Throughout June, the CNN has been promoting Copenhagen through the 'Future Cities' part of Richard Quest's show Quest Means Business on mondays. I'd like to point out that the norm is one city, one show, but our capital has been on Future Cities for a total of 4 weeks ^^
I really like Richard Quest's programmes in general - although I usually watch BBC News, I like to watch Quest Means Business (airs mon-fri 20:00 CET); perhaps it's because he's actually British. I am a bit of an anglophile, I know.
When the CNN team was in Copenhagen to shoot the programmes, I read an interview with him on the topic. First of all, he said that we Danes should stop going berserk whenever someone remotely famous comes visiting; Copenhagen is a cool city, everybody knows that. Well obviously ;)
Oh, and he promised not to 'pull an Oprah' by walking around screaming 'OH MY GOD BLONDE PEOPLE' and 'OH MY GOD NO HOMELESS PEOPLE DYING IN THE STREETS', which also appealed to me.
For those of you who didn't catch the shows as they aired, you can watch them below:
Saw this dress in the Kirkens Korshær second hand and vintage shop at Frederiksberg metro station today (the corner of Falkoner Allé and Nyelandsvej). It looks like a sz 36, so too small for me, but at 175 dkkr it's a bargain - it looks like it's from the 1960's, and the lace detailing is really nice - the picture doesn't really do it justice, but I'm stuck with the camera in my old Nokia :)
Now: The Actual Post
Today I have finished my last IB exam!! Technically I don't know if I've passed yet, but I am countining on it ^^ I am perhaps slightly more worried about making it to the 38 points I need to go to St. Andrews, but my fingers will be crossed all the way until 6th of July, which is when I'll get my results :)
Those kind of pessimistic thoughts shall however not keep me from celebrating :D had a glass of Asti after we finished the 2-hour long economics exam, as someone had been clever enough to bring some along.
Then two friends and I went in to the city to have cake at La Glace, which is sort of a tradition of ours whenever we go on holiday. (Lin & Lisa: We'll go there with you when you A: Are home and B: Are done with your exams). La Glace is founded in 1870 and is the oldest confectioner's shop (konditori) in Copenhagen; they have some of the best cakes in the city (which happen to also be some of the most expensive). Today I had a piece of 'Det Gyldne Tårn', The Golden Tower, named after one of the rides in Copenhagen's Tivoli. It was really yummy, but my favourite remains 'Karen Blixen' which is a cake with coffee and a bit of chocolate, named after the famous Danish writer who for 17 years lived on a coffee farm in Kenya. My mum's favourite is the 'Sportskage' which is their signature cake - not named 'Sports cake' because it is particularly healthy (by no means), but because it was created for a theatrical premiere of the play "Sports Man" in 1891. With nougat in whipped cream decorated with caramelized choux pastry on a bottom of macaroon it is quite heavy duty - but I think it's one of the best looking cakes in their assortment (and it of course tastes good too).
Tonight, I am going out to eat with my family at Le Trois Cochons - the little three pigs. It is one of my favourite places, although I can't afford to go there very often. First of all the food is good - it is variations over French cuisine. It is a part of the restaurant group cofoco, short for simply Copenhagen Food Consulting, which also runs another of my favourite restaurants Scarpetta, which serves Italian food. Les Trois Cochons runs with a set menu where you can choose one of 3-4 main dishes but where both appetizers and dessert are 'what the chef feels like serving' - nice to not have to make so many choices, and it means you don't just go for the safe stuff on the menu, but have new culinary experiences. Besides, they have the most divine rye bread (yes, as a Dane, that is something I appreciate). Secondly, their decór is really nice; the restaurant's in an old butcher's shop, and they've kept the old tiles and meat hooks, but added crystal chandeliers and wine cupboards - preserving the history of the place, making it a good-looking restaurant but containing the contrasts I love so much.
