This past weekend I spent exploring the beautiful city of Copenhagen. There is one word associated with Copenhagen, and that is Hygge. According to dictionary.com, the definition of hygge is, "a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)." I have to admit, I felt cosiness everywhere I stepped in Copenhagen. The first day we hit all of the main hits in Copenhagen, starting with Nyhavn which is a long stretch of colored houses along a canal. There's tons of restaurants lining the canal and its the perfect place for a picture! We then went to the King's Garden and saw Rosenborg Castle which is the oldest park in Denmark. It was one of King Christian IV's castles that was established in the 17th century! We then visited the Botanical Gardens of Copenhagen and saw the butterfly exhibit along with other plants! Afterward we climbed the round tower which is from the 17th century and was built as an astronomical observatory but is now used for tourists to climb to the top and get a beautiful view of the city.
That night we entered the magical world of Tivoli Gardens. This amusement park is what inspired Walt Disney to build Disney World, and I have to say I can see why he was so charmed by it. I felt like I was walking through a scene from Halloweentown! The park was completely decorated with halloween decor and beautiful lights. There is a foothill where we ate dinner and then we walked around and walked into the several shops. These shops had halloween decorations, Christmas presents and decorations, chocolate shops, candy shops, ice cream shops, and more! It was so heart-warming to walk around because I feel as though I don't have the same sense of fall in Maastricht. It made me feel at home to see all of the pumpkins and decorations spread throughout the park. Although it was a bit pricey to get in (what isn't expensive in Copenhagen though?), it was totally worth it. I highly recommend spending an evening here, even if you don't like rides we had a great time walking around the park.
The next day we took a walking tour and learned so much more about the city of Copenhagen. We got to visit the Parliament building, the City Hall, and the Royal Palace. We learned about the history of the city, including the story behind the prince and his wife and how they met in Sydney, Australia. We also learned about the history of Carlsberg beer and the vikings. I am so glad we did this walking tour, because it taught us so much more about the city than we would have known on our own. We got to see the famous Opera House as well and saw the Little Mermaid Statue, which was as anti-climatic as I was told it would be. After the tour, we visited Freetown Christiana which is an anarchist district with 1,000 residents. You aren't allowed to take pictures, but there was lots of graffiti and it was a fascinating place to visit. I would recommend going during the daytime when there are more people around to be safe. We stayed at Downtown Copenhagen Hostel which is a really great located hostel with a bar on the first floor that is extremely popular. The hostel was in the perfect spot and was extremely clean, however, it can definitely be hard to sleep with all of the noise from the bar. Copenhagen was also just as expensive as I was told it would be, so I recommend trying to find the cheapest places to eat before picking a restaurant. The average price for dinner is around $17 and even a coffee is $7. We also got away with not using any public transportation because everything is in walking distance! Overall, this was a super clean, safe, and cute city. I left feeling very Hygge and I am so glad I made the trip!