For many, spring break is the time to kickstart your summer and fly away to Puerto Rico, Aruba or any other sunny island. They come back to work or school on the first Monday after their vacation, tanner than before, and in full summer mode. That’s usually me, even if I don’t go away to a place with palm trees, because I know that summer is just around the corner.
But, this year, my family traveled to a place where I wouldn’t usually pick out if I had a choice. My brother, a junior in college, spent his spring semester in Copenhagen, Denmark, while spending his weekends traveling to other countries throughout Europe. Although my family misses him, FaceTime calls and WhatsApp messages are constantly being sent from one side of the Atlantic to the other and we’re able to talk daily. Originally, my parents were supposed to visit my brother in Denmark, but we then decided to make it a family outing and I had the chance to tag along, and my sister did too, as she took off work for a little bit and joined us on our adventures to Scandinavia. Our vacation lasted ten days; ten days of pictures (there are a lot of photos), sightseeing and eating, of course. I constantly kept my eyes peeled for cute gelato shops, European cafes and every chance to try the local food.
First, we travelled to Stockholm, Sweden. Besides being a super hip city, everyone appreciates the perfect sized portions of good food. When it was lunchtime on our first day, we went to a cute cafe and everyone in my family got the same salad as it sounded really good and it ended up being really good, too.
This salad had brown rice, cranberries, lots of fresh vegetables and grilled chicken. Not too European, but I was still on New York time, so it was okay.
Our first night, we went to the oldest restaurant in Stockholm, Den Glydene Freden, opened in 1722, which translates as “The Golden Peace”. Besides having an incredible interior design, I think the waiters realized we were tourists, just like most of the other people dining there that night, as they served us well and kept our wine glasses full. I have to say, though, this dinner was a hard one to stay awake for, because jet-lag led me to believe that it was 1:00am, instead of 7:00 local Stockholm time. Anyway, to start off, we had a bread basket which included their take on rye bread; this bread is nothing like the flat white stuff we have in the states – this grainy brown bread was warm and had chunks of lingonberry, a cranberry-like sweet berry, which added the perfect ~vibe~ to the starter. Here’s a snap of the middle of my piece of Swedish rye bread:
We then had steak tartare, topped off with shredded cheese, homemade potato chips and seasoning.
For my entree, I had gnocchi. I’ve posted on this blog about having gnocchi from New York City, which were huge pieces of the potato pasta, but this gnocchi was the kind that I was familiar with: the smaller pieces.
This gnocchi was served with onions, sunflower seeds that added a nice crunch, vegetables and spicy mayo. Everything was well-seasoned and the meal filled me up quickly.
Right as I was falling asleep at the table, our dessert camp: an apple pie with a cup that we poured melted ice cream over. It was incredible and I enjoyed every single bite that I got to get before my brother devoured it. Oh yeah – I forgot to mention; it was great to see my brother again and to spend this week with him.
For lunch the next day, my family went to a tea store, where they were serving countless amounts of (rather expensive) tea. Food-wise, I got an open-faced sandwich because they’re popular in this part of Europe. It had smoked salmon (just like everything else in Sweden), avocado, tomato and cheese. On the side, I had a pot of green tea straight from China, which was really good on this chilly day in Stockholm. Here’s a snap of my lunch:
The next few days were spent touring museums, exceeding our Fitbit step goal every day (our biggest day of walking was over 30,000 steps!!). Another night in Stockholm was spent at this classy restaurant to celebrate my dad’s birthday. The restaurant, Gondolen, was on the top of a building and had an incredible view of the beautiful sunset that was on display for us. The ambiance was great and the food was equally good. I had some nice lobster as a starter and then steak for my main course.
This is the steak I had. The sauce was good, the vegetables were good and everything was good about this. My dad had the same thing, so we were enjoying this together.
After our trip to Stockholm for a few days, we went right on over to Bergen, Norway. Unlike Oslo, Bergen is a smaller city, filled with fancy 7/11 stores, nice people and awesome gelato with cocoa powder on top. Days were spent hiking up a mountain, taking a cruise through the Fjords and hanging back, walking through the Fish Market or enjoying the local restaurants. The first afternoon we got there, we were starving and walked into a cute local pizza place/cafe. My brother and I got the pizza and it came with tiny meet balls which were really cute and really good and they made me really happy. Also, the cafe in general was really cool and pretty, so I’m going to present a picture of the cafe as well…
My other Norwegian meals were good, too. Besides the hotel’s amazing buffet for breakfast, I really enjoyed my froyo with cocoa powder on top.
After our quick stop in Bergen, Norway, we ventured out to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the longest leg of our trip, to see where my brother is living for the semester and to take a look into his new European world. We were instantly greeting by the Glass Market, a farmer’s market kind of place, with vegetables and fish and chocolate and ice cream and everything in between. My brother and I got gelato… I had chocolate and Nutella and it was the most incredible and the creamiest ice cream I’ve ever had.
Here’s a photo of all of the flavors offered; I had a scoop of the chocolate fudge on the right bottom corner and on top, a scoop of the Nutella ice cream.
Imagine how good it tasted if it looked this good… trust me – it was amazing.
The next day, we went to Cafe Paludan, which is the hippest cafe I’ve ever been to. It had bookshelves that you can read books from during your meal, it had studying students and it had bunches of people having fun, too. Out of the many items on the menu that I was deciding between, my brother recommended the goat cheese salad. Good choice, brother – this salad was the most incredible salad that has ever featured goat cheese… the cheese came GRILLED on top of greens and other incredible sides that created an incredible salad and a great lunch after a long morning of walking. Here’s a snap of my salad:
The next few days were filled with lots of shopping and food and lots of sightseeing too. Another lunch that we had was at Cafe Norden, where I had the two salad sampler… one was a kale salad and the other was a grainy salad with farro and other really good grains. It was amazing and then at the end when we were walking out, I snapped a quick picture of the desserts in the display case… they’re danishes from Denmark!!! The following photo includes my two salads and the second are the danishes.
That night, we went to the famous Tivoli. Tivoli is an amusement park that Walt Disney created Disney world off of. It’s magical and beautiful and, although it was probably 35 degrees that night, I couldn’t have had a better night. The lights were sparkling, music was playing throughout the park and the fact that it was nighttime made everything more magical. I’m not much of a roller coaster fan, so mom and I stayed back while my sister and brother went with my dad on the bigger stomach-twisters. Then, later in the night, we stopped in a restaurant. We got individual pizzas, but the pizza cutters that came with the pizza seemed fit to cut the biggest pizza in the world… here’s a pic:
Take a look at the pizza cutter… it’s half the size of the pizza!!
The last afternoon and evening in Denmark was spent at our new Danish family friend’s house. They’ve been hosting my brother for the semester, so we joined them in a big family dinner, but it first started with tea and cakes for a few hours and then a big and beautiful traditional danish meal. I have no photos of the meal as it would’ve been rude to be on my phone (I don’t want to seem too American), but it was incredible and I was full for a long time after.
Unfortunately, all good things have to end and after this vacation, I had to go home and write a huge paper that was due the following Wednesday. But, I finished the paper and all I have to look forward to now, is summer! I’ll be traveling all over the country, so I can’t wait to see what my summer has waiting for me.
According to google translate, “farvel” is “bye” is Danish (and I hope it’s correct). So, farvel, spring break… until next year!
Now, back to school, finals and spring cleaning. I’ll be over here in New Jersey, patiently waiting for June to come around.
Comments