Copenhagen

 (Danish: København) is the capital of Denmark.

East towards Malmö, Sweden
To get to Sweden, you want to move out of city center towards Øresundsbron. You can enter the metro freely without any checkpoints or turnstiles. Ticket controls are more frequent than in the S-trains and as expensive (750 DKK = ~100€!!). Ticket controllers (or "stewards", as they are called) do not always check tickets when entering a train, so best thing is to just act normal and get off at next station. In general, the people who freeride most efficiently sit in front of the train, thus being able to spot any controllers on each station as the train enters the platform. No rights can be derived from this statement, and it's always at your own risk to freeride. But apparently the worse that can happen if you play it right is to ask for an invoice to be sent to your home which you will promptly ignore.

Option I: Tårnby
On the road to Malmö, leading to the bridge, you might be able to hitch a ride. To get to this spot take a regional train to Tårnby from Copenhagen Central station. The slip road to the bridge is on the opposite side of the road to Tårnby station. Not much space to stop but as traffic lights cars are going slow and get chance to think about it! Next to this spot, you can also ask drivers at the hypermarket, where a lot of Swedes go shopping before returning home. (probably not as common anymore since the strong danish krona have made it expensive for Swedes to shop in Denmark. Nowadays danish people go to Sweden to shop)

Option II: Kastrup Airport
The best spot to hitchhike to Sweden is probably at Kastrup Airport. Take the metro to the station "Lufthavnen / Copenhagen Airport", leave the terminal on the other side of the metro exit to the large parking lot and then go to the roundabout at the end, next to McDonalds/Netto/Statoil. Just after the roundabout there is a bus stop were the cars are able stop, which makes it a good place to hitchhike from. You will also be able to keep an eye on the gas station and hopefully spot some cars with Swedish plates from that place. This hitchhiking spot has been used regularly by Öresund hitchhikers and was also the winning choice in a Copenhagen-Malmö hitchhiking competition. If you are in a hurry you shouldn't accept rides that are shorter than Malmö, since it could be difficult to catch a ride along the motorway. Always try to stay out of Malmö's motorway network and if possible prefer to follow your driver into Malmö center if there's no other alternative. It's much better to hitchhike Malmö's good spot (McDonalds at Stockholmsvägen) than the highway system. If you want to travel further up in Sweden you should check out the advices given in the Sweden(Malmö)section..

Option III: Sydhavn
You can also take a train to Sydhavn, only 2 stops after the main station and hitch on Sydhavnsgade. We hitched before the shell service station because it was a weekend and a business carpark entry was closed. We also saw people with a sign just after shell. Its a good road. We had a lift on Sunday afternoon after 15 minutes.

West towards Roskilde, Fyn or Jylland
There are several ways of getting out of. Just make sure you do not get stuck at Køge. If heading out of Denmark this way is not the quickest as most trucks will be heading south, and there aren't a lot of service stations before Hamburg! Heading west you have the following options:

Option 1:
Catch either S-tog A, E or F and get off at Ny Ellebjerg station. Walk through the little alley on the south side of the station called 'Pylestikket'. Turn right on the main road and after a few hundred metres you'll reach the road Folehaven. There you'll see a few traffic lights to slow down the cars. Cross the road and there's and plenty of space for cars to pull over. If you don't have any luck along the road keep walking a few hundred metres and you'll see the petrol station mentioned before close to the beginning of motorway 21, or try one of the many busstops.ColAlf experienced that this option is good when heading towards Roskilde or catching a ferry to Jutland from Sj. Odde or Kalundborg (see below). If nobody stops, you could also walk some 100m behind the traffic light to the hard shoulder where the motorway begins.

