the happiest place on earth

This past weekend, I traveled to the happiest place on earth. I know what you're thinking.... Why in the world did I go to Disneyland from Glasgow?

The truth of the matter is that I didn't go to Disneyland... Instead I visited the truly happiest place on earth. Aka, Denmark. I went for the weekend to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit Jeff who is studying there.


Now, I've contemplated how to write this blog post. I enjoyed playing the tourist and seeing the cool sites of Copenhagen. However, part of the experience was the atmosphere and ambiance in Copenhagen that I felt was distinct and unique compared to anywhere else I've been (Scotland, California, Oklahoma, etc). So the question becomes, how do you capture the atmosphere of a city with words?


The flight I was on had a magazine on various destinations they flew to. Of course, inside was Denmark, and more specifically Copenhagen. This magazine was sure to point out that Denmark has been recognized as being the country with the happiest people out of the entire world. Now, I thought this sounded fine and dandy, but didn't expect much of it.


Below you will find descriptions of what I did, but it's harder to capture how all of it felt. Optimism and happiness seemed to saturate the air. I found myself perfectly happy throughout the trip, despite having been exhausted the first day, and exploring alone on the second. Smiles were plentiful, and the people seemed relatively stress free. The calm happiness was practically contagious.

The first I saw of Copenhagen was some massive windmills seemingly floating above the clouds. Jeff has since informed me that this is done on purpose, as if to remind everybody entering that "We are Denmark, we believe in sustainability". It certainly worked for me, because I was immediately impressed.


The airport wasn't too hard to navigate, although it was odd seeing a language other than English as the language displayed first. Underneath most of the headings in Danish, would be another in English.


Jeff met me at the airport, and directed me a short way to the train which was a short ride away from his apartment. The efficiency of the public transportation endeared me to their system. They zone the entire system, and base prices on how many zones you travel. you receive a punch card, and punch the card for however far you travel. It is good on any sort of public transportation, be it metro, train, bus, boat bus, etc.


Initial impressions of Denmark? Lots of blonde hair. Everyone is fit. There are tons of children, everywhere. Girls wear these massive woolen scarves (which Jeff warned me about, but I didn't quite believe it until I saw it). Everyone wears coats, even when it is fairly warm (odd).  There is a certain efficiency to how everything is ran in Copenhagen. Everything is seemingly sustainable and practical, but with an undeniable "less-is-more" style.

After we arrived at Jeff's apartment, which was quite nice, he immediately started pointing out the architecture. Copenhagen has this newer neighborhood, known as Orestad (I think.. Jeff, help here?), with some stunning architectural marvels. Mostly, it seemed as though they were apartment type buildings. But they were amazing! There were plenty of them, along the stretch of the metro that was near Jeff.


Pictures:

I am sure I am missing some... I grabbed these off the internet, but they do not quite do the buildings justice. The buildings are quite the pieces of art. Needless to say, I was already impressed.

The first place Jeff took me was to Christianshavn, where we climbed up the spire of a tall church that overlooks Copenhagen. there were many, many stairs in the process. I had just finished telling Jeff how much I was walking in Scotland, and then I proceeded to huff and puff my way up those stairs. It was also understandabley quite windy. I should have taken pictures, but I did try and take video. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, my camera is only capable of taking videos that are like 10 seconds long max. Here's one such video:





After, I desperately had to use the restroom. Jeff asked one of the ladies working at the church, where the nearest restroom was. She had no idea what we were talking about. It was then that I remembered that in Britain they would say toilet instead of restroom or bathroom. So I asked for a toilet, and the lady understood that. My British language knowledge proved to be useful in Denmark! Apparently, the Danes learn British English instead of American English.


Also in the area of Christanhavn, was Christiana. Christiana "is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 85 acres". (source: wikipedia.org) Basically, they consider themselves separate from Denmark. In this area, there are basically no rules. Drugs on the street, etc. No pictures were allowed in the "Green Light District", where pot and mushrooms were plentiful. I didn't partake in any of these recreational activities, but did browse the various goods in the shops. I wish I had a picture, but alas, if I tried to pull out my camera I was informed that "the skinheads" would come after me. We did take some pictures once we left though...





