Day 16: Copenhagen

Today was a free day in Copenhagen. After a reasonably relaxed morning Clare and I headed off with others to the Rosenborg palace where we walked around the grounds including a rose garden which was really beautiful. We then took a walk through the town, looking at the architecture and scenery including Copenhagen University which was a stunning building and made me instantly jealous of a friend who’s doing exchange there next semester! After crossing over the river we made our way to Christianborg Slot which was a grand looking palace (from the outside anyway!) which is where a lot of Royal functions are held. We walked around the outside again but didn’t go in. There was also a very strange sculpture of a speared polar bear outside; I’m not really sure why, I guess it just means we’re in Scandinavia!

Clare and I then headed over to Christiania where we

attempted to find a hippy village we’d been told about but ended up finding the Church of Our Saviour where you could climb to the top and then go up the golden staircase to look out over all of Copenhagen. It was the most spectacular thing we did all day! It was a very steep and narrow climb up to the top up the inside of the tour and then a windy set of golden stairs to look out at the very top. It was very tall (90 metres) but it had the most spectacular views I’ve ever seem! You could really see out of the whole city including the harbour, the canal that winds through the city, the churches and architecture and even out towards Sweden!

After we made the steep descent down the tower we headed off to Paper Island which is alongside the river looking back towards the main part of the city. Here there are the Copenhagen food markets which were amazing! Every sort of cuisine you could imagine in an old warehouse made out of old shipping containers. We got Pad Thai absolutely poured with rain!) and ate our lunch.

After lunch it was still raining quite a bit so we gave up on finding Christiania and instead walked over to the next island where the and then went and sad outside overlooking the harbour (until it Copenhagen Opera House is located.

Although the public aren’t usually able to get in without being on a tour, the guy at the tour was very nice and let us have a 2 minute look. It was really beautiful inside, with lots of glass and these stunning colourful chandeliers as well as being a nice looking building on the outside. We then saw a ferry terminal right next to the Opera House so we caught a ferry from one side of the river to the other (and somehow accidentally didn’t pay) to save ourselves walking back in the rain.

Once back on the other side we walked down Strøget street again so we could grab some souvenirs and go into a few of the shops. We then spend ages looking for a cake shop/bakery and couldn’t find one so settled with icecream and eating it by the canal at Nyhvn which was spectacular. I love the liquorice ice-cream at work so I tried to the Danish liquorice ice-cream which was incredibly salty by nice. They also had someone making all the cones in the shop by pressing very flat waffles and then rolling them up!

After a while down by the water we headed back to the hostel and spent a while relaxing/editing photos/writing blogs etc. It was great because it meant we knew we could go out for dinner later (we had eaten ice-cream at 6pm!) because it was light till late. Around

10pm we left and I went and bought a hot dog on Leanne’s recommendation and then Clare and I headed down to Nyhavn with some others where we sat and ate by the river. The hot dog stands are all around Copenhagen and are run by people who used to be homeless to give them a living.

As a result of it getting chilly down by the water we headed back to the hostel where I spent a while talking to another girl in my room while packing and then headed to bed.