What better way to wind down for the year than a small trip away with friends.

A place that’s been on my mind for sometime, Copenhagen was the destination of choice. It had everything I was looking for. Good food, coffee and independents on every corner and side street. Taking these trips are so important to me. It’s a chance to see Emily again now we no longer live in the same town and also spend time with friends who I shared my university years with.

European city breaks can be done in a long weekend, but with time on our side we stayed for four nights in our AirBnB. Sometimes you need a trip that isn’t lead

by cramming as much into one day as you possibly can. We had three places earmarked for the day and took the longer route there to find things we hadn’t considered.

And to be honest, we didn’t have a ‘we must do this’ list. Most of our casual itinerary was made up of recommendations shared with me by the good folks on Twitter. Special mentions go to Liv, Lauren and Kara for their ace city guides. Normally I’m not one for touristy things, but Copenhagen does it well. The Nyhavn, Rundetaarn and Tivoli at night were all worthwhile.downicon

This post isn’t a polished editorial or a-z city guide. Both the latter and the former take time, time away from being relaxed. Constantly thinking if you have enough photographs for the café you ate at in the morning, or if you have two portraits that you think will sit nicely alongside one another. I enjoy creating that content, but when in the company of friends you haven’t seen in a while it’s important to enjoy that over what you create for others. Take your quick photo and then put the camera down once in a while.

In a city I thought I'd love, I found it hard to take my camera out my bag.

I also found myself lacking inspiration while out there. In a city I thought I'd love, I found it hard to take my camera out my bag. I shared this on social while I was in Copenhagen and others offered their two cents and reasoning. For me, it could have been the light. It was still dreary by 11am and dark by 3pm. But if I took my blog-photographer-head off you could still appreciate the city’s beauty.

So wrapped up in my best attempt to stay warm and layer tones the only way Scandi’s know, we walked, drank and ate. A lot. There was Atelier September for its avocado on rye bread, Mother for its amazing pizza and Grillenburger - so good we went twice. If we needed a coffee pitstop we weren’t short of options, but The Coffee Collective and Copenhagen Coffee Lab were our regulars.

Leaving Copenhagen I left definitely feeling half full/half empty. Happy due to the fact I was able to spend time with friends and Emily, but also the urge to go back to try and capture Copenhagen the way I envisaged it before arriving.jbicon