VandaHearts: 2015

Maybe you are like me - Scandinavia is one of your next destinations on your travel list, but you'd leave it for exploration after you'd travel across other countries and parts of the world. Typical places like England, Spain, Italy, France and so on. You shouldn't! Scandinavia is, in my humble opinion, one of the prettiest places, areas, in the world.

I've experienced (together with my boyfriend Majko) only Denmark, but after our vacation and 2 weeks spent in this country, we can't wait to explore Finland, Norway and Sweden as well. This blog post is something like a summary of our memories and experiences in the beautiful city called Copenhagen or København, if you wish.

Let me tell you, if I could speak Danish, at least as I speak English, I'd move there in a heartbeat. And my boyfriend as well. This place is highly addictive and it's not called a city of the happiest people in the world, just because.. :)

This post is really long, so grab your coffee or tea and get cozy.

FACTS & TIPS

YOU DON'T HAVE TO LEARN DANISH, ENGLISH IS ENOUGH

As I'm a language freak and I want to know at least some basics of every language out there, I've tried to learn some classic words. But you don't have to, if you are not feeling it. From the child to the senior (age 70), everyone speaks excellent English! Trust me, if they can see you are not very comfortable talking, like when buying groceries, they'd start speaking English immediately. I've heard it's because their TV channels do not translate and dabb movies into Danish language, but just use subtitles, so people are learning the language while watching movies. Let me know if that's true, Danish people!

DANISH PEOPLE ARE REALLY QUIET

When we first arrived at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen around 9 AM, we caught ourselves whispering to each other. Like at the doctor's waiting room. And we were like - is it for real that people here are talking really quietly? And then we agreed. YES! They are not yelling at each other, while standing 1 feet from each other, as we do in our country. It was a great feeling. They really like their privacy and are willing to provide it for others among them.

THERE IS NO MUSIC IN SHOPS

I don't know how about your place where you live, but here in Slovakia it's so annoying. Walking down the street and every other shop has opened doors and music is so loud you can hear it 5 blocks away. It should work like some sort of marketing, to allure new customers to their shops, but eeeh..not working. But, be happy! This is NOT happening in Copenhagen, my dear, not here. It was such a relief to experience this kind of cultural behavior. You enter a grocery shop or a boutique and there is NO MUSIC AT ALL! It was so weird at first, but then we got used to it really fast.

DANISH PEOPLE AREN'T RUDE

They just mind their business and expect it from you as well. It actually really worked for us because we don't like pushy and noisy people who pretend they are interested in our life, but actually they are not. People in Copenhagen just don't care until you ask them directly for help or anything. The same goes for cafes and markets and so on. They don't come to you asking if you need help - they will give you time.

BIKE IS THE BEST AND MOST EFFICIENT WAY OF TRAVELLING

And this is absolutely true. Don't freak out when everywhere you look you see bikes! We had our bikes rented by our host (we stayed at the apartment we found via airbnb) and it was an amazing experience. There is 350 km of cycle paths and lanes which are raised from the road and really safe to cycle on. They have even their own traffic lights and the green starts around 5 seconds earlier than the one for the cars. There are "parking slots" for bike every few meters so you can park as nearest as possible to your final destination. But be aware! It's real traffic out there with the bikes. You should know the basic signs - when you turn left, use as a mark you left hand, when right, then the right hand and when you want to unexpectedly stop or turn somewhere right away, rise your left hand in a fist and next to your head. Always have your eyes open and watch out for pedestrians, other bikes and cars. It's not like cycling in the park. Citizens use it as a normal form of transportation. You can see children, dogs, young people, business people in their suits and old people on their bikes too, commuting to work and home or to one of the cute cafes in the city. If you don't have a bike, you can rent it in one of the rental shops. Expect to pay 75kr for the day's rental and around 350kr for the week's. On the contrary, trains, metro and buses are really pricey. In Euros the basic ticket costs around 5 EUROS an one-way journey.

MUSEUMS ARE CLOSED ON MONDAYS

Museums are a great way to kill time when raining and also to explore danish culture. Most of them are free for people under the age of 25 or students. The National Museum is free for everyone regardless your age. The sad fact is they are closed on Mondays! We didn't know that as we planned to visit National Museum on one rainy Monday. So we came and went away disappointed. So, plan something different on your Monday in Copenhagen.

