I was very thankful (no pun intended) to have spent my Thanksgiving weekend in Copenhagen with a good friend from home! Jenna and Jason were really fun to travel with, and also very generous to have let me stay with them on their trip.
I fell in love with Copenhagen almost instantly, and my rambling below will surely show that. It was just such a lively city that left me with a really good feeling! :-) 4 days simply wasn't enough for everything that I would have liked to experience, but there is always next time!
Day 1 (Thanksgiving):
I arrived to Copenhagen on Thursday in the early afternoon, and Jenna and Jason didn't arrive until that evening, so needless to say I did some exploring on my own! The sun was shining when I arrived so I knew instantly that it would be a good day!
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| On the train ride from the airport to the city center I planned out my route over my sack lunch :) |
I arrived to the hotel, and took about a 2 hour nap, because I was exhausted having come from Tallinn the day before. After feeling refreshed from a siesta I decided to go for a run to explore the city a little bit. I amazed myself and went for a 50 minute run around the city, but everything was just so beautiful so it inspired me to keep going! The architecture was really beautiful, and compared to what I see on a daily basis in Finland it was refreshing to see old, beautiful buildings. After my run I decided to go find myself a decent 'Thanksgiving' dinner. I decided to heed the advice from a blog I found, and I checked out a really neat marketplace, Torvehallerne, where I found all kinds of amazing food! I settled on an amazing salad and a really great gluten free, fiber muffin! It wasn't the same as being with my family eating mashed potatoes and all the other deliciousness that comes with Thanksgiving, but I was still happy :-)
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| This is what veggies eat for Thanksgiving :) |
After my dinner I took a different way home so that I could explore more of the city. The city was decked out in holiday decorations and holiday lights always make me feel happy, so I was in a pleasant mood on my journey home. Cold weather always seems more manageable with twinkling lights.
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| Seasons Greetings from Copenhagen! |
On the walk home I also ran into a peaceful protest that some people were having. I couldn't tell what they were protesting about (I still don't speak Danish), but it was interesting nonetheless. I hung around for maybe about 10 minutes to see if I could make out what the idea was, but I never figured it out so I left.
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| I need a better camera than my phone so that my photos are done justice. |
After the protest I found Tivoli, the amusement park in the center of town! I am in love with the idea of a city having a theme park in the city center, it's brilliant! The park is also adorned in twinkling lights, and I was so giddy as I walked around the exterior of the park.
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| I desperately wanted to go, but it wasn't in the budget. |
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| Lights, lights, lights! |
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| Neat Tivoli sign! |
Tivoli is also very close to where the hotel was located, so after my stroll I went back to the hotel until Jenna and Jason arrived. Once they got in we went out for a late dinner at a restaurant nearby our place called Pate Pate, it was delicious! Then we called it a night.
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| Photo credit to Jason! |
Day 2:
Friday morning we were greeted with sunshine and mild weather, so we knew it'd be another great day! We decided to start our exploring with a stroll around the city center. We checked out the Christmas market, the plethora of shops, as well as some of the other open markets that lined the canal. Get ready for an excessive amount of photos!
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| Copenhagen Christmas market |
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| This store's window display was freaky, it moved too much for me. |
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| One of my favorite streets we walked on. |
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| Friends in Copenhagen!!!! |
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| Pretty cool tombstone if you ask me. |
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| All of the city buses had mustaches on them; I wondered if this was in honor of Movember, or merely a regular occurrence? |
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| Bicycles are everywhere! It's amazing! |
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| This was my favorite window display that I saw. |
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| Mustaches were everywhere, needless to say I was pleased. |
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| We went into a handful of really cool bike shops, this was one of them. |
After wandering around for the day we headed back to our hotel for a break so that we could regain some energy to go out for the night. Jason was in Copenhagen for work after all, so he had to have a 'work dinner,' but Jenna and I were invited along. The dinner was amazing, filled with delicious Italian food and amazing dessert!
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| I haven't ever seen such a proper banana split in my whole life! |
After dinner we cruised around the city checking out some of the local bars. Copenhagen showed us a good time.
