Today was my first day getting down and dirty with Copenhagen so naturally I got lost, tried delicious danish pastries, made new friends, and made my first attempt at trying to understand the metro.
Where to even start!
On the day time the small town I live in, Måløv, is much cuter than I first thought. It is very close to the metro station, which is such a plus when winds like today where ruling the city in a monarchy where I was no more than a peasant to the elements. The whole bike thing still surprises and excites me. I strongly recommend you don't walk on the bike lane in the sidewalk because you might encounter an angry bike bell and a nice little wake up call at 8 AM as you feel lucky to be alive after a bike just missed running you over. Not that it happened to me or anything.... I hope that, when the weather is warmer, I can get a bike and make good use of it. There is a nice nature reserve, and a couple of parks that I can see from my room on the top floor of an apartment complex. There is already an extensive list of many unplanned places I want to stumble upon during a bike ride. Having a bicycle and taking it to the city seems like the best way to get around in Copenhagen. I mean, it was some sort of negative degree temperature today with the windchill and people (woman, men, kids, the barista, the soccer mom, the suited up employee, a cute little girl with a head-to-toe pink ensemble) still used the bicycle to commute!
I met some enjoyable friends at the metro stop who were all going to the DIS orientation, so we hurdled together and headed over. Copenhagen is what my life partner should be: consistent, has a good profile, inviting, a fun touch of creative energy, green, and cozy. The main city is incredible: streets leading into each other, the organic sense of architecture and light. Not like Rome where streets are all over the place, or London where buildings fold into one another. Everything feels drawn in, as if the city too is hugging itself because it is cold and gloomy. Whereas I have been in plenty U.S cities with a main emphasis on the verticality of downtown skyscrapers and the skyline of bridged and over arching structures, Copenhagen has a horizontal quality. Windows align endlessly with each other down the street in a picturesque manner, rather than to the sky. The streets curve, making you want to find out just what is around the corner. If you are into any type of architecture, really any, sticks and stones or windows on a wall, then Europe is definitely the place. Buildings crawl into you and suddenly you are looking at an incredibly elaborate theater or massive classical columns holding the pediment of a Great Hall, or a back alley of windows and overgrown ivy, or an all glass building with interesting patterns. It never stopped.
Now, here is the tip of the day: always carry cash with you, and organize all the important document you need in one safe and sound spot. You don't wanna be that person that holds the line because you've been swiping the door lock with your train pass instead of your ID or who can't buy anything to eat because (surprise), they don't accept dollars at the sandwich shop, and who shows the train ticket-checker your passport instead of your train pass so now she knows how unprepared I was when I took my passport photo. Not that any of those happened to me either..... The tip is also useful because today, for example, the whole credit card system was down in the city so every place was only able to process cash for any purchases. Regardless, the currency is kind of cute too, so you may as well use it: coins have fancy medieval etchings on them that make you feel like you are a Renaissance man, and the bills are color-coded and sized into minimal designs.
At the end of the day I went back home with my NEW friends. We decided to hang until it was time for dinner so I walked over to my friends house.
Danish houses are very cute inside. Essentially just open an IKEA catalogue and that's it: my friend Elsa's house, where she lives with a host family, is in the Danish version of a suburb except the houses are interesting enough that they are charming like no other. Naturally we watched GIRLS. When it was time to head back I was all like "yeah I know how to get back, watch me." Good thing that the neighborhood is a maze full of identical row houses because 2 minutes in and I was lost. I went down one end and there was a set of row houses with big open windows and concrete masonry that I had never seen so I headed back. I took another route and I was suddenly in a bridge over a highway I never remembered crossing. I went back and took another route where I ended up in a pedestrian roundabout. I didn't panic or anything, I was actually kind of involuntarily enjoying it. The houses had nice back and front gardens. Stacked buildings with big windows where ideal for peaking in to all the Danes living their life, cooking dinner, smoking a cigarette, and playing games on the computer. Suddenly it was cold and dark so I stopped some people who were walking past me to ask for directions. It was an older couple and they didn't know much English. I said something like "I come in peace, can you please show me to the Malov statio." You could see they were able to click in some words from their vocabulary. In the US, it is a little weird that a stranger in some small suburb would stop someone on a dark street to ask for directions to a far away station. They would've just brushed it off and point to some general direction. But, the couple seemed to embrace the moment. They told me to follow them, since they were heading that direction, to make it easier for me to find it. I was hesitant because I didn't want to make them feel like I was bothering them but soon enough they were trying to communicate with me and asking a lot of questions. I told them where I was from and what I was doing in Denmark. They just smiled. It was noticeable that we didn't have much in common besides probably the color of our hair. I said "are you guys from here originally? I am from El Salvador" and I was greeted with an odd expression that said "um, yeah we are from here what is even that question." It is definitely different coming from both Miami and Pittsburgh where people are from so many diverse places that the question "where are you from?" holds some ground. But not here, not in a small suburb in Denmark. I would've let that just made me give up but then we started talking about the cold weather and how different it must be from Florida, handball and how Denmark beat Spain, how I am studying sustainability and all of the cool sites I must check out, how we both couldn't buy anything because the credit card system was down in all of the city.....
Today I was out of my element but I didn't let that deter me from a meaningful experience. I think finding yourself in unfamiliar situations is very rewarding. Me and this older Danish couple shared laughs and smiles, and soon enough they had directed me to the station and we said good bye. Turns out I am not as socially inept as I thought!
