What is Day Zero? The Adventure Begins. [Copenhagen, Denmark]
It’s Monday, the start of a new week. Nat and I are both working at our desks, which at this moment is a small wooden kitchen table in our Airbnb in Vesterbro. The sun is shining into the living room after a split second downpour — after less than two days here we’ve already come to understand this is totally normal. Not your typical tropical rainstorm, but a charismatic part of the city I’ve embraced rather quickly. Ask me again in a couple of weeks…
We arrived on Saturday evening. After meeting our Airbnb host, who was very friendly and helpful, we unpacked quickly into our home for the next 3 weeks and took advantage of the late-setting sun to wander around our neighborhood. Copenhagen hasn’t been short of hubbub since we landed: Saturday was the Pride Parade; Rapha Nocturne, a nighttime cycling race ironically hosted in London for the past 10 years, was set up a few blocks away; and IRONMAN had its triathlon all throughout the city yesterday. We made our way through the liveliness to explore what Vesterbro had to offer, with the not-too-distant goal of finding a place for dinner, too.
The main street was decorated with rainbow leaflets and cutouts from the Parade, but ultimately, pretty desert when compared with the West Village in New York in June. To be fair, Pride in Copenhagen is a full 5-day event including open-air concerts, Drag Night and After-Pride Chill Out… no need for post-Parade rowdiness, even if it is a Saturday night. We walked by a few cool-looking bars and restaurants... lots of starring on our Google Maps for future ventures… and got drawn to a place called Madklubben for dinner.
There was a huge line outside — a large group of ladies waiting to get seated — which, as my Dad always says, is always a good sign a place is worth trying (not the ladies, but the line…). We waited at the bar for a table and got served by two very suave, attractive Danish men, shaking their shakers in unison and making stoic yet flirtatious conversation with the single New Yorker sitting next to us. Nat got a beer.
Dinner was delicious, though the stools not too comfortable. Guess that’s what you get when you go to a “minimal spot for unfussy dining” (quote from Google).
Next stop: a drink! It was Saturday night after all. We tried a speakeasy called Duck & Cover but they had no space — not packed, just full. Another night, perhaps. Instead, we headed to CURFEW, which had the coolest signpost at the entrance. A horizontal cutout with a light shining through, projecting the bar’s name on the wall. And a spider, fairly large, dangled comfortably. We almost believed it was fake.
Is this day zero? I asked Nat, not wanting to give up our first day so soon.
Nat ordered one of CURFEW’s award-winning drinks — key ingredients: Tanqueray gin, tarragon and mango — and I went for a refreshing alcohol-free fizz. Big mistake. Nat likes to say I’m a cheap date because I don’t like to drink, but considering how delicious this Little Dragon was, my new theory is I take only the best.
The vibe was perfect. 1920s Prohibition style, matching music, bartenders in suspenders… Nat and I didn’t even talk, we just enjoyed the moment.
The next day, it’s really day one. Or day two… I haven’t decided yet. We rented bikes — the only way to travel in Copenhagen — and Nat mapped out a whole itinerary for us. Christiansborg Palace, Rundetaarn, Botanic Gardens… today, we’re tourists, not just digital nomads. We ate lunch at Torvehallerne and biked to Kastellet, a 17th-century fortress on a star-shaped island. It seemed like anywhere we biked, another beautiful palace, church or building was there, waiting for us. This city is just stunning.
The surprising thing is we’ve adjusted so quickly. 48 hours in, we feel like we know our neighborhood decently well; we’ve gone to and made friends at our first CrossFit class at Butcher’s Lab; we’ve cooked our first meal and slept the best couple of nights we’ve had in weeks. As this first work day comes to a close, I’ve finally settled on a name for my poetry project, Midnight Plume (you’ll notice the first sneak peek in this post). I’ll properly launch it this week. I hope you’ll follow along… it’s quite personal and something I’ve thought of doing for quite some time. I’m so excited to finally share it.
And while I’m not yet sure how this travel blog will take shape, this hereby concludes my first post. I’m sure I’ll include more places and spaces we’ve seen and loved, and I hope to dive more into the feelings and questions intrinsic to this adventure. Thanks for reading, and see you soon! ***
