ALRIGHTY i'm finally back from my holiday aaaaand nto lazy enough to procrastinate this blog entry!! End December, my family had some family bonding time at Iceland but before we could fly off to iceland, we had to stop by Copenhagen! there, we did a day or two tour i believe? before flying off to Iceland :) By the way, we took a packaged tour with Dynasty Travels and they are goooood the itineraries are nicely spaced out and is fit for consumption for sloths like me! For almost everyday, we had about a third of the day left free for us. Afterall, because it is winter, there is very little daylight. I'll cover more on that in the Iceland post! We flew Singapore Airlines for the long haul and with air ticket, lodging and almost all meals included, the tour package amounted to approximately 7.8k per pax.

Service was definitely great on the plane! With the ever-so-loved warm towel, nice meals!!

yup 36000 feet above i am! xD




This may sound kinda stupid, but if you ask me what is y favourite food in the world, it has GOT to be this bread!! :D actually it's just the bread that they always serve on board planes. With the butter they provide you, THIS IS THE BEST FOOD EVAR. i dont know for some reason i just love LOVE this bread! and it has to be on the plane. Tried it before when the plane has landed and i was like "meh."

Before landing in the airport, copenhagen gave me a very "Singapore Expo" feel, or a convention centre feel, with nothing much on the streets, very little shopping and loads of empty spaces but i was wrong! It was only when we left the airport did i realise that! because in the airport, i was greeted with this:

then i went HA! KNEW IT.

When we arrived, it was the wee hours in the morning and i haven't slept much on the plane, i blame it on the movies. Oh yes the flight was 13 hours long? or was it 16.... oh well.


Our butts soon transitioned from airplane seats to bus seats! and for the rest of the iceland holiday, we had our butts glued to bus seats. As you can see, it was 7 degrees then! pretty nice chilly weather, so bro and i went without our jackets to take in the nice chilly winds and weather! :D it's always refreshing having that first breath in of cold air! ah yeah that's the first thing i did when we touched down; i rushed out of the airport for a breather before going back in!


 Copenhagen is filled with these sort of buildings, last year when i went finland, i saw these too! The roofs are green because.... they use some metal for their roofs...iron? cant remember, but basically they rust and become like this.


You will also get to see many many of these statues erected all around! like how the one on top and the one below are actually 2 different statues, just within a short span of less than 200m.


Then, we toured around the palace garden? something like that, but basically it's a free entry thing.


This statue below is their famous the little mermaid statue! honestly, up till this point in the trip, i was still feeling kind of disoriented as i did not
1. do any prior research
2. read the itinerary
3. i packed my bags on the day i was leaving
and
4. I was busy when parents went for the briefings and all.


This is the story behind it:

Copenhagen, like all the Scandinavian countries are quite green, they try to save water and rely quite a bit on clean energy farming! Iceland is also similar, just that they leverage more on their geothermal capabilities.

Here, you can see how a typical copenhagen street looks like! with a dangling lightbulb at the top :)


We visited churches too! they look really grand and elaborate both in and outside with lots of details and marbles used. once you enter the inside, it tends to be dark and gloomy too.

"hey what'cha lookin at huh?! go away!"


Their churches there take on a traditional approach, with echoing halls and a few people praying inside. I can't really imagine going to church alone to pray on a random winter morning though O.o also, they have really huge organs! those traditional ones with the long tubes that is.


Next, we visited the port! frankly speaking i dont remember the names of the locations but it was really peaceful and cold here! the winds were pretty strong and its only when the winds blow do you feel cold. It's the port with colourful buildings....it can always be seen on those souvenir fridge magnets.

I guess this place is like our Singapore river! filled with bars and restaurants, most of them remained close until i guess till it turns darker? If you notice in the photo below, their pavements have this flat strip of pavement on the ground whereas the rest are uneven bricks. so far, i've seen cyclists and mothers with prams use that! Here, you can see the elderly couple doing the same too :)


They sell waffles too!


Pretty cute huh! they're like ice cream things but just that i didnt try em out. I was still feeling really drowsy then due to the lack of sleep. Anyway, i always went up the bus later on and sleep in between the drive to different locations. and you know how it feels like to be woken up, get down the bus drowsily before going back up and continue sleeping! that whole period is just a "sleepy" period.


Also, you can see just how crazy crystal clear their waters are!! you can totally see through to the bottom and that is insaneeee. sheesh the kind of stuffs that i find when i am at the port xD xD while everyone else is busily admiring the colourful buildings and boats.



Bicycles are a really popular option in Copenhagen! wherever you go, you see a crazy amount of cyclists and most parts they have bicycle lanes on the roads and you can see a string of cyclists queueing up! Just to mention, both genders cycle too. and you can see they mostly have a standardized bicycle, whereas others have 3 wheels instead with a cabbie in front to put lots of groceries. and it's big enough to sit an adult? also, you have those bikes with babies too! Not everyone wears a helmet though because it doesnt take into account when it comes to insurance claims.


This is our (bro and i) hotel room and you can see how simple it is! In the evening, it was free and easy time, just like what i previously mentioned! I was really grumpy then and didnt want to leave the hotel room. Instead, i wanted to sleep! after feeling how comfy the bed was, how could i pass?! but i still went out zzz plus it was raining.

We tried to find the christmas market, but only after taking lots of photos, from daylight to night time did we eventually find the night market! the groups/families in the tour group all ventured off on their own too :)





LEGOOOOO!!! They sell all the usual stuffs sold elsewhere, so there's nothing special to buy from here!



Although who couldn't pass up for some fun and goofing around!!


AAAAND FINALLY we've reach the christmas market! it was quite hard to find, and we had to walk quite some distance. moreover, the damp weather kinda killed off some of the mood. but there it is!! it sure does look pretty huh!!


It was quite big i feel, it had lots of food stalls, selling crepes and german sausages and chocolates, eggnogs mmmmmm~! An easier way to view this would be to watch my video though! i'll post the link and all later :) this is where i decided to try out their food and man they sure tasted good alright!! i tried the german sausages and crepes but left out the churros.




you wouldnt believe it, EVERYTHING in the boxes are actually chocolates?!?! how do they even make such realistic looking ones???? and now, they are happily resting inside my fridge :3 way too precious to be eaten definitely!! I think the currency exchange rate is like 1 danish krone = 5 singapore dollars.





Overall, i found Denmark to be a really safe place and caring people! They are like the Japanese of Asia, very polite in my opinion and helpful too! i've met lots of helpful locals on this day and, many of them are jovial, always joking around!
They take things slowly one at a time and do not like to rush and can often be seen chilling around living a relaxed life! and drinking there is kinda common, although they don't drink until they're all drunk, at least not what i've seen thus far.

On the next morning, we headed out with our luggage for the airport for our flight to iceland! :D



Hmmmm you can do self check-in at these kiosks, and i dont know personally i love the idea! i find it really convenient, just do everything before lining it up and letting the airport staff do the final checks and weighing!


Alcohol here is really really cheap too xD xD but too bad i cant buy the entire bottle! it's just too cumbersome....Bro and I ended up buying smaller bottles which was finished during our iceland trip!


On my next post: Landing in iceland, the land of fire and ice!



 The video includes the whole of iceland too though! but it does not have france and london as i lost my gopro and did not back up the videos T.T extremely saddened by the loss but oh well, life goes on.



If the youtube doesn't work, try watching it on facebook instead!