Coping in Copenhagen..

Coping in Copenhagen... (2nd December 2008)

The key to happiness in Copenhagen at winter time is to dress right. By local standards that means shiny calf length boots of any variety (think gold, bronze, silver, pewter, silver etc...), a warm jacket, Santa Clause hat and perhaps, if you are feeling weak, some gloves. By our standards, however, it means puffed up warm as warm down jacket, waterproofs, snood, hat, gloves, layers, warms socks and plenty of cuddles whilst walking! And walk we did. After our first evening in Copenhagen which saw us taking in the Christmas market in the main square, including random rap-slash-pop act as well as an expensive Mexican meal (start as we don’t mean to go on) we woke up to a wet, windy and bitterly cold day. We started happily with a lovely shower before checking out of the youth hostel, going back up to get all the sheets and towels we were meant to bring down with us, leaving, coming back to retrieve the camera we forgot and heading to the internet cafe to get a few admin things done we should have sorted weeks ago. Admin done and cockles warmed by delicious hot chocolate we headed off for a full afternoon’s walking, following the red dots of our map to take in all that Copenhagen has to offer.

Our route took us through some gorgeous back streets with unique curio shops and past some of the most stunning architectural delights including, cathedrals; town halls; theatres; museums; galleries; 17th century navel houses; the royal residences and much more. We walked along Europe’s longest shopping street (one to come back to with a few more pennies in our pockets) and meandered along the gorgeous Nyhavn, a delightful area with a canal that leads to the water’s edge. The canal is dotted with stunning traditional boats and the pretty tree lined streets have beautiful pastel coloured and perfectly formed buildings from start to finish. Just before you reach Nyhavn there was the loveliest seasonal ice skating rink I have ever seen. Going around in one big circle with trees decorated with pretty icicle lights, the rink was full of kids and adults alike enjoying the fresh and breezy air. From Nyhavn we walked north of the city to the military fort, which was home to a gorgeous parkland, perfect for strolling through, if it wasn’t quite so cold and wet! Then it was on to another park, this time King’s Park, but not before stopping in a delicious organic cafe to savour a scrumptious pizza and the best hot chocolate ever. Kings Park is perfectly pretty, with it’s own castle and symmetrical boulevards and after we left it we found ourselves heading back towards the city centre on the hunt for postcards and stamps, dodging the abundance of bikes as we went. Copenhagen is truly a cyclist’s city, whatever the weather and you can even pick yourself up a specially sized baseball cap or summer hat to fit over your bike helmet.

We then thought we might like to readdress this quirky area we stumbled across yesterday, by quirky I mean edgy and by edgy I mean slightly unsafe! Well no, that’s not true, there was one somewhat dodgy area but we had liked the streets around it and Stuart had read about the cool meatpacking district that was close by so we went on the hunt for this happening hood. The district was in fact totally “us” and, even though it was dark and cold and the wrong time of day to see it at its best we got a great feel for the area and inevitably looked in the odd estate agent’s window! We found this super local little eatery where all the meat packers turned to stare as you walked in before going back to their dice games and bottles of beer. The food was hearty and cheap and as much as we had loved our day we had just got toasty and didn’t really fancy going back outside. But this was no time to be weak, in just a few days we will find ourselves in Russia and that’s when we will know what cold really means. So with all my three hoods back on we walked back to the hostel, passing lit up Tivoli Gardens for the penultimate time of the day. Back at the Y, where we find ourselves now, we get ready for our overnight train (sans beds) to Stockholm, where we look forward to tucking into a hotdog or two.