In between being the 2014 European Green Capital, having forward-thinking goals to be CO2 Neutral by 2025, being the biking capital of the world, and spring making everything alive, Copenhagen has been really busy lately showing me exactly why I came all the way here for. School is now over, and with final exams behind me Copenhagen is still not done schooling me about sustainability. I just finished my Sustainability in Europe program but its time to walk the walk.... or bike the bike! The other day me and Jakob went on a date and I spotted the ¨Go Green Copenhagen Map,¨ which has been such a good resource for discovering the city.
If you come to Copenhagen and don´t plan to experience the city via its vast network or Green Parks then you´d be missing out on perhaps 90% of Copenhagen. They are ingrained in the culture of living in the city. It´s a nice day out? Then gather all your friends and go to Kings Garden with some beers. It´s a cloudy day out? no big deal, get your best friend and go take a walk to the park. Parks, public space, and green havens are integral to the make up of the city, in fact. Every neighborhood has one, every user has one. To Danes, the park is like the mall is in America. Public gatherings, picnics, music festivals, hanging out.... everything happens at the park... everything happens with your friends. And now that everything is so green and colorful from a case of Spring I decided to bike around the city and explore some of the parks that make Copenhagen green, likable, and perfect.
If you come to Copenhagen and don´t plan to experience the city via its vast network or Green Parks then you´d be missing out on perhaps 90% of Copenhagen. They are ingrained in the culture of living in the city. It´s a nice day out? Then gather all your friends and go to Kings Garden with some beers. It´s a cloudy day out? no big deal, get your best friend and go take a walk to the park. Parks, public space, and green havens are integral to the make up of the city, in fact. Every neighborhood has one, every user has one. To Danes, the park is like the mall is in America. Public gatherings, picnics, music festivals, hanging out.... everything happens at the park... everything happens with your friends. And now that everything is so green and colorful from a case of Spring I decided to bike around the city and explore some of the parks that make Copenhagen green, likable, and perfect.
Here my favorite green spaces I went around the city to:
Kongens Have
Don´t wanna look for a park, you are tired of any other places, or just wanna make a quick pit stop to outside lounging? then this is the park for you. My absolute favorite for reasons that can´t be explained. It is so so so close from my school that coming here for a relaxed afternoon is ideal. And, if you are looking to come people-watch for some of the hottest specimens on all of Scandinavia, sun-bathing shirtless in the grass, then really, look no further. No surprise to me and everyone involved this was the first park I checked out once I picked up the Go Green Copenhagen Map. The park itself is designed for royals, with sweeping diagonal walkways lined with trees fit for thousand kingdoms.
I´ve really left great memories here, especially when me and Jakob came here for my birthday with some beers, sat around with the sun caressing our face, me caressing his face, he caressing mine. I made flower crowns and looked at the sway of leaves from the trees. On my last weekend in Copenhagen we circled all the way around to suddenly discover why I liked this park so much. Besides having the most charming Dutch Renaissance castle right in the middle (that´s right), it also has a flower garden, a rose garden, a puppet theater, a moat, a labyrinth garden, and large grass spaces that make you feel happy inside. But of course, there is a huge bonus when you realize that all Danes gather here on nice days. It really dawns on me. When the clock turns 5 o´clock everyone quite literally stops what they are doing and heads outside. It is refreshing to live in such a culture.
I´ve really left great memories here, especially when me and Jakob came here for my birthday with some beers, sat around with the sun caressing our face, me caressing his face, he caressing mine. I made flower crowns and looked at the sway of leaves from the trees. On my last weekend in Copenhagen we circled all the way around to suddenly discover why I liked this park so much. Besides having the most charming Dutch Renaissance castle right in the middle (that´s right), it also has a flower garden, a rose garden, a puppet theater, a moat, a labyrinth garden, and large grass spaces that make you feel happy inside. But of course, there is a huge bonus when you realize that all Danes gather here on nice days. It really dawns on me. When the clock turns 5 o´clock everyone quite literally stops what they are doing and heads outside. It is refreshing to live in such a culture.
