Museums, cafes, and general gallivanting -- Copenhagen

This last week has been one of the most relaxing of my life, and I'm doing my best to not feel unreasonably guilty about how laid-back I've been. It's taken me months of traveling to get to a place where I can let go of my obsessive "MUSTALWAYSBESUPERPRODUCTIVEALLTHETIME" attitude, but I think this last month has done an adequate job of annihilating this guilt complex. A general day at Svetlana's: wake up at half nine, make a delicious breakfast, go back to bed for a couple of hours, study French, go on a walk through one of the most beautiful cities in the world -- taking photos and popping in and out of museums and cafes. I usually meet up with Nina at some point -- for shopping, a coffee, or a stroll through Tivoli. I also was fortunate enough to be in Copenhagen on Freddy's birthday, and had an exquisite, five course dinner at an extremely good restaurant with the Maenchen family.

The first course

The second course

The bread was very thin and beautiful. Very nice to look at for us celiacs. :)

The third course

The fourth course

Dessert. My god, this was good. 

A few of the cafes and shops I've visited with Nina and her friends:

Everything in Copenhagen is so well decorated and unique.

I have no idea who this girl is, but I love that she smiled for the camera.

The portions in Copenhagen are quite small when compared to standard American fare. This plus the amount of biking/walking the Danish do on a daily basis is most likely the reason Copenhagen is such a fit city.  

One of the quirky little shops between Svetlana's and Nina's. 

I had intended to go to Thorvaldsens Museum to see the peat mummies last week, but accidentally ended up at the National Museum (don't laugh -- they're very close to each other). The National Museum was quite interesting though, so I didn't beat myself up too much for that silly mistake. However, I need to learn how to be a better museum goer. I usually start on the first floor and work my way up, regardless of what I want to see the most. Oddly enough, what I usually want to see is usually on the last floor. By the time I get there, I'm in the "IhavetopeeIhavetopeeIhavetopee/canhardlywalkcanhardlywalkcanhardlywalk" stage, and barely take the time to glance at the things I was once so interested in seeing. The National Museum had large exhibits of Classical, Egyptian, and Danish historical artifacts.

I also went to the Copenhagen City Museum, which I enjoyed a lot more. It's free on Fridays, so if you're visiting Copenhagen and want to spend a couple of hours wandering through a maze-like museum full of displays very specific to the city in which you're staying, I'd highly recommend this lovely little place.

There was a large trash exhibit at the museum. Copenhagen is a very environmentally friendly city, so the way people deal with trash is quite important. 

Portraits of Danish Teens with Hip Hop Attitude.

I was also able to visit Tivoli with Nina and Anne (a friend from Nina's hospital). As it was the 30th, the park was absolutely packed -- but I still had a wonderful time looking at all the lights, and the fireworks display at 21:00 was beautiful, too.

The Lights of Tivoli

I went to Anne's yesterday morning to help with some New Years Eve baking. In Copenhagen, marzipan is a very important component of dessert this time of year. We made tasty marzipan balls and sticks, but it traditionally looks more like this:

After making our marzipan desserts, I walked back to Svetlana's apartment -- taking the scenic route around the city lakes.

I did the tourist thing again. I can't help taking pictures of swans. Gaww.

Around the lakes is almost like a jogging track. It's where just about everyone goes running in Copenhagen. 

People are fond of tossing their bikes in the lakes.