The Motherland!

Tied for number one on my list of places to go in Europe were Edinburgh and Copenhagen. As you know, I already went to Edinburgh. On Nov 20th, my friend John (from Wash U who is at University College Dublin) and I went to Copenhagen, where we had another Wash U friend studying (free lodging!). In the run-up to the trip, I realized I was a lot more Danish than I thought I was. The best I can tell, I'm 1/4 Danish, which is probably close to the most of any one of my ancestries. The stewardesses even started speaking to me in Danish when I got on the plane in Dublin. On top of that, I was Denmark once in Model UN. It's also a beautiful, sustainable, and bustling city. I was so excited for the plane to land. But the landing was full of trepidation. The airport is on a very small island next to Copenhagen and the runway nearly begins in the water, making it look like we were going to need to find the flotation device located underneath our seats.

My first impressions of Denmark were fantastic. The Danes are famous for design and architecture, and the airport is thusly beautiful. They are also famous for LEGOS, the best toy ever. They are also famous for sustainable energy, as evidenced by the large wind farm in the bay outside Copenhagen. The legos and windmills combined in the airport to form an awesome 10 foot high model of a wind turbine made from the blocks. I can hope that this is there all the time, but it could just be that the world climate change talks (COP15) are happening in Copenhagen starting December 7th (T-minus 1 day).

I quickly learned that there is no need to ever learn Danish. Everybody speaks better English than your high school English teacher, which helped out when I couldn't figure out how to use the non-English Metro ticketing machine. They don't even judge your when you have no knowledge of their language, they just happily switch over. I've heard rumors from American students that Danish is actually non-existent: Danish people just make noises at each other when they sense Americans around - to throw them off the scent.

Once we made it off the Metro at Nørreport station, we walked through the longest web of pedestrian streets in Europe. The buildings in Copenhagen are marked by red stone, elaborateness, and spires. Having not eaten since the morning I was starving. John and I found the best thing ever: the Fransk hot dog. In the hot dog stands found at nearly every corner, they sell these unique variations on the hot dog. They poke a hole in the end of a long "French" loaf of bread, squirt in remoulade (the Danes' flavoured mayo) and stick in the hot dog. I was beginning to love Copenhagen.

We made it to Baresso Coffee, a Danish Starbucks equivilent, to wait for our friend to get out of class. The Danes drink more coffee per capita than ANYONE, 4 cups a day, and because of that, it is really good. It is also very expensive, but EVERYTHING is expensive there. Don't let the currency fool you (where 7 Danish kroner equal 1 Euro); it's like buying pineapples in Alaska, except in Copenhagen and the pineapples are everything.

With the sun waning fast (since we were at the 55th parallel above the equator and it was nearly 3:45), Nick, John and I went to possibly the most interesting place to see in Denmark - Christiania. This is a 40 hectare area in Copenhagen that was a run down barracks in the 70s, until hippies, artists, and recovering addicts stormed it. Ever since then, they've claimed Christiana as a Free State and run their own community. Besides the occasional raid by Danish police, it's pretty autonomous. Autonomous enough to openly and clearly sell hash on the side of the road. They have flea markets, music venues, and homes there. I have no pictures because there were signs every 5 feet reminding you not to take any. I've heard stories of people's fancy SLR cameras being knocked to the ground 'accidently' when the photographer is framing a shot. Christiania is a weird place, but it seems like it's kind of been a successful commune. Only in Scandanavia.

For a cheap dinner, we went to find some schwarma. That was the best kebab I've had. We found the one store that sells things for cheap (think Aldi) for some fruit and beer and made the bus trip to Nick's place, which is about 4 miles from the city centre. Public transit here is great. There is an extensive bus network and several different categories of trains that form a web through the metropolitan area. Beyond that, there are bike paths next to every road - separated from the car streets by a kind of half-curb - and thousands of bikes everywhere you look. Nick claimed to have 3, all of which disappeared during the time we were there. We went to hang out with some of the American students in his program and had a good time. On the way back though, I learned the 1 bad thing about Copenhagen: racism. We were asked by a young black guy if we knew the bus system. Nick did and helped him out. This kid had been passed up by half a dozen buses he waved down, purportedly because he was black. Even though he was half Danish, he was treated as an outsider and non-person. He had lived the US for a while and was nearly begging to get back. He was articulate and personable, and it seemed to get him nowhere in Copenhagen. He actually might be the Danish Malcolm X in a few years, after his speech about how if we all cut our arms we would bleed the same colour. That was a sobering experience. A place can't be all good after all.

Aside from that incident, the first day in Copenhagen was amazing. I felt like a puppy bounding through a field!