June 21, 2012

Trip 27: København, Danmark

Trip date: April 27 - May 1, 2012
 
The poorest decision any "starving student" can do is saying "Hey, I have a great idea! Let's go to Scandinavia." Notoriously known as expensive countries that make Swiss Prices look like boxing day sales. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark located on its island Zealand.

All in attendance: Kristen and Eric

I got a 188 CHF return flight to Copenhagen from Basel Airport with fancy schmancy Swiss Air. The funny thing about Basel airport is that they seperate it into 3 areas. There is the hot, stuffy, barely-any-seats basement area for budget airlines, the gates in the spaced out halls and large open rooms for the non-budget airline as well as the French section for domestic France flights where things are more reasonably priced (Remember Basel's airport is shared between Switzerland, France and Germany).

I left on Thursday early afternoon for my cozy 1:20 flight. Coming into Copenhagen by flight is really nice because you can see all these lone houses and neighbourhoods on these small marshy looking islands near the mainland. You also get a birds-eye view of some crazy bridges.


To afford Copenhagen, Eric and I were going to rent a room for 2 days and then couch surf for 2 more days. Since the cheapest hostel in the off season is still 18€ each a night, we decided to fork over a few more Danish krone/euros and get a private room with Rent-a-room Copenhagen for 40€ a night (which is 20€ each anyways). I arrived before Eric who was coming from Berlin and checked into the hotel room. The room was ridiculous glamour - it reminded me of "themed" hotel rooms back home.


Marie Antoinette Themed Room

I bought some groceries to have a nice home cooked baked pasta meal to sustain us for lunches + dinners. Eric would arrive 10pm that night. I also bought some new Somersby cider flavours and lots of yogurt drink. I walked along Strøget, the main shopping and pedestrian street, and popped into Christiania too. We lucked out because Christiania was just on the other side of the river to our hotel.


Christiania is like a permanent Shambhala. The community is an autonomous neighbourhood where community, art, soul and tolerance are the main focal values. Here, the street art is plentiful and the homes incredibly artistic. No cars are allowed inside (no pictures really either!). I only snapped 2 quick shots right near the entrance to the community. Christiania is a place where homosexuality, all forms of religion and people are welcomed.

Also making it infamous is its soft drug policy. Here you can also buy marijuana and hash from street vendors for a reasonable price (reasonable considering you are in Scandinavia). Vendors have little booths along Pusher Street and most things are 50-120 DKK per gram. Also notable is the cozy restaurent at the end of Pusher Street called Morgenstedet which offers you cheap vegetarian home cooked meals and an insanely delicious dense bread.

The next day started with yogurt and müesli. We walked all throughout the city that day. Past the Rundetårn, into the botanical gardens (which were so-so since it's still early spring), the Marble Church/Frederick's Church (where a nice picture is impossible due to the large parking lot in from of it) , the Amalienborg palace, city hall and every tourist building in between.



We ate at RizRaz near Strøget which had a vegetarian buffet before we set out for Østerbro district- home to the infamous little mermaid statue and (more appealingly) nice green hills and beautiful walking paths (windmills and Danish brick buildings ensue).




Needless to say, the whole day of walking in the blowing wind took its toll on us and we staggered home feeling more exhausted than necessary. Cue: lazy drunk Fridays watching Red Dragon on the television.

A perfect Saturday morning activity is lounging by the water in the sunlight. And that's exactly what we did! We made a caterpillar friend and wandered around the the neighbourhood streets of Christiania and fantasized about the wonderful life you could live in such a neighbourhood. I could go on here but since ther are not enough photos or words that could describe it, people will just have to go see for themselves.

We checked out of our hotel and then went to meet our couch surfer host who lived in Østerbro. He and his roommate programmed this crazy TV with every television show and movie you can imagine with elaborate menus and play options. We watched an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia before heading to the Danish National Gallery which surprisingly has free entry!

Afterwards, while feeling snoozy and in a relaxing state - we decided to go to the Planetarium. it was my first time in one! Cue comfy chairs and a nearly snoozing Kristen. Afterwards it was some late-night Chinese food and then heading back to our host's home where we met his room mate and chatted before going to bed.

On Sunday, we hoped to get out of the main city for a bit and took the S-Tog to Lyngby and rented canoes at Nybro Bådudlejning. We canoed around for about 3 hours, docking in different places, eating snacks and chasing birds. I was the part-time photographer in the canoe which meant Eric had to work twice as hard making sure we didn't crash into rocks and trees. oops.





After we took the bus to the Dyrehavsbakken themepark. Copenhagen has a really famous theme park called Tivoli right in the city center but it is as expensive as taking your family to Disney World. Dyrehavsbakken or bakken is an older theme park (apparently the oldest in the world) and entry is free (where as in Tivoli, entry and rides are 2 separate costs). We went on a single ride - the wooden roller coaster before heading back into the city.



We ate at Kate's Joint that night and had spice curry-style dishes. We sat around on benches by the water and watched the absurd number of Danish people pass by jogging - in the middle of the night on Sunday! We brought a honey melon (not to be confused with honeydew) back to our host's home and shared some with his roommate before going to sleep.

The next day we walked by the Rosenborg Palace and went to the indoor greenhouses in the botanical gardens that we didn't see our first time. One Sarah bernhardt cookie later and the whole trip is over, just like that!



Things I learned:
  • Touristy buidlings and restuarents may close at all sorts of weird hours in Copenhagen
  • 50% of the population of Copenhagen is jogging at any given time
  • Newly graduated Danish highschoolers also rent unnecessary flashy limos and party buses
  • Danish television is 95% in English with Danish subtitles
  • A honey melon is not a honeydew melon
Things to do next time:
  • Be rich and eat at all the gourmet restaurants in Copenhagen
  • Couchsurf again - it was fantastic!