Copenhagen

Although it may not be Vancouver-related, it is strictly travel related, and so I deemed this trip worthy of a blogpost. I went to Copenhagen!

I visited Copenhagen for 8 days last week. This was the first time I had left Canada since beginning my year abroad in August, and so for the first time I experienced the horrors of jet lag. Arriving in Canada was not so bad on the jet-lag-front, but my god going the other way, back to Europe, was difficult. I landed in Copenhagen at 11am Danish time, which was 2am in Vancouver. I was desperate to sleep but it was only the start of the day. What followed was two days of jet lag, a feeling which I can only compare to a hangover; having a constant feeling of nausea, a head ache, and heavy exhaustion. But two days in I had battled the jet lag and was ready to adventure.

The purpose of the trip was to visit my boyfriend Jamie, who is living in Nørreport and studying at the University of Copenhagen for a year. The highlight of the trip was - unsurprisingly - spending time with him, but Copenhagen as a city is beautiful! It was very exciting and refreshing for me to be back in an old European city. The city is full of historic buildings and cobbled streets, something there is (obviously) a distinct lack of in Canada. I mean, Jamie’s accommodation building is older than Canada itself! I had missed seeing such beautiful and old architecture  - the closest I had come to it in North America was the Parliament building in Victoria which is an imitation renaissance style building and isn’t quite the same.  In harsh comparison, Jamie’s bedroom looks out directly onto the Rosenborg Castle and the Kings Gardens, which is a phenomenal view, especially in the snow. He is lucky to wake up to that site every day.

Besides the beautiful architecture, there were so many other thing I appreciated about being back in Europe. Firstly, drinking. Being able to buy alcohol in the supermarket, rather than in a designated liquor store, was very exciting for me, and alcohol is also so much more affordable than it is in Canada! I had heard that Copenhagen was an incredibly expensive place to live, but after living in Vancouver it really didn’t seem that expensive, and things such as alcohol were definitely cheaper. Plus, we could drink outside again! I now fully appreciate this luxury. There were other great aspects to the city, too. There were bikes everywhere, the food was delicious, and I went on a night out to a bar called Bakken to which the entry was free and the music was far better than any club night I have been to in Vancouver.

But my ramblings about drinking and clubbing aside, what was the city actually like? So as not to roam off track, I thought I would divide this post into the 3 aspects of the trip that I enjoyed the most: biking, Louisiana and the food.

Biking.

As you’ll already know, Copenhagen is renowned for its cycling. There are literally bikes parked everywhere – lining every road and path - and there is just as much biking traffic as there is car traffic. At first, I was a little nervous at the thought of cycling everywhere. My memory from visiting Amsterdam was that the cyclists were crazy, and that there was no way that I, as a tourist, would ever be able to understand the cycling rules. Everyone always says it is the tourists that get into biking accidents, and this was something I had seen in Amsterdam, so I was definitely nervous to cycle in Copenhagen. But when I arrived I realised there is literally no reason to be nervous at all. The cycle lanes are just as wide as the car lines. They even have their own traffic lights! It is incredibly safe and incredibly well supported, and hugely enjoyable! Being able to cycle anywhere within the city is so freeing! I had gotten used to the vastness of Vancouver, where you have to plan a 20-40 minute transit journey to reach anywhere in the city. To be able to cycle between key sites within minutes was so satisfying! You can zip around anywhere without having to pay for public transport.

On my first day, Jamie led me on a cycling tour of the city to help get my bearings. We hit many of the major tourist sites: Kongens Nytorv and NyHavn, Christiania, Christiansborg Palace, Amelienborg Palace and The Little Mermaid statue. Cycling around the city was great fun, albeit freezing, as was seeing the sites Copenhagen is famous for.     

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Visiting Louisiana was definitely a highlight of the trip. It’s located 40 minutes outside of Copenhagen, which I found comical – travelling for 40 minutes in Vancouver would just about get you to the other side of the city, yet here it meant entering a whole new one. The museum is in an amazing location on the sea front. On the particular occasion that we visited, the ocean was frozen, something I had never seen before!

