Day 2
21st June 2022
Generator Hostel,Copenhagen, Denmark
Jet lag hit me hard the next day. I woke up bright-eyed at 3:30. The bright sky didn't really help my situation. My brain was ready to go out and get my day started. My body was still catching up on sleep. Tossing and turning all night, I finally got out around 5:00 to walk along the canal and see the city before the mayhem of the day started.
The New Haven or Nyhavn or new harbor was minutes away from our hostel. I took in the serene and picturesque view that's on most of the Copenhagen postcards and travel souvenirs. Everything was quiet and the city was just waking up. The invisible workers who kept the city clean and tidy were hard at work before the morning rush hour set in and a new wave of tourists took over.
It was eery to know that the sun was shining so bright and high at 5:30 in the morning.
After breakfast, I met with Nick, Lucy, Giselle, Claressa, and Floris (our tour guide, logistics person, technician, planner, and friend?) for our optional morning bike ride around the harbor. We biked to the new pedestrian bridge and looped around to get to a place for everyone to jump in for a quick swim in the cool water.
I wasn't really in the mood to jump in that early in the morning.
We got back to the hostel around 11. We had to meet at 12:45 at Israels Plads for a class meeting to talk about the happenings and expectations of the class. Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to explore the city.
I biked to a famous bakery to try my first Danish pastry!
The line was a bit long and I had to really wait to get my yummy delicious pastry.
(Skt. Peders Bageri, Sankt Peders Stræde 29, 1453 København K, Denmark)
It was a fancy cinnamon bun with sweet airy frosting!
Right after my sweet treat, I found a bookstore by accident on the other side of the street. It was an old house turned into a bookstore and I never would have guessed that from the street! There were far more English books than I'd have ever expected.
Well, obviously I bought a book. I had to.
(Fantask, Sankt Peders Stræde 18, 1453 København K, Denmark)
I also looked up another famous bookstore to go to and biked there as well. Needless to say, I bought three heavy books to add to my already heavy luggage.
(Politikens Boghal, Rådhuspladsen 37, 1550 København, Denmark)
After buying crispy yummy fries from Souls Street Food (Frederiksborggade 21, Shop 6, 1360 København, Denmark) and delicious juicy strawberries from the marketplace, I headed over to meet my group at Legepladsen på Israels Plads (playgrounds on Israel's Square - Linnésgade 3, 1361 København, Denmark). After our meeting, we went on a group bike tour around Copenhagen (old city) with Bike Mike (https://bikecopenhagenwithmike.dk/)
I have never done anything like it before! It was wild! We biked around for a little more than 4 hours! We almost lost the second half of our group because somebody in between missed a turn and we took a lot of turns and rights and lefts!
Pretty dark start to the ride for sure.
We biked to the military area in the city and saw where the Danish Intelligence worked.
Back in the day, this used to be a religious space with prison behind it.
We then biked around the harbor and saw Reffen (Refshalevej 167 Unit A, 1432 København, Denmark) on the other side of the harbor. There's Copenhill in the distance.
We saw cruise ships docked at the harbor.
The famous little mermaid of Copenhagen.
"Unveiled on 23 August 1913, The Little Mermaid was a gift from Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen to the City of Copenhagen. The sculpture is made of bronze and granite and sits in the water at Langelinie Pier. It was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairytale about a mermaid who gives up everything to be united with a young, handsome prince on land. Every morning and evening she swims to the surface from the bottom of the sea and, perched on her rock in the water, she stares longingly towards the shore hoping to catch a glimpse of her beloved prince."
We then biked to the Amalienborg Palace in the heart of Copenhagen, the seat of one of the world's oldest monarchies! None of the royal members were home because no flags were up and fluttering in the wind.
A cool building I saw on our bike ride!
Bike Mike took us all the way to the bridge to Freetown Christiania and we were free for the day.
Brendan, Bridgette, and I walked around Christiania and enjoyed the beautiful art and other shops in the area. It was an experience seeing a free town within a city.
I biked to another pedestrian-bike bridge and sat down to enjoy the evening. With the sun beating down on me I really couldn't relax or enjoy myself. An older gentleman sat next to me and we sat in silence for a bit and people watched. When it got too unbearable for me, I wished him a good evening and biked back to the hostel.
On my way back I saw this cool pedestrian bridge make way for sailing boats to pass through! It was the best moment of my day!
Look how high that went! The best part of my day, hands down!
I ran into Bridgette at the bridge and we stopped together at the Broens Gadekøkken (International Food Court, Strandgade 95, 1401 København, Denmark) and ended up eating Indian food together. Totally unexpected dinner company!
After getting back to my hostel, we had a birthday party (cake cutting) for Ben and Gus (Shane's kids). The company was lovely and so was the cake! (Thank you Shane for inviting us and for sharing the cake!)
Around 20:30, I walked 1.5 km to Copenhagen Central Station to meet my dear friend who traveled all the way from Linköping, Sweden to see me! The station was pretty busy at 21:30.
As you can see, it was still light out.
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