The past week has been hectic-filled with birthday celebrations for a friend,a Sports Economics presentation, a handball game, and some sightseeing. As apologetic as I am that I haven't posted in a while, I have to actually take some time to go out and do things so that I can have exciting things to report to my loyal followers.
I am slightly obsessed with the blog, TheLondoner. It is a lifestyle blog about an amazingly perfect, 20-something year girl who lives in London but often finds herself travels and writes all about her experiences. A few months ago, The Londoner took a trip to Copenhagen and blogged all about her trip to the Torvehallerne indoor market. Once I knew that I was coming to Copenhagen, Torvehallerne took the number one spot on my Copenhagen bucket list. This past Sunday, a couple girls and I finally made it down to Torvehallerne and it was quite amazing.
I am slightly obsessed with the blog, TheLondoner. It is a lifestyle blog about an amazingly perfect, 20-something year girl who lives in London but often finds herself travels and writes all about her experiences. A few months ago, The Londoner took a trip to Copenhagen and blogged all about her trip to the Torvehallerne indoor market. Once I knew that I was coming to Copenhagen, Torvehallerne took the number one spot on my Copenhagen bucket list. This past Sunday, a couple girls and I finally made it down to Torvehallerne and it was quite amazing.
Torvehallerne is Copenhagen's biggest and best food market with over 60 indoor food stalls, offering everything from fresh produce, meats, cheeses, to sushi, to Spanish tapas. Torvehallerne is split into two indoor market halls but the entire market is united under the premise of having a deep respect for the product that is being offered regardless of what vendor it is coming from. Everything that Torvehallerne has to offer is always fresh and guaranteed to be of the highest quality. One could walk around the markets for hours, and that is just in fact, what we did. We went down to Torvehallerne around noon with plans of exploring the halls and then settling on something for lunch.
As great as the pictures of all the food are, they really don't even do it justice but they get the point across. Not to mention there is no way of conveying the amazing smells that waft through the entire market.
As great as the pictures of all the food are, they really don't even do it justice but they get the point across. Not to mention there is no way of conveying the amazing smells that waft through the entire market.
One of the stands is run by Valentino and specializes in everything chocolate, complete with a chocolate fountain.
There is also a Costco-esque factor at Torvahallerne: free samples! This specific one had fresh baked bread cubes to dip into different flavored hummus and tapenade.
Traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches.
After walking around for about an hour, we couldn't ignore the sounds coming from our stomach rumblings anymore and decided to start to find a stand to get some lunch. Everyone else settled for fish and chips but I went to Paleo. I had read about Paleo online before we left for the market and it sounded very appealing.
Paleo is dedicated to the Paleo lifestyle that strives to recreate what our ancestors ate 20,000 years ago when they were thriving on meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs, and nuts/seeds. Paleo serves no wheat, rice, dairy, or starches so I was quite intrigued as to how my Chicken Wrap was going to be prepared. The girl behind the counter explained that the contents, which included chicken, avocado cream, cabbage, and almonds, were going to be wrapped in an omelette rather than any kind of bread.
I was so pleasantly surprised with my decision to eat at Paleo- the wrap was so so good! You could tell how fresh all of the ingredients were and the mixture of textures from the egg, the crispy cabbage, and the whole almonds scattered throughout was perfect.
And these were the fish and chips that came in an adorable little Chinese take away box. Everyone said they were really good and the serving size was humongous.
There is also a great looking pizza place in the market that I am hoping to try the next time I go.
Overall, Torvehallerne is a great place to walk around and grab a quick bite to eat. I definitely plan on going back soon.
My second exploration of the week was to the Carlsberg Glyptotek. I have never really been one to want to go to museums but one of the girls here is an art history minor and was so extremely excited about the art in the Glyptotek so I decided to tag along and get a little bit of culture. Not to mention, it was a beautiful day out and so I felt the need to be outside and go downtown.
Overall, Torvehallerne is a great place to walk around and grab a quick bite to eat. I definitely plan on going back soon.
My second exploration of the week was to the Carlsberg Glyptotek. I have never really been one to want to go to museums but one of the girls here is an art history minor and was so extremely excited about the art in the Glyptotek so I decided to tag along and get a little bit of culture. Not to mention, it was a beautiful day out and so I felt the need to be outside and go downtown.
