København: "Scandinavia? I thought we were in Denmark!?"

I think I just had the most perfect weekend trip ever. Elise and I booked our flight to Copenhagen months ago, before we even went on our ten day break, and the weekend ended up being spectacular!

We left Vienna's 60 degree F heat (a bit strange for November 8, but we weren't complaining!) for frigid Scandinavia. This being my second time in Scandinavia this semester, I was once again struck with how the country looked like a world from the future. Everything in the airport was clean and streamlined and looked so futuristic with all the sleek silver metal. Everything just runs so efficiently.

Anyway, Elise and I had flown over to Denmark with our friend, Lizzie, who was on the same flight as us, and we made our way to the central station from the airport. When we got out of the impeccable metro, we wandered around the station in the cold night air, passing tons of bikes stacked up on racks, while we tried to find our hostel. We ended up having to call our other friend, Patrick, who was already at the hostel.

It was quite a relief when we made it to the warm, hipster hostel. Elise and I went to reception to check in, where we found out that we were in the wrong hostel. Why would you have two hostels with the same name in the same city in the same area? That was so dumb...so we bid farewell to Lizzie and Patrick, who were definitely in the right hostel, and walked about 15 minutes to the edge of the old city of Copenhagen to the largest hostel in Europe, Danhostel Copenhagen.

Our room was a six person, mixed dorm (my first time ever), and we met two Norwegian guys and girl in our room as we made our beds up with linens. They were friendly, but barely spoke English. We soon left to explore Copenhagen at night. We didn't walk through the main historic part of town, but rather away from there and through the modern part. Here are some photos of the Tivoli area and modern buildings we saw:

Elise in front of Tivoli park. Look at all the bikes!

Entrance to Tivoli

From the streets of Copenhagen

We walked for quite a while in the chilly night air and when we finally arrived at the hostel, we collapsed onto our sofa-like beds and passed out until the next morning.

At 10am, we walked to the hostel we were rejected from last night and met up with Lizzie, Patrick, and Aneyn and Christianne, all IES friends who happened to be in Copenhagen the same weekend as us! We all went for a Danish pastry at a wonderful cafe on the main shopping street, Strøget. I have no idea what this "Danish specialty" pastry at Lagkagehuset was, but it was absolutely heavenly! It was gone all too quickly...

The pastry shop!

Pastries

The Danish pastry I ate in .7 seconds (jk but really, it was fantastic!)

After we were well fed on coffee and pastries, we followed Patrick, who had a mapped out walking route for us to see everything in Copenhagen. I happily followed, because I'm getting a bit tired of planning and being in charge of the trip. I was very excited that someone else was doing the work this time! And Patrick got us to everything of importance. Here are the pictures from our day tour:

Strøget

A view down the canal

Square in Copenhagen

The roomies at Nyhavn Port in Copenhagen!

Nyhavn is the oldest port in Copenhagen

Christianne, Lizzie, Aneyn, me, and Elise

Sorry I'm obsessed with how beautiful Nyhavn is!

Frederick's Church

Fountain

The Little Mermaid Statue -- Copenhagen's city symbol (a lengthy trek out to the place and not as cool as you'd hope for it to be)

Amalienborg Palace Squre

Changing of the guards

National Gallery of Denmark

      

Above: two of my favorite art displays (sculptures) from the National Gallery

After our tour of the National Gallery of Denmark, we were all a bit peckish. Patrick's Norwegian friend who goes to University in Copenhagen had joined us at the museum, and so she took us to a restaurant called Phønix for a late lunch. Elise and I, being very economically conscious and not incredibly hungry, decided to share a plate of grilled chicken. Good thing we did, because the portion was enormous! The two of us slowly worked our way through grilled chicken, hummus, salad, and fresh-baked bread. I only mention this is such detail because it was so delicious and needed to be mentioned. If I ever happen to return to the Cope, I have to remember to eat here!

Despite having just eaten at Phoønix, we went straight to the hostel bar and settled down for warm drinks and good conversation. It was too cold and windy and pitch black by 5pm to explore outside, so sitting in the warm, comfortable hostel was quite fun. I had a hot chocolate and a wonderful time talking with Aneyn, Christianne, Elise, and Patrick. We don't normally get to hang out with them because we live so far away, so this was a lot of fun!

The next morning, after a quick chocolate chip scone from a new bakery off Strøget, we made our way back to the beautiful Nyhavn port to take a canal tour around Copenhagen. Anna and Eddye, who came to Copenhagen a few weeks ago, said that the canal tour was their favorite part of Copenhagen. We paid our 40 koruna and settled down on the low river boat, freezing next to the open windows. The tour was quite good and we were able to see a lot of Copenhagen. It was a bit of a shame that it was raining slightly, on and off, and that it was so ridiculously cold, but we got to see new areas like Christianshavn, Fredericksberg, and Østerbro. Those areas had a few cool attractions, such as the Copenhagen spire, the most expensive canal apartments, and the opera house.

Aaaaand back at Nyhavn...

View down Nyhavn port from the boat

A house boat made of the wood of just one tree!

On our boat tour

Copenhagen spire

After the canal tour, we were all so frozen that we popped into the nearest pub and settled down for a warm drink. We were doing a lot of sitting and eating and drinking, but I was definitely not complaining. It was just too cold outside! Plus, the company was good, so I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing in the Nyhavn bar we had found. Lizzie, Patrick, and Aneyn got Glühwein (that warm winter wine), while Elise, Christianne, and I had hot chocolates. We made our drinks last as long as we could so we could put off going out in the cold again.

We headed back to Strøget and I spotted a Topshop. There aren't any in Vienna, and Elise has never been (plus I love Topshop!), so we went inside to look around. For once, I really lucked out and treated myself to a colorful maxi dress I found on sale. I can't wait to wear it in the spring and summer! After spending quite a bit of time in there, us girls reunited with Patrick, and we wandered down the street, popping into the numerous chocolate shops and cute cafes. I wasn't hungry, but everyone else was, so they grabbed a kebab sandwich and ate quickly. Patrick, Lizzie, Christianne, and Aneyn set off for the Statue Museum while Elise and I were content to just relax and wander the street a bit more. I'm a bit tired of trying to cram everything in, so I just decided to soak in the ambiance of the city a bit more.

We came across a churro stand that smelled so irresistible that we couldn't just leave. My dark chocolate churros were incredible!

Dark chocolate drizzled churros!

Unfortunately (well, probably very fortunately), we saw La Glace pastry and confectionary shop. The desserts were all so inviting...

Elise planning what wedding cake she will be getting

Elise's dessert 1 of 2. They were just to delectable to resist!

Our afternoon had been absolutely perfect, even as we frantically ran to find postcards that weren't overpriced and then sprint back to the hostel to collect our bags before getting to the airport for our flight home. Elise and I had such an amazing time exploring the city of Copenhagen with Patrick, Aneyn, Lizzie, and Christianne, and I had enjoyed my second trip in Scandinavia (it was quite a bit more relaxing than my first...!)

A busking band playing the main square under the moon