Day 15 - Right in the middle of the E6 to Copenhagen

We woke up at 8 o'clock in the morning. There was a puddle around the car and Jessica had left her flip-flops outside, so I found one washed under the car after she burst into laughter, thinking someone had stolen her flip-flop.

We continued towards Copenhagen. After driving for almost two hours, we reached the city of Helsingborg and the GPS guided us to the ferry terminal. We looked at each other, completely puzzled. Taking the ferry to Copenhagen? We had planned to take the bridge. Well, ferry is okay. Since we were so surprised to cross the short stretch of sea to Denmark on a ferry, I asked the attendant at the barrier if we were really going to Denmark by ferry. With a slightly bewildering look, she confirmed that we were at the ferry terminal and thus would be taking the ferry to Denmark. Well, that makes sense. My next question, if it would cost anything, also earned me a strange look. 'Yes, 490 Francs.' 'Francs? You mean Swiss Francs?' was my subsequent question, as I was taken aback by the mention of Francs. The cashier looked at me, completely puzzled. 'No, Swedish Crowns.' Ah, I understood that. We paid and drove through the barrier, parking in our lane on the ferry.

We wanted to spend the next 20 minutes on the upper deck and enjoy the crossing, now that we would finally see something. But not even ten minutes on the upper deck, a voice came over the ship's microphone: 'The owners of the black Peugeot, please proceed to the car deck immediately! Owners of the black Peugeot, proceed to the car deck immediately!' Jessica and I didn't even need to exchange a glance to know that we were being called. The other passengers gave us amused looks as we walked towards the car deck with smiles on our faces - but on which level did we park? It wasn't C3, we knew that after checking there and finding nothing familiar. We had better luck with F3. A ship employee stood next to our black Peugeot, holding it back. Grinning, he told us that the handbrake hadn't been pulled, causing the car to roll into the one behind it when it started.

Of course, the handbrake. I didn't forget it for the first time. Smiling at our situation, we looked at the other car - luckily, nothing had happened to either of them - and saw the owner. Of course, I apologized to him and he said, 'No problem, girl. My legs are broken, so I had to stay in the car. I couldn't do anything but watch your car roll over here!' When we were finally alone, we burst into loud laughter. Our situation was indeed funny. Of course, we were the ones meant with the car, and then there was a man with broken legs and our car rolled into his. And then there were two chickens waddling in flip-flops and sweatpants, who had forgotten the handbrake. What was it about these ferries that attracted such strange situations for us?

So the 20-minute crossing was already over, and waving to the other driver, we drove off the ferry and onto the ground of Denmark. Hard to believe. Just yesterday in Oslo, and today in Denmark. On the way, we searched the internet for cheap accommodations for a night in Copenhagen. Since we couldn't find anything cheap, I discovered the option of Airbnb. This was an online community where users offered their apartments or rooms to stay for a few nights. We immediately contacted a suitable room with the owner. After some back and forth, we found the owner very likeable, but the rent was too complicated since we had to leave early the next morning. However, we really liked the idea of Airbnb. We spontaneously decided to sleep in the car again and then spend the next night in a hotel. Since we liked the night at the rest area, we wanted to do it again - but we couldn't find a suitable rest area for the life of us. So we drove a bit outside of Copenhagen to a parking lot protected by trees from the nearby gas station. Earlier, we had bought a movie in a store, and now we wanted to watch it. We were very comfortable. Afterwards, we took a short walk to get away from the car for a few minutes. While doing so, we noticed that we had parked in the middle of a train station. Locals were hanging around everywhere while we walked through the dark neighborhood in our pajamas. Although the others seemed strange to us, it was probably us in our long raincoats and flip-flops who didn't fit in here. Then we jumped back into the car and fell asleep - a little less comfortable than last night. Of course, before that, we had moved the car two meters further into the shade, as we had stood under a street lamp before and felt like being on display.