Copenhagen

The last two days I've spent roaming around Copenhagen. What a beautiful city! When I got off the plane Monday morning, I headed towards the hostel which was located downtown. I love it when you get good directions and your hostel is super badass! My room was an all girls room and the bathroom and shower were in th room rather than down the hall. Yes, this is something to be excited about! The hostle also had an amazing lounge with big screens playing the Olympics and a bar with the cheapest drinks you can find in town. Copenhagen isn't a cheap place.

So after checking in, got out the map to see where all the sights were located. Because I was downtown, I just headed in the direction of the walking street which is full of shops. Normally I'm a huge shopper, you know this, but I haven't bought anything on the vacation yet as far as souvenirs go and I sure didn't start in Copenhagen. They had lots of local places, but they also had places like h&m, foot locker, Disney store, and Abercrombie. Amazing what manages to make it around the world. The walking strip takes you to the area of town where Tivoli is and the hard rock cafe is right around the corner. I went ahead and decided to check out Tivoli to see what it was all about. Basically, it is an amusement park in the middle of the city. It has a ferris wheel, roller coasters, fair games, restaurants, live music, and a big lawn to lay around on. Very nice place and a good way to lose a few hours of a day.

After Tivoli, I headed back down the walking street to the other side of town to find the little mermaid. As I got back close to the hostel, I entered Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn. This is the area of town right on the harbor with lots of bright colored buildings, bistros and restaurants lining the streets with their outside seating, and sailboats and canal tours taking off. It is very pretty , especially at sunset lit up. After walking down the dock, I came upon the entrance to the sand carving festival so I had to enter. There were about 25 different sculptures all made out of sand by different artists. It was amazing to see such detail and talent in these. It very much reminded me of the ice sculptures in Fairbanks each year except these were of sand.

After the sculptures, I kept walking along the water, passing the Amalienborg palace and the Marble Church before coming to more piers and on to the little mermaid. I don't really know what I was expecting, but she was kind of smaller than I was anticipating. Her history and story though definitely bring her size to life since she is one of the most visited attractions in Denmark. It did take me quite a while to get down to her, so afterwards, as it started raining on me, I popped in to a restaurant for some dinner and then wandered to the hostel for some settling in.

Tuesday was an overcast day for the most part, but on my agenda was to see what I missed the day before. I headed back into town to find the Round Tower and climbed the spiral "staircase" to the top. There aren't actually any stairs as you walk up, just stones that angle upwards to the top. On top outside you can see the city, but in reality, there aren't too many big or breathtaking views from there. I got some pictures and decided to head towards the Rosenborg, the royal garden, and the botanical gardens. I managed to get lost on some side streets, but just walking around was entertaining in itself. There are tons of street show acts in town.... everything from jugglers to musicians to those people who dress up and just stand still. I finally got to the palace and walked around the lawn and garden up to the museum. As I got to the top, it was time for the changing of the Royal Guards which was fun to get to see. After checking out what all it had, I headed over to the botanical gardens and found a quite spot next to the lake where I could read my book. At this point the sun was shining and it was so peaceful and serene.

After some time at the lake and then touring the rest of the gardens, it had started to sprinkle on me so I headed back to the hostel for a bit. I took a quick nap, caught up on some emails, and headed out for some dinner. I found this nice little Italian bistro by the water and sat eating and watching the sunset with a blanket they give to customers when there is a chill. Very nice! After dinner, I got a milkshake from this basement ice cream shop, walked the streets a bit more, and headed in for an early night.

This morning I had to get going pretty early as my flight to Scotland is soon. Sitting at the airport now and ready to see what the next location has in store!!