KK meets DK

The Finale: Amager ArkitekTUR

Two of my Sociology friends, Amanda and Sarah, and I took a metro ride/walking tour out to Ørestad, on the island of Amager in Copenhagen, in search of two things: crazy modern architecture and crazy good ice cream.

Amager is a lot of things. It's a striking combination of older beach bungalows and sparkling new glass towers. Some of the notable sights we passed were the Mountain Dwellings and the VM Houses, both projects by the renowned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels of BIG. We thought many of the buildings we passed were very impressive, if a little strange or impractical. Ørestad South is much more remote - it's the end of the line for the Metro - in part because many of the building projects there were put on hold because of the Great Recession.

But best of all, we found the ice cream shop that we'd unsuccessfully been looking for for a while: Ismageriet. It's hidden in the middle of the burbs - definitely out of the way if you're unfamiliar with Copenhagen - but so worth the trip! I tried a scoop of my go-to-favorite mint chip, and it was made with pieces of real mint and fine slivers of dark chocolate. Ismageriet definitely deserves its reputation for the best ice cream in Copenhagen!

To see more of Amager, Ørestad, and Bjarke Ingels's work, check out this excerpt from the documentary "My Playground" about parkour in the city. And for non-Danish speakers, if you're wondering about the title "ArkitekTUR":

"arkitektur" = architecture

"tur" = trip/walk

The Finale: Frederiksborg and Rosenborg

As if my touristing couldn't get even more pathetic, I saved visiting two of Denmark's best known castles for the last couple weeks. The worst part is that Rosenborg is right near Nørreport Station, which I passed nearly every day I was studying abroad.

The Finale: The Botanical Garden

The Finale: Tivoli

The Finale: Old City, New Money

The Finale: Helsingør and Kronborg

My friend Amanda had never been up to Helsingør to see Kronborg Slot, the castle made famous by Shakespeare's Hamlet. Despite the fact that I used to live in a folk high school in Helsingør during my first semester in Denmark, the sad truth is that I'd never seen more of Kronborg than the dungeons. (Really, studying abroad in one place for one academic year makes you horribly inefficient with local sight-seeing.) So a day trip was in order!

The Finale: Flintholm Station

The Finale: Freetown of Christiania

One of Copenhagen's biggest tourist attractions, Christiania is a self-governing community in the middle of Christianshavn on the site of former military barracks, not far from Vor Frelsers Kirke. Christiania was founded on ideals of freedom, community, and environmental stewardship. The freetown is also an artists' colony - residents build their own homes and craft goods for a living such as the famous Christiania bikes. Christiania has always been a point of contention for forty-some years, especially because of its famous "Green Light District" where marijuana is sold. But in 2011, Christiania bought the entire barracks area from the Danish state, thereby legalizing the community.

I think Christiania is full of coexisting contrasts - thriving and dilapidated, beautiful and terrifying, open and distrustful. I'd been to Christiania a few times before, always with female friends, and we've always noted that Christiania seems much more male-dominated than the rest of Copenhagen. Just a thought.

The Finale: Vor Frelsers Kirke/Church of Our Saviour

The Finale: Den Blå Planet/The Blue Planet Aquarium

The Finale: The Black Diamond

The Finale: May 1st and St. Kjelds Climate Quarter

I may have mentioned before that I spent most of my 1st of May in Copenhagen on two field studies: the first at my Danish language professor's house for brunch, followed by picnicking at Fælledparken; the second with my design class visiting the office of the St. Kjelds Climate Quarter.

I first learned about this initiative when I was researching social change, sustainability, and urban renewal for a group symposium. The Climate Quarter is a first for Copenhagen - already a leader in sustainability - and is projected to create a major impact in combating the effects of climate change. My design class was lucky enough to visit the Quarter to learn about the initiative and see how community members are already getting involved in "reclaiming the space" for the future.