A day in Denmark: Exploring Copenhagen on foot

After two months of using Copenhagen airport as my travel hub while staying in Lund (Sweden), I decided to finally explore the attractions of the Danish capital. Copenhagen’s proximity to Lund (45 minutes by train) meant that I only need to go there for a day trip. It was to be my shortest visit to a country, hopping from one country to the next and back again in just one day. All in all, I’d say it was a day very well spent.

The amazing bike culture (and why I did not get to ride a bike)

Walking away from the Copenhagen train station, my first thought was, “They really love bikes!”

Pedal power! – bike hanging on the wall at the tourist center

From the countless bikers leisurely pedaling all around me to the road signs and even the road paint, Copenhagen is really a bike city through and through.

There are bikes, and then there are these “bikes”…

Bike lanes everywhere!

Unfortunately, it’s also because of this that I was not able to bike around the city. It’s the only city I’ve been to where the racks for bikes-for-rent were empty. I guess it didn’t help that the bikes weren’t really for rent, you just had to deposit a 20 krone coin and get it back when you return the bike. Free use of bikes, which I sadly could not avail. But that was alright, exploring the city on foot was also an enjoyment in itself.

My walking tour of Copenhagen

I got a map from the tourist information center and decided to do the suggested walking tour, but first I had quite the long detour to the shopping streets (but of course!) of Strøget for lunch and some souvenirs.

The throng of tourists in Strøget

The suggested itinerary led me to a four-hour walk to Copenhagen’s famous sights. I stopped by the different landmarks such as the City Hall, H.C. Andersen Boulevard, Royal Theatre, Marble Church, Resistance Museum and countless squares with the biggest one being Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square).

Copenhagen City Hall

Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square)

My favorite sight would have to be the canal waterfront in Nyhavn (New Harbour). The view of the colorful houses by the waterfront is postcard perfect! I felt really happy that I got to see how lively and vibrant Nyhavn is.

Colorful building facades

I chanced upon a beer-tasting event and a jazz concert out of a truck that was part of the Christmas Festival (in early November).

There were a lot of quaint shops selling unique knick knacks and souvenirs. Across the colorful houses just near Kongens Nytorv, I found an interesting outdoor art exhibit at Kunsthal Charlottenborg (space for contemporary art in Charlottenborg Palace). There were really a lot of things to see and do!

Outdoor exhibit at Kunsthal Carlottenborg

Another interesting place is the Amalienborg Palace, the winter residence of the Danish Royal Family. It was a big complex with a lot of nice buildings.

Amalienborg Palace grounds

I tried to follow the Danish royal guards on patrol for a nice photo and maybe some reaction from them, but I couldn’t get anything more than their unflinching stern expressions while they were marching around. They must have been very annoyed at curious tourists following them around like crazy (guilty!).

The guards on duty

They are famous Danish souvenirs, too!

Missing Little Mermaid

I couldn’t have chosen a worst time to visit Copenhagen. When I was there was the only time the iconic Little Mermaid statue was not on Denmark’s shores! That time, the Little Mermaid was shipped off to Shanghai for six months as part of the World Expo in 2010.

The mermaid visited China!

I already knew this from the tourist information center but since I couldn’t accept the fact sitting down, I still walked over to the site to see for myself. Yep, she was not there.

No mermaid 😦

Still, the visit wasn’t a total waste. I saw some memorable sights by the shore, such as couples on dates and a horde of rowdy teenagers (un)dressed in gowns and tuxedos being chauffered in stretch limousines.

I’ve never seen so many limousines together in one place

But more than those curiosities, I think what made the walk to the shore worth it was the fountain dedicated to the goddess Gefion. It’s also near the shore, a stone’s throw away from the Little Mermaid’s location. The statue is life-size, and made even more impressive with the fountain water cascading down several levels.

The fountain of Gefion

It depicts the story of why Zealand (the island where Copenhagen is located) separated from Sweden (because Gefion ploughed Sweden with her four sons, which she turned into oxen). Great stuff!

Gefion and her sons/oxen

Early Christmas in Copenhagen

I visited in early November, and I was able to catch the start of Christmas festivities. In the City Hall square, I was greeted by rows and rows of Christmas ‘trees’ that was part of a charity activity. In Nyhavn, the Christmas bazaar was already in full swing. The window shops in Stroget were already displaying either life-sized Santas or big Christmas wreaths.

Christmas in Copenhagen (Lego Santa is so cool!)

But there couldn’t be any place more Christmasy than the Tivoli Gardens. The lights, decorations, and displays really got me into the Christmas spirit. The exhibits were amusing, fake snow and all.

Tivoli Gardens in early November

There were so many things to see in the very big amusement park, whether it was the big halls or the shops, and especially the rides. Since I was alone, I made do with looking around and eating a very large candy floss (cotton candy!). 

A little bit of everything, plus a really large cotton candy

I arrived back in Lund at around 10 pm, tired but very happy with the day’s activities. Copenhagen is such a vibrant and dynamic city, I would love to come back for a longer trip next time. 🙂

The obligatory tourist photo

Oh, and I eventually found the little mermaid… in Tivoli Gardens! Only the sculpture was made of ice and the face is that of a monkey… Go figure.

Little mermaid?