Ørstedsparken
Also so close to my school, this park has something about it that kept me coming back. It is a nice shortcut if you want to cut toward Frederiksberg but good thing that it is beautiful too because we all know the sweet deal you get when you live the best of both worlds (see: Hannah Montana). It was raining a little bit when we went but that is no big deal, we voted to go here regardless for the vast cover of trees that could keep us dry. Plus, there is nothing funner than embracing the rain drops, sneaking around finding different shelters and hopping over puddles. We bought pizza and decided to walk to it to eat it. What a great decision. I specially love going outside just after it rains. The smell of wet soil, the happy singing of the birds, and the shining droplets upon green leaves are some of the things I expect to see in heaven. I still remember that first time I stepped into the park after wandering around in the city with my bicycle the second week I had gotten here, it was particularly nice; the feeling of having left the rest of the city and into a green oasis was incomparable; it surprised me. You sorta enter through gated doors and once inside I forgot I was in Copenhagen The park is named after the Danish physicist who discovered electromagnetism: Hans Christian Oersted. So, besides being pretty it is also relevant But I do find it ironic that the park is so artistically designed. There are beautiful sculptures of Greek and Roman gods outlining your experience of the park and a walkway that meanders up-and-down and across a bridge and a lake. On a nice summer day there are a lot of people climbing up its playgrounds, laying on the grass, and walking around exploring the extensive selection of flowers and trees that make the park pretty. Me and Jakob could only sigh at the beautiful views of the lake over the overcast sky. By the time we finished eating our pizza slices it occurred to us that we had stayed in the park for longer than we had wanted to. And that why, ladies and gents, this park is a good pit stop.
Staunings Plads
Realizing that we had spent too much time in Ørstedsparken, we finished the winding trail and left the park from the other side eager to find more green spaces in the city. Staunings Plads has nothing particularly special to it, it is a small little triangle plaza in-between a busy intersection. But when I saw it I had to cross the street and go take a look at it. It represents a large extent of the urban design initiative in Copenhagen. The leaves of this vine beautifully invade the facade of this bricked building. To me, from across the street, it looked like a majestically orchestrated dance, an embracing hug, a building grabbing a blanket of leaves to feel cozier.... I parked my bike and looked at the visual poetry of the scene. The small street that is truncated has been pedestrianized, and now many cyclists use it to cut from one street to the other. You add the cobble stone, the small plaza, and the blue sky and you have the whole entirety of Copenhagen rendered in this one little block. I had to stop... but then I kept going.
Folketsparken
There are so many things happening at this park that it made it so enjoyable to find the low hanging cover of a tree, sit on a log and listen to the light rain bring the place to life. I had arranged to meet with Jakob here so I waited for him. I was so excited to see him again and tell him about how beautiful the rain was. A little kid and his mom came to the park to play on the deodesic dome. He was having so much fun with his rain boots and the water. The park sort of feels like a reinterpretation of the movement of house squatting by idealistic young hippies in the early 1970s. There are all sorts of things in the park that make it look occupied by the neighborhood. Then I turn around and learned that Folkets Hus (The People´s House) is right in the corner of the park, a place that aims to reclaim decrepit and unused real estate, transforming abandoned spaces into cultural centers and living quarters available to all for free. The whole park has a huge communal feeling, which is translated directly from many of the courtyards and housing projects in Copenhagen. And that is why I like it, because when you step into the park you feel like you´ve stepped into a fun community. Even in the rain I saw people gathering, bikes parked, and mothers bringing their kids to play.... by the time Jakob got there I was already feeling it. We greeted each other with nice smiles and headed for some coffee. Meeting at a park, feeling communal, biking from one place to the next, a beautiful blonde boy, going to get coffee... When did I become Danish? and when did I like it so much?
On our way to find a coffee shop we even passed this community garden. Looks like someone has been growing beautiful tulips. God bless their soul!
On our way to find a coffee shop we even passed this community garden. Looks like someone has been growing beautiful tulips. God bless their soul!
