In Utrecht, the Tivoli is a concert place by the Oudegracht, in Denmark, Tivoli is one of the oldest attraction park in the world.

I finally moved into an apartment in Copenhagen (and a nice one actually). But I spent about 10 days in an hotel close to the central station which is located just in front of the famous Tivoli (or Tivoli gardens). Last week-end, I wanted to walk around the city a little bit and my curiosity got the best of me so I entered the park. It was built in the middle of the 19th century and it’s hard to guess what still remains from that period but it definitely doesn’t look like your average high-tech attraction park. You can find some classical attractions such as a roller coaster, a few thrill rides, some “souvenirs” shops, candy store etc… I didn’t know at the time about the history of this theme park and, although pleasant, I did not really understand all the fuzz about it (it’s supposed to be the 3rd most visited theme park in Europe). I thought it was a bit expensive and not very large. Thinking about about it again and considering how ancient the park is, I am much more impressed. Besides, being built in the middle of Copenhagen, it’s hard to imagine how to expend the place. The funny thing is that there is currently a giant wheel nearby but it’s outside the park. ^^

Anyway, if you are a fan of ground breaking fancy new attractions or utterly scary rides, this might not be the best place for you. However, if you just want to hang around in a magical/ancient kind of set-up, you should go and spend an afternoon there. I suggest you to visit the park by night because the place glitters from everywhere and you have a sort of fairytale like atmospheres. I didn’t do many attractions but I tried one of the restaurant (I have my priorities in life and filling my stomach ranks higher than being shaken to the point I’m about to empty it). It was pretty good and, for the record, the boat on the picture bellow actually is a restaurant.

Since we are talking about food, let me add a few words about that. The food at the restaurant of the DHI is absolutely great and it’s a pleasure when I compare with what we get at the university of Utrecht. But, other than that, I have to admit that I am far from impressed by danish food (so far). Maybe I still need to get more information about traditional dishes (I am sure they exist) but, if you walk around the city like I did, don’t expect to see traditional Scandinavian restaurant everywhere but rather tons and tons of fast-foods under all possible declinations. Something that nearly traumatized me was when I found a Creperie that looked appealing at first with real Bilig (1). I ordered a crepe with smoked salmon having in mind the Norvegians galettes I can get in creperies in Brittany. What I got was a sort of crepe wrap with a mix of cold salad, salmon and bad vinaigrette. Pretty much a cheap pita kebab but with a crepe in stead of the pita and salmon in stead of kebab. Deeply disturbing… For the record, the same thing happened when I found a cheap pizzeria. The price should have been a warning but my “Pizza Margarita” ended up being half of a thin pizza barely warm rolled on itself and wrapped by a paper napkin. Conclusion: I’ll try to investigate further but so far, not so good.

Last, since I am in Copenhagen during the climate conference and some friends of mine are there, I think I’ll add a touch of science into this blog and talk a bit of these kind of issues since I am working in a related field. I’ll even have a special guess soon but I’ll tell you more about that next time…

(1) You know, a Bilig! That huge thing to prepare some crepes and galettes. Not a frying pan! Follow the link. (2)

(2) Yes, I’m using footnotes now. See it as a tribute to Terry Pratchett.

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