Copenhagen

Several months ago, while stuck in Christchurch dreaming of places far, far away, I bought a bunch of Lonely Planet’s to aid in the inspiration process.  Once of them was for Copenhagen, for no particular reason other than that I’d talked about going somewhere in Scandinavia for ages and Denmark seemed to get rave reviews from anyone that had ever been there.  Long story short, that’s how Dean and I ended up on Easyjet flight 3465 from Stansted on Friday afternoon.

Amazingly for a budget UK airline, the plane left on time and without hassle (although they did change the departure gate three times…).  Passport control and baggage collection was a doddle, figuring out the train to the city was a no brainer, and even humping the packs to the hostel was simplicity itself.  Pretty much a description of Copenhagen itself really – everything just works.  Very Nordic, I guess, but it’s hard not to like a place where style and efficiency seem to be the number one priority.

Of course, like the rest of Scandinavia, the good things about Denmark come at a price – it’s bloody expensive here.  As we discovered when we ordered our first 50 kroner (~$15 NZD) pint.  Oh well, we’re only here for a few days, so it’s hardly the end of the world.  Anyway, back to the story – we checked in and were very impressed with the hostel – it’s new and huge, and very clean – we were in a six bed dorm on the seventh floor, with views over the canal and city.  Every dorm had it’s own ensuite bathroom, there was a great buffet breakfast on offer every morning (and dinner available every night), and even a bar onsite.  Gotta love it.  We went exploring along Stoget, a kilometre long pedestrianised area full of shops, cafes and street entertainment, before tracking down the liveliest bar we could find, full of the beautiful people.  Which there’s no shortage of in Copenhagen, I have to say.  I’m amazed there aren’t more traffic accidents around here, put it that way.  Who knows, perhaps there are in summer – it’s getting colder now so a few more clothes are required.  After the aforementioned 50 kroner beers, we decided to find somewhere a little cheaper, and came across a place that was equally full, but with 20 kroner happy hour drinks (which ran for several hours, apparently), it was a little friendlier to the backpacker budget…

Waking up the next morning feeling suitably bright and breezy (ahem), we picked a few spots on the map and made up our own walking tour of Copenhagen.  First up was Christianshavn, an area that reminded me a lot of Amsterdam with its canals and cafes.  A large section of this part of town is Christiania, a 41 hectare abandoned military base that was taken over by squatters in 1971 and declared a ‘free state’ with to its own laws.  After several battles with police the community of around 1000 people was allowed to carry on as a social experiment, with its own collective businesses etc – not to mention rampant drug use and other activities that the police weren’t so keen on.  It was an interesting place to wander round – still very hippie in flavour and inhabitants, with lots of small stalls selling everything from t-shirts to jewellery to hash pipes.

Next on the wandering trail was a stroll back towards the central city, through the Latin Quarter and Kings Gate park, as far as the man-made lake before turning towards to Kastellet, a well preserved military fortress (complete with moat, of course) that contains one of the few remaining sections of the original city ramparts.  Nearby was Copenhagen’s most famous (and most underwhelming) tourist attraction, the statue of The Little Mermaid.  We stayed there for all of 30 seconds, enough time to dodge the tour buses and take a couple of photos.  Although Dean refused to get his camera out in some sort of mute protest about being dragged there to check out a dodgy statue.  At least it was free, I guess.  The weather had been pretty changeable all day, but the sun came out for long enough on our return walk to the hostel that we stopped for a few minutes beside the Nyhavn canal to enjoy the warmth on our backs and watch the crowds enjoying food & drinks in the sidewalk cafes.  Back to the hostel, had some dinner and out again for beers – although not so many as the night before, thankfully.  We even had the pleasure of enduring one of the worst ‘musicians’ I’ve ever seen performing, at a nearby pub – there certainly weren’t any well known songs from the 60s and 70s that he couldn’t destroy…

Less walking the next day – only as far as the Danish Design Centre in fact, which was conveniently located just down the road from the hostel.  The Danes are renowned for great yet practical design, and there were some awesome bits and pieces there, ranging  from mini bbq’s for apartment dwellers, to foldaway bicycles, to a multi-purpose chair / stool / futon / storage box / kitchen sink / rocket ship.  Ok, I may have made the last couple of uses up, but it certainly did the rest, and then folded up into a tiny cube when not in use.  And the place did good coffee and reputedly the best ice-cream in the world (according to Dean).  A great way to spend an hour or two.  Back to the hostel for some general chilling time – it’d been a while – then out wandering the streets again to find some dinner.  Ended up getting dinner from a great – and cheap – Thai takeaway place, which we enjoyed sitting beside the Nyhavn canal with a can of cold Carlsberg.  And that was pretty much the day, in a nutshell.  Next day we’d planned to go on the Carlsberg brewery tour – but, of course, it was closed on Mondays.  Fortunately we found that out before leaving the hostel rather than when standing in front of the locked gates.  Plan B kicked in – dropping off the bags at left luggage and then spending a few hours in one of the public libraries.  In typically Danish fashion it’ was very stylish and civilised, with copies of several European newspapers and magazines available to all, a couple of free internet terminals, and a couple of very large reading rooms.  Not to mention a cafe in the foyer that sold excellent coffee.  I don’t remember the last time I sat down and read the weekend edition of a newspaper cover to cover, especially the Times, but (in between checking out the ’scenery’) that’s exactly what I did.  The weather was pretty average so it was probably the best way to spend the afternoon.  Took the train back to the airport mid afternoon, had the obligatory hour delay in departing, got out of Gatwick around 7.30 and was at Bec and Craig’s place in Harrow by 9pm.  All good!