Copenhagen - Part Anden (Two in Danish)

Just under six years ago, our bags were packed and we started our journey at a BART station, everyone incredibly anxious. Who am I kidding. We were all freaked out. You can see it in our faces. This go around, we're old pros....

Now a half-dozen. 

Oh, and of course, Pleepleus!

And we're back! We last strolled the streets of Copenhagen, dodging all the bikes and marveling at how tall the locals are five years ago. It was on the front end of our journey when we were still in our sprint mode to maximize every waking moment with activities. This go around was a bit more ad hoc, with only a return trip to Tivoli officially in the cards. 

I love that moment when you emerge from the subway after a long day of travel to perfect blue skies in a picturesque European square that predates the United States. (Click Here for that very moment). As Nicole, my mom, and I (the kids were wiped so we left them at the apartment) sat for dinner at a local vegan restaurant, Nicole commented how surreal it is to think that less than 24hrs earlier, we were on the other side of the planet. I love travel.

Not that I should have expected the city to be much different in the span of five years, but what was a bit different was the general interests of the kids (which I should probably stop calling them that, because that's not how they think and behave anymore).

Whereas last time we stayed on the outskirts of town, a 15 min bus ride away, this time we were in the thick of the city. We found out the first night that perhaps we were maybe a little too in the middle. Within a short walk of Tivoli is a bar district that we were perched directly upon. We also found out that Friday night goes from 10pm to 4am; made overcoming our jet lag a fools errand.

Not unlike our previous stay, we were on the top floor of an old building with stairs that wouldn't pass inspection anywhere in the states. The entire building tilted every which way, and the floors were comically out of level. I think they call that "character". It turned out to be a perfectly fine stay and made for easy walking access to everything we wanted to see.

That Doorway

The stairs were "squishy" and all slanted inward. Made for treacherous navigating.

Bikes, Bikes, Bikes, everywhere!

Ours is the top floor of the brown building

I gave up at 5:30am on my futile attempt at sleeping (a combination of the revelry, the jet lag, and the fact that it was only dark from midnight to 4:45am), and went for a morning jog. I do love a morning run through a city. The evidence of the partying was striking (yet by 9am, the city seemed put back together).

We spent the morning and midday on a leisurely walk to see the common sites, but the lack of sleep had finally caught up with everyone, and it was back to the apartment for an afternoon nap. That did the trick, and gave us energy to head to Tivoli.

This shot was my muse for another adventure

Picked up this nice full brim hat at a street fair with the Wares. Works great! Look how it protects the ears and neck

What can we say, we still love Tivoli. But this time around, for different reasons. Whereas our children were in the sweet spot five years ago, and we found ourselves on nearly every ride, this time we did one ride, The Rollercoaster. It's one of the oldest rollercoasters anywhere, and still has a real person operating a handbrake to control the speed. That was the one thing we NEEDED to do on the return adventure.

I absolutely LOVE this picture. (They said, "Hey, let's be serious when the ride camera takes a shot." Nailed it)

They're French Hot Dogs, and they're delicious.

Our return trip to Tivoli was made memorable this time due to a fortuitous mistake on my part. After finishing a beer from a very high quality plastic cup, I proceeded to throw it in the nearest recycle can I could find. On round two, I noticed a mysterious 5 Kroner ($0.80) surcharge on the bill with a small note that says the cups can be redeemed at special red kiosks to get your 5 Kroners back. Oh, that's what that red thing was RIGHT NEXT to the recycle can I just tossed my cup in! We suddenly started seeing empty cups everywhere and saw dollar signs attached to them. Later that night, after a really impressive fireworks show, Yaeko and Zane put their entrepreneurial skills to work, and raked in nearly $40 in redemption money. Cha-ching! They became an ad hoc Tivoli cleaning crew, and felt good about recycling too. Everyone wins! (So, if you happen to be in Copenhagen, and you're looking for something fun for free, buy a ticket to Tivoli, and redeem your way to a free day)

Celebrating 180 Years. Perhaps we'll be back for their Bi-Centennial. 

Our time in Copenhagen was really just a layover to get to Budapest. Albeit a long one. We still had an entire day in Copenhagen before our evening flight, so we decided to divide and concur. Nicole, Yaeko, Bryce, and my Mom headed out for a day at the nearby botanical gardens. Nicole had remembered how much she enjoyed it last time. She even found this same fan palm...

Yesterday on the canal tourist cruise, I was reminded that Copenhagen has a truly unique attraction, a year round ski slope on top of their main power plant. It's hard to miss. Turns out, it's not terribly popular on a perfect summer day, so it was easy for me to get tickets. So that's how Zane and I ended up "snow"boarding on a power plant. And by snow, I mean rubber carpeting that synthesizes riding on snow. Where it wasn't worn down too much, it really was pretty legit.

If you want to see a video of Zane riding: 

Before heading back to the apartment, we starting chatting up the bartender at Copinhill, a young 20 something that is currently living the life Zane wants - going from ski resort to ski resort around the world teaching ski lessons. He asked what we were doing for the rest of the day. We shrugged, and told him we were getting back on the bus back to the city. He said, before you do, go to Reffen. And don't take buses. Just rent one of the bikes from the Donkey Republic bike app. So that's how we ended up eating on lounge chairs overlooking the harbor and riding bikes back to our apartment through Nyhavn.

This is, by far, the best food truck venue I've ever seen. If you are in Copenhagen, go there. Especially if it's sunny: https://reffen.dk/en/ 

 

 

That's the thing, sometimes the memorable stuff comes from connecting with a local and just going with the flow.

The Danes have this thing called Hygge - a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture). It really is a thing. People there just seem... So healthy and content. I quite like it.

Another interesting thing came of the conversation. I asked our new friend how is it that every Dane speaks near fluent English. And not British English, American English. His response; YouTube. He said from the time the kids can speak, they are watching YouTube and all the good content is American. So thanks Mr Beast, Dude Perfect, and PewDiePie for teaching the entire world how to speak American and making travel that much easier. (Note, he also said, "And besides, nobody but us would bother to learn how to speak Danish, so better to just go with the flow.")

Even though we only had 36 hours in Copenhagen, we managed to fill it up pretty well I think. But by the time we hit the plane to Budapest, we were all pretty wiped...

Next Stop: Budapest!