Student Bloggers

Last weekend, my friends and I ventured to Copenhagen, Denmark, which is definitely my favorite place I’ve visited so far (Edinburgh still wins, though!). Functioning on about 3 hours of sleep, we hopped on an early flight out of Edinburgh and got into Copenhagen around noon. We stayed at the Danhostel, a huge high-rise hostel situated downtown that felt more like a hotel. For lunch, we found a café that serves smørrebrød, a traditional Danish meal of open-faced sandwiches. From there, we explored the city, wandering through the streets and stopping in different places. We went to the National Museum and perused old toys and housewares, and then explored Christiansborg Palace, where there was a tower that gave us a view of the entire city. That evening, we actually got to meet up with some of my friends from home and school who are studying in Copenhagen, and they showed us around the city’s nightlife.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early and rented bikes. I didn’t know before I visited, but Copenhagen is a huge biking city! Every street has bike lanes, and a lot of residents use biking as their main means of transportation. For us, it took a while to get used to biking etiquette and finding our way around the city, but it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. Biking was such an easy and cheap way to get around Copenhagen, and allowed us to really get a sense of the city at the same time. After a delicious brunch, we biked to Copenhagen’s botanical gardens, and also found a cool marketplace in the city square. From there, we biked to Nyhavn, which is the waterfront district of Copenhagen lined with all of the multicolored shops and restaurants. After exploring Nyhavn for a while, we then biked to our final destination of the day, Christiana, or “Freetown”. Christiana is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood located within Copenhagen, established by a group of hippies in 1971. Stepping into Christiana was like stepping into a different world; it’s a green and car-free neighborhood, and the streets are lined with tiny shops in tents, food trucks, and masked people selling marijuana. Because marijuana is illegal in Copenhagen, there are signs posted throughout Christiana warning visitors not to take photos. It was definitely an interesting experience, and not something I would have expected to find in Copenhagen. From there, we hopped back on the bikes and grabbed dinner downtown. Completely exhausted from the day’s travels, we ended up just going back to the hotel and falling asleep early.

Overall, I absolutely loved Copenhagen and would love to go visit again for a longer time. It was a beautiful, interesting, and very progressive city, and felt very different than Edinburgh in many ways. However, at the end of every trip, I find myself very ready to return to Edinburgh. Every day I spend here, I am more and more grateful to call this city my home. I am constantly finding news things I love about it, and look forward to continue exploring over the next 4 months. Cheers!