Copenhagen on a Shoestring

A recent survey found that the Danes are the happiest nation on earth. No wonder. The rest of the world cannot afford Copenhagen. Or could it?

Copenhagen (and Scandinavia in general) is notoriously expensive. When we went there, we were ready to open our savings account in order to get a can of soda. However, we found out that budget travelers can also enjoy Copenhagen.

Our first stop on our way to Copenhagen was useit.dk UseIt is a service offered by the Danish Tourism Agency, which basically gives you many tips on visiting Copenhagen without selling your kidney first to finance it.

We found accommodation through the Danish Bed & Breakfast. The B&B we stayed at (actually, only bed – you fetch your own breakfast) belongs to Ulla Jargil. Ms. Jargil also lives on the second floor, while the third is dedicated to guests (she has 2 guest rooms). You are sharing the bathroom and the kitchenette, and you have very narrow stairs to climb all the way to the third floor. These are the disadvantages. Despite sharing the bathroom and kitchenette we enjoyed full privacy, and Ms. Jargil is very friendly and would assist you around town (she leaves brochures in the room). Some people have a problem to sleep at somebody else’s house; others may have problem sharing a bathroom. While I can relate to the latter, staying in a house is much better than staying in a lousy motel, and since one of our colleagues stayed at a cheap motel we know that he even paid more.

We chose Ms. Jargil’s holiday apartment, because on the map it looked close to the university (which is where we had to work). However, be careful about that if you come to the university, as it is spread all over town and some faculties are relatively far away. In our case, the B&B also proved good despite the fact that it is not located in the old town – which is something you should know: if you don’t mind walking a little (and Copenhagen is the perfect place for strolling) and unless the weather is horrible, you don’t have to rent an apartment at the centre of town, in 15 minutes walk (and less with public transportation) you’d be there. I’ll get later to more strolling tips.

Getting to the city from the Kastrup Airport also proved pretty easy. First of all, exchange to Kroner in the airport – there are several bank counters in one of the terminals (and it is later much more expensive to exchange in the town). There is also a train going directly from the airport to the central train station in Copenhagen, so taxis are a waste of time; please note though, that the trains put their final destination (which is usually after Copenhagen) and you should be aware where they are going.

In general, public transportation is very good and affordable. There is a bike service for free, where you can rent bikes all over town. The bikes I’ve seen were not in the best shape (apparently, you can’t get free lunches), but it’s still worth a try if you’re a biker and have no children around.

Taking children along is not a problem (not with the B&B we were at, and not in general) – the Danes are very child-friendly, and would coo, smile and help you around. They do mind noise in general, but would smile when they see that it comes from children. The city itself has many attractions for children, not only the famous Tivoli (in which we haven’t been, because we’ve been there in the only month Tivoli takes off!). Just an example: the National Museum (Nationalmuseet), which is recommended in any case, has a lovely children museum, where kids can play and have a learning experience at the same time. The only thing that you might be missing is regular variety of mashed food jars and formula milk (if you’re not breastfeeding) – there’s very little offering at a normal supermarket (I asked someone and she said that most Danish parents make their own mashed-food mixtures; and that breast feeding is a big issue – if someone cannot, she may go to the chemist and get it as part of her medical insurance). Nappy changing facilities are available everywhere, but especially mind the public libraries, where you can find a children’s reading corner with toys (and also books in English, though most books are naturally in Danish). Not only that they have neat changing facilities, but in some libraries they have a librarian who’d mind the child for a while, to let you time to read.

Public libraries also have Internet access, and they’d let you use the first 15 minutes for free (which is usually enough for a quick email check and reading this article); and everything is available in English, even if they’d rather speak Danish. UseIt also say that they have free Internet at their offices – haven’t checked it. As Internet-addicted as I am, there is so much to do in Copenhagen you’d hardly notice your floating email box.

Basically, Copenhagen has several main boroughs, each with its own unique character. There’s the city centre, where you can find small enchanting streets and magnificent rococo to modern architecture, including the Celebration Hall of the University (on Frue Plads), which is especially recommended visit. Then, you have neighbourhoods around the city centre, more or less similar to it - but with more gardens, residential areas, etc. Across the bridges southwards or northwards you find slightly different, a bit seedier neighbourhoods, where you’d find many immigrants and their restaurants.

