"Hi" means hello. "Hi hi" means goodbye, which I didn't know upon landing in Copenhagen, so when all the flight attendants were saying "hi hi" to everybody as we got off the plane, I just thought it was the only English they knew... turns out they all speak English, and I'm guilty of making assumptions.
We landed late, and made our way to my hostel, the Downtown Copenhagen Hostel/Bar. Blair headed back to her apartment, and I got a quick beer and got to know the people who work at the hostel before heading to bed. In the morning, we began our journey through Denmark!
Blair showed me around a lot of different parts of the city. Here are some of my favorites!
The Royal Palace... the Queen actually lives here, and there were 3 guards total that I could see. Super low security, because super low crime.
We walked along the harbor, which was super picturesque with colorful houses, bridges, outdoor restaurants, bike riders, and boats on the water. The sun was out and that meant so was every Dane and every tourist--Blair was surprised at how many people were outside, because it had been such dreary weather for so long! I brought the sunshine :)
We walked across a bridge to Paper Island, one of the multiple islands in Copenhagen. There was a Yoko Ono installation of wishes written on little white paper cards and tied onto trees. Here was my favorite (although the ones that said "I wish you would just give me a baby already" or "I wish toenails were currency cuz I'd be so rich" were pretty great):
There is also a very cool little art installation that basically looks like you're walking in an inside out galaxy. That was a bad explanation... just take a look:
We went to another area of the city called Christiania, which is this little self-sustaining community where they pay taxes just like any Dane would, but the city has agreed to not interfere with them... at all. They basically do whatever they want (they have their own set of basic, relaxed rules) and the police never bother them. You guessed what that means! They were all high.
We aren't supposed to take pictures of illegal things happening, so the only picture I could get was of this indoor skate park:
We walked up to the top of a very tall church. 400 steps to the top, even though it felt like 8,000. The view was equally was breathtaking.
The inside of the church was astonishing as well, with this amazing gravity-defying organ:
We got pretty darn hungry, and stopped into an Ethiopian restaurant and chowed down on the best tasting bread and mush I've ever had.
We visited Kastellet, a star-shaped island in Copenhagen. It's shaped like that because it used to be a military base, and the Danes figured out that a star shape is the best way to protect the land, because either the opposition enters at the tip of one of the points and they have such a long way to the main part of the land that they get stopped, or the enter on one of the insets between points, and are surrounded on both sides. Today, it is a very pretty area to walk around and have a picnic and take in the views.
Near there is Hans Christian's Anderson's commemorative mermaid statue. I found out that I, too, can be a mermaid if I wish it hard enough.
Blair took me to a very cool cafe, called the Bastard Cafe (sounds cool already doesn't it?) where you can eat amazing fries and play pretty much any game in the entire world. We opted for scrabble, and bastardized our use of the Danish letters (ha, see what I did there?).
We bought some pasta and veggies, and a bottle of wine called Sunrise, and made dinner at Blair's apartment. Aren't we adorable?
The next morning, Went to the Glass Market, one of the semi-outdoor food markets of Copenhagen, and had some traditional Smorrebrod, which is yummy stuff on yummy bread (usually rye). And, it was very yummy!
We did some more window shopping, talking, and walking (our specialty) and happened to stop into one of the multitude of candy stores. It was pretty awesome:
We also went to a cool cafe called the Laundromat, which... you guessed it... was also a working laundromat! I was so excited about it I made this face:
I also finally found a few signs that fulfilled my fantasy of seeing "Nielsen" everywhere (and, for once, spelled right!):
I caught a cold, and that day it was bad, so we took it pretty easy. That night, we went to Studenterhuset, a very cool student-oriented nonprofit bar which had the wackiest Hungarian band playing--by wacky I mean they were somewhat scream-y, but also pretty rock-y, but the trumpet made it sound mariachi-y, and the fiddle made it sound country-y. Hard to describe, but unforgettable nonetheless.
And, for our last morning in Copenhagen, Blair took me to a great little restaurant that served a Danish version of breakfast tapas, and it might have been the best meal I had the entire trip. We went to the central train station, and said our goodbyes... :(
All in all, this trip was absolutely fantastic, and I think it went the best it possibly could have. Some things to know for next time:
And that, my friends, concludes this amazing spring break trip. Next up: Costa Rica part 3! I probably won't do a blog for that one, since I've already done two, so just look out for more pictures of my risking my life in the cloud forest on Facebook. Also keep your eyes out for a video from this trip (I promise, I will make it this time). Hopefully, my next blog will be about me in Southeast Asia. Until then, vaarwel, auf widersehen, and farvel!!
We landed late, and made our way to my hostel, the Downtown Copenhagen Hostel/Bar. Blair headed back to her apartment, and I got a quick beer and got to know the people who work at the hostel before heading to bed. In the morning, we began our journey through Denmark!
Blair showed me around a lot of different parts of the city. Here are some of my favorites!
The Royal Palace... the Queen actually lives here, and there were 3 guards total that I could see. Super low security, because super low crime.
