Thursday, February 12, 2015

Copenhagen and Hamburg - Day 2: Cold-penhagen!

My feet are about to fall off! According to FitBit, I walked 9.76 miles today. Lest you think I'm wasting away (but for reals, no one thinks that), I had something much like jalapeno poppers from Burger King (6 for $3 - couldn't resist!) and a $30 meal that was really just burger, fries, and a coke.

When I was leaving the hostel this morning, some genius propped their bike against the door I exit from.  So when I opened the door, the bike fell and I awkwardly lifted the bike (it was pretty big and had a child seat behind the regular seat) and moved it. If I saw myself, I would have laughed. If you think of a comedic movie where a small, uncoordinated person tries to lift something, that would be me.

I did a lot today. This morning I walked to Christianshvn where I found Christiania and Pusher Street aka "The Green Light District".  It's a strange shady ghost town. I took pictures in Christiania but outside Pusher Street because there's a million signs that say no photos. Maybe I was too early but not much was going on and I'm a little offended that no one asked if I wanted to buy drugs. I mean, I didn't but I would still like to be asked. And they're drug pushers - they have one job - sell drugs.. and you're not going to sell any if you don't ask random people walking by if they want any!  The closest I got was when I first entered Christiania and a guy asked if I spoke English and then asked if the police were outside (weird, right?).  I told him no but he didn't even sell me any drugs.  (I'm pretty sure my mom reads this so maybe I should take this part out. Well, hugs, not drugs, mom.. so if you don't want me to buy drugs in foreign countries then open up those arms!)





Then I walked around looking like a total tourist with a map and taking random pictures on the street while bikers and drivers look on.  (Solo traveling has made me much more shameless.)  I found my way to the National Museum.  There was a cool temporary exhibit about fur. I wandered around the other displays - my favorite was the one about toys.
A (fake?) blood-covered (fake?) fur coat.  Did not want to try on.



A fur coat Makayla might like - Mickey and Minnie are on it!
You're welcome - you get the point.
I'm not sure why this vest was part of the fur exhibit (clearly I missed the entire point of it) but I was wearing the same (not exact) one. Probably not a good sign for my sartorial choices.

Infrared camera - that's me! Probably the hunting part of the exhibit.


I really just took this photo for my mom. If she were here, she'd say this is my friend. Yes, I inherited my knack for spouting out random, nonsensical statements from her (or my dad.. he's weird too). Thanks, ma!
The ultimate guilt trip.  "Sorry I'm wearing part of your family."
I thought this staircase was cool. It reminds me of a bird cage.

My favorite painting in the museum.
The creepiest corner.
The toy exhibit had stuffed animals danging from the ceiling. To me, this seemed creepy. Are my captions horrible? Probably.
I don't even know which exhibit this was part of.

Then I found Tivoli, which was so sad because it was closed.


This is the beginning (but not the end) of what it looks like when I don't get my way.  This is followed by hyperventilating, screaming, kicking, etc. It gets bad.
After that, it took me forever but I finally found the famous Little Mermaid statue.

Since it took me so long to get there, I was enjoying the statue. And then.. a lot of Chinese tourists came by and it got hectic.

Next, I discovered the Design Museum of Denmark, which was small but pretty cool.


















Big chairs because.. why not?


























From there, I had the aforementioned pricey meal at Hot Buns Gastro Burgers (ironic that eating
there results in your buns not being hot) and came back to the hostel. If this doesn't sound like a lot, I was out for about 10 hours today and it took me a long time to find where I was going (Asian). Here's some pictures! I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow.. I can't really go shopping yet because I'm flying to Hamburg tomorrow and lugging souvenirs from a place I'll be back in a few days isn't ideal. Oh well!

PS I've had the randomest songs in my head today. Here's my playlist..
1 - When You're Alone from Raising Hope
2 - Fossil and Footprints - this song I sang in elementary school (was it kindergarten?) for an assembly when I was dressed up in an adorable dinosaur costume and had a bowl cut
3 - This Hand is Your Hand from Friends (you know.. this hand is your hand.. oh wait it's my hand.. no wait that's your hand..)
4 - Friend Like Me from Aladdin

Here's some other random pictures:
Yup!
It IS a good day!
Make space on the mantle, mom! This is your souvenir!
This is pretty cool. You can flip the little tiles to spell out stuff. 
You HAVE to smile at the #HAPPY WALL.

Even their trash cans are well designed! (This is actually white, not pink. That'd be too cute.)
This fake Mickey Mouse was taking pictures with kids and I really wanted to take a picture with him (for the blog) but I didn't have any DKK and I doubt fake Mickey would grant a photo op out of the goodness of his heart.
Christmas decorations on sale in February - love it!
Hans Christian Andersen statue - he is probably not appreciating this.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Copenhagen and Hamburg - Day One: Copin' in Copenhagen

I'm not sure if today was short or just too long. After an uncomfortable 10-hour flight (middle seat - no thanks), I made it to Copenhagen. Their airport is really quiet and the process is so easy - no immigration or customs forms required, show my passport and stampety stamp - I'm in!  I made it to the hostel at about 4pm and explored the city and did what I do best - EAT! This post is boring - sorry! But tomorrow I want to go to Christiana and "Pusher Street", so I'll try to find some trouble, like taking pictures of the dealers (you're not supposed to) for the sake of the blog.  Here's some pictures!


In the hostel
Ice cream... and churros!
I have infinite respect for a city that keeps Christmas lights up in February. (They might be regular lights but don't rain on my parade!)
MORE ice cream!
Copenhagen has great home goods stores. I loved the rainbow lights on this staircase.
"You can buy your hair if it won't grow..."
I'm not sure what this means in Danish but it was a clothing store.
Fish Kiss.. Doctor Fish! Is this one of those places where the gross fish eat your gross scaly dead skin cells on your heel? I kinda want to go there, if that's the case.
Not sure if anything like this would be outside a store in LA.
I miss you London! I'll see you during my layover on the way back.
After initially laughing at the ice cream + churro combination, I decided to go for it. Look at their tagline below..
"Be good to yourself"  Don't mind if I do! (Wait.. is this related to health and wellness? If so, I totally got this wrong.
Enjoying my ice cream and churros while taking in the atmosphere. I had to take off my mittens to eat this, so I was really committing to my decision. It was the bomb dot com!