The Copenhagen Files Pt. 2

Alright, so now we've been back in Hamburg a few days, our colds are pretty much under control and my vacation is winding down. So it's time to continue the story. Once again, I'm writing on my iPad and the pics are on my PC, so I'll add them all at once, so use you mind imaginations for now.

And once again...I'll start off talking about the financial aspect.

To compare: we spent almost double the amount of time (9 days instead of 5) and double the amount of money on our trip to Paris last year. However, in Paris we didn't pay for the accomodations (that part was a present), so all of our budget was basically spent on entertainment and food and travel. We also just did a shitload of stuff in Paris (8+ hours per day worth or sightseeing). In Copenhagen, our colds prevented a lot of heavy activity, since we were simply exhausted a lot of the time. Also we were working with a two person budget of around 1800 Danish Krones (~240€/$333), which is about 24€ per day per person or 12 half-liter cans of Carlsberg beer (from the supermarket) per person per day - if you're measuring in beer. I know that sounds like a lot of beer (and yeah, it is) but in Hamburg, 24€ would get us about 28 half-liter cans of Becks (from the supermarket). Ya feel me?

So what I'm trying to say is that for the first time in my life, I sort of understood the mindset of my German friends when the Deutsche Mark changed to the Euro in 2002 and how they're (still) constantly converting back to the D-Mark and then bitching about how much cheaper everything used to be. Yeah, that was me for 5 days. Luckily, Copenhagen has a 7-11 on every corner and for most of our trip they were selling 2 croissants for 10kr. So we ate a lot of those.

While it might sound like I'm complaining, it's really mostly about the downside of our financial situation while we were in the city. In truth, I could see myself living in Copenhagen. It's a clean city, I could survive fairly well without any knowledge of the Danish language (although it's also a bit easier to navigate by reading if you also know German as well).

Also there's this great concept of hygge that I can really get down with. Hygge (at least the way that I'm choosing to understand it) is basically the art of chillin' and usually often associated with snuggling up all nice and cosy on a sofa on a cold/rainy night with a bunch of candles and watching tv/dvds. I would actually love to do this most days. And tbh, I often already do. The apartment in which we were staying had 2 flat screen tvs. One in the living room and one hanging on the wall in the bedroom. Holla.


While our host was showing us the place after we arrived, he even suggested that if the weather was bad and we felt like staying in, we could curl up in bed and choose a selection from their dvd trunk. Yes, please. I will integrate this part of Danish culture in my life. It's the fucking apex of sophistication.

Now at this point, you're probably wondering why I haven't started telling you about the shit we did. Well, here's day one in a nutshell: we spent 4 hours looking for the tourist center to get a map of the city. Like many big cities, the downtown area is just an eternal construction site. So of course it took awhile. My camera died while we were out, so I have no photos of that day.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the trip roughly coincided with the 4th anniversary of our first date. I didn't necessarily plan it to be this way, procrastination kind of just made it happen. I'm not a stickler for anniversaries and all that nonsense. Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't even be able to remember the exact date. Unfortunately, it just so happens that the day after our first date, I found out that my dad passed away. For a long time, I thought it would put a cloud over our relationship, but in a way it's been a much appreciated source of comfort. In that sense, I consider myself extremely lucky.

We spent our first evening in CPH indulging in some Danish hygge and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

...to be continued.