Holiday extravaganza in Copenhagen

Traveling around Europe is one of the sweetest perks of being an exchange student in Berlin. You don't have to fly sixteen hours seated randomly next to a lovey-dovey couple cramped in an economy seat to go to the next European country as one would be obliged to had one been lived in Asia (like I am). You can just book a flight for the weekend, pack a traveling suitcase with two days' clothes and take off. So why not take full advantage of this time and opportunity, I decided to fly to Copenhagen over the weekend. Charmingly, it was supposed to take just an hour to get there from Berlin. One hour to the lovely Dannish cafes and canals, freshly baked Dannish pies and vibrant looks of street bikers.

 

A Little Rough, But Memorable All-the-way

 

I was lucky to have two other girlfriends, Selim and Jiwon (we have the same fabulous name), as my happy companions just as excited for the trip as I were. As we said goodbye to our dorm buildings, still and quiet amidst the dawn darkness, our hearts were galloping as the wheels of our suitcases were against the bumpy roads. Then, we had no idea what kind of crazy panic attacks and adventures were waiting ahead us.

 

The first adventure revealed itself when we realized that we were heading for the wrong airport. There are two airports operating in Berlin; Tegel and Schonefeld. Our tickets clearly said we were to board in Schonefeld, but my mind overlooked that and when we realized we had to go to the eastern part of Berlin to catch our flight in 90 minutes, we dashed across the platforms of U-Bahn stations and found ourselves racing into the terminals of Schonefeld just 35 minutes prior to departure. That was alrady 5 minutes past the check-in time. We had officially missed our flight. Our stomachs were growling for breakfast, the next flights of Easyjet were fully booked, we were standing numb in the middle of the gray, washed-out terminal, we were, less delicately put, screwed.

 

Having booked the next flight from Tegel through a different airline, we comforted ourselves with a hot soup of noodles in the Central station, trying to ease our minds from the fact that we had to pay an incredible price for the second flight. Since I was the one who had mistakened the airport, the guilt I felt was a hopelessly tangled knot in my stomach growing bigeer and bigger as we suffered our way on a fully packed bus to Tegel. Despite all that, I was really grateful that both Selim and Jiwon did not make a big deal out of it (at least did not show it to me). So, here, this it how our trip to Copenhagen started off on a rough page.

 

Young, Simple, and Artistic City

 

Going through this much trouble, you would probably hope that we had an amazing, golden trip. And we did.

The architecture carried a unique vibe distinguishing itself from the looks of Berlin streets that my eyes had been accustomed to. The street signs looked absolutely gourgeous especially as I had no idea what the letters symbolized for. The letter 'O' had a stick cutting its middle like the sign for "empty set" in math, and there were no more words that started with "sch" as much as it did in Germany. The different language both heard and seen around stood out the most making an impression that we have officially landed in a new, unknown land.

 

The day before the trip, I had read a travel essay by Bill Bryson on his impressions and episodes on his stay in Copenhagen. I was half curious and half doubtful when he remarked that all people in Copenhagen looked so young, full of energy and vigor, slim and tall. Of course, it is a huge hyperbole, but the city did feel very young. People working in cafes and restaurants seemed all young and were fluent in English. The crazy number of bicycles parked in the streets and actual bike-commuters we witnessed championed this impression.

 

Copenhagen Idiosyncracies

 

1

One of the things that amused me in this lovely city was the ridiculous frequency of how many hairdressers' we saw in the streets. It was so easy to just run into a glass window of a fancy hair salon in which a customer would be sipping a glass of sparkling wine while relaxing her head for the hairdresser. This of course led me to obsessively peer into the hairstyles of any pedestrians, wondering if their styles were indeed keen, and I was intrigued most of the times. Men in Copenhagen especially seemed to put extra attention to their hairstyles. Well, or everything could have just been in my head. ;)

 

2

I've already mentioned the enourmous biking population in Copenhagen (it honorobly ranks first in the world's best city to bicycle) but besides that, there are so many stroller-bikes spotted in the city. Parents travel with their babies in a extra-seating attached to the front of a bike, so big that it captures your eyes in bewilderment when you first see it. You see a lot of regular strollers in the streets, restaurants, and markets but that does not even impress you anymore because your standards have levelled up after seeing these fancy baby-stroller-bikes. All of these images eventually add up to plant an inference based on a series of observation; Dannish people are active (ourdoor-sy) and family-oriented.

 

3

Thoughtful for the minors.

 I noticed this on the second evening when I was cruising around the State Art Museum of Copenahagen. Whenever there are staircases (even the tiny ones with three or four steps) there was a lift for the visitors using wheelchairs. The effort made to bring art to all people without discrimination was very touching.

Even in the streets, the little things like the way cars stopped for any pedestrians and wait for everyone to pass first, complemented to my interpretation of the thoughtful culture imbibed in the city. 

 

4

Adorable down to scale of 1/2

There is platform 9 and three quarters in UK, and there are metro schedule boards down to the scale of 1/2 in Denmark. Dannish people wouldn't do with the inaccuracy of 1m or 2m signs when they could say that the next metro will be in 1&1/2m. When you're walking towards Gate F in Copenhagen airport, you will also find signs on the floor indicating the estimated time to get to the gate: Big blue letters saying "5 minutes" and several steps away, "4 minutes and 30 seconds."