STOP YOUR LOW-SUGAR DIET AND GET SOME DANISH PASTRIES

This is an order! You can visit one of the local coffee chains, Lagkagehuset, which according to my danish language skill, can be translated as a "cake house". And believe me, it lives to its name! You enter the cafe and the best smell in the world will rins in your nose. Then you'll see a mountain of cakes, cookies, pastries, pizza slices and other goodies. You can get a great coffee with it too. Don't forget to get a line number at the entrance!And to the question if it's fresh, you can see behind the glass wall for yourself, women preparing the dough for the pastries. So, yeah, it's fresh. Prepare to spend some money on it, two coffees and two little cakes will cost you around 15 EUROS, which was a little bit of a shock to our Slovak standards, but then we got used to it and visited it almost daily. So many options to try :P

Typical danish pastries and coffee

PREPARE TO ORDER AND PAY AT THE BAR

Maybe it's the way how it works all around the world but Slovakia, but it was a new way for us. You should order at the bar, wait for it, pay for it and then you can sit whenever you'd like, how long you'd like. The service is used more for like cleaning the tables than picking up orders. This it not how it goes at normal restaurants, this is just at bars, cocktail places and most of the cafes we visited.

PAY WITH YOUR BANK CREDIT CARD EVERYWHERE, IF YOU HAVE A PIN CODE

This was quite new for us. We paid literally almost everywhere with our bank cards. It was really fast and easy. From groceries to Paper Island StreetFood! The only place when they prefer cash was at the church tower and since we didn't have any cash on us we left, haha.

It's a great way to track your expenses throughout the whole vacancy. The only way how to pay with your card is if you have a pincode with it as well. If you not, rather use cash. The best way to exchange money is right away at the airport and then you can use any kind of ATM.

Danish coins. Yes, they look like doughnuts

TRY TYPICAL DANISH HOTDOGS

Don't leave the country without tasting their hotdogs, pølse!

You can get them literally around every corner in their kiosks, for around 5 EUROS (35-40kr) but it's worthy. It contents : special bread, sausage, ketchup, mustard, remoulade (special yellow sauce they use on almost everything), fried onion, fresh onion and pickles. That's right. But the combination is great! I, as a vegetarian since birth, have tried it and must admit - was really delicious! (sorry, mom.) Oh, and these kiosks are exception when it comes to paying. They accept only cash.

VISIT STREET FOOD ISLAND. YES, ISLAND!

PapirØen, as it's called, is a tiny island, near the downtown. It's a local place for everyone, citizens and also tourists to enjoy variety of food from food trucks and kiosks with high quality food, drinks and coffee. You can try food specialties from Italian, through Indian, American, Mexican or any other type of cuisine you can think of.
Once it's used to be a warehouse with paper for ships, now it's the most hype place in town.
You can also find here the true national danish hit- Smørrebrød! It can be called as "open face sandwich" and the combination of words is something like bread and butter. And that's it. You can buy if from approx. 5 EUROS per piece. There are many types you can choose from. The base is a rye bread - I got one with butter, cooked potatoes, savour cream and chive, and of course, fried onions - they like to put it in many of their special meals.
Again, you can park your bike to the nearest place possible. If there's nice weather, local people use to grab a deckchair while enjoying the view with a glass of beer, lemonade or a food plate, talking to their friends.

Smørrebrød

Fish'n'chips and the view

Heavy rain and sunset. Really proud of this shot!

EVEN IF IT'S RAINY AND COLD WEATHER, DANISH PEOPLE LOVE WATER

One day was really really cold weather and it was pouring rain all day long. And while going on the bridge we saw some teenagers jumping into the cold water in the docks. We were like "wtf", but they looked like they had the best time ever. They even had towels and swimsuits on. Awesome.

HYGGE IS A REAL THING

Hygge is the perfect word to describe danish mentality. This word expresses the outings and happenings of 2 and more people, in Copenhagen (I expect also in Denmark, maybe even in the whole Scandinavia).