Afterwards I'll probably see if I can find some of my classmates somewhere in the city, out celebrating !
only I can't stay up too late, have to be fresh for my job interview tomorrow :)
The entrance to Arken - drawn by Søren Robert Lund, an at
the time only 25-year old architecture student. The letters
say "THE WEIGHT OF THE LIGHT / FROM ABOVE /
SENT TO REST / ON THE FOAM / FROM THE WAVES
ON THE SEA"
Yesterday, I went to the museum of modern art a bit outside Copenhagen called "Arken", meaning the Ark (as in Noah's Ark). It is by the sea in Ishøj, which is perhaps not the most obvious place to put such a museum (Ishøj is a less-well-off suburb to Copenhagen), but it was built as part of an admirable project of moving working class people out of the Copenhagen slum, by building a whole new part of the city - with a highschool, artificial beaches and a museum. There is a videoinstallation in one room with the area's history, where they explain for example how they fought to get a highschool; the plan was to build another one in Gentofte, which is one of the very well-off suburbs north of Copenhagen, because it had a higher concentration of educated parents. But instead of only looking at demand for education, local politicians were clever enough to consider supply as a creator of demand - if there was no highschool, chances of getting kids from un-educated homes to attend one were slimmer, and it would be difficult to attract educated families; and so the slum would really just be moved somewhere else. The same logic was applied to building the museum - and as I said, I find it an admirable deed (especially since it's a really good museum).
I went to Arken to see an exhibition by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. He has made an installation called Your Blind Passenger (2010) as a part of an exhibition series at the museum called "Utopia"; it is a long tunnel filled with fog lit with different coloured lighting - you can see no further than a metre in any direction, which is an extremely odd (and slightly terrifying) sensation when you are used to relying so heavily on sight to make your way in the world. The video below might give you a sense of it:
Olafur Eliasson, Your Blind Passenger (2010)
Damien Hirst, For the Love
of God, The Diamond Skull (2007)
Apart from Eliasson, some of my favourite things at the museum were the Damien Hirst works they have. Hirst has a way of dealing with our sense and perception of death in a way which is both beautiful and disturbing, something I highly appreciate. One of his best known works is perhaps the diamond-encrusted skull entitled For the Love of God (2007); Arken owns a silk print of this with crystals attached in place of the diamonds.
Together with this large silk print hang 6 other works by Hirst; 4 of them are collectively named The Elements (Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, Green and Blue), (2005). They are big paintings in strong colours, with what first appears to be painted butterflies; moving closer, though, you realise that they are actual butterflies "caught" in the paint. From being a happy picture of butterflies and colours no one can be scared of, it becomes a butterfly death trap. Below are first the full-size pictures, then closeups I took yesterday.
Damien Hirst, Untitled
(Birthday Card), (2001)
Much the same theme is present in the two remaining pictures; the first is Untitled (Birthday Card), (2001), which is a great baby pink heart with butterflies (never mind the light reflection in the picture to the right, not a part of the work).
The second is a large black disc with some sort of framed 'structure'. You have to move really, really close and look at it for a while before you can see what it is; thousands, millions of flies held together by black paint. And you jump back, disgusted, immediately; before you knew what it was, you didn't mind being close to it, but when you do you have to convince yourself in a wholly different way before moving closer. This kind of art, which almost physically interacts with its viewer I think is very impressive.
Peter Holst Henckel, World of Butterflies (2002)
Lastly, I saw some things by artists I didn't know. One room had a whole wall filled with pictures of butterflies like the one to the left (reminded me of The Collector) - it took me a very long time to realize that they were not just butterflies. The work is entitled World of Butterflies (2002) and is by Danish artist Peter Holst Henckel - again, here is this mix of the brutal things in life (there were many of them with well-known press photos of starving children, guerilla soldiers etc.) and something beautiful and fragile, where it takes a while to realise that the former is even there.
Right before we went home, we browsed a bit in the museum shop; for my summer reading list I bought Fashion since 1900 by Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye. Looking forward to reading it :)
Now, back to studying for exams. My first one is English, tomorrow! Before that, though, I'm planning on getting my driver's licence today around 1.30 p.m., GMT+01. Wish me luck :)
Saturday was my day off from studying - I went shopping with my little sister in the day and went to see a movie at Grand Teatret with a friend at night, finishing off with late dinner at Chilimili :)
I love going shopping for other people; just as I spend ages picking out the perfect gifts for friends and family, I like to help in finding clothes which both look good on that specific person, fit their style and are fashionable at the same time - especially when it is a challenge. I think no one appreciates that more than my sister; saturday she exclaimed that she would have to limit her aquiring of new clothes the next years to when I'll be home on Christmas and summer break (but - I'm not sure she'll keep that promise until she's 15).