Option 1a:
An easier way to get to the same spot mentioned in option 1 is to take bus #A1 Avedøre to Folehaven/Vigerslevvej. There' you'll see the crossing to Folehaven which is the beginning of the motorway 21. Additionally you can take to following busses also going that direction. Make sure you get out at Folehaven/Vigerslevvej: bus #10 Flintholm St., #133 Avedøre St., #65E Avedøre St. There's a petrol station some meters before the crossing. You'll also find a bus stop where you can stand on, or just pull out your thumb on the hard shoulder next to the street. A sign saying the direction might be helpful. Keep in mind that traffic might be pretty fast here already, but nevertheless platschi got rides here twice within 5 minutes. For this spot, see the image on the right.

Option 1b :
One way out of Copenhagen which we found quite quick was to catch the suburban train from Copenhagen Central Statio to Tärnby. There is an entrance to the E20 headed west there, on the same side of the road as the train station. There is not lots of space to stop but as there are traffic lights the cars are going slow and get chance to see you.

Option 2:
Catch a regional train or the metro M1 and get off at Ørestad station. Walk across the parking area of Field's and you'll find the first on-ramp. Be aware that there are two on-ramps joining each other when heading west - make sure to be on the most busy one.

South towards Rødby, Germany
The quickest way to get to mainland Europe is to get the ferry at the port of Rødby, which sails to Puttgarden in Germany. In case you get a ride in a car, the price of the ferry remains the same for a car with up to 4 people, so you don't have to worry about any extra payments that the driver may have to make because of you.

Most trucks going anywhere in Europe (including Great Britain) will go this way.

Option 1:
Catch S-tog E (sometimes its A depending on construction/late night trains) towards Køge and get off at Karlslunde station. Walk platform the opposite direction than the train goes and take stairs down. Under the bridge take right, and then right again on a roundabout. Ignore signs saying that motorway is in the opposite direction - going this road you will end up in a bad place. Taking Karlslunde Strandvej walk for about 1.5km. On the second roundabout take right onto Karlslunde Mosevej, no clear sign to look for but there are two small restaurants here (Thai/Pizza), and Aldi. Walk another 1.5km to the motorway. If you are hitching south or west, you need to be on the right side of the road, so cross under the motorway tunnel/bridge and turn left on the newly paved road. You will come up to the motorway within a minute.

There used to be an excellent bakery dumpster along the Mosevej where, but as of December 2013 it's locked. The bakery is run by kind people, however, ask for leftover bread and you'll surely be given something. There is a great dumpster right at Karlslunde station, and the Aldi's dumpster was open as well and full of goodies.

The train from the main station to Karlslunde takes you about 30 minutes, and it should take another 30 minutes to walk to the service station. Be aware that there are not many street signs guiding your way. The train ticket costs 63 Kroner, but it's easy to blackride (see below).

Be aware the if you go wrong way you are in trouble. The highway is four lane in this place and it's almost impossible to get a ride.

Option 2:
Take the S-tog E towards Køge and hop off at Ølby.

After getting out of the train at Ølby station, get out on the right hand side of the station, in the direction of train, and move out towards motorway. You will, when you exit the station, find restaurants (Little Italy) and right before that there is a right turn which goes into a main road on which you turn right again, come under the bridge of the train, and then hit the motorway where you have to cross the road and walk towards the left. It is illegal to walk by the side of the road, but it is possible. Obviously, walk on the left side so you're facing traffic. After 1 km of walk the road ramps up on a roundabout, which if you cross on foot, before this road meets the E20/E40 motorway in direction of Rødby(havn) (ferry point of South Denmark) there is another roundabout and at least 2 petrol stations. One of them has a Burger King and right outside the exit of it, is a good point to stand with a placard for seeking a ride.

Here at this T-junction trucks and cars coming from both petrol stations pass by and if you are dressed nice and in a youngish manner you might get picked up in less than 30 minutes. It is important to remember that you are trying to go to Rødby.

Look where the cars that pass you are actually going to improve your location if needed. A certain hitchhiker was at the aforementioned Burger King exit for at least an hour and noticed that most people who went from there (at least at that time) weren't going on the way to Rødby. So this hitchhiker moved to the actual onramp of the highway where traffic was certain to go on the intended way --and cars were coming from more directions-- and he was picked up quite shortly.