Seoul in a day’s work: a walking tour of South Korea’s capital

We only got to stay in Seoul for two days, but the city was so irresistible that we just had to try to squeeze in as much of the sights as we could (tired feet and sleep be d*mned). When our hostel manager learned of how much we covered in a day, he couldn’t believe it. Well, our feet couldn’t believe it either, but we really enjoyed the sights so Seoul was well worth the effort 🙂

The evening of our arrival, we walked around Hongik University area, which is known for its clubs and hangout places. We had dinner in a traditional Korean BBQ restaurant, where we had delicious grilled pork that we wrapped in leaves and added with different types of side dishes (Korea is ‘best in side dish’, as my friend remarked). We also tried their beer (which we did not like) but their traditional rice wine, makkoli, tasted way better. We walked around the area and saw a lot of clubs and drinking places. We also noticed several drunk/wasted people, which made things much  more interesting. We eventually settled in a British(?) pub where we had imported beer (because Korean beer was really not to our liking) until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day, armed with a map and some instructions from the hostel manager, we embarked on our mission to see as much of Seoul as we could in a day. At about 10:30 in the morning, we took the train to Anguk station and walked a block to get to our first stop: the Changdeokgung Palace and Garden, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was the second palace after Gyeongbokgung and was the seat of government for some hundred years. The admission fees to the palace (3,000 KRW or ~2.6 USD) and the garden (5,000 KRW or ~4.4 USD) come with scheduled guided tours in several languages. When we arrived, there was an ‘English Secret Garden Tour’ scheduled to start in 15 minutes so we decided to take that one. The bad thing was that we couldn’t enter the garden without paying for the entrance to the palace so we had to pay 8,000 KRW for our admission. Anyway, we went straight to the garden to line up for the English tour. Our tour guide, dressed in a simplified hanbok (traditional Korean costume), told us about the Secret Garden’s history while leading us to different garden pavilions. The tour included some uphill climbs, which contributed to the fun 🙂 The guide pointed out a number of structures built for Korean royalty, such as the libraries and the rest areas. I felt that the architecture was similar to the Japanese and Chinese, but somehow uniquely Korean (if that makes sense). But more than the unique pavilions, I enjoyed the feel of the centuries-old trees with the bird calls. Aside from the interesting history of Changdeokgung Secret Garden, I was really impressed with how they preserved the old forest of the garden while the area around the palace were urbanized.

After the 1.5-hour tour/hike of  the Secret Garden, we had lunch at the first Korean restaurant that we chanced upon. They were serving octopus bibimbap, which was very, very, very spicy. I chose the non-spicy one and was very happy, while my friends had their tongues tortured 😉 It was a very good Korean lunch.

In the heat of the early afternoon sun, we then walked the alleys of the traditional Bukchon Hanok Village, a cultural center between the two main palaces in Seoul.

The term bukchon  means northern and hanok means traditional house, so the area essentially consists of traditional Korean houses (said to be originally for court officials and royal families),  museums and workshops to experience traditional Korean arts and crafts.We just walked around and admired the houses, but did not bother trying the activities (embroidery, knot-tying, woodwork, etc). We also saw a few stores selling K-pop novelty items (too bad I don’t know any of the Korean pop stars).

Next, we checked out Insadong-gil, across the street from Bukchon Hanok Village. It’s a street full of Korean souvenirs, from ceramics and furniture to keychains and fridge magnets. There are also cafes and street food carts lining the streets. Insadong is your typical souvenir street.

The next destination was our favorite: Cheonggyecheon Stream. From Insadong, the map indicated it was a couple of blocks away. We made our way to the busy streets and took photos of the amusing architecture, then we saw it: a stream in the middle of the street lined with tall buildings. It was a very clean stream too. We were amazed at how clean it was considering that it’s located in the country’s downtown area (but perhaps it’s not fair to compare it to my country hehe).
We noticed a lot of locals under the bridges, taking advantage of the shade and the cool feel of the air beside the stream. There were families with kids playing in the water and couples enjoying their dates. We took a rest from all the walking and dipped our tired feet in the cool stream. The stream was really a refreshing break for us.

We then proceeded to the Seoul Plaza. It was a famous site for demonstrations and since it was Labor Day, there was a very big demonstration. The atmosphere was a little bit tense because of the big crowd, so we just passed by the plaza quickly, but not before taking a good look at the modern Seoul City Hall.

We continued to walk through Myeongdong, their famous shopping district, famous for large malls such as Lotte. Since we did not really have much time, we skipped the shopping and went straight for the Namsan Cable Car Station that would take us to N Seoul Tower. The N Seoul Tower is a communication tower located in Mount Namsan, which offers a good view of the city.There we admired the view of Seoul and enjoyed looking at the thousands of heart-shaped locks put by hopeful lovers on the railings.
The place was full of couples in matching outfits, so we surmised that it was a popular dating place.  The tower has restaurants and museums (teddy bear  museum, that is) but we did not bother to visit them as we were very tired. We just went down and took the bus then subway to go back to our hostel.

The next morning was our tour of the Demilitarized Zone (which I will write about in a separate entry). In the afternoon, we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace (it was closed the previous day) because we could not miss the grandest Royal Palace, could we? We arrived there a little before 4 pm and were just in time for the last changing of the guard for that day. Honestly, we just felt a little sorry for the guards, they were very tired and sleepy! After the ceremony, we proceeded to tour the palace grounds. The palace structures were very regal, and the architecture was very interesting.

We spent quite a bit of time in the big palace grounds before we went back to our hostel and then to the airport. Good thing we decided to squeeze in the Gyeongbokgung Palace to our busy itinerary.

Our very short visit to Seoul was tiring but very fruitful. We really enjoyed this very interesting city. On our way to the airport, Seoul bid us goodbye with one of the most beautiful sunsets, seen from our train. I would definitely like to go back again and see all of the other attractions that Seoul has to offer.