A Sculpture Park surrounds the entire museum, with around 60 sculptures overlooking the sea. You wander around them through cobbled paths and trees, and some are stark and obvious while others require seeking out. Walking physically amongst outdoor artwork is always fun, mad even more so by such a beautiful setting.  At the moment Lousiana also has a Picasso Ceramics Exhibit. This exhibit is fantastic! It is filled with Picasso’s original ceramic work – work I didn’t been know he did until now – and also photography of him completing such work in his Golfe-Juan workshop. I know what you’re thinking – how can plates be interesting? But the art is so endearing; ceramic plates with portrait faces, pot shaped animals, more abstract portrayals of bodies as vases. I love the fact that Picasso became so fixated on this one style of work that he literally moved to the South of France and established his own workshop for years just to pursue it. He tried to produce as many plates as possible under the motto that everyone should be able to own a Picasso. I am not an artist, and while I enjoy looking around the occasional gallery I am far from an expert or an enthusiast, but this was definitely one of the most engaging exhibits I had seen. A similar thing can be said for the Space x Time exhibit. There were so many different aspects to this: dislocating pieces, interactive work, disturbing and confusing videos. Yayoi Kusama’s Gleaming Lights of the Souls was a highlight, featuring a mirrored room with hundreds of lights hanging from the ceiling.

 Overall, the day out to Louisiana was fantastic, with a beautiful location and quirky art in a flawless and sleek building. Eating a packed lunch and enjoying a beer while overlooking the frozen sea wasn’t bad either.

The Food.

We definitely enjoyed some good food during my week in Copenhagen. Here are some of the highlights…

Souls. 

With the catch phrase “Eat Like You Give a Fork”, this was a beautiful vegan restaurant located in Oesterbro. Everything on the menu was vegan, but they still offered burgers, pizza (!), and my personal favourite, huge mixed salad bowls, complete with tofu, sweet potato, hummus and edamame. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere quaint and romantic. A bit more on the expensive side, but probably worth it for the wide variety of choice and atmospheric setting. Also, thank god I have an accommodating boyfriend who doesn’t mind me dragging him to vegan restaurants when I know he would really rather be eating real cheese.

Ramen to Bíiru. 

This was the best Ramen I had ever tasted. After walking around Nørrebro exploring the graffiti art in the rain, we were definitely ready to warm up, and this hit the spot exactly. This Ramen shop is tiny and quirky, with a ticketed ordering system. I enjoyed the spicy veggie ramen, complete with tofu, Portobello mushrooms, spring onions and more, and it honestly was the best ramen I have ever had. I‘d be lying if I said I hadn’t spent many  a moment thinking about this ramen since. If I lived in Copenhagen I would definitely be sneaking back here all the time.  

Onsdag Snegle (Wednesday Snails). 

Okay, these aren’t strictly vegan. I mean, they are not vegan at all. But I broke my diet on this one occasion to try this traditional Danish cinnamon roll, and oh my gosh it was fantastic. We visited Sankt Peders Bageri on Wednesday morning, the oldest bakery in Copenhagen, to try the treat and I really cannot exaggerate how delicious it was. Maybe it was because I haven’t eaten diary, eggs or butter in weeks, but I don’t think so – I think these pastries really are something. We followed the cinnamon rolls up with a visit to Next Door Café – Jamie’s favourite café spot in the city.

And that is everything for you! We got up to a number of other things during the trip too: visiting Frederiksberg, the Carlsberg factory, walking around Nørrebro, visiting the SMK art gallery… But those listed above where my favourite parts of the visit. Of course, food was always going to make it onto the list. But the real highlight was seeing Jamie. Although I adore living in Vancouver, the year abroad is made incredibly hard by being in a long distance relationship, and having such a fun week together was only a harsh reminder of that. But we are on the home stretch now and in just a few months we will both be living on British soil again. For now, I am settling back into university life in Vancouver, and it is good to be back.