I have no idea when Garry and I went to Canterbury. We think it was either 2015 or 2016. I found this camera in a drawer and decided to get it developed.
You can barely drag your nails along the surface of Copenhagen in 3 days, which is approximately what we had there, never mind scratch it.
But goddamnit we tried.
In-between aimlessly wandering up and down and up and down the Strøget (think Northumberland Street in Newcastle but miles longer, with posh shops like Gucci and Sephora), that is.
Oh and climbing up the perfectly-named, roll-off-the-tongue, typical-tourist-spot Rundetaarn (round tower) for an A+ view of the city, depicted here in this D- picture.
Back to the surface scratching: the easiest way for us to do that with limited time and funds was to free ourselves of the city centre chains and explore some of Copenhagen’s famous neighbourhoods.
Of course, that means we went to Freetown Christiana.
Admittedly, it was a treacherous journey. I put my life in my own hands several times, and my boyfriend almost got us killed (omg I’m not exaggerating) when he decided to feed some evil-eyed crows bits of his leftover croissant. Note: It was breakfast, and we went to 7/11, where it was 2-for-1 on croissants that day, fun fact.
But we got there in the end: we stumbled our way to a car-free, lawless, weed-filled paradise.
And it was full of sketchy characters.
Look, Freetown Christiana is undeniably interesting. Don’t get me wrong. It is a free town. They have a ‘pusher street’. Every building is a work of art. They are the proud owners of a suuuuper creepy sculpture garden wonderland. I am not saying it is not an interesting place to visit. If you like smoking weed and drinking organic coffee from recyclable plastic cups while simultaneously riding a bike and eating a kebab then you will probably feel at home here.
But it is run down. Massively run down. There were some people living there, or perhaps maybe just roaming there, who I wouldn’t lend my phone to if they asked me on the street. Some real stink eyes going on. Maybe they don’t like me because I’ve come to visit their hometown and I’m staring them all down. Fine.
It could be a gorgeous little self-sustaining community, a real moneymaker. Though I guess that’s what they want to avoid?
I can’t say I would’ve come here on my own. It is worth a visit though, especially to see the stark and immediate contrast between the freetown and the rest of Christianshavn, the borough where the freetown exists. It’s like stepping out of a dystopian alternate reality into the next street, where your eyes are suddenly and cruelly bombarded with endless rows of cars and the cool steel grey of a 24 hour gym.
Also, hi scary Pikachu??
We didn’t explore much else of Christianshavn, aside from this swirly church:
Instead, we navigated the underground to get to Nørrebro (the northern bit), which was high on my to-do list for one main reason: Superkilen!
Snooze bit: Superkilen is a public park area that opened in 2010, and was designed by architecture experts and an arts group called Superflex.
It looks amazing in pictures. Proof:
Nørrebro was one of my fave parts of the trip. We spent maybe 5 - 6 hours trundling round: me visiting loads amazing antique and charity-style shops; visiting the well-kept Assistens Cemetery and seeing the resting place of Hans Christian Andersen. We also ate at the Bronx Burger Bar and… there are burger places everywhere in Copenhagen, maybe more than in poxy London, and they all look amazing. But this was truly a spectacular, almost emotional, experience.
If I was a celeb and I could demand those burgers be flown to me across the ocean via private jet, money no object, I would not hesitate.
I guess I would say the same about the whole trip, too. If I could afford to demand to be transported back to Copenhagen immediately at great inconvenience to others but not to myself, boy would I.
Maybe it was partially the company, or maybe it was the thrill of visiting a brand new country (which I last did when I went to Poland in Feb, I believe)… but it was just a magical trip, a magical place, a magical autumnal time of year, I had a wonderful time, it’s been an incredible travel year for me, so worth spending my life savings on, and I don’t want this blog post to end.
Here is something I did not anticipate: Denmark is wildly expensive.
I knew it was going to be expensive but what I didn’t know is that I’d come back from 3 nights there having obliterated my savings, with my purse in tatters.
To be fair, my jaunt around Holland, Belgium and Germany didn’t help either.
As a result, these will be my last travel post for a while. Short of a miracle or magical press trip, anyway.
