SweDen 2024 Region Trip://Leg 4~ It's All Hygge In The Woods

                             Date:7/13/2024-7/24/2024

Destination: Sweden, Denmark

Goal: Coasters and Culture in Sweden and Denmark

Distance: 4286  Miles

Means of Travel: Flight, Train, Ferry, Bus

Potential Credits: 34

Dag 7

Image Description: A Scandinavian-styled building resembling a Viking stave church, with red paint and natural brown wood. Through a cutout in the station, a gold-colored train does a corkscrew on green track twisting through the building's walls.

This was a day I got to sort of sleep in, but I had places to be. The plan was to Uber to the ferry terminal with all my stuff, take Stena Line to Denmark, and take a train and a bus to Vester Hjermitslev; my base for Fårup Sommerland.

Initially, this trip was intended to just be Sweden, but I was told that the other Scandinavian parks were easy, and I was able to throw a few extra days off into this. Denmark ended up being the choice, largely because Tusenfryd was run by Parques Reunidos (I HATE their two parks I've done back at home) and because Fønix and Copenhagen seemed tempting. I had to pick between Fårup and Djurs Sommerland, and picked the former, again because I wanted to ride a full-sized modern Vekoma ride. When I looked at both parks and saw Fønix, my mind was basically made up right then and there. So sorry, no Piraten for all you Intamin douchebags reading this, if you didn't stop when I claimed Helix is better than Balder.

Image Description: Jarrett stands in a mirror, wearing a purple and blue Hawaiian shirt with black palm trees and Polynesian houses, along with khaki shorts. He holds a black suitcase with a pink Liseberg shopping bag propped atop it. On his blue and yellow socks are little Swedish cinnamon rolls.

Got dressed, featuring the bulle socks I bought at Liseberg because I couldn't think of a better way to say goodbye to Sweden.

Image Description: In a glass case sits a 4 foot long model ferry ship, reading "STENA LINE" on the side of the white boat in dark blue letters. A smokestack is red with a large S painted on it in white. The side reads "Connecting Europe for a Sustainable Future."

I get to the Stena Line terminal 2 hours early, because I'd heard that there were issues with Microsoft devices and travel, and while I had all my ducks in a row I believed, I wanted to play it safe. I walk in there, I'm completely alone, so I sit down and plug up my devices and work on my writing.

Image Description: A small piece of play equipment looks like a red, white, and blue Stena Line ship, with a prop ship's wheel. Out the window can be seen a Göteborg harbor, with buildings, shipping equipment, and cranes across the water.

They had this cute little playground thing for kids that looked like a boat, I would've been all over this shit as a child.

Image Description: A ferry terminal with several couches and seats up against a large window. Out the window is a large white Stena Line ship.

In walks the horniest Swedish couple known to man. This man and woman sit down on one of the benches and start full on sucking face in full view of a public ferry terminal. I wanted to play Titanic and hand the guy a pencil and sketchbook. Like, come on, there will be a whole ferry boat full of cars below deck in an hour!

(The couple in front of me on the plane was all over each other too, are Swedes just fucking pervs or what?) 

Image Description: Jarrett stands in front of a ferry boat unloading cars from the ferry terminal. Across the water is a large tower.

So with a line up, couples saying goodbye, one of them offers to stuff his girlfriend in his suitcase, and a flash of my passport, I headed up the jetbridge (do you call it a jetbridge when it's a boat? Boatbridge? Someone message me what this thing is called) and into our ship across the Baltic Sea.

Image Description: A red table holds a tag reading "75," a stemmed glass of amber beer, and a stemmed glass of red lingonberry juice. On a plate are prosciutto, beef, cold-smoked salmon, prawn salad, tuna salad, a piece of cod, black and kalamata olives, a bit of lingonberry jam, and three meatballs smothered in gravy.

What else was I gonna do for three hours besides eat myself sick on delicious Scandinavian buffet? There were spots for the buffet, I had not eaten all day, I got in the elevator and went right to the restaurant so I could have food, knowing there might be limited food access in Vester Hjermitslev.

