03 August 2009

Trip recap Day 1: Copenhagen

So where do I start??...guess its best to start at the start...so I start with Copenhagen...our first destination...this is where N has his conference (the basic pretext under which this trip idea began...and slowly ballooned into a 2 week mini-Europe one...bet N will be more careful with his next conference..haha)...N left a couple days before I did and then I joined him on Sunday night...the flights were uneventful, got my baggage without any issues and finally met N at the CPH airport before we went to the hotel, ate a little and slept like a log.


The next day, we started with our sightseeing around 1 after lunch (N did the muh dikhaai at the conference in the morning while I slept...yes, like a log)...there was a mall right next to the hotel and we ate a buffet meal here....that too an Indian/Mexican one (funny combination, i say)...at first, I was a bit turned off...why would i want to eat Indian in CPH????But N, the wiser-by-two-days-in CPH, reassures me that this is the best thing to do....firstly, things in CPH are way too costly...he tells me that he had a measly salad the day before and it cost him $20!!!!!!!!!!!..poor thing even mixed the salad himself (the shopkeeper just put his salad on a plate)!!..Secondly, Danish food doesn't best suit Indian palate like ours...they have a lot of meat (which neither N nor I eat) and it isn't spiced enough..all in all, I decided to trust N on this one..after all, he had 'tried and tasted' it!...the buffet meal itself was nothing great...there was a funny guy greeting everyone at the entrance saying 'dhanyawaad' (thanks in Hindi) to everyone who entered the place..at first we were impressed...but soon he started asking everyone eating their meals if 'sab dhanywaad hai'?(is everything thanks)...from then on, N bugged me with this phrase till the end of the trip....is the food thanks, is the sight thanks, is the hotel thanks...thanks but no thanks, I say!!


Anywho, so after the meal we began with the sightseeing...our hotel was a 10 mins walk from the Tivoli Gardens...this is supposed to be the world's first Amusement park (info source: travel guide N...hmmm...I know he is wiser-in-CPH-by-two-days but not sure if I can trust him on this one!)......but it sure is very popular with the Danish...when you enter the place, you think that the whole of CPH is here...it was super-crowded, especially for a weekday....and the crowds kept coming well into the night...I am scared of rides (yes, I admit it) so I didnt take any...and N refused to go without me (very sweet, I say)...so we walked through the gardens, listened to a live orchestra, heard other people screaming on the rides and spent a good couple hours there.


Once outside the gardens, we headed towards the 'Stroget'...a very long pedestrian street right in the heart of the city lined with shops on both sides...this turned out to be a lovely walk.... there were not just shops, but much more on the way....live street performers..musicians...vendors selling their fares...people sitting outside of cafes enjoying food...gave us a true feel of the city..we walked on for a good 1 hour before heading back....the walk back took more than an hour back and we were ready to hit the bed after dinner.





(Pic from the web: forgot to take one of the Stroget ourselves)


So the first day of the trip went lovely...what are my first impressions of the city and its people?....the city seems 'just okay' at first..but grows slowly on you...I liked it better at the end of the day than I did at the beginning..and from what little I saw the first day, there seemed to be some historical monuments in there too..hoped to see more of them the next day....as for the people, they have the blondest of hair, the bluest of the eyes and loveliest of the skin...really exquisite, I say!!!!!...No wonder Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairytales here!!!


From the land of fairies,
V

2 comments:

Sarita Khadye said...

Cool, now all readers visited to CPH Tivoli garden with guide V and her beautiful lekhanshaili:). Will take rest for today.I guess, it would be very fast and amazing journey after :D..Keep going!

Vinaya said...

Thanks so much Sarita...the journey only gets better!!:)