Copenhagen by Night

I always have trouble with latitude. Longitude makes perfect sense to me, even on a global scale-- Lausanne is east from Paris, London is west of Berlin, and (in case you've never seen a globe before) Europe is east of North America.

Latitude, however isn't quite as intuitive. Although I know that Europe is north from the United States, it never fails to surprise me just how far north is really is. For example: Lausanne, Switzerland has roughly the same latitude as Quebec City, and New Orleans is actually farther south than Cairo. Copenhagen? It's just a little south of Alaska, lining up with northern Alberta, Canada. 

Because if it's surprisingly-high latitude, in addition to being cold, Copenhagen is also fairly dark. Daylight was short, lasting from around 9 am through 4 pm, and caused our sight-seeing hours to be a bit limited. I was also surprised by how much the early darkness affected my appetite. Although I normally wouldn't be hungry for dinner until 7 or 8 pm, in Copenhagen, I consistently found myself hungry closer to 5. I often found myself wondering what it would be like to live in a place even farther north, where the sun never rises in the winter and never sets in the summer. How would my appetite fluctuate? My sleep schedule? My overall alertness and productivity?

The extended night did, however, give Ben and me a chance to explore Copenhagen by night. One of my favorite night-time activities was our trip to Tivoli, a charming amusement park taking up an entire city block right in downtown Copenhagen. Built in 1843, Tivoli is the second-oldest amusement park in the world, and has a distinctive old-fashioned charm that I found absolutely adorable. 

tivoli, already decorated in hundreds of lights for the
holidays (just so you know- this photo was taken
at 4:30 in the afternoon!)

after a few months of being closed, Tivoli had just reopened
for the holidays!

(sleepy) ben + ashley

vanessa + (sleepy) ben

walking under arches decorated in holiday sweets!

ashley, me, and a beautiful christmas tree

One of my favorite parts of Tivoli was a giant hall set up with Christmas-y, Winter-y scenes featuring Danish toy elves. It was very similar to Disney's "it's a small world", only minus the boat ride and Christmas themed. I thought it was adorable. 

ashley and me, inside the "hall of the christmas elves"

christmas elves skiing. quoting ben, "vanessa! it looks
like you skiing!"

elves ice skating!

in denmark, hearts are a common christmas decoration.

Another fun bit of Copenhagen nightlife we experienced was the Copenhagen Ice Bar, a restaurant/bar made entirely out of ice. The Copenhagen Ice Bar is a spinoff of the Ice Hotel, a famous hotel in northern Sweden also made entirely out of ice. While the prospect of spending the night and sleeping in an ice room sounds too cold to be appealing, the hour we spent in the ice bar was super-fun and very unique. In addition to ice walls, tables, chairs, and dishes, there were also several intricate ice sculptures-- everything from delicate birds to a life-size motorcycle! Even though I couldn't feel my toes for a few hours after we left, the experience was still absolutely fantastic.

one of my favorite ice sculptures- two ice birds in an ice
cage!

ashley and me! although we were already pretty bundled up,
admission to the bar included a super-warm, furry,
blue cape- it definitely made the experience that much
more fun!

ben, me, ashley

ben and me

ben showing off the glasses- also made out of ice!

ben riding the ice-motorcycle

peering through an ice sculpture!