Deena & Ozzy oxfords, copper and silver nail varnish from Urban Outfitters
and a bow hairclip from Monki
As it often is, when shopping with other people you happen upon things which you feel are must-haves - or at least would be really really nice to have (must-have is such an overused term). And so did I this saturday - in Urban outfitters I found two kinds of metallic nail varnish at 70 dkkr each (been wearing the silver one, it's really pretty) plus a pair of oxford shoes which were just too cool not to buy. They're in black suede, clear pvc and silverish-gold on the tips, by a brand I'm unfamiliar with, Deena & Ozzy; they're practically customizable since you can change their appearance so much based on which socks you wear ^^ The brand seems quite cool too - I googled it, and I liked many of the shoes which popped up. Lastly, I bought a dark pink/purple triple bow hairclip from Monki - put it in my hair as soon as I'd paid for it :)
After having dropped off the shopping bags (mine and my sisters's) at home, I met up with a friend to go watch "The King's Speech" at Grand Teatret (yes, it has taken me long enough). Grand is without doubt my favourite cinema in Copenhagen; they stick to grown-up movies, and often ones which appeal to a narrower audience (they have 'French movie monday' for example) - in other words, don't go if you want to see "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Tangled" or "Meet the Fockers". But I watched "The Black Swan" there not too long ago with some of the actors from our play, and I can't wait to see "Mao's Last Dancer" there. It seems much less commercial than most of the other cinemas, and especially the main theatre is a beautiful old room (Sal 1), just as a movie theatre ought to be. They sell coffee, small bags of candy and cake, soda is available only in the old-fashioned glass bottles - no super-size me as most other places, where a medium soda is 3/4(!) litres. Sorry, this isn't to nag about the moral delapidation of modern cinemas - Grand Teatret is just something special :)
(The King's Speech is a great movie by the way - but you don't need me to tell you that.)
After the movie, we went to Chilimili by Rådhuspladsen for a late dinner. They have really yummy, healthy food, and between 9 and 10 p.m. they have half price on all food and beverages (not sure if that's a permanent thing; anyway, otherwise there's the 20% discount for students). Their concept is that you take your pick of a couple different dishes between all the stuff they have lined up such as pasta salads, humus etc (lots of vegetarian food too), have it in a wrap or sandwich, or you buy either their 'soup of the day' or 'hot dish of the day'. Very good value for money (although the space is very attempted-hip cafeteria-ish; but never mind that) especially with the half price offer; otherwise, you can eat a small portion for 35 dkkr (without student discount), and e.g. the hot dish is 69 dkkr. In Denmark, it doesn't get much cheaper if you want to avoid junk food :)
I have decided that I would like to write about some of my favourite places in Copenhagen - as inspiration to natives and visitors alike :) I had the idea yesterday when I was spending the afternoon with my family, going around to different places in the city as the thoughts occured to us.
Kongens Have yesterday
The cherry trees are blossoming now
The first place we went was Kongens Have, 'The King's Garden', which is a big park in central Copenhagen situated around Rosenborg Castle. When the weather's nice there are always lots of people relaxing on the grass, going for walk, playing football or petanque or taking their kids to the playground. Denmark might not have the nicest weather in the world, but that just means that whenever the sun comes out, Copenhageners flock to parks and plazas to drink cold beer and get some sun - even if it after most people's standards is still freakin cold.
