Copenhagen

If you are prepared to get up a silly o'clock you can find return flights to Copenhagen for under £40 but that is where the low costs end as Copenhagen as beautiful as it is, is EXPENSIVE!!

I suppose I am still struggling to adjust to the fact that things in London cost more money then good ole Nottingham but blimey CPH certainly gave London prices a run for their money. 

However, a holiday is a holiday so here is my little blog post about 3 days spent in the Danish capital.

Arriving into CPH airport at 10.30am it took just four stops on the train to reach Central Station and another 10 minute bus ride to Vesterbro and our Air B'n'B in the heart of the meat packing district.

The afternoon we decided to get a feel for the city by taking part in a Sandemans free walking tour. After experiencing one of their tours in Berlin it made the most sense to do this on our first day and get a feel for the city.

Meeting at the Town Hall square at 2pm, our Canadian guide Tristan took us into the heart of the what is left of the medieval side of CPH. Much of the old historical town had been burnt down during two massive fires in the 1700's but there are still glimpses of the old architecture.

From here we walked to Nyhavn which is the colourful waterfront you see on most photos of Copenhagen and it does make for a very pretty picture with the old sail boats parked in the harbour. Nyhvn actually translates to New Harbour and is pronounced 'New Hound'.

However the harsh reality of this area is that it is in fact one of the most seedy areas of the city. Despite being the birth place of famous children's author Hans Christian Anderson, the area consists of strip clubs and over priced restaurants. This area is great for photos but probably not the nicest of areas to linger around in CPH.

Next up was the Royal Palace and the home of Queen Margrethe and a walk in the royal gardens.

Finally we headed to one of the top tourist spots in the city and the Little Mermaid statue. The almost lifesize statue sits in the Langeline harbour. She looks awfully sad though sat on her rock. it turns out that the Little Mermaid in HCA's stories actually kills herself at the end of the story. I think I will stick to the Disney version where she marries handsome Prince Eric (what a hottie he was).

After the tour we found what was to be our favourite hangout in the city - The Taphouse. A bar serving up 61 different European craft beers.

The next morning we headed to Norreboro for brunch. Our Air BnB host had kindly recommended this place as THE BEST BREAKFAST in all of CPH. Molle - Kaffe og Koffen is a little gem of a find. From its cool scandinavian decor to its delicious scrambled eggs on sour dough. I could have easily stolen all of the furniture and shipped it back to London.

Fuelled by coffee we headed to the Carlsberg Museum as it had started to rain.

It was really interesting to see the humble story or Carl Jacobsen the founding father of the beer. Who back in 1847 unlike other brewers of his time was fascinated more with the science and alchemy of beer and it was this that became the significance behind Carlsberg becoming one of the largest commercial beers in the world.

The name Carlsberg actually comes from Carl himself and Berg means little hill which is where Gamle Carlsberg actually was situated.

For around £8.85 your ticket will gain you entrance into the museum and entitle you to two free beers. The first we drank as we started the museum and the last was at the end. After all of the history and walking it was much needed let me tell you.

One of my favourite parts of the museum being an animal lover was the stables which is home to around 8 shire horses who are used for carriage rides but are really to symbolise the fact that back in the 1800's these types of horses were used to transport the Carlsberg barrels across the city.

The museum is well worth a visit and combining history with beer was enough to keep my attention and ensure I didn't become too bored.

From here on I will admit we did spend the rest of the day back in the Tap House due to the rain before heading back to Vesterbro for dinner and cocktails at Von Fressen. This cosy and shabby restaurant serves up THE most amazing gin cocktails and with Happy hour between 6-9 it was rude not to have a few of these.

An Engels cocktail is Bulldog gin with ginger, honey and lemonade. It was divine, coupled with a big juicy burger I was well and truly stuffed.

For our final day in Copenhagen we started out with breakfast at the Laundromat Cafe before a visit to Rosenborg Slot which is one of Europe's most famous renaissance castles and it is free to enter the grounds and walk around the gardens. The castle even has its own moat.

Next to the castle is the stunning Botanical Gardens and this beautiful greenhouse.Again this is free to enter and you can come across all manner of exotic plants and flowers. 

From here we headed back to Central CPH with a quick hot dog pitstop before making a quick trip to the Lego store. You cant come to Denmark and not see some Lego after all.

After playing with little coloured bricks we took the Metro to Christiana.

Christiana is a self proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood to around 900 residents just west of CPH city.

Christiana is a somewhat controversial part of CPH since its creation from a squatted military base back in the 1970s. This place is exactly what you would expect from a commune, the smell of cannabis is rife and art is freely expressed from murals, to mosaics to a house made entirely out of window frames.

The residents keep themselves to themselves and we didn't see any trouble whilst on the island but it definitely had a different feel to that of central CPH.

From here our afternoon highlight had to be Tivoli. We had passed this place so much during our time in CPH that I couldn't wait to go inside.

Tivoli is the second oldest theme park in the world and was opened to the public in 1843. It is the prettiest theme park I have ever been to and the designers obviously have drawn influence from Moroccan and Souther European architectural influence.

We had 2 things we wanted to get out of our trip to Tivoli the first was to ride the Demon Rollercoaster which is the red flashy loop the loop rollercoaster which was a lot of fun, however perhaps even more fun was the old rickety runaway train that was built in 1914 so over a hundred years old.

It was hilarious and surprisingly fast. We managed to snag the front cart and we sped through the wooden snowcapped mountain, round sharp bends before being plunged into darkness for around 10 seconds. 

