The colours of Copenhagen

What's even better than ticking a new country off your list? Ticking 2 new countries in one trip! Even better if it's a spontaneous decision once you get to country number 1. My friend Alice and I had booked to stay 3 nights in Copenhagen, and it wasn't until we landed and the guy at border control jokingly made us promise not to go to Sweden while we were there. Which got the cogs turning and spoiler alert, we ended up seeing both beautiful countries in one jam-packed weekend.

We'd arrived bright and early and our first stop was at the hotel to drop off our bags. We were staying at the Ascot hotel which was in such an ideal location, right next to Tivoli gardens. It also had a really gorgeous cocktail bar!

Because we were already basically right next to it, we decided to spend our first day at Tivoli gardens. Which was a perfect case os serendipity because unbeknownst to us, it was closing for over a month on the Sunday to prepare for their Halloween fest. And we went on the Saturday! If we'd saved it for the latter part of our trip, we wouldn't have gotten to see it, which would've been a real shame because it was so cute. It's basically an old theme park that's been there for hundreds of years, but it's really well themed and decorated. You pay an entrance fee and then you just pay per ride, which worked out pretty well for us because we weren't actually that bothered about the rides, more just having a wander around. As well as the themed village style, they also had some actual gardens in there to wander through, and some big lakes too which were really pretty. I would say worth a trip whether you're bothered about rides or not. If you are bothered about the rides, a weekday might be better because there were big queues and it was very busy with families.

It's obviously not officially holiday time until you're sat with a glass of wine in hand, so we considered that our next official order of business. We ended up stumbling on this gorgeous little wine bar down a very cutesy side street, called Villa Vino. They had so many different wines to choose from, and from all sorts of obscure countries too (obscure in the sense that you don't often see wines from there on menus). I chose an orange wine from Georgia as something a bit different and it was delicious.

Then it was time to have an explore of the city! Alice summed Copenhagen up very accurately; the whole city feels like a university campus. Everyone is dressed casually, everyone walks or bikes everywhere (those basket-bearing university style bikes no less!), it's all very arty and quirky with lots of galleries and shops, and there are loads more cafes and convenience food spots than there are proper restaurants. Because Copenhagen is a very expensive city, we decided to opt for a convenience food spot and had a baguette at a lovely little sandwich shop.

We had had a slow amble through the city with the plan being to make our way towards Nyhavn, the area of colourful buildings that you'll think of when you think of Copenhagen. They didn't disappoint! The sun had done us a solid and come back out by the time we got there, so all the colours really popped and we sat and had a delicious spritz as the sun started to set. It was such a perfect people watching spot!

We'd had a very early start that morning so we were just looking for a nice cosy dinner and a glass of wine. We ended up at this lovely spot with very Tulum-sinpired decor and a delicious Italian menu. We both went with the mushroom risotto and it was fabulous.

I would say that Danish food is a little questionable. Clearly I'm not the only who thinks so, since it was harder to find a Danish restaurant in Copenhagen than it was to find literally any other cuisine (Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Italian on every other corner). But pastries. Pastries, I'll give them. They've pretty much got those nailed! We wanted to make sure we were sampling some of the best spots for our breakfast pastry stops so we did a bit of research and first chose Anderson and Maillard. Their cardamom bun was amazing.

Like with every city break, the number one item on the agenda was to wander around and see all the pretty sights. This time, we were heading to the castle area and to see the famous little mermaid statue. I was wearing the ultimate uniform of Copenhagen (blue pinstripe shirts were everywhere).

The little mermaid was beautiful. She was little (as advertised) and there were a lot of crowds trying to take pictures but it was nice that could get so up close to her.

The little mermaid is part of the castle complex so we went into the main bit of the castle afterwards. It's not a traditional castle in the sense of a Disney-style turreted building. It's more just one of those walled complexes with lots of buildings inside, so I would say it was actually fairly skippable if you were on a tight schedule. It still made for a nice walk though.

There was a bit of a theme for the day as we were onto a palace next; Amalienborg Palace. We didn't know their significane at the time, but it's actually where the royal family of Denmark lives, which makes sense given there were royal guards outside of each of the buildings. We also got to see the changing of the guard which was cool.

Copenhagen scored a strong 8 out of 10 on the cuteness scale. So many shops and little drinks spots were decorated with pretty plants and flowers, and we decided to stop off at one of them for a spritz.

Okay given the theme of the day, guess what was next. That's right, another palace! This time, we were onto Christiansborg palace and the surrounding royal gardens, which were really pretty. All of these places were to access too, which is especially good in an otherwise expensive city.

We had a very late lunch because our breakfast pastries had kept us super full, but when we did eventually stop for lunch we chose another cutesy sandwich spot. This one was Italian style and offered giant foccaccia sandwiches with loads of amazing fresh fillings. Absolutely 10/10. Although to give you an idea of costs, this sandwich and soft drink combo cost me £19. Nineteen great British pounds.

