The original intention for this blog was for it to be a travel blog of sorts. Thus far, it has just been a repository for my ramblings, so here’s a post attempting to bring it back to its original course. Montage Mondaze, woooo!! A.K.A. a day where I post a montage of some of the Snapchat vlogs of Catdog’s Euro adventures. This week’s montage features Copenhagen, Denmark. If ya wanna skip to the video, go right ahead. I won’t be offended.
Day 0:
Arriving to the airport fairly early is one of my travel MUSTS (more particularly so in this case because I was headed out on a Friday). I hate rushing or running the risk of missing my flight, so I usually aim to arrive 3 hours ahead of my scheduled departure. This gives me ample time to check in, locate my gate, and then hunt down the best of what the airport has to offer. Since ATL is the biggest international hub in the U.S., there are plenty of eating and drinking options. I opted for One Flew South. Pictured is the Thyme Roasted Pork Belly entree (don’t remember the drink, heh). Yum yum, good fuel for the flight.
The flight to CPH was fairly long, and TBH, I slept the whole way. I like to self medicate, whether it be alcohol or sleeping pills, so that I can ignore that coughing hacking old man and that screeching baby. Catherine and I took flights from our respective cities of residence, with her flight arriving a little earlier than mine.
Day 1:
Landed in CPH, safe and sound ~5PM local time. The most difficult part of the arrival was coordinating how Catherine and I would meet with no cell phone service and potentially no WiFi. We worked it out somehow and were reunited at baggage claim (cue fanfare, red carpet, parade, and release of 100 doves). From there, we foolishly left to our Airbnb without a single cent to our names (you don’t even want to know how long we rode it out without getting some cash money $$$…). We used public transit to get to our lodging, and it was surprisingly easy to navigate. Also, while on the subway, we realized there is much eye candy to be seen around Denmark. Hello, 6′ blonde hair blue eyes with runway styled wardrobe.
Anja, our sweet sweet sweet hostess, met us at her apartment and gave us some restaurant recommendations, showed us the inner workings of her place, and gave a few pointers for touring CPH like a local. She was awesome and I highly recommend her spot if you ever find yourself in Denmark. The neighborhood, Norrebro, wasn’t the most pristine, but it had an eclectic, hipster feel to it.
We walked to dinner from Anja’s place, just a couple blocks, to a place called Taxa which means Taxi in Danish. The restaurant was cozy, packed, and filled with mostly yuppie age people–just like a good hipster restaurant should be. We waited at the bar for a brief moment where my selfie was photo bombed by an entertaining gentleman and I ordered a grappa (WTF is a grappa, you may wonder? I had absolutely no clue either). The server moved us to a table that ended up being next to the photobombing gentleman and his Italian woman friend. We struck up excellent conversation and discovered he was a German-loathing, but otherwise super friendly, Italian dude living in Copenhagen. He gave us his take on the city and also some advice for our travel itinerary. He raved on and on about Taxa’s burger, but then he and his lady friend happened to take the last burgers the restaurant had to offer! Not to worry, though. They were so awesome that they broke us off a piece of that. Like, what?! This would never happen in the U.S. Those bites of burger lived up to his hype. Thanks, mister dude whose name we never got. Hopefully our paths cross again some day and we can return the hospitality.
Pictured above left is what we ended up getting in place of the burgers: the special pasta of the day and the steak tartare with this amazing pesto based crack sauce. Pictured right is a slightly tipsy Clara and a sober Catherine at Taxa. Sadly not pictured are our Italian dining buddies.
After dinner, we (OK let’s be real, I) made somewhat of a spectacle trying to split the bill and then the waiter, in a surprised and amused tone, loudly asked who had ordered the grappas–which I proceeded to find out is/was considered a man’s drink originally, as it was a poor country man’s brandy made from the leftovers of the wine making process. Our side of the restaurant had a hearty laugh at my expense. Little Asian girl knocking back grappas, hehe. We made our way out and back home to Anja’s to sleep off our jetlag and food coma.
Day 2:
This is where we started our day. Rick Steves, A.K.A. our Savior and Shepherd (In Rick We Trust), had raved about Christiania as a must visit in CPH. All we knew going in was that this was a city where essentially no laws govern the people. It was a weird concept to wrap our heads around, and more than anything I felt at odds with how to BE. What do you do/say when all of the social laws and rules that govern your very being are tossed out the window? Well, we did our fair share of people watching and snooping around this village of anarchy.
The only rules we found were: 1) No running, 2) No fighting , 3) No hard drugs (soft drugs A-OK!). There was a green light district called Pusher Street where vendors wore bandana masks and sunglasses and hawked all types of MJ and paraphernalia (photography not allowed in this district). We ate really gross food–think cafeteria cuisine meets a five year old’s interpretation of nachos–and then headed out to walk around Copenhagen.
We didn’t have much time to really absorb all CPH had to offer since we had to jet off to our hostel in Geneva, but I really loved the short time we spent there. I had originally been dragging my feet about having Copenhagen on the itinerary, but I was pleasantly surprised by the city and most of all the people (shoutout to Roman dude and Anja for being the best hosts). Not pictured: the 1,000,000,000 bicycles used by the locals for transportation. Overall, I give this city the award of #1 City to Move to if Donald Trump Becomes President of the U.S.A.
Well, that’s it for now! My next few posts will most likely just be me pumping out Eurotrip things until all of my pictures/videos are up. Remember–appreciate the little things, always 🙂
Color my life 