Copenhagen Days 1 & 2
[I’m now officially in Amsterdam for my study abroad program, so I’m keeping this short and sweet by skipping the second day of Venice and combining Copenhagen into one entry. Just know that in Venice I got a million bug bites and continued to get lost and scored a new pair of Birkenstocks.]
The entire city of Copenhagen is just like coolest coffee shop you’ve ever seen. It all has the same vibe - and within moments of arriving, I was sitting on a faux fur throw at an open-air hip cafe eating stone ground mustard raspberry jam on rye toast just thinking, “Yes, this is exactly where I want to be, and this is exactly what I want to be doing, and this is exactly what I want to be sitting on.” Now imagine that x 348342 and you have the entire city of Copenhagen.
I first became interested in Copenhagen after I watched the documentary Happy and learned that it’s supposed to be the happiest city ever (mostly based on quality of life metrics, so maybe not totally accurate). Everyone seemed to live in a commune, eat organic produce, and love their job, all things I am interested in as well. I am fascinated by Scandinavia in general because the region seems to have everything I want in life - free university schooling, universal healthcare, and amazing public infrastructure. I was jealous of literally every child I saw in Copenhagen, just knowing that they will never be swimming under a sea of student loan debt just to get a social sciences degree from a private, religious liberal arts college.
I was only in Copenhagen for two days, so that basically makes me an expert and qualifies me to judge everything about the city. Here is my take on why Copenhagen is just so darn happy:
1) They bike.
Copenhageners seem to bike EVERYWHERE (the biking vikings), but what is really impressive is the public infrastructure that allows them to do so! I’ve never seen such amazing bike lanes, and I’ve recently been to two American biking capitals, Portland and Davis, so that really means something. Their bike lanes are better than their pedestrian paths and streets. They have their own intersections and stop lights, and are separated from the roads so you don’t feel like you’re careening down a narrow pathway wedged between a car and a road barrier. Even the buses can’t fully pull over to the curb because then they’d be obtruding the bike lanes.
They also have more kinds of bikes that I’ve ever seen in my life, like these three-wheeled bikes that have carts in the front for people to sit in. I saw several hunky bearded Danish men peddling their girlfriends around in these carts. I would definitely be up for that, but I would, of course take turns peddling around the Danish man, as I am not a monster.
2) They have the world’s best metro system.
For being a mid-sized city, Copenhagen has a HUGE metro system that was recently voted the best in the world. The inside of the trains are beautiful, making the rider feel as if they have died and gone to transportation heaven. But the COOLEST part was that their trains, buses, and metro are all the same transit company, so you can just buy one transit pass and basically go ANYWHERE. How liberating.
3) Their theme park inspired Disneyland.
More like Walt Disney came in and carbon-copied the rides and turned them into Disneyland. Seriously, Tivoli Gardens at the center of Copenhagen essentially has early versions of the Matterhorn AND Thundermountain Railroad. But the park is just plain awesome - their rides are actually fun, there’s a million great restaurants, a concert venue, and it looks spectacular lit up at night. Apparently most Copenhagen-ers get season passes.
4) There is a high Birkenstock ratio per capita.
I’d have to fact check this, but I’m pretty sure one of Denmark’s amazingly comprehensive social welfare programs includes providing each citizen with a pair of Birkenstocks at birth and new pairs as their feet grow. This is amazing because I also dreamed up this same program for my utopian city and named it ‘Stocked for Life.
5) They have a cat cafe.
Another key component of any utopian city is a place to drink coffee and hangout with cats. Copenhagen has Cafe Miao, which has the added bonus of selling cat-shaped food items!
Find the cat:
My mom hates this photo, but the cat looks great:
Well, there you have it - the secret to happiness. Another highlight of Copenhagen included climbing 70000000 stairs to the top of this church and seeing beautiful panoramic views of the city:
[Another note - now that I am in Amsterdam, I’m officially discontinuing the one-post-per-day thing, as I need to read articles and write papers. However, I am hoping to start a new series entitled “Apple Pie Update” in which I eat a slice of apple pie, provide an in-depth analysis of said pie, and then share what’s going on with my life. This should be a frequent occurrence, as I love pie. Stay tuned.]