The Glyptotek was founded by Carl Jacobsen, the same man who started Carlsberg beer. Jacobsen felt strongly about the importance of art education and so he saw the Glyptotek as an opportunity to have a place for townsmen to go and enjoy Mediterranean, Danish, and French art.
Carl Jacobsen settled on the name Glyptotek, meaning a repository for sculpture, rather than a museum because he felt that arranging the works according to a scientific system as they are in a museum is not the way that it should be. Jacobsen wanted the works of art to speak directly to each individual visitor so that everyone has a unique experience when exploring the Glyptotek.
The Glyptotek is shaped like a big, three story donut with a beautiful garden terrace in the middle.
Carl Jacobsen settled on the name Glyptotek, meaning a repository for sculpture, rather than a museum because he felt that arranging the works according to a scientific system as they are in a museum is not the way that it should be. Jacobsen wanted the works of art to speak directly to each individual visitor so that everyone has a unique experience when exploring the Glyptotek.
The Glyptotek is shaped like a big, three story donut with a beautiful garden terrace in the middle.
We started our visit in the part of the Glyptotek that holds a collection of French sculptures.
From there, we began to explore Danish paintings and sculptures and a variety of antiquities. Besides the actual works of art, my favorite thing about the Glptotek is that every room is painted a different, bright color that has been specifically picked to complement the pieces of art inside of it. Also, the frames on the paintings were all so beautiful and intricate but no so much as to take away from the paintings themselves.
The above sculpture, Nature Study, was one of the most amusing yet confusing that we saw all day.
In the Dahlerup Wing of the Glyptotek, there is a huge, Venetian renaissance style room adorned with enormous granite columns. It was one of the most breath taking parts of the entire building and my friend fell so in love with the room that she decided it would be the venue for her wedding.
From there we headed to the Ancient Egyptian collection...
...and finished up our day with the French paintings.
After a few hours, we had seen just about all there was to see and just in time to head down to the Stroget for lunch.
So we headed down to the Stroget, the main shopping area in Copenhagen, and found our way to BarBurrito.
We all decided that Mexican sounded amazing and luckily this highly- recommended Mexican restaurant was close by.
Google Maps lead us to our destination, however, Barburrito is hidden underneath a tattoo parlor and we must have walked by the place about five times before realizing where the entrance to the restaurant is. Once we finally figured out where to go and entered the restaurant, we immediately became overwhelmed with the familiar smell of tortillas frying. The restaurant has very dimmed lighting and is a quaint little place that makes you feel at home.
The menu at Barburrito is not very complex, tacos or burrito/burrito bowl, you just pick what kind of meat you want, if you want guacamole and cheese (obviously YES) and thats all there is too it. I settled for the chicken burrito bowl as did my friend Helen and Natalie got the crispy pork burrito. It is like Chipotle where there is no tortilla, a bed of black beans and white rice, cabbage, chicken, pickled onions, guacamole, cheese, and a mild salsa to top it all off.
The menu at Barburrito is not very complex, tacos or burrito/burrito bowl, you just pick what kind of meat you want, if you want guacamole and cheese (obviously YES) and thats all there is too it. I settled for the chicken burrito bowl as did my friend Helen and Natalie got the crispy pork burrito. It is like Chipotle where there is no tortilla, a bed of black beans and white rice, cabbage, chicken, pickled onions, guacamole, cheese, and a mild salsa to top it all off.
So freaking delicious! This was the perfect meal to satisfy our Mexican food cravings and the most delicious way to end our afternoon. One thing about eating out in Copenhagen is that unlike in the United States, you can eat a fairly large meal and still walk away feeling 100% satisfied without feeling greasy and stuffed to the brim. I think it is because there is so much more emphasis on fresh products and much tighter restrictions on the processed foods and preservatives that are allowed to be used in restaurants.
All in all, a great day was made even better once we returned back to our residence, took a little power nap, and then paid to our respects to Steve Irwin as we partied the night away at Australian Bar!
All in all, a great day was made even better once we returned back to our residence, took a little power nap, and then paid to our respects to Steve Irwin as we partied the night away at Australian Bar!