A weekend in Copenhagen
And some (very literal) light in the darkness.
This past weekend, Andy and I went to Copenhagen. I’ve been there five times now, but the last time we visited together was exactly seven years ago for his birthday in 2017. We stayed in a sweet Airbnb and spent most of our time with Ebba and Kasper, who we stayed with and spent all our time with this time too.
It’s funny thinking about these two trips in parallel now that we’re home. In 2017, Andy and I had only been together for four months. We were finding our footing in a new relationship, he was settling into life in a new country, and I was finding my way post-university. Now we’re engaged, our friends have been together for many years too, and things all feel very settled. As if they are turning out how they should be.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve realised that this time of year — autumn — should be a time to stay still, to be at home, to make your nest for winter. But I’ll make an exception to that rule for trips to places you’re already familiar with, where you’ve already trodden the tourist path and can instead pretend you live there for a while.
That’s pretty much how we spent our days from Thursday to Sunday last week. Morning strolls to the bakery for buns of all kinds. Sauna and cold swims in the harbour. Cocktails and a birthday dinner at Lamar (highly recommend for the sweetbreads and potato aioli). A morning with one school friend and an afternoon with another. Lots of burgers, for some reason — POPL, Gasoline, Les Trois Cochons. And a little bit of shopping too.
It was gentle, easy, quality time. The kind of weekend you come back from feeling rested.
Keeping things in a Danish spirit, there have been a few bits and pieces making my life brighter in very literal ways this month, so I thought I would share them here while I’m feeling hygge.
A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Brighton for the day to visit my sister Jasmin who has just started university there. She had a cute vintage clip-on lamp in her bedroom which I immediately admired because in my bedroom — as a result of some unfortunate wall-positioning — I always have to move my lamp into bed with me if I want to read at night. After a swim and a Bahn Mí, she took me to the shop where she bought it, and for £15, it was mine too. It has been clipped onto my bed frame ever since, making my bed the cosiest little reading spot for chilly, dark evenings.
It also means that I’ve moved my original bedroom lamp onto the kitchen bench — a real game changer for evenings in the living room, where we would always struggle to balance overhead light for cooking, and gentle light for chill vibes. I feel like we’ve reached new heights now and would highly recommend tinkering with your lamp positioning if things are feeling off.
For the past year now, I’ve been waking up around 6:45/7 am to give myself time for a nice little morning routine, and until daylight savings ended the other day bringing a last bit of light back to my mornings, it was pretty much dark outside.
Instead of fighting against it, I started lighting candles around the living room rather than whacking on all the lights. It gives my eyes a chance to adjust, makes journaling feel even more secret, and by the time I’m done, it’s light outside and I feel like I’ve woken up with the sun.
I do the same things in the evenings, and it’s safe to say that we’re getting through a fair few candles, but how much nicer does this computer scene feel with a sweet little flame to warm it up? I got both the candle holder and candles from a shop called Dora while in CPH and I love them. The holder is a very hefty 250 grams — I weighed it on our baking scales and I love how it feels in my hand when there isn’t a lit candle in it.
A funny little assortment today — a smorgasbord, if you will! Thanks for being here and I’ll see you in the next one,
Annabel x
Glad you liked the sweetbreads. I am particularly fond of organ meat ( heart, liver, pancreas, kidney and lung ) from lamb and kalve, they all have their own texture and flavor and are full of goodness. It often takes a trip to an old fashioned butcher but it's worth it.