COPENHAGEN: I saved Copenhagen for last since I spent the
most time there – 3 days before and another day after the cruise. Maybe because I got to spend more time there,
I was thoroughly enchanted. Copenhagen
is a beautiful, cool city, with a nice vibe, cool architecture, an amazing bike
culture, and even a cool hippie/commune section of the city (Christiania).
Also,
like most of the rest of Europe (and, honestly, most every country in the world
outside of America), there were virtually no grossly overweight/obese
people. I’m sorry, but it’s nice to not
have to see that. Okay, I’m not really
sorry. Of course the same is true in
China so it’s now been some time since I’ve been around a plethora of
obesity. Yay.
In
fact, Copenhagen is full of beautiful people – the Danes are indeed a pretty
race, with lots of scruffy (but clean), blond-haired, blue-eyed boys (and girls)
that makes people watching even more of a treat than usual. Ha!
The
city itself is beautiful, too – clean and green, with a beautiful blue sky
(except one day when it rained) – which was certainly
a welcome change from China! The studio
we rented faced a canal (one of many) bordered by a nice green lawn with
beautiful, colorful trees in Spring bloom.
There were plenty of swans and other white birds on the water, along
with paddle boaters and other folks enjoying the Spring weather – seriously, it
was like living in a postcard. J
And
the sun never goes down! Seriously, it
wasn’t fully dark until like 11pm. Kind
of messed with my head a bit, actually.
I
also loved the architecture and history.
The Danish monarchy is the longest continuous monarchy in Europe,
although of course the current ruler – Queen Margrethe II – wields no real
power anymore. While the architecture of
the palaces is not as ornate as, say, Peterhof or Versailles, they are still “elegantly
simple.” And the interior of
Christiansborg is quite beautiful.
While
it was kind of annoying they don’t use the Euro (yet!), more challenging was
their hard-to-distinguish denominations of coins and the fact that they use
coins even more than bills (I never
used coins in Guangzhou – seriously they had fifty cent and DIME bills!). While in the U.S. I commonly used 1s, 5s,
10s, 20s, and even sometimes the odd 50 or 100, in Denmark, I really only saw
50, 100, and 200 Kroner bills. Whearas I
was often trying to make out the difference between coins of ½ Kroner, 1
Kroner, 2 Kroners, 10 Kroners, and 20 Kroners.
Speaking
of money, Denmark – as well as all the Scandinavian countries – remains insanely
expensive; especially after spending a year in China. But that old saying holds true of “you get
what you pay for” as the Danes rank among the happiest people in the world,
enjoy beautiful/clean cities, little violence/no school shootings,
fabulous/efficient/clean mass transit, good free healthcare, excellent vacation
time and family leave (for moms AND dads – my friend David and I were both
pleasantly surprised to see the number of Danish dads out with their
kids/pushing strollers), etc. There is a lot to like about America, but the
more time I spend in other countries (esp. countries like Denmark), the more
dismayed I am at just how corrupt, violent, and “unfriendly to humans” the U.S.
has become. I so wish my son – and my
nieces & nephews – could live in a cool, nice, happy, safe country.
I
would guess, all told, I probably spent a good four hours just “people watching”
while I was in Denmark. Partly, as
mentioned, because the people are just so pretty to look at, but partly also
because – and again, especially compared with China – everyone just seemed so
happy and active. There were always tons
of people out and about – even when it was raining: a lot of runners, lots of
dads with their kids (I swear I probably saw more dads out with kids than
moms), TONS of people out on bikes. The
Danish have an amazing bike culture – they are literally everywhere and it
seemed they almost outnumber the cars.
Their bike lanes are fully the width of a typical car lane, I kid you
not. Lots of folks had these cool bikes
that had like a little covered wheelbarrow attached to the front for groceries,
small children, whatever. Most of these bikes
apparently come from the hippie/commune section of the city called Christiana, which
is like a permanent Haight-Ashbury during the summer of love, with people just
chilling around the lake, smoking dope, or just hanging out/shooting the shit,
etc.
Perhaps
most astonishing is that when I left Copenhagen on my flight to Paris, my passport
was not asked for/checked once. I went
to a self-service kiosk to retrieve my boarding pass and get a baggage tag (by
inputting my name/confirmation number); I then took said bag to a drop-off
counter where they only asked for my boarding pass to confirm, then went
through security (again, showing only my boarding pass), and then boarded my
plane.
Even
more astonishing (to me), when I landed in Paris I didn’t have to go through immigrations
or customs or show my passport to anyone.
Now, doubtless, this was due at least partly to the fact I was on an
intra-European flight, but it was still jarring compared to the uber-security
state that exists in the U.S. now and especially
after spending the past year in China where you have to show your passport just
to get into a frickin museum.
A
few other random observations from my time in Europe: On more than one
occasion, I was presented with the “opportunity” to have Chinese food for a
meal (either on the ship or passing by a Chinese restaurant in, say, Paris),
and I actually considered it and/or thought, “Oooh, Chinese!” So even after a year of China, I’m still a
fan of the food, at least! Ha!
Also,
when I was leaving Zurich for Bangkok, I noticed that the flight leaving from
the gate across the way was headed for Hong Kong and I reflexively thought, “Ooooh,
Hong Kong!” – even though I’ve been four
times in the past year! Including
just within the past month! So there’s
at least one part of China I like! J
Coming
soon: Back to Asia – will a month in Bangkok turn me off the Thais and/or Thai
food? I’m guessing not. J
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