While driving through the city on your bike or while walking, you can see people everywhere, enjoying their lunch breaks, dinners, small friendly gatherings etc, outside. People in Copenhagen love outdoors and they enjoy it whenever they can.

Don't be surprised if you find ready salads and lunch boxes in every market more than in your country. They love to just grab it and sit in the docksides or on benches near the sea while talking. Their most favourite is a pizza in the box and a beer. Local people prefer a lot of beer cans and some finger food more than sitting in a restaurant. They just love it. The first day we got there we visited a park, totally exhausted and it was full of people. They had picnics with a bottle of wine on ice and blankets (it's perfectly legal to drink outside, in Denmark). It was amazing!

When we hygge

THERE ARE PARKS ON EVERY CORNER

This is true. It is amazing! And they are huge and look beautiful!

King's gardens

COPENHAGEN IS PEOPLE-FRIENDLY CITY

As you walk by the city, you can sit on a bench almost every 5 meters, and next to every bench is a trash can. In my city it's something unimaginable!!!

There are bike stations everywhere and people are really friendly. I got in a bike accident once and the biker was really nice to me, reassuring I'm okay and he left after he could see I'm not injured.

You can hangout everywhere you'd like. It's amazing!

WEATHER IS CHANGING EVERY HOUR

Always carry around something warm or waterproof with you. Just in case.

METRO CARS ARE ON AUTO-PILOT

Don't be scared while seeing arriving metro without a pilot! It's automatic and you can sit in the very front, with the best view.

THERE ARE 7-ELEVEN SUPERMARKETS LITERALLY ON EVERY CORNER

I don't know why is that. But it's not a bad thing, and you get used to it after-all.

THERE ARE MANY MANY THINGS TO SEE IN AND AROUND COPENHAGEN

If you are more for entertainment while on vacation, make sure you pay a visit to the oldest and most famous amusement park, called Tivoli Gardens. The entry fee is around 15 EUROS per person and if you want to ride on some of the attractions, you have to pay extra. But don't you worry - you get a map with all the details and checkpoints with ATMs for the tickets - and of course, you can pay with your card.

Tivoli Attractions

Tivoli Garden Entrance

Also you can get to all of the amazing parts of CPH on your bike. If you end up on Paper Island (Street Food Island) in Christianhavn, go little bit further and visit Christiania - "the free town". It's an independent small city within the city. There are some cute tiny fishermen houses near the lake and shops and services. There is also a main square with all of types of gift shops, but be aware - most of them are marijuana type of presents and designs. There are some parts of this city where is strictly forbidden to shoot with your camera or phone. There are kiosks with masked salesmen, selling weed and hashish.

If you want to relax, make sure to find some time for their beautiful beach - Amager Strandpark. It's beautiful long beach, full of attractions (if you come in warmer months) and a beautiful view. Again, people tend to visit it for "hygge" or family gatherings on Sunday, walking their dogs.

To prove how Copenhagen is people-friendly, people of the city wanted this kind of place, so they've CREATED THE BEACH! Yes, they moved the shore for about 2 km and created special routes for bikers and people on rollerblades and runners. You can find a bench or a trash can every few meters (common people, really?:D). There are many entrances with steps for passionate swimmers, it looks like you're entering a pool. We've been there at the beginning of September and people actually jumped to the water. Danish people!

The level of water is not too high, so it's great also for the families with children.

Also if you are all into that viking thing, I highly recommend visiting a beautiful village called Roskilde. It has one of the best Viking ship museums, with five original repaired viking ships and interactive workshops, where you can try every step of ship-making. And for the extra fee you can paddle on one of the viking ship replicas and it's amazing!

And that's probably it. I could write about our Copenhagen experience two more pages, but I think the best is to experience it all by yourself. I'm dying to visit other countries in Scandinavia, but right know I'm living on budget because, let me tell you - Denmark is a little bit pricey for an average Europe citizen. And by that I mean Central Europe - Slovakia, haha.

If you have any further questions or comments feel free to ask me. You can follow me on my other social media channels and ask me there, if you'd like.

Please, if you want to use this post on your website or my photos, ask me first and we can discuss it. Thank you!