It just goes to show you don't need to ride the expensive flashy ones to have a good time.

From then on we walked around the rest of the park before settling down with a bottle of wine and two glasses in the pavilion with the sun on our faces.

After working up an appetite for dinner with all the fun of the theme park we had our final dinner at the UH-MAZING Madklubben in Vesterbro. This huge but unfussy restaurant had such a cool atmosphere.

Pumping out great music to the backdrop of exposed brick walls and a table facing the open kitchen the place was buzzing with atmosphere.

We threw the budget out of the window for our final dinner and pigged out on chilli prawns started before the prettiest steak I have ever eaten.

All washed down with several glasses of red wine and a final treat of a Peruvian pisco sour.

I seriously fell in love with Copenhagen and it was definitely the kind of city I could imagine living in.

Thanks for reading.

Nic

Los Angeles

Flying back from Panama I had just 3 days before I dived head first into my exciting new job working for Universal Pictures.

Landing my dream job for a company as big as Universal has left me constantly pinching myself.

I am working on brands such as Minions, Jurassic World and Fast and Furious and during my first day my manager told me we would soon be flying to LA for our official on-boarding with the Creative team over in the states.

I think I bounced all the way home that night.

LA is somewhere I had not yet travelled to and whilst the trip was for business I was told we would be able to squeeze in a little bit of downtime. I couldn't wait to see a part of America I was yet to experience.

Flying out on a Saturday meant that we landed in LA Saturday evening, leaving a free Sunday to spend at the Universal Studios park in Hollywood.

Our tickets were all arranged and by 9am we were queuing by the entrance to head into the park.

We decided to tackle the areas of the park that were relevant to the brands we would be working on, so firstly we headed for Minions Mayhem, stopping by for a photo with Tom and Kevin along the way.

I have never been much of a fan of 3D rides or films as I have always felt they lacked the ability to make me feel I was part of the action.

I am pleased to say that the Minions Mayhem ride did just that. It was 5 minutes of silliness, packed full of humour, eye popping colour and roller coaster motion. Having bananas flying into my face followed by a hungry Minion was a fun way to begin the day.

The ride is obviously aimed at younger kids but the big kid in me enjoyed it just as much.

Next up we headed through those infamous gates and into Jurassic Park.

This is a river rapid ride and while some of the animatronics now look a little clunky, the ride was still lots of fun as you are surprised by pouncing raptors, before climbing a steep include in your boat before having a close encounter with a T-Rex, only escaping my sliding down a huge water slide getting wet in the process.

The Fast and the Furious ride is part of the Studio Lot tour so we jumped on a trolley cart and our tour guide Danny took us right into the heart of the Universal Studios, all of which are live and working film and tv sets.

Being a film fan myself it was such a cool experience to see up close how this industry works.

From watching King Kong wrestle a T Rex to driving through Amity island and coming face to face with Jaws himself. Being goggled eyed at the huge airplane crash scene from War of the Worlds to a monster car chase with the characters from F&F themselves. It was a very surreal 90 minutes.

The highlight of the day though had to be the opportunity to head into Hogsmeade and get a sneak peak at the soon to be officially opened Harry Potter experience.

We were unsure beforehand if we would be allowed in due to the official opening not being until the 7th April, but fortunately luck was on our side and we were allowed in.

The set is so authentic, from passing Olivanders wand shop to Bertie Blotts sweet shop the attention to detail was incredible. Staff were all in Hogwarts uniforms and fellow tourists were all glugging on a glass of Butterbeer.

The ride in the castle is another 3d ride where you feel as though you are riding your broomstick through the grounds of Hogwarts whilst being chased by dragons, or chasing a snitch during a game of quidditch or even desperately trying to escape the Dementors, who were real life animatronics and damn right scary.

After being all 'theme parked' out we headed down to Santa Monica pier. Somewhere I have always wanted to go.

SM is great for shopping and bars and restaurants but its down by the pier that the liveliness and atmosphere is at.

It was also Spring Break during that time so there were lots of party goers and surfers enjoying the weather.

Down along the pier you have everything you expect from a seaside pier, slot machines, ice cream stalls, fair ground rides and cheesy Californian merchandise. However there are are a couple of iconic stand out points on the pier that I was sure to get a photo of. The first being the sign stating that you are now at the end of Route 66 and the second being the Zoltar fortune teller which is from the Tom Hanks film - Big.

Dinner and a glass of wine rounded off a jam packed day and it was time to get some rest before the proper work started the following day.

The rest of the week was spent working alongside the US creative team and they really took good care of their international guests. From taking us for Mexican food in Melrose to the ultimate highlight which was dinner at Nobu in Malibu on Wednesday night.

Driving through the Californian hills with the sun blazing through the car roof was a pretty amazing sight, but when we turned a corner and suddenly being faced with the blue Pacific Ocean it was something else.

The decking area was pumping out chilled out house music all to the soundtrack of the ocean waves crashing against the rocks. With a beautiful sunset it all collectively made the evening feel really special. The food was incredible and it was nice to get to know my US, Japanese and Chinese counterparts.

So much of the past week has felt so surreal. From all of the above to standing on the Studio Lot following our town hall meeting being passed by a fleet of stunt cars.

I take nothing for granted though and know that I have been gifted an amazing experience. Aside from the fun stuff, the work stuff was pretty awesome too.

If only I could have stolen this Lego Raptor to take back home with me.

I am hoping to get back to LA at some point in the next year but for now this trip has been enough to make me fall in love with California.

Thanks for reading, back soon.

Nic x