An's walk in Copenhagen

Before coming here I was aware of the famous Copenhagen little mermaid, and of course of the Andersen’s story. But I didn’t know they are so obsessed by mermaids! I didn’t imagine there would be so many mermaids in Copenhagen. While walking on Sunday I saw three of them not far away one from the other. I also now one near the Black Diamond and some friends told there is one in Carlsberg Brewery also. I must admit I am impressed. There are cases in Copenhagen’s history that the little mermaid had suffer brutal vandal acts like the case with her missing head, but at the same time people really think about it as a symbol of the city, they celebrate it’s birthday and will show it on the Expo 2010 in Shanghai as a symbol of Denmark too.

The original statue of the Little Mermaid

The big (new) mermaid, which I dislike so much, it looks like from a TV advertisement. This one was made at 2007.

The mermaid on the Lingelinie Alle, made in 2006. This one is nice, and in ensemble with the other figures on the coast next to it.

And truly interprets the sadness of the original mermaid.

Finally I’m showing you the mermaid next to the Black Diamond.

I hope I’ll see soon the one at the Carlsberg Brewery and I will upload it here also

It’s so easy to mix totally opposite things to do at the same day here. There was a parade for St. Patrick’s day on Wednesday which we went to see, but soon after we got bored of so many people walking and drinking so much so early so we went to the Danish Design Center with it’s calm atmosphere and silence and calmness. And finally at the evening we returned to an Irish pub, called “The Irish Rover” to continue celebrating this Irish tradition with a lot of happy people (non of them Irish, including me and my friends ), tons and tons of Guinness and nice live music. These things were so far away – the parade and the Irish pub from going to a design exhibition that I still think they happened in two different days.

Yesterday I made a post about this wonderful exposition in the National Museum and I thought it will be a good idea to share it also here for those who missed it after all. It was until 28 February and me personally I visited it at the last day after a huge party in the Round Kolleguim at KUA.

I am so happy that instead of sleeping until noon I managed to get up and see it, because it is a wonderful example how an exhibition has to be made. I am still amazed of how many children go with their parents to museums here. And small children too. In Bulgaria children like the Natural History Museums because of the animals, and may be nothing else. And I don’t think any parent will bring little children in the other museums. It will be so boring for them because we never have Children Museums. Well, I must say I know this idea for a long time, and I’ve seen it several times, but since I am in Copenhagen I begin to understand it. This is the ultimate way to bring people to a museum, to teach children to history, art, culture etc., to make them love the museums and feel connected to them, also to attract their parents.

I must say I love the way Danish people make their expositions. The way they choose what to show, the way they show it, the little chaos of sounds, videos, screaming children, everything, it’s just so alive. May I make too many comparisons between Bulgarian and Danish museums, but this is my area of study, so I just can’t make myself not to do it.

Well, children attractions attract also Spanish international students of medicine going on their first visit of a Danish museum, because of me of coarse, I always torture people with museums .

I made an album in my facebook page with more pictures from the exhibition. You can find it here. This page is in Bulgarian, but I made some comments in English for easier understanding from internationals. I hope you’ll enjoy them

Bog & idé are chain bookshops distributed all over Denmark. They have big collection of English books, including all bestsellers, fantasy authors (which is a necessity for me!), crime series, and etc. The bookshop is really nice, its very easy to orientate and you feel cozy there. Their one only weakness is that books are a bit more expensive than in other bookshops – for example I bought “Innocent Mage” from Karen Miller for DKK 129.95, but I saw it later in another bookshop for DKK 119. Nice to go there, but I’ll prefer to buy books from other shops, although they accept Visa

http://www.bog-ide.dk/

Copenhagen Unlike

http://copenhagen.unlike.net/

This site shows the most interesting locations of Copenhagen and events that capture the style and spirit of the life in Denmark’s capital. It also has a great iPhone app so it’s easy to be in touch all the time.

dba. bk

http://cykler.dba.dk/

This is a good place to find a cheap second hand bike. The only problem is that you have to look carefully because it’s so easy to miss the best offer.

Danish architecture center

http://english.dac.dk/visForside.uk.asp?artikelID=4956

As I am interested in architecture, I must say they have some interesting events and arrange exhibitions.

The Royal Library

http://www.kb.dk/en/

If you have a danish CPR number you have a free access to the libraries. And the best place of coarse is the Royal Library, which has several buildings all over the city. You can look for a book at home and even order it from your own computer. And there is also a free access to some of the databases like JSTOR (the one that I use). This is also a good way to stay in touch for the exhibitions and events in the Black Diamond.

Bycyklen.dk

http://www.bycyklen.dk/english/thecitybikezone.aspx

Here you can find information about city bikes in Copenhagen.

Copenhagenize.com

http://www.copenhagenize.com/

There is an interesting word in English – copenhagenizing – this mean to adopt the culture of bicycling. This site will show what exactly is the bicycle philosophy and can give some useful information.

I know this great little place in Copenhagen…

http://www.facebook.com/greatlittleplacecopenhagen?ref=pymk&v=wall

A new facebook group about the best places to go.