2 comments

I loved them since I saw the movie Matilda, and always wanted to make them at home. It's not traditional breakfast menu here in my country, and you can find it only at some american bistros around town. Sometimes my mum makes them, but in an another "traditional" Slovak way.

I'm not a mage in the kitchen and I don't cook that much (prefer baking), but I just had to make myself some good american pancakes!

As you can guess, I've decided to make them in an american way. I found the best and easy recipe and tried it and they turned out amazing after the first try! Who doesn't want it, right? That's why I want to share this recipe with you :) It's pretty easy.

Since I live in the central Europe, we have different metric charts here. But I googled some American for you as well (many of you readers come here from US and also it's about amerinca pancakes, duuh).
For around 12 - 15 pancakes ( yes, it's too much, but you can divided everything by 2 or 3 to have smaller portions) you'll need:

3 eggs
0, 6 dcl of milk / 20 fl oz of milk (classic cow's, but if you prefer any other, you can try it with that as well, but I do not guarantee that they will turn out well)
600 grams of soft flour / 4 cups
170 grams of either granulated or caster sugar / 3/4 cup ( I used granulated and it was delish, so don't worry)
1 pack of baking powder (we use to have them in a small package, as you can see on the picture)

Everything in Slovak. Bought at LIDL

These are all the ingredients you need.

Now you just put all the milk and eggs in one bowl and start mixing them. I prefer to mix wet ingredients first and then when it's stirred I add flour, sugar and baking powder (dry ingredients) to that bowl and mix everything together. Voilá! You now have your pancake dough ready.

Put it away for about 30 minutes and then you are good to go. Heat a smaller pan, butter it up, put dough on, keep always on medium heat. One pancake will take approximately around 2-3 minutes for you to make. So be patient :) It's worthy.

Stirring "wet ingredients"

The result!

Now you know how to make fluffiest, delicious american pancakes in my way. I've tried this recipe several times and they always ended up great and tasty.

As a topping I use a little bit of butter, maple syrup and my boyfriend came up with adding a little bit of home-made jam to it and it was amazing. You can eat it also with some chocolate and so on. We added some blueberries.

So that's it. Let me know if you tried them according to my recipe or what is your favourite recipe! :)

No comments

In my last year's post about my eyelash extensions experience I showed you how I got an allergic reaction to 3D eyelashes. I'd been using extensions for about a 6 months, where nothing happened to my eyes, but after another 6 months break from wearing 3D lashes I got 2 times this huge allergic reaction, with red swollen and itchy eyes, which would fade away after a couple of days and eye drops.

I was like, okay it happened 2 times, eyes are very important part of a human body, stop using and wearing them.

After a year of not having lash extensions, I started to have this feeling that it's time to try them again. You know, I was a first girl which didn't have red eyes at all after the application and in a year I got an allergic reaction.. well, there was a chance for being THAT girl again (meaning - without any reaction to artificial eyelashes) so I took it.

I was playing with that idea for about a week and I've decided to try it again, after a year. Well, the worst what could happen is to have red eyes, so what. I'll live through the first 3 days and it will be okay, I guessed..

Well, as you could guess - it was NOT OKAY. I made an appointment with the best lash studio in my city (Bratislava, Slovakia) and was really looking forward to have them again and look like a doll. I was laying down for about 2,5 hours and when I opened my eyes and got the really slightly red, so it was a relief for my eyelash expert and for me as well. She took a picture of my eyelashes for her portfolio and I was really happy with the results! I got a tip for applying the lashes a little bit further from the roots so we did it that way.

I was really excited to not have to wake up an hour earlier and to look pretty 24/7..

I had to go to school to present my project which was about in an hour and when I got there my classmate asked me "Vanda, what happened to your eyes?" I just replied "Fake eyelashes" and didn't pay attention to the itchiness. I hoped it would go away in a few hours or a day. But I was wrong again.

In a few hours it all got even worse, my eyes were really red, started being swollen and the eyelash part kind of hurt me when I touched it. I really hoped it would be okay when it's been a year.