Image Description: A red tabletop has a tag reading "75" on it. Two plates sit on the table alongside a fork, knife, and stemmed glass of beer. The plate in the back has salami, prosciutto, tiger shrimp, prawns, and herring filets in a white sauce, and a pink filet of cold-smoked salmon. The plate in the front has a chicken drumstick, three balls of falafel, a filet of cod, and a serving of Swedish meatballs with white sauce, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries.

Unlimited Scandinavian buffet is the fucking bomb! There's a cold bar, a hot bar, a dessert bar, bread basket, and unlimited pop, beer, wine, and kaffe. I had a lot of Swedish meatballs, pickled herring, cold-smoked salmon, cod, and other fare from related localities. I was a total pig and had three plates, but that's because I knew I might not have access to food that night. I looked like the fat American in the Hawaiian shirt at the cruise buffet and I did not give a fuck.

Image Description: A red tabletop holds stemmed glasses of red and white wine.

There was free alcohol and these people do not give a FUCK. I was raised French-American so this wasn't weird personally but it was odd to see in public: the family next to me was a set of parents with three grown kids, and this little high school-aged ~16 year-old kid was just sipping red wine with her parents and it was totally normal.

Not gonna lie, I took full advantage of this and got a little tipsy from it.

Image Description: On a red tabletop sits a black laptop with a ThinkPad logo in the corner, with an in-progress Blogger entry pulled up on the screen. A stemmed glass of beer sits off to the side of the computer.

And worked on this shitty blog I run called Coastervivor. Maybe you've heard of it.

Image Description: Jarrett wears a purple shirt with palm trees and stands outside on a ship's deck against endless blue water, in front of an orange lifeboat hanging from a white arm and pulley system.

After the restaurant closed and I left the way god intended, I just kind of chillaxed, looked at the ocean, and went outside for a little bit of fresh air on the Baltic Sea.

Image Description: The Danish port town of Fredrikshavn. Several buildings across the harbor have red roofs and brick construction, a tall church steeple rises from behind.

Hej, Danmark! Country #7 for me.

Image Description: Across a street of cars is a short, stout, white stucco building, with semicircular windows and a pointed roof made of orange tiles.

Short walk to the train station in Fredrikshavn, used the kiosk to buy my ticket to Brønderslev (this was the only train ticket I had not purchased on the app months in advance), and caught some funny-looking tiny train that looked more like a streetcar in the countryside.

Denmark at first glance seemed way flatter, more open, and more agricultural than Sweden. I was also noticing a lot more use of stucco and brick as construction material, as opposed to the trademark red cabins of the Swedish countryside. I was getting major Normandie vibes from Denmark's North Jutland region.

Image Description: A bus stop in the North Danish town of Brønderslev, in the middle of a checkered cobblestone sidewalk. The town is completely empty, devoid of people or cars. 

I get off the train at some dumpy run down station, step out onto the street, and...I'm all alone. Where is everyone and why has Denmark seemed almost completely deserted since I showed up?

Image Description: A modern pub of Scandinavian design is almost completely deserted, spare one person sitting at a cafe table outside the window. The word "SASON" is on the glass door, windows, and umbrellas.

Found some little pub place since I had an hour to kill before the next bus (they're about every two hours out here in the boonies) so I ordered a pizza to go and eat in my room, and sipped a beer while they made it. Because how else do you kill time in Europe than sit down with a beer? Asking my waitress why Denmark seemed deserted, I was told everyone who lived here worked in Saltum (northernmost town in Denmark) and would be back in an hour or two.

I get to the bus, get my Apple Wallet up to tap and pay, and to my horror I see they don't have credit card readers on the bus like Sweden does. I have no access to Denmark's stupid app because it won't text a confirmation code to an American number, but fortunately the bus was almost completely deserted like the rest of Denmark, so he just let me hitch a free ride to Vester Hjermitslev.

Image Description: A small red building amid some trees with two sliding glass doors, each going out to some patio furniture.

