Copenhagen, I was in you.

How does one casually begin a blog post after almost year of not posting without being too obvious about not being around for that long? You don’t? Well, okay! Let me just jump right into it then. I was in Europe for 15 days at the beginning of September. Aka two weeks ago, aka I’m still kind of recovering, aka I already want to travel again.

This trip was a long-time coming and I spent months (literal months) planning, booking and waiting for it to become a reality. I embarked on this crazy two-week journey with four of my friends, whose stinking guts I now hate with the fatty core of my being … Just kidding! <3 I digress. We visited five different countries, each of which I plan on writing about. So get ready for this shit show!

Our first stop was Copenhagen, Denmark. (Side note: I suggested this country because I watched Pitch Perfect 2 for the first time recently and well, you know me and how easily impressed I am.) It took a total of 18+ hours to actually make it to Copenhagen from El Paso, Texas, with layovers in Atlanta and Amsterdam. I arrived stinky but you already know I was ready af because how often do you get this lucky?!

Copenhagen was such a pleasant surprise. Perhaps it was just the high from pure excitement, but I was so ready to incite Instagram-envy in my followers (because I am a shitty millennial af), even though I was secretly dying inside from being awake for like 30 hours.

One of the first stops we made in Copenhagen was Nyhavn (you know, the colorful array of buildings everyone automatically thinks of when they think of Copenhagen) and that’s where it hit me. The reality of actually making it all the way across the Atlantic and actually standing on Danish ground slapped me right across the left cheek and knocked me on my ass. “I am here. I made it. This is actually happening,” I thought to myself in shock and awe (while also figuratively patting my self-proclaimed accomplished ass on the back).

Also, I was lucky enough to happily witness my two dear friends Tania and Alfredo get engaged as fuck right on a beautiful bridge by Nyhavn. It was the cutest thing. So romantic. I totally cried. You will see that on my video blog coming soon 😉

Simply put, Copenhagen is beautiful. As cliché as it will surely sound, I can’t deny that the juxtaposition between the ancient and the modern is without a doubt satisfying and unforgettable. From walking up the 17th-century spiral ramp that takes you to an unbeatable panoramic view of Copenhagen from the top of the Rudentaarn (Round Tower) to taking a nap on a swanky wooden deck in between very fancy-looking waterside apartment complexes right across world-renowned, two-Michelin-star-holding Noma, this city left me addicted.

The amount of tourists around wasn’t overwhelming at all and the weather was way warmer than I expected it to be in September. Except it did get quite chilly at night, but it wasn’t too bad. Also, their public transportation system is an absolute dream, so getting around was not a worry at all.

After an eight-month wait, I finally got to go to Copenhagen Street Food — a waterside marketplace with a bunch of food stalls with cuisines from all over the world. It was every ounce as delicious as I expected it to be and so much more.

Don’t I look gracefully excited about Copenhagen Street Food? Anyway, we also explored the super-fancy Rosenborg Castle, a 17th-century then-summerhouse so incredibly filled with unbelievable detail in the decoration that it seemed right out of a fairytale. However, I do want to ask how those people were able to live in such a stuffy place … ’cause a homegurl was melting up in there (spoileddddd af).

I also went to the free town Christiania and thought I had stepped into a slightly post-apocalyptic, yet more hippy-ish, 84-acre alternate universe where I very clearly did not belong. But who knows, I might change my mind a few years down the line.

Our two days in Copenhagen came to a close with a chill night at Warpigs Brewpub in the Meatpacking District with a kind of expensive but unbelievably delicious — and strong — in-house-brewed selection of 22 beers.

TRIP COSTS
Flight: El Paso, Texas–Copenhagen, Delta Airlines, $1,051
Accomodation: Airbnb, $425 for two nights/5 people
City Pass: Unlimited 48 hours for 80 DKK ($13 USD), 72 hours for 200 DKK ($32 USD).
Rosengborg Castle: 110 DKK ($18 USD)
Rudentaarn (The Round Tower): 25 DKK ($4 USD)

More on Copenhagen and each of the legs of my trip to come soon in video blogs on my YouTube channel! For now, that is all. Up next: AMSTERDAM.

<3

-v