3 hours in Copenhagen...

Guess what? I went on vacation! You didn't even notice that I was gone!

Ok... some of you did. I got a few worried Facebook messages wondering if I was still alive because things hadn't been updated here in a week (auto post is great... when it works... which it didn't...).

We went on a Baltic cruise and it was AMAZING! I have tons of travel tips from lots of rather fabulous places, if I do say so myself. Our first stop was Copenhagen, where we had a total of 3 hours to see the whole entire city before hopping on a train up to Sweden to meet up with my cousins. Luckily, I have a friend who used to live in Copenhagen, who was able to give us the highlights and best things to see in a short period of time. It worked out pretty well. If you're ever in Denmark for a short length of time, let me give you a few tips of my own!

1) Make sure to have Danish Kroner with you (including change) when you arrive. I got lucky and happened to babysit for a family that had just returned from Denmark and had some leftover Kroner to pass along to me. It was a lifesaver.

2) It is very easy to land at the airport in Copenhagen and take the train into the city. It's maybe a 15 minute train ride. The only difficult thing here is that if you need to store luggage, the lockers for luggage are located in a parking garage on the opposite side of the airport from where arrivals come in. Also, you need Danish change to use the lockers. There is a bank of lockers that use credit cards, but they are even further away from the airport/train station than the change lockers.

3) Once you're on the train into the city... relax.

4) Once you're in the city, Nyhavn is a short walk from the train station. It's a great spot to have a beer, grab a snack, or just sit and people watch. When we were there, there was a group of about 50 students playing some sort of improv game. It was pretty fun. Also... the architecture and colours are pretty fabulous. We ended up in Nyhavn around noon and in the midst of watching the improv students, heart what sounded like a parade. Lo and behold, several lines of soldiers playing big band music marched by. Since we were tourists, we followed them all the way to the palace where we got to see the most exciting changing of the guard ceremony I think we've ever seen.

5) If you want to do some high end shopping, head to the Strøget. We aren't huge shoppers, but it was fun to wander around. The giant soldier in the Lego store windows caught our attention and we were definitely not disappointed with the Lego Nyhavn at the back of the store.

6) Hot dogs! I had no idea that hot dogs were such a cool thing in Denmark, but apparently they are. We ate the best hot dogs of our lives from a little stand on the Strøget. Mmmmmm, ketchup, mustard, remoulade, chopped onions, fried onions, and pickles, oh my!

7) On the train back to the airport/train station, we made a stop in Christianshavn to visit the Church of Our Saviour, also known as "The Spire." I've never seen a church like this one and don't even get me started on the organ music playing inside. It sounded a bit like a horror film. You can climb up the spiral steeple, but I opted to skip out on the big climb to save my knee.

We never did find the Little Mermaid statue and I kind of wish that we'd found a free walking tour to get a bit more of the history of the city, but with little to no plan and only a few hours to spare, I was pretty happy with what we got to see! I cannot wait to visit Copenhagen again some day!

... have to give an epic shoutout to this t-shirt ^ It's made from natural hemp, which fits just perfectly with my newly revived eco-fashion vibe. I don't normally wear just plain t-shirts, but I really liked the colour and texture of this one and I love that it's got some nice, natural, earth-friendly origins!