Date...Day!

Emma and I decided to head into the total madness that is Copenhagen, before Christmas, on a Saturday. That very well could have been our first mistake but all in all it was a good day out.

The first sign that all was not going to be smooth for the day was when we got told to get off the first section of the train as it wasn't able to connect to the already packed train. There was barely any standing room, so we decided to just catch the next one instead of having to stand for the 90mins train ride into Copenhagen. The next train that came.. not even close to being better. It too, was packed and we had to stand the entire way. We got there, in one piece so that is the main thing. We were greeted with the starting of blue skies! Which meant things were looking up!

Just across from the train station we witnessed the mass of people trying to get into Tivoli. If you come all the way to Copenhagen or even Skåne in winter (or well anytime really, but winter has a Christmas market), you just have to take a day and actually check the place out. Only idiots don't, or people who live in the area who can go any time they want. I have apparently been once, which I have blocked from my memory as a traumatic experience perhaps? lol I don't know, anyways.. the plan was if we were feeling up to it we would tackle it later in the day. When said later in the day arrived, we decided to not tackle it. It looked just as slow moving and packed as it did when we arrived in the morning so we simply headed home.. actually simply is not the word that should be described there.. but more on that later.

We headed down the main street, where this old crank totally got in my shot! I prefer when Hank photobombs my photos.

We checked out a few stores, which were totally packed. Some it was so hard to even more. I am looking at you Lego store! That was just pathetic. There would be no way that I would even want to attempt to actually do Christmas shopping in any of the weeks of December if this is the madness that it brings. I am glad that Emma and I get ours sorted early, and mainly online. It wasn't long until we hit our first Christmas market! [instagram photo] They even had Currywurst!  I was tempted to have some, but wasn't in the mood for some sausage goodness.

They were definitely trying to get in on the Berlin Christmas spirit, but in all honesty, they failed. The Christmas market just wasn't... Christmassy enough! We stopped for some aebleskiver.. 

Cinnamon sugar on one, which had sugar that was too coarse combined with a bad cinnamon to sugar ratio for it to be a fantastic experience. The other was the classic, with powdered sugar and raspberry jam. They were however, eatable and hit the spot. We stood at a bar to wash it down with some mulled apple juice, but no one came to serve us so we just left and headed over to a coffee house and purchased a Christmas latte. That hit the spot.. and had a choice sign advertising it.

Now while the Christmas market was a little bit of a fail, this is defintely not a fail in the building decoration stakes.. [instagram photo]

Emma totally got into the Christmassy spirit with the purchase of some so ugly they are cute Christmas statues. One for her mum.. [link] and this one for us..

Next begun the hunt to find some of the delicious chocolates that we discovered at the Food Festival earlier in the year. We walked the entire shopping centre. Every level. Spoke to a very lovely girl who went to check out the back for us and our worst nightmare came true, they had sold out. Sad. It wasn't a huge deal, just would have been nice to have something new to share at Christmas, there will be plenty of chocolates and goodies but there's always that added excitement of something new. And plus, these chocolates were REALLY good. Shit happens. As a consolation prize, we picked up this..

It was starting to get late in the day, as well as colder and we felt the need for some foodage so we started making our way to GRØD. A place Emma has wanted to try for a while, and we also sampled at the Food Festival. A restaurant devoted to all things porridge! Definitely a winner! After a little detour, getting on the wrong bus will do that to you. We finally arrived at the restaurant, which was more a pokey little place. Enough seats for maybe 12 people inside and who wants to eat outside in the cold. It was a very cute place, the menu was a little hard to read for someone who doesn't like clutter and well, it was in Danish. Emma of course went with a vegetarian option, which was really good. I nabbed a couple of mouthfuls! Noms!

I went with a meat option! Emma tried a mouthful of mine, just minus the actual pork side of things. Both were extremely delicious and totally warming. Just what the doctor ordered. I would definitely go back there again, perhaps if we were staying the night and had a hotel close where we could have it to take away. Or on a nice summer day where we don't mind eating outside.

With our bellehs full, we headed just down the road to our most favourite of bars, Mikkeller and Friends. How handy is it that a great place to eat and a great place to drink are just minutes from each other! It is like it was meant to be! We placed our order of Ris á la Male beer for Emma, Hoppy Lovin' Xmas for me, a beer sausage with cornichons and some salt 'n' vinegar crisps! [instagram photo]

As we sat there, nibbling and drinking and chatting away, totally enjoying the drinking by candlelight, I snapped this very awesome flame photo.. [instagram photo]. We took comfort in the warmth of the place and the warmth that the beer was giving us. Our second round, which was a 15% boozy beer called Jule Mælk, which was really damn good I must say. Even Emma really liked that one, she kept drinking it! It was slightly amusing when I went to order it, the barman was like.. "you do realise it's strong?" and I just said, Nope, but I still wanna try it! He chuckled and got me my beery goodness. The other we got for that round was Santa's Little Helper 2013. As you can tell, we stuck with a Christmassy theme for our Christmas beer drinking evening. As we finished up, we headed into the bottle store side of the bar for some take home goodness, we were planning on buying the Ris one for Emma's dad. Sadly, we were thwarted again and they too were sold out of that lovely lovely beer. So as a consolation prize, we picked a tequila beer to give a whirl. The tequila apparently gives the beer a freshness, so we will see on Friday.. when we take it around to consume with the parentals. There is just something more enjoyable about sharing a new experience with someone else.

It was time to head home, with a quick look at Tivoli we decided to skip the masses and headed for the train, we missed a train by a minute. Bummer! The next train we got on was PURE madness. Once again, standing room only. People pushing and shoving. These situations really bring out the stupid in people. It was just plain horrible. Emma got yelled at by a SAS flight attendant, coz the flight attendant couldn't open her eyes and pay attention to her own surroundings to see that Emma was actually the one who got off the damn train to make it easier for her to be able to get off the damn train. It was a very strained and horrible ride home, which thankfully was over quickly when we got off at Malmö, headed into Starbucks for a gingerbread latte for me, and caramel hot chocolate for Emma before jumping on a much less packed train taking us the rest of the journey in calmness. As we reached home, we were ready to just kick up and relax and say to ourselves that maybe next year if we feel the need to go into Copenhagen before Christmas, to maybe do it on a weekday rather than a weekend when every Tom, Dick, Harriet, Bernadette, their donkey and their dog decides to go in. To be honest tho, it was still quite the enjoyable day. Emma and I are pretty good at having good days out.. we are definitely looking forward to the next visit with Billy-Goat & Hank... even if it is just for a day at the bar! Can someone say.. Drink the menu?! Although, with the selection there I don't think that is very wise. 

Oh and hey look! It's Lego Santa! HoHoHo