Why Denmark isn’t on everyone's list of places to see is beyond me. This place is absolutely stunning, breathtaking to be precise. If I had to return to NZ tomorrow I would be satisfied with the sights I have seen in the last two weeks (that’s a lie, I want a job, an inner city apartment, a black bicycle with a basket on the front and way more memories than I currently have but it did sound good).
Currently the most impacting aspect of Copenhagen for me is the historic buildings and their beauty. I know it sounds odd talking about old brick buildings being beautiful but if you were here you would understand what I’m getting at. It’s the arty decorative features, the way the buildings continue off beyond your line of sight. The fact that they don’t tower over your head like a modern sky scraping city is refreshing. The bicycles lining the sidewalks and quaint street lamps are like ornaments on a mantle piece, the cobble laid streets like an elegant hallway rug. I was warned about the rubbish in Copenhagen – that it tarnishes the backdrop, honestly, there are cigarette butts lining the gutters – but it fits the scene for some reason and adds to the atmosphere (speaking of adding to the atmosphere – if theres smog here I’d say it has a strong connection with the amount of smokers - non smokers are the minority by far!) You will find bottles in the bushes and food wrappers gathering in the corners but I’ve only noticed this occasionally – it certainly does not lessen the impact of this beautiful city!
Coming from a country which is so young I am in such awe of the age of everything around me. Any building, art, statue or land feature younger than 80 years is considered new around here. Every town and suburb is surrounded with beautiful old houses with so much character it makes our Mt Eden houses in Auckland look entirely bland. I am definitely a fan of the old - give me a character house in Denmark over a flashy modern one any day. I am also totally blown away by the amount of apartment buildings. I guess they would need a lot considering the local law of being no more than 6 stories high (to preserve the historic skyline). Even the 'new' buildings have been designed in a traditional way blending in seamlessly with the historic ones. I still find it amusing seeing flash cars, traffic lights, people riding bikes with their ipods or talking on cellphones in amongst the history. I knew I wouldn't find horse drawn carts but that would definitely complete the experience!
I’m trying desperately not to be an obvious tourist. My camera is hidden away in my handbag (not around my neck). When it comes out, it is swift and precise and disappears straight back into the bag again. I don’t know why but it’s a big deal to me, to look the part. I strongly believe that the best travel experience is the least obvious one, the best memories made when mixing with the locals doing totally ordinary things. In saying this there is no other way to record these memories than to be a snap happy tourist so it’s a balance I'm working on. I must say though, I am fully enjoying the advantage of being blonde and blue eyed in a largely blonde, blue-eyed culture. Finally I feel like I belong somewhere. I’m not the whitest person by far and my freckles are a common trait here YAY!!!
As you would expect in Denmark, home of the Danes, everybody speaks Danish to me in the shops and so far I haven’t given away my foreignness, a few well placed and well practiced Danish words and the knowledge of Danish numbers (to understand how much I am being told to hand over at the counter) have helped me escape identification so far. In saying that though, I made a minor scene on my first bus trip yesterday. I asked for a ticket to Herlev (said heirloo – my suburb) you're meant to ask for a certain number of zones but I panicked and forgot how many zones it is to the local town (one, duh!) when the little machine pumped out my change, I dug around for a bit trying to retrieve it when the bus driver showed me to knock a lever and the change fell into my hand. “you’re not Danish are you” he comments with a smirk. As if his smirk wasn’t bad enough I turned around to several more quickly diverting away out the windows. So I lied, I have been detected but I'm getting better. I discovered that if you wear your ipod earphones no-one talks to you at all, even though half the time I don’t actually have any music playing (I still want to know what's going on around me I just don’t want anyone to ask me any questions). I walked home from town that day. It’s so weird walking past such old houses, on an old cobbled sidewalk, in an old town with people riding past on old cycles. The ‘old’ thing is new (ha ha – ok it’s a lame joke but its so true!) I took lots of footage of my local town which I'll post here when I figure out how.
Anyway the photos are finally uploaded. I won’t say anything about them here but eventually I will add a label to each one so you can get an idea of what they were/are about. You can click the link on the right (Rachel's photo albums) to go to my picasa website to peruse through at your own pace.
Danish Lesson for today…
DANISH: Jeg forstar det ikke, SAID: yigh fourstaw de eager, MEANING: I don’t understand
Farvel! (farewell)
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