Where to even start!
On the day time the small town I live in, Måløv, is much cuter than I first thought. It is very close to the metro station, which is such a plus when winds like today where ruling the city in a monarchy where I was no more than a peasant to the elements. The whole bike thing still surprises and excites me. I strongly recommend you don't walk on the bike lane in the sidewalk because you might encounter an angry bike bell and a nice little wake up call at 8 AM as you feel lucky to be alive after a bike just missed running you over. Not that it happened to me or anything.... I hope that, when the weather is warmer, I can get a bike and make good use of it. There is a nice nature reserve, and a couple of parks that I can see from my room on the top floor of an apartment complex. There is already an extensive list of many unplanned places I want to stumble upon during a bike ride. Having a bicycle and taking it to the city seems like the best way to get around in Copenhagen. I mean, it was some sort of negative degree temperature today with the windchill and people (woman, men, kids, the barista, the soccer mom, the suited up employee, a cute little girl with a head-to-toe pink ensemble) still used the bicycle to commute!
I met some enjoyable friends at the metro stop who were all going to the DIS orientation, so we hurdled together and headed over. Copenhagen is what my life partner should be: consistent, has a good profile, inviting, a fun touch of creative energy, green, and cozy. The main city is incredible: streets leading into each other, the organic sense of architecture and light. Not like Rome where streets are all over the place, or London where buildings fold into one another. Everything feels drawn in, as if the city too is hugging itself because it is cold and gloomy. Whereas I have been in plenty U.S cities with a main emphasis on the verticality of downtown skyscrapers and the skyline of bridged and over arching structures, Copenhagen has a horizontal quality. Windows align endlessly with each other down the street in a picturesque manner, rather than to the sky. The streets curve, making you want to find out just what is around the corner. If you are into any type of architecture, really any, sticks and stones or windows on a wall, then Europe is definitely the place. Buildings crawl into you and suddenly you are looking at an incredibly elaborate theater or massive classical columns holding the pediment of a Great Hall, or a back alley of windows and overgrown ivy, or an all glass building with interesting patterns. It never stopped.
Now, here is the tip of the day: always carry cash with you, and organize all the important document you need in one safe and sound spot. You don't wanna be that person that holds the line because you've been swiping the door lock with your train pass instead of your ID or who can't buy anything to eat because (surprise), they don't accept dollars at the sandwich shop, and who shows the train ticket-checker your passport instead of your train pass so now she knows how unprepared I was when I took my passport photo. Not that any of those happened to me either..... The tip is also useful because today, for example, the whole credit card system was down in the city so every place was only able to process cash for any purchases. Regardless, the currency is kind of cute too, so you may as well use it: coins have fancy medieval etchings on them that make you feel like you are a Renaissance man, and the bills are color-coded and sized into minimal designs.
At the end of the day I went back home with my NEW friends. We decided to hang until it was time for dinner so I walked over to my friends house.
Danish houses are very cute inside. Essentially just open an IKEA catalogue and that's it: my friend Elsa's house, where she lives with a host family, is in the Danish version of a suburb except the houses are interesting enough that they are charming like no other. Naturally we watched GIRLS. When it was time to head back I was all like "yeah I know how to get back, watch me." Good thing that the neighborhood is a maze full of identical row houses because 2 minutes in and I was lost. I went down one end and there was a set of row houses with big open windows and concrete masonry that I had never seen so I headed back. I took another route and I was suddenly in a bridge over a highway I never remembered crossing. I went back and took another route where I ended up in a pedestrian roundabout. I didn't panic or anything, I was actually kind of involuntarily enjoying it. The houses had nice back and front gardens. Stacked buildings with big windows where ideal for peaking in to all the Danes living their life, cooking dinner, smoking a cigarette, and playing games on the computer. Suddenly it was cold and dark so I stopped some people who were walking past me to ask for directions. It was an older couple and they didn't know much English. I said something like "I come in peace, can you please show me to the Malov statio." You could see they were able to click in some words from their vocabulary. In the US, it is a little weird that a stranger in some small suburb would stop someone on a dark street to ask for directions to a far away station. They would've just brushed it off and point to some general direction. But, the couple seemed to embrace the moment. They told me to follow them, since they were heading that direction, to make it easier for me to find it. I was hesitant because I didn't want to make them feel like I was bothering them but soon enough they were trying to communicate with me and asking a lot of questions. I told them where I was from and what I was doing in Denmark. They just smiled. It was noticeable that we didn't have much in common besides probably the color of our hair. I said "are you guys from here originally? I am from El Salvador" and I was greeted with an odd expression that said "um, yeah we are from here what is even that question." It is definitely different coming from both Miami and Pittsburgh where people are from so many diverse places that the question "where are you from?" holds some ground. But not here, not in a small suburb in Denmark. I would've let that just made me give up but then we started talking about the cold weather and how different it must be from Florida, handball and how Denmark beat Spain, how I am studying sustainability and all of the cool sites I must check out, how we both couldn't buy anything because the credit card system was down in all of the city.....
Today I was out of my element but I didn't let that deter me from a meaningful experience. I think finding yourself in unfamiliar situations is very rewarding. Me and this older Danish couple shared laughs and smiles, and soon enough they had directed me to the station and we said good bye. Turns out I am not as socially inept as I thought!