Europe Trip : The Story

I spent nine nights in Europe where I had covered Munich, Copenhagen, Helsingor and Amsterdam. I went there with my auntie and our main objective was to visit my cousin in Munich who had given birth to a baby girl. My aunt only stay in Munich until 14 May 2016 while I take this opportunity to travel more than a thousand miles. Want to know about my costing during my travel in Europe just visit my previous blog post 'Europe Trip : Costing & Budget'.

Oman Air : The New Wing of Oman

We depart form KLIA at 9.35 AM and arrived in Flughafen Airport 6.40 PM the same day. Total in-flight time is 14 hour 35 minutes (excluding 1 hour 30 minutes transit in Muscat and the time different between Kuala Lumpur and Munich is seven hours during that time). After we had cleared immigration, my cousin's husband had already waited for us and it took about 20 minutes driving from the airport to their house. We unpack our things and had dinner afterward and just spent the night in the house. The next morning, I need to take a bus going to Copenhagen.

Copenhagen a City Cited the Happiest 
I arrived in Copenhagen early morning around 8AM. I departed from Central Bus Station Munich (ZOB) at 9AM taking Flixbus. The bus depart on time and the driver was very friendly. The bus was superb where wifi and toilet are provided inside the bus. I even live streaming Malaysian FA Cup Semi Final First Leg between Kedah and JDT. The 23 hours bus journey were very interesting and the bus make several stops to drop off passengers. I had to transit for five hours in Hamburg Central Bus Station and depart again at 11PM. In Hamburg I meet a Syrian guy who work in Copenhagen but the wife is staying in Hamburg. Because of the wife is a refugee, the guy said that it's difficult to live together in Copenhagen. I also encounter some difficulty when entering the border of Denmark where the bus stop for a while for safety checking.

        Since my cousin in Denmark are both working, I explore Copenhagen myself. When I arrived at Copenhagen Central Station, I took the city map and ask information from the Tourist Information Counter. Exploring Copenhagen can be easier if you purchase Copenhagen Card. It's a card that give you free admission to 73 museums and attractions, free transport by train, bus and Metro and also discounts on restaurants, attractions and sightseeing ranging from 24 hours (1 day) to 120 hours (5 days). They're also free tourist guide start at 10AM at the City Hall handled by university students. I joined the guide and it ended at 1PM. The guide was very interesting where we walked and took pictures all the way from City Hall to The Statue of the Little Mermaid. My tourist guide was from Greece and she was very excited in guiding us. She even said she planned to live and become a permanent resident of Denmark. From the recent finding, people from Denmark are happiest in the world. Although tax payer need to pay almost 40 percent of tax but the people are happy on what they got back. Around 2PM I arrived at my cousin's house where I walked about 5km from The Statue of the Little Mermaid to Islands Brygge. After I had showered and rest a bit, at 3PM I followed my cousin to a Malaysian barbecue party in Vesterbro. We when there by train where actually you can ride a train for free but if you been caught by the authority hefty punishment await. The transport system there are based by trust and there's an app that help user of public transport to use the facilities easily.

Who need a phone when you got a map

         I spent three nights in Copenhagen. I had my breakfast and dinner at my cousin's house and spent around eight hours exploring. On the second day I went again to visit museums and attractions and covered more than 20km distance of walking from Islands Brygge - City - Norrebro - City - Christianshavn and back to Islands Brygge. I had my lunch in Norrebro and also had my Zuhur prayer in one the mosque located in Blagardsgade street. After coming back from Norrebro I bought some souveniers located beside McDonald Frederiksberggade street (near City Hall). I can guarentee that the shop offer the cheapest price and the shop owner is a Muslim form Bangladesh. I aslo had my Asar prayer there. Along the street also got attractions such as Lego Store, House of Amber, Hard Rock Cafe, street performers, fountains, many restaurants and coffee shops and street foods.

The shop that I bought all my souvenirs

       On the third day in Copenhagen, I borrowed my cousin's bicycle and cycle towards Orestad. The view was outstanding where the area got unique buildings and the surrounding is green. It's a city in the garden. After I had my cycle session in the morning, I walked to Copenhagen Central Station to take train toward Helsingor. Ticket can be purchase from the counter and the train took about 40 minutes journey one way. Helsingor is 10km away from Sweden that been separated by the sea. We could see clearly Helsingborg from Kronborg Castle. The next day before I depart to the airport, my cousin accompany me sightseeing in the City. We took the harbour bus (boat) from Islands Brgyye to the City. We visited the University Library, The Black Diamond and others Copenhagen University facilities. My cousin is a student taking PHD in agriculture. He and his wife also planning to stay in Copenhagen due the country condition and policies that care for the people. Although groceries and food are a bit expensive and tax are high, the inflation rate is low and furthermore the people also earn a lot. A kindergarten teacher salary is about DKK10000 or approximately RM6300. The people of Denmark were also very friendly and helpful. I left Copenhagen going to Amsterdam before going back to Munich by train the next day. In Amsterdam I bought the one day travel ticket and use it to travel around Amsterdam for sightseeing. On the seven day of my journey in Europe, I went back to Munich by train from Amsterdam Central Station. It took me around 10 hours of journey and I spent my night in the train. I arrived around 8AM at Munchen Hauptbahnhof and took a train toward Wettersteinplatz station where my cousin's house is located.

Munich Munchen
On the second day during my stay in Europe, my cousin's husband already give me train ticket so that I can use it coming back from Munchen Hauptbahnhof. It was just five minutes walking toward my cousin's house from Wettersteinplatz station. During my three nights stay in Munich, I got a chance to jog around the neighborhood and interestingly Bayern Munich Training Complex is located beside my cousin's apartments. Every evening I went there to see the youth squad training, matches and even meet with some of Bayern Munich players such as Kingsley Coman and Xabi Alonso.

The railway map in Munich. Two main lines; S bahn & U bahn

Train/tram ticket in Munich

In front of Bayern Munich fan store

I explore Munich with both my cousin, their son and daughter and my aunt. We move around Munich taking train/tram. We went to Englischer Garten, Nymphenburg Palace, New Town Hall and Marienplatz. I also took the chance to explore Allianz Arena and BMW Museum. On the last day of my trip, I took the tram going to Mareinplatz Station. From there I took S bahn line eight straight to Flughafen Munchen station where the airport is located. Luggage check in, custom and immigration are all within 50 meters. I claim my tax refund from custom and manage to get back around €20. Bear in mind that we need to fill the tax refund form (get from the shop we buy), get our flight ticket before heading to custom for tax refund. Custom will check the things that we buy with the resit that we attach.  

Continue to part 3, Europe Trip : Itinerary 

For previous blog post part 1, Europe Trip : Costing & Budget