Denmark was a last minute addition to our itinerary. We were due to kick off our journey in Hamburg on July 1, a day after my exchange ended. But when our teachers ended school two weeks early, I jumped at chance to complete the Scandinavian trinity. On our first day, we decided to extend our four day trip by one day and shave a day off Hamburg.

The first thing we did after unloading our monster backpacks, the first order of business was renting a bike. We blew a third of our budget on these (200 kroner) but it was worth every last ore. While the number of bike stores here is astounding, there are definitely significantly fewer bikes on the road compared to the Netherlands. In four days of biking, I can only recall one time where I was stopped at a light with more than five people. The traffic system makes a lot more sense here than the Netherlands and apparently bike theft is not nearly as rampant.

Sunday, we headed to the hippie hamlet of Christiania. The town nestled in the thick of downtown Copenhagen is Kensington Market on psychadelic drugs, equally dependent and disgusted by the voyeurs fascinated by their hallucinations. While its residents shun society, it also has bars with slot machines and mass-made merchandise. We had the fortune of coming during a summer music festival (and the misfortune of coming during the Roskilde Festival.) It feels like the only place in the world where you can see a Nikki Six clone fronting the type of band that would cover Springsteen and Bowie while hippie chicks danced wildly in front of them. Or where a Danish hippie selling ethnic jewellery get into a completely non-sensical argument with his female Thai partner and end in them making out wildly at their salesbooth. Or where an old woman knitting hats explains to you that the natives from Greenland have drinking problems but they love them here at Christiania anyway.

The extra day we put towards a day trip to Helsingor, better known as Elsinor in Hamlet. The trip was purely to pay hommage to the high school curriculum in Ontario. The royal apartments were surprisingly boring (probably because all the riches of the Kronborg Castle were plundered by the Swedes in one of their many wars;) All the action lay in the casemates where the felons, soldiers and all-around general ruffians cavorted. The tour was less literary, more medieval but one of the few times history has come to life for me.

Copenhagen is the most livable city I have been to yet. The ex-pats I have been do not seem too enthused about the Danes, whom they describe as cold and reserved but I am not discouraged. This city makes the list of places I would want to live, hands down.

posted by vicky at 10:39 pm under Denmark, Europe
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