Regardless, it was all so worth it - especially for Copenhagen. It was so nice not to be travelling on my own and to have a cosy little holiday with my boyfriend. I am all for solo travelling still but as I’m not much of a drinker and I’m not exactly out ON THE PROWL these days, it just doesn’t have the same feeling to it. I listened to my own thoughts plenty in New York, and by Holland I was like, well, what else is new up there?
Copenhagen is somewhere I’d recommend to solo travellers, couples, everyone really. It is not breathtaking but it is charming, and though it was bracing in October, it was still very warm somehow. But you will need a big parka either way.
On the first day we arrived, we just walked around and got our bearings. We saw everywhere we wanted to go, so we were well prepared for the rest of the trip.
And on day two, we were so active. We walked so far.
The Nyhavn (which you’ll recognise from Google Images) was first on our destination list, not least because it’s en route to the Little Mermaid statue (or the much more beautiful Den Lille Havfrue).
It’s quite the walk down the street (and past a pretty gross art gallery covered in brown rags wtf) but it really is the most gorgeous harbour area (aside from said art gallery).
On the way to see Den Lille Havfrue, we took a little detour when I saw this building, which I was convinced was a palace. I’m not sure still whether or not this building was the actual palace, but it was certainly near it. In fact, we walked right in the middle of the courtyard - and ended up catching the Changing Of The Guard.
Back en route, we also saw this very famous statue (replica) but honestly I’ve forgotten what it’s called.
And then Lille Havfrue herself! I’ve always wanted to see this statue and she did not disappoint. She’s difficult to see without tourists beside her, though.
We also visited Kastellet (star-shaped fortress from the 1600s) and the national film institute…
Also I just wanted to quickly add: my boyfriend got a really cute brunch and has since become obsessed with eating warm grapefruit? I, on the other hand, ate no fruit that I can recall, and gorged myself on £7 worth of picknmix.
You don’t want to know the size of picknmix shops in Copenhagen. They are as full and as massive as my heart is when I am eating picknmix (so pretty big).
My first ever trip to Europe lasted 2 weeks, I went to some of the big cities. In Berlin, it pissed down for like 3 days. The rest of the time it was so cold and damp, but luckily this September, the Netherlands was experiencing the same kind of backwards summer we had in the UK, and it was gloriously sunny the whole time.
It was warm, too, when I arrived in Delft, at approximately 11am, on a Thursday.
I spent maybe 3.5 to 4 hours in Delft, a lot of which I spent wandering around, much of which involved taking photos, some of which involved drinking earl grey tea (the lack of english breakfast tea with MILK elsewhere in the world is truly upsetting) with two sugars and eating goats cheese salad (is a salad with a huge lump of goats cheese in it really a salad?) and conversing with a lovely Dutch waiter who went to great pains to sound like a royal when speaking in English because he seemed to love us as a people and hated his own accent, which seems sad to me, proud owner of a difficult-to-decipher-for-southerners-but-no-I’m-not-American-fucks-sake twang.
I felt very smiley walking around the main markt square, and weaving in and out of green canals, admiring tall glossy buildings and letting the autumnal sun sprinkle on my face.
Honestly, I wish I’d been in Delft longer but maybe, like all good love affairs, it was knowing when to walk away with just the memories that made it feel so wonderfully special.
Some facts:
Delft is a city, not a village or a town. Source: Aforementioned Dutch waiter who I briefly thought was English.
Delft is the home of delftware pottery and some pretty excellent cheese shops. Source: Me.
All of these things are fairly expensive. Source: Me.
If you take a selfie in Delft, you should call it a delftie. 8 other people on Instagram have used this phrase before. Source: Instagram #Delftie.
Unless you are made of cold blood and have an evil spirit festering inside you, being in Delft will make you happy, because everything about it is just so very pleasant. Source: Me.
If you asked me why I decided to travel 3 hours each way from Rotterdam to Bruges on a whim, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.
But I’m really glad I did, as Bruges is as beautiful as everyone says it is, if not more.
So I had about 6 hours here if you ignore the 6 hours (and 6 different trains) I spent travelling to and from.
And this is what I saw...
I took a boat cruise for about 10 euros, and the captain was so jolly, and seemingly fluent in every language under the sun.
There’s also the hospital museum, which is the site of a, well, very old hospital, naturally.
On the recommendation of a family member, I walked eastwards to a chocolate shop called Jan De Clerck, which was delicious and very reasonable priced.