After a quiet bus ride through a whole lot of nothing up to this little hamlet, I arrive at Bed & Breakfast Vester Hjermitslev and see Barry, a nice older English gentleman, outside waiting for me. He shows me the toaster oven he has for my pizza and a fridge to put my beer, and then takes me to my quarters.

Image Description: A small hotel room with a red ceiling held up by black timber rafters, with simple unpainted furniture and a small nook in the corner with a dining table booth under a lantern hanging by a chain from one of the rafters.

It's a Hobbit home.

Danish has this word, "hygge," which doesn't have an exact English equivalent but is often used to describe situations like a warm cabin in the fall, fluffy sweater and a cup of coffee, kicking back with a book like The Lightning War: Grounding Unit, or a stroll through the countryside on a nice day. Think like "comfy" or "peaceful" but for the soul rather than just for the body. Or rather, just book a room at Vester Hjermitslev's Bed & Breakfast when you go to Fårup Sommerland. Because my room here is a little Hobbit home with timber roof rafters and a little lantern hanging over a table nook in the corner.

Image Description: On an unpainted wooden table sits a plate containing three slices of red pizza with brown meat and a green bottle of Heineken beer. A white doily with a tealight candle sits at the center, with a white coffee pot at the other end.

So I did the pizza and beer thing, got my shit ready for tomorrow, and fired up my laptop. Pizza was good! Scandinavia loves their kebab pizza, this had red peppers on it and I really liked them.

Image Description: In a cute hotel room, a black laptop sits on a bed. The screen shows a dumpster containing a broken sign depicting a red cobra snake, yellow letters read "COBRA KAI" at the bottom of the screen.

New Cobra Kai episodes had been filmed in Atlanta and were now available on Netflix. No idea why I'd go all the way to Danmark and watch high schoolers kick the shit out of each other when I can just do the same at Kings Island. But it's a good show and I wasn't able to binge it all, so I figured this would be a good way to kill downtime and knock out episodes.

Image Description: On a laptop screen, a high school boy and his older brother stand in a baseball batting cage while the brother holds an aluminum bat. A red, white, and blue roller coaster can be seen in the background.

Also it was nice to see ArieForce One make a cameo on the new season! If any coaster belongs on the No Mercy show it's that one!

Dag 8

This was my worst night of sleep the entire trip. I was up at 4 am, sunlight blazing, fell back asleep around 7, and then at 8:30, Barry knocks on my window with breakfast. Here I am, twisted up in the single duvet you get in Scandinavia, I'm in my boxers, and I have to race to put a t-shirt on and get the door. Barry's out there and asks me, "having a good sleep are we?"

Image Description: On an unpainted table in a small nook in the corner of a room, a white picnic basket sits with its contents laid out. A bread basket contains several types of slices and rolls. A glass dish has two types of cheese, a slice of ham, some cucumbers and red peppers. An egg sits in a small black egg stand. A small container of cream and bottle of orange juice are off to the right, alongside a small red basket of jam and butter. A small stuffed penguin sits atop the picnic basket.

I'm handed this cute little white picnic basket, take it over to the corner, and look inside! There's a whole ass bread basket with the best rolls, breads, and muffins you could imagine, a plate of ham, cheese, and veggies, cream, coffee, OJ, and rally good jam. Tell me this is not the most hygge thing ever???

Image Description: A hand holds three coins, a gold one bearing a stamped face, and two silver ones with holes, a big one and a small one. The silver ones are decorated with a swirly Viking-esque Scandinavian print around the holes.

Barry was cool and swapped some Euros I had (my grandmother gave me them for birthday money, not to spend in Scandinavia but to inspire me to travel more, who knew I would've actually used them???) for Krone I could use for the bus to Fårup. This was the first foreign currency I had handled on the trip, I love how the coins look like Viking money!

Image Description: On the side of a country road is a simple white church with a simple gabled tower.

Cool church I saw on the bus to the park. Likely Protestant, I know that was kind of the thing to do here to keep all the power with Harald Bluetooth or whoever the king was as opposed to giving the Catholic Church and the Pope any power. 

Image Description: Jarrett stands in front of a large red building with grass growing on the roofs. A log reads "FÅRUP" in rounded letters that are green on top with a water print on the bottom, the Å has a yellow sun forming a halo around the bubble.

