If you asked me when I got this job (last 2012) if it crossed my mind that I would ever get to go to Denmark – or Europe, in general – in the next year, I probably would have laughed at you. Come on, I’m 22. I don’t come from a rich family. And even though I aspired to go to Europe, I was thinking more of 2015 at the soonest. Aside from that, it’s common knowledge at the office that you would need to reach a certain level or tenure to be qualified to go to the HQ in Denmark. I am still in a graduate position and have only been working for a year, so when it was announced that two from a team of six (where I obviously belong) was to go, it wasn’t anything exciting – at least for me. For some weird reason, one of the senior test developers refused to go.. and the weirdest thing was, when he closed that door, it opened for me! (#JustMyLuck) Sure, it was short notice. I went and panic bought heat tech clothes from Uniqlo, squeezed in half of the winter clothes I have been buying from thrift stores for a while (they said I was crazy for buying cold weather clothes knowing I lived in a tropical country – but who’s laughing now? Hahaha!), and my Schengen Visa was released eight hours before our flight. After 9-10 hours of sleeping on the plane to Dubai, a two-hour layover in Dubai (we went via Emirates Airline) and another 6 hours of sleeping on the plane – I finally got my feet on European soil!

I lived in Wakeup Copenhagen for three weeks! Nothing fancy, the room I stayed in was smaller than my bedroom but no complaints, I’m in Denmark, yay! 🙂

Due to the time difference, even when we left Manila 12:40 AM on a Saturday, we arrived in Copenhagen by noon that same day. No time to waste! We checked in, left our luggage at our rooms and went to Copenhagen Central Station (Københavns Hovedbanegård, København H). To be honest, we just went there so I could ride the train and see the biggest railway station in Copenhagen. The colleague I went with has been to DK before so she let me experience all the touristy stuff.

Afterward, we walked to Strøget (we sure did a lot of walking here). It’s a long street full of boutiques and souvenir shops, from cheap ones (some are full of clothes with no brands) to high-end ones (Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, etc.). I honestly only brought one pair of shoes/boots with me, so when I saw a huge SALE sign outside ALDO, we went in and bought boots! It got dark pretty fast, and the 2° weather was quite chilling even with all the layers of clothes I had on.

More posts to come! Fair warning though, I didn’t bring a camera with me, so most of the photos I have are photos taken by my mobile phone or my colleague’s mobile phone. Sucks when your camera breaks while you’re in Puerto Galera. Haha!