The Christiana Flag


Bevar means preserve. At least that's what the friendly man we asked told us.














Jeff in Christiana.


The graffiti was so cool, and everywhere!!


Jeff wanted to show me an architecture exhibit in the area. It was really impressive, although I don't think I could truly appreciate it, because I don't have the knowledge of architecture that people studying it, such as Jeff, would have.


Then we headed to Nyhavn. It was across the harbor from where we were, so we hopped on the metro It's the picturesque stretch of colored houses near the harbor that mostly everyone has undoubtedly seen if they have seen anything of Copenhagen. It was really pretty, and we took pictures, but I think they're on Jeff's camera. Here's one from the internet:

I was fairly exhausted (I woke up at 330 am to catch a cab at 4 am), so I recommended that perhaps we should head back to Jeff's apartment, he could work on some of his school work and I could get some much needed sleep so that I was functional for the rest of the weekend. First we went shopping in the mall across from Jeff's apartment. It was quite odd to see everything in the "wrong" language. It was like... you could never be quite sure of what you were buying. Jeff told me he loves to make these mini pizzas, and I thought they sounded good. We grabbed some pesto and green onions and made pesto green onion pizzas! They were delicious.

The next day, Friday, Jeff had studio. That meant that I got to explore Copenhagen on my own. This was quite daunting to me... Being in a foreign city by myself sounded quite scary. Jeff had helped me out by circling places on the map that I could visit, and giving me a brief run down on some things I ought to know. We headed out a little late that morning, so although we had planned to have pastries together for breakfast, we had to forgo those plans. Jeff's studio is just off the main walking street of the city, Stroget. He left and I set out on my own.


First things first, I needed breakfast. There was a pastry place just across the street, so I grabbed a pastry and a coffee. It cost me the equivalent of $8! And so I learned a valuable lesson: coffee in Denmark costs much more than I am used to. I walked briskly down the street in search of a bench to eat my pastry, drink my coffee, and have a look at the map so I could get oriented. I found a nice bench and immediately decided that I would head to the "King's Garden" and perhaps take a nap to kill some time until Jeff was finished.

Of course, I ended up in the botanical gardens instead of the King's Garden, which was just across the street. After finally figuring out where the king's garden was, I slipped inside. The place was quite large and filled with children playing, laughing, and being adorable. In the gardens is the Rosenburg Castle. This area of the gardens was filled with tourists. I stayed away from the castle for a bit and meandered through the walkways.


Pictures:

 I don't know who this statue is, but I thought it was neat.

















Next, I headed next to Rosenburg Castle. There were lots of tourists snapping pictures of pretty much every aspect of the castle, and I overheard some Americans talking. It was almost nice to hear an American accent, a bit of familiarity. The building was old and pretty neat. I snapped a couple picture, and a nice lady took the only picture of me I got the entire day.

The castle is actually through the gate.


The only picture of me all day! 

I wandered around the gardens a bit more before I decided that I ought to head to the Marble Church and Amaliensborg Palace, which Jeff had pointed out to me on the map.

It was a bit of a walk, but it wasn't hard to figure out the map and streets I should be on.


The Marble Church was beautiful, and it contained the largest dome ceiling in all of Scandinavia.


Pics:

In the church, there were many signs asking everyone to be silent (they were also posted in many languages), because the church was intended for prayer and worship. This struck me as funny, because everyone I saw in the church was a tourist, and was thus there to take pictures. Everyone (silently) had their cameras out, and were snapping away.


A few additional pictures:
 

Right across the street was Amalienborg Palace. This is considered the "winter home" of the Danish royal family. The palace consists of four palaces around a square. One residence belongs to the Queen, the other belongs to the Crown Prince, and if I understand correctly the last two are for official functions and guests. A Danish flag is flown above the residences if the Crown Prince or Queen are currently residing  in their palaces. When I visited, the Crown Prince was in residence but not the Queen.