Hej, Fårup! Oh my god, I never thought I'd be this excited to see people in a park since Lost Island started getting lines, I'm not the only one here after all!

Image Description: A pond in the forest surrounded by reeds and cattails, with a paddle boat in the water, a putt-putt course across a bridge, and a colorful water slide in the background.

Watching Taylor Bybee's crappy YouTuber video of this place (which was mostly unnecessary shots of his girlfriend's ass while she climbed playground equipment), I had the takeaway that it was themed to being in the woods, which drew me to it over Djurs when picking one. I love rustic aesthetics and grew up playing in the woods with my friends, I knew I would love this place.

Image Description: A brown log-themed roller coaster train reads "SAVEN" on the front car, racing through the woods on green track. Riders sit confused, with one girl in the front parting her hair as if the wind is blowing it backwards.

After exploring my way through the twists, turns, and junctions of the park's heavily wooded paths, I find myself at my first Danish credit: Saven, whose name means "Saw" in English. As I said in the last leg, I took some interest in these Vekoma Junior Boomerangs this past season due to two of them popping up in my neck of the woods, and because of this I knew they can sometimes be slow to move people, so this was my first choice of the day.

Image Description: A body of water with boats surround a white and red lighthouse prop. Across the water, a green spike of coaster track rises out of the trees, with a log-themed train climbed just above the treeline.

What a pretty coaster! Saven is, like Luna, not as intense as either Good Gravy or Snoopy's Soapbox Racers, but it's in a much better setting and the theming is pretty and it has both that splashdown and double up spike through the smashed water tower. Great ride and a solid welcome to Danmark!

Image Description: A sign in a planter in the woods is built in an Old Norse Viking style, holding a gong-like circular wooden sign. The sign has the word "FØNIX" below a phoenix insignia, in charred letters surrounded by an orange ember pattern.

Alright, low capacity one train shuttle shit out of the way, playtime's over! Time for the reason I came here, let's hope it's good and warmed up!

Image Description: A loop of green track with white supports twists outward towards the camera, with a red and yellow train twisting out of the inversion. Another curve of green track threads through the base of the loop against a forest backdrop.

Fønix, pronounced "Furnix," is a Vekoma Wildcat model. Yes, in like 2018 when I saw Vekoma product that thing for Energylandia, I was expecting the next Zamperla Thunderbolt, based on their lovely boomerangs and SLCs and a complete lack of evidence they could produce a full-sized coaster that didn't suck ass. However, I'd heard their new stuff was quite good, and a little curiosity to check it out for yourself and the next thing you know you're in the hairy nether regions of Danmark's tip in the woods strapped into some funky equipment.

Image Description: A Scandinavian-styled building resembling a Viking stave church, with red paint and natural brown wood. Through a cutout in the station, a length of green roller coaster track does a corkscrew.

Fønix's most iconic feature, however, is this roll through the roof of the station, a feature it somewhat shares with Poland's Lech Coaster. It corkscrews right over oncoming riders, the screams reverberating through the timber-framed roof of the stave church-themed platform.

I took a seat in the front row my first new Vekoma big boy coaster, next to a terrified Danish woman that hadn't ridden it before.

Image Description: A green roller coaster in the woods, with a golden yellow train going over a hill.

Good news about new Vekoma: This is great. Very smooth, very gentle, it hit every airtime moment in the layout, the roll through the station is awesome, and the pullout from that first inversion was crazy.

Image Description: A curve of green track has a red and gold train go over it.

Critical news about new Vekoma: As good as this is, it's noticeably weaker than the stuff RMC, Mack, and Intamin are currently rolling out. And honestly, it feels like a toned-down version of a modern "rolling inversions and airtime" coaster. So very solid, I love this thing, but in a top ten of 450+ coasters, sorry Danmark but the bar is just too high to include this.

Image Description: A yellow train races along a length of green track as it twists to the left. In the background, a green lift hill on white supports can be seen alongside some tall pine trees.