Then, I walked further east to find the two old windmills, one of which I walked up inside, realising my great fears of small, rickety stairs and falling.
Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of windmills on this trip. I really love old windmills. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’m a bit scared of them.
I would love to come back here one day, and it was definitely worth all the trains. The confusing, confusing European trains. So worth it.
In Rotterdam, I met a lot of people and did a lot of things.
I met a man from Egypt who had just moved to the Netherlands and who had never seen snow.
I saw an old windmill and the only part of Rotterdam that escaped the bombings during WW2, and the architecture was insanely beautiful.
I ate Indonesian food and it was great.
I marvelled at the modern architecture.
I choked out a quiet, sad laugh to myself when our walking tour guide pointed out a luxury, crazy cool, super expensive building to rent from and it was actually cheaper than my pokey flat in Hackney.
I spent more time than I am willing to admit even to myself in the Markthal eating rich and extravagant things, with too much mayonnaise (srsly Dutch places fucking love mayonnaise).
I stared at photos of women infinitely more photogenic than I, at the captivating Peter Lindbergh exhibition in the Kunsthal (who doesn’t love supermodels? Maybe I am biased since I used to write about them lots).
I walked long and far and wide for no reason other than it took me a while to figure out I had a pre-paid card which could easily allow me to use the city’s tram system.
I saw the Erasmus bridge. It is impressive.
I walked in and out and in and out of the coolest train station of all time.
I was briefly convinced I had been bitten by mosquitoes, and fortunately it seemed to be a paranoid mental breakdown more than anything else.
I met a nice Australian woman and she told me things and I told her things and we were spent some time plodding around the city together.
I saw buildings shaped like cubes. Impossible to live in.
I did lots of good things in Rotterdam but nothing extraordinary, nothing magical, nothing that blew me away, nothing that made my eyes open wide and a tear roll softly down my cheek and make me say the world is so fucking beautiful maaaan.
I think Rotterdam is a good place to visit, I think if you like modern architecture and nice food and a chilled atmosphere then you’ll have a good time here. I think if you’re driven by museums and activities and SUPER FUN THINGS 24/7 then you might find yourself twiddling your thumbs. I think if you respect your waistline, which I adamantly do not, you will struggle here as this is the birthplace of the potentially the greatest kebab invention of all time (the capsilon). I think the nightlife is A+, the + is earned by the aforementioned kebab invention. I think Rotterdam’s proximity to other cities in Holland and Belgium makes it feel so open, makes it feel exciting.
I think this would be a nice city to live in. I think all of these things yet I am not sure if I need to ever go back. I think this is a ‘tick it off the list and you’re done’ place for me.
Me me me me me.
One thing I am really proud of is this series of photos. I don’t remember why exactly I started taking these pictures, but I’d guess I’m trying to ‘capture’ a place or how that place feels to me and I think these really do that well.
Utrecht is a sleepy Amsterdam. I know everyone there will hate me for saying that. I apologise in advance.
It is lively and charming and there are lots of places to drink and do other things but it’s also much calmer. The buildings are prettier. The canals more tranquil. The parks feel more secret. There are quiet things happening. There are not tourists clamouring to take pictures.
It is not alive 24/7. Everything seems calm after 3am.
This is where my trip really started. I walked the most in Utrecht, and did a lot of things.
Tourist highlight was definitely the Dick Bruna studio recreation in the Centraal Museum. I spent easily an hour in there, watching shorts and reading books about his life and work, admiring his art. He’s a designer - perhaps best known to those not from Utrecht for creating Miffy (Nintje, in the Netherlands).
The Miffy Museum itself is a must if you have toddlers, but not if you’re an adult. You’re much better off going to the studio. It’s also really interested if you’re into book covers - which I am, surprisingly - as Bruna famously designed some amazing ones. You can always take a photo with the big Miffy statue outside the museum. It’s not easy to get a selfie with it, exactly, but it is doable.
The railway museum is OK, but it’s too expensive.
Definitely climb the Dom Tower. And wander along the Oudegracht. Or any of the streets, actually. Because it’s just lovely.