Korsgadehallen
One good thing about biking in Copenhagen is that 1. it´s the best way to commute in the city, everything feels close together and reachable and 2. you experience the city in a completely different way; you can stumble into interesting things and cut through hidden alleyways that lead you to things like this. As I was biking to the next place I passed by this casually and had to stop. Nørrebro is not exactly overflowing with sports and recreational facilities, and a beautiful green roof is really hard to pass by noninterestingly. I had studied this building in my 20th and 21st Century Danish Architecture class but never thought I would pass by it on my Green Copenhagen tour. How perfect. Ans so is this green space, it lies between Korsgade and Åboulevarden, and this is where a top modern sports and cultural center is springing up from the ground. What was formerly a flat plot has been transformed into a hilly landscape with new plantings and facilities for new kinds of activities. In the winter, brave souls can sled down the hill's gentler slopes, and in the summer people can sun themselves and relax on the hilltop. You can see me hiking on top of its roof in the pic above. It brings you all the way up, above the other buildings in the neighborhood. With the stormy wind, the gray sky, a slight sunshine, and the wild growth of grass, the experience you get is one of a kind.
The sports and cultural center itself is inside the hill, below ground. Five large windows cut into the slope ensure contact with the outdoors and the sun. The new sports and cultural center has room for both organized and unorganized activities. This is intended to prevent social problems by giving the quarter's children and young people an exciting place to spend their time. And this is so relevant to the Danish context where functionalism and sustainability have take center stage as design parameters. The place is so so so so multifunctional that one cant help but sigh in relief this is something humans have constructed. An afterschool program was inhabiting the courts inside, there was gardening happening on the stair of the sloped roof, I was sitting there enjoying the view while other kids were playing up and down the hill on the other side. Everything was happening here, what a nice way to bring architecture into our green world.
The sports and cultural center itself is inside the hill, below ground. Five large windows cut into the slope ensure contact with the outdoors and the sun. The new sports and cultural center has room for both organized and unorganized activities. This is intended to prevent social problems by giving the quarter's children and young people an exciting place to spend their time. And this is so relevant to the Danish context where functionalism and sustainability have take center stage as design parameters. The place is so so so so multifunctional that one cant help but sigh in relief this is something humans have constructed. An afterschool program was inhabiting the courts inside, there was gardening happening on the stair of the sloped roof, I was sitting there enjoying the view while other kids were playing up and down the hill on the other side. Everything was happening here, what a nice way to bring architecture into our green world.
Assistens Kirkegård
I´ve been hearing wonderful things about Assistens since the first week here that I am surprised it took me this long to make it inside and admire its splendor. I remember vividly the first week in Copenhagen when my friend Rachel and I stumbled upon the cementary at night after a nice day of exploring. We dared each other to go in a venture, we made it perhaps 5 feet inside, saw the long walkways get lost in the darkness, it was cold then and we were quickly scared. This is how Americans get killed in the movies, I said. So we told each other we would go another time when it was green and sunny. Oh, how absolutely and completely wrong was I. Not that Denmark has no crime, but it is one of the safest places I have ever experienced in the world.... Regardless, I finally made it in with a reputation of being one of the green spaces in the city where people come gather in the summer time, lay picnics, and look at flowers.
It didn´t disappoint. Besides being an important greenspace in Norrebro, it is the burial site of a large number of Danish notables like mermaid extraordinaire Hans Christian Andersen, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr and a number of American jazz musicians who settled in Copenhagen like Ben Webster. Woah, deadly and beautiful. Me and Jakob bought falafel and walked inside the cementary for a long time, stumbling upon really funny tomb stones, tomb art, and funky tomb pieces. We would sneak around the graves and around trees, it was really silly and super fun. I had never gone to a cementary to hang out before. The whole concept just sounds morbid. But here, this green space is utilized. Living and dead experiencing the world in unison. Sounds like the next Tim Burton movie doesn´t it.... maybe that is why I like the place so much.
It didn´t disappoint. Besides being an important greenspace in Norrebro, it is the burial site of a large number of Danish notables like mermaid extraordinaire Hans Christian Andersen, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr and a number of American jazz musicians who settled in Copenhagen like Ben Webster. Woah, deadly and beautiful. Me and Jakob bought falafel and walked inside the cementary for a long time, stumbling upon really funny tomb stones, tomb art, and funky tomb pieces. We would sneak around the graves and around trees, it was really silly and super fun. I had never gone to a cementary to hang out before. The whole concept just sounds morbid. But here, this green space is utilized. Living and dead experiencing the world in unison. Sounds like the next Tim Burton movie doesn´t it.... maybe that is why I like the place so much.
