vacation – Friendly Cactus

The door to my hotel room shut and I walked instinctively towards the window. Across the street, the gates of Tivoli looked smaller than I remembered them as a child. The rides and roller coasters poking up through the barren tree branches in the park didn’t appear as intimidating as I seemed to remember them as a 5 year old.

I unpacked a little bit, then decided I should head out and get some food before it got too chilly. Outside, the sun was already starting to set, even though it was only 4:30pm, and little flakes of snow had begun to fall. I made my way towards the walking streets, gloves hands shoved into my pockets, face half buried inside my scarf. I’d been to Denmark many times with my family, but it had always been during the summer. Freezing as it was, I couldn’t help but smile recognizing streets I’d walked down as a child, and restaurants I’d taken advantage of the 16 year drinking age in, feeling like such a grown up sipping my white wine.

I wandered all the way through the walking streets, down to the harbor. There were plenty of cute restaurants with their lights on, but they seemed a little too nice to be dining in alone. I’m not opposed to solitude. If I was, this entire weekend trip would be be a nightmare. I had just needed to leave the UK briefly to reset my visa, and knowing I’d be going somewhere alone, I picked Copenhagen as it was familiar. I thought it might be nice to revisit the places I remember vaguely from all the previous trips. But I didn’t anticipate how much more alone one feels when it’s cold. Cold is an understatement, it was fucking freezing. The snow flakes had dampened to a sleet, and the wind was whipping them hard onto my nose and cheeks (the only exposed skin I had). And though my body was begging me to just pick a damn restaurant and go inside, literally anywhere with walls and some warm food, I walked away from the harbor and back up the walking streets. It wasn’t until I was almost back at my hotel that I found the perfect dinner spot I didn’t realize I was waiting for: An almost deserted Chinese restaurant with harsh fluorescent lighting that could serve me a massive bowl of noodle soup. With a side of spring rolls. One Night In Bangkok played on the speakers, as I slurped from the oversized spoon. I’d posted a picture to my Instagram story earlier, of several of the iconic Copenhagen towers, silhouetted by the dark sky. It had a reply from my friend Ellen, who is from Denmark but lived in London. “Are you in Copenhagen?!” She asked. I replied that I was here through the weekend. “I literally fly in tomorrow, can we hang out tomorrow night?” She went back. My heart leapt. It was such a random coincidence, and it warmed me more than even the giant bowl of soup could. I think, though I do love traveling, I’ve grown to enjoy the people I can share a place with even more.

The next day I slept in, but still wanted to get out and see the city. Again, it took me ages to settle on a place to grab a bite to eat. I’d already walked to Rosenborg Castle and up to the top of the Round Tower before I found myself a veggie bagel at the cafe at the top of Illum’s shopping center.

The view from the top of the Round Tower

I made my way down to Nyhavn, past the beautiful colorful buildings to the water, where the opera house sits across the bay. All the way down to the Little Mermaid statue, then back past Amalienborg, the home of the Danish royal family. I’m not sure how many miles I’d gone, but my feet were very ready to take a break. I made my way back towards my hotel, intending on getting a bite to eat and warming up a little. But walking by the gates of Tivoli, I realized this might be my only afternoon to visit. I considered the moderately expensive entrance fee a gift to my younger self. I adored this place growing up; the rides, the beautifully decorated buildings and alleyways, the sweet little restaurants and the decadent soft serve vanilla ice cream (dipped in chocolate powder, of course). This time, draped in a thin layer of fake snow, it looked much smaller than I remembered it. It was almost deserted, with only a few people wandering through the gift shops and admiring the ornately painted structures. Here and there, elevated fire pits stood for people to warm their hands by. The park has a small population of peacocks, and they too were cuddling up by the fires. I found a mulled wine stand, so a steaming mug soon was also combatting the cold. There wasn’t much to do, other than wander around and take in the sights. There were lots of tiny lights everywhere, leftover from Christmas, and flock of sculpted swans, each with a tiny golden crown, floated on the lake. In the summer, the lanes and little parks would be filled with children screaming and playing, and the restaurants would be bustling with customers. There were only a few rides that were open now, including the fun house, which I took a wander through. It’s not quite the same experience without people to laugh with, riding down slides and running over moving tracks designed to trip you up. Nevertheless, I clambered over enough rope ladders to make it worth my while.

