Hygge, Happiness and Copenhagen Design

I started my day by attending a Hygge and Happiness tour booked via AirBnb. The tour was run by a group called Mie & Friends which was a great way to meet locals who show you around, take you to off the beaten track places and who give you loads of personal recommendations. Our guide Jam was a full-time musician and composer, who takes tours on the side to show people ‘his’ Copenhagen. He was clearly the best person for me to ask about where to go to see live music and he gave me a number of recommendations. His picks for jazz bars were La Fontaine and Jazzhus Montmartre and his restaurant/cafe/bar recommendations were Balderdash, Høst, Sanchez, Vækst, Aamands and Din Nye Ven. I ended up going to La Fontaine a couple of days later, so stay tuned for details in my later post. Jazzhus Montmartre has a fascinating history and has hosted pretty much all the great jazz artists since the late 1960’s. Apparently back in the day, sometimes musicians were not paid in cash, but instead were paid in the form of accommodation and dental treatment, as Copenhagen’s dentists were amongst the best in the world at that time!

Jam also explained the real meaning behind the Danish word ‘hygge’, which in his opinion has been co-opted by other nations and incorrectly described as being about buying material things for your home that make you feel cosy and happy, such as candles, rugs and throws. Hygge actually means “a feeling or moment, whether alone or with friends, at home or out, ordinary or extraordinary as cosy, charming or special”.

I met a couple of lovely girls on this tour, one from Texas and one from California, and and we ended up going to lunch at Din Nye Ven together afterwards and exchanging contact information. Travel is such a great way of meeting interesting people from around the world! The cafe’s decor was really cute and quirky and my salad was delicious. It’s actually known for its open sandwiches, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to try any as I don’t eat wheat.

Copenhagen is an absolutely fabulous city to walk around, as the architecture is beautiful and there are amazing stores, cafes, restaurants and attractions. I wandered for hours, discovered pretty alleyways with funky stores and ended up buying a ticket to walk up to the top of the Round Tower, from which there are 360 degree views of the city.

After soaking up all that culture, it was time to shop. I found a lovely hiking t-shirt from Friluftsland, a wonderful outdoor store, and a nice pair of tan sandals from the Ecco store in the old town. For those who don’t know of Ecco, it’s a Danish company that makes high-quality, super comfortable footwear that is occasionally trendy, but more often than not is just high-quality and really comfortable. My days of wearing glamorous, high-heeled, sexy footwear for 12 hours are officially gone and I’m now limited to wearing sexy shoes for about 2 hours in the evening before I quietly slip into flats to travel home…

At 5pm I joined the Copenhagen Design Tour. This was also booked through AirBnb and was led by the very knowledgeable and engaging Mette who really brought the city’s history to life by telling fabulous stories and pointing out quirky features of some of the city’s most famous buildings and monuments. She also told us about a number of forward-thinking actions the current city leaders and designers are taking in planning Copenhagen’s future upgrades and development.