A Day In Copenhagen

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day spent mostly in transit. We woke up, had some crepes, and headed to the airport. The walk to the bus stop was incredibly uneventful, people were still setting up for the day so we only got hassled by two taxi drivers who were easy to blow off since they were actually in their taxis at the time.

The line up to check in at the airport was pretty ridiculous and the staff at Marrakech were pretty rude in general. When we finally made it to border control the two girls working were chatting together so I stood behind the line even though one of them was free and she gave me so much attitude when she finally called me forward which she did by tapping her pen on the desk.

The flight itself wasn't too bad but let me warn you if you are ever told the flight you are boarding has inflight Wi-Fi resist the urge to get excited thinking you will be able to catch up on last nights TV shows during the flight. It just won't happen. Everyone and their dog is trying to connect to the same network so you won’t be able to do much of anything. I managed to check Facebook a couple of times but even that was a struggle. 

The flight was delayed (probably due to the useless employees at the check-in counter) and we didn't arrive in Copenhagen until roughly 8pm so we were pretty exhausted by the time we made it to our hostel. After we checked in we went for a quick wander around the town, and bought some food at a grocery store to bring back to the hostel for dinner. 

Today is our only real day in Copenhagen since we arrived so late yesterday and fly out at 6:45am tomorrow (I'm really looking forward to being at the airport for 4:30) so we needed to make the most of it. I decided to set realistic goals for a change, all I wanted to get done today was to see the Little Mermaid statue, and eat a Danish, any other sightseeing would be a bonus. Dom's goal was to see the Tivoli Gardens.

We started out wandering through our neighbourhood before heading to Nyhavn street (the famous street overlooking the canal with multi-coloured buildings most people think of when they think of Copenhagen) that looked like it would be a really cool place to hang out in the summer time. Today however it was freezing cold and I wanted to run back home and snuggle under some blankets.

From there we wandered past a theatre and the Royal Palace. 

We were on the hunt for the mermaid but I was so cold I was actually in pain so we headed back to the hostel so I could put on some long underwear. I used to think you could take the girl out of Canada but you can't take the Canada out of the girl but now I'm not so sure. I think the last time I wore long johns at home was during the grade 6 trip to Yearley. The saddest part is that it's not even that cold. It is currently -4 and I'm sure it was warmer while the sun was up and we were out exploring. It's a damp cold though and it really chills you to the bone.

I put on a few more layers and we headed off again. We walked by another palace and a few churches before finally making our way to the mermaid I had so desperately wanted to see. I took a few pictures and we were off on our merry way again. My stomach was rumbling by this point so we started on the hunt for food while heading in the general direction of Tivoli Gardens.

On our hunt for food we walked past the Royal Palace again and accidentally stumbled upon what I'm pretty sure was the changing of the guard. I took a video of the ceremony, you can find it at the bottom of this post. The event moved quite slowly and standing still only made me feel colder so we continued our hunt for food and the gardens.

We stumbled upon some Christmas markets but eventually ended up at McDonalds, not very adventurous but it was a warm building with reasonably priced food so I was sold. 

For dessert we headed to a bakery we passed on the way for our danish. It was delicious! The girl sat next to us was a little annoying though. A woman from California had just moved here because she married a Danish man, who gave her a gigantic ring that she was all to proud to wave in our faces. She started a conversation with us and the whole time I felt like she was talking down on us and seemed to think she was the greatest thing since slice bread. I couldn't get away from her fast enough.

When we finally escaped the horrible conversation about crown jewels and expensive restaurants we headed to Tivoli Gardens. We wandered around the outside for a while to see if it was worth paying to go in and decided that it wasn't. It’s an amusement park that is supposed to be completely decked out in Christmas lights right now. We didn't want to go on any rides and the lights display looked pretty dismal so we decided to pass.

We headed back to the hostel and have been in veg mode ever since. It might not sound like we did a lot but I feel like we walked most of the city and according to our map we walked passed about 95% of the major attractions so I think we were fairly successful with our day in Copenhagen.