[Copenhagen, Denmark, Jun 9, 2024]

Finally, I made it to Copenhagen! With my stop in Frankfurt, door to door it was 7 hours, which is not that bad, I guess. The only direct flight from Sofia was on Wizz Air, and whenever I am on a tight schedule, I prefer to travel a full-service airline to have better support should flights get disrupted.

At the airport in Sofia, I bumped into a classmate from last night’s reunion. She was on my first flight to Frankfurt, and hanging out with her made the time go by fast. She advocated for me when the gate agent in Sofia took a sideways look at my suitcase and made it me put it through their sizer. Of course, it didn’t fit, and it was a tad heavy. Those sizers are a complete scam, I think, and nothing is supposed to fit into them! I was traveling with an international-sized carry on, not even a US-sized one! I was pissed and I really hoped they would not lose my bag! Luckily, you can track your checked luggage through the Lufthansa app now, but I am not going to trust it that much. It said that my suitcase had been loaded onto my Copenhagen flight even though that plane hadn’t even pulled into the gate yet! the plane was coming from Barcelona and that flight had been delayed.

In Copenhagen, I resented the extra 15-20 minutes I had to wait at the belt. Alas, the suitcase arrived in one piece and soon I was on my way to my hotel. The metro was conveniently located in the airport and I had 4 stops until Kongens Nytorv, where I got off.

As I came up to the street from the metro, I was awe-struck by the majestic square I found myself on. Kongens Nytorv, or King’s Square, is at the end of the pedestrian street Strøget. It is the largest square of the city. The area was initially outside Copenhagen’s fortifications. In 1670, Christian V included it in a major extension of the fortified city, which is why an equestrian statue of him is at its center. The initiative moved the center of the city from Gammeltorv, at that time a muddy medieval marketplace, to this cobbled new square with a garden complex.

Many important buildings face the square – the Royal Danish Theater from 1874, the Charlottenborg Palace from 1671 (now the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts), the Thott Palace from 1683 (now the French Embassy), the Hotel D’Angleterre and the Magasin du Nord department store. I was so overwhelmed by all of them, I had no idea which way to go!

I started crossing the square, which was quite the adventure with all the cobblestones. I realized that I am actually right in the middle of Nyhavn! Copenhagen’s 17th-century waterfront, canal and entertainment district stretches from Kongens Nytorv to the Inner Harbour and is lined by brightly colored 17th and early 18th century townhouses and bars, cafes and restaurants.

Alas, I couldn’t just head there because I needed to drop off my suitcase first. Luckily, my hotel (Wake Up Copenhagen – Borgergade) was literally a 3 minute walk from Kongens Nytorv. I booked this hotel so long ago that I forgot (or didn’t know in the first place) it was quite so central, so this was a pleasant surprise to me. The next 2 days in Copenhagen confirmed the awesomeness of the location. The room was tiny but I paid half of what I did in Amsterdam for the same number of days, and this time my stay included breakfast. Whoever planned this trip is really good at it! 😉

Nyhavn was a sight to behold in the evening light. It was well past 8 pm but the sun doesn’t set here till nearly 10 pm this time of year, so I had plenty of daylight left. I strolled the length of Stroget all the way to the southern end and couldn’t stop taking photos.

I was tempted to grab a drink at one of the many cafes on the canal. But with the late night at my high school reunion yesterday, I didn’t get enough sleep and decided to prioritize that. My first full day in Copenhagen was going to involve a whole other country, so I was going to need all the energy I could get.