somewhat new and similar, which gives the city an interesting atmosphere. I liked it, but it wasn’t anything special (sorry Louisa. Maybe you can show me the cool parts another time haha).

I then took a ~6 hour train ride to Copenhagen where I got to blog for a bit (I usually make a word document draft of my blogs, then post them when I have internet) and play angry birds. Gosh that game is addicting. Haha Oh, and something I had no idea about, was that our train would drive directly onto a ferry to get to Denmark! I was so confused for a bit, and was yelled at by a German train employee to GET OFF THE TRAIN! Haha Oops. The ferry ride was really cool, and definitely unexpected (I thought there was a bridge between Germany and Denmark. My bad).

Due to train problems in Copenhagen, we all had to take a bus from the ferry port to Copenhagen. It was alright, and I ended up sitting next to a guy from Boston who was super cool. His name was John, and he’s been traveling around Europe for the last 2 months, couchsurfing everywhere. He’s traveled all over the world pretty much, and is what I would consider a “travel-holic.” Haha He had lots of good advice for me of places to go, how to get there, what the people are like, and things to watch out for. Listening to him was always kind of distracting tho, because Boston accents just crack me up. Haha At one point he said “turquoise” with such a thick accent I had to stop him so I could get myself back together.

We were both staying with couchsurfers for the night (tho I actually had already hosted the girl I was staying with back in CA), and our hosts lived roughly in the same area so we walked together for a while before splitting up. We talked about meeting up the next day to explore the town since both our hosts had work or school, and we actually did which was cool. I eventually made it to my friend Laerke’s house, and it was SO GREAT to see her.

When Laerke stayed with me in San Luis Obispo, she was with 2 other girls so I didn’t really get to spend that much 1-1 time with her. But now that I was staying with her, we got to talk a lot more and I got to know her so much better even in just a short amount of time. It’s also cool seeing the living situation and lifestyle of the people I hosted back in slo, and Laerke had a really cool living situation. She lives in a cooperative with 6 other people (6 bedroom apt/dorm mix).

I got to meet most of her roommates that night, who were super laid back and spoke very good English. Fresh bread was cooking, I had some tea, and soon Laerke was showing me everywhere I needed to hit up while in Copenhagen. She even drew up some maps/ streets/ buildings/ cafes/ restaurants on a piece of paper for me. J With the help of her flatmate Sarah, I had a decent idea of what to do the next day.