I’ve been asked a fair bit why I chose to go to Copenhagen specifically for this weekend, and the answer is that I have Beyoncé tickets, and it fits in nicely with going ahead to Australia. I arrived on Thursday, walked around a lot and had a picnic/wine next to the canal.
Friday, I had Googled the best place for a Danish pastry in Copenhagen, and went to the bakery – it’s on the way to Christiania, a place where there has been a loophole in the Danish law, so I don’t know the full story but you can get away with a fair but there. Anyway, I had a bloody good Danish before heading to Christiania – it’s weird, and theres not much to do there apart from having a small market, shops and places to eat and drink. You’re not supposed to take pictures there, which didn’t stop an American tourist I saw whipping his SLR out, but you can Google image it.
After, I went to the Little Mermaid statue, which is supposed to be hilariously disappointing, which it was, then came back to the hostel to chill for a bit – the weather is pretty hot here. I then headed for Tivoli, the second oldest theme park in the world. I had a walk around and did a lot of people watching, and caught a pantomime and a concert, as you do. The concert was miles better than I had expected, a singer by the stage name Oh Land performed with a big crowd. It was weird to hear songs in English and she’d talk to the crowd in Danish.
Saturday morning I popped to a food market to get some breakfast, then went to a restaurant for some smørrebrød – an open sandwich, typical of Denmark. I chose to have marinaded herring with strawberries; pork with elderflower, smoked cream cheese, pea and almond; and smoked bovbjerg cheese with rhubarb, cardamon and almond. I also tried the homemade loveage schnapps from the menu which was really sharp, but gave a nice aftertaste.
After lunch, I went on a boat tour of the city, which was alright but I’m glad I didn’t pay more than a fiver to do. I walked around a bit after, but it’s hot over here and I had a Beyoncé concert coming up and want to save myself for Asia next week, so I went back to the hostel and napped.
Yesterday, I didn’t really get up to much during the day – I got up late, went to the food market then chilled in the botanical gardens with a book, after a bit I moved onto the city hall to people watch and ended up chatting to a Peruvian guy.
As I was going to see Beyoncé, I got to the stadium a bit early to avoid the crowds and found the stadium by following groups of people. I’ve had a fair bit of shit for going to Copenhagen to see Beyoncé, but she can really put on a performance – I don’t know how she does it, I could barely run a lap of the school field during cross country in school, and she can do a full blown dance routine and perform her songs for two hours. I doubt I’d go and see her again just because I’m not a massive fan, but I’m so glad that I saw her. The trains on the way back were horrendous however, there were only two ticket machines for the whole station next to a stadium, and the train was literally worse than the school corridor bundles 10 years ago. It made the train service I use in England look fantastic.
At the moment, I’m chilling in the hostel, tonight I have a 17 hour journey which I doubt will be fun, but I’ll be in Asia for the first time and probably jetlagged for the first time in years.