We would walk around trying to decipher who these poor dead souls were. Uncovering the details of their tombs, reading their words, admiring the sculptures. It felt childish and happy at the same time. I even snapped this beautiful shot of spring flowers. Check it:
BanaNa Parken
With a name like BanaNa Park you have to understand why just why this park caught my attention and why I bothered everyone about going to go check it out. I went bananas. And finally I got a chance to go see it.
You bike down this generic neighborhood with the charming low-raise houses dancing down the street. Then you turn on this side street and boom, there is his huge climbing wall which looks like an archaeology museum puked a boulder full with graffiti, murals, architectural elements, and climbing. And that is just the entrance of the park.... It is quite an impressive structure, like a processional arch of the funnest proportions. I went on the middle of the day, when kids and their grandparents were enjoying the park to the fullest. Besides the climbing wall and arch lawn, a wood, banks of earth and a lot of community involvement, this park was transformed from a former industrial site into an attractive park and playground. How refreshing. When I went in, there so many kids in the park having fun that it wasn´t hard to feel happy like a room without a roof. There is a variety of street furniture to encourage people to stop and linger and the park is linked together by an asphalt loop which can be used, for instance, for cycling or roller skating. Park design is so relevant. Or you can stand in the middle of the road and have a kid almost run you over while he smiles so genuinely you cant help but hop to the side with happiness. I´m the park made it to the list, which in turn made it to mine.
You bike down this generic neighborhood with the charming low-raise houses dancing down the street. Then you turn on this side street and boom, there is his huge climbing wall which looks like an archaeology museum puked a boulder full with graffiti, murals, architectural elements, and climbing. And that is just the entrance of the park.... It is quite an impressive structure, like a processional arch of the funnest proportions. I went on the middle of the day, when kids and their grandparents were enjoying the park to the fullest. Besides the climbing wall and arch lawn, a wood, banks of earth and a lot of community involvement, this park was transformed from a former industrial site into an attractive park and playground. How refreshing. When I went in, there so many kids in the park having fun that it wasn´t hard to feel happy like a room without a roof. There is a variety of street furniture to encourage people to stop and linger and the park is linked together by an asphalt loop which can be used, for instance, for cycling or roller skating. Park design is so relevant. Or you can stand in the middle of the road and have a kid almost run you over while he smiles so genuinely you cant help but hop to the side with happiness. I´m the park made it to the list, which in turn made it to mine.
Don´t worry, I know you are wondering where the banana comes from. To my disappointment, there was an average of zero banana trees at the park. So no luck there, there remains only to be potatoes in Denmark. But here is why: there is a banana-shaped mound! You can go up it with your tricycle per the kid who was there did, and slide around on the slope to then end up laughing in the grass. What a treat. In the end, the park is fun and silly. There are fruit symbols on the floor, bold colors on the wall, and cool infrastructure for all kinds of activity, including a green lawn so nice it makes you want to get a ball and invite your friends over for a game. |
Blågårds Plads
You have to walk through this plaza on an afternoon when its sunny outside. If you refuse to do that you refuse to see what Norrebro is actually all about. The neighborhood gets a bad rap for being a ´ghetto´expect I am pretty sure Danes have 0.0000% clue about what an actual ghetto looks like... On afternoon I passed by here and there was a lively game of soccer being played in the center. They had even put up colorful flags that you can see in the picture. Everything was so festive. People were cheering, kids were playing, and every bench was occupied by loud and dynamic conversation. It´s all you need from your neighborhood park. You can really feel the energy of the people being together. The fact that the hip cafe spills out to the street is only one small sign that the park works and that people are playing soccer and appropriating the space with their own decoration points to successful ways of occupying public space that create positive community development. Hurray!
Valbyparken
With what I am going to call my very own ´Park Crawl´ that I have been doing (and that you have been reading about so far if you got lost along the way once you got to this part) around Copenhagen I saw a lot of little community parks smacked into neighborhood to give the experience of the city a touch of personality and livability. A small green space in the city goes such a long way in rendering a lovely picture of how community can become united through public space, nature, and leisure. They bring the city alive. But, as with any other human being and their selfish desire for more more more, all the green had me craving for something bigger and better. The solution to my craving: Valbyparken, the largest park in Copenhagen, fully equipped with a rose garden, various playgrounds, H.C Andersen´s oriental garden, a see shore, a kitchen garden, sweeping wild prairies, diagonal tree-lined walkways.... woah. Was it heaven?
