Copenhagen 2026

I went to Copenhagen with Mariah and Nick!!!! Yippee!! I’m pretty sure this entire trip came from two of my friends going there last year, and one of them posted a photo of a hot dog to her instagram story and what started as a sort-of joke about wanting to eat the Copenhagen glizzy turned into an actual trip. Also, part of this I’m sure, was because going to Europe rather than Japan was very overdue, especially since I live on the east coast where it’s so much easier to get there than anywhere in Asia. And it just seemed like a good city vibe!!!!! The ideal (city) vacation is just wandering around and going to cafes and museums and seeing nice architecture and trying local snacks and drinks, and Copenhagen seemed like a great city for that (and it was!!!)

Day 1

Okay so I cannot sleep on flights, which wouldn’t be so bad but this one was from 5pm to 7am the next day, but only like 7 hours long so it means that I just had to be up for two full days with no sleep!!!! lmao!!! The train from the airport got a couple stops in and then just shut off, and the conductor got on the intercom and announced that they had lost power and would be sitting at the station until it was back. We stayed there for around 15 minutes before moving again, a really funny first impression of european trains!

After checking into the hotel and dropping stuff off we went to the most touristy thing of the whole trip, Nyhavn!!! Understandably very cute and it was nice to be on the water, but thinking back on it it’s kinda funny that this one specific area is so popular when the architecture is so nice everywhere in the city.

From there we went to nude coffee. Really nice single origin pour-over, I forget what I specifically got but it was really yummy. The owner, Joakim(sp?), was super nice, giving us descriptions of everything and his thoughts on different beans. He even gave us chocolates to eat with/after the coffee! Would love to go back here honestly!!! Popped into a ceramics store that had lots of nice locally made stuff. I saw a lot of things I liked but I didn’t commit in the moment and left without buying anything.

We went to a guitar pedal store so Nick could shop, he got some really cool locally made things but honestly I was kinda wandering around while he was trying things out lol. Went to a cute little park before and after, saw a greylag goose, Vibed, the weather was super nice the first day.

For dinner we went to the meatpacking district, a place we would return many times, and got flæskesteg sandwiches. Yummy but honestly too much food at that point in the day (when I was feeling delusional from being so tired). The vibe here was kinda fascinating, all former meatpacking factories(?) turned restaurants and clothing stores. So lots of white tile and big metal doors everywhere.

Day 2

Okay so for breakfast we immediately went back to the meatpacking district for Hart bakery for BMO morning buns and pastries. I feel like when I had these I was instantly transported back to the same emotions from Montreal when I had the bagels for the first time. Like I could eat these every day and I doubt I’d get tired of them! We went across the parking lot to a clothing store, Motorious, where Nick got a cool fisherman sweater and I got a store-branded t-shirt. It’s funny being in another country and seeing stuff that’s made in the US and I’m like “oh I love that brand!!” but like….. why would I get something made in the US in Denmark lmao (see also: me thinking about getting a shirt that’s made in Japan here)

We got on the metro and went over to the design museum. The subway system here is so cool, completely automated, trains every 2 minutes, all of the stations are super far underground so you’re usually on at least three escalators to get to the platform. We bought weekly passes and they have kind of a weird system where rather than having fare gates, they just have staff that get on the trains and check everyone’s ticket. But since it was never announced when this was happening I’d have to panic to pull my ticket out every time.

The design museum was pretty nice, the internet was right in that I think it only took us like 90 minutes to see everything? We kept having “omg japan” moments throughout this trip, like the cherry tree blossoming outside of the museum and then there being a Japanese poster design exhibit inside lol. Also the paper tickets for the museum were nice, randomized version of the logo with different color combos.

After this…….. I actually don’t remember lol. I have photos but I cannot tell what we were doing. Probably just wandering around!!!!!! We finished the day by going to a fancy Michelin restaurant which was good, though I think my tastes lean a bit less subtle. And what better thing to follow up a fancy meal than ice cream???? Super good, really interesting and diverse flavors. Mariah asked what one of them was that wasn’t translating and even they weren’t really sure what it would be in english since it was such a Danish thing.

Day 3

Off to Louisiana! Love to go to a museum, third museum this trip (if you count Mass MoCA). We took the train there and it let us off in a pretty small town center and the museum was a ~15 minute walk from the station. Sadly NOT a good ticket, literally just a receipt paper with a barcode on it, smh!!! This place was significantly larger than the design museum, it took a couple hours to get through it all (though we also ate lunch here and admired the grounds in and around it). One of the exhibits was about the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum which was kinda crazy!!!!! Boston mentioned!! We saw Gleaming Lights of the Souls by Yayoi Kusama which was pretty cool, I definitely Get It now. Interesting contrasting that to the James Turrell pieces we saw at Mass MoCA.

When we were done seeing all we wanted to see at the museum we exited directly to a small beach/pier. Wild being able to see Sweden off in the distance! We made our way back to the road and we cut through what I assumed was just a nice park, but then a minute into walking realized was a cemetery. Walking down the street back to the station we kept commenting on the mailboxes each house had, there was clearly a couple standardized ones that everyone had a variation of (either squared off or rounded). They’re so cute!!

