Copenhagen Round 1: The Whirlwind

Since I've never been called "short winded" in my life.... this is part one of a day-by-day series on our recent trip to Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands, focusing on out first two days. For general thoughts and tips for travelling to these locations, go hit up this heavily bulleted post. 

Coming off a hectic month of work, a royal wedding in which I had to watch my future husband marry a cool (albeit less attractive) other woman, and our yearly 5k, I somehow managed to squeeze in rabid excitement for our looming trip. After months of planning and packing, it was go time. And here's how it allllll began...

Sunday

• Because it's substantially cheaper to fly out of Chicago compared to Milwaukee, leg one of the journey was a bus ride down to Chi. After a drop off from the beau's dad, we were off! We left obnoxiously early, which ended up being a swell idea since, due to traffic, the bus arrived to O'Hare an hour late. 
• After prancing past the British Airways terminal (still decked out for the royal wedding - single tear), we suffered through the ridiculously inefficient security that is the international terminal. (Thanks, O'Hare, for leaving such a great impression on our guests. You suck.) There, we sacrificed a bag of liquids to the TSA gods (seriously, HOW does a ziploc baggie GO MISSING on that five feet of conveyor belt - major flaw there) before breaking from the masses to enjoy some pizza and a beer.
• While dining, we were serenaded by a random youth choir that was rehearsing while waiting at a nearby gate. An audience is an audience, I suppose, no matter where you're queuing! 
• Upon boarding for our 10 pm departure, we were informed that sorry, they had to switch planes and we'd gotten an older model. Comforted by my lack of leg room, I scoped out our fellow passengers, just in case we'd need allies upon crashing. 
• Fun fact: a 10 pm flight comes with TWO meals! Dinner AND breakfast! It's been a hot second since my last transatlantic flight (ten years in fact, almost to the date, since my return from study abroad) that this was just a frickin' delight. Airplane meals are WAY better than I remember! So, major props, SAS. 
• We did dinner and a show (the new Jumanji movie, which we watched on our separate little screens while carefully timing any pauses) and then tried to get some sleep so we could stay up and fight the jetlag upon arrival. 

Go home, plane. You're drunk.

Monday

• It was 1:30 pm Copenhagen time when we arrived, and with a 9:30 pm sunset time, I was stoked to cram in eight hours of exploring! Since we really only had a "24 hour layover" and I wasn't sure how exhausted we'd be on our return layover, I insisted that we see everything possible right away. 
• Since it had been almost a nine hour flight and I was eager to ditch our bags, the first place we aimed for was our hotel, the Copenhagen Strand. We snagged some DKK cashoola and caught the metro. Cheers to Denmark for crushing it on public transit - the metro was clean, efficient and overall just lovely. 
• After a luggage drop and quick showers (fun fact: it ended up being about 75 degrees and I had only packed sweaters so, this gal was a sweaty mess!), it was time for the first of many intricately planned "tours" that I had written up in a Google Doc before out trip. If you want to follow along, here was the "walking tour" I took us on!

Took me awhile to realize København was Copenhagen... derp.

• A short stop from our hotel: the Christiansborg Palace (aka Danish Parliament). We didn't go in, just looked around the outside and checked out the grandiose building while enjoying the beautiful weather. 
• En route to our next stop, I insisted upon getting gelato. We wandered, eating our rapidly melting treats from Gelato Rajissimo, peaking into the occasional shop, and then arrived to the Rundetårn.
• Known as the "Round Tower," for just about $4, you can take the slow and steady spiral walk up to the observation deck atop the tower where you can get a full 360 view of the city. This is a great early stop because it helps you get a bird's eye view of how the city is laid out, so you can sort of see where you'll be heading later to see other sites. Since it's not a strenuous climb to the top, I'd recommend this stop for anyone. There was a gaggle of drunk French women who were particularly enjoying the sites when we were there (we later saw them drinking wine on bicycles in the streets #FrenchAF). Rundetårn also has little history and art exhibits as you spiral up or down. (If you were in a rush, you could go up and down and do a brief look at the exhibits in a half hour even.)

Up on the roof, leaving our mark on the city after a spirally ascent.

• Thanks to my dawdling and constant photo taking, by the time we made our way to Frederik's Church, they had just closed. I could just kick myself at not seeing the inside, because the outside of this huge marble church was just stunning. There were also beautiful lilacs everywhere! 
• Because you just can't go to Copenhagen without seeing it, we next walked along the Kastellet (a star shaped fortress / park area) to get to the Little Mermaid statue. The statue itself was... fine. It was the same somewhat underwhelming feeling I had when seeing the Mona Lisa. It's a beautiful and culturally significant piece of artwork but it's oddly small in real life and so surrounded by tourists that you don't get a chance to really enjoy it. Worth a stop though because there were so many cool gardens and other statues on our walk there, AND a really cool little church that I was obsessed with (aka took fifty photos of). 
• It was getting closer to sunset and was feeding time, so we came back along the canal to head for dinner. Turns out the Royal Run was taking place: a race being run to celebrate the birthday of the Crown Prince, who is apparently an avid runner. At some point, we had missed the royals running (damn it, royal watch fail!) but found ourselves in and out of the course area for the rest of the night. (Because of COURSE there'd be a race wherever we go - the beau was bummed that he didn't know, else he'd have been running it!)
• Dodging the runners, we passed by the Opera House and finally got to Nyhavn. If you've ever seen a postcard of Copenhagen, odds are you saw the Nyhavn. It's the iconic brightly painted houses and restaurants along the canal. Bicycles and merriment to be had by all. We had a restaurant in mind, but it ended up that they only serve Smørrebrød (open faced sandwiches that are a specialty of the region) at lunch. Since the beau really wanted to try them, we instead went to a lovely spot called Nyhavns Faergekro. Sitting outside, eating some delicious local cuisine, watching the runners from a distance, and enjoying a cold beverage after a long day of travelling and walking: it was heaven. 
• We stayed out til after sunset before getting back to the hotel, where we flooded the bathroom (thanks for the lack of shower doors, Europe!) and struggled to stay awake late enough to beat the jet lag. 

Knowing that a week later we'd be back in the city to enjoy more delicious food and sights, it made the introductory whirlwind pretty chill. If we really weren't able to catch something we wanted to see, we'd be able to try and squeeze it in on the way back. The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect jumping point for the entire trip. Because, the next day, we were off to our main destination... the Faroe Islands.

A danish in Denmark, naturally.