of Copenhagen, or a vacation-vibe refresher

It’s that time of year. The last of the Christmas holiday vibes have faded, you’re thoroughly entrenched again in work, and you flip through the pages of your weekly agenda wondering sadly, Is it really still 9 pages til summer?

I know what. Let’s go, just you and me, to Denmark for a day.

Hankering for a fresh adventure last summer, the man and I folded ourselves into two tiny berths on a night-train barreling towards Copenhagen. When we woke up, we peered out the window and stared like confused children at the hills, the glorious HILLS! Life below sea level is a total trip, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes the eyes yearn for a little topographical variety.

After setting up camp in our ho(s)tel we set out like jumpy bloodhounds to find coffee. We stumbled upon Estate Coffee where Brazil’s 2009 barista champion, the lovely Yara, served us a mean cortado. We visited a hundred and one espressobars in the following days, but the Estate baristi were so friendly that we made it our homebase. As often happens, my man was soon behind the bar trying out Aeropress formulas with his new buds.

We rented some bikes and proceeded to zoom about willy-nilly, stopping only to drink coffee and to root through the occasional second-hand shop.

We sipped cappuccini standing against the roaster in the famed Coffee Collective, zipped past the Little Mermaid statue with noses wrinkled over how small it was, found a cache of 1st edition Kierkegaard in a tiny cellar bookshop, ran our hands over Viking tombstones embossed with runes at the Natural Museum. And after all that, we scaled a mountain of nachos (another topographical treat) at Kafe Kopka. It was a feast, all of it.

We were so caffeinated enthralled that we didn’t take any pictures aside from that first one — consider this happy accident a chance to dust off your imagination, fill in the blanks, and send yourself to Copenhagen.

There, now. Are you feeling a little better? It’s only 9 more pages til summer, you know…

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