Let us go back a week in time.
Friday, December 7, 8:00 UTC+1 time, København
A slender girl opens her curious eyes to a full day of adventures in Copenhagen of the southernmost Nordic country. She and her friend are lodging in an Air BnB picked straight out of a fairytale and plopped into the trendy Norrebro district. The blonder of the girls, Anna, runs quickly and quietly through the old house's chilly floors to take a shower. Fully awakened by the morning bathe, she tiptoes back to wake her friend and open the curtains to reveal some long missed sunshine.
The sun doesn't linger long in the north and it soon makes space for the familiar cold rain and icy breeze. Nothing to get upset about, Anna declares, this only raises the "hygge"-aspect.
Hygge (/ˈhjuːɡə/ HEW-gə or /ˈhuːɡə/ HOO-gə) is a Danish and Norwegian word for a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment.
With the thought of hygge warming the girls minds they stroll around the city discovering all the sites and the palette of colors that is the houses and buildings lining every other street. Julehygge is everywhere with the approaching holiday season and so their adventure is accompanied by yule tide carols.
They (primarily Anna, the appointed book master) have three bookish objectives. One, to visit the H.C. Andersen House of Fairytales. Secondly go see the Little Mermaid statue preferably having minds refreshed with the fable. And third, have a hygge moment with a cup of joe in hand at the root (top, see later) of the christmas tree in the Library Bar.
1. The house of fairytales was indeed a house of fairytales. The life of H.C. Andersen, Anna's favorite story teller from her childhood, and his stories were told and pictured in a lively way. However, our two travelers had wished to learn more about each story, its background and such.
2. Following the trail of tourists they too scurried down to the water to snap pictures of the Little Mermaid, trying to capture an essence of fairytale into the shots. Thanks to the previous attraction of the museum, the story was in fresh memory, but contrary to my wish Anna's did not have a storybook in hand from which to read it from once more. Pity for her, win for everyone else perhaps.
3. Last summer during Anna's spontaneous roadtrip to Norway, she read The Little Book of Hygge -The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking not knowing about this coming get away to Denmark. In the book she learned of a café near Tivoli that holds walls lined by bookshelves and each Christmas hangs a decorated christmas tree upside down from the ceiling in the middle of the space. She knew she had to see it for her own eyes one day. Now, six months after, they navigated to the hotel in whose basement the bar resides to experience it. No disappointment in this attraction, the tree was much grander than Anna had imagined and the Library Bar far finer and more inviting than they could have hoped for. Maximum (jule)hygge achieved.
With these gifts of travel and grateful hearts, the two travelers lived happily ever after.
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