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| This is the Rundetårn, or Round Tower, of Copenhagen and it was one of the things on our 'List of Places to Check Out' because it is a really pretty observatory, but we realized they wanted money to check it out so we didn't prioritize it highly, and then we stumbled upon it on our bar tour. Check! |
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| This is what happens with Californians come to Scandanavia, they turn into Gremlins! It was only in the 50s just fyi :) |
Day 3:
Saturday morning wasn't as sunny as Friday, but nevertheless it was dry so we decided to rent bicycles and tour the city! For $20 we were able to rent bikes until 5pm and we took it as a challenge to see as much of the city as we could! We decided to start our journey by crossing the river and checking out Christiania. I'll allow Wikipedia to give you your cultural history lesson of the day since they'll do the explanation more justice :)
"Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood of about 850 residents, covering 84 acres in the borough of Christianshavn. Civic authorities in Copenhagen regard Christiania as a large commune, but the area has a unique status in that it is regulated by a special law, the Christiania Law of 1989 which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state. It was closed by residents in April 2011, whilst discussions continued with the Danish government as to its future, but is now open again. Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalizing the legal status of the community have led to conflicts, and negotiations are ongoing. Among many Christiania residents, the community is known as staden ('the town'), short for fristaden ('the freetown')."
Obviously we decided to see what all of the hype was about, but when we arrived to Christiania it was rather sleepy because it was around noon, and well it's prime sleeping time! :) It was still really cool to check out this area, but maybe next time I shouldn't go at 12 on a Saturday.
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| Velkommen! |
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| No photos or running allowed, it causes a panic. |
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| There was so much to look at. |
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| Welcoming me back to the EU. |
After Christiania we decided to go check out the infamous Little Mermaid statue. On the way to the mermaid we saw some really beautiful sites as well.
After the Little Mermaid adventure, we decided to go find lunch while simultaneously checking out the Nørrebro neighborhood. This by far turned out to be my favorite neighborhood! It had so many cool shops and restaurants! I mean check this lady out after all..
After lunch and perusing we figured it only appropriate to go check out the Carlsberg brewery, since we were in Denmark after all. The brewery was in a really pretty part of town and so it made for quite a pleasant bike ride over there. Jason was excited to try out the different beers they had available, and I went for their hard cider, it was awesome! I have never had lemon & ginger cider, but I am hooked!
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| Here's the artsy picture I tried to take of our drinks! |
After the Carlsberg adventure, it was time to take the bicycles back. We then regrouped at the hotel and then went out for dinner and a few drinks at a cool bar that was recommended to us by the waitress! Another successful night in Copenhagen!
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| Friends that bike together stay together. |
Day 4:
Sunday morning we woke up to the sounds of rain, and it seemed rather fitting that as I was getting sad about my flight that afternoon the rain clouds would finally showed up. Thankfully the timing for rain was rather perfect because we'd already decided that Sunday was going to be our museum day, so we carried on despite the drizzle. First on the list was the National Museum, mostly because it has free admission! The building that holds the National Museum used to be the Prince's Palace, but the royal family no longer lives there.
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| Lots of stuff about Vikings, pretty cool. |
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| There was also some really interesting war time displays. |
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| This one was probably my favorite. |
After the National Museum we decided to venture on to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which is an art museum, but is primarily focused on sculptures. It was okay because it was free, but I was mostly impressed with the courtyard because it had palm trees and it warmed me up a little just looking at them!
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| Palm laden courtyard! |
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| This dude on the left was creepy! |
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| This one was easily my favorite. |
After museum hoping we attempted to go to another brewery, but it was closed :-( so instead we found a cute cafe to sit in and have some glöggi. Oh I think I've neglected to mention glöggi until now, well it's basically the best winter time drink ever! It's mulled wine that is served hot with almonds and raisins, it's delicious! Best way to pass the winter that Scandanavia has ever come up with, I'm sure of it!
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| mmmmm! |
Post glöggi it was time for a quick lunch and then back to the hotel for me to grab my things and head to the airport. I had such an amazing trip and am very grateful to Jenna and Jason for inviting me to be a part of their adventure! It was so great to see an old friend and to explore a new city! I really enjoyed Copenhagen and would love to go back some day! Pretty buildings, bicycles everywhere, so much music comes through, good food, good vibe, very environmentally friendly city, near the ocean, aaaaaand there is after all an amusement park in the center of town!
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| Tivoli!!!!! |
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