This weekend my host brother moved into his Copenhagen apartment, so I got to go along for the fun. After spending over 24 hours in Denmark's capital, I can officially say it's awesome.
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The Lego guard didn't tell me to go away in Danish... unlike another guard I met.
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There are so many bikes. Jeez. There are so many "mini-van" bikes that are rigged out to carry two, three, who knows how many kids. I've also never really heard Danish before. This is how I'd describe it: Imagine that you've recorded someone speaking German. Then imagine that your German recording is on a CD that keeps skipping. Hey, you're imagining Danish!
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| Bikes Bikes Bikes! |
Today we walked around downtown and saw Nyhavn ("New Harbor" in English). San Francisco has Fisherman's Wharf and Copenhagen has Nyhavn. Then we checked out the Little Mermaid (who looked a bit different than Disney's Ariel and seemed to have forgotten her seashells...), the Amalienborg Palace (home to the world's oldest monarchy and grumpiest guards), and the Nationalmuseet (Denmark's largest cultural history museum).
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| Fisherman's Wharf - tacky = Nyhavn |
In the afternoon we headed over to Christiania. It's an alternative community that was founded in the 1970s by some hippies who made their own rules and kind of flipped the bird in the Danish government's face. There's even a thriving Green Light District. For the most part it just looked like a landfill exploded and the characters from Rent were chilling on the street, all underscored by a strong smell of weed.
On our way home we wandered by the zoo. This is the same zoo that killed a giraffe and caused an international uproar-- especially in my German class. Shoutout to Simon and company! It actually looks like quite a lovely zoo, but I can't get over the fact they killed the giraffe (there was a scientific reason but I don't remember the details) and invited people to come watch.
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| No giraffe here (anymore)! |
All in all, Copenhagen is fantastic, at least to visit. I mean, the view out my host brother's apartment window was quite literally all sunshine and rainbows. If you ever get the chance, I recommend stopping by this beautiful city.
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| I mean, really. How awesome is that? |