The past few days here in Copenhagen we've done a lot-- hung out with polar bears and tropical birds, took a water bus, wandered through the Green Light District, ate lots of delicious Italian food, and, oh yeah, I turned nineteen!
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| New year and lots of new Lilys to go with it. |
Monday was zoo day. The Copenhagen Zoo has an excellent Arctic Circle section housing polar bears, reindeer, seals and company There was a massive, interactive exhibit featuring cute, yet energetic, critters who also live in the Article Circle-- Danish Toddlers! There were little blonde Frejas, Anders and Rikkes running around all over the place. All of them were sporting the same full-body, completely weatherproof suits, just in different colors and prints.
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| Just like the wee Danes! |
Speaking of children, there's a whole other level of trust involving the young Danes here. It's pretty common to see a baby stroller (with baby!) parked in front of a grocery store or restaurant unattended. Wednesday, when we went out for my birthday dinner at a cozy, yummy Italian place, there were young'uns (four-year-olds) waiting in the bar alongside their parents to be seated. That's not just a Danish thing, but simply European in general.
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| Hippest busstop ever. |
Earlier in the day Wednesday we decided to do a little, self-guided walking tour. It started out by hopping on a floating bus, which took us across the canal to the massive Copenhagen Opera House, or Operaen in Danish. You feel like a ginormous, never-ending space ship has descended as you look up at this impressive architectural work. We viewed it solely from the outside, but I could just imagine all the theatrical magic going on inside.
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| To the left are mooring posts for fancy opera-goers to park their boats before seeing The Magic Flute or as the Danes say, Tryllefløjten. |
Apparently it's one of the most expensive opera houses ever built, costing over 500 million dollars. It's a pretty elaborate labyrinth in there, what with a main stage, five rehearsal stages, a black box stage, a cafeteria for the employees and over a thousand different rooms for various purposes. Oh, and because it is Denmark and there's still a beloved monarchy, Queen Margrethe II has her own balcony in the theater. I wonder if she'll also be there June 20 for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Professionals will be diving from the opera house's roof into the water below. That'll be sure to make a splash!
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| My kind of neighborhood street! |
The Operean is on an island neighborhood of Copenhagen, which has a quiet residential section as well as some hip startups. We grabbed coffee at a hipster-run market called Papirøen, walked over to the alternative community Christiana and then checked out the National Museum. The city is such a vibrant mix of old (monarchy, classic architecture, street vendors) and cutting-edge new (pretty much all street vendors accept credit cards or mobile pay).
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| Copenhagen runs on plastic. |
I really dig Danish culture in general and Copenhagen is such an awesome city. Maybe I'll start looking at Copenhagen universities? In any case, I'm glad to have celebrated the big 1-9 in what is, according to the World Happiness Report's studies, the "happiest country on earth". Skål!