I also enjoyed meeting up with a Dutch girl I met while in New York. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met up with a travelling friend before this. I’ve met loads of people travelling, some people I have on Facebook, some people I just never speak to again. I usually say I prefer the latter, and think I have on this blog, but I really don’t. It is just nice to know people and talk to them. Don’t know them well. Don’t need to be best pals. Just someone you know, and like talking to. It’s nice.
Meeting people, sharing a bedroom with them (a dorm room, mind out of the gutter) for days and then just never seeing them again is like, not that great? I don’t know.
Anyway, do you know how much core strength it takes to sit on the back of someone’s bike? And do you know how completely fearless you have to be to trust your core strength and your friend to not get you killed while riding on the back of the bike, through Utrecht’s quite frankly terrifying bicycle lanes?
You don’t discover your fear of falling and being trampled by bike tires until you are in this situation.
Luckily, Dutch people seem to be born on bikes so while I was sat there wishing I did more sit-ups more often and watching my life flash before my eyes, I kind of knew she’d get me to the coffee place we were going to incident-free. Kind of.
Afterwards, I went back to my hostel and got the train to Rotterdam before it got dark.
So, I went to Cologne for work. And I figured the best thing to do would be stay on and hope around Europe for a week or two cos err... it’s kind of what I do now, I guess.
I spent a full not-working day in Cologne and I think it was just the right amount of time for a solo jaunt.
The first thing to see is the Dom Cathedral.
It’s apparently one of Germany’s most famous landmarks, but as someone who has spent a lot time visiting cathedrals, well, it just looks like another cathedral. But it’s definitely one of the more impressive ones I’ve seen. Loads of shady-looking characters about, though, as it’s definitely the main tourist attraction in the city.
Just hold on to your purse while you sit and marvel OR make your way along the Hohenzollern bridge, perhaps best known as Cologne’s padlock bridge.
I love padlock bridges. But you do have to wonder how many of these couples break up. And then how do you find your padlock? I very rarely add a padlock not because I’m not convinced of true love but because there’s never room to add anything, but I did write my boyfriend’s name on this one. With a little love heart.
Someone also nobly added a green padlock for Harambe. Make of that what you will.
Cross the bridge and walk straight ahead and you’ll end up at the KolnTriangle, where you can enter for a few euros, go up in a huge lift and look at the incredible view of the city from up above.
After that, I just wandered around a bit, really...
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good ‘old town’ but I much preferred the neumarkt, or new town, this time round. My hostel was near there, in the Belgian Quarter, so I did a lot of wandering around.
I particularly enjoyed: the side-eye from this statue, watching a concert in the middle of the high street, eating Burger King.
I’ve been to Germany 4 times now: Berlin, Munich, Dresden and Cologne. Each city was so different that I’m not sure I can say ‘I don’t really like visiting Germany’ anymore. That would be unfair. And I’ve been there more than most other countries - countries I really love and could see myself living in - so it can’t be that bad.
Berlin and Dresden are definitely highlights, but Cologne was a nice surprise.
Do you know what else would be a nice surprise? If I could think of anything that wasn’t complete shit to write alongside my pictures.
A very calming trip to San Antonio Bay in Ibiza. A nice antidote to the rushing, the endless walking, the subway soul-searching in NYC. I apparently went to Ibiza when I was a baby. I can’t really compare the two trips. Because I don’t remember the first one.
I ate a lot of lush things, did an hour of yoga and barely fell over (fell over exactly once) and took these pictures, which are some of the best photos I’ve taken for ages.
Read my guide to relaxing in Ibiza on graziadaily.co.uk soon :)
If I could list all of the shows I am a fan of, pretty much all of them take place in New York (Seinfeld, Friends, The Affair, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), except for The Wire and Game Of Thrones. I’ve visited some of the Game Of Thrones sets in Reykjavik, and I don’t really fancy Baltimore (sorry), so yeah... on a tangent. This is relevant.
In The Affair, Noah Solloway meets his soon-to-be affair partner Alison in Montauk, a small town in The Hamptons. I decided I really, really wanted to get the train up there and visit the Lighthouse (fourth oldest in the US, I think) and see the shooting locations.
But Montauk is like 4 hours away by unreliable trains, and since I wanted to go on a Sunday, the timing didn’t match up (plus I need a reason to go back) and then I remembered that Noah Solloway spends some time working on his novel in a village called Cold Spring.
