copenhagen, part two.

I had planned to visit all of the major sights and things that I wanted to do in Copenhagen on my second day there. A packed schedule, indeed. After breakfast at the hostel, off I went to walk to see the Little Mermaid statue. It was only a 20-minute walk but boy, did it feel like I walked for ages no thanks to the pouring rain and crazy wind. An umbrella was useless in that weather, so I just opted to use my hood. By the time I got to the statue, my pants, my Wang bag, and my soaks were drenched. I already knew that the statue was small and that many people found it to be underwhelming. They could not have been more right. Sure, I can now tell people that I’ve seen it in person but after making the trek in the gross weather, I’m not too sure it was really worth it. I can’t understand how this is one of the most visited sights in Copenhagen. Anyways, my advice? Only go and see it if you’re really dying to see it. And don’t go out to see it on a super rainy day, especially if you’re walking, because it’ll just make you wonder why on earth you just walked all that way to see that thing. At least, that’s what happened to me but I digress.

On my way back to the hostel to dry myself off and change clothing, I stopped by Meyers Bageri on Store Kongensgade and got myself a huge speltbrød bun, or spelt bread. I was originally trying to find the Bo Bech bakery that Sharlene recommended, but it turns out that it was bought by the chef that now owns Meyers Bageri. The bun was still really great and I made sure to stop by the bakery again before I left Copenhagen.

After drying myself off, I left the hostel to continue checking things off my list of things and places that I had planned for the rest of the day. I walked down the Strøget, which is the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe, and ended up somewhere near the Christiansborg Palace. I was planning on going to the Nikolaj Contemporary Art Centre but got lost a billion time whilst trying to locate it. It turned out to be on some tiny side street and by the time I got there, the exhibition didn’t appeal to me and I wasn’t willing to pay to see it.

Next on my list was the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which also took me a while to walk to. The rain began to come down in buckets again and literally, soaked me to the bone on my way there. As I was just about to walk up the stairs and into the museum, I saw an elderly lady slip and fall on the stairs. I rushed over to see if she was alright and my goodness, she had a large cut beside her eyebrow that was gushing blood. I kept asking her and her friend if she needed help, and they said it would be alright. After checking with them one more time that the woman would be alright, I went in and checked out the Paul Gauguin exhibition. The Gauguin exhibition featured a lot of Gauguin’s works influenced by Polynesia and it also had a lot of Polynesian artifacts on display. I also took a little time to explore the museum’s personal collection of paintings, sculptures, and artifacts from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, just to name a few. Though the Glyptotek has a vast collection, I was actually too scared to venture further because there weren’t too many people looking around and they had really dim lighting throughout the museum. So creepy.

My final stop of the day was a retro restaurant that I saw in Sharlene's Sharlene VS. Copenhagen special on MTV Canada. Granola is in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen and that district has been renovated into a hip and happening place. Of course, I got lost trying to find the place. I was walking around in circle behind the Glyptotek and a kind man helped me with directions to Vesterbrogade. I walked and walked and finally made it to Værnedamsvej and found Granola. I had originally gone in planning on eating røgrød med fløde (red berry pudding with cream), which is a traditional Danish dessert, but the restaurant had run out of røgrød. The server suggested the apple cake so I had that instead with a hot chocolate. I’m pretty sure there were eggs in the dessert even though I had checked with the server. Apart from the minor allergic reaction, the dessert was still pretty delicious!