From exploring Copenhagen city, I rushed to the train station to meet my hiking buddies, Ali (MY) and Berry (IND) who had just arrived from the airport. We were all present in Denmark for Fjallraven Classic Denmark. I found the two stooges on the floor trying to fix their newly bought Danish simcard in their respective phones. They flew in from Italy, having visited its capital as well as trekked the Zermatt, Switzerland.
Halal Lunch near Copenhagen Central Station – Kebabish
I led the way to Kebabish restaurant, the halal kebab and falalel restaurant located 400m away from Copenhagen Central Station (the train station). I ate there few days before. The food was not bad. But the order took awhile to be served. It felt good to see familiar faces whose company you knew you would enjoy. It was my first time to meet Berry, Ali’s friend.
Ali met Berry on another Fjallraven events, which were Fjallraven Bootcamp Merbabu Indonesia 2017. In 2018, they participated in Fjallraven Classic Sweden. I first knew Ali from Fjallraven Indonesia Discovery 2018 at Bromo. Subsequently, we joined Fjallraven Thailand Trail 2019 and Fjallraven Discovery Baha Camp, Malaysia. We would meet our friend, Hadi in Odense later. He’s from Singapore. Ali and I met him at Fjallraven Thailand Trail 2019. Our friendship is forged along Fjallraven trails. Fjallraven Classic Denmark, here we go! From this point onwards, this is our story! Our 75km Fjallraven Classic Denmark trail.
After having lunch at Kebabish, I had to retrieve my backpack from the Steel House’s locker and headed back to Copenhagen Central Station to board the train to Odense.
Travelling to Svenborg by Train
Travelling with Ali meant he would take care of the logistics. He would check which platform to board the train etc. What would we do without Ali, as Berry would always say. There was a huge crowd waiting to board the train with us. Mostly youngsters with backpacks with tents and sleeping bags strapped by the side compartments. Most of them were heading to Roskilde Festival, the Danish music festival and also one of the largest music festivals in Europe promoting music, art and freedom. It is regarded as the Scandinavian version of Woodstock festival where partipants pitch the tent and party hard.
Buying the train ticket online
We had bought the train ticket in May, which was 2 months before event from DSB Netbutik website (Denmark’s train website). The train authority will release the tickets online two months ahead of travel date. The earliest you book, the more likely for you to get the discounted ‘Orange’ tickets. I am not sure why the discounted ticket is called orange ticket. They are normally half the price of the standard ticket.
I paid DKK127 from Kobenhavn H to Svenborg and another DKK177 from Svenborg to Kobenhavn H. These were the Orange ticket prices. Since there was no direct train to Svenborg from Kobenhavn H, we had to make a transit at Odense.
At Odense train station, my cashless life came to an abrupt end. I needed a coin to use the toilet. The shop was not friendly enough to allow me to get coins of DKK20 by swapping my card. I withdrew the cash using Big Pay card just to keep coins for toilet. Next, we boarded the train to Svenborg with other hikers heading for Fjallraven Classic Denmark.
When we reached Svenborg train station, it was windy cold. Hadi waited for us. Unlike other trekkers, we would stay the night at Svenborg and take the bus on the next day to the starting point. Ali booked an Airbnb by the name of Billig Overnatning pa syd Fyn Ohavets hovedstad (now known as Dejlig vært, tilstede på den stille måde). We paid MYR 172.15 for 3 guests.
Pitching my Robens Starlight Tent for the First Time
Once we settled down, we had a mission ie to pitch my newly bought tent atleast before the Fjallraven Classic Denmark. We found an empty field and started to work out how to pitch my Robens tent. The temperature dropped like nobody’s business. It was only 5 degree celcius and we were out reading the manual and trying to pitch the tent.
Normally, one will practice how to pitch a tent before going on a trail walk. I bought this tent because I planned to do the Laugavegur trail of Iceland after Denmark. The weather in Iceland was a tad bit too unpredictable for a tropical person like me. Further, the whole idea of practising to pitch a tent is you need to be familiar with your tent.
Pitching a tent in the nature is not always an ideal affair because you might need to pitch a tent in windy and rainy weather. Imagine pitching a tent in shivering cold! You don’t want to waste time to figure out which part go where. Throughout the event, it was obvious which trekkers had never pitched or atleast practised pitching a tent. More often than not, we would offer to help. A comfy sleep and final packing before my first Fjallraven Classic event – the Fjallraven Classic Denmark.
