Copenhagen living Archives | Iain Cameron Design

Copenhagen on a budget 2020 – how to get a cheap pint and other tips

January 22, 2020/in Copenhagen

How to get a cheap pint in Copenhagen and other tips updated for 2020

There is a misconception Denmark has the same alcohol pricing as their Scandinavian cousins Norway and Sweden, where alcohol is very expensive. Copenhagen supermarkets sell alcohol at similar or cheaper prices than a British supermarket. Danish supermarkets include Netto, Fakta, Føtex, Brugsen, Aldi and Lidl. There is also a very wide range of prices that a beer can cost from bar to bar.

Photo in Danish supermarket from 2020. 55 DKK for 12 cans. That is less than 50p per can, 65 cents US. (small cans 33cl) Carlsberg and Heineken would be a similar price. Not a particular special offer.

A seven quid pint

There are bars where a beer can be expensive. A 70 DKK (£7 plus, $10 plus) pint is not unheard of. The places you will find this are Copenhagen Airport, Tivoli, Nyhavn, restaurants and Irish Bars on busy, expensive properties. Much like London, Paris, Rome, capital cities with large volumes of tourists. You go a street behind a main thoroughfare, and you should find a better priced pint, or whatever your tipple.

How to get a cheap pint in Copenhagen airport. In the 7-11 kiosks that are dotted about Copenhagen airport, a large cold can of Carlsberg is about 15 kroner (£1.50 – a little over $2) per can, as opposed to 7 quid plus ($10 plus) for a pint in an airport bar. Or a warm can from duty free (same price).

A personal opinion on Copenhagen Airport is Copenhagen Kommune (council) ought to have a word with them about their pricing. Often the last impression people have of Copenhagen is being robbed by one of their airport’s bars.

Nyhavn budget tip: Nyhavn is the colourful harbour of most Copenhagen postcards and travel documentaries. On a warm summer’s day, a fantastic experience to sit and enjoy a drink, coffee or something to eat, but not cheap. Notice at the quayside young Danes sitting enjoying the sunshine and a beer with friends. They will have bought a can or bottle of beer at a kiosk on one of the back streets of Nyhavn. And then pop back for a nice cold replacement when they need it.

Budget travel in Copenhagen

A huge part of central Copenhagen is walkable. It was originally a fortified castle. So the old city is very tightly packed. Depending where your hotel is, you should be able to walk pretty much everywhere. Very obvious tip, but while looking for a hotel, look for one close to a Metro station. The metro runs directly to the airport. About twenty minutes from the centre.

Just to show Danish design is not always cool, sophisticated and expertly planned (but usually), the Metro (or Underground) train, is upstairs at the airport. The mainline train is downstairs. Make sure you are on the correct platform for the mainline train, if you are not, your next stop is Sweden.

I’m not sure what advice the train ticket office in the airport give tourists for a long weekend. I was once behind tourists being recommended a weekend travel pass, which I suspect was not needed. You really need a ticket to and from the centre from the airport. After that, if you cycle (hire a bike for about £10 per day), or are up for a good walk, you should be fine.

I would recommend to everyone to hire a bike as it’s a fantastic way to get around the city, and the bike lanes being on their own pavement separate from the road and the pedestrian pavement make it very safe.

Here’s the official ticket/travel Copenhagen info. www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/transportation/tickets-prices

Cigarettes

Cigarettes are considerably cheaper than the UK. And some bars allow smoking. The rule is that a bar under 40 square metres may allow smoking. Quite a few do. Maybe not so good for your health to be in a tightly packed room filled with smoke but each to their own. You can also wonder at how 40 square metres appears a bit bigger in Copenhagen than everywhere else. The same people who won’t cross the road if the red man is showing, even if there is no traffic, know how to break a rule or three.

Visiting Christiania

The free town of Christiania is a very nice place to visit. A society within a society. Lots of arty workshops, galleries, music venues and alternative restaurants and bars. There are also soft drugs on sale, quite openly depending on how busy Copenhagen’s police are with other stuff at that time.

Top tip. If you were to buy a ready made joint, and were to think, probably not that strong, at that price, just £2, I’ll be fine, do I look like I can’t handle a little … oh that’s nice, ooh that was stronger than I expected. Holy shit, I’m flying. This is amazing. Just the greatest ever. I want to get off. Want to stop. Don’t feel well. I feel the need to march to Sweden.

An entire evening’s drama and entertainment in one £2 joint. I heard from a friend.

So take it easy with that first joint. No matter how hard core you are.

This official tourist website is a brilliant resource for things to do in Copenhagen. www.visitcopenhagen.com

And if you are considering moving to Copenhagen, here’s my tips on learning Danish.

About Copenhagen based designer and illustrator Iain Cameron. Also here’s my portfolio.

I should probably end this by saying skål!

Do you need to learn Danish to live in Denmark?

February 2, 2017/in Copenhagen, Danish cartoons

Do you need to learn Danish to live in Denmark? The answer is No, and Yes.

You can work, live and study in Denmark without learning Danish. I know a number of British, American and French people that have lived here years without learning the language. There are companies who use English as their first language, and a few who will allow you to work in a Danish speaking office without Danish. However since I moved to Denmark in 1996, my advice would be learn it, and learn it as quickly as possible. No matter how difficult, annoying or time consuming it feels, and stick with it until you are fluent.

