Lauren and I arrived to the Copenhagen airport on Thursday evening
with not a krone in hand or a word in Danish to work with. In an attempt to find the M2 (Metro line), we got on an S-train that would have taken us halfway across Denmark.
Enter: Good-looking, middle-aged, perfect English-speaking Danish man.
Timidly, Lauren and I asked the man across the aisle if he knew if the train went to Nørreport, the Metro stop closest to our airbnb. He said it didn’t, that we had to get off the train and switch to another train. He told us that the stop was coming up and then chatted with us by the door as we waited to arrive at the station. After we all got off the train, Lauren and I paused while we caught our bearings; he walked away and then promptly returned, telling us he was going the same way. We hurried along with him as he suggested that we smoke some pot while we were in the city (Mom and Dad, don’t worry; we didn’t follow his suggestion.) and that we check out the Louisana, a world class modern art museum. Shortly after getting on the metro,
Lauren and I arrived at our final stop; we said goodbye to our Danish metro guardian angel and commented to each other on the quite positive first impression we had gotten from the Danish people.
Upon exiting the metro station, Lauren and I dodged a number of bikes, quickly realizing that our confusion was causing a disturbance to the well-orchestrated bike traffic flow. We moved to the side of the road, searched for street signs and when we struggled to see them over the construction of the square, we entered a pharmacy to ask for help.
Enter: Young, hip, perfect English-speaking Danish girl.
We struggled through a pronunciation of the street name and she nodded immediately, somehow understanding our shattered (more intense than broken) Danish. We were only a street or two off, so we left in full confidence of our direction.
However, our confidence didn’t last for long since we didn’t know which of my directions referred to street names and which referred to building names. We were supposed to walk 5 minutes after crossing the bridge but when we walked 10, we knew we had gone too far. We stopped, trying to look at Lauren’s TripAdvisor map through all of the “Points of Interest” (not interesting at the moment, but it worked without data or wifi, so we were thankful), when…
Enter: Mid-30s Danish couple returning to their home with groceries.
The couple had passed us on the corner but after a few paces, they turned around, walked back, and asked us: “Do you need help? Are you lost?” Why yes, in fact we were! We showed them our directions and they chattered away in Danish, talking about a bar that was on the corner of our destination street. They pointed us in the right direction, and once again we wandered off in hopes of success.
When we got to the plaza near our house, we searched for someone to ask, since the couple had suggested we do so when we got closer. I popped my head into the closest kebab, where a number of young men were waiting for a late-night snack or meal. I shyly asked the person closest to me, in English, if he knew where the street I was looking for was, and the storefront quickly became a buzz of discussion. One of the guys explained to me where it was while a number of others caught my eye and pointed in the proper direction.
Enter: Amber and Lauren to the apartment.
FINALLY. It takes a village (of very nice Danish people).
This not-so-short anecdote is just a small snippet of how kind and helpful all of the Danish people we met were. Honestly, the whole weekend was incredible. The euro to krone conversion definitely did not work in our favor, but even as we were shelling out 25€ for lunch, we were completely enchanted. The brisk air was constantly balanced by the warm sun, reminding us of the mythical perfect Michigan spring day and providing a constant comfort as we meandered through the city. We were amazed at the abundance of high-quality activities that we could partake in in the city, and we contentedly settled on doing just half of them since we both vowed to return. For the first time in my life I visited a city that I wanted to live in forever… we had to push ourselves not to “miss” our flights back to Madrid.
But before I make you all want to book the next flight out to Copenhagen, let me tell you about a few of the experiences that made our trip such a hit…
After arriving at the airbnb, we headed out for dinner at Nørrebro Bryghus (the neighborhood's brewery) across the street. Our waiter sat us down and handed us menus to "look over", which was literally all we could do. Look over, not read. Having already established with the waiter that we didn’t speak Danish, we figured that if he gave us Danish menus, it was because they didn’t have English menus. So, we struggled through a few of the descriptions, identifying a few words and figuring we would just ask him for suggestions when he came back.
Tall, blonde, attractive, perfect English-speaking waiter: Did you get a chance to look over the menu?
Amber: Welllllll, we don’t speak Danish.
Waiter: Yes, but did you get a chance to look over the menu?
Amber: We don’t speak Danish… we looked at it, but…
Lauren: The menu is in Danish.
Waiter: Oh, I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to give you-my mistake-I’m so sorry I’ll go get you… (continues on with countless apologies).
Lauren: No, we’re sorry! We wish we could speak Danish! We did come to Denmark, we should be expected to know something.
Waiter: No, no.. I’m so sorry, I’ll go get you…
Summary of the meal: Delectable scallops, melt-in-your-mouth beef chuck, impeccable service. It wasn't necessary to know a word of Danish.
