After a lovely long late breakfast in Espresso House — coffee you could swim in, Rugsandwich Avocado & Ajvar — I was abandoned to a day’s exciting tourism.
My goals for the day were clear: buy a fridge magnet; see the Little Mermaid. I succeeded at both, today’s adventuring therefore a success. Gegastigantoj were busy doing their own things in the afternoon so I was left to my own devices, pretty much.
The first thing I did was get on a bus. Given the price of the Copenhagen travel pass I was determined to use it, so after some walking found a 5C stop and got on it, sadly one bus later than a squadron of ticket inspectors to whom I’d have been delighted and proud to show my shiny little papery ticket. But never mind. It never left my pocket.
I got on and off the bus a few times before I ended up at the central station and went random-walking, so it’s a little difficult to actually remember where and what I did, though thankfully my phone remembers (how did we cope?) so I can say with confidence that after bumbling about near the central station, I found some art Dante’s Plads by sculptor Jens Galschiøt.
The sculpture supports local residents in protesting against the small beautiful square being taken over by Q-Park, who are to build a carpark there. In protest Dante himself, together with some “pig dogs”, gives what appears to be delicately called “the fuck-finger” to car parks and political decision-makers.
The piece is called “Red Dante – Fuck Q-parks p-kælder” – or “Fuck Q-park’s parking basement.”
Culture complete, I wandered past the Christianborg Palace and on to Middelalderbyen. By chance I stumbled on a sign informing me that the Studenterhuset has “one of Copenhagen’s most Instragrammable courtyards” (I’ll be the judge of that), had a quick look at that, took a picture and moved on to a church I’d seen poking through the rooftops.
It turned out that I was looking at the Rundetårn, a round tower built as an astronomical observatory which has a staircase that can be negotiated by horses (why?). It is connected to the Trinitatis Kirke, which is what I ended up looking at as the tower was heaving. In retrospect this was a foolish move — I’ve seen a lot of churches but never a staircase you can ride a horse up — but it’s been there for four hundred years or so and will surely still be there next time. Add it to the list.
From there I took a train or possibly a metro, I wasn’t entirely sure, to the Østerport. I say possibly because it was in what seemed to be an underground station yet somehow was a train with first class. So I rode in that for the four minutes or so it took to get to the next point of call as it was covered by my Interrail pass anyway if it turned out not to be a metro. If that makes sense.
I found The Little Mermaid statue and observed that she was quite pointedly cold. There were swarms of tourists doing their selfie thing with her, and when I got the chance I took a photograph of a finger puppet then moved on. By the time I’d walked around the area a little the weather was starting to change for the worse making for a quick walk round the port area to find somewhere to grab a coffee and a cookie, then a return to the centre of town to search out magnificent tat to adorn my fridge. I found the purveyors of fine tat quite quicky, so rewarded myself with a couple Tuborg Grøns in a lovely tiny little bar called (according to the card transactions) Bodegaen, which I’ll never find again, and a veggie Big King, which I repeatedly rediscovered throughout the rest of the evening.
In the end I staggered quietly home, binged season three of Picard with my hosts and then decided to call it a night.
