This was the perfect cozy week in Denmark filled with lots of hyggelig moments. I decided to explore the rest of the neighborhoods of Copenhagen (as well as a bunch of different coffee shops)!
On Saturday morning, I met Claire in Østerbro at Juno the Bakery, a Danish bakery famous for its special cardamom buns. True to what I’d heard, the line was out the door when we arrived. The cardamom bun was absolutely delicious and definitely lived up to its expectations.
Claire and I spent the rest of the day exploring the adorable neighborhood of Østerbro, a cute family-oriented area. We wandered into a few stores and talked to a woman who owned a hyggelig little shop where she brought her dog to work every day. We chatted with her and she let us try some tea, which we ended up buying (I enjoyed a few cups at home this week on rainy days). Claire and I also went to Nicecream, a famous vegan ice cream shop in Copenhagen. I got hazelnut, my favorite Danish flavor. It tasted absolutely spectacular! After Claire left, I decided to stay in Østerbro and study by myself in a little kaffebar (coffee shop) there – it was such a cute and hyggelig place.
That night, there were a good number of other Notre Dame students and alumni who happened to be in town, so I organized a game watch at the local Southern Cross pub! When we walked in, it was all local Danes there. They were a *little* miffed when an American college football game took up the big screen (one lady yelled at us). However, once they that saw we were actually cheering on our team, a few of them sheepishly joined in. We beat Virginia 35-20 – it was a great game (sorry to the one Virginia guy who was at our game watch)!
I spent all of Sunday with my host family in Vanløse, where I got to watch my host brother Villads play soccer. As soon as we got to the field, it started pouring rain (in typical Danish fashion). My host mom and I just laughed it off, and I pretended I was at an ND game (which I always stick out till the end). It was a great match – Villads scored his first goal on the team (maybe I’m the good luck charm)! I was so proud of him.
After we went home and dried off, my host mom and I baked our very own homemade kanelsnegls (which were DELICIOUS – dare I say better than Skt. Peder’s). My host dad’s brother came over for dinner along with his family. It was really fun to meet their two kids. We ended the day watching some sports on TV (a Dane won the world championships of cycling for the first time!). It was such a cozy day – there was a moment when I was sitting there on the couch eating a kanelsnegl and drinking kaffe and the candles was flickering and it was raining outside and my host family was all around, and I realized that was the hyggelig moment I pictured before arriving in Copenhagen. My heart was so happy and full.
The rest of the week was full of kaffe shops and studying. This week in Medical Practice & Policy, we learned about cardiology and endocrinology. I absolutely love the material in that class – it makes me so excited to be a doctor. We also have an MPP “cake-list” where a different person brings cake every class. This week, Alicia and I baked a traditional Danish drømmekage for everyone – I can’t wait to bake it for my family back in the States. It took a hot sec to figure out all the different symbols on teh Danish convection oven, but the cake turned out well and our class really enjoyed it (especially our professor – he was so happy that he sent a snapchat to our other professor to make him jealous and said it was the best cake anyone’s ever brought).
danish dictionary moment
drømmekage: (n) “dream cake”; a [delicious] yellow cake with an [impeccable] topping of coconut and brown sugar.
I had two midterms this week – Health Econ and Medical Ethics – as well as a paper draft due for Neuro of Fear. I made it my goal to study in a different coffee shop every day – I went to the Paludan Bogcafé (Denmark’s oldest book café), the Democratic Coffee Shop in the København Public Library, the Living Room right by DIS (SO cozy), Coffee Industry Sweden, and Kaffebaren På Amager right around the corner from my kollegium.
Because I’m the class representative for Medical Practice & Policy, I also got to meet with the course assistant at the Coffee Collective in Nørrebro on Wednesday. Apparently, it’s the best coffee in all of Copenhagen (I can attest that the aero-press was exceptionally good). Nørrebro was such a cool area, and I hope to go back and walk around soon!
We went to dinner at a sushi place in Frederiksberg on Tuesday to celebrate Lauren’s birthday. Back at her apartment afterwards, she made her favorite dessert for us – bananas foster (yum!). On Wednesday, Hope and I went to dinner at our favorite Indian place near Mønten with Hope’s friend Olivia from high school. This week was also full of my usual activities – shared-decision making research (I went all the way to Gentofte, a beautiful area outside of Copenhagen, to meet with a researcher at the diabetes center), my Mayo Clinic work, and tennis with my teammates from Copenhagen Business School.
This was such a chill and hyggelig week in Cope – I successfully explored all the neighborhoods (and even more kaffe shops) and made it through midterms! Gotta head off to bed now – I leave for my Medical Practice & Policy long study tour tomorrow morning for a week in Berlin and Poland. Stay tuned for travel updates – hej hej for now!
copenAIDAN 
You are becoming quite the baker and connoisseur of Kafe! Thank you for a delectable Blog #7.
Grandma xoxo
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