Copenhagen — London Scandinavian Airlines SK501 Flight Report
Leaving my hotel at 5:30 am to catch my 8am flight to London. After a transatlantic flight followed by a full night of exploration, it’s certainly not easy to wake up this early, after just a 5hr sleep. I checked-out and ventured into the dark freezing street, walking to the train station.
Ørestad train station was located right next to the metro station, only 2 stations from the airport (~15 mins). Fortunately the mall on the way was open for pedestrians, which I walked across again to avoid the coldness outside. Workers in the supermarket were already preparing for the new day.
Ørestad train station seemed to have no officers, so the ticket had to be purchased from the machine. The destination of this train was Kristianstad, Sweden. In fact, Copenhagen Airport was right at the Swedish border that it was the final station on the Danish side. If I fell asleep and missed the stop, the train would take me all the cross the sea to Malmö, the 4th largest city of Sweden only 600km away from Stockholm, but part of the Copenhagen metropolitan. The border between the two nations, who went to war with each other at every opportunity during the Middle Ages, had become blurry.
A number of people were waiting at the platform already. This clean and comfortable train quickly brought us to the airport terminal.
Walking around the Burger King on the 2nd floor of the terminal, there were several travelers sleeping at the tables. This Burger King opens 24hrs and seems like a nice place to nap and charge for people with overnight layovers, especially considering that most hotels in Copenhagen are not very affordable.
It took a while to wait in the long line to check in (since I had overnight layover, they weren’t able to issue me the boarding pass when I checked-in my first flight in San Francisco.) Security line also took a while to go through.
I initially didn’t expect a priority pass lounge (there wasn’t one in terminal 3). However I soon realized that the terminals were connected airside, so I was able to walk all the way to terminal 2 to use the lounge. This lounge turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever visited, with unbeatable vibe and tasty breads and hams that I ended up eating plates after plates, too busy eating to take photos. Few people were using the lounge that early in the day, so everywhere was clean, quiet and enjoyable. After all my bad lounge experiences were mostly due to overcrowding, instead of the quality of the lounge itself. Various wines was also served in the lounge (seemed to be a norm in European lounges, but not so much elsewhere)
But I didn’t have much time to spare in the lounge. After ~30min and god knows how many plates of food, I had to sprint back to terminal 3. But on my way I noticed that my flight was actually delayed by 15mins, so I seemed to have more time to walk…..
I thought. Until I saw the immigration line in the front. When I didn’t see immigration officers after the security lines earlier, I though Europe was like the US, which does not have exit immigration examination. That is, passengers going straight from security to the gate. Little did I know that Europe DID have exit immigration check right before the gates. Thus it took me another 10 mins to get my passport stamped. Without the delay, I would almost have missed my flight!
Every aircraft in Scandinavian Airlines’ fleet has a name from old Germanic heroic legend — Gudrun Viking, for example, was the A320 I took today. As we took off, the sky was still gloomy, no different from what it looked like when I arrived a day before. During my 16hr layover, till the very end, I have yet to see sunlight in this country. Arriving in gloom; departing in gloom.
During the 90min flight complimentary drinks were served. The cream Scandinavian Airlines provided (not sure whether it is typical in Denmark) came with this weird package that was a bit hard to open and easy to spill. Trying to sleep in flight with no luck, I gradually realized why this ticket was so cheap — it came with as a cost.
Arriving in London Heathrow Airport. I was a fan of the “UK Border Control” TV series (some episodes still available on Youtube), a television show filming the job of UK immigration officers, many of which took place in the airport. Setting foot in this country first time in my life, I felt Heathrow Airport look a bit different from in the show (it was a show 20 years ago anyway.)
What’s most amusing was this “UK + countries” sign. It literally listed all the developed countries in the world, including rich Asian ones like Japan, South Korea and Singapore. It couldn’t even be interpreted as an European or Anglophone regional cooperation agreement of some sort, but definitely a privileged, automatic line for all the rich ones, while other less fortunate ones had to wait in long lines for officers’ interrogation. “Why don’t you just say UK + first world countries versus 3rd world countries…” I pondered.
UK passport stamp — weirdly no country name or logo on it at all. I withdrew some queen money from the ATM machine — these notes looked so much fancier than the old green US dollars.
NERO Express — apparently a famous cafe in the UK, but I of course misread it as “NERD” express at first glance.
Taking the Elizabeth Line to downtown London. When buying tickets at the machine it always gives you an extra “free train transfer” ticket with “no valid for travel to Paddington” written on it. This is the ticket effective only between the 3 airport terminal stations, but not further beyond. Elizabeth line with the purple color scheme was comfy, but also cost nearly 20 dollars. I remembered one station in the middle had Hindi name written right below the English one (perhaps it’s near an Indian diaspora community?) Passengers on the train looked very diverse as well. London already felt like (a cleaner) New York City.
I took the train to Tottenham Court Road station, which is close to the British Museum, the most important site I’m going to visit during my limited time here before the conference started the following day.
Downtown London. Typical red bricks reminded me of Boston (guess where New England was named after?) I would definitely send England if it were a Geoguessr round. London Chinatown was also nearby, where I thought it’s a good idea to grab some food (UK is not famous for its food isn’t it?)
Visiting the Chinatown or local Chinese diaspora community is another recurring theme during my travels. The one in London, in particular, was interesting to me because I thought it was where Sun Yat Sen’s “Kidnapped in London” took place. But a quick search showed that the original Qing Chinese embassy was not here.
I had lunch in a Hong Kong restaurant. While the meat tasted fine, this bowl of cha shiu rice didn’t come with enough rice and contained no vegetables. I could easily get a better deal in the Bay Area…..
First meal in the UK, not the most authentic and budget-friendly British food.
After the meal I took some time to walk around the Chinese supermarket (not the most common tourist attraction either, isn’t it mate?)
These supermarkets were limited by space, much more so than their counterparts in the US. As many local Chinese people came here for their weekly grocery shopping, I left the bubble of Chinatown and re-entered the “more British” part of London, before delving into some 5000 years of history all over the world.