Fønix starts with a gentle dip into a tall lift, with a gorgeous view of the Skagen area countryside and wind turbines towering over farmland, before diving down a fairly standard drop. Out of this, you rise out of a trench into a loop with an RMC-esque stall at the top, which gives you tons of hangtime upside-down looking out at the beautiful Danish landscape, before it dives head-first and does this insane twist that makes no sense. It swings out of that and into a turn the opposite direction, where you get the first moment of ejector on this ride. Make no mistake, yes it has OTSRs, but the vests are retractable and you barely notice them. You definitely leave your seat. Out of the Stengel dive, it twists through a nice smooth roll, hangs to the right, and hops through a nice airtimey double down. It then strafes across the path, giving another nice moment of airtime in this zero-G slalom thing. The ride's signature element is next: a nice, quick, brisk roll through the roof of the station, one that gives you a nice fun glimpse of the loading below to spice up an already fun and smooth corkscrew. It then curves back around front of the station, does two weird little twisty RMC-esque airtime maneuvers, and hops twice over two little bunny hills. There's one tipped out hop in the next turn, then it twists out from left to right, and then makes one more hop into the brakes.

I got a few rides on this, including this hilarious back row POV where the employee was calling me Skibbidi Ohio for some reason.

Image Description: A building next to a green roller coaster appears burned and has black talon scratches on it.

It's got the best theming in the park, probably. Not sure how much presence Phoenixes have in Norse mythology, but this has like birdcages, talon scratches, and burn marks on the stuff, which was a unique take on it.

Image Description: A green roller coaster track carries a yellow locomotive-themed train around a curve into dense woods.

Mine Expressen had a short line next, so I knocked that credit out. It's an exact clone of Woodstock Express at Cedar Point, but the theming is kind of cute at least.

Image Description: A green length of coaster track supported with brown steel tubes arches skyward, with a single car pointed at the heavens.

This was a coaster I was super excited about! Lynet ("Lightning" in Danish), from POVs, looked awesome, and I know it's kind of special as there are only two of these Gerstlauer launch coasters in the world. I understand that this was kind of king of the forest before Fønix showed up, but honestly it looked just as good as Maverick in POVs.

Well, every trip needs to have one disappointment, I suppose...

So first off, this layout should be awesome. It's got a good launch into a top hat, some nice speed through its maneuvers, a few instances of airtime, and like the rest of the park it's been somewhat reclaimed by nature. But the issue here, like with other Gerstlauer rides from the mid-late 2000s, is that it's just fucking rough. And I don't mean "a little rattle here and there," I mean, "it plays paddleball with your head SLC style at times." Easily the letdown of the trip, I figured I might make it back here to give it another chance later on but I just didn't end up back over here and feel inclined. And the worst part is, all it needed was to handle the track better to be a contender for best coaster in the country.

At least I don't have plans to go ride the other one next year or anything...

Image Description: A spinning furry wild mouse car with the green and blue Fårup logo on the front, with two men and a boy.

Flagermusen had a short line next, so I decided to be opportunistic and hope it whirled me so hard I'd forget what I was just put through.

 

Image Description: In the misty woods sits a worn wooden arch to a dark tunnel, with a bat prop on the top reading "FLAGERMUSEN" in red on its outstretched wings. A wait sign says 30-40 minutes.

Its name is Danish for Bat and it had this cute sign, the whole thing sort of reminded me of Lagoon's spinning coaster where you enter under the misty spider and it's a small carnival-esque spinner themed to a spooky animal.

Fortunately I'm a balancing technician, and when they saw my GoPro, they let me have a car to myself, meaning I had full control of the amount of unbalance with which this car was loaded. I took full advantage, put all the weight as far from the point of rotation as possible, and let it just get as batty as it wanted!

Image Description: A small train with open carriages travels through the forest.

Hopped on the train to head back to get lunch. Pretty simple, reminded me of the RCT1 railway, it goes through the woods and gives you some cute views of the park.

Image Description: On a black tabletop sits a large cup of beer and a hot dog in a bun topped with creamy yellow mustard, diced red onions, and charred black fried onions.