Alice is as rooftop bar obsessed as I am, so naturally we had to seek out a good one. This one was strange in that it was actually not one dedicated bar, but a rooftop terrace area attached to a rooftop food court of various different restaurants, on top of a shopping centre. Super random, but it was good for meaning we had the choice of what kind of drink to get and from where, since the outside space was a free-for-all (given the wind and fairly cold weather, it was mostly empty). The place we chose ended up having a happy hour deal on, so our spritz' were buy one get one free (result).

The desire to sit outside despite the fact it definitely wasn't warm, continued through dinner time! We found this cute fairylit little restaurant serving what I'll called "world cuisine" (again, no one offered Danish food). I got mussels and fries, and Alice got a middle eastern plate.

Our next breakfast pastry mission was an exciting one because it was going to be a train picnic! We went to a place called Rug, which was right near the train station and had an amazing selection of pastries. They also had space to sit in (lots of places were just takeaway) so it'd be a nice spot to have an actual brunch too.

Only 45 minutes later, we arrived in Malmo, Sweden! Another new country that hadn't yet been ticked off on my Been app.

The train drops you off right next to the Old Town so we had a look around that bit first, having a nosey in the church and a wander around the old town square. The buildings were cool with this timbered architecture style (we'd call it Tudor style so I'm not sure what it's called when it's in Sweden!).

Because it was a very last minute decision to go to Malmo, I hadn't looked at what there was to do or come up with any sort of plan. Luckily I'm pretty much a professional city-breaker at this point. So I planned us a little walking itinerary, taking us to see street art murals, the castle, the 'turning torso' building, and then the viewpoint for the famous Øresund Bridge (the one we'd come over to get there from Copenhagen). It was a pretty long walk actually and SO windy once we got to that exposed bit of land where we could see the bridge! It was such a beautiful day though and we warmed up afterwards with a pit stop in a little cafe.

It was such a beautiful day and we had a slow meander back to the old town through gorgeous parks. I always love a city with big open green spaces.

Obviously it would've been completely rude (and probably illegal) to go to Sweden and not stop off for some Swedish meatballs. So once we got back to the town, we looked for a spot to stop for some lunch and I particularly liked that Bullen offered half portions, because it was the perfect amount to hit the spot. I have to say, this dish was the best thing I had all holiday. I don't know if that just highlights that Copnehagen is not a food capital, or that it simply was that good. Honestly the whiskey sauce was amazing, the mashed potatoes were perfect, and even the pickles (said from someone who doesn't normally like pickled cucumbers) were just right. Highly recommend. And, Sweden was slightly cheaper for food too.

We'd done most of the things we wanted to in Malmo by this point, so we finished off the way all good day trips end. Sat with a nice view with a glass of something bubbly in hand (spritz for Alice, prosecco for me).

It was our last night so we wanted to have a few drinks. I'd had my eye on a spot called the library bar literally since before we arrived, and this was finally the night to give it a try. It's actually part of a hotel, and has such a cool theme. So majestic in its decoration, and I loved how the cocktails were all named after literary inspirations.

We actually had a bit of a nightmare with dinner. We'd planned to go to a Mexican spot, because we didn't want a second proper meal of the day and thought tacos would be perfect. We'd actually tried to go the day before and were told it was too close to closing (we arrived just under an hour before). So this night, we made a point of arriving early and despite getting there almost 2 hours before their advertised closing time, AND the place was practically empty, we were told no because it was too close to closing. Ridiculous. So we had a last minute panic because we hadn't really seen any other small plates places, but it turns out the solution to all our problems had already been presented to us. The wine bar from day one! The service in there had been amazing so we went back, and the owner even remembered us! We had an amazing cheese and meat board with a few glasses of different (and very interesting) wines. Perfect. Crisis not only averted, but probably surpassed.

Because the next day was our departure day, we opted for a proper seated breakfast (instead of a grab-and-go pastry), reasoning that it would work better as we wouldn't need to eat again really until we were home. We'd seen the spot at the end of our road, Ø12, had been super popular every day with queues out the door, so we thought it was a good bet to go there. It didn't disappoint! Lots of lovely brunch options and I went for the mixed plate with a little taster of pretty much everything.

We'd pretty much ticked off all the sights in Copenhagen by that point, but we still had one main one on the list. Rosenburg castle and the surrounding rose gardens. It was so pretty! So decided not to pay to go inside and tour around it, mainly because it was such a beautiful day that it was nice to be outside. 

We're like homing birds for a rooftop bar honestly. From the park, we could see a little roof terrace, and decided to go and see what it was. It was actually on top of the Cinemateket (cinema) and was free to enter. They even had a little bar up there so we enjoyed the last hour or so of our time in Copenhagen on the rooftop with a couple of spritz. The perfect ending!

In terms of Copenhagen as a city, I think it was a lovely spot to visit and I'd definitely recommend it. You could probably even do it in only 2 or 3 days, as it's pretty small and obviously we managed to squeeze a Sweden day trip into our 4 day itinerary. I wouldn't say it's a foodie hot spot, and I didn't love how expensive everything was, but on the whole it won extra brownie points for prettiness!