At the station I grabbed a little treat for myself while I assumed Mariah was buying the return ticket for the train. When I got across to the other platform I saw her still waiting in line and this small group of people had somehow taken like 10 minutes to buy their tickets, holding everyone up to the point where the train was arriving in a couple minutes and there was a dozen people in line behind us. We managed to get our ticket with a minute to spare, but I feel bad for everyone else in line behind us that missed their almost-hourly train!!!! The treat was a little raspberry bar, very yummy.

After we got back we went to Reffen, this big outdoor food court type thing on the water, one of the things my friends had specifically recommended to us (and the source of the Original Glizzy that started this whole vacation). While cool, it was kinda weird to me that the only things the stalls were selling were like full meals??? Like you couldn’t get anything for less than 15 dollars USD. I feel like the vibe I wanted was like, being able to stop into all of these little shops and get some 5 dollar snack over and over again to try lots of stuff, but since everything was so expensive I only ended up having a Filipino pork skewer and definitely not Filipino fried chicken bao thing lmao, and then a slice of pizza where I definitely lost something in translation and ended up spending way more money than I expected. But the vibes there were good and it was really nice being there during sunset.

After we got back into the central area of the city, you know we had to go get ice cream again lol!!!!!! We went back to the same place as yesterday and we all got different flavors. Super yummy again.

Day 4

Another BMO!!! This time at a place really close to the hotel with a shockingly fancy-feeling interior. This day was a bit more aimless and uneventful. We stopped back into this art store Flan to get prints and then went to some clothing stores for Mariah. Afterwards we went to a park and saw a big meteorite and thought about going into a castle but instead we just looked at the exterior and checked out the shop lol. Before dinner we split up and I went back to the ceramics shop that we stopped in on the first day and bought the cup that I had been thinking about getting. Whenever I inevitably get really into pourover coffee I feel like those will be perfect cups for that…… I loooooove to spend money on things let me tell you!!!

For dinner we went to a really nice seafood restaurant, which I am not the biggest fan of seafood but Nick and Mariah said “you can try some of everything, and if you don’t like it then no one can ever tell you it’s only because you haven’t had a good one”. My review: Oysters, not good. Scallops, really good. Clams, pretty good, though I think I was like salted out at that point. Also got the fish and chips which was solid though felt kinda funny getting that at such a nice place. Overall, I appreciate the experience!!!! Worth it!

I think Mariah found this place? But we went to a minigolf bar in the same plaza afterwards. Insane vibe in there, the music was exclusively like, millennial pop bangers. I’m not complaining really but it was so surreal being in another country where english is not the default language and only hearing english (mostly american) music. The actual minigolf was fun, there was a novelty in the course design since it had to be all really short holes, so most things were just a single gimmick (why am I saying this like I’m a huge minigolf expert lmao). They also had foo fighters pinball and a busted street fighter 2 cabinet so we also played those. Good way to end our final night here :’)

Day 5

Wow the final day…….. We had a pretty early flight so we got up early and went straight to the final thing we wanted to go to, Juno the Bakery. Apparently this place was pretty hyped up on instagram or whatever and honestlyyyyyyyy I get it, it was super good. When we got there there was basically no line but the people two ahead of us couldn’t check out because their card reader was down, and we had gone this entire trip without ever using cash so we didn’t have any on us, so we were worried that we wouldn’t even be able to buy anything in time for our flight. Thankfully!!!!!! After like 20 minutes the card reader started working again and we managed to get something and rush out. I forget what I got specifically but it was all so good.

In the airport we all bought matching Miffy corduroy plushies, very cute!!!! I asked the TSA guy to hand-check my rolls of film that I shot and he was like “um you do know that there’s more radiation in the air than in these x-rays right? I think you read too much reddit” which is an extremely reddit thing to say. So funny when right before going in I was like “I bet the TSA here will be really nice :)” so much for that. Actual flight was uneventful, but man it’s crazy how good the food is on international airlines. The US really does have it the worst huh!!

When we landed in Logan, while Mariah and I were waiting for our bags in the carousel, Nick went off to go to the bathroom. After a couple minutes we see him walking back, but now escorted by a CBP agent. Apparently it’s suspicious for us to have no checked bags on the way there, but one checked bag on the way back??? Is that not a normal thing to do?? Thankfully the guy was nice enough, honestly the whole thing was so funny, he pointed at our Miffy plushies and was like, “what is this, One Piece?” and was telling me to take them to the casino in Boston. We love security theater!

Overall, very fun trip, really glad we went!! Kinda the perfect length, while there was other stuff we could have done we kinda did everything we really wanted to do. I love my little annual friend trips and they’re really what life is all about to me. Love to hang out and walk around and go to fun cafes and restaurants and do our little activities!!!! I miss all of the elderflower and rhubarb flavored things… Also, looking at these photos is making me realize I really need to stop shooting at -1/3 and exclusively classic chrome on my fuji lol