Now that I got the beating and spinning out of the way, it's okay to kick back a little. I got this Old Danish hot dog, topped with onions and pickles and mustard. Consumed with a Danish beer because obviously.

Went for some more Fønix action after eating and got this badass slo-mo for TikTok.

Image Description: A green length of roller coaster track dips downward under a curve of the ride's layout. Immediately at the edge of the station, the track has a switch mechanism, allowing a piece of track to turn and direct the train onto the transfer track.

I totally nerded out over this transfer switch! More coasters need something like this, I guarantee it has fewer moving parts than a traditional horizontal table transfer.

Image Description: A small dark green children's coaster with train cars themed like wooden mine carts. In the front sits a prop of a cartoon hedgehog character wearing goggles and putting its arms up.

Hello darkness, my old friend. I totally forgot this park had a Zamperla Death Machine, thank fuck it was the only one on the trip, so I decided to knock this piece of shit out. I waited just one cycle wanting to wipe the smile off that damn hedgehog's face, but it was honestly the best of its kind. And that isn't saying much when you're comparing the world's worst kiddie coaster, but a credit's a credit so I guess I didn't have to suffer for this one.

Image Description: At the corner of a roller coaster car themed as wood is a red, white, and blue logo with four stars and the word "ZAMPERLA" bolted to the ride carriage.

The mark of superior quality. If this is on your coaster, it will always dish out a damn good ride and never have any downtime. You can't go wrong with Zamperla! Cutting edge Italian carnival ride engineering, I would trust no other manufacturer to work on a stratacoaster with a troubled history.

Image Description: A wooden sign says "FALKEN" in blocky red letters, with a black falcon carrying the A by the tip. Jarrett stands next to the sign in front of an empty cobblestone queue with wooden railings.

This next wing of the park was a bit of a dead end with two decent coasters, each running one train. Falken, an S&S wooden coaster straight from the drawing board of industry legend Alan Schilke, was up first.

Image Description: A wooden coaster train themed as wood panels goes around a helix, with a tree at the center.

Figured this would be a one and done with the one train ops being aggravating, but fortunately it was a station wait. This ride kicked some good ass in the back! Didn't have to staple myself, got thrown out of my seat down every drop, and I love how it swoops and dives into the trees and then flies back out, just like a bird of prey. #2 in the park! Personally I think Hellcat/Avalanche was better but this is still pretty damn good, and it's still standing and didn't rot or anything!

Image Description: From the forest, a wooden coaster flies over a short hill of unpainted structure. Two riders look back.

A theme park where the whole idea is rustic and woodsy better have a damn good wooden coaster! I'd love to see Fårup get a GCI or something with a contrasting layout in the future, but this park kind of has a theme that lends itself well to having a wood coaster and they delivered.

Image Description: A wooden coaster train, themed as being made of wood paneling framed with brass, climbs a short lift hill over a red motor house with forest off to the left.

In hindsight I wish I'd taken another spin on it. It's quite good!

Image Description: A blue suspended coaster takes riders in a dark blue train over water, with a dive under the surface and overbank in the background alongside some waterslides.

And to clean the place out next is another Vekoma suspended family coaster with an oddly familiar layout. But unlike Kvasten in Sweden, Orkanen is operational today!

Image Description: A blue lift hill exits a boathouse-themed station, which is decorated with shutters and a window packed with crates and a blue hurricane-themed sign that says "ORKANEN." Fish and nets hang from wooden posts.

Orkanen's name means "Hurricane" in Danish, and it has the theming to live up to it. I love the nautical aesthetic so I was totally fangirling over some of this stuff!

Image Description: A lift hill and curve of blue suspended coaster track behind a wooden post with rope and a colorful but slightly rusted stained glass lantern.

Not the most woodsy theme in the park but I love it so I'm not complaining.

Image Description: A blue suspended coaster does a helix over some reeds and swamp grass in a pond, with a red building peeking through the trees.

For those of you familiar with Dollywood, Orkanen was the original layout from which Dragonflyer was cloned. And it rides about the same, but I give the edge to Orkanen simply for fitting into the area better. This also grew in pretty well, which is a gamechanger when your feet are dangling inches from the water.

