Go Nyhavn, get a beer in the kiosk from the basement behind “Nyhavn 17�, sit at the canal and watch the tourists in the tourist traps

Ride the “Himmels Skibet� in Tivoli

Have a tee in Cafe Retro

Celebrate the first day of Jule Øl in Det Elektriske Hjørne

Experience St. Hans in Fælledparken

Enjoy a Sunday evening with live Jazz in La Fontaine

Visit Louisiana on a sunny day

Have a giant ice cream at Lydolf’s

Mount Vor Frelsers Kirke

And get to all the different places by riding one of the free City Bikes or the driverless Metro

PS: By the way: Don’t waste your time on Willy’s as listed on some other pages. They are out of business and closed there shop down.

This is really a good sign in this “almost always closed” country.

Especially trying to get dry cleaning done as well as any interaction with the DSB or the post office has been a big pain for me since I almost have to take a day off to get my stuff organized. The opening hours are usually during my working hours. The most absurd thing happened with the DSB. I wanted to pick-up a ticket to Germany and was sent away since international tickets were only issued between 9.30 and 17.30 since those tickets are complicated to print and need specially trained personnel to get issued. I got back after 9.30 and the same lady at the same place and the same computer printed the ticket for me. Trying to be compliant, next time I came after 9.30 only to find out that at this day international tickets were issued between 11.30 and 17.30. Again I heard the story about the specially trained person etc. To be fair, I got the ticket after insisting that I really want to have it and don’t understand the reasoning behind the randomly changing opening hours.

So far an American iTunes account has been the only way to see it here. I thought that I could watch it via Comedy Central in Germany but they block non German / Austrian IPs so that doesn’t work.

The museum offers an opulent collection of Karen Blixen’s books and other publications. There are some her paintings and a movie about aspects of her life. Walking through her old home, you are guided in Danish and English. The museum nicely combines narrative and objects from Karen Blixen’s life so that you can piece together a comprehensive picture of her time, her life and her works.

How to get there from Copenhagen

Hop on the regional train to “NivÃ¥” at the central station or Nørreport and get off at “Skodsborg”. From there, make your way down to “Strandvejen”, the big street along the sea, situated a few steps below the train station. Check out a map or just walk down towards the sea, you won’t be able to miss the street. On the street, take bus number 388 (to Helsingør st.) and get off at “Rungstedvej”. The bus stop is directly at the museum, so you should be able to find it easily. If you are travelling on the weekend, check www.dsb.dk to ensure you won’t have to wait long for the bus.

Generally speaking life here is very good. Denmark is very convenient in practical terms – meaning you don’t necessarily have to speak the langue to get around – and people are nice, friendly and very helpful.

The country is beautiful and Copenhagen is gorgeous, as long as you travel here in summer (during the winter months it can be a bit tough to deal with the darkness and the intense rain). What I really love about Copenhagen is the fact that, as “Europe’s biggest village�, it offers a unique mix of metropolitan like cultural events, museums and lifestyle combined with short distances (you can reach everything by foot or bike), nice neighborhoods and general “small town flair�. Not easy to describe, best to experience in person.

But once you made it here, where to start? Well, the main attractions from the Little Mermaid to the old city center of Copenhagen have been described in hundreds of guide books. In more practical terms, a very good resource for finding your way around is the “Moron Abroad� and especially his introduction page for US citizens (even if you are not from the US). I recommend that you do take his advice serious. I can confirm that especially the bikers can be dangerous and quite aggressive. Two days ago I observed a biker getting mad at a car being in his way on a bike path. The biker braked, started shouting at the car, took his foot up and gave the car several hard kicks in the trunk before continuing his ride. This might be an extreme example, but consider yourself warned

Also worth a look is the Copenhagen Post, an English weekly newspaper and then, for professionals, the ExpatNet which helps expats with offerings from jobs to housing and networking.

Even though the situation has gotten a bit better over the last years, many Europeans still can’t imagine to live without smoking. Especially bad is Germany: Even though an anti-smoking law was in discussion for a long time ,the government bailed out at the last moment, claiming that it isn’t empowered to pass effective anti-smoking legislation. At least smoking in trains will be forbidden at some point in the future in Germany, too. I think this kind of weak legislation will keep Germany where it currently is: in the shameful third place on the list of European countries with the most number of smokers in the population.