Denmark Days part 3

Kong's Have

Having made a plan the night before, I set off with a whole list of things to do my last full day in Copenhagen. First on that list was the final shower I had to have with only a stupid "camping towel" to dry off with. Waste of space!

Aside from that lack of coziness though, my day started off so great. My first stop was "Kong's Have", the King's Gardens, which were quite close to my hostel. The sun was shining (quite unlike my first two grey days in the city) and turned the already gorgeous colours of the park even more gorgeous. It sounds cliche and cheesy, but everything really was bathed in golden light. "Rosenberg Slot" was within the gardens, and though I didn't enter the castle, I did gaze upon it in awe for a good chunk of time that crisp morning.

Tick and tick, I moved on to the next thing on my list, which was shopping the "Strædet" area- basically a couple of shopping streets nearby Strøget, but less commercialized and more kitschy. There was one little store, called Elizabeth something that had out their Christmas stuff, so I of course died. They also had an enchanting array of mercury glass votive candle holders, which it took all my power not to buy them out of. Some were pink. Gah.

Mother and Kirstin, you would have been so proud of my aimless shopping ways that day. I was channelling both of you big time.

I finished off the first part of my day with a trip to the National Museet. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. That thing is HUGE! I think I counted 7 separate exhibits, which you could almost call separate museums in their own right. You could easily get lost in the building as well, which just wound on and on forever. I first experienced this loss in the "Prehistory" section among some Stonehenge-like rocks, but quickly regained my sense of direction and made my way to the "Stories of Denmark" section, which appealed to me most.

It was a neat part of the museum that basically included little anecdotes from all different periods of Denmark's past, photographs and books and clothing, and also random crap like embroidered pillows and Pokemon cards. Everything carries history!

Eating g-free in Denmark was hard.
This meal made my life.

After my time at the museum, I stopped at a brilliant little cafe on a nearby corner where I had a most excellent frittata and a glass of organic cran. (That's cranberry juice for those of you who aren't familiar with the Danica dialect).

My next stop was the Danish Jewish Museum, which in order to get to, I had to cross a bridge over to Christiansborg Slot and navigate its grounds. What a massive castle! Very cool to see. The DJM was very small, but very enjoyable. One of the most notable things about it was its architectural design, done by the same guy who is redesigning the World Trade Centre.




The museum is designed around the Hebrew letters in the word "Mitzvah". The effect of this is certainly not your run of the mill rectangular museum, but rather slanting floors and ceilings, sharp angles and a really modern feel.

The museum organization is also a bit out of the ordinary, with information grouped in "themes" instead of chronologically. There was an "arrivals" theme, for instance, that touched on an influx of Jews into Denmark way the heck back when, another one in the 1970s when a wave of anti-semitism hit Poland, and also displays on the arrival of Danish Jews on Swedish soil when they arrived there as refugees during WWII. The "Mitzvah" theme (mitzvah meaning a good deed) explored this part of Danish Jewish history in more detail. I didn't spend a huge amount of time at the museum but the time I did spend there was quite well spent.

Leaving the museum that afternoon, I was so darn cold that I figured I'd stop at my hostel to warm up quick before my evening plans took flight. Back at the hostel, I met a new roomie named Madeleine, a kiwi girl who had been traveling around Europe for about 8 months. We made plans to hang out the next morning, and then I dashed back out into the cold.

I was off to meet Line, a friend of a friend's daughter who had graciously offered to meet me for dinner. Not only did cottage buddy Birte give me the low down on Copenhagen this summer, she also match-made me with this lovely girl (and another that I'll be staying with in Berlin!).

It was really great to meet up with a local, and Line and I got along really well. She got me into Tivoli on a pass card she had, and we took a nice walk through the park, which was all done up for Halloween. I loved all the floating jack-o-lanterns, candles, and cobwebs. Well done Tivoli, you have this Hallow's Eve aficionado's seal of approval.

H.C. Anderson looks on at one of Europe's oldest theme parks

Rather than eat at one of the packed, probably expensive, and probably gluten-ridden restaurants in the park, Line led the way back in to town to a restaurant called "RizRaz". Omg. A g-free paradise! The restaurant's speciality was their vegetarian buffet, which only had 2 gluteny items (lasagna and spaghetti) out of maybe 25 non-gluteny ones. I think I ate more that meal than I had my previous 48 hours in Copenhagen total. They had yummy broccoli salad, potato salad, tzatziki and hummus, these falafel ball things, rice, zucchini, oh man. I could go on, but just believe me that it was awesome.

Line and I had some lovely convos over dinner, and parted ways when it was time for her to pack it in in preparation for an early morning working on her masters thesis. Back at the hostel, I hung out with Madeleine for a while, and had another nice early night.