My boyfriend, friends and I went to the movies for this new Avengers movie and I was wearing sunglasses in a shopping mall because I looked like a junkie. No kidding. Everyone looked at me like I was high on something and it was not very pleasant.

I bought really expensive eye drops to stop it from the worst and applied them 3 times.

The next day it got better - a little bit - so I was really looking forward to being pretty again and being happy from looking awesome. But that night it turned to a nightmare.

Sorry for the blurry photo, I couldn't have my eyes opened for more than 30 seconds

As you can probably see, my eyes are completely swollen and red and teary. Yes - I woke up at about 3 AM with a really bad feeling. My eyes were tearing for about 5 hours straight and I couldn't stop it. From all of the tears I got a running nose and it was a hell of a night, let me tell you.

My boyfriend checked my eyes and the right eye got worse than the left one. He told me I got really badly CORNEA area swollen. It was a feeling like you have something in your eye - a small eyelash or something tiny - but I got nothing, I just had the whole eye irritated from a fake eyelash. Clearly, my body tried to fight this "allien" in any way.

Did you experience the same, anyone?

I am really sad. It really helped me to look pretty. I was really looking forward to all of the prettiness and awesomeness, haha. But it turned out the way it supposed to. Unfortunately.

I've read many articles about women who ended up at the hospital with not able to see. I was not able to see for 2 days, I could open my eyes just for 30 seconds. The lashes had to go down after 2 days and it was an immediate relief when I got them down.

The whole process of removing them was not very pleasant either, but again, it was necessary. Now I look like a boy again (since I have short lashes without a curl) and had to buy a new mascara ( I'll to the review too, since I'm not very happy with the mascara, haha).

I was not able to apply mascara or anything for a week because it was very touchy and swollen from time to time. But I apply eye drops every day and it's getting better.

I don't think I'll be having 3D lashes again, in the future. But everyone needs his own experience. :)

Let me know in the comments if anything similar happened to you, ladies.

47 comments

5 comments

It's such a cliché to make resolutions every year.. Sometimes I have a feeling that no matter how many resolutions you'll write down, you'll never achieve all of them.

But, the new year which resembles the new beginnings, it's the best time for thinking about your life. To think about you. Are you thinking about your life enough?

I have a feeling that sometimes I take my life for granted. Like, when I play SIMS 4 all day long, or reading a book. When I procrastinate or postpone meeting to another time because I have a lazy day and want to run around all day in my PJs. Then when I'm sick (like right now) I just rethink my chances, choices and got a really bad feeling about how much time do I have? Can I spend hours and hours playing playstation? Am I that person?

My boyfriend likes to say that people should read books when they are older or retired and they lived enough. I always disagree, books tend to give you a new point of view on life or social problems (or any problems really). But should we spend our precious time reading about (un)successful stories and lives of other (fictional) people? Or watching them on TV? Or playing with them via games? Is it meaningful?

According to Christian calendar (there are many of them) it's year 2015 and the 1st Jan is the first day of the year(wow). On this day, many people tend to set goals which they want to achieve throughout that particular year, but my point is - shouldn't we set goals everyday to remind how short and precious life we live? For instance, many people just decide that their goals is to lose weight. And then they expect it will just magically happen, just because they said it. But what about setting goals every day? Imagine this - you wake up, and while fetching the breakfast you just think "today I want to do this and this". Like a little to do list/resolution. I think it's even more fun when you have less time for the result.

We should appreciate our life more because it's just the one-time opportunity we have. Stop living it through someone else, through gossips, through news and TV shows. Let be this year full of New Year Revolutions instead of resolutions! Be more egoistic! Put yourself first. Yes, relationships are about compromises and blahablah, but don't forget you are the most important part in your life. It may sound crazy, but you should think about you more, no matter which religion you believe or what are traditions in your families, you should always put yourself first! Because at the end of the day it's all about you and your feelings and if you're feeling happy and satisfied living your life. And that's what matter the most. Not setting imaginary goals you'll forget the day after, but to set a main goal - let this year be all about you.

Hope you enjoyed your holidays, I'm so thrilled to be back and writing this post. I didn't post anything for about last 7 months and people visit this blog daily! :)

Happy New Year <3