I have started a long post about my trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, but the past few days back in Copenhagen have been so crazy that you deserve an update.

We flew from Dublin to Copenhagen Friday at around 8pm after a very fun, but exhausting week. Once I got my luggage I was like, “Okay, bye,” and headed for the Öresundståg (the Swedish train). After reflecting with peers on the ticketing system in the Dublin airport, I decided to ride “dirty” for the two stops left of the metro line towards my kollegium.

To Chamillionaire’s disappointment, I refer to riding dirty as riding the train without a proper ticket. DIS gives you a transportation pass with the amount of zones you must cross to get to school. I have zone 1 (downtown Copenhagen) and zone 3 (Ørestad). The airport is in zone 4. However, I can literally walk 5 minutes from my kollegium and I’m in zone 4. Also, the airport is only 8 minutes away by car. Anyways, buying a ticket for two stops can get quite frustrating considering the machines are finicky and it costs 3 dollars each way. It honestly might be the feeling of dissatisfaction when you buy a ticket and no one patrols the train that drives many to ride dirty. However, riding dirty has some serious consequences. If you are caught without a proper ticket, you are issued a $140 fine that you must pay within 12 days or it will start to accrue interest.

Guess what’s coming? I got caught. I pretended to believe the airport was in zone 3 and graciously started filling out the paper the officer handed me. I made the ticketing process difficult because I didn’t write my Copenhagen address and don’t have my CPR number (basically SSN) committed to memory. All of a sudden it’s my stop and the officer has jumped off the train. I get off and hand him my information and he is confused. He requests I put the address that was on my transportation pass. I said, “oh, that is school,” while frantically trying to find where I put the pass when he handed it back to me. A few Pounds fell out of my wallet, he handed me the coins and said, “just be more careful next time” and hopped on the train. Moral of the story: take the Swedish train seriously (I would never ride dirty on the Danish trains)/another reason to love Sweden. Did I look that exhausted or was I just too difficult? The interesting thing is that the same thing happened to a friend some time later. Although I had some luck avoiding a fine, I didn’t exactly avoid a theft and Denmark’s worst storm in ten years. 

While sitting in my last class today, I found out we were supposed to be hit with a “hurricane-force storm” right about the time class  would get out. I think we all were in denial about the storm, but it was no joke. With 50-120mph winds, many abandoned their bikes and headed to the metro. The metro was packed, but three people from my kollegium and I managed to ride the metro until it stopped three stops too short. I believe it stopped short because of the windiness caused by close proximity with the edge of the island. We had to take a bus one stop over and wait for a different bus to take us over half a mile. We sprinted from the bus stop to try to catch the next one, but we arrived as it started to pull away. We ended up running/walking home … in the direction of the wind.

It was a nightmare, but I’m grateful it wasn’t really raining because that would have made it painful. Maybe I should have looked at the Danish news that morning and probably should not have been in heeled boots. I’m really glad we made it home though; some people got stranded at school.

Welp, in terms of theft, my bike was stolen. I got a flat on the way to school a little over a week ago and left it at a metro station. I locked it and didn’t worry much about its fate because it’s a crap bike and I didn’t understand why anyone would steal it. I checked on it after three days and it was fine. Here’s where I went wrong: I made the mistake of leaving it at the station while in Ireland. I came home and it was gone. I mean, any bike is better than no bike, but of all the beautiful shiny bikes at the station, mine was stolen … confused. I’m contemplating telling my parents it blew away during the storm.

Don’t ride dirty, be smarter about your bike even if you think it’s undesirable (RIP), and read the Danish news.