During the Easter Holidays, many Københavners were pretty much gone…gone on vacation, or gone home to visit their families. So the city was pretty much a ghost town on April 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th. By the way, Easter is called Påske. When I ventured out of my room on Thursday the 9th, I wasn’t expecting nearly all of the stores and libraries to be closed and for the streets to be practically empty. There was, however, an abundance of tourists. Camera-happy, map-wielding tourists. Guess they decided to take their Easter holiday in Copenhagen. Well, I had a camera. I blended right in with them! :-)

The weather was lovely all Easter weekend, so I spent a LOT of time outdoors, on foot, exploring Copenhagen. I also took advantage of my transportation pass and rode the 250S, 5A and 1A busses to the end of their lines. :-) As a result, I finally have a better idea of how the boroughs of this city connect. For example, by riding the 5A, I finally know that Nørreport Station is just around the corner from Rådhusplasden. I now know how to walk from Christianshavn Metro Station to Strøget. I figured out how to walk to the Little Mermaid. Little things like that! I’ve been here since August and I’m only now figuring it out. And by no means have I discovered ALL of the gems Copenhagen has to offer.

One of my favorite discoveries during the Easter break was Kastellet (the citadel), this really awesome park not far from Østerport Station. It’s actually a fortification, according to Wikipedia, overseen by Danish Kings Christian IV and Frederick III in the 1600s. This citadel formed part of Copenhagen’s defense against England in the 1807 Battle of Copenhagen. Refer to Wikipedia for more details. ;-) Walking around the entire pentagon-shaped area is a nice thing to do on a sunny afternoon, because the views are gorgeous. It’s also a nice place to take a jog.

Another place I visited during my Easter walks around Copenhagen was Langelinie (litterally “long line”), a ship port near the water. If you like boats, this is the place to go. There was also a discount clothing market and quite a few food stands. It’s a bit touristy but I had fun. Langelinie park is not too far from the ship yard and it is there that you can find den lille Havfrue (the Little Mermaid).

Finally, I walked down Islands Brygge, a waterfront street with lots of little bars and cafes. One end of Islands Brygge (the one closer to the island of Amager) looks a bit deserted, run down and rough, with graffiti on the buildings, junk lying about and huge piles of sand everywhere. The opposite end (closer to the city center) is nice, with good-looking apartments and a cute little dock. Back in March, my classmates held a bowling night at a bowling center in Islands Brygge and it was grand. I hadn’t been bowling (in the physical world) since high school gym class. :-)

A random woman offered to take a picture of me at Langelinie. She thought I was a tourist because as I left she said, “enjoy your holiday in Copenhagen!”

“Rougher” side of Islands Brygge

“Nicer” side of Islands Brygge

Double-decker busses used on the 250S route…I caught a ride in one and ended up at the bus yard in Islands Brygge at the end of its route

More photos: Kastellet, Langelinie, Islands Brygge

OK, the second post of many in my ridiculously long queue! This post is going to be about the choir I sang in for about a month and a half. I’m a big time choir person. I first sang in a choir in 5th grade (got assigned to it at random) and from then on I was hooked. Sang in the choir every single year until I graduated from high school. Then in college I sang for four years in the Women’s Glee Club, and after college I joined the community choirs in my town back at home.

I didn’t sing in any choir last fall. I missed it, but I was so in love with Copenhagen and being abroad that it didn’t bother me much. But after I decided to return for the spring, I thought it’d be cool to find a choir to sing in. But I got lazy and didn’t put too much effort into the search. I did look on some websites, but most choirs were already going by the time I came back, and of course most would be in Danish (not that that I’d mind too much…I like the Danish language).

Well I was randomly hanging out in the kitchens in the dorm and, through a classmate of mine, met this really nice girl who sang in this international church choir. To make a long story short, I joined the choir in early March. It turned out to be an Easter choir, we rehearsed songs from a composition called Redemption. Very religious, and I’m not a religious person at all. But I just wanted to sing and I’ll sing religious songs as long as they don’t advocate harming anyone or anything.

Rehearsals were every Saturday morning at 9:30. Wide range of ages in the choir. Much more informal than what I was used to, but the people were nice. They wanted me to join their youth groups and come to their worship services and everything. They were so nice that I didn’t want to say no, I’m not a Christian right to their face, so I just smiled and didn’t really say yes or no as to whether or not I’d come. I mean, I was just there to sing. But they wouldn’t know that. Maybe I should have been more straightforward and clear that I was only there to sing, but I didn’t want to start any conflicts with these people. It would be pointless. I mean, one of my fellow singers was this gentle old, slightly bent German man who kept coming up to me saying he wanted to find where Chapel Hill and North Carolina were on a map, and he’d say that he thought of me whenever he saw a story on the news about North Carolina. So I thought it best to just play along and go with the flow because they weren’t harming anyone.

Anywhoo, the concert on April 5th was a lot of fun. We sang at both Palm Sunday services. Very passionate worship going on. We wore white tops and black bottoms with yellow scarves around our necks. Thankfully I already had black pants but had to buy a white top (got one extremely cheap for 10 DKK at Føtex, it was on clearance).

Well, pictured is the church, located on the edge of Nørrebro. Believe it or not it’s a Baptist church. A Baptist church in Copenhagen. Interesting.

Well, I’ve got a LOT of posts to write, so I’m going to be spamming this blog today. :-) I’ve got to start at the beginning. The first post in the queue is my visit to the public library in Nørrebro. Now, Nørrebro is known as the “rough” part of town. This is where a lot of immigrants settle and so it’s more international than other parts of Copenhagen. Many students and people who are just starting out live here too because housing is much cheaper. The stores are also cheaper here…so for example the Irma gourmet grocery store is cheaper in Nørrebro than the Irma in København K (the city center).

Nørrebro (especially along its main street, Nørrebrogade) has the most interesting restaurants, shops and nightlife. It was also the site of the famous youth riots back in 2007 over the underground “Ungdomhuset” (the house was eventually demolished by the government), and the Assistens Cemetery (the final resting place of famous Danes such as H.C. Andersen). Back in the Fall I walked through Nørrebro with Barbara.

There’s been a spate of gang-related shootings here over the past few months. Since gun violence is relatively rare in Copenhagen, people go wild over each shooting. If the Danish government would do a better job taking care of immigrants and making them feel more welcome into the society, the youth wouldn’t resort to gangs and drugs. But that’s a different story entirely and I’m digressing!

I found this library to be the most interesting of all of them. It’s probably my favorite so far of the public libraries. It looks like a video arcade or music store. Attractions include plastic see-through chairs, nifty black shelves, a computer lab, graffiti art and a giant tree in the children’s section. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Also, the patrons (at least when I was there) were of many different nationalities, reflecting the international character of Nørrebro.

Oh and while I was doing some work, a random guy came up to me and said I look like Michael Jackson did when he was young. Hmm. ;-) He also wanted to use the Internet on my computer. I let him check one site but then sent him off to the computer lab. I think he just wanted an excuse to talk to me!

I’ve put tons more pictures on Flickr.

Tree in Children’s Section

More of the Children’s section

Graffiti Art & Magazine Shelf

Stacks

The table where I studied

MORE PICTURES HERE!