A scent of happiness: North Europe experience: Copenhagen

I am just back from one of the best vacations I've ever been on. Guess where we went? Nope, not Hawaii or Australia. We went to North Europe! You might be surprised, but I've wanted to go there for sooo long! I've always wanted to travel to north, but my parents prefer the south, so before this time we usually travelled somewhere warm. You know: you always want what you don't have .Anyways, they finally decided to go on a cruise and visit some cities in Norway, Denmark and UK (And I wasn't even trying to persuade them haha..). Our ship left from Copenhagen and we actually drove there instead of flying. As usual it didn't go all smooth. We were supposed to leave on Monday, but as you have already guessed we didn't. My brother had hurt his wrist one week before and the doctor had told him it was just a pulled muscle. Well he was wrong...on the day D the pain didn't get any better, so instead of driving to Germany, we drove to the doctor again. This time they diagnosed him with a broken bone and he got a cast. I was really disappointed, because now we only had one day and a half for discovering Copenhagen. I had been to library and had got so many travel guides, so I had everything planned. If you don't know yet, I am planner, I plan everything, even my lazy days #weirdo.
Luckily my mum managed to take care of the hotels and booked one in Hamburg, so we only had about 500 km till Copenhagen for the next day. We ate near the highway and I had the best roasted chicken in my life, no kidding. After another two stressful and funny hours with our Gps (you know when you almost land in a lake heh) we finally arrived to our accommodation. We were staying in an apartment just outside Copenhagen, that a family lets. My brother wasn't feeling any better, so after dinner only me and my dad took a train to Copenhagen. It's much easier to use public transport, because it's very hard to find a parking spot and even if you do, it is quiet expensive. After a 25 minutes drive through Copenhagen suburb we got off at a Central Station which is just opposite the Tivoli. The station is just beautiful, huge and it has this kind of old appearance that I love so much. It is always packed with people rushing somewhere and tourists like us, taking pictures and trying to figure out which train to go on haha... After taking some pictures that you can see bellow, we walked to the entrance of Tivoli, one of the oldest and most charming amusement parks in Europe. Since we only had one hour (we had tickets for the train till 8pm) we just admired it from the outside and than took a stroll around. It was chilly & windy and all the stores were already closed (most of them close at 7pm), but it was still nice to just get a bit more familiar with the city.
Next day my brother seemed a little bit better, so we bundled up and all together left for Copenhagen. It was really really cold and big dark clouds were threatening to let all the water down. We walked to the sea and boarded one of those boats for canal cruising. Luckily it had roof, because my brother was freezing and the rain had just started to pour when we set off. Of course I was determined to get some good shots of Copenhagen, so I went to the outside part of the boat and stood there with my phone & camera like a crazy tourist that I was taking pictures of everything. I've never been the photo taker on our vacations before, but I guess since I wanted to go there for so long, I just needed to make some memories. We had seen everything: Black diamond, Opera house, Christiansborg Palace, The Little Mermaid ...you can see the pictures down bellow. I really recommend going on one of those cruises, especially if it's sunny! I'm definitely planning on visiting Copenhagen again, just to see it in a sun light haha... :)
After we got off the boat, we were all so cold, my brother was even shivering and we immediately bought him a jumper. It was around lunch time, so we decided to find a nearest traditional restaurant to warm up beside some yummy food. We ended up in one of the oldest restaurants in Copenhagen! The food was so delicious. Danes have light lunches and they serve them on raised trays. I wanted to eat something typical Danish, so I ordered plaice fried in butter and served on a rye bread with shrimps. They have everything with rye bread, but I hadn't tried it (I have diabetes) and they eat a lot of fish. The plaice however was just soo good, I ate everything and I also tried what my mum, dad and brother had ordered: smoked salmon on rye bread, Hash with fried eggs and roasted pork. It was all really yummy! Sadly, I don't have any pictures, as we were so hungry and I wasn't really thinking about it (well I was thinking about food haha). I did take a picture of our dessert instead: apple crumble with cream, which looked heavenly as well, but I haven't tried it either. We were drinking fruit and black tea beside it, which was really good. After lunch, my mum & brother returned to our apartment as he wasn't feeling well and me and my dad headed to Tivoli. I was really excited, because Tivoli was usually mentioned as the most important Copenhagen attraction. But let me tell you something: Tivoli is a wonderful park even in rain and cold, but do try to visit it in a warm, clear night for a more pleasant & romantic experience. There are lots of old fashioned rides, small shops selling all kinds of cute little things, arcade games and lots and lots of restaurants! Well actually food in general. Everything smelled heavenly, but we were still really full from the lunch, so we hadn't bought anything. As you have to pay for the rides in addition we hadn't gone on one, well also because we were really cold and I must admit even I was looking forward to go back to our warm apartment. I really want to go back there one day and enjoy the park fully. When we were just leaving, we remembered that we have to buy ingredients for my special cookies. My mum and me bake this special cookies which don't affect my blood sugar that much and since there are so many different desserts on cruise ships, my mum wanted to make them, so I wouldn't feel shortened. Of course they now also have sugar free desserts, but if I don't eat just really a little bit of them, they affect my blood sugar as well. So it's much easier for me to bring my own dessert, even though we sometimes have problems, because the ship members don't want to store them in their freezer. Homemade cookies sadly get mouldy very soon and we have to store them in freezer, not a fridge that you have in your cabin. So we wanted to bake them just before boarding the ship. As usual we forgot at home the main ingredients: stevia sweetener and coconut flour. My dad and I tried our luck in a fancy looking supermarket Irma and they told us how to get to the nearest shop that sells healthy food. To our surprise they had coconut flour and stevia sweeteners with different flavours that we thought were only sold in the USA. We usually buy a lot of them when we go there, so this was really a pleasant surprise. We also found chocolates with stevia sweetener that we buy at home and we got two as well. I was really happy about it! After we bought it, we returned straight to our apartment (with train of course) and finally defrosted there. Later that day me and my mum made caramel cookies with almonds (I had bought toffee flavoured stevia sweetener) and let them dry, as they last longer that way. My brother wasn't any better and he got a fever, but luckily we were insured, so my mum arranged a doctor to visit us next morning just before boarding the ship. I was really excited about the cruise and a bit worried about my brother. Of course I spent the rest of the evening on my iPad, because if you don't know wifi on ships is very very expensive and I must admit I feel sort of behind if I don't check my twitter and facebook for so long ( I hope I am not the only one haha).
Next day doctor assured us that the fever was probably just a consequence of stress and relieved we boarded Holland America Eurodam.
I hope that you enjoyed reading about our vacation and that you felt at least a bit of charm that Copenhagen radiates. I will write about our cruise destination in my next posts and if you'd like definitely check them out. Thank you for reading! Now the better part: pictures! ;)
xoxo