There was a Danish guard that marched around the square in quite a ceremonial procession to check upon each of the palaces. I found it quite amusing, because as they marched, a gaggle of tourists followed them around snapping pictures. They would march, and the tourists would run after them. At one point, I was just such a tourist, for I couldn't resist trying to snap a few shots.

I finally grew tired of the tourist cloud, and headed to the park right next to the harbor, behind the Amalienborg Palace. There was a good view of the opera house behind a fountain, and I snapped some pictures of that. Many like to call the opera house, "The Toaster", because of the metal grill surrounding the bottom. It was intended to be glass, but because of discrepancies between the architect and the man who payed for the building, it ended up with a much less attractive metal grill. Jeff can explain more extensively.

Fountain, and Opera house in the distance:

I walked along the harbor a bit, before finding myself once again right next to Nyhavn. I followed it until I reached some of the main walking streets. I meandered around a bit, used a public restroom (I think I used pretty much every public restroom in Copenhagen during this day), and eventually found myself off a street near Stroget at the Round Tower. I decided that I would pay the 25 kroner, and see what I could (as well as kill some time waiting for Jeff).

The Round Tower is unique because it was made so that one of the Kings (forgot which, oops) could ride his horse all the way up to the top. This was another one of those touristy places, and I was encountered many different accents and languages: Spanish, (American and British) English, German, French, etc. I walked alone to the top, where I removed a bagel sandwich that I had packed, and ate it while looking out over the beautiful view of Copenhagen. 

I ate lunch, sat for about 30 minutes taking in the beautiful sight, then decided that I would head out once again. 

At this point, I had already walked along the street I was on, and once again found myself near the Botanic Gardens. Despite Jeff telling me that the gardens were not worth my time, I wanted to meander through them and quite enjoyed their beauty as well as the glasshouses, despite the fact that I could not get inside said glasshouses.

I sat for a bit, people watching and enjoying the serenity. I dozed off for a bit, before deciding that I should keep moving.

I was running out of "things to do" and decided that I would find a cup of coffee and read the philosophy book I had brought . I knew of a cafe within the King's Garden, so once again I found myself walking through the King's Garden. I bought the coffee, which was quite small, and was pretty annoyed when I realized I had payed about $5 for a coffee that was pretty tiny. This just reinforced my understanding that coffee should not be bought, because it was too expensive and not worth the price.

My coffee and book in the King's Garden

I finished the coffee, read a couple chapters of Descartes' Meditations, and once again moved on.

I stopped taking pictures at this point, but after wandering through the gardens, I found myself in front of what appeared to be a free museum. I went inside to use the public toilet (another one! hooray for public toilets!) and then perused the main lobby. At this point I realized that I had missed a call and text from Jeff. Apparently he finished early! Woot! It was 4 instead of 5:15.

I called Jeff briefly (Ack! International call charges).  He told me he would meet me at the fountain that he had marked upon my map.

In the process of trying to reach this point, I got a bit lost and disoriented for I ended up kitty-corner to the spot I intended to be. I finally figured out where I needed to be headed, and found myself in a park where I thought Jeff had marked the fountain.

Unfortunately, this fountain drawing Jeff had made, was intended not as the location of the fountain, but more as a reminder that I ought to meet him at the fountain. I was quite confused when I was sure I had reached the location, but was no fountain.

Finally, we figured everything out, and I met Jeff at the bakery where I had gotten breakfast, which was across the street from where his studio was.

At this point, I was quite exhausted and we decided the best bet was to head back to Jeff's apartment. We would both eat, then I could nap and he could work on school work before heading out for the night.

We had some pizzas (delicious!) once again, and I took a wonderfully fulfilling nap. Jeff was planning on meeting up with some of his friends from his "buddy system". This system pairs up American DIS students with Danish students to encourage the mixing and mingling between the groups.

