Local View Katrine Dumas' Copenhagen

Köpenhamn / Go See
en av Momondo, 20. mar 2009

Katrine Christensen Dumas lived for more than a decade in France and Thailand before her French husband got a new job in Copenhagen and drew her back to her native city. Katrine works as program coordinator with UNESCO in Paris, which explains why she is still to be seen half of the week in the French capital. Moving back to Copenhagen has been hard, fun and challenging, because the city she came back to was not all the city she left.
 
You moved back to Copenhagen after more than ten years abroad. Has the city changed?


Istedgade Photo: Lilla Blaa Bloggen

When I left Copenhagen, Vesterbro, in 1996 this part of the city was still known as the most dirty, worn and modest corner of Copenhagen where nobody wanted to live. When I returned in 2007, Vesterbro had turned into a trendy and very attractive place to live for all kind of people; families with small children, students, artists etc. Vesterbro has gone through a considerable urban renewal and a vast number of new cafés, restaurants and small shops have popped up in the old shops, earlier left closed and decayed for years. Now you can get a coffee latte or a chai latte (for which you can choose between cow milk or soya milk) on each corner, inside or outside under a  woollen blanket and a heating lamp if it should be cold, or as a take away. A variety of restaurants have turned up and especially in the area around the old main shopping street Istedgade you find a nice mixture of Asian restaurants, including sushi restaurants, vegetarian restaurants, modern  Danish cafés,  bagel shops, an Argentine wine bar among a few remaining old Danish pubs, the traditional Turkish kebab and greengrocers. The quarter has become extremely lively.

Where do you go on a sunny day in Copenhagen?


Frederiksberg Have Photo: Malouette

On my bike with husband and kids, probably to the park Frederiksberg Have watching the elephants taking a bath in the new Norman Foster designed elephant house (in the zoo), or around Christianshavn and Islands Brygge with plenty of opportunities to enjoy an ice cream while watching the boats passing by or even taking a dive in the outside swimming pools, placed in the cleaned seawater of the canals.


Amager Strandpark Photo: Stig Nygaard

Not to forget Amager Strandpark if you dream of a white sandy beach only a 15 minutes bikeride from the centre. The newly renovated area around the canals going from behind Fisketorvet, the only shopping mall at Vesterbro, to Christianshavn along the water is a nice trip where you will meet no cars but a mixture of modern glassy office blocks and old city houses in different colours.

What’s your favourite local place that you wouldn’t necessarily recommend to visitors?

A local cafe called Pegasus where you can find a variety of international beers (draft and on bottle) and a comprehensive wine carte which you can enjoy in very cosy surroundings inside or outside (during the summertime). The service is very  pleasant and you can make sure that the owner will remember exactly what kind of beer you prefer in the case you should  turn up twice. As accompaniment they have, among others, a tapas carte, from which you can select between 11 different delicious titbits further to your hunger. All exquisite selected from Italian, Spanish and French producers and served with hot homemade bread.

Where do go shopping if you need a new dress, and you do not want to meet another woman in the same?


Værnedamsvej

Sommerlund is perfect if you need a nice dress and Rude have nice clothes as well. Gurlie Hurly has nice earrings and a cute present for the hostess, and at Hornecker, you can be sure to find the most trendy shoes (all shops are on Istedgade). In the area around Værnedamsvej and Gammel Kongevej you can also find a wide range of clothes shops for every taste.

What is the best meal you ever had in Copenhagen?


Prams in line outside Café Zakabona Photo: Lunddal

At Istedgade you have several nice cafes where you can get delicious food. I prefer Café Zakabona, if it is for brunch or lunch as you can get a variety of nice salads especially I like their French salad with fresh goat cheese, semi-dried tomatoes and tasty olives.

After several years in Paris and Bangkok, where you can find food from all over the world, with the real taste of India, Thailand or whatever, Copenhagen remains a little town. However my  two favourite diner restaurants are a thai restaurant PornSak and an Indian restaurant, Deep, both have brought some of the outside world to Denmark. The latter doesn’t look of much from outside but has very delicious and tasty food.

If you were ever to leave the city again, what place would you miss the most?


Skydebaneparken

Absolutely Istedgade which is like a little village in the city, with the lively atmosphere and  multi-national shops, top class sushi from Sticks’n sushi (don’t forget to make a reservation), Argentine quality wine from the bar Malbeck, the second-hand shops and fleamarket (during the summer) and the great coffee or hot chocolate with chilli from the tiny Riccos Kaffebar, which you can bring to the park Skydebaneparken and enjoy while watching life goes by. 

And Værnedamsvej is only a few minutes away where you can breathe in the atmosphere of a real commercial street with a touch of Paris.