Several hours later, I was walking through the meat packing district, an area I’d never been in before, following the address Ellen had said to meet her at. The streets fluctuated between “sketchy” and “trendy”, sometimes a little of both. After about a 20 minute walk, I found the place. A sign outside the door said “Come in for the worst g&t some guy on Yelp has ever had!” Wandering the crowd of what seemed to be entirely locals, I found Ellen and her friend Benedicte, who I’d met one once London. It was 2 for 1 g&t’s, so we took full advantage of that (they weren’t as bad as the guy on Yelp seemed to think, just quite strong, which I’ve never seen as a negative). We tucked ourselves away in a corner and caught up, soon filling our small, wobbly table with empty glasses. Benedicte worked at a little Italian restaurant close by Tivoli, so we walked back in that direction, stopping by my hotel room to drink a bottle of wine, eat some chips, and have a little dance party.

The restaurant was still open, so we sat at tables outside, drinking Aperol Spritzes in the freezing cold. Benedicte told us about when she’d served Mads Mikkelsen and the crown prince of Denmark in the restaurant one night. We shared stories and sipped our freezing cold but delicious drinks, laughing so hard I worried we might be disrupting the actual customers. Eventually, as the tables inside cleared, we moved in and warmed up, before setting off on another adventure. They took me to Floss, a bar with a heavily graffitied front, thick with customers and cigarette smoke. We found some decaying couches downstairs and chatted with strangers and watched people play pool. Then we braved the cold once more and endured a painfully long line to get into a nightclub, where we danced in projected lights making patterns in the floor, sang along to the music in brash, out of tune voices, and snuck out into the roped off smoking area outside when it got too hot indoors. It’s all a blur. We left around 4am, when I discovered to my delight it was only a 10 minute walk back to my hotel. Once home, I chugged 3 glasses of water, then fell asleep until noon.

I love revisiting places I went when I was younger. I’m an awfully nostalgic person, and I find an odd pleasure in the combined delight in familiarity, and a yearning for past or distant happiness. Yet the people I’ve met as I’ve gotten older, the ones who’ve shown me new sides to the places I thought I knew well, they give me things to love about the places of my childhood which I never would have thought I’d be lucky enough to find. Traveling alone can be a very rewarding and interesting experience, but in this instance, I was so grateful for the companionship, the company, and the new nostalgia to discover the next time I visit.

I’m lying on a lounge chair, in a plot of bright green grass. In front of me, a stone ledge drops down to another layer of this tiered garden, so nothing except for a minimal wooden fence is obstructing my view of the breathtaking cliffs and crystal blue sea of the Amalfi Coast. Tall rocky mountains rise up sharply from the shore, extending to my left until they are lost in the low hanging clouds. They are converted in green vegetation, with large sections of terraced land where rows of lemon trees grow abundantly. It’s harvest season, so large strips which were covered in black netting several days ago are now exposed so the farmers can pick the ripe yellow fruit. The towns of Minori and Majori lie below me, their little houses nestled into the cliff sides and right up to the beach. Further in the distance, the edge of Italy stretches south, until it can’t be made out anymore.

From the balcony of our hotel room, the view is just as incredible. In the morning, it’s hazy with condensation in the air. Thick clouds wind their way in from the ocean and through the sharp valleys of the land. Little boats bob near the harbors in clumps. The clouds are so thick that you can’t see the horizon. Some mornings, clouds float so close that you can reach out and touch them. Then within a few hours, they’ve dispersed and you can see clearly again.

We arrived to Ravello on Thursday afternoon, following a long and windy car ride up from Naples. The roads are steep and skinny, barely wide enough for two small cars. I’ve driven steep dirt roads on the sides of cliffs getting to trailheads in Colorado, but those are four lane highways compared to this. After a mild amount of motion sickness, we arrived at our hotel.

