Breaking it Up: København (Copenhagen)

When first the sisters had permission to rise to the surface, they were each delighted with the new and beautiful sights they saw; but now, as grown-up girls, they could go when they pleased, and they had become indifferent about it. They wished themselves back again in the water, and after a month had passed they said it was much more beautiful down below, and pleasanter to be at home. Yet often, in the evening hours, the five sisters would twine their arms round each other, and rise to the surface, in a row. They had more beautiful voices than any human being could have; and before the approach of a storm, and when they expected a ship would be lost, they swam before the vessel, and sang sweetly of the delights to be found in the depths of the sea, and begging the sailors not to fear if they sank to the bottom. But the sailors could not understand the song, they took it for the howling of the storm. And these things were never to be beautiful for them; for if the ship sank, the men were drowned, and their dead bodies alone reached the palace of the Sea King.

--Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid 

I don't know if you've ever read the original Little Mermaid story (I hadn't before writing this post and am hoping the English version I've linked to is a faithful translation). It is heartbreaking in a way that the Disney film, unsurprisingly, glosses over. The Mermaid of course does not get her man and actually ends up in some kind of purgatory floating around the earth searching for good children, because encountering them will reduce the 300-year span of her quasi-punishment. But bad children will increase it. SO. Woof.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Copenhagen before we arrived, my only experience with Denmark being Shakespeare and gritty crime dramas. I liked the city even though it was disarmingly clean for someone who'd grown accustomed to the rougher edges of the Balkans over the last six months, the weather was dismal, and things were Manhattan-level expensive. But I was happy to be there because it was my first (and hopefully not last!) time in Scandinavia and although I literally only had one day, seeing as I arrived on the night bus from Amsterdam and was leaving on another night bus that same day for Berlin, I was determined to make the best of the time I had. We arrived exhausted and found a locker at the train station for our bags before heading into the city by metro. We hunted down some coffee at a place that had not even officially opened yet. Then we were ready to start walking.

I loved this storefront.

The famous street/harbor, Nyhavn! So many beautiful houses and colors.

After walking around and marveling in the same hundred or so buildings that all the other tourists were also marveling in we headed across to the river, towards the opera house. 

Cait and I decided to forego visiting the inside of that in favor of heading towards a church we'd sighted but first we had to stop and climb inside this free outside art installation that was like a life-sized kaleidoscope. From doing a little research I'm fairly certain that it is called Cosmic Space, by the Faroese artist Tróndur Paturssons. This post on a travel blogger's site gives you an idea of what it looks like from the outside. It was really cool!

From the inside, vamping it up.

The famous (infamous?) but sadly closed noma. Oh well, it's not like I could have afforded that anyway.

This was the church I was lured towards. I mean look at that tower! I was so ready to climb it and pay any price in order to do so; alas, it was closed. But the church was still open!

This nativity scene was oddly cartoonish and playful.

Wandering back to the other side and more Nyhavn-esque landscape...

...We discovered a cafe boat where the hygge was strong and we were compelled to rest our feet, sip on some gløgg, and bask in the coziness.

I confess to kind of forcing us to march slightly far out from the city center because I'd heard about the Little Mermaid statue and dammit, I wanted to see it! There was some disagreement in our group about whether it was worth it and even if it actually existed (until we found it) but I'm happy I saw it, it's beautiful and the walk along the water was interesting (I thought).

On our way back we witnessed the changing of the Danish royal guard which was surprising to me as I did not realize Denmark still had a monarchy! Oh well. Live and learn.

This fountain/church were quite epic and we walked around and admired them for a while. I can only imagine how nice this must be in the summer, when the water is circulating through the fountain's descending levels, but it was kind of cool to see this woman standing boldly, driving her cattle on, with the inclement weather and bared fountain's rocks contributing to her hardy, fearless appearance.

Just a very accurate piece of street art posted on a temporary wall (there was some construction happening behind it). I think we can all get behind angelic retrievers, yes?

  

Passing the famous and historic Tivoli gardens but not entering. After we'd totally splurged on a seriously fancy steak dinner in the city center (Christian had wanted to try smørrebrød, basically little open sandwiches topped with very Danish things, but that restaurant didn't offer them for dinner so we all had to settle for one of the best steaks I've had in a long time, poor us. He stayed the night in Copenhagen and met up with some friends and I think he may have had the opportunity to avail himself of some more traditional Danish cuisine at some point?). Cait and I, on the other hand, walked around the shopping district before we got truly cold and settled in at a coffee shop to charge our electronics, catch up with the world, and brace ourselves for night two of our night bus crucible. Which was for the best since it was truly the night bus-iest night-bus experience of all time. Which is to say... bad.