Go further:

Local view: Bob Stanley's London

Local view: Catherine Sanderson's Paris

Local view: Melissa Maldonado's Berlin

Local view: Jerome Weatherald's London

Local view: Lauren Elkin's Paris

Local view: Gilles Valentin's Istanbul

Local view: Adam Kuban's New York

Local view: Christophe Abric's Paris

Local view: Maaike Gottschal's Amsterdam

Local view: Jozef Spodniak's Prague

Local View: Dana Boulé's Paris

Local view: Sebastian Horsley's London

 

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Momondo Goes Trainspotting

Transport
en av Momondo, 20. mar 2009

The future belongs to ……… trains. They are comfortable, greener and offer more picturesque views than planes, they take you directly to city centers and not the least - they are ridiciously fast too. The popularity of today’s high speed intercity trains grows by the minute as an increasing number of travellers turn their backs on low-cost flight and discover the pleasures of overland travel. At Momondo we are fully aware of all the advantages of travelling on the rails and we want to further stimulate the ‘great’ revival of trains.

First we took you to the air with our airfare-search engine, later we took you on wheels and followed you to bed with our hotel search. Now we escort you to the train. Later we will follow you from door-to-door.

We believe that high-speed trains represent a viable alternative to flights. Therefore we have extended our flight search to include more than 4,000 train routes between major destinations in Europe, Australia and the US. The price comparison pops up as you do a flight search on specific routes and you’ll probably realize that the train is often cheaper and faster than the plane. So it is likely that your next arrival in Paris or Rome will be on a platform in Gare du Nord or the Termini Station both in the middle of the city centers. Oh yeah, and we forgot to mention that you don’t have to turn op hours before departure when you take the train.

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My Weekend At Coromandel: How I Fell In Love With Nature

Auckland / Go See
en av Momondo, 10. mar 2009

Author Vera Alves

For 24 whole years of my life, I never for a moment considered the idea of spending a night in a tent. Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against living in harmony with Mother Nature. But my definition of ‘harmony’, in that particular case, had pretty much always involved a considerable amount of distance.

I was born and raised in Lisbon, surrounded by concrete walls and rare little patches of green. I have a reptile phobia, a fear of all animals in general and especial concern about sneaky bugs. However, being in New Zealand, where I’m living and working, there’s no escaping the great outdoors.

So for the long Waitangi weekend, we packed our backpacks and our tents and drove out of Auckland, up to the Coromandel, where pretty much every Aucklander escapes to on weekends. Because it’s close and because it’s absolutely stunning, with breathtaking landscapes and wonderful waterfalls.

The Coromandel peninsula is only about 80 kilometres away from Auckland, but unless you get on the ferry, you have to drive 180 kilometres to get there.

We were really lucky with our campsite, Papa Aroha, which had very good facilities and even its own little beach.



Having baked beans and sausages on bread wasn’t as bad as the city-girl in me believed and sleeping in the tent was actually quite comfortable. Plus, waking up early in the morning and get out of the tent to face a beautiful blue ocean is the best way to start a day.

On our second day, we decided to charter a boat to take us to one of the islands. We picked Elephant Cove and spent the morning there, swimming and sunbathing with no one else around us. Everything was going great until Ella, the 12 year old girl that went with us, yelled “Stingray!!!” and I turned around to see a stingray about a metre away from my legs. It ended up being rather uneventful but, boy, did I yell! lets just say it was good there was no one else on the island…


Photo: Stephen Glauser

Afterwards, we headed to Coromandel township so I could get a cup of strong coffee to recover. The small cafés in the town are one of my favourite things about the Coromande. A bit of urban landscape but still with a small town-feeling to it and the sense that you’re surrounded by mountains and rainforest.

All in all, an excellent weekend in Kiwiland. Coromandel is a paradise for trampers, nature-lovers, beach-lovers or people who are just looking for a place to rest and get away from the stress.

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Winter Pulse In Barcelona

Barcelona / Go See
en av Momondo, 9. mar 2009

Barcelona is a city capable of delivering a good kick in butt of any greyish winter mood. It’s chock-full of bars and tapas restaurants, and the perfect geographical situation makes it possible for visitors to dip their feet in the Mediterranean Sea while drinking mojitos for much of the year. It is charming in a laid-back southern way, with a dash of Catalonian sass. It is sexy like Penelope Cruz in the film Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In short, Barcelona is a vitamin injection for all senses.

When you have admired Gaudi’s architectural marvels and the cultural landmarks, it is time to make a rush at the city’s sumptuous range of bars and tapas eateries. A popular spot with Catalonian party animals of both sexes is La Xampaneria, close to the Barceloneta beach. A night out often starts here – only cava and bocadillos (sandwiches) are served, and the place is frequently so crowded that it’s necessary to place your order with the person next to you, who then passes it on until it reaches the bar. But it is difficult to get away without having made some new Spanish friends.


