Copenhagen (Denmark) - Feb 2019

This was a work trip otherwise visiting any place that high up close to the arctic in winters wasn't something on the plan. I took a day out to see the city of Copenhagen. I was 3 hrs away from the city and took the train to get there. I arrived at the central train station in the evening and by the time I got there it was already dark. Not seeing the sunlight for a full week wasn't nice at all. I had decided to take the bus from the station to the hotel but then I figured that you need cash to buy tickets in the bus. So I took a taxi (taxa they write!).  It was expensive and on top of that the driver who did not know english used my phone to navigate. It was only 2.5 km from the station and I would have definitely just walked there if I arrived before dark. I was trying to guess the driver's language but I wasn't sure. I think he was from Norway (ok a random assumption after thinking that his language didn't sound like swedish or danish so must be the other scandinavian).

After reaching the hotel, I put my stuff there in the smallest hotel room I have ever stayed in and then went out to get dinner. The hotel receptionist told there is an Indian (it was Pakistani actually) restaurant nearby but I decided to skip Indian food as I had a pretty bad experience in this region as they seem to eat more than usual salt in their food in the scandinavian region.  I was staying a few min walk away from Nyhavn area so there were a lot of restaurants around. I went to the nearest thai place as I had heard that thai or persian may be a better option in this region. It wasn't wrong! Food was great (and expensive!). After that I took a walk around Nyhavn and to the Magasin Du Nord department store and came back. It was so cold!

I decided to be out whole day next day and slept well. Next day, I packed myself in a few layers and head out in the cold and rain. I realized I didn't have an umbrella so I went to the store at the corner of the street to buy an umbrella. The danish old man in the shop was friendly and funny. I asked him how much the umbrella is for and he said 60 if its not raining and 80 if it is! (with a smile on his face). I said its not raining so just give me for 60 DKK. Then we had a chat, he asked me if I am from India or Pakistan. I asked him how long he had been living there and he started telling me more about what all to see in the city. I head out from there and walked to the car free walking/shopping street (Stroget). It was lovely to walk there with no pedestrian traffic in the morning as the stores were closed. 

The shopping street ends at the City hall. I had planned to take a walking tour from city hall at 11am but on my way there I noticed there is another tour at 10am. I was there at the city hall by 9:30am. I spent some time (and $$) in a souvenir store right at the end of the Stroget and then head to the tour. There were 2 separate tours - one in spanish and one in english. There were more people in the spanish tour!. While I was waiting for the tour to get started, a young female asked me where I am visiting from. She was visiting from London. We tagged along with each other through out the day from there. 

We head to one of the oldest street in Copenhagen - Magstræde. The tour guide was telling her 7 reasons why danish people are among the happiest in the world (some of them I believe do contribute to happiness). One of them was bikes (cycle) and how danish people ride bikes more than other modes of transport. Each danish person has probably 2 bikes - one for winter and one for summer. Even in that cold, they were going all around the city in bikes. I loved the picture below in an old street there. It was interesting to find a yoga studio in this old street.

From there we came to the Højbro Plads (High bridge square). On the other side of the canal we could see the Christianborg Palace.

We walked through the streets towards Kongens Nytorv (King's New Square). It's a public square from where the Stroget shopping street starts. There is Royal Danish Theater on one side, the Magasin Du Nord departmental store and the Hotel D'Angleterre on the other. This Hotel is one of the first luxury hotels in the world. Our guide told that its expensive to stay there and I just checked the room price which is around $800, more if you include a horse carriage ride!. We took a short break here for coffee. I decided to skip the long line at the Espresso House for coffee and go to another small place. I asked the guy at this place about any souvenir or general stores nearby where I could buy gloves. My hands were literally throwing out all my body heat and it was getting a bit tough. He suggested a few names which I didn't register in my brain and then he took out a pair of gloves from a shelf behind and said take these. I liked his generosity but I decided not to take his offer. I took the hot chocolate and came back.  

From there we walked towards Nyhavn. The building colors looked better in the afternoon even though it was raining whole day. We crossed the Nyhavn bridge and went towards the Kissing bridge. Its called kissing bridge as the bridge opens by pushing back its two sides inside instead of opening up. So when the bridge closes back, the two sides kiss each other.

After that we walked towards the Queens palace - Amalienborg Palace: home of the danish royal family. Royal family bought this after the Christianborg palace was burned down in their 1795 fire.  We passed through the Opera house in between.

At the palace, we just made in time to see the guard changing ceremony. It seems they change every two hours and the ceremony at 12pm is a big one every day. We saw the ceremony and heard a little about the queen and her sons. It seems she married someone from France and the king was very vocal and blunt and won't fail to tell the people of Copenhagen how Danish language is complicated. I totally agree with him as the pronunciation is usually different from how its written. I loved the way they say hello - 'hi' but not like typical american 'hiii'. Its just a quick 'hi'. To say goodbye they say 'hi hi'. 'Thanks' is 'tak' and 'and' is 'og' (pronounced only o - sounds close enough to hindi 'and'). 

Our tour ended at the church near the palace. 

After the tour we walked to the famous statue of little mermaid. It is based on the fairy tale of the same name by the author Hans Christian Andersen. I have definitely read some of his stories as a kid but forgot everything now - 'The Ugly Duckling', 'The Nightangle', 'The Emperor's New Clothes'.
This was the last attraction on this side of the city. It was nice to finally see some sunshine after a week.

After this we decided to go find some lunch and then head to another walking tour showing the alternate side of Copenhagen. I finally found a souvenir shop to buy gloves. Huge relief. I also planned to go to my hotel room and add a few more layers on to me to protect from cold. Three weren't enough for me. We found a Thai place on the way and ate there. It was good. After packing myself more we literally had 20 minutes left to get to the city hall for the second tour so we brisk walked through the shopping street.

The second tour was an interesting one showing the other side of the city - the red light district, societal issues and the freetown of Christiania. I liked the morning tour more as I was just so cold in the evening and the places weren't something I was really interested in exploring much. Later in the evening we spent some time in the Magasin Du Nord store to find some souvenir chocolates and then had dinner at the same thai place where I had previous night. My tour friend had to walk back to her hostel in the night while my hotel was just a few minutes walk from the restaurant.

I bought these cookies and they remind me of some childhood memories. We had a similar box which we later used as the container for the needles and threads. We don't recognize these boxes as cookies anymore, but they are 'sui-dhage ka dabba' for us :) Next day, I took the flight back to San Francisco.

Until next time.....