copenhagen

feeling very grown up, i took my first few days of annual leave ever! when i was a pupil / practice trainee / trainee barrister, call it what you will, we didn't have a single day off! i remember being sick and being kindly shooed home to "work from home" by my ever-understanding mentor but it was not fun. to make matters worse, the heavy-handed and ineffective board that governed our training would've made us pay back any time off (!!!), threatening to push back the day we got called to the bar (this might've entailed waiting months to be called and left woefully out of sync with our peers). and there were school holidays in uni round two and i may or may not have taken a few cheeky days off. but annual leave! woohoo!

initially planned to straddle a bank holiday long weekend and take 4 days but in effect have 9 days off (incl 2 weekends) to attend dear freinds' wedding in montana. but the 8h flight to DC, connection to chicago then billings then driving to the wedding venue was too ambitious even by my unrealistic standards. decided to go east (sorta) instead and chanced the faroe islands, although the flight route was silly. 2h to copenhagen then back on myself another 2h to faroe. could've flown to edinburgh from london then on to faroe but the timing didn't work out as well.

also, i like copenhagen! the soft light and pure coffee was worth the visit alone.

had a 21 item brunch and was all set for a week in the faroe islands where i'd been warned the food would be seabirds and horse mussels.

incidentally, hilarious danish friends had warned the three topics to avoid when making conversation with the locals were

1. gay rights

2. why whaling is bad

3. why marrying one's cousin is bad

must admit i didn't stray, although there were a few close shaves ;)

danish apartment

ever-resourceful friends booked this gorgeous airbnb right in the centre of town! literally on the main street and next to the best bakery. enter through a heavy wooden door next to a sex shop (aren't they all next to erotic museums of one kind or the other...) and into a light filled courtyard with bicycles and shrubbery. i fell in love with the interior, too. what's up with the amazing scandi aesthetic? they just make everything look cooler and better. there was even a sauna in the apartment, i kid you not. perfect for sitting in fully clothed to dry off after being caught in the rain.

unassuming brunch

copenhagen was an exercise in hedonism and very little sleep. was out two nights in a row, which for a homebody like me, is double my annual quota. stayed in the meatpacking district and laden with the rest of the bbq-ed brontosaurus in doggy bags, we went clubbing. raised a couple of eyebrows and the bouncers were mean. i didn't like being forced to pay to check my coat but when in rome. club was a bit grungy and not really my scene but figure that's what it's like in copenhagen. shards of broken glass everywhere (biggest fear) and music hit and miss. but company, as always, was golden and that more than makes up for all manner of sin. eventually escaped in uber driven by palestinian when aforementioned texan started to get intel on the village he came from. sneaky. 

T knows us all too well and booked brunch atop of the post museum for a civilised hour in the afternoon. in any other city, the place would've been rammed and requiring advance booking, given the gorgeous terrace and natural light. but in copenhagen it was chill and we were the only tourists. i liked how unassuming it was despite its potential. lots of three generation families all there for sunday brunch, no one overly hip and no annoyingly snap happy crowd (just us). taking the lift up was an experience and it felt like we'd gone through the roof at some point!

and because bubbles make everything better, we'd to order asti (augh, too sweet) to make mimosas.

splinter group

copenhagen is synonymous with n*oma and much as i'd have loved to try it (T scored a reso for the entire group...) it just didn't seem fiscally responsible to spend upward of £400 on a meal. maybe one day when i've a bucketload of £££ but hm even then, don't think i could bring myself to spend that kind of money on an experience. could well just be me being sour grapes... who knows ! no surprises there were like minded folk (F is in the midst of redecorating and put the money towards a new bed!) and we led a splinter group to war*pig instead. now war*pig was by no means inexpensive. when we first got there, it looked sort of scandi distressed canteen, all communal dining at picnic tables in the meatpacking district. how a danish summer camp mess hall would've looked if i were to imagine things! but, of course, trust T to do things in style. he booked us the general's room (it's war themed?) in the middle of the restaurant and we were safely ensconced in a glass partition with a thick red velvet curtain. all very swish! and because it was the general's room, we'd 2 x 30l kegs of beer brewed on site (!!!). it didn't take long before we took turns to play bartender, trying to pull the perfect pint as attempts at perfection grew more ill as time went by. the starters came and they were a meal in themselves, followed by a meat tray that could easily feed 500. i kid you not. there may or may not have been an element of schaudenfreude that contributed to my enjoyment of our dinner as M at noma gave us a live commentary of their 17 courses of leaves in various shape and form. subtext: "i'm still so hungry" and "can you bring the leftovers???"

