Copenhagen, Ten Years In The Making

Are you ready for the final stop of Eurotrip 2012?! (Here's the rest, ICYMI: Paris -> Venice -> Lausanne -> Munich -> Berlin.) And now, Copenhagen!

My journey to Copenhagen started when I was in fourth grade, when the honors program I was in assigned group projects on the various Scandinavian countries. My group got Denmark. From that moment on, I had a slightly obsessive desire to visit the country... and ten years later, I finally got my chance!

Our group of seven had splintered again (the others spent an extra day in Berlin), so Jen, Amanda and I hopped on our second and final overnight train from Berlin to Copenhagen. On this train we had "couchettes," which were basically makeshift beds that folded out of the wall and were LIGHTYEARS more comfortable than the seats we had on the last overnight train. So I actually slept on this journey! But we had barely set foot on Danish soil when one of my Achilles heels started to hurt. I hadn't done anything to it (besides wear Converse, a decision I will regret forever), but I was once again resigned to hobbling around a city. Bruised head in Paris, plantar fasciitis in Venice, bruised tailbone in Berlin, bruised Achilles heel in Copenhagen. Impressive resume, no? :P

Since we'd now been traveling for two and a half weeks straight, Copenhagen was an interesting point for us. My entire body hurt. I was exhausted. I was short-tempered. I was broke. It felt like I hadn't eaten a well-balanced meal since we left London. But at the same time, all the stress of traveling was gone. No more budgeting our money and energy to have some left for the next city! We were all pros at handling ourselves and each other, and all had our roles within the group that we effortlessly slid into. And we had a whopping four days in Copenhagen with no real agenda, so we had the luxury of sleeping a little more and leisurely making our way through the city.

Copenhagen is a fantastic city. We took a walking tour and a canal tour to see the iconic sights and learn some history, and of course visited the Little Mermaid statue before we left! We stumbled across the design center and Hans Christian Andersen, climbed the round tower, shopped on Strøget (one of the longest pedestrian-only streets in Europe), found our way to the royal residences, and toured the Carlsberg brewery.

We also happened across a marching band procession in the streets. And reunited with Cynthia, who was with Jen, Amanda and me for our first few legs of the trip, since Copenhagen was her study abroad home. And met up with one of Lorraine's friends, who lives in Copenhagen and introduced us to his restaurant-owning parents, who served us a massive, delicious, homecooked Chinese dinner free of charge (god bless those people). And we spent a good chunk of time in Christiania, an autonomous commune within the city where pot is legal and the 1970s live on (seriously, it was like a trip back in time).

And all of it was awesome.

We also did slightly better with our "usual" pictures, as we got TWO this time! We hadn't gotten two since Lausanne!

 Still not great at the jumping, even after six cities.

They had just found out about Endurance. So they were making a big deal out of me being "famous," haha.

Aaaaaaaand then we headed back to London, where I dragged my battered body up to my flat and hibernated (read: slept) for a week.

For my original post about Copenhagen, see here! I can't believe I'm done with Eurotrip... again. But I still have several European adventures up my sleeve, so stay tuned for some United Kingdom goodies! :)