Option 3:
Catch either S-tog A, E or F and get off at Ny Ellebjerg station. Walk through the little alley on the south side of the station called 'Pylestikket'. Turn right on the main road and after a few hundred metres you'll reach the road Folehaven. There you'll see a few traffic lights to slow down the cars. Cross the road and there's and plenty of space for cars to pull over. If you don't have any luck along the road keep walking a few hundred metres and you'll see the petrol station mentioned before close to the beginning of motorway 21, or try one of the many busstops.

Some km later there is a big gas station where you can look for foreign cars.

North towards Helsingör, Helsingborg
Take bus 4A and get off at Vibenshus Runddel. On Lyngbyvej the cars have lots of space to stop, and the road becomes a highway shortly after. There is not at lot of traffic on the small on-ramps on the way to Helsingör, so try to get a ride all the way from Copenhagen to Helsingör.

It cost around 29 kr. (3,90 euro) to walk on the ferry.

Ferry between Sjælland and Jylland
Hitching a ferry between Sjælland and Jylland is possible, too, as you don't pay per person but per car on the ferry. Option #1 mentioned above is probably the best way for getting a car towards Holbæk and further on to Sj. Odde or Kalundborg. Ferry timetables can be found at Mols-Linien but they run quite frequently. Be aware that the ferry from Kalundborg is very slow (about 3 hours to Aarhus).

Public Transportation
Copenhagen's public transportation system is one of Europe's easiest to use for free. All the S-Trains and Metros can be entered without having to cross any gates, the only thing to watch out for are ticket inspectors. Those usually wear a uniform on the Metro and sometimes do on S-Trains. Chances are not very high that they'll show up, but they exist. When you see them, just run away from them and leave the train asap, pretending not to understand etc. Although they do, they are legally not allowed to hold you, but they can block your path. If they can't check whether the address you're telling them is correct or if you're a foreigner (and not really under an obligation to pay any fines anyway), they might try to take the money you have with you, so better (pretend to) not have money for paying this. [i had to pay 700 dkk -hf]. Using public transportation is, by the way, an excellent way to get through Copenhagen if you're travelling between Sweden and the South/West.

Copenhagen is a city whose dumpsters are a generous source of food. Ask the locals or check out trashwiki for more information.

Sleeping
You can camp here: Naturcenter Vestamager, Granatvej 3-15, 2770 Kastrup. There's a metro stop close by, on the M1 line, called Vestamager. It has water, toilets, you can make a bonfire, etc..It's a proper free of charge camping site, for more info check: http://www.naturstyrelsen.dk/Naturoplevelser/Undervisning/Naturskoler/Hovedstaden/Naturcenter_Vestamager/

There's spots where you can camp and where there's usually some tents near Christiania, again, ask around. CHRISTIANIA INHABITANTS ARE OFFICIALLY NOT WELCOMING CAMPERS, THEY CAN BE RUDE AND THERE'S A HUGE PANEL WRITTEN NO CAMPING INSIDE. The only way can be find and ask the right people going far away from the village. Rumors and stories of bad episodes plus general people attitude when you ask them for tips..doesn't really push you to try..other places are better!

Or if it's cold/rainy outside you can try sleeping on the 3rd floor of Field's mall, on the bottom of the exhibition area where the lift leaves you facing, just in front of Ørestad metro/train stop. Sevetse slept there on a Friday night and no one ever came to disturb, not even for cleaning (which they might do sometimes). There is free wifi and toilets open all night long. Sevetse slept on big cushions available at the time.

Lockers can be found for daytime activities at both the National Museum (closes 17:00) and The Satents Museum for Kunst, (Closes 20:00.) Lockers cost 10dkk which is refunded upon return.

Links

 * Check rejseplanen for timetables of busses

trash:Copenhagen

Kopenhag København