Throwback Thursday: Copenhagen

As I was dreaming up the concept for this blog, I realized that there are a few adventures that have fallen through the blogging cracks. I decided that every now and again I will be wracking my brain for details, and posting about a past trip that never got its time in the limelight. First up - Copenhagen!

For my birthday this past year, as a present to myself, I decided to go to Copenhagen for the weekend. Why? Partly because the flight wasn't that expensive, mostly because eating a Danish in Denmark was item #1 on my bucket list - living large, I know.

Before I left, I got some insider tips from a classmate from high school who did a semester abroad, and a year long internship in the city. I figured this would be the best way to get a more "local" experience. Like anyone who's ever fallen in love with an experience abroad, she was eager to help, and had plenty of tips.

My adventure began on my way to the airport. I was the only one on the bus (besides the driver), and all of a sudden we just stopped. Not a scheduled stop. Just randomly stopped. I had no idea what was going on, and a few minutes passed before the driver tells me that the bus is broken... Lovely. Luckily, there was another bus that was just a few minutes behind that one, so I was told just to hop on, and the rest of the trip went smoothly. I got to Copenhagen in the dark, but finding my AirBnB wasn't too tricky, despite the street names being a mile long and impossible to pronounce. I pretty much turned in immediately, gearing up for the next day...

...my birthday!! Now, I'll give you one guess as to what the first thing I did was. Yup. I got me a danish. A cinnamon danish (pictured below) at one of the most famous bakeries in the city, Sankt Peders Bageri. It was amazing, and the perfect breakfast to celebrate another turn around the sun.

Then I was off to a boat tour. Now, after having spent over a year in the Netherlands, I couldn't see what'd be so great about a canal tour, but it was recommended, so I figured I might as well (plus, it'd cut down on the required amount of walking). I was all geared up to take a bunch of pictures, but pretty much right after I started snapping away, my battery died. So much for charging it up before hand. I was still able to take pictures with my phone, but the quality is not what I'd like, so my apologies there. Anywho, the boat tour was lovely, cold, windy, slightly rainy, but lovely. I got to learn a bit about the city, and see things, like the Little Mermaid statue, that were a bit removed from the center of the city. Looking back at my pictures, I can't even remember the proper name of everything, but of course I'm still going to share them, otherwise what's the point.

After the boat tour, I was freezing cold. I had to go into a cafe and a few shops to warm up before the free walking tour I planned on going on. Now, this walking tour, it was pretty good and the guide had some nice factoids about the city, but the fact that it was unbelievably windy, cold, and hours long did not fare well for me. By the end of it all I wanted to do was curl up in a little ball and never emerge from the warmth. Which is pretty much what I did in the end. I finished out the day with some birthday cake while skyping mi madre. 

Obligatory shot of Nyhavn

Opera house

Amalienborg from the water

Amalienborg from the inside

International market! Can't escape the Dutchness!!

The next day began at another bakery, because of course it did. Set back a bit from the road, but cozy and delicious nonetheless. Just thinking about all these pastries is making me hungry... anyway. This is where my memory gets really fuzzy - I'm working off the order of my pictures here. I climbed to the top of the tower of, I wanna say the Parliament building? All I'm certain of was that it was again ridiculous windy. I meandered my way to the cemetery where Hans Christian Andersen is buried, and got to see some tiny hipster shops on the way! On the way back "home," I stopped at a market and got the most decked out bowl of oatmeal imaginable - apple, caramel, and almonds. It was exactly what my cold toes needed.

I'd like to think this is called "What the f did you do now?"

Spotted: piece of MI in CPH!

My last day began with the crown jewel of pastries - a true American-style Danish! You know the one with jam in the middle? I had finally found one! It was surprisingly a lot more difficult that I had expected. No matter, bucket list item crossed off! At this point in my trip, I wasn't really quite sure what I had left to see. I figured I'd just walk in a different part of the city than I had been through. I managed to find a castle and its surrounding gardens. Then I trekked over to another market and got an incredible meal of vegetarian Colombian food, who knew? I also found the small enclave within the city that pretty much just abides by its own laws. I don't have any pictures of it, because I was warned that if anyone saw you taking them, they'd take your camera/phone, or delete them or something in a similar vein that I just generally wanted to avoid. Basically, the people in the main street don't want to be identified, because they don't want to get arrested. It was an interesting place. I think I was there for about 10 minutes. Then I had to make my way back to good ol' Nederland. 

Wow. That's a lot more than I thought I'd remember. The city itself was nice. There were a a lot of similarities between Copenhagen and the Netherlands - for me, it didn't really seem like I was in a very different place. But overall, it was a nice birthday weekend, and I'd recommend the city to anyone who's thinking about it. 

Let me know if you want more of these haphazard posts from memory! Or if there's anything else you want to know/read. The point of this is to keep friends/family updated, but to do that I need to know what you want to know about!