day ten . 10 may

kobenhavn, denmark

our 1st stop of the day was to see the little mermaid statue, made famous by hans christian andersen, a danish himself. little mermaid has always been a personal favourite of mine, although i prefer the disney version better. i find the original one is a tad bit too melancholic.

little mermaid statue

as we strolled along the waterfront, we got to see the changing of guards at the amalienborg palace, nyhavn, a street by the river lined with resturants, cafes and bars – the place yinghao tried to explain was similar to clarke quay, kongens nytorv, where we got to try the yummy tulip hotdogs and of course, the famous stroget (pronounced stroll-yet) the world’s longest pedestrian thoroughfare.

outside the amalienborg palace

bars and restuarant lined nyhavn

tulip hotdog has a stall!


stroget - the world's longest pedestrian street

taking the metro, we reached christianhavn, an extremely interesting place where photo taking beyond a certain stretch (pusher street) is strictly forbidden. for it is here, where drugs are pedaled.

story has it that in 1971, a group of hippies created a “free city” of their own, which has since, became to be known as Christiania. christiania is a apparently not within the jurisdiction of the danish government and efforts by the government to re-claim this place only led to much protest from the 1000 odd residents living here. they have their own flag (3 dots symbolizing the dots of the 3 “i”s in its name – “christinia”) and there’s even this sign behind the entrance that says “you are now entering EU”. started by the flower children, the place is now filled with punks and druggies. very interesting place.

christinia flag

the 3 "i"s

border of christinia and the rest of copenhagen

at everyone’s recommendation, we tried the tarts at lagkagehuset.

bakery

yummy tarts - a "must go" for anyone with a sweet tooth (:

anal tours

on our way to yock song's house

that night, yock song made ginger chicken in sesame oil. it’s no wonder that fellow korean girls on exchange in denmark have labeled him the perfect husband material. since it was our last night in kobenhavn, we headed over to a pub over at stroget for some live music and drinks at an irish bar. despite the terrible vocals of the lead singer, it was still a great night out, marking an end to our short 2 day visit to copenhagen.

master chef at work

singaporeans!

night lights of copenhagen

kobenhavn is one of those pleasant places which is impossible to dislike. it was made better by the fact that i got to meet up with wanshan, and i really enjoyed the late night chats we had. still, its not a place i would think of going back, at least not so soon. maybe just like how yinghao likes it for its cleanliness and efficiency (very much like singapore), im not as excited about the place precisely because it resembles singapore far too much.

i like it but im not in love.