We walked along the harbor, which was super picturesque with colorful houses, bridges, outdoor restaurants, bike riders, and boats on the water. The sun was out and that meant so was every Dane and every tourist--Blair was surprised at how many people were outside, because it had been such dreary weather for so long! I brought the sunshine :)
We walked across a bridge to Paper Island, one of the multiple islands in Copenhagen. There was a Yoko Ono installation of wishes written on little white paper cards and tied onto trees. Here was my favorite (although the ones that said "I wish you would just give me a baby already" or "I wish toenails were currency cuz I'd be so rich" were pretty great):
There is also a very cool little art installation that basically looks like you're walking in an inside out galaxy. That was a bad explanation... just take a look:
We went to another area of the city called Christiania, which is this little self-sustaining community where they pay taxes just like any Dane would, but the city has agreed to not interfere with them... at all. They basically do whatever they want (they have their own set of basic, relaxed rules) and the police never bother them. You guessed what that means! They were all high.
We aren't supposed to take pictures of illegal things happening, so the only picture I could get was of this indoor skate park:
We walked up to the top of a very tall church. 400 steps to the top, even though it felt like 8,000. The view was equally was breathtaking.
The inside of the church was astonishing as well, with this amazing gravity-defying organ:
We got pretty darn hungry, and stopped into an Ethiopian restaurant and chowed down on the best tasting bread and mush I've ever had.
We visited Kastellet, a star-shaped island in Copenhagen. It's shaped like that because it used to be a military base, and the Danes figured out that a star shape is the best way to protect the land, because either the opposition enters at the tip of one of the points and they have such a long way to the main part of the land that they get stopped, or the enter on one of the insets between points, and are surrounded on both sides. Today, it is a very pretty area to walk around and have a picnic and take in the views.
Near there is Hans Christian's Anderson's commemorative mermaid statue. I found out that I, too, can be a mermaid if I wish it hard enough.
Blair took me to a very cool cafe, called the Bastard Cafe (sounds cool already doesn't it?) where you can eat amazing fries and play pretty much any game in the entire world. We opted for scrabble, and bastardized our use of the Danish letters (ha, see what I did there?).
We bought some pasta and veggies, and a bottle of wine called Sunrise, and made dinner at Blair's apartment. Aren't we adorable?
The next morning, Went to the Glass Market, one of the semi-outdoor food markets of Copenhagen, and had some traditional Smorrebrod, which is yummy stuff on yummy bread (usually rye). And, it was very yummy!
We did some more window shopping, talking, and walking (our specialty) and happened to stop into one of the multitude of candy stores. It was pretty awesome:
We also went to a cool cafe called the Laundromat, which... you guessed it... was also a working laundromat! I was so excited about it I made this face:
I also finally found a few signs that fulfilled my fantasy of seeing "Nielsen" everywhere (and, for once, spelled right!):
I caught a cold, and that day it was bad, so we took it pretty easy. That night, we went to Studenterhuset, a very cool student-oriented nonprofit bar which had the wackiest Hungarian band playing--by wacky I mean they were somewhat scream-y, but also pretty rock-y, but the trumpet made it sound mariachi-y, and the fiddle made it sound country-y. Hard to describe, but unforgettable nonetheless.
And, for our last morning in Copenhagen, Blair took me to a great little restaurant that served a Danish version of breakfast tapas, and it might have been the best meal I had the entire trip. We went to the central train station, and said our goodbyes... :(
All in all, this trip was absolutely fantastic, and I think it went the best it possibly could have. Some things to know for next time:
- Go to Berlin, or Germany in general, for longer. Two days wasn't enough, and also go on the weekend, because it's obviously got a great night life. And there are a million museums. And tours of concentration camps. And German people are super cool.
- Always book tickets for the Anne Frank House in advance. It's an amazing museum, but it's not necessary to wait in line for 2 hours.
- Buy a train pass in all of these cities, it's always worth it.
- Bring less socks. Bring more shirts.
- There are a million canal tours in Amsterdam, but there's only one that is 9 Euro. That's the best one, because it's 9 Euro. Do it.
- Do a bit more research, but don't do too much, because the things that happen spontaneously are usually the best things.
- Always do the walking tours, because knowing the history behind the cities makes everything so much more rich.
- You don't have to arrive on time for a pub crawl. Also, if it says the crawl is 8:30-9:45, that doesn't mean it ends at 9:45... it means that you go to the next place (of six places total) at 9:45. Be prepared...
- Find out ahead of time if people find it offensive if you ask them if they speak English... In Germany, it was necessary. In Copenhagen, asking them if they speak English is like asking them if they know where their nose is (aka, insulting).
And that, my friends, concludes this amazing spring break trip. Next up: Costa Rica part 3! I probably won't do a blog for that one, since I've already done two, so just look out for more pictures of my risking my life in the cloud forest on Facebook. Also keep your eyes out for a video from this trip (I promise, I will make it this time). Hopefully, my next blog will be about me in Southeast Asia. Until then, vaarwel, auf widersehen, and farvel!!
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