Copenhagen - the land of the beautiful!

I don’t really know how to describe my weekend in Copenhagen. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. After hearing so much about it from my friends that have studied there in the past, my expectations were incredibly high. After a quick layover in Germany, we finally arrived in Denmark around 11:30. It took us a good 15 minutes to figure out how to purchase a subway ticket but we finally made it on to the metro and headed to our hostel.

kulorbar! 

Hotel Jorgensen was located in the heart of the city, just a few blocks away from the Stroget and King’s Gardens. Although initially turned off by the apparent rat/mouse/unidentified animal droppings in the basement of the hostel, our room turned out to be a cozy 4-person nook on the ground floor. We spent the rest of the night at a club called Kulorbar, which had been recommended to me by EVERY one of my friends. Needless to say, it did not disappoint and we headed back to our room, ready to rest up for the next day’s adventures.

beginning of the stroget!

We woke up to an overcast sky but, undeterred, began exploring the city. We headed towards the Stroget [a very long walking street that is lined with shops and restaurants] and began to wander in and out of stores, taking in all of the beauty [and beautiful people] that surrounded us. We stopped at an all you can eat Greek buffet for lunch and refueled with some beef, rice, lamb and peppers. Satisfied, we said our goodbyes and continued to walk until we reached the end of the Stroget. 

view from the top of the Round Tower

We decided to climb to the top of the Round Tower, a very tall building that we passed on the walk with a supposed great view of the city. As we climbed to the top, we stopped in the special exhibit called the “Hungry Planet”. It showcased 40 families from countries across the world, displaying statistics about average life expectancy, number of fast food restaurants, pounds of meat consumed in a year, etc. 

It was really interesting to compare the statistics and information from a country like America or even Italy to countries such as Sudan and Japan. In fact, the Darfur exhibit really pulled at my heartstrings, as it showed that a family of 10 only consumes $1.37 per week of food.  We finished the exhibit and proceeded to climb to the top, anxious to beat the rain that looked to be coming our way. The view from the top was incredible. You could see the entire city and, even though we didn’t know exactly what we were looking at, it was well worth the arduous uphill hike. After the hike we were quite ravenous so we wandered around looking for a place to ease our hunger. We stumbled into a restaurant and indulged in the “chicken curry sandwich”. It was divine [and expensive, but Copenhagen on the whole is VERY expensive] and we cleaned our plates in a record 15 minutes. We said our goodbyes to our very attractive waiter and headed back to our hostel, but not without stopping at a bakery for a nice after lunch treat.  I got some sort of chocolate cake/fudge concoction that was absolutely delicious while Devon chose a carrot cake muffin with cream cheese icing. 

chocolate heaven

Thoroughly stuffed we went back to the hostel for a quick nap. After we were recharged we went out to a Mexican restaurant that had been recommended to us [thank you, ed] called Mama Rosa’s. 

burrito and guacamole 

Ironically enough, our waiter was an Italian from FLORENCE…we can’t escape them! Our dinner was fantastic and we made the long walk back along the stroget to our hostel. We went out later that night for a bit but ended up turning in pretty early due to pure exhaustion.

The following day we awoke to beautiful skies and decided to venture to Nyhavn, the famous harbor in Copenhagen. We spent about 3 hours wandering around the harbor, gawking at the gorgeous boats and people that surrounded us from every direction. 

Nyhavn

king's gardens

We headed back to our hostel, in hopes of meeting up with two of my friends from UVA that are studying abroad in Copenhagen. Luckily, the stars aligned and we met them outside of the train station! They took us on a big tour of the city, exploring places like the King’s Gardens and the Amaliaborg palace.  We also made sure to stop at the royal Palace in hopes that we might see someone important [spoiler alert: we didn't]. We snapped a few photos down by the harbor and continued on our tour of the city. 

Next, my friends took us to one of the strangest places I’ve ever visisted: Christiania. If I had to describe this place in one word, it would definitely be: weird.

       background info: 

UVA friends!

Christiania is a small ‘self proclaimed autonomous neighborhood’ of Copenhagen that technically annexed itself from Denmark in 1989. Ever since then, this small area of about 850 people has its own government and if someone from the outside community wants to live there, all 850 community members must say it is ok. Additionally, cannabis is completely ‘legal’ there and thus the main street of this weird city is named ‘Pusher Street’. I’m really glad we got to visit though as there is increasing pressure from the government to shut down this little fairytale land.

Christiania poster

After Christiania we headed back to Nyhavn and walked along the harbor until the sun began to set. We stopped along the way for a few drinks and then headed back to Mama Rosa’s for round two of the delicious margaritas and burritos we had just the other night.  Danish food is essentially fish [think herring] and, seeing as how I’m not a big seafood person, both Devon and I decided we’d rather stick with something safe. We did discover one Danish speciality; an alcoholic cider called Somersby. It was absolutely delicious!

We spent out last morning trekking out to see Hans Christian Anderson’s Littler Mermaid statue. We had heard it was a bit anticlimactic, but figured we should probably check it out for ourselves since we were so close. Well…it was anticlimactic haha. Definitely glad we got to see it but it’s very small and perched high up on a rock, making it almost impossible to get any good photos. 

Little Mermaid 

Oh well.  We got on our last metro and headed towards the airport. Now if you know anything about our travel track record, you should know that SOMETHING had to go wrong. In Denmark, you can either buy a pass for the metro or else buy something called a ‘clipcard’. You essentially clip the card for every ride you take, but it’s basically an honor system. I had been warned by a few people that sometimes they walk around and check the cards, but that it was very very rare. Well Devon and I bought a clipcard the first day but failed to use it most of the time we took the metro. On a whim, and since we were leaving Copenhagen, we punched the card twice before getting on the metro and settled down for our last metro trip. About half way through, I see a conductor coming through the cars…checking everyone’s tickets! A wave of anxiety rushed over me as I flashbacked to our episode in the Florence train station when we failed to validate our tickets and had to pay a 40 euro fine. Luckily for us, we had clipped the card and the conductor bid us farewell. So ALMOST another travel mishap but I guess we learned our lesson! Other than a 2 hour delay on our connecting flight from Frankfurt Germany to Florence [qualifier: we took advantage of the delay and enjoyed a few german brews at the bar. We even befriended a Canadian who is living in Finland for the next few years], the rest of our travel was smooth and easy. We arrived back in Florence around midnight, just as it started to pour.

Enjoying a Paulaner in the Frankfurt airport

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. Copenhagen is a close second on my list of favorite places thus far. The only negatives were the incredibly cold temperatures and the fact that everything is EXTREMELY expensive. Oh well – I guess that’s the price you pay to live in an amazing city.

I’ll update with Paris as soon as I can! Sorry for the delay!