I plan to make a post for the museums of Copenhagen with their sites of coarse, so stay with me

UPDATE:

visitcopenhagen.com

http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/press

The official tourism site of Copenhagen and the surrounding area

schmap.com

http://www.schmap.com/copenhagen/home/

A guide to Copenhagen

Dansk Arkitektur Guide

http://www.danskarkitekturguide.dk/?lcid=1033

Nice guide focused on danish architecture

In Copenhagen you can see a big variety of all kind of bicycles one can imagine. I was pretty sure, I saw most of them in the Museum of Copenhagen (I promise I’ll make a post for it soon, because it was interesting), but I’m still surprised by new types I see on the streets of Copenhagen. Here I’m offering you just little bit of them:

Part of a large bookstore chain, Arnold Busck has three bookshops in Copenhagen – two on Kobmagergade, and one in the Art Museum, which I intend to visit soon.

The bookshop is huge, like almost all bookshops in Copenhagen, and has a big English collection. There is a great discount on classic authors by the way. I liked the most the shelf with design books on the second floor, next to Baresso. Unfortenatly the store doesn’t predispose (except for the Baresso), but the prices are lower than in Bog&Ide.

One of the best advantages of this bookshop is that there is a Baresso coffee on the second floor, which turn to be a really nice place to drink coffee or hot chocolate. I ordered dark hot chocolate with cream. It is on the price of a decent meal in Sofia, but its great and totally worth it. The thing I like the most about it is that you can actually sit next to the window and look outside and in the same time you can enjoy a book I choose from the shelves, or read anyone from the books left on tables. This is exactly my way of taking a rest

On the other site of the street is the children bookstore  - Børnenes Boghandel, which is more than 30 year-old and is the oldest one in Denmark as far as I am aware.

http://www.arnoldbusck.dk/

The Glyptotek is the first museum, that I visited here and I’m so fascinated from it. It is an old building housing the collection of sculptures, donated by Carl Jacobsen (the founder of the Carlsberg brewery). The museum has also huge collections of Egyptian Art, Greek and Roman sculptures, Etruscan and ancient Greek art (which was the most interesting for me It houses also famous Danish paintings and sculptures from the Danish Golden Age (I believe every country has its own Golden Age, in Bulgaria it was at the beginning of the X-th century, but in Denmark it was during the Napoleonic wars), and famous French impressionists like Degas and Renoir.

It is huge and interesting, and there is an amazing winter garden inside the building with a great cast-iron construction and windows that cover the garden. The bookshop is great, but I don’t have any pictures from there, because I decided to start the bookshops series after that. There is a coffee-shop in the garden also. And I am totally fond of the new building, which is just a big rectangular thing without any windows, but looks great with its marble plaster on the outer walls. With the girls we wanted to go on the terrace on its roof, but unfortunately it turned the be closed during winter. We will go in the spring! And, thanks to Anna, who checked in the internet site, we went there on Sunday, when the entrance is free. And I was so happy that I wasn’t alone there! All the friends that I have here are as much fascinated to visit museums as me Of coarse, noone was interested in ancient art, but this is not a big deal

I am so curious how can a museum have a blog, but you can check if you don’t believe me (it’s in danish, but I used the google translator to know what it is about) and I think it’s cool: http://glyptoteket.wordpress.com/. They even have a facebook page, that already became favorite of my own page

I was quite surprised the first time I met a guy without any sock, wearing only some ragged old shoes on the snow in front of the Black Diamond at my second day here. But as time goes by, I see that he isn’t mad, this is the way Danish people behave. Through my window I saw a guy the day before yesterday who was walking slowly with legs folded. It was more than -2!

You can’t see a single table outside in Sofia during winter, but here you can see tables on each street. I image it will be a pleasure to sit outside in summer, but I can’t imagine doing it now. I assume having a blanket is an advantage, but still it looks crazy to sit outside. And people actually do it from time to time!

I went to the Glyptotek on Sunday with some of my new friends and I was quite surprised how many people were wearing t-shirts under their jackets. But this was nothing! There was a little blond girl in the garden barefooted and wearing a summer dress. At the same time and same place I was feeling cold.

But this is also nothing! On Friday night around 4 am we saw a barefooted woman walking on the snow street. I assume she was dead drunk but she had now problems walking on straight line.

I am from Sofia. In Sofia the weather can be really harsh at times, so I don’t feel such cold like some of my friends here, but still my fingers are freezing during shooting pictures and I am looking for some warm place almost all the time. I am so impressed!

As I am a true book addicted person, I am stating a new category – Copenhagen Bookshops and Libraries. It will be a kind of a bookshop-guide mostly for English speakers in Denmark, or at least this is what I planed. I was really happy to find that there are a lot of books in English, so I can go book-seeing whenever I want!

I am starting with an antiquarian bookshop at Fiolstræde 34-36, 1171 København K (there is a map below), called Vangsgaards. You can check their website here: http://www.vangsgaards.dk/. They have another bookshop in Århus, but I doubt I’ll have the opportunity to see it. They have a huge catalog and ship books for everywhere, but the most important thing is that no matter how large is this bookshop, you feel really cozy in there.

There are so many bookshelves and books are sorted only in alphabetical order so one could spend a hole day just looking for something and founding some hidden treasures. There are a lot of old maps of the Scandinavian region, some pictures, and a lot of first edition books, which are not my area of interests, but can be quite valuable. It is also possible to find some old, but not so valuable fiction боокс for not more than 20 DKK.

I feel like I can sit here for a hole day, just reading some books and looking for something interesting, without even noticing how time flies.