Ravello is a small town, with the central area mostly comprised of walking streets. There is a square and an ancient church, the villa of a nobleman who once hosted Wagner, and countless limoncello vendors and pottery stores. A bit after arriving, we were about to leave the hotel to find an ATM, and the concierge called after us to take an umbrella. I was confused, as it was bright and sunny outside the last time I checked. As if on cue, rain began pouring from the sky outside. My mom and I huddled under the umbrella as we made our way down the steep cobblestone steps. People stood under awnings, waiting out the storm. We wandered down a few streets, but after 10 minutes, we decided the cash point could wait until later.

That evening as the rain persisted, we were thankfully having dinner at the hotel, and didn’t have to walk far. We ordered a few courses, but nothing too crazy or filling. After leaving us with some breadsticks, the waiter then brought a selection of appetizers from the kitchen. This included a piece of veggie sushi, a miniature haddock bun, a stuffed tomato, an airy, savory cake topped with foam made of cheese, and a small chip with dots of sauce on it which tasted like a crispy pizza. And then there was more bread. Then our two courses were served, mine a salad of local vegetables and a lemon ravioli, my mom’s a noodle soup and a fillet of scorpion fish. We were absolutely stuffed afterwards, and replied the typical “oh no I couldn’t possibly” in regards to the dessert menu. Several moments later, a cart was brought next to our table, and the waiter unloaded a lemon cake, several chocolate biscuits, a selection of chocolates, and two frosted lemon creme puffs. Welcome to Italy, you say you’re full, and they’ll ignore you.

On the second day, we hiked from Ravello all the way down to the town of Amalfi. It took about 5 hours. A woman named Maria was our guide, and told us all about the history of the towns, the buildings, and the culture. The towns are laced together by stone walkways and steep stairways. Children practice dance routines in small passages, people walk up and down on their way to the store or the cafe, and cats slip between iron fences, searching for a snack. As we reached an overlook above Amalfi, she waved over across the valley to a man who was on a ladder in the middle of a patch of lemon trees. It was her dad, she explained. “He’s out taking down the netting over the trees, so they can harvest them. It’s mostly just him, because my mom doesn’t like to help with the trees.” She said she left home to go to school, and was away for a while, but has now come back and lived here for the last few years. She explained it quite poetically: “You have to go to the place where your heart is at home. No matter how far away you go or what you want to see, your home will always know you best.”

We hiked down into the valley, which had a unique climate, close to a tropical rainforest. The mountains and trees shield the area from wind and weather, and water is constantly seeping in from the springs high above. The area is home to a rare bulb plant from the age of dinosaurs, and some extremely unique wildlife flourish in the ecosystem it fosters. My personal favorite were these ladybugs with dark iridescent wings, like gemstones.

Amalfi is the tourist hub of the coast. Tour busses bring in throngs of travelers every day, to walk the streets, buy souvenirs, and visit the cathedral. The streets are too small to accommodate the crowds, and it’s sometimes difficult to get where you want to go. Thankfully, Maria knew several side streets which she snuck us down, passages easily looked over by foreign eyes. We came back to Amalfi for dinner that night, and our table overlooked the harbor. The sky slowly turned pink, then darkened, and all the lights on the hill turned on one by one, until it looked like a pile of stars. The view goes very well with a sweet wine, I’d recommend Privilegio dei Feudi di San Gregorio, 2016.

Four days isn’t long enough to visit all the towns, soak up all the sunshine you wanted (particularly with the daily afternoon rainstorms we were getting), or drink as many Aperol spritzes as you intended. It’s the kind of place you could visit over and over again, and create a tradition of. The focus isn’t seeing the big attractions, visiting museums, or taking pictures in front of important monuments. The best way to see the Amalfi Coast is just to be in it, to spend a few days at that pace of life, to explore it with an open heart. There are no to-go coffee cups or fast food restaurants. If you need a bite to eat or a bit of caffeine, you sit and enjoy it. You eat late, and you eat everything they serve to you (even if there are 10 extra things you did not ask for). You soak in the richness of the culture, the quaintness of these sweet towns, and the light scent of lemon that lingers in the trees.

And when the view unfolds below you, you take a moment to sit in silence and take it in. You’ve seen the pictures on Instagram I’m sure, but it’s no understatement to say that it takes your breath away. Even when you’ve looked out on it countless times over the course of a few days, it still is just as thrilling. It makes you feel just as small. And always, endlessly grateful.

Tag: vacation

Copenhagen, February 2019

Ravello