My last three days in Copenhagen were pretty magical. I completely fell in love with the city (and its smørrebrød)…
June 17:
I left much earlier in the morning than I had been used to. This was a bit of a struggle, since jet lag kept pulling me in, but I wanted to see if I could get a lot of museums done in one day. Since I had established a mission, I found motivation to do it. My first stop was the Rosenborg Castle. On the outside it looks majestic, but it was too dark and warm inside. There were a couple groups of young students and seniors, which made navigating the small, dark rooms difficult. At least it only cost me 60 danish kroner (student discount). I highly recommend exploring the gardens versus actually going inside the castle.
I walked a couple of blocks to the Statens Museum for Kunst. I immediately fell in love with this museum. It has such an array of art, varying from classic to contemporary. There’s something for everyone to enjoy, and it’s organized quite well. It’s also free to enter, so there’s no excuse not to visit it ! I wish I had hours to go through it and take my time, but since I was on a schedule, I hurried through.
On my way to the lunch spot that I had previously researched, Café Petersborg, I kind of got lost. I was distracted by all of the people on their bikes, the trains passing me, and the pretty houses, that I found myself at an intersection and not knowing where to go. I took out my handy dandy CityMaps2Go app and searched for the restaurant. I’m so grateful for this app at moments like this, especially because I’m so horrid with directions.
I was seated as soon as I got into the restaurant and ordered a traditional smørrebrød, which is an open face sandwich on rye bread. Mine was topped with hard boiled eggs, shrimp, dill, and mayonnaise. I also ordered a Carlsberg (My first Carlsberg in Copenhagen !!) to wash it all down. Just thinking about this meal makes me want another one. There was another solo traveler who was about my age in the restaurant. He approached me before I got my food and remarked on how he had heard me speak english and asked if I wanted to sit with him. I politely declined, as I am incredibly timid around strangers (Also have you seen Taken??? That was definitely not about to happen to me… hell, no). I explained to him that I was already so tired from getting lost and I’d rather just sit by myself, but thanks for the offer. After my belly had been filled with an amazing lunch, I made my way towards the Designmuseum. The Designmuseum currently has an exhibition dedicated to Wegner, which I really wanted to see. There were so many chairs, sketches, and information about his designs. It’s crazy to think about how one man’s designs really defined a whole section of Scandinavian design. The admission is also free for students.
After getting my design fix, I walked to Nyhavn because the sun had come out, and I wanted to take a canal boat tour. I know, typical tourist move… I got there just in time for the next one, and payed about 75 danish kroner. The boat tour was so nice as it had been getting progressively warmer as the day went on, so I got a nice breeze, a bit of history, and many great photos ! It was relaxing to sit back for about an hour or so and navigate through the water passages of Copenhagen. The only annoying aspect was the woman behind me, who would violently nudge me in the back every time she got up to take a picture. Oh, and all of the people who touched the bottom of each bridge we went under. I don’t understand why they felt so excited to do that? It’s probably really nasty to touch the underside of a bridge????
As refreshing as the canal boat tour was, I needed to get something to drink. I found myself in Joe & the Juice. It’s a really awesome juice bar which also serves sandwiches. It feels like a more-hipster health conscious Starbucks. There are Joe & the Juice’s everywhere in Copenhagen, so it’s inevitable to pass one. Juice in hand, I made my way towards the Nationalmuseet through peaceful side streets.
The Nationalmuseet is the National Museum of Denmark, it’s free to enter (Did I already mention how much I LOVE free admission to museums?!). Each room is “themed” in relation to the content, for example the walls are painted different colors for different time periods, and different ways of lighting are used which create an ambiance. This technique is helpful in maintaining an interest in the content. At the time that I was there, there weren’t many other people. So I wandered in and out of rooms all by myself which was really cool. (I may have also pretended that I lived in certain historically themed rooms when I was completely alone…)
There was a dark room that was FILLED with doll houses depicting the ways of life in Denmark. I was blown away by this room, especially because you could step on a stool and peek into the backs of the houses. The quiet eeriness of the actual room itself and the dolls placed in living situations was a weird combination.
My visit was cut short, however, since I had arrived about half an hour before their closing time. My exhaustion from the day had caught up with me, so I headed towards Central Station “Kobenhavn H” so that I could make my way home.