On Friday morning, Lauren and I hit up a highly recommended café down the street from our apartment to make our plan of attack. The service continued to astound: "Cappuccino? Small or large? What type of milk? Whole, low fat, or skim? 1.5%, 2%, or 3%? Single or double shot? For here or to go? Cocoa powder?" This is slightly different than the brusk “Dime” (Tell me) that you get from most Spanish bartenders. Then again, in Spain a café con leche will run you €1,50 at a nice bar; our 39 krone cappuccino meant that we had to savor our all €5,25 of our beverage as a special treat.
The coffee
Our map with the anticipation of a 4.2 star, “Will return” TripAdvisor review for the little mermaid statue
Lauren, hard at work or hardly working?
We spent the late morning and afternoon wandering around, enjoying the city...
“Slumming it” with the bacon wrapped hot dog (served in a bread pocket) from the street stand. But man, did they offer customer service! Bacon? Big dog or small dog? Crispy bacon or normal bacon? Ketchup? Mustard? Mayo?
In the land of Tiger!
Lunch: Veal cheek with green onion and cherry tomatoes
One of the canals
A small church on the way to the Little Mermaid statue
I want to be, where the people are // I want to see, want to see ‘em dancing…
Watching the sunset in the park
Dinner: 5 types of herring from the only restaurant that disappointed us in Copenhagen. We trusted the 4 stars on TripAdvisor, but we should have known when it was located right along the most touristy canal that it wasn’t a local favorite.
On Saturday morning, we got up with the plan of making the most of our 24 hour Copenhagen Tourist pass. We knew we wanted to visit the Louisiana, the world-renowned modern art museum just outside of the city, and we had read online that you would save money by buying the Tourist pass since both the train and museum would come included. But we decided to go big before going home, so we first checked out Our Church of the Savior, a church in the south of the city.
The tower
At the top!
A chandelier inside
From the church, we headed to the train station, and stopped at a pastry shop to grab some grub along the way.
A gourmet pop-tart
After eating our “pop-tart” and other snacks at the bus stop, we finally realized that the yellow sign posted on the bus stop was telling us (in Danish) that the buses weren’t running because of all of the people that would be running the World Championship Half-Marathon.
The top runners from all over the world, moments before the start gun went off
So Lauren and I walked across the city, weaving through the thousands of people who were jogging, stretching, and peeing in preparation for the big run. We watched the first group take off and then continued on our way to the train station, where we boarded a regional train to Humleback, the stop where the Louisiana is located.
Walking into the sculpture garden at the Louisiana... the land on the other side is Sweden!
One of my favorite pieces was this series of icons, titled: The Inventor of the Steam Engine, The Inventor of the Gravitational Constant, The Inventor of Electricity, The Inventor of the Synthesis of Nitrogen, The Inventor of the Third Law of Thermodynamics. Lauren goes, “Also known as Jesus….” This artist also framed a piece of stained fabric and called it: Yellow with fat and beeswax. Gotta love an artist with a sense of humor, right?
Just one of many rooms that integrated nature into the design of the museum building
On our journey back to Copenhagen, the sun began to set and the sky filled with the warm colors of an almost cloudless sunset. The trees rushed by and I settled into my book having one of those moments of: WOW. How did I ever get this opportunity? Quickly remembering that these were unwarranted blessings, not well-earned rewards, I thanked God and took a few deep breaths, letting the stillness and peacefulness of Hope College’s “Be” chapels wash over me.
Be still, and know that I am God.
Be still, and know that I am.
Be still, and know.
Be still.
Be.
Psalm 46:10
The trees slowly disappeared though and Lauren and I arrived back in the city's central station. We continued onward with our plans to check out the deli we had read about online, but had been turned away from the afternoon before because of its evening-only hours. When we arrived though, we found it was closed once again (Are the Danish the happiest people in the world because they don’t let their work hours inconvenience their social time?).
So, Lauren and I began the search for the perfect last supper, which became more like "Who has room at the inn?" We walked into about 7 restaurants, only to be turned down because we didn't have a dinner reservation. Mind you, one of those restaurants was a burger joint.
When we were finally welcomed in at a small, hidden wine bar, we ordered red wine and the only entree of the evening, which thankfully was delicious. The cozy evening was the perfect ending to such a beautiful day.
On Sunday morning, we woke up with plans of renting bikes and riding around the city to say farewell. However, after wandering halfway across the city only to find the bike shops closed, we decided it was better to just stroll along the river and eat a leisurely brunch.
A Danish danish!
Now THIS is brunch.
And it was good.
Much love, as always,
Amber