 

5

Fantastic sense in design and fashion

Dannish furniture is famous worldwide. The Dannish sense of design scores whereever you set your feet in. Even the airbnb we stayed at was furnished in excellent design. The mix and match of fabric, choice of furniture, positioning of home decorations and use of space were perfect. Not to mention, I don't think I've ever seen a dull font in Copenhagen. The streets signs, ads, menus of cafes all had beautiful and modern font.

The street fashion is also very natural and stylish. The woolen winter-fall coats especially seemed very chic, well fit, and at the same time warm enough for the whimsical weather of April. You could say I fell a little bit in love every time I saw someone pass by riding a bicycle wearing a lovely woolen coat. Comfortable with style. You can never go wrong with that.

 

6

Time for love and talk

Faithful to our role as travelers, we spent a lot of time just hitting the streets and parks, and naturally we watched the locals, just observing their days, ways of life, facial expressions, and relationships with the people they are with. Copenahagen was a city that was spread out, spacy with a relatively small population, and the time and leisure set aside for relaxing with friends and family were very visible. Couples, not only young, but middle-aged and the elder were often seen in parks, open-air cafes lost in their own world of conversation or simply sitting side by side to admire the view of a long waited spring day.

The time when we went to the renowned Nyhavn canal, street cafes and bars were busy with families and friends spending the evening together under the yellow sunrays with a gelato in their hands or a Calsburg in front. The wide age range of pedestrians-from toddlers to seniors, the way they dressed up, how they ordered a drink and sat down for a talk painted a beautiful image, lasting a bigger impression than the colorful rooftops of the pretty buildings with flowery balconies. Young lovers are holding each others' hands, teasing each other in their own language of love as they walk the streets of Copenhagen. Older couples who have been through different stages of love are sitting on a bench in a tranquil garden, talking, looking into the same direction and view. Love is in the air this evening.

 

7

Pain of Ignorance

As three Asian faces traveling in the middle of a Northern European, white-majority city, we ran into some rude pedestrians who would approach us blurting "Nihao" and laughing amonst each other as we walked past. This has occured not only in Copenhagen, occasionally in Berlin too, but much more often in this city considering we were there only three days. On the third day, we grew sick of being offended at this rude approach, and became more indifferent to these happenings, just carrying on with our conversation. Still, as an Asian, I always wonder what to think of my roots and identity and how to carry myself in a foreign country. This question has been an ongoing discourse in my head for over a decade now ever since I traveled with my family to Russian and Belarus and lived there. I only hope that this world becomes more educated of cultural differences and intercultural communication meets a higher understanding overarching everyone.

 

8

Insane Price Levels

Northern European countries including Norway, Sweden, and Finland are infamous of their high price levels among backpack travelers. As students with no fixed income, of course, we suffered the price levels in Denmark. A Smorebrot (Dannish open sandwich) in a marketstand would cost around 50 kronas each (approximately $10) and as delicious as the Smorebrots were, the expenditure we had to afford in Copenhagen could have easily become a nightmare had we stayed in Copenahgen longer. A burger with fries would cost around $30 and a dip would cost an extra dollar. Quite naturally, we couldn't afford to order a drink as much as we would have loved to. Eventually, we ended up succumbing to McDonalds for our last meal which costed ridiculously high but after three days in Copenhagen, we were screaming "WE LOVE YOU MCDEES" praising the rather moderate price and creditable (internationally standardized) taste meeting the average expectations.  

 

9

The Joy of Traveling

Traveling is not only about the place you go to, what you do, eat and drink. It is also immensely about who you go with, who you experience, eat and drink everything with. I loved walking around Copenahagen, laying my eyes to the beautiful streets and parks, exotic looks of the locals and seductively appetizing bakeries, but I also loved the nights I spent inside in our lovely airbnb apartment. We would buy a bottle of white and rose wine with some crackers and cheese and go home to light candles and drink, talk, laugh, and knock ourselves out to fall deep for the most refreshing sleep. I enjoyed every moment thanks to them, even when it was cold and rainy sometimes (of the day but every day when we were there.) We laughed until our stomachs hurt, until one of us would tear up in laughter, suggest nobody talked until we resumed our cool. So, really, travelling is definitely much more than just the place you go to, it is the people you go with, meet, and spend time with during the journey that really adds colors to your travel. The more travels I go through, the stronger I feel this.

 

10

Denmark is so neat. I find the fact that the little mermaid is a beloved tourist attraction is absolutely adorable. The Nyhavn canal and some of the streets reminded me of the views I had seen in the film "The Dannish Girl". I am almost sure that my bus drove past one of the streets the film was shoot at, and this made my blood rush a little bit too. So many stories are born in a city, in every city, and this makes me excited and curious to see the parts I get to peer here and now.

 

11

 The first thing we did upon arriving at Berlin was dashing to our favorite kebab place in Alexanderplatz, exchilirating over the fact that the bundle of joy costed only 3.50 euroes. Our trip went through some rough patches: missed flight, rainy weather, high prices, so high we missed Berlin a little bit (too much).

But the strange thing is that we laughed all the way through it. We loveeeeed being lost in this foreign city. Everything was so intrigueing. Possibly because we were exposed to this unchartertered land in which none of us had ever been. We had the eyes of an absolute alien. The experience was a pure joy from then on. I cannot wait for the next travel to experience these small and large cultural shocks and interesting finds.

 

12

That's it for now.

Laters, Copenhagen.