A weekend in Copenhagen

Carl Johan and I decided to have a weekend away and so we chose to visit Denmark’s capital. We took the train because that’s what adventurers should do, sort of.

We chose to stay at Wakeup Copenhagen, a hotel that was built in 2009 which offers the cheapest rooms in the city, if you still want a lavatory in your room. It is modernly built and extremely minimalistic with space pod rooms measuring a mere 12-15 m² in area. Every room is exactly the same, furnished simply with a bed, television, and bathroom but most importantly there’s free wifi. Coming in the door, you have to activate the power (lights et al) in the room by putting a key card in a slot on the wall.

Paying more for your room only puts you higher up in the building - no extra beds, no extra space, just a nicer view and although located right beside the tracks of the central station, the rooms are quiet. There were absolutely no disturbances and no construction sites right outside the window like there seems to have been back in 2009 or earlier this year (I had read reviews before we booked our stay). It was in a very decent location for walking if you aren’t a fat mess. Just saying.

Beforehand, most of our stay was planned upon good shopping. After arriving, our plan was altered to just wandering around and drinking coffee because the weather was mostly clear, there was no snow at all, and there were even moments where sunshine blinded us because we haven’t seen it for months.

For the first time ever, I didn’t spend any money but I did try on some fantastic fur hats that Cal talked me out of. Wearing animals eventually makes me sad and he knows it.

We wandered around what we think is Denmark’s version of Sweden’s NK, a shopping mall called Illum. At the very top of this shopping centre, there is a café and since we were hungry, we decided to try it out after lingering around looking at Malene Birger dresses and Acne shoes.

The café wasn’t very good. We thought we’d be Danish about it and have beef for lunch but unless Danes like their meat cold with tin foil bits left on the meat and a hair in the potatoes, we’re pretty certain the chef was having an off day or perhaps it’s just not a good place to eat. The coffee wasn’t the greatest and my orange juice tasted like beer (and now Cal assures me that everything in Denmark tastes like beer). But what can you expect for a place at the top of a shopping centre that sells fur hats on sale for 4,000 SEK?

My first visit of Denmark leaves the impression that it is a place where everyone eats beef, drinks beer, wears real fur coats and hats, and expects Swedes to understand Danish quite easily. Every corner has a shop selling pelts, leather, fur coats, hats or gloves. With KFC, Cinemax, and salting the streets, it could easily be taken for America’s best Scandinavian friend. And let’s not forget that I cannot listen to Danish without giggling a bit.

I’ll have to visit again when it’s warmer when there’s more wandering to be done. I bet it’s a superb city in the spring.

More photographs here.