So, boring story over, I went to Cold Spring instead.
And it was one of the biggest highlights of the trip. I mean, there was so much more to see and do than just visit a lighthouse. I am so happy I did this.
The train runs every hour from Grand Central up to Poughkeepsie and stops at Cold Spring before the famous Dia: Beacon gallery (wanted to go there, too, goddamn). The journey itself was really beautiful - the weather was glorious and the Hudson Valley was so long and vast and the water was shining like the sun, which was shining in the sky, and basically it was all magical.
You step off the train and immediately, you’re in a beautiful, preserved park right by the water.
Then you turn a corner and you’re on Main Street. Go left, and your eyes get blessed with this killer view of the Hudson and what I believe is Breakneck Ridge (that mountain there). Go right, and you enter ANTIQUE SHOP HEAVEN.
The Village of Cold Spring is home to many, many wonderful antiques shops (most of which were the proud sellers of FUCK TRUMP 2016 badges). If you’re ever there, and you so should be there, the best ones were definitely:
Once Upon A Time (A+ shop-naming skills)
Cold Spring Antiques Center (C- shop-naming skills)
Decades Antiques (B- shop-naming skills)
But I must have gone to at least three more and they were all great.
Things I bought include:
A tattered early issue of Monsters magazine from the 1960s
Things I should’ve bought purely because the woman who owned the shop almost lost her hand to a falling glass shard while showing me it include:
A black leather satchel that looked like (but was not) a Coach bag.
The Foundry Cafe is the ideal place for lunch, and there is a shop (the name of which I can’t remember) that sells homemade ‘artisan’ (wtf) ice pops. I had a sour cherry one and it was massive and just amazing.
Once you’ve bought all the old shit, the best thing you can really do is just look around. I guess if you’re from the US, an old-school village like this probably isn’t much special, but to me, it was completely different to anywhere I’d ever been.
(Also, shout out to the lovely woman in the local pet shop who let me CLIMB INTO A GIANT CAT CAGE AND BEFRIEND THE TWO CATS, PHOEBE AND LEXIE).
Generally, the whole place is really charming. The bell outside the fire station. The little white mailbox with the red flag on the side. The patriotic use of American flags on every corner. The panelled houses. The idyllic churches and statue-inspiring love for Jesus. The ‘Feel The Bern’ picket signs on most front gardens.
Everything feels very still, very calm. The people were lovely. Older gentlemen were softly playing music at the bandstand by the local pub at all times. The vibe is so relaxed. Like nobody has any troubles.
Another thing that’s great about upstate NY is the possibilities for hiking. I really want to go to Los Angeles because everyone hikes there and no offence London but there is nowhere good to hike in you and that sucks.
I followed a trail just outside of the village centre to Little Stony Point Park (A++++ park-naming skills). This trail had even more great views of Breakneck Ridge and as you can see below, is also really charming. The kind of trail I imagine boy scouts go on, where they earn their campfire-starting and knot-tying badges. But then, as you get into the park, it really does become a bit of a climb.
It was tiring, and I was not entirely appropriately dressed for a hike, but very satisfying (and necessary, I gained like 5lbs over the two weeks of travelling I did).
Every day I am not there, it hits me more and more that I was there. And that I got to go to New York, somewhere I’ve always dreamed of. I loved it so much I already know what I’m doing when I (eventually) go back - Montauk, The Hamptons, the High Line in Manhattan, Beacon, and more hiking in the mountains of the Hudson Valley.
I would 100% recommend booking a spontaneous trip that you can’t reasonably afford, because it's always worth it.
I saw a lot of Manhattan, and the tiniest part of Queens, but the only part of Brooklyn I saw was Coney Island.
When I got off the train, I admit, I was a little put off by the area. It’s not great, it looks run down. I saw a different side to New York, travelling through Brooklyn, on the D train to Coney Island.
But Coney Island itself is such a throwback, and it has a certain charm. I do wish it had been sunny.
Highlights: the sideshow (seriously have you ever seen someone swallow a sword??), the beach, riding the Wonder Wheel with butterflies in my stomach, eating candy corn and sour patch kids for the first time, the world’s greatest fish sandwich from Nathan’s.
Lowlights: the weather, getting my finger in a couple of the pictures, and that’s all I can think of.
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