Copenhagen Wrap-Up

Almost a full month after I actually moved away from Copenhagen, I'm posting my final blog about life in Denmark. Since moving to Sweden, I've had many difficulties getting set up - a combination of bureaucratic barriers/insane non-sensible rules, an unresponsive and cheap landlord, and the entire HR department gone of vacation for the month. Lack of internet at home has been a huge issue, but with my newly-acquired mobile internet stick, the posts shall resume.

In my final days in Copenhagen, I did what every normal person would do when they move away from a city - do all the touristy things that they never bothered to do because they were too cool to do them before as residents of the city. This included my last cultural event, visiting the Carlsberg Brewery, taking a canal tour, and visiting Tivoli (the beloved historical amusement park).

Skt Hans Aften
Sankt Hans Aften, or Saint Hans Evening, occurs on the longest day of the year, which I believe is the summer solstice. On this evening, Danes will gather in parks to be merry and party in the best possible fashion - the time honored tradition of burning witches. I have no idea of why they do this, but supposedly the witch will go off to the mountains of Germany after being burned. Of course these days they only burn an effigy of a witch, but I wonder if 500 years ago they burned real people.







Carlsberg Brewery
Prior to moving to Denmark, I had actually never heard of Carlsberg, or it's sister brand, Tuborg. Apparently, it's one of the biggest brands in the world, and it turns out to be quite tasty for a mass market beer. For about $10, you get a self-guided tour of a touristy museum-ish area, and two beers. Given that a Carlsberg will typically cost ~$7-$10 in a bar, it's not so bad of a deal.

The brewery had all these really cool old-time trucks around that they used to use for distribution.

Old Carlsberg beer bottles. The museum held the largest private collection of unopened beer bottles in the world. Some Danish guy started collecting beer as a hobby, and through the years collected enough to fill an entire floor of the museum.
Ludvig, son of Herkules and Nova. Similar to Budweiser, Carlsberg also has horse-drawn wagons to be used in promotional marketing events. Instead of clydesdale horse, Carlsberg uses little horses that I think were originally from Iceland.

One of the gates of the brewery grounds. Note the use of the swastika, which actually used to be the official logo of Carlsberg beer. It was funny to see that all over the museum they had to put up notes explaining the swastikas, and how Carlsberg stopped using the symbol after the Nazi party adopted the symbol as their own.

Canal Tour of Copenhagen
This is one thing I wished I had done earlier. The canals were not so much of a big deal, but it was interesting to hear about the history behind many of the buildings around that I just took for granted.

Departing from Nyhavn, the "new harbor" that was new a long, long time ago. I wanted to wait until nice weather came before partaking in a canal tour, and as you can see this day was very nice.
Sites from the tour. Here, we are actually in an inlet, and heading over to the canals of Christianshavn and it's spiral-topped church.
Danish design

This shot was actually taken outside of the boat, but turned out much better. During the nice days, Copenhageners like to sit along the canal edge and just hang out.

Tivoli

Tivoli is an amusement park that dates back to the olden-days. If you ask a Dane, Tivoli is the most amazing place, an amusement park full of charm, beauty, and coziness. If you ask a foreigner, Tivoli is kind of a joke, an expensive waste of money. I found out the latter was quite true. For any Iowans reading this, think of Tivoli as a smaller, enclosed Adventureland located in the middle of a big city.