Well, I can officially confirm that we are seriously missing out in terms of university cafeterias in Canada! On Friday after class, I ate lunch at the University of Copenhagen’s cafeteria/canteen. I usually just stop there for coffee or a croissant during breaks, but since I didn’t really have any groceries at home, I decided to eat at school. Now, this wasn’t your typical hamburger, fries, and pizza spread, it was practically gourmet!
Not your typical North American cafeteria!
Rather than loading up on (let’s just be honest here) garbage, students here were eating hummus, couscous, beet salad, pasta salad, shrimp, broccoli salad, spinach salad, brie, tomatoes and bocconcini, carrots, and peas. And that was just the salad bar. There are two buffet tables, like the one pictured above, as well as a hot bar, which serves things like lasagna, salmon and quiche. The price is determined by the weight of your plate – and the best part is that it’s not even that expensive. I had a piece of lasagna, some spinach salad and some carrot salad, and I paid just over $7 CAD. That’s definitely cheaper than even a hamburger and french fries at home!
Lucy was also impressed by the selection 
Friday evening I went out dancing with some of my classmates at a bar/club called Sukkerbageren downtown. It was pretty crazy inside, and absolutely packed – quite possibly because the drinks were free from 11 PM – 1 AM. I had lots of fun, and needless to say, it was a late night! I only took pictures from the beginning of the night when we were at Studenterhuset, but I think that’s probably a good thing? 
Ricardo (Lucy's Italian kitchen-mate) and Michael (our classmate from the UK/Hong Kong)
Lucy et Moi (Actually I guess that's 'Lucy Og Mig')
Saturday morning I woke up super early (okay, it was 10:30… ) and met Lucy and Hannah (also Australian) at the metro station, and we went downtown to see the Queen of Denmark!
Commonwealth Countries
Queen Margarethe of Danemark is celebrating her 40th throne jubilee this year. She and the royal family traveled by coach from Amalienborg to Copenhagen’s City Hall, escorted by the the Royal Danish Hussar Guard Regiment. The streets were packed, but Lucy, Hannah and I found a good place to watch the action.
And then we saw the Queen!!! Pretty sure she was waving right at us! Haha.
Credit to the lovely Lucy for this photo!
After seeing the Queen, the streets started to empty, and we made our way back to the pedestrian area of Strøget. We ate lunch at a delicious place that I can’t remember the name of.
It was a little on the expensive side, but my first meal “out” in Denmark.
So cozy!
I haven’t done too much today- just my Danish homework of course. Tonight I’m meeting up with some friends from class, and we’re going to a jazz club called La Fontaine. http://www.lafontaine.dk/ According to my kitchen-mates, La Fontaine is usually quite expensive to go to, but tonight it’s free entry. We’ll be seeing Danish jazz musicians Jan Harbeck, Kasper Tagel and Andreas Fryland. I’m by no means a jazz aficionado, but it should be fun!
Love your blog Laura. You’re quite a writer – and photographer (Sophie is going to be amazed when we show her the picture of the Queen’s horse-drawn golden coach). I’m really enjoying the Danish cuisine and the shopping – vicariously of course. And the architecture is quite wonderful. Hang in there with your Danish classes. Sounds like it’s a smidge on the hard side of challenging, but what an accomplishment it will be when the hieroglyphics start to make sense. Looking forward to your next post!
Hi Barb! Thanks for commenting! I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying my blog. Seeing the Queen was a pretty cool experience- and that’s exactly what I thought when I saw her horse-drawn carriage – it was like seeing Cindarella! The Danish class is definitely intense, but I have my written and oral exams next week- which means that the class is almost over!
I’m not sure if I’ll really use my new Danish skills, but it will make things like grocery shopping slightly easier!
Dear Laura,
My name is Helle Kiilerich and I work for the language portal bab.la.
Every year we organize the “Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs” competition (also known as IX12). We are looking for the top 100 blogs about life abroad because we really enjoy bringing the exchange blogger community together. Last year we had 220 participants and close to 5.000 votes. You can see the last year results here:
http://en.bab.la/news/top-100-international-exchange-experience-blogs-2011
Your blog has been nominated and will enter the competition unless you tell us not to. The nomination period goes from January 16th to January 29th, 11:59 p.m. CET (German Time). Feel free to tell other bloggers about the competition or nominate another blog yourself. Voting starts on January 31st and goes till February 12th, 11:59 p.m. CET (German Time). Results will be published February 14th. The winners will be decided based on user votes.
If you don’t want to be included in the nomination list, please let us know by sending an email to virginia@bab.la and we won´t contact you again. You can also contact us if you have any further questions about the competition.
Kind regards,
Helle Kiilerich
On behalf of bab.la and the Lexiophiles language blog
Wow, that buffet spread sure is amazing! I think the Centre Caf could take a few pointers from our Danish friends
And that clear, blue, sunny sky is just gorgeous – I think I may need to escape from cloudy Vancouver for a bit and come for a visit! xoxo
P.S. Congrats on the nomination!!! Well done!
Oh, no kidding! It’s actually been pretty grey here too, but Saturday was beautiful and sunny! Oh, thanks- I’m not really sure what that’s all about, but it sounds good to me!