The Danes are speaking the English very good

Pretty much everyone in Denmark, old and young speak and or understand English. But as polite and helpful as Danes generally are in speaking English, it can be wearing for them. And you are in their country.

Do you want to sit at a meeting or meal with five Danes, and everyone speaks English because of you? Do you want to be doing that five or ten years after you have lived in Copenhagen? No you don’t, so learn their language.

It’s a long hard struggle to learn Danish

It is difficult learning Danish. As you start taking tentative steps to speak Danish you meet the frustration of speaking Danish only to be answered in English, by someone with a smug grin on their face, who appears to be rubbing your nose in it. They are in fact just trying to be helpful. That one happens a lot at the beginning, but it eases off as you improve.

Is it a waste of time learning Danish?

One of the arguments for not learning Danish is ‘what’s the point, only 5 and a half million people speak the language’. I’ve heard this a few times from seemingly smart people. Well unless you generally talk with a couple of million people per year, I really don’t think that argument is anything other than an excuse for laziness.

Some people have a natural ear for language, and a have a memory that suits language learning. For others like me, it’s just hard painful work. It took me five months on a part time course (at Studieskolen in Copenhagen) to get enough Danish to blag my way through a job interview in Danish. This involved quite a bit of nodding along, and occasionally repeating the last word they said in a vague attempt to look like I understood what they were talking about. You’ll be amazed what you can get away with by maintaining eye contact, and appearing fascinated by everything someone says. Until you’re asked a question.

It takes a little time to build up the fluency, but you will only pick it up after first doing a course. The idea that you will pick up Danish through osmosis, aint gonna happen, just as, ‘I will learn Danish later’ isn’t going to happen. Do it now.

And if you are interested on some budget tips for visiting Copenhagen click here.

Some of the Danish language schools

www.kbh-sprogcenter.dk Copenhagen Language Center
www.studieskolen.dk Studieskole (Is the one I went to)
Speak – School of DanishTeaching Danish at Frederiksberg, Hellerup and Lyngby.
www.iasprog.dk/en/

www.kiss.dk KISS – Københavns Intensive Sprogskole – Copenhagen’s Intensive language school. (Always wondered if Gene Simmons teaches there. In full make-up)

Iain Cameron is a Copenhagen based freelance graphic designer, web designer and illustrator. Here is my About page, and my portfolio page.

Roskilde Festival Art

August 30, 2015/in Copenhagen

It’s not all sex, drugs and rock n roll at Roskilde Festival, but it is mainly…

Whether staying for the whole week, camping on site, or a short visit with a one day ticket, The Roskilde Festival is a fantastic experience not to be missed.

The 2016 Roskilde Festival is from the 25th of June to the 2nd of July. Details on the official website. To be honest it doesn’t really matter who is playing, it is the experience that is magical. Go see for yourself.

The art of Roskilde Festival

There are lots of places to read about and see images from the Roskilde Festival. Here is some of the excellent graffiti art that is on display.

Cycling in Copenhagen

October 4, 2014/in Copenhagen

The best way to travel in Copenhagen is by bike. If you are visiting there are a number of places you can hire you will find via Google. The vast majority of Copenhagen is covered in bike lanes making it considerably more safe than most cities, and the relative lack of hills make for great cycling. The Copenhagen bike lanes are for the most part built on their own kerb. A level above the road, with the pavement a further level above.

Cycling in Copenhagen – the rules.

1. Don’t be a tourist. Seriously, people are in a hurry on their way to stuff. The right hand side of the bike lanes, is the slow lane. Stay in it. If you are going to stop, you do an arm signal, lifting your left arm, but keeping it bent, your left hand flat and upright in a ‘stop’ gesture to signal to the cyclist behind you, you are about to stop. When you stop, unless you are about to start again, get off the bike lane.

2. Overtaking. Before pulling out to overtake, have a quick look over your left shoulder to see if anyone is close behind you, if there isn’t, overtake. The look over the shoulder is also a signal to cyclists behind you, you are about to do something. Watch the cyclists ahead of you, to see if they are about to do something.

3. Cycling two by two on the bike lane. If you do this during rush hour, don’t be surprised if cyclists coming from behind you get a bit tetchy. You will deserve it.

4. Cycling on a Christiania cycle in the snow. Get off the road, and drive your Volvo you carrot munching ecological egomaniac. You block the whole road for everyone coming from behind you and you dare to be smug about it!!

5. The Green Tuborg Game. This game is my own invention*. Green Tuborgs are cycle couriers in Copenhagen. There are a lot less of them now in the internet age, but occasionally you will spot one in the wild. They are professional cycle riders. Incredibly fit, with thighs of steel, in green Tuborg sponsored lycra, often sickingly good looking, and there to be overtaken.

What you have to do is sneak up on them unsuspectingly. They mustn’t know you are there, let alone about to race them. When they are lulled into a false sense of security, and you have your breath back, you sneak up closer and closer to their shoulder, then fly past them at full speed. A couple of hundred metres later you turn off to the right, or stop at a shop, ever so nonchalantly, safe in the knowledge, you won!

*It may be based on a Billy Connolly routine…

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