Nyhavn (New Harbour)

Besides the Little Mermaid which I aleady mentioned in one of my entries, there is another symbol of Copenhagen. The place is called Nyhavn and has a very easy translation: New harbour.

Why Nyhavn and what is so special in it?

First of all, look at the pictures:

Source

Have you ever seen so bright and colourful buildings in Scandinavia? The answer is no: even though Denmark is quite famous for its coloured houses (which works as a treatment against depression), Nyhavn is obviously the leader in colours.

Second, it is nice. You come here to enjoy yourself, relax, take a drink and gather with some friends. It is also overestimated though. Nyhavn is not so long: it takes only 15 minutes to walk from one side to another.

Third, there are good clubs around so pub crowling is a usual thing during the night.

Forth, its history. I put this issue as the forth reason because people usually do not associate this place with something bad or ugly. What is more, most of the tourists simply do not know that previously Nyhavn was in the bad area of Copenhagen and was considered nothing else but the red lights district. Instead of tourists walking down the streets, there were only pickpockets, prostitutes and their clients. It took years for the government to clean up the spot and develop a sightseeing place of Copenhagen. It might be said the place was completely cleaned up, I would argue though. If you walk down Nyhavn during the night, look at red lights hanging on each restaurant as a commemoration to those bad days in history, you might feel another atmosphere of Nyhavn which doesn't feel cozy and cute as it does during the daytime. Those are two faces of Nyhavn..

Talking about the prices, here Nyhavn is more expensive than any other place in Copenhagen so you will definitely won't find any cheap cafe. You will find cafes though (there are some waffles and pancake place), but the prices there are way higher than on the shopping street.

From the restaurants I suggest Nyhavn 17, a legendary place to taste all the Danish traditional dishes for a high price.

If you want to grab some beers, Nyhavn is surprisingly a good place to do it because here located the cheapest (considering prices for the beers) shop in Copenhagen. It is located between Nyhavn 15 and Nyhavn 17 buildings, down the stairs. People usually don't miss it.

Talking about some other interesting things in Nyhavn, here we can find the best tattoo salon in whole Denmark. The salon is so famous that some rock stars came here to make their tattoos. Mind that prices for it are respectively high.

So, summing up, there are some Do's und Don't's for Nyhavn:

-Don't buy souvenirs or expensive food unless you are very rich

-Do grab a famous Carlsberg beer and enjoy the harbour