One thing which makes Kongens Have particularly nice right now is that the cherry trees are blossoming -- and since the weather ought to hold for the duration of the easter break, everybody who can should take a trip to the park. If you're studying for exams, you can always take your books with you :)
After we'd been in the park and had gotten a bit to eat, we went to Amager to see one of my favourite buildings in the Copenhagen area (one of the few new buildings I really like), 8-tallet (≈ "The number 8"). As you can see to the right, they aren't quite done yet, but already it is an astonishing building. Seen from above, it is constructed as an 8 - a far more interesting shape than the usual glass-and-steel boxes. They have done a lot to create life in and around the building, with shops and a (quite good) café in one corner; I read in an interview with the architect that he'd wanted to make the building resemble a mountain village - this has resulted in multi-level apartments, small 'gardens' for many of them, and an invitation for people to hike to the top, up the many stairs. I did so already last summer, and the view is beautiful on both 'sides' of the building, both the one looking out over 'Fælleden' and the one looking into the inner side of the 8.
8-tallet as it will end up looking. At the bottom here is Café 8-tallet; I've walked to the top on the 'hill' to the right.
You really don't have to be an architecture-enthusiast to appreciate the beauty of this building. And it makes for a good afternoon trip; just take the metro to Vestamager station, take a walk up and and around 8-tallet, and finish up with a nice cup of coffee or brunch/lunch/dinner in Café 8-tallet.
EDIT: The left staircase is closed for non-residents; I am not certain whether the right staircase will be closed when all the apartments adjacent to it are sold. So if you want to go, it might be a good idea to do so rather soon. Otherwise, there are details on how to arrange a guided tour on the 8-tallet homepage.
Extra: Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG showing some of the group's other buildings on CNN:
Richard Mortensens Vej (by Vestamager metro station)
2300 København S
Open: Always, but Café: mon-fri 11-21; sat-sun 10-21 (these are kitchen opening hours; the actual café is open a few hours longer for you to finish your food or just have a beer or coffee. Kitchen is closed every day 16.30-17.30)
Last week, I bought two AMAZING things in my favourite vintage shop, Décor. Sadly, I can't really post pictures or tell about them, as both are gifts. Still - they were amazing, just saying.
I first discovered this shop when I went to Zahles school from 7th to 9th grade, just across the plaza. I have spent many a recess treasure hunting in this fantastic little place - and it bears the main responsibility for my discovering the joys of vintage fashion. Recently, I have read about Décor several places, as on Cover.dk, and I have heard it referred to as the place every stylist considers her little secret. And indeed, I have often been there while the owner, Lone, was lending out some of her pieces for a shoot - such as a giant lace collar from the 1890s, which sadly is not for sale (some of the finest things she keeps herself, hanging them as decoration in the shop).
The clothes, jewellery, hats, shoes, perfumes in the shop is mainly from the end of the 19th century until the 1960s, with a few newer things. Some of my favourite items from Décor include a 1950s pearl necklace and a black hat from the same period - and at some point I'm gonna buy a top hat. As the pieces are mostly one of a kind, it of course often happens that something you find doesn't fit - but that just means you're that much happier when some gorgeous dress/hat/skirt actually fits nicely :)
Beautiful satin shoes from circa 1950
When I was there last week, I found 3 things I wished fit me and several things I wished I could afford; the satin shoes above are probably sz 37ish, which is a tad to small for me. I also found some amazing white full-length gloves (as in almost to your shoulder) in what I think was increadibly fine, soft leather - unfortunately, as most vintage gloves, they were way too small.. Finally, a 1890s cotton lace blouse in sz 34 I almost bought just to own it.
One thing I can always spend time drooling over is the several fur stolas in the shop; but I also found a gorgeous little wallet in hand-knit lace also from the end of the 19th century, which looked almost as good as new. But at 850 dkkr, it wouldn't leave much money for me to spend the rest of April - and it would mean my ambition to become better at saving would, at least for April, not come to much.
/damien_hirst%23For_the_love_of_God,_The_Diamond_Skull,_2007.jpg)
by Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye. Looking forward to reading it :)
" there. It seems much less commercial than most of the other cinemas, and especially the main theatre is a beautiful old room (Sal 1), just as a movie theatre ought to be. They sell coffee, small bags of candy and cake, soda is available only in the old-fashioned glass bottles - no super-size me as most other places, where a medium soda is 3/4(!) litres. Sorry, this isn't to nag about the moral delapidation of modern cinemas - Grand Teatret is just something special :) 
is a great movie by the way - but you don't need me to tell you that.)
