Eating, drinking, and walking in Copenhagen

This past weekend I ventured out of London for the first time since I got here with a completely random and last-minute trip to Copenhagen (loving this aspect of living in Europe). So my friend and I met up in Copenhagen because I've heard it's a really cool place and it certainly lived up to my expectations. It's a really beautiful city, but there's also an edginess and a hipness to it--some parts are a little dirty and there's a good deal of graffiti around, but it's still a pretty charming place. I really loved the area called Nyhavn, which is basically a little canal with brightly colored buildings on either side and lots of beautiful wooden sailboats. There were tons of cool restaurants down there and one of my absolute favorite things was all the outdoor seating at the restaurants with old-fashioned lanterns on all the tables and, because it was pretty freaking cold already in early November, blankets on all the chairs. So freaking quaint. Our first night in Copenhagen we stopped at one of the restaurants and had some glogg, aka absolutely delicious hot spiced wine with raisins and almonds. Perfect for a cold night on the water. We also ate dinner at another restaurant the next night where I had an amazing dish of deer, roasted chestnuts, an apple sauce, juniper berries, and Brussels sprouts. Basically, a dream come true for someone who is obsessed with seasonal and regional food.

We also took a jaunt (really a two-hour walking adventure) over to Christiania which is an independent area of Copenhagen with its own governing system (Wikipedia it). Basically, it's a hippie commune walled off from the rest of city where pot is legal (or at least not illegal) and readily available at wooden stalls and people just hang out and smoke. We didn't partake, but it's a really cool place to visit just to see all the crazy art on the buildings and the characters who inhabit the place. It's strange (and kind of cool) to think that a place like that can exist in a modern city today.

Another highlight was a bar we went to called Karriere in the area of Vesterbro, which is basically the hipster part of town. I felt that I was altogether not cool enough to be there, but I tried to blend in, something that became difficult when my dear friend asked a typically model-handsome Dane to take a picture with her (seriously, so many of the people in Copenhagen are just really incredibly good-looking). In any case we had a great time and the drinks were really interesting and, of course, delicious. One of my favorites had rum, orgeat syrup, a bit of absinthe, and elderberry something or other. There was another one I enjoyed that had bourbon and blood orange and chocolate flavors. Unbelievable. However, the most hipster thing about this place (other than the fact that it used to be a meatpacking plant or something) was the bathroom setup: they have about 25 doors in this hallway where one leads to another and only a few of them are actually bathrooms. Quite the adventure.

Now, this post is getting quite long, but I just have one more cool story from Copenhagen. On my last day I basically just wandered the city and after visiting a cool palace and gardens I meandered over to the Norrebro area. I saw a big cemetery and it seemed like a lot of people were strolling through it so I decided to do the same. Then I discovered that it was where Hans Christian Andersen is buried. Who knew? So that was a pretty cool accidental discovery for me.

All in all, Copenhagen comes highly recommended from me. The pastries alone were enough for me.