Image Description: Bolted to a red wooden wall is a white sign bearing the Vekoma logo and ride stats for Orkanen.

Thought this was cool too, given I'm now a certified Vekoma fanboy. I want this in my room!

Image Description: Jarrett stands in front of a wooden sign reading "Fårup Rafting" in the forest.

With the credits knocked out, I wanted to do Fårup's pretty rapids through the woods next, so that was the plan. It was down earlier when I was by Flagermusen, but it had been fixed so here we are!

Image Description: A slightly choppy water channel flows through the forest.

Denmark's water rides are clothing optional, apparently. I saw so many people stripping down to their swimsuits in line to get on this thing. Not gonna lie, I did take my shirt off to keep it dry but my shorts were quick dry and I was already switched to my hiking sandals, so that was nice not having to worry about getting dunked and running around the park like a drowned rat.

Image Description: A yellow boat navigates a watery canal through the woods, next to a misty waterfall under a pine tree.

Well, like Liseberg, the water is freezing cold but you don't get too wet on this one. It's not as much about getting banged around in a washing machine like Göteborg's rapids, but I like this ride better. Here it's more about getting water sprayed at you and dumped from the waterfall, and it's fun but you don't get totally soaked. Probably the most fun I've ever had on a whitewater rapids ride without getting off with water dripping down my ass.

Image Description: A log flume in the woods splashes down at the bottom of a drop, spraying water everywhere.

Like I said in the last leg, not usually a log flume guy, but I had time to kill here and I was already wearing water stuff and I could just go suns out guns out and ride shirtless, so I did that on their log flume. And this is probably my new favorite one, if I'm being honest. Plenty of good, fun drops that spray you with just enough water.

Image Description: A wooden picnic table holds a white and caramel ice cream parfait and a large cup of beer.

The place next to the rapids had a Toblerone parfait that was tempting, so I got that and another Danish beer (this is my new favorite beer country) and put my feet in the grass changing back into my sneakers and just kind of chilled out by the trampolines. There was a nice woman from the Faroe Islands who was watching her daughter do flips and stuff so her and I chatted a little bit, the people here are so kind!

Image Description: A red roller coaster train heads down a straight section of green track to a downward dip, with a wooden Viking-styled church and some forest to the right.

This aside and with the park pretty much cleaned out for what I wanted to do, I elected to snag a few more rides on Fønix before catching the bus back to Vester Hjermitslev.

Image Description: A dark Viking temple, with a colorful glass window, brass lantern, and length of green coaster track corkscrewing through a cutout in the wooden walls.

"AR VI KLAAARRRR???" was the first full Danish sentence I was able to understand, because this kid kept screaming it in the station with no mic to hype the train up. I love the energy from the employees here, best on the trip! 

Image Description: The front of a yellow coaster seat, with the restraint belt bolted to the front by means of a metal plate. The metal plate contains a black circular magnet, visible on its own on the left, and with the buckle magnetically stuck to it on the right.

Another nerd moment I had! Taking a seat in the front, I look down and saw the employee just slap the buckle for the empty seat next to me onto this magnet, and gasped, "woah that's cool!" To save time with operations, Vekoma magnetizes the restraint buckles and has these little magnets in the seat bases, so instead of having to buckle each empty seat they can just slap it on this magnet and go! This is brilliant! RMC needs these for the Raptors, time is precious with loading those!

Image Description: A green roller coaster in the woods, with a red train heading away from the camera around a grassy bank.

Oof, Fønix...

I still love this ride, but these two rides were straight misses. In the front I noticed the airtime was weaker than in the back, so I waited again and rode in the back, and noticed it was actually starting to miss airtime moments. Not sure what was up with it, but it had noticeably mellowed out since this morning, which was odd. Maybe it had just gone down or something and needed to warm back up. But I decided to just not mess with it, let my perception of this ride be what it was when I was power lapping it this morning, accept these rides were probably one-offs, and get back to my hygge Hobbit hole.

