Oct. 12-15, 2017
Copenhagen was my first big trip in Europe, I decided to go impulsively but had the best time. I still think Copenhagen is my favorite city, even after all the other places I’ve been, though I did like all the cities in different ways. The first weekend I had free after arriving in Spain I wanted to go somewhere so I messaged in the group chat I had with my study abroad group to see if anyone wanted to go somewhere with me. The first person to respond was Hannah, I messaged her and we quickly decided to look at flight prices to a variety of places and pick the cheapest flight. We ended up choosing Copenhagen and I am so glad we did.
Thurs. 12 Oct
We headed to the Malaga airport on Wednesday night, we slept that night in the airport until our 6 am flight to Copenhagen. The airport was not the most comfortable place to sleep and we didn’t get much sleep but the flight was only a few hours and it was easy to get by train to the city from the airport. We got off the train in the city center and Nyhavn, we picked a restaurant on the canal and ate some breakfast/lunch (its was about 11 am but we hadn’t eaten much in the airport). After eating we went to check into our hostel, we stayed at the Generator in an all girls room, the hostel was very nice and close to everything we wanted to see. We went to a museum on the canal as our first stop (Kunsthal Charlottenborg), only to learn that Yoko Ono had an exhibition opening that night so we decided we would check out another museum and come back for the opening later on. We went to the Natural History Museum, it was very interesting and we learned a lot about history and other things related to Denmark. After the museum we walked through the King’s Garden, saw the Rosenburg castle but didn’t go in. Then we wandered around the city a bit, talking pictures on the canal, checking out some cute shops and eventually ended back up at the museum with Yoko Ono’s exhibition. It was very cool, it centered on a world peace theme, we got free wine along with the free entry, a danish singer was performing and there was an speech but it was all in Danish so we didn’t understand much. The exhibit itself was very cool and it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip. After the exhibit we went to paper island, an old newspaper warehouse turned into great place with food carts, all selling different food from around the world. The food was really good, and although it was pretty crowded we managed to get a seat and listen to some of the live music. We walked along the canal and back to our hostel, opting for sleep rather than going out.
Friday 13 Oct.
We woke up pretty early the next day and asked the hostel for breakfast place recommendations. They suggested a porridge restaurant not too far away so we decided to head there. I got a bowl of acai porridge and it was delicious, after breakfast we went to one of the main squares for a free walking tour. The tour guide was really funny and knew a lot of history, it was a really great way to learn about the city and since it was my first trip and first free walking tour it started my tradition of doing a walking tour in most every city I visited. The tour was a few hours and took us all around the city, to the palace, town hall, some important statues and the canal. After the tour, which ended near Frederik’s Church and Amalienborg, where the queen and royal family lives. We walked from there to the little mermaid statue, which is dubbed one of the most underwhelming statues in the world, it was pretty underwhelming but it is still interesting. The statue has been blown up, had its head chopped off, arm chopped off, been painted red and had a dildo glued to her. We took some pictures with the statue before going to a few museums, we stopped at the castle first, it was incredible and beautiful, then we went to one of the classical art museums and finally a modern art museum which crazy enough had an exhibition opening (just like the first museum we went to) they gave out free wine, beer and drinks and the museum had free admission. The new exhibit was called “A Real Danish Family”, it was really one of my favorite museums and favorite exhibit, they had interviewed hundreds of Danish families, ultimately choosing one they believed represented the Danish lifestyle and society. The family they picked was a women who migrated from Latin America and a Danish man who had their first child before getting married. It was an interesting choice but really important in today’s society and the museum put a statue of the family outside. We saw the rest of the museum with various modern and classical art exhibits. After the museum we walked back to the main part of the city, through the shopping district and to a small market. We wandered around the market, before deciding to head to Tivoli, the amusement park in the city. It had just reopened for Halloween and was decorated with Halloween decorations everywhere, we had dinner there and wandered around the park, there are some art shops and cute cafes scattered about, we took pictures and looked around but we didn’t ride any rides, mainly because they were expensive. The park was very cool and I would love to go back and ride some of the rides and see more of the park some time. After a while we went back to the hotel, there was a cultural event in the city with various activities and events going on, we stopped by a random concert on the way back to the hotel and saw a few booths with cultural information.
Sat 14 Oct.
Our last day in Copenhagen we got up at a decent hour, ate a good breakfast at the hostel (it wasn’t included in our stay but wasn’t badly priced), we locked up our bags at the hostel and checked out then headed to the Church of Our Saviour. Our free walking tour guide and the hostel had recommended going to the Church because you can pay a few euros and climb the tower to the top, it has a great view over all of Copenhagen. The church and the tower are very cool from a distance and the view was amazing, I love lookout points and high places and this one was definitely not one to miss. After the Church we headed to Freetown Christiania which is actually another country inside of Copenhagen, they have their own government, education, businesses and public services but what makes them really unique is the area where they sell marijuana, its called pusher street and no photos are allowed. There are various stalls set up on this one street, everyone just sells their own marijuana for purchase, it is of course not recommended to take outside of Christiania as it is illegal in Denmark. Everyone was very nice and welcoming to visitors, they have coffee shops and art galleries, an all women’s blacksmith and various other stores. The area was originally army barracks taken over by the homeless and turned into its own community. I really liked the colors and art in Christiania. After wandering around there for a bit we headed back to the main area of town and Nyhavn, we stopped at paper island again for a delicious lunch, this time I got pasta that was freshly made right in front of you, absolutely amazing! Then we walked the canal again, took a quick canal boat tour, it wasn’t very exciting but we got to see all the things we had seen walking from a different point of view which was kinda cool. After the boat tour we went to a 7-11 and got food and beers, it sounds super weird to me as an American but 7-11 is one of the best places to by pastries and snacks in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries according to my friends from there. We got some random desserts that I couldn’t tell you the names off, all recommended to us by the person working there and we also got some Carlsberg beer, the beer made in Copenhagen. Carlsberg is pretty cool because the original owner and creator of Carlsberg helped fund and develop a lot of the city, he is actually the one who commissioned the Little Mermaid statue! After our snacks we had to head to the airport, we got our bags from the hostel then took the train to the airport, we had a fairly late flight and a layover in Oslo, Norway. We slept the night in Oslo and our flight to Malaga was early Sunday morning, once in Malaga it was a bus back to Granada and a successful first trip.
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