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What I Ate in Copenhagen

If you had asked me a month ago what makes Denmark so great, the last thing I would’ve said would be the food. When I think of Scandinavian cuisine, I immediately picture lots of fermented/pickled fish or something you could get from an Ikea cafeteria. So needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find AMAZING food in Copenhagen! The food scene there has been gaining more and more attention over the last several years, with Copenhagen being home to several Michelin-starred restaurants and what is considered to be the best restaurant in the world, Noma. While we didn’t partake in the some of the nicer eateries, we were able to find great food all around the city:

smorrebrod

Smørrebrød

Smørrebrød: Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, but Smørrebrød are open-faced sandwiches that are quintessentially Danish. They’re made with Danish rye bread and are usually topped with some sort of seafood or egg salad, and can be found almost everywhere in Copenhagen. We went to Torvehallerne, an upscale food market (and one of the best I’ve ever been to) to try them, and we weren’t disappointed. I had a less-traditional Smørrebrød with roast beef, pickled veggies, grated horseradish, and fried onions, while my friend had one with breaded white fish and a shrimp topping.

flodboller

flødeboller

Pastries: They’re not called danishes for nothing! Still at Torvehallerne, we stopped at a bakery for some dessert. Denmark is famous for cinnamon buns, or Kanelsnegle, so of course we had to get one of those—and it was out of this world! I also got something called a flødeboller, which when I translated the name on my phone it came up as ‘cream puff’. I was expecting the typical choux pastry with cream in the middle, but it turned out it was just marshmallow fluff covered in chocolate–still teeth-rottingly sweet and delicious though!

carlsberg2

Carlsberg

Carlsberg: Copenhagen is home to Carlsberg beer, a brand that you can find in probably every bar in Denmark. They have a “Carlsberg Exbeerience” visitor’s center at their original factory that includes tours of the factory, the largest collection of beer bottles in the world, 20 Jutland horses, and of course, a bar. Admission includes two free drinks, so we tried the original Carlsberg and the Carlsberg Special Brew. I’m generally not a beer person, but Carlsberg is my new go to–though I’m not sure how common it is in the US.

cheesecake

Cheesecake

Cheesecake: One of our walking tour guides told us that we would be crazy not to try the cheesecake at Bertel’s Salon, so of course we couldn’t pass it up! We got there about an hour before closing, they only had a few flavors left, and it was expensive (a whole cheesecake goes for 450dkk, or about $70!)–but it was the best cheesecake I’ve ever had in my entire life. Hands down, no contest. I had the cherry, and it was the perfect mix of tart and sweet, and the cake itself was rich without being too dense. It was my heaven.

contidorilaglace

Othellokage

Hot chocolate and more cake: Yet another cake place we couldn’t not go to. Conditori La Glace is the oldest confectionery in Denmark, and the interior is the same as it would’ve been back in the 1870’s when it first opened (so basically adorable in every way). It also has one of the best hot chocolates in the world (according to the internet), so we were there. We got the hot chocolate which was delicious and intensely rich, and it came with its own little silver dish of whipped cream. They offered free seconds, but I literally couldn’t move afterwards so I wasn’t up for it.  We also had two of their famous cakes–the sportskage, which was crushed nougat and whipped cream with a macaroon bottom and caramelized choux pastry, and the othellokage, with custard cream and chocolate ganache. Both were to die for, and the atmosphere of the cafe made it even better.

paludan

Brunch at Paludan

#Danesknowbrunch: The morning after we arrived, we went for brunch at Paludan Bogcafe, a bookstore/cafe/bar recommended to us by a friend who was in Copenhagen a few weeks earlier. We each got the Paludan’s Brunch, and it was mind blowing. It included scrambled eggs with sun dried tomatoes, bacon, sausage, prosciutto and melon, smoked salmon, a pancake, danish brown bread with butter, two cheeses, and homemade berry jam, mixed fruit, Greek yogurt with berries, syrup and muesli, and a choice of a smoothie or fresh-squeezed orange juice. I didn’t even know where to start but everything on the plate was delicious!

That’s all for Copenhagen!


Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen

A few weekends ago, we decided to make a last minute trip to Denmark–you know, to get away from the cold and overcast weather and the expensive restaurants and stores of London.  Copenhagen has got to be one of my new favorite cities–it’s small for a European capital but it couldn’t have been more different than London. Here are six things I loved about København, Danmark.

nyhavn

Nyhavn

Nyhavn: I’ve been to a lot of places where I’ve seen pictures of the most iconic place/street, and then have expected the whole town or city to look like that, or be in that style. Copenhagen was the first place where the style of the iconic Nyhavn harbor carried throughout the city. It almost felt as if everything was built at one time, because all of the buildings look the same and they’re almost all the same height–kind of like “it’s a small world” land. That being said, Copenhagen was adorable. Pastel-colored houses and cobblestoned streets were around every corner.

