Copen-haven

Mabel Kang
Sep 6, 2016
6 min read

It's general knowledge that Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in Europe so with that in mind, I didn't really want to spend too much time in Copenhagen because by basic math logic, spending lesser time in the place = spending lesser money!

We planned for a day trip to Copenhagen that could encapsulate both the fun, beauty and charm of Copenhagen in a nutshell.

This was our itinerary for the day:

1. Nyhavn Harbour (iconic colourful buildings by the harbour that are very instagrammable)

2. Ice cream (because who goes Denmark without trying their ice cream?)

3. The Little Mermaid (practically a symbol of Copenhagen)

4. Tivoli Gardens (super fun amusement park with pretty hardcore rides)

5. Copenhagen Street Food (cos now that you've seen Copenhagen, you'd wanna taste it too)

We reached Nyhavn Harbour about 11am and it was swarming with tourists. It was hard to get a picture without someone being in it but nevertheless, the beauty of Nyhavn Harbour was really worth it. Trust me, you won't be able to stop taking photos of the beautiful colourful houses in every single way possible. We walked down the entire stretch of the harbour and I stopped to take a picture almost every 100 metres just so I could have a close-up shot, a far-away shot, a panorama shot, a full-body shot, a half-body shot and a selfie shot.

There are plenty of cafes and restaurants located right by the harbour and there is this really popular ice cream shop called Vaffelbageren. What made us attracted to this place was firstly, the crowd in the shop and secondly, people walking out of the shop happily holding SUPER HUGE ice cream cones looking like they just won a lottery. There's a big ice cream structure right at the entrance so you won't miss it. Or just follow the trail of happy ice cream-holding people.

We had the double scoop cone with choco-banana and stracciatella (the top scoop pictured below). What's better than ice cream + the view?

As we walked down the harbour, I noticed a signage pointing to The Little Mermaid, 2.4 km away. I was like, hey that isn't very far, let's walk there! It wasn't one of my smartest ideas as we had no data and there was no wifi, so no google maps and so... we got lost.

We spent nearly 45 minutes walking about and asking locals how to get to the Little Mermaid and they were all like "Just follow the water". We looked around and it was all buildings and parks around us. Like are we supposed to have an innate sense of knowing where the water is?! Cos I definitely don't. But we thanked the locals for their help anyway and tried to "follow the water".

The green piece of shit on top of the rocks.

After asking 4 locals for directions, with the last one affirming that we were nearby, we tried to look for the famous statue but all we saw was the harbour, more water and a bunch of rocks in the distance.

Me: Where is it!?I don't see it. She said it should be around here...

Me: (looks into the distance) All I can see is that big bunch of rocks!

CS: Omg I see it!

Me: (squints into the distance) WHERE?

CS: It's that small green shit on top of that bunch of rocks.

So when we FINALLY arrived at The Little Mermaid, it was starting drizzle AND it was crowded. But I shoved my way through and probably got in the way of other people's pictures to get my shot of it (pictured above). It wasn't grand or big or anything so it was a little disappointing but in a very touristy fashion, I couldn't leave Copenhagen without seeing The Little Mermaid!

Having checked that off my must-see list, we headed to Tivoli Gardens - a famous amusement park in Copenhagen. Not many pictures here to show as I was too busy having fun to take photos. :)

I sat on a few rollercoasters and of course, screamed my lungs out on all of them. So if you're a rollercoaster fanatic or an adrenaline junkie, try out Dæmonen (The Demon). Trust me, it's as scary as it sounds. Here's a google image of how the rollercoaster ride looks like:

Picture from: http://en.tucoaster.com/coaster/view/dmonen-the-demon.html

There were a few more rollercoaster rides that were slightly milder but still exhilarating. What I loved about Tivoli Gardens wasn't just their rides but the entire atmosphere. There really were gardens and palaces within the compound with fair/carnival food and games. I shan't elaborate further as you would really have to be there to get the full experience of what I'm talking about.

After spending a good 4-5 hours at Tivoli Gardens thinking that I was gonna die every time there was a rollercoaster drop, we were famished. We headed to Copenhagen Street Food and it didn't disappoint.

There were many food stalls and food trucks in this warehouse building with indoor and outdoor seating. With so many options ranging from Italian to Korean to Moroccan to Thai, I was spoilt for choice!

In the end, we ordered 4 main courses in total (shared between the 2 of us).

From left to right: Carbonara, Hot Love Burger, Porchetta Burger and Fish & Chips.

The carbonara was from a food truck called Il Mattarello which sells organic, hand-made pasta. The carbonara was simple with only a few ingredients - pork cheek, eggs, pecorino cheese (loads of it, freshly shredded from the wheel of cheese) and organic black pepper - but it hit the spot. Although it didn't have any cream-based sauce, it definitely wasn't lacking in flavour.

The pasta itself really stole the show for me - the texture was smooth and was coated nicely with the egg and I could tell it was 100% fresh and hand-made. They make it for you right on the spot - there was no pre-made sauce, pre-fried meat or pre-shredded cheese; everything was made to order. Loved, loved, loved it!

The steak burger is called Hot Love - steak between 2 toasted buns (which were a little too hard and dry in my opinion), topped with cheese, relish and their special chilli sauce. I thought the steak was a bit too tough but nevertheless, it was well seasoned which made it a pretty good and big burger. As you can probably tell from the picture, they were very generous with the sauce so eating it was sloppy but hey, it's called 'street food' for a reason! I would have appreciated it more if I could be more tolerant of spicy food. It was a pity that the other burgers in the menu were sold out so Hot Love was more or less the only option.

At this point our stomach were probably 40-50% full. So we ordered another 2 more mains - a Porchetta Burger and Fish & Chips.

The Porchetta Burger was from a food stall called La Fattoria. Slow-roasted pork pieces encased between 2 well-toasted buns, topped with aioli and their special red pepper sauce, with a side of roasted potatoes. Don't you just love it when the burger is so overflowing with its filling that it can't be eaten properly? Because I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT.

The porchetta was tender and juicy, the sauce was very unique in its flavour - slightly sweet yet peppery. And to top it all off - the side potatoes were perfectly seasoned with salt and oregano (I think?) albeit a little too oily. It was goooooooood.

The Fish & Chips was from a very popular stall called Toldbodens Fish & Chips and we had the 8pc fish and we could barely finish it considering what we ate. The fish came in small nugget-sized pieces and they were fresh, perfectly fried and filled with all the fresh fishy goodness from the Danish sea. They were very generous with their fries and suffice to say, we obviously couldn't finish the fries (because I was too busy finishing the potatoes from the porchetta burger).

What I loved about this was their presentation. It was garnished with seasonal vegetables like thin slices of carrots, even purple carrots and sprigs of parsley (even though we didn't really eat them but 10 points for effort)! It was hands-down the best-looking fish & chips I'd ever come across.

And we went home with very full and happy stomachs.

Copenhagen is definitely more than just it's mermaid. It's a really charming (and expensive) city and I loved what Copenhagen had to offer - everything from it's architecture, food to its tourist attractions.

So if you're planning to head over to Copenhagen just for a day, why not give my itinerary a try! I promise you will go back having spent a fun and full day in Copenhagen. Just a caveat: you might wanna rethink whether The Little Mermaid is worth the visit HAHA.

Next up: I'll be writing about my day trip to Gothenburg and my 6 days trip to Norway shortly so stay tuned! :)