Neon signs around Copenhagen

Where I’m from, South Korea, the streets are full of bright neon signs that make nights feel very much alive and buzzing. The lights can feel like an overload. In Denmark? Well, let’s just say I’ve lost my way around many a time around Copenhagen, outside of the city centre at least, because there’s hardly any street lamps around! Seeing neon signs are more of an aesthetic experience here because there are so few of them, so they really do pop – have a look at some of the ones I’ve spotted around the city.

Absalon, Vesterbro

Absalon is a community center/hall in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. It’s one of the more unique venues around the city – it’s a little quirkier for Copenhagen standards, hosting all sorts of events like bingo, yoga, Lino printing, life drawing, and so on, with an affordable community dinner taking place every night. During the day, it’s a kind of cafe/study lounge/canteen, and you’ll see plenty of students working away on their laptops or families with their little ones grabbing a quick drink. The place is, of course, still as pristine and aesthetic as the other buildings and projects around the city. But I’ve yet to see a place as playful as this around Copenhagen, catering to people of all ages and interests. I’ve even come here to study myself on a couple of occasions – it’s a rather popular place that gets easily crowded, so it’s best to come early in the morning.

These shots were taken pre-lockdown. I look forward to visiting again sometime.

Operaen (Copenhagen Opera House)

The Copenhagen Opera House is currently closed to visitors, but it stands as an impressive feat of architecture just across from Nyhavn. It looks great across the water, but it’s even more impressive up close. Again I am amazed by how many buildings there are to “sight see” around Copenhagen without so much as stepping indoors. I hope you enjoy these sunset shots at Operaen.

Superkilen, Nørrebro

CopenHill, Copenhagen

Happy New Year! Hope you had a good one, and that 2021 is off to a decent start (given the circumstances…)

I’m back with some images to share with you, of the coolest places around Copenhagen. There’s no better place to start than CopenHill, in my opinion!

CopenHill is an artificial ski slope/climbing center/hill build atop a waste management plant. It is located on Refshaleøen and is part of Copenhagen’s waste-to-energy initiatives. This project is truly, quintessentially ‘Copenhagen’ – it’s recreational, creative, architectural, “eco-friendly”, offers some of the city’s best views, and is a mainstay silhouette in the capital’s skyline. You can find out more about this amazing place here. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of what CopenHill has to offer, from the perspective of my camera lens…

Things to do and see in Copenhagen!

Hello everyone and happy 2021! To kick off the new year I thought I would collate and highlight some of the places I’ve seen and photographed in the past half year that I’ve been living in Copenhagen. I’ve organised my posts by neighbourhood – please do have a look at some of my favourite places around the city, and hopefully for any of you planning to visit Copenhagen you can use this post as a reference point for things to do!

The numbered areas are marked on the map below, to give you a rough idea of the locations:

1. Vesterbro
   
   Halmtorvet
   Enghave Plads
   Istedgade
   Tivoli (1, 2, 3)

2. Nørrebro

Blårgårdsgade
Assistens Kirkegård

3. Østerbro

Nordhavn (1, 2)

4. Indre By (City Center)

Indre By (Street Snaps) – Christmas version here
Nyhavn
Rundetaarn
Den Konglige Biblioteks Have
Danish Architecture Centre
ILLUM
The Black Diamond
The Playhouse
Marmorkirken
Amalienborg

5. Refshaleøen

Reffen
Broens Gadekøkken
Bridge by Nyhavn
Copenhagen Contemporary

6. Sydhavn

Teglholmen
Harbourside

7. Christianshavn

Christianshavn

8. The Lakes

The Lakes (1, 2)

Museums

Louisiana
Arken (1, 2)
SMK
Glyptoteket
Copenhagen Contemporary
Danish Architecture Centre

Parks

Valbyparken
Botanical Garden (KU)
Frederiksberg Have
Kongens Have
Ørstedsparken

University of Copenhagen

Panum (1, 2)
South Campus
Botanical Garden

Day trips from Copenhagen

Frederiksborg Slot (1, 2, 3)
Louisiana
Arken (1, 2)
Bakken

Kongens Have, Copenhagen

Hej! Hope you all had a nice break over Christmas.

This month has been overloaded with Christmas-related posts, and I hope you thoroughly enjoyed them – but it’s time to transition out the Christmas theme, so I’ll start by sharing this pretty green space with you!

Kongens Have (King’s Garden) houses Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle). It is a lovely park smack dab in central Copenhagen – in warmer, non-pandemic times it would be teeming with locals and tourists alike! It’s within walking distance to the shopping district and right next to the beautiful University Botanical Gardens, as well as The David Collection, so it’s definitely one of the more touristy, “must see” areas in town. It’s an extremely popular place for people to hang out and have picnics when the weather is warmer, probably as popular as Frederiksberg Have but smaller. I haven’t actually walked much here because over the summer it felt extremely crowded, and the place also shuts quite early in the evening. But I decided to take a lunchtime stroll here, since it’s so close to my workplace, and it was lovely to see the park with a more tranquil vibe.

Christmas at Bakken

Welcome to the oldest standing amusement park in the world! Bakken is completely free to enter and situated in a lovely forest area by Dyrehaven, an open park where deers roam freely. It’s perfect for a day trip from Copenhagen. I’ll post about Dyrehaven another time, so for now please enjoy these Christmas vibes at Bakken…and Merry Christmas!

Torvehallerne, Copenhagen

So most of the Christmas markets were cancelled this year due to Covid-19. But all the lights put up at Torvehallerne (which is a covered food market with outdoor stalls) sure created a lovely atmosphere. I think we were honestly blessed to even be able to walk around outside like this and enjoy these sparkling lights around the city.

Hope you enjoy these photos, and see you tomorrow for a final Christmas-themed post!

Merry Christmas Eve 🙂

Christmas lights in the city

Funny I’ve been seeing many articles recently about how Hygge is dead or there’s some other trendy concept floating around…well let me tell you, in Denmark, hygge is alive and well. Everywhere you look in the city, you get a sort of vibe – magical cosiness. You’d have to be completely impervious for this Danish winter cosiness to not rub off on you. Although we are now in more or less a full lockdown rather than a partial one, I’d say most of us in Copenhagen were lucky to actually experience something of the Christmas-time experience for part of December, like amusement parks, pop-up markets, cafes, present shopping…