Hygge: Hygge (pronounced hoo-gah) is the one word of Danish I learned while in Copenhagen (it’s a hard language!), and it’s my new favorite word. It doesn’t have a direct English translation, but the closest would be ‘cozy’. It’s basically the feeling that you get when you curl up under a blanket by the fire on a cold night, in an oversized sweater while drinking a cup of tea. It’s not just a term, but it’s a lifestyle–I’m convinced Hygge is why Denmark was just named the happiest country on earth, even though it’s insanely expensive to live there and for a lot of year it’s dark 17 hours a day and freezing cold.

fishkiss

Spa day at the aquarium

Fish Pedicures: This isn’t a Danish thing, and it’s definitely not something I planned on doing while in Copenhagen, but when we walked by the window we couldn’t help but go inside. I’d seen fish spas on TV (I’m pretty sure the Kardashians did it once), but I’d never seen one in the US (and as it turns out, a lot of states have banned them). Basically what you do is wash your feet really well, a spa worker checks for any broken skin or scabs (which need covered by a bandage), and you just dunk your feet in the tank for anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. The fish go crazy and start eating all of the dead skin off your feet (which I definitely needed after months of walking around London), and, as gross as it might sound, it really works! It didn’t hurt at all either–the fish don’t have teeth–but it tickled like crazy!

The People: Everyone we met was super friendly (and they all speak English!). So nice and friendly–until they got on their bikes. I didn’t see anyone with a helmet (I saw several with noise-cancelling headphones though), and they tend not to care about the rules of the road–our tour guide put it best when he said “the biking vikings take no prisoners”. All near-death experiences with bikers aside, everyone was super nice–and so pretty! Maybe it’s because they don’t see that much sun so their skin is just really nice, maybe it’s because everyone is very tall and blonde, or maybe it’s because everyone dresses like a model out of an H&M catalogue.

Sweden: Just because we could, we decided to get lunch on Sunday–in Sweden. It was only a half-hour train ride to Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city, from Copenhagen, so we were able to just make a quick trip over. We probably should’ve realized that, like many European cities, most things are closed on Sundays, but we found a big shopping mall so we were set!

christiania

The entrance to Christiania

Christiania: Where do I begin with Christiania. A self-declared free city, Christiania is a community in Copenhagen founded in the 1970s that is most famous for its “green light district”, also known as Pusher Street. The rules? No photos (because what they’re selling still isn’t legal in Denmark), no running (it incites panic), no hard stuff, and have fun. The Danish government is well aware of what goes on but doesn’t really care–it’s a sort of crazy social experiment that while isn’t universally liked in Denmark, is still fascinating to visit.

And of course, there was the food–but that’s too long to fit into one post. Next up: what I ate in Copenhagen!


Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Weekend Travels: Copenhagen and Vienna

The best part of Europe to an American is that it’s so small! Compared to my home state of Pennsylvania, the distance between one city to another is nothing. My central location in Maastricht is convenient for weekend trips, and I’m definitely taking advantage of our university’s scheduled three day weekend!
Last weekend I went to Copenhagen. I had never been to Denmark or any Scandinavian country, but I found a train that let me fall asleep in Cologne and wake up in Copenhagen, so I said “why not?” It was such a fun city — museums displaying full sized Viking boats, an amusement park in the middle of town, an autonomous hippy state, and the best bread I’ve ever tasted in my life. Seriously, they don’t process their wheat before they made bread, so it’s chewy and filling and full of fiber. 
I took a bike tour to see as much of the city as possible, and I ended up really enjoying the hippy paradise of Christiana. In the 70’s, a group of squatters took over an abandoned military baraks. The police decided to look the other way, and soon the tiny area had turned into a full fledged autonomous state. They’ve built their own houses and buildings in addition to the ones they took over, and it has a booming economy independent of Danish rule. They have hair salons, restaurants, doctors offices, basically every need is met. The town is ruled by direct democracy and all decisions are made by consensus. The coolest part to me is that they have strict policy on development, and are therefore the most biodiverse area of Copenhagen.
I also took a day trip to Sweden, but on my way I visited the castle of a town called Helsingoer. In English, that would be pronounced “Elsinore.” Any literary nerds understand why the castle was so exciting yet? It’s the castle that Shakespeare set “Hamlet” in! I’m a huge fan of Shakespeare and I was an assistant director for that play a couple summers ago, so I geeked out trying to figure out which rooms each scene might have taken place in. I was disappointed to find out that Hamlet was not a real person; rather, he was based on Danish legend. Therefore no Hamlet, Polonius, or Gertrude ever actually occupied the castle. It was still the highlight of my trip though!
This weekend I’m staying in Vienna! I have a good friend from the city and so I’ve heard stories about how beautiful it is. I can now confirm the truth of that statement, and also add that Vienna is one of the best cities to visit in terms of food, art, and culture. I’ve eaten the famous “Sacher torte” which is chocolate cake with apricot jam topped with chocolate ganache, and drunk their cappuccino-esque “melange” at one of the famous Viennese cafes. The town is easy to walk through and the architectural opulence of the Habsburg empire dominates the city. Every building is grand and ornate, even outside of the tourist areas.
I realize I’ve been blogging mostly about my trips rather than the classes I’ve been taking, so my next update will talk more about Maastricht itself and my “Politics of the European Integration” course. I’m going to go continue to enjoy Vienna for now though!

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark