An overnighter in Aarhus - which I want to go forget

Country 41 - Denmark. A country with loads of islands, just south of Sweden, north of Germany, with the North Sea on the west coast and the Baltic sea on the east. I have flown over this country many times on my trips to and from Latvia to the United Kingdom, and always looks flat and boring, with loads of wind farms in the sea. I never step foot into Denmark before, until today. A cheap flight was booked with Ryanair to Aarhus in the north with a one night overstay in a hostel.

After problems getting to my flight at London Stansted airport, with bus, tube and train problems, I made it with a few seconds to spare. An hour and twenty minutes later, the plane landed on a piece of tarmac in a field miles from the nearest house. Passport stamp recieved, I looked for some currency exchange place in this forsaken cattle shed, none! The cash machine (ATM) had a queue so I quickly made a run to the bus outside the terminal (or shed) to see if they accept British pounds notes, but when I got my ticket and change back in Danish Krona, I was ripped off!

45 minutes later, I arrived in Aarhus.

An industrial town next to the Baltic sea. I didn't do my research on the place, but all the buildings I have seen on route, and in the town later that day was all made with either red or bage bricks. Was this place bombed in the war by the Nazi Germans. Who knows, and I still don't know the answer to this. All the same, it looked so boring with no character.

The bus pulled outside the main train station in the centre. I had a quick look inside. Very small. Trains are grey metal rusk buckets going down the line. The building itself is nice, and is built next to a brand spanking new shopping mall. Shame all the shops here were selling very expensive goods. Back to the main entrance and across the road was the main shopping street with one or two nice churches, and a stream/river with nice bridges crossing it, so a nice little view that was.

I walked down to the main sea front, hoping that if I walked a bit further north I can find something nice to do and see, despite the grey clouds coming in thick and fast. Forget this, I got bored with the sea as I kept on walking and all I saw was, boats, cranes, tankers and car parks. It was so depressing. It was like Luton-by-the-sea!
 Back into town and pass the main bus station, I found the cinema (which was in the shopping mall I was in earlier, but never noticed it!) I was so bored I decided to make a nuisance of myself with the ticket clerks, and she spoke great English and then for some reason I brought a ticket to go and watch the latest Tom Cruise film where he tries to kill Hilter during the second world war. (A very popular film in Denmark as they really hated the Nazi's!)

A very good film, I wont talk about it as I am writing a travel blog.

So four hours into my stay, and I was bored, lonely, depressed, nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to take photos off. So back down the main shopping street, where a girl in her early 20's was skipping towards me, waving and smiling. Strange, but I stopped and smile. 'Blah blah blah', 'erm, English?' I said. 'Oh, ok - you are no good to me' she replied. 'and why is that?' 'well, you need to live here and be Danish'

God knows what she was banging on about, but we got talking and she was amazed that I been to 41 countries and she asked me how I was finding my first trip to Denmark. I said boring, nothing to do, nothing to see, I am very bored. She agreed and said this area of Denmark always has shitty weather this time of year. 'What is the nightlife here?' and she answered, there is a few bars in one street, but drinks here are very expensive.

'Yep, I gathered that, I need a second mortage to drink here!' I replied. She was very nice girl, but I was stopping her from working, so I went off to search for food in this mid afternoon shitty weather.

I found a McDonalds, had that, back outside, looked around again, nothing. I was so bored. I didn't have high expections of this place, but this seemed worse than what I thought it might be. Back towards the train station, I bumped into the girl again, got talking, and then went off. I found the hostel I was staying in, 'City Sleep In' down on the harbour. Checked in, found my room, a guy from Israel living in Germany and a Japanese student was in there. Anyway, got talking, and by 7pm I got bored, and felt a bit sleepy after the lack of sleep I had from the previous day, and my eating habits were really bad.

I rang Olga in Latvia to say I missed her and loved her and told her I was so bored and lonely. She understood.  

So I slept, and two hours later I woke up. I had a massive headache and I felt sick. Dam, I had no tablets for the headache, no food or drink. So I laid there for a while in the dark. No good, so half an hour later, I got up, got dressed, when a guy from England came in, and straight away I asked him if he had any tablets (without introducing myself - how rude of me!) and he did. Great, part one was done. Now I quickly shot outside to the harbour front and looking for a place which was open. It was snowing hard now and I was bloody cold. Nothing was open! God, how I wanted to get home. I found a petrol station. Hooray! I went in, and I acted if I was drunk, but I wasn't drunk.

God, I was so sick now. I found a litre bottle of still water (made by Carlsberg, the local brewer!) and the checkout girl asked if I was alright, and I just said I need water and sleep. I couldn't even give her the coins which she needed, so I just holded out my hand with the coins and she took what she needed. God knows if I paid for more than I should off.

I walked outside onto the petrol forecort, drank the water, and then I threw up (vomitted) everywhere over the petrol pumps! She came running out and found me in a sleeping position laying down on the ground. She goes to me, you are very drunk, I said no, I need sleep. She asked if I needed a doctor, I said no, I want my hostel. So I got up, said sorry, (and left her to clean up) and walked very slowly back to the hostel, where I went to sleep straight away.

It was 6.30am the next morning. Great, quickly get dressed, and head off to the train station to catch my bus to the airport. I put my electronic key card for the entrance to my room and the hostel in the depoist box as there was no staff that morning, and as soon as I got outside and the doors shut on me, I found out I left my camera underneath the bed! Dam! I rang the phone number on the door for the manager. He answered and said he will be at the hostel at 8am. No good, I be at the airport then. Dam, Dam, Dam. He said he will post it, so we sent the e-mails to each other to arrange this (and I am still awaiting for a reply!)
Not good, so I headed off to the airport and thank god I was back in England! If it wasn't for the friendly people of Denmark, I think I could of been banging my head against the wall!