Copenhagen!

So, I'm a little slow on updating my blog... but that's only because I've been having so much fun this week! :)

Anyways, last Friday, my friend Leslie and I ventured out to yet another new country - Denmark! We visited the country's largest city, Copenhagen, and had a fantastic time!! This trip was super relaxing, and we spent a lot of time just enjoying the atmosphere - soaking in the friendliness of the people there, the amazingly good food, and the fantastic-ly fun shopping!


The harbor at Nyhvyn - famous for its colorful buildings

Leslie proved to be a great travel buddy - she always does research on two things before she goes to a new city - chocolate and beer. I am asking myself why I haven't been on a trip with her earlier! These are my favorite things to try also (okay, add gelato to the list and I'm a really happy girl!). We ate well the entire trip, trying lots of new and yummy things!




Part of the Danish food culture is the smorresbrood, which is an open-faced sandwich. This place had an amazing "condiments bar", where you put all the toppings you want onto your sandwich creation - fun!

Copenhagen was a great city to just walk around in. We spent a lot of our first day just ducking in and out of the cool shops, munching on yummy food, and seeing the sights as we passed them. It was super hot, so at one point, we found a nice fountain to cool down in:

KP chillin' at the fountain outside Amielborg Palace

Hans Christian Anderson, the famous children's author, is from Copenhagen, and so the statue of the Little Mermaid is one of the city's most famous sights (not 100% sure why - it's just a mermaid, for Pete's sake). Anyways, I of course had to see it! :) That is, me, and about 1000 other tourists! ;)

This picture is for my mom, who wanted to make sure I saw the Little Mermaid - here's the proof I went, MOM! :) Note the huge cruise ship in the background - this was literally bigger than the apartment buildings nearby! How do these things float?!?

Saturday evening, we were lucky enough to meet up with two lovely Nike ladies, Cassie & George (you may remember her "Hen Night" before she moved to Portland), who were in Copenhagen for a market research trip. We met them at a local brewpub and had a grand time. One of the coolest things I have ever seen - freshly hopped beer! Basically, the IPA beer and hops are put into a French press. You let this sit for about 15 minutes, and then press the hops to the bottom. Voila! Freshly hopped beer. Yum! Can't believe they haven't brought this to Portland AKA Beer Capital of the USA yet!

Check this out - cool!

Nike ladies livin' it up:

Leslie, KP, George, & Cuter-than-cute Cassie! Look out Copenhagen! :)

We had a rather late night, but made it up to go for a run on Sunday morning. Leslie had been to Copenhagen back in June with her husband, and when they were there, they met a lovely couple named Matilde & Anders. We met up with them for a Danish-style brunch with an amazing view of the city. It was fun to meet some of the "locals" and get to know what they think about the city they live in.

Matilde, Les, & Anders on the rooftop of our amazing brunch site

Next up: a little sight-seeing. We took a tour of Rosenbourg Palace, which was beautiful, but small, and then we took a stroll through the Design Museum, which was amazingly cool (and this coming from an accountant... maybe there is hope for me!)

Rosenbourg Palace - it was a beautiful day, and everyone was out having a picnic

Cardboard chair at the design museum - best not to drink in this chair - it might disintegrate!

That evening, we had a nice dinner at a converted pharmacy from the 1800's. Our waitress was amazingly funny, and we had a great time just chatting and enjoying our meal. That's one of the things that I will miss most when I go home... I always feel so rushed to finish my dinner. We were at the restaurant for probably 3 hours, and felt no pressure to leave. Very nice.

After that, we went to the craziness that is Tivoli Gardens. It's a combination of gardens and a huge amusement park, complete with rides and a laser light show. Les and I decided that we are both WAY too old to go on these rides (I seriously got knots in my stomach just thinking about it). But, it was fun to watch! :)

Cool shot of the swing ride - they sent people WAY up into the air (that's the white line - the people), and then proceeded to swing them round and round until they were dizzy! :)

The laser light show on the water - kind of trippy, but cool also

Monday was our last day in the city, and we decided to rent bikes. Les is amazing at reading maps and navigating cities. Here she is planning our route:

So... one story about the bikes. In Holland, my bike has two hand brakes - one on the left to stop the front wheel, and one on the right to stop the back one. The bikes we rented in Copenhagen had only one hand brake - on the left. They also had back-pedal brakes. At one point, we stopped kind of short, and I forgot what kind of brakes I had, and quickly grabbed both handlebars. When you only stop one wheel, here's what happens: you go over the handlebars as gracefully as possible, scrape your knee, ribs, elbow, and shoulder, and then get up as quickly as possible to tell anyone that saw you that "you're okay, you're really okay". Not that I know what that feels like or anything... but, if you wanted to see a picture of what your ribs might look like AFTER such a fall, here's something I found:

OUCH!!

Crisis averted, Les and I rode our bicycles all over the city. We checked out the alternative neighborhood, Christiania, which is kind of like a big crazy hippy commune. I had strange flashbacks to a childhood near Yellow Springs. ;)

Christiania - don't breathe in too deeply, you might suddenly feel... light...

Reflections in the lake near Christiania...

For lunch that day, we went to the Royal Cafe to try a new phenomenon - smooshies. Remember how I said that open-faced sandwiches are called Smorresbroods? Well, this is that, but prepared like sushi... hence, the smooshie. They were delicious!!

Fun little bites of goodness! :)

All too quickly, it was time to head home. Another great time in another great city. :)