Odense, Denmark is a small town about two hours outside of Copenhagen where Hans Christian Andersen was born and raised and is extremely accessible by train. I had read that Odense was like taking a step back in time &, thanks to my love of HCA’s fairytales, my hopes and expectations were extremely high.
Well…to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
BUT…a lot of this could have been made better had the articles I read been more realistic, so I’m here to help you experience Odense in the way it was meant to be experienced & help you achieve that fairytale-like feeling!
1.) Timing
I booked my flight to Copenhagen completely blind. I had extra time off at work to use before the end of the year, early October would work best for Mark & I’s schedules, & the price was right.
Bonus Tip: If the price is borderline too good to be true…there’s normally a reason.
What I didn’t know before finalizing my flight was that early October is actually the “off-season” in Denmark, so a few key tourist attractions are shut down such as Tivoli & Bakken (two of the world’s oldest amusement parks). And, like most places that have snowy winters, this is prime construction time.
After taking the 2 hour train from Copenhagen to Odense, I walked out of the train station straight into an intense flashback to Boston’s Big Dig, complete with the walls closing in around me. There was construction everywhere! I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this…
So, moral of Tip 1, do not go to Odense in early October. I imagine it resembles a town of powder-sugar-topped gingerbread houses around the winter holidays, but I would probably suggest waiting until the spring or summer to make the trek since you’ll be spending most of your time outdoors.
2.) Data
In Copenhagen, everyone speaks extremely fluent English and all the historical information is written in both Danish and English.
This is not the case in Odense. Most people there speak enough broken English to either give you some directions or to take your order at a cafe, but you’re pretty much on your own when learning the town’s glittering history.
The coolest part of Odense is that you can walk in HCA’s footsteps and visit important places from his past just by following the red footprints that go through the town. At each stop along the way, there is a plaque with some information about the significance of that spot…but it is all in Danish. There is a QR code that you can scan to get the information in English, but I hadn’t paid for a data plan on my phone and found it pretty much impossible to find wifi in that area.
So main lesson #2: If you truly want to learn while in Odense, get a SIM card with a prepaid data plan for your phone. I had originally planned on doing this, but since it was so easy finding free wifi in Copenhagen I figured it would just be a waste of money…don’t be me. Because of that decision, all I did was take a walk around a town I was unfamiliar with, with a desperate desire to learn and no means to do it with.
3.) Stop Dreaming About the Flea Market
If you’re reading this post, I imagine you’ve also read the same post I did about the “flea market” held on Wednesdays and Saturdays where local artisans sell their goods & the little old lady sells sweaters that she makes herself from the wool of her own sheep.
Because of this article (that I believe is quite a few years old now), I specifically planned my trip so that I could visit Odense early Saturday morning and splurge on one of these timelessly beautiful sweaters.
Well…guess what?
The woman wasn’t there. And the only things really being sold were large pieces of wooden furniture or perishable grocery items, none of which I could take home with me. Maybe she retired, maybe she just decided to take that particular weekend off…whatever it was, don’t be like me & forget that humans change. They change their careers, their place of residence, what they like to do…just because they were doing something 3 years ago, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re still doing it today.
When I go to a new place, I always get some kind of artwork to bring home with me to display in my dining room, which has become my de facto gallery. I had decided that I wanted something different from Denmark, maybe a piece of handmade pottery, and I had decided that that would come from some eccentric, undiscovered artist at the Odense Flea Market with a story as captivating as HCA’s fairytales. It didn’t. I was utterly disappointed.
Maybe flea markets aren’t your thing so this point is irrelevant to you. Maybe you’ll actually be staying in an AirBnB in Odense instead of hours away in Copenhagen so you’ll actually be able to enjoy the groceries being sold! Unfortunately, that was not the case for me so it was quite a waste of time.
Conclusion
I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed Odense. I had just set my expectations so astronomically high that there was no way that a chilly day in October was going to meet them.
I got there super early because I wanted to have the best choice of sweaters from the woman at the flea market. (Fail 1)
I hadn’t gotten a data plan or looked into wifi options in the area. (Fail 2)
I also hadn’t looked into what time the few museums there opened. I got to Odense around 7AM, but museums didn’t open until about 10AM. By 10 I was exhausted and emotionally drained by the disappointment that Odense was and all I wanted to do was go back to my flat to wallow in my ridiculousness and take a nap. (Fail 3)
I’m writing this post because there isn’t a whole lot of information out there about Odense, and the few posts I was able to find were at least two years old at the time. I think Odense is a wonderful town, but a lot of my disappointment probably could have been avoided had I had some more up to date information.
If you want to take a step back in time and learn about one of Walt Disney’s greatest inspirations, then I highly suggest visiting Odense! But do yourself a few favors:
1.) Visit during the tourist season, despite the crowds you may encounter.
2.) Get a SIM card with a data plan.
3.) Do your research on what’s going on and when things open.
(Then come back & tell me how amazing it was so I can justify paying more just to fly back in-season!)
While Odense may not have worked out too well for me, I did have plenty of other incredible day trips! One of the best ones was definitely the entire day I spent castle-hopping.
If castles aren’t your thing, a visit to Carlsberg is always incredible.
If you want to stay closer to the center of Copenhagen, Christiansborg is always a good choice.