Image Description: A cart of plush squirrels, foxes, and hedgehogs.

But with there being a line now, and a bus in one hour and nothing until an hour after park close, I decided to go souvenir shop, featuring a very annoying song on repeat sung by these cute cuddly cartoon characters designed to make your kids beg you to spend money here welcome you to the best day ever har i Fårup Sommerland. Ended up getting lots of cool Fønix stuff, including a t-shirt, hat, and keychain.

Image Description: A green bus with the Fårup logo on it has an LED sign that says "93 Aalborg St." amid Danish text.

I caught the bus but couldn't help but notice this service I had not seen. This goes directly from Aalborg Station to Fårup, so I could have stayed there. I was wondering how anyone travels to this park considering it's in the middle of nowhere, and this would have helped, but I'm not gonna act like I made the wrong choice with where to stay.

Image Description: A city bus goes through the grassy Danish countryside into a small hamlet up a hill.

Farvel, Fårup! Time to shower and get ready for the final leg tomorrow, I knew it was going to be a long trip to Copenhagen.

However, as if shooting a former president while I was out of the country wasn't enough insanity back at home, I got inside and received a text from my father that Biden had dropped out of the election. Y'all can't behave for ten days while I'm out of the country, can you!?

Image Description: On a screen, several teenagers line up at the edge of a martial arts mat. Seven kids on the left wear red and black karate gis with yellow sleeve patches. Two at the center wear green sweatsuits. On the right are five kids wearing blue karate gis with yellow stripes and sleeve patches showing the yellow cross of Sweden's flag.

I finished the new Cobra Kai content which was absolutely incredible and I have to see how this ends now. There had been a kid at Liseberg wearing a Taekwondo Sweden hoodie, so seeing Sweden at the Sekai Taikai while I had just been there two days ago made me smile.

Image Description: Out of a Viking stave church painted with a red phoenix logo on the front comes a golden train on green coaster track, with piney woods and grass landscaping the area. A twist of track goes overhead in the foreground.

This was one of those legs where it honestly, on paper, made no sense to do. I could have just as easily hopped on a train right to Copenhagen and not messed with any of this. However, I'm not going to beat myself up for planning it because at the end of the day, this was another memory in the books that'll last a lifetime. The ferry ride over was incredible and was a clear highlight of the travel part of the trip. This bed and breakfast was absolutely wonderful and I loved eating breakfast out of a picnic basket and watching Cobra Kai in this adorable little home straight out of Lord of the Rings's Shire. And then of course, Fårup might as well be Danish Dollywood and I fell in love with this adorable rural park, both the rides and the ambiance of being here. Fønix is an incredible piece of engineering and I'm so excited to see what Vekoma cooks up next

Image Description: Across water dotted with red and green canoes is a green roller coaster hopping low on the floor of a scruffy forest. An island in the lake has a small red house prop.

I didn't get the whole hygge thing before. Why didn't the Danes just say it was comfy if that's what it was? But I get it now. Hygge is not just a physical sensation of comfort, hygge is a peaceful state of mind in the moment. It's the state of being able to relax and fully enjoy that sensation. It's waking up to a picnic breakfast full of the best rolls you've ever had in the Danish countryside. It's a stroll to the next coaster through a misty forest with the sun's rays scattered through the leaves and needles of the trees. It's leaning up against the window of a train or bus and watching the flowery Danish countryside whiz by, dotted with cute little farmhouses and wind turbines. And I wouldn't have picked a better part of Danmark to learn the meaning of this very Danish word, because North Jutland gets it.

All twelve Danes who call it home.

Image Description: A canal in Copenhagen, with brick buildings with red roofs along a watery channel with boats moored. A low, wide tour boat passes through the water.

UP NEXT: I gotta strike first tomorrow morning, got a long journey across an entire country coming up! The train ride from hell takes me on a rainy journey from the hygge of Vester Hjermitslev to the hustle and bustle of Copenhagen for the final leg of the trip. I totally drop the ball (and a beer) forgetting to take a snack, the reason DSB's logo looks like a stop sign, and a beautiful sunset romp around another incredible European capital.