Some of my friends had started to leave already so I took this time to both grieve on the upcoming end of my experience and recollect all the awesome memories I have made in Copenhagen so far. It was the perfect location. The park feels like a retreat (which is what every park should be making you feel like; I wish parks could take notes). It is a little off form the city center but nowhere where my bicycle and the train cant get me through. In fact, I like that even better. You sorta have to plan a day to be outside. You have to plan for a day to be with nature, a day for yourself. It ended up being a treat. My end of the semester prize. Unlike the more posh squares in the center filled with tourists and the more well-to-do, the park is in a more affordable area, which ended up making it so much more lively. It was a beautiful days and all families (and I do mean all) were outside in this park. Some had brought their BBQs and were grilling, other had brought their soccer balls to entertain the kids. The playgrounds were filled with kids jumping from one stick to the next. The sound of the runners hitting the gravel was like a lively beat in the background. Yet in some parts the park were so quiet and seclusive.
It almost felt like a hike without the sweat and the random bug bites. At the end of the trail you approach the water where heaven and earth must meet because I was breathless. I sat by the shore for hours, sketching, collecting wildflowers, and looking at how the seagulls dive into the ocean to catch fish . I would laugh every time they would miss. On my way back I stumbled into the rose garden, which meandered its way the same I have during my stay in Copenhagen. It was such a beautiful day that day. This park went inside of my brain and gave a real nice hug to the real me.
Some of my friends had started to leave already so I took this time to both grieve on the upcoming end of my experience and recollect all the awesome memories I have made in Copenhagen so far. It was the perfect location. The park feels like a retreat (which is what every park should be making you feel like; I wish parks could take notes). It is a little off form the city center but nowhere where my bicycle and the train cant get me through. In fact, I like that even better. You sorta have to plan a day to be outside. You have to plan for a day to be with nature, a day for yourself. It ended up being a treat. My end of the semester prize. Unlike the more posh squares in the center filled with tourists and the more well-to-do, the park is in a more affordable area, which ended up making it so much more lively. It was a beautiful days and all families (and I do mean all) were outside in this park. Some had brought their BBQs and were grilling, other had brought their soccer balls to entertain the kids. The playgrounds were filled with kids jumping from one stick to the next. The sound of the runners hitting the gravel was like a lively beat in the background. Yet in some parts the park were so quiet and seclusive.
It almost felt like a hike without the sweat and the random bug bites. At the end of the trail you approach the water where heaven and earth must meet because I was breathless. I sat by the shore for hours, sketching, collecting wildflowers, and looking at how the seagulls dive into the ocean to catch fish . I would laugh every time they would miss. On my way back I stumbled into the rose garden, which meandered its way the same I have during my stay in Copenhagen. It was such a beautiful day that day. This park went inside of my brain and gave a real nice hug to the real me.
Bispebjerg Kirkegård
Still not over the idea that Danish cementaries are actually not cementaries (they are public parks where people happen to be burried at), for my last stop on my green extravaganza I decided to make a stop to Bispebjerg. It attracted me even more because in an neighborhood with the highest middle eastern population. And with Danes not being too good with the whole immigration thing I felt curious to experience this area of the city through green space. So I grabbed my bike and headed over. Someone should´ve told me that the place translates to ´The Bishop´s Mountain´ because for the past 3 months Copenhagen had trained me in bike lanes flatter than my feet. Getting there was a struggle, but arriving was a treasure. It was definitely one of the cities most beautiful spots. Walking through the place felt like navigated a flower-grown labyrinth. Unusual and beautiful place flowers reminded me of how much I would miss it all. My life at that moment was so peaceful: a woman walking her dog in the wild flower prairie, a couple holding hands in the long walkway, a man sitting on a bench feeding birds by the fountain, a couple putting flowers on a grave, and me, experiencing the city, getting myself immersed into a beautiful culture and a beautiful country.
Carry on Copenhagen, you are green, you are charming.
Carry on Copenhagen, you are green, you are charming.