(this was for four people. four.)

escape to copenhagen

 

am so completely weaksauce but the first week of final year got to be a bit too much. think i'm unduly anxious about the whole thing and really need to check out to check in, if you get what i mean. didn't take much persuasion to join the crew in copenhagen. T very kindly organised a weekend for the bunch of us and it'd have been silly not to take up his offer. was last there christmas 2012 and long overdue for a visit. am already partial to scandinavia and felt like hipster central upon landing. where were all these good looking people coming from?!

 small plane and felt like private jet as there were about 10 of us on it on my outbound leg haha. SAS and tickets were exorbitant £500 (!!!) but managed to redeem points because it's a star alliance member #winning, although i was disappointed they didn't feed us on the flight. pay for food? never!

T was hosting a house warming that escalated to 90 people. his missus ended up buying a tent in his absence to accommodate everyone! landed too late to join them in the country but satiated my hunger (refused to pay for food in-flight, remember?) at the airport BK before taking the metro to the city. the crew came out post house-warming and caught the tail end of happy hour at katz. was seated next to a quick thinking off-duty policewoman who told me that happy hour was ending and to quickly get my cocktails. why thank you :)

a little worse for wear the next day and more than thankful that T had planned a 1pm start. moseyed through the city to the waterside for a street food lunch! maybe it was copenhagen's idea of a hawker centre haha.

T then took us walking to ward off that post-prandial dip, although that was bound to happen after certain parties who remain unnamed went for double fried goose fat fries when surrounded with a dazzling array of culinary choice. cough texans cough. there was also a fair amount of beer involved because i had not looked into the future and seen the two brewed on site kegs that were to come our way that evening... strolling through christiana was like going back in time. i was reminded of A, a german friend on exchange in stockholm, whose longchamp bag and LV scarf emerged with ciggie burns after her visit to christiana. too opulent, maybe. beautiful cabins and very relaxed vibe in the air.

cheeky weekend

one of the nicer things about being based in london is how scandinavia is a short hop away. the mister surprised with a spontaneous 48 hour trip to copenhagen and having last been in summer 2006, i jumped at the chance to visit in winter. also, summer 2006 was a special time just before starting freshman year. a month before i met the mister, and a year before we started going out. in a funny way, almost spent third year of law school on exchange in copenhagen but forfeited it to hold out for a LLM place at NYU, then ended up on exchange in stockholm in final year. funny how things work out :)

however, R and L, our friends who did go on exchange to copenhagen, and M, my danish flatmate from stockholm were kind to share their respective copenhagen lists. having learnt the importance of data triangulation (haha) during a research paper last year, where these three precious sources overlapped was where we wanted to be. and thanks to their generosity, it felt like we max-ed out the city in the short time we'd there. in addition to the restaurants the mister booked months ago (he's the type who has restaurant reservations locked in before booking the flights...) we really enjoyed the canal tour from nyhavn. it even took us to the little mermaid! funny story there - it's possibly the most disappointing statue on earth. remember being underwhelmed when we saw it in 2006 and refused to make a special trip all the way this time, much to the mister's chargrin. but i got the last laugh when our little boat pulled up alongside it and we got to take in the sight of the little mermaid, and the disappointed faces of the hordes of tourists who were on the bank. felt particularly sorry for the japanese troupe with their telephoto lens. no amount of zooming in could make the little mermaid any more impressive... had lots of coffee, fresh danish pastries and the most delicious hot dog by the round tower. 

we'd dinner at era*ora by the canals and were impressed by the food and service. el*vis, the sicillian waiter (yet another one!) was a complete charmer and had the driest wit. he first arrived in copenhagen 10 years ago as a languages student and speaks italian, danish, english, portugese and spanish. wertttt... he had us in fits of laughter through the night and told us at the end that we were only allowed to have salad the next day. and that's when it hit us that we went straight from a 3h degustation lunch to a 3h degustation dinner. oops. so that was saturday! 

and on sunday we explored some neighbourhoods before going to on the canal tour, a christmas market, another christmas market, christmas shopping (helloo georg jensen!) and uhh the tivoli christmas market. we also didn't stick to our salad promise, eating and drinking our way through the markets. double ooops.