Sunday, April 03, 2005

Challenge #4: COUNTRY - Complete!

I've just got back from a weekend in Copenhagen. I took my passport and everything. Copenhagen is in Denmark, which is a country I have not visited before. Here I am by the Harbour, (at Ameliehaven):

Me in Copenhagen

It was quite sunny all the time, and also fairly warm later in the day - around 17 Celsius. I was able to take my scarf off.

This was the first time I've ever travelled abroad on my own (as in being on a trip without anyone else doing the same) so I was a bit unsure as to whether I'd enjoy it or not. Conclusion: Days are fine - I can just do what I want, when I want, for as long as I want. Nights are not as much fun. Dinner isn't too bad, and service tends to be fairly quick when you are on your own, but after that there isn't a great deal to do other than head back to the hotel for a drink in the bar with a book (I was reading Umberto Eco so I'd look clever). But it was only for a couple of nights.

Since I'm back to work tomorrow, I'm intending to head off to bed shortly, so the full excitement of the stories from Denmark will have to wait for another day (or days). I do, however, have some helpful travel advice for anyone (from the UK) heading to Europe in the near future.

If you have an E111 from last year (or before), then it is no longer valid. You need to get a new one. The new one is an interim arrangement until the EU issues "European health insurance cards" from the end of this year. I only found this out when I saw a poster in the Post Office half an hour before I was due to get my train. Luckily this was sufficient time to get a new form. I didn't expect to need to use it, but it's almost guaranteed that if I didn't have a valid E111, I'd end up in hospital somehow, somewhere. Because I got a new style (interim) form, I had no health problems whatsoever.

There, that's public service blogging, that was.

1 comment:

Bertworld said...

Tend to agree with you about the travelling alone thing. I tend to have been doing things where I meet poepl or am busy in the evening. So might typically go to somewhere with a band on, or sitting in the main squares where I can watch life go by.
But is better with people to share a drink with, I just think it depends on how long a trip you do. If you go backpacking its usually easier to meet people for drinks etc.
Jealous that you made it to Copenhagen, did you do Malmo as well??