Photo: Hector Garcia

Barceloneta is also home to the best places in terms of freshly caught fish. Try for instance La Jaica a popular little restaurant serving local fish tapas at the bar and in the street when the interior gets too crowded – which is a commonplace occurrence.


Photo: Kevin Krejci

When you move from Barceloneta up towards the gothic neighbourhood Barri Gotic, you pass several tempting restaurants in the winding and narrow streets. On Carrer Ferran, which joins the Rambla, you’ll find some of the more glamorous restaurants and bars, such as Café Schilling. This spacious bar is dominated by dark wood and zinc, and here you can watch the street life while listening to soft tango music and drinking a glass of red wine. Later in the evening the bar turns into a trendy and pulsating nightclub.


Photo: Mariano Photos

On the other side of the Rambla lies El Raval, an area that until recently was known for its prostitutes and pickpockets, but now has been thoroughly renovated and transformed into a happening place for artists and bohemians. Unconventional designer stores can be found in the vicinity of the museum of modern art.

For food lovers is the Boqueria market (also in El Raval) mandatory. Here, eyes and taste buds can indulge in Spanish chorizo, manchego, saffron and seafood. Satisfy yourself with food samples or have some tapas in one of the market’s rather touristy cafés.

As an alternative, you might want to check out the funky hippie bar Bar Ra at Plaça de la Gardunya right next to the market. A sundrenched terrace and a cheap selection of healthy food make it a popular lunch spot with students and local office workers. Live music is performed in the evenings.   

This article is written by journalist Rebecca Graversen

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Beyond The Grave #7: Eyüp Cemetery

Istanbul / Go See
en av Momondo, 2. mar 2009

Is it strange, when visiting a vibrant city, to seek out the local dead? Why do cemeteries – full of old stones and ancient history - attract so many modern travelers? Momondo asked our city bloggers to unearth an explanation and give us the low-down on the neighborhood necropolis. You'll read about the best burials in Berlin, the most entertaining interments in Prague, the graves of American heroes in New York plus tips on what JP Sartre likes on his Paris grave and about Soeren Kierkegaard's and Karl Marx's last resting places in Copenhagen and London. Are you ready to go beneath the surface?

Eyüp Cemetery

Written by Ayla Albayrak

If I could choose a place to be buried, I'd choose the cemetery of Eyüp, which dates back to the 15th Century when Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, today's Istanbul.

The cemetery has a magnificent view to the Golden Horn and it is home to stray cats who like to cuddle up beside the tombstones.

A modern car cable car takes people up and down between the quay and the top, but my friend Irem and I decided to walk up to the top of the cemetery.

Irem is quite a cemetery expert, having visited several in London, Vienna and Pakistan. "There isn't a single dark corner in this cemetery", was the very first thing she noted. And she's right; this cemetery is not a gloomy one. Some of the tombstones even have humorous descriptions written on them.

"I could have died as well without a doctor than with the quack that friends set upon me", and "Oh, passer-by, spare me your prayers but please don't steal my tombstone!"

Other of the tombstones, which Irem and I came across had more sad writings (we could only read descriptions in modern Turkish, not the ones written in old Ottoman and Arabic script).

The most saddening tombstone we found belonged to a 12-year-old girl who died in 1960: "I was a fresh, young tree in the orchard of Fener (district in Istanbul), one day just cut off, I tasted the death before fully enjoying my youth, devastating my unlucky father".

Another tombstone told about a young mother who couldn't be cured from her cancer despite numerous visits to doctors. Nearby, a tombstone reminds the visitor that one day he or she will also die and should prepare for the afterlife by getting rid of all sinful habits, before it's too late.

Many European writers have throughout the last centuries been attracted to the special atmosphere of Eyüp cemetery. One is French novelist and journalist Pierre Loti (1850-1923). He spent so much time here enjoying the view over the Bosporus while smoking waterpipe (nargile), that the cemetery’s small hilltop café is named after him.

Today Eyüp cemetery is a popular site for both local and foreign tourists as well as Muslim pilgrims. The pilgrims come here to pray and make wishes at the tomb of Eba Eyüp Ensari, Prophet Mohammed's friend and standard-bearer. The presence of the holy man's tomb makes the cemetery an attractive place to be buried among Muslims – not to mention the fabulous view, of course.

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Ayla Albayrak is a Finnish-Turkish journalist living in Istanbul. During her five years in the city, Ayla has covered all kinds of stories ranging from culture to Turkish economy and politics.
Currently writing a travel book on Istanbul, she roams around the city with a growing fascination and respect for its beauty and long history. Istanbul is never "conquered" - just as Ayla thinks that she knows every part of the city, Istanbul reveals another surprise!

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