The group we were to meet up with was a metro and bus ride away. Unfortunately for us, we did not realize that the same bus numbers (6A) travel in BOTH directions. We got on the bus heading in the wrong direction, before talking to the bus driver, realizing our mistake, taking the metro once again, and finally finding the correct bus.

Copenhagen allows people to consume alcohol in public, and I never realized quite how nice and useful such a law/rule would be. We bought some beers beforehand and could comfortably drink them while walking to our destination.

The "buddy group" we met up with was incredibly nice, and surprisingly mostly Americans. There was also a girl from Iceland, a guy from Portugal, and I think one or two Danes. We then headed out to a bar.

I was feeling slightly inebriated, but the alcohol was flowing and drinks were being bought for the group continuously. I wish I knew who bought the drinks, because I never properly thanked them. I had some enjoyable conversation and pointed out some things to the Danes that I didn't quite understand (aka, what the heck, why do you wear huge scarves even when it's warm).  Jeff and I called it an "early" night. It felt quite late to me, around 230 am. But apparently, the average night out was until 430 or 5 am. I was quite grateful that we headed back "early" because I thought I might fall asleep standing up if we had stayed too much longer.

The next morning, we slept in until around 11. I was insistent on having another pastry for breakfast, so we bought a couple, along with a carton of orange juice, from a grocery store nearby Jeff's flat.

Jeff knew of some Cal Poly engineers, studying abroad in Stockholm, who would be visiting Copenhagen, and thought it would a good idea if we met up with them.

We meandered around Stroget, before meeting up with the group near a neat little skate park. This skate park was located near a pond/lake. Apparently these "lakes" used to enclose and encircle Copenhagen, and a few have been left in their original positions, to be found throughout the city.

We then headed, with the help of directionally gifted Justin, to Vesterbro. This is the western part of the city, and is more "ethnic" (aka asian/middle eastern). This part of the city had a bit of a different feel or atmosphere.

It was much more similar to Glasgow. The building were older, and didn't appear as touristy. The people walking the streets appeared to be locals rather than a sea of visitors. This part of the city almost felt more authentic.

It still maintained some of it's "Danish charm" however. The children were still plentiful. People still seemed to have a unwaveringly sunny disposition.

We found a couple of cool murals, before we found ourselves in an amazing children's playground. I think I must have missed out as a child, because I have never encountered a playground quite like this.

Just walking city streets

Cool mural

mural on the opposite side of the street

Notice Jeff and Justin climbing amongst the children... They're still children at hearrt!!!  Also, how awesome it this playground?!?!

More of just walking around Copenhagen

We stumbled upon a small bike fair... tons and tons of people ride bikes, figures that they would have a bike fair!

After meandering around the city, we decided to head back to the flat so Jeff could work on more school, and I could take another nap. (Woot!!) That night, we had planned to head to Tivoli, an old amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen that had been open for probably a century. It was described to me as "a much cooler Disneyland".

We got to Tivoli around 8 or so (I think). We met up with some folk from Cal Poly SLO. At this point, it was night out, and the lights were really impressive. Gorgeous.

We didn't get a great picture of the front because there was some construction going on, but once inside the lights were just as pretty, if not prettier.

Out front

There were also rides, but each ride cost about the equivalent of $10, so we decided that our money was better spent in other ways.

We ended up in a beer garden, where Jeff joined his friends in drinking 1 liter of beer. I decided against this, because I wasn't sure if I had enough room in my stomach for a liter of beer. Haha.

After watching a light show, we walked to a bar. I was tired once again, and we called it an "early night". We ended up home around 230 or 3.

The final day I was in Copenhagen, Jeff and I took a canal tour that wove in and out of the canals and around the harbor. It was very informative, although of course I don't remember much of what was said. It was a beautifully sunny day out, so we decided afterwards to grab some cider and sit on the harbor. What a relaxing and great way to end my time in Copenhagen!!!

Sorry that the end of this blog post was so abrupt, but I am about to head off to Edinburgh the weekend and I wanted to get this finished!! It's taken me a good while to finally write it all, and I apologize. Expect a post about Edinburgh next! Love and miss you all!