incidentally paps and i took the same flight to copenhagen from brussels, but he was to leave immediately the next day, and i still had another one. we arrived late afternoon and decided we can probably only do one thing together in copenhagen. i asked if he was interested to see christiana, and so we did.
i've looked up on things to do in copenhagen but nothing was absolutely compelling, to be honest. i posted in the couchsurfing group to ask for opinion and i was told that i must go and see christiana. christiana was indeed an intriguing place to see, what with its self-proclaimed autonomy and a dab of danger with its rather controversial push street's sale of recreational drugs (which is still illegal in denmark, by the way). i've had my share of solo travel, but honestly i preferred to have company to visit this place. i'm glad paps agreed.
we went and walked around, i took quite a lot of photos because everything was just colorful and vibrant. of course there were areas where they were explicit about not allowing photography and i was not going to be that tourist who would violate that. we were lucky that there was a gig happening then - nemoland - some kind of a summer festival. there were a lot of people, young and old, and the atmosphere was pretty chill. we stayed for a few beers.
the next day paps left early for his flight to ilulissat. i couldn't sleep anymore after he did so i checked out soon after. i left my big backpack at the hotel concierge and went with my day pack. i was going to stay on a hostel that evening, and took what i needed in the day pack. i went to the city hall for the assembly point of the free walking tours. but first, breakfast. i went old school danish.
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| smørrebrød - 3 for 40 kr at a local supermarket |
it's great that in almost all of the big european cities there is always this free walking tours where you basically just tip the tour lead. with groups as big as 25, i'm sure that doing it just for the tips was still worth the guide's time. it was a 3-hour walk, covering a few important places in the city, and was a great way to explore.
we started at city hall, went through the old and new square (gammeltorv and nytorv), christianborg palace, nyhavn harbour with the view of the opera house, and amalienborg palace. the guide did share some very interesting tidbits of information that you were surely memorable. like how the queen's palace in amalienborg has five chimneys because she liked to smoke (?) or that the vikings don't really wear hats with 2 horns - it was just a romanticized depiction for dramatic flair.
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| nytorv (new square) |
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| christianborg palace |
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| nyhavn harbour |
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| copenhagen opera house |
after the walking tour, i roamed around and ended up going to rosenborg castle. the weather started to shift maniacally. one minute it's drizzling and the next, the skies were blue. there was a lot of putting on and taking off of my jacket happening.
i thoroughly enjoyed the last place i visited - kongens have or the king's garden, which is really the garden around the rosenborg castle grounds. i loved the colorful flowerbeds and plants and the serenity of the afternoon.
i was finally exhausted from all the walking that day and headed to my hostel called sleep in heaven. copenhagen was not a cheap place to be, and i didn't find it worth spending a hundred or so euros for a few hours of rest. the hostel was quite alright. i took a bed in a 6-bed female dorm. the room was orderly, people were quiet and considerate. i took a nap for a couple of hours and then decided how i was going to spend the only night alone in copenhagen. a few days ago i signed up to attend the copenhagen couchsurfing meet-up, but i was feeling a bit too tired to be sociable. instead, i decided to treat myself to a nice dinner. i went to restaurant kokkeriet for the light set course + wine pairing, but there was nothing light about it. i ended up spending four hours in that restaurant and was full to my neck. it was one hell of an expensive but special dinner.
you'd think it's ironic that i went for a cheap sleep but then splurged so much on dinner, but i think that this table for one evening was quite an experience and was definitely the climax of this side trip. of course, i can't afford to do that regularly, not even every month :)
the next morning was an early start and off to the expedition of a lifetime!
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