The University of Copenhagen itself is spread all over town, and if you have meetings or conferences there, make sure that you know where it will take place – although the city makes fun walking and has great public transportation, it is still advisable not to stay at the other end of the town. Humanities and parts of Social Sciences, for example, are in Islands Brygge, near Amager (one of the sites on the Internet concludes only “not the place to go, unless you’re looking for a fight”, regarding Amager, but I’ve been there and except for being very cheap in comparison to Copenhagen and totally non-trendy, I didn’t feel anything threatening in particular. I was not involved in any major fights). Islands Brygge is on the south part of the harbour, and it is full of interesting architecture.

The only reason I think that you may not visit Amager or Islands Brygge is not that they’re not interesting, but that there’s much to see in all quarters, including an almost compulsory visit to the Little Mermaid (which is indeed very small), the changing of the guards at the palace and other touristy stuff. UseIt and other guides to Denmark are full with advices what to see and what to miss; and the only thing I could say is that many museums are either for free or have a students’ discount; many parks are for free; and other sites, like the marvelous City Hall are also for free (the university also gave us a wonderful lunch there, in a hall used by the royal family). You will spend of course, on Tivoli and other interesting sites that cost money; and on food.

However, also here, the rumours on “expensive Denmark” are a bit farfetched. Of course, you could dine splendidly for €300 a person, but you don’t have to. There’s plenty of affordable good food and you don’t have to stuff your face at the nearest McDonalds/KFC/whatever (this is really weird and I could never understand tourists who’d do that, unless the food in that country is absolutely horrendous. The whole point of travelling is trying local stuff, right?).

In the fast food category, alongside the McFood chains, you also have hotdogs (a local variety which is very popular in Denmark, haven’t tried though, because I am more of a cow person when it comes to food). You can also buy affordable sandwiches with wonderful combinations in many shops, usually they are marked as “Smørrebrød”, despite the fact that the term “Smørrebrød” actually refers to open sandwiches buffet, not to any sandwich.

Buffet is in general a good possibility to enjoy a meal without digging into your savings account. Almost every restaurant, certainly in the city center, offers an “eat as much as you can” buffet for a fixed price. We went to a pizza place once, and once to a Chinese place, both were OK but nothing I’d write home about. We ate one evening at a very good fusion café, called “Picknick”, which offers fusion between Kurdish and Danish food for friendly prices. It is somewhere near Fælledvej (maybe at the end of it? I just remember it was close to the Police Historical Museum, which is there), although unfortunately I don’t have the full address.

One thing you should definitely not miss – and is also not expensive, is the Danish bakeries. I come from Germany, so I thought that I can’t be taught about cool bakeries. Wrong. On the one hand, the Danes are the Japanese of Europe. Their baked goods and sandwiches are very aesthetic and innovative. On the other, they are not the Japanese of Europe, because they have those wonderful baked goods, so sweet and interesting. Not only the “Danish” pastry. I ate, for example, something that is called “Potatosomething” (Idon’t understand Danish, the word Kartoffel was there), which turned out to be a thin bun filled with sweet pudding and covered with “potato” pattern from Marzipan. One of the most fabulous bakeries I’ve found is Lagkagehuset, near the Christianhavn metro station. Just sit there, drink your coffee and eat something amazing, while looking at the swans in the canal. That’s life!

Another option, especially if you live in an apartment, like we did, is to buy something in cheap supermarkets and cook it yourself. There are several cheap supermarkets with interesting local variety of food, like Netto or Fakta. You can then try the local variety and eat according to your own diet. In any case, if you want to take some souvenirs home, you can buy Danish stuff at those supermarkets, including lots of licorice (the Danes are big on licorice – they even have several types of licorice ice cream treats!), Danish or Swedish chocolate (which is very good), etc.

Copenhagen, to sum up, is a wonderful city, and even if it is not that cheap, it also doesn’t deserve its horrible reputation. Go ahead with your kidneys intact, you won’t have to sell them.