June 18:
To start off my morning right, I went directly to Kongens Have, also known as the gardens around Rosenborg Castle. It was my last day exploring Copenhagen, and I was going to make the most of it. People were outside, on large blankets with their families soaking up the sun and having picnics. I so badly wished I lived down the street from this park so that this could be a daily reality. I sat down for a bit and daydreamed in this magnificent garden area…
Once I snapped back to reality, I went to find the Davids Samling collection, which is conveniently located right next to the park. The moment I walked in, I was bombarded with heavenly air conditioning. My mood immediately lifted. Something that is hard to get used to, coming to Europe from the US, is the non existence of air conditioning. The collection was really impressive, although the rooms that kept the Islamic art were VERY dark and VERY cold. If you want to take pictures, you’re going to have a tough time trying to stabilize your camera. Other than that, I do recommend checking it out as it is free admission and it has one of the largest collections of Islamic art in Northern Europe. They had all sorts of interactive portions, such as a screen that if you clicked on a coin, it would give you information about it. There were other rooms featuring European and Danish art, which were pleasantly bright and felt like I was walking inside someone’s private home and checkin’ their impressive art collection out.
It was almost lunch time, so I started walking towards Nørrebro. Apparently, Nørrebro is the more hipster, less touristy area of Copenhagen which offers a lot of cool places to check out. I also noticed that it was much more diverse than central Copenhagen, which I was happy to see. Before crossing the bridge to get there, I picked up a take-out smørrebrød from Aamanns. I had to wait for about half an hour in line, but I knew that it would be worth it. I HIGHLY recommend anyone to take out from there, and go to the nearest park to eat it. You can eat inside the restaurant, but it was really packed and MORE expensive (there are separate, cheaper prices for take out). I walked about 20 minutes to the Assistens Cemetery, which had me go over a bridge and down a “main” street with stores, food, etc.
Once inside the cemetery grounds, I wandered around a bit, trying to find the perfect place to sit and eat my smørrebrød. I know that it might sound weird or disrespectful that I ate in a cemetery, but there were so many people doing the same that I assumed it was a normal thing. I obviously avoided eating directly next to a tombstone, and found a nice section of grass away from them that had benches.
I must have looked like I knew what I was doing as a person came up to me and tried to get my attention in Danish. When I realized what they were doing, I told them I only spoke English. They wanted to know where Hans Christian Andersen was buried, but obviously I had no idea yet. The Assistens Cemetery doesn’t have an eerie feel to it. It’s so beautiful, with many spots of shade and tombstones are kind of hidden in some sections. There are so many people laying out in the shade and relaxing that there was a really chilled out vibe.
I wanted to find three particular tombs: Niels Bohr, Søren Kierkegaard, and Hans Christian Andersen. I was pretty confused by the map of the cemetery and the actual layout, so it took me a lot more time that I thought it would.
I sat on a bench by Hans Christian Andersen’s grave and an older man, who I saw earlier tending to the landscape, came up to me. He asked me where I was from and what I was doing in Denmark. He then told me about what I need to see in Denmark as well as other parts in Scandinavia. His accent was really heavy, but I understood how proud he was to be Danish. It was really nice to talk to a local about how happy they were to be Danish. On my way out of Nørrebro, I couldn’t help but get ice cream on a corner shop before crossing the bridge. Ice cream in Scandinavia is so freakin’ good, but it’s a struggle for me because it makes me feel so sick. Oh well, you win and you lose I guess.
June 19:
This day was a sad one. I fell in love with Copenhagen, even though I was only there for a couple of days. I guess it was a mixture of feeling comfortable and safe since I was staying with close relatives as well as being able to explore the city in really nice weather. I am so grateful that I got to stay with family, since I truly felt like I was coming back to a “home” at the end of the day. They also shared so much insight about what to do/see that I made the most of my trip.
My cousin took me in the morning to run some errands at a nearby mall. He took me to a couple of design stores, one was similar to Home Depot, but a lot classier, and another was a light fixture store. The lights were incredibly expensive, and he told me that some people’s homes get broken into because of what type of lights they have. One of the “Scandinavian design” stores we went into had this display:
I’m not even going to try and explain why this is considered design? … It’s very confusing to me. After the stores, my cousin wanted to show me a little building that served as both a liquor store and package retrieval place. Very random, but AWESOME !
Before we heading home to get my luggage, I grabbed a classic Danish pølser (hot dog) for lunch. We picked up my little cousins from school and went straight to the ferry terminal. I had mixed emotions of sadness, anxiety, and excitement when my cousins said goodbye and left. I got onto the ferry and into my single cabin with window.
Once I was settled in, I went back up to the top of the ship and grabbed a ridiculously expensive glass of white wine just as the ship set sail. I honestly got a bit emotional seeing Copenhagen grow smaller…
Overall, I didn’t have a good time on the ferry. I was wearing motion sickness bracelets, but I still felt sick by dinner time. After dinner, I took some nausea pills and passed out in my cabin while watching Downtown Abbey.
It was time to say goodbye to Denmark… and get prepared for Norway !
Fionetta 