We arrived in Copenhagen a little worried about the hostel that we'd booked. An English guy we talked to had said not to stay there as the bunks are three high, and really close to the next set with no railings so it was easy to fall off. We got there and found the triple bunks of which he had spoken, but lucky for us we were in a smaller dorm and they weren't too close together. After a night there, I soon realised the biggest down-side of the place. Our room has massive windows, and no curtains. Great to let in every ray of the seemingly endless sunlight that Scandanavia has to offer. I didn't get much sleep in Copenhagen as a result.

We've encountered a lot of bicycles in Europe, but nowhere has there been anywhere near the number that we had to dodge in Copenhagen. Luckily there are well marked bike paths everywhere so we didn't get run over.

The hostel also gave us a great brochure with info for budget-conscious travellers (which I reckon everyone must be in Scandinavia). The brochure had walking tours and maps for every area of the city. On our first full day there we did the inner city tour after finding some tasty custard danishes for breakfast. The tour started in the city hall square, past the cathedral, university, and synagogue - none of which were spectacular. Next was the round tower, which unsurprisingly was a round tower. Most people can pay to walk up to the top, we didn't, but apparently a russian tsar rode his horse to the top once. Next we wandered through the Rosenberg Castle Gardens (where I may have had a little nap on the grass) and on past the castle itself. After passing the National museum we had the option to go and have a look at the little mermaid statue. I was surprised that the brochure listed this as optional since it's probably the iconic symbol of Copenhagen. We went for a look and were a little disappointed with the size of the statue, but thought it quite nice. After passing the cool Russian orthodox church, and the marble church (not actually made from marble) we came to the Amalienborg palace, the royal residence. The palace is basically four buildings around a square. There were no flags flying, so we don't think the royal family was in. Princess Mary didn't rush out to greet us either like we expected.

After the palace, we walked to the old new harbour, basically a canal lined with expensive bars and restaraunts. The place to see and be seen apparently. Then we walked down a street that used to be a canal, past the parliament, stock exchange, library and a few other buildings of note.

After a long day of walking in the sun, we felt like a BBQ. We'd been to a park near the hostel the night before, and seen heaps of locals with disposable BBQs so we thought we'd have a crack at one for ourselves. We got some bacon-wrapped sausages (apparently Danish bacon is really good) and rolls from the supermarket, along with our BBQ and a few beers and headed to the park. The little barbie worked pretty well, and the snags were pretty tasty, although more like a hotdog than a snag. Next to the park was a big, beautiful cemetary. The graves were really well spaced out, and there were heaps of trees and shrubs. Why am I writing about a cemetary? The locals use it regularly for picnics and sunbaking and it houses the grave of Hans-Christian Anderson, author of the world's second-most-translated book. We paid him a visit and took the obligitory photos.

Another walking tour was on the agenda for the next day, this time around Christianshaven, home to an alternative self-declared freetown - Christiana. This area is self-governed, and allowed to continue by the Danish government since the 70s as a social experiment. Breakfast was first though, we had some traditional smorrobrod; bits of rye bread with different toppings, followed by some more danishes.

We had expected the freetown to be much bigger than it actually was, and the walking tour took us to some other sights like churches and the new opera house. When we finally got to the freetown, it ws basically a big hippie settlement. Apparently drugs used to be freely available here until a big police raid in the last couple of years. Seems that the government wants to put an end to the social experimant, and reclaim the valuable real estate that the hippies are occupying.

When we were in Stockholm we tried to go to the ice bar, but we needed a reservation which we didn't have. There is one in Copenhagen too, so we decided to head along for a look. We got in with no reservation, donned our designer ponchos, and entered the -5 degree bar. It was pretty cool, ice from a frozen river in Sweden on all the walls, the bar was made from ice, and we had vodka cocktails in ice glasses. There was a huge vodka bottle made from ice that we could step inside for some nice photos, and some artworks on the wall made from ice too.

We fly to Dusseldorf in Germany tomorrow, then on to Bonn for the Formula One. I can't wait.