January 20, 2017 – January 22, 2017

“To travel is to live.”
– Hans Christian Andersen

We spent last weekend in a place that kind of felt like a fairytale, perhaps because Hans Christian Andersen himself spent a lot of time in Copenhagen writing stories. (No, we didn’t make it to the Little Mermaid statue even though everyone has asked). I feel like Mr. Andersen would be pretty proud of me for the places I have been and the adventures I have planned for this year.

Pretty much every blog I start by saying that my latest adventure was the “best trip ever,” and we might as well add Copenhagen to this list. Once again, Tyler and I decided to plan a trip at the last minute, due to our hectic and unpredictable busy season schedules. However, this time we paid more attention to the budget airlines and general travel details. This resulted in great flights and even better accommodations!

Although we landed around 10:30pm on Friday, a mishap with the Uber driver got us to the hotel after 11, at which time, I was content to hit the hay, but Tyler had other plans for us. After a little convincing I agreed to go to on the 20 minute walk to a cocktail bar in the Meatpacking District called Duck and Cover. I will say, as the name implies, you really did have to kind of duck to get in and you were covered once you got there as it was hard to see from the street. It was here that I had my first drink in 21 days, thus ending my Dryuary. However, it was a great place to end the streak.

After a fancy beverage, we decided getting a good night’s sleep was crucial to the success of our action packed Saturday. We hit up a local bakery for a Danish or two and then headed towards the Radhus to start our walking tour. Our tour guide was fantastic and did a great job of keeping things interesting (he made fun of himself saying that he looked like Theon Greyjoy pre season 4), while simultaneously pointing out all of the history. It also didn’t hurt that the weather was great, which I did not expect for a place so far north in the dead of winter.

Our guide took us all over town, showing us the place where the Carlsberg brewery was started; The Christianborg Palace, where the Danish government works; Nyhaven Harbour, where there are pretty houses and boats; the Royal Opera; and my favorite, the Royal Palace of Amalienborg, where the royal family lives. He told us the story of how the Queen’s husband is kind of a trouble maker and at a fancy dinner one night he dressed up in a panda suit and started hitting the guests with vegetables. And he was like 80. I thought this was hilarious and promptly found the youtube video after the tour. We also arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard which is always kind of fun, and they had some lively music.

He also explained the Danish concept of Hygge to us, which was something I had already been reading up on. Any culture who favors lounging around in the winter with candles and being cozy is my kind of people.

Here are some pictures of the things we saw, because pics or it didn’t happen amirite?

After the tour, we had worked up an appetite, so we went to lunch at a place our friends had suggested in the Meatpacking District called Warpigs Brewpub where I got the best macaroni and cheese I may have ever had. The beers were also great. Tyler thought the meat was also great. It was definitely one of our favorite restaurants we have been to while traveling, so much so that Tyler almost convinced me to go back on Sunday for lunch.

Once we were fully fed, we decided to go to a few cocktail bars before heading back to the hotel. In no particular order (or because I can’t really remember the order), we visited Lidkoeb, Mikkeller Bar, and Salon 39. I do think that Salon 39 was my favorite as I had a Champagne cocktail with strawberries, which is kind of my jam.

We wandered around the city a bit and then went to get ready for dinner at Kobenhavner-cafeen which was supposed to have authentic Danish food. Our meal was a little above average, but the company was great. We enjoyed the dinner very much, but probably not as much as the group of guys who started singing Danish drinking songs halfway through their meal. We decided to check out one last cocktail bar, called Ruby after dinner. This place would have been a lot cooler if we had gotten a table in the downstairs party, but still, the drinks were special.

We’ve become fans of booking later flights on Sundays so that we have the whole day to explore, and Copenhagen was no exception.  I was really digging all of the Copenhagen green rooftops which were originally copper, but have since faded into this beautiful shade of green. Apparently it’s famous and there is a paint color named after it, so one day when I have a house I am going to have a Copenhagen Green bathroom.

Our hot spots for the day were Rosenborg Castle, the Round Tower (which we climbed to the top of to see magnificent views of the city) and Christianhavn, which is an area across the river which is more hipster.

Within Christianhavn is an area called Christiania where there are no laws. We decided to visit, just to see what was going on, but I must advise this is not a place I would go alone to, even during the day. It was like a scene out of the Hunger Games (or other trilogy about a dystopian society i.e. Divergent series, Delirium series) with people standing around barrels that were on fire selling drugs. There was colorful graffiti and hippies everywhere and it was also a little bit like Bonnaroo, but about 60 degrees colder. You aren’t really allowed to take pictures here, but I did snap a few.

The only other cool thing we stumbled upon on Sunday was the traveling Museum of Broken Relationships which was recently featured on the Bachelor. This exhibit shows a collection of personal items that people have donated from their past relationships along with a brief story of the relationship itself. There were some really funny items and some really sad items, but my favorite was this cell phone. The caption reads, “It was 300 days too long. He gave me his mobile phone so I could not call him anymore.” That kind of reminds me of a song.

Anyway, once again, a great vacation with my best friend.

Now enjoy a few more random pictures.

View from out hotel

Food at Torvehallerne – kind of like the Foodhallen in the Dam

Danishes. I went back to get a third shortly after this.

Recommendations
Hotel – Marriot – I think the man who checked us into our room might have been the nicest hotel employee I have ever met. Great, great place to stay. Although we had to walk kind of far to places, Uber rides were cheap
Bars – Salon 39, Lidkoeb, Duck and Cover, Mikkeller Bar, Ruby, Taphouse
Eats – Warpigs Brewpub, Andersen Bakery, Torvehallerne
Activities – Copenhagen Free Walking Tours