Searchin' for the meaning of "higher education" in such places as Finland, Oxford, Portugal, South Africa, and Athens, Georgia, USA.
The (mis)adventures of academia, travel, culture, and the best cup of tea.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Copenhagen is a beautiful Scandanavian city!






After a nap, we were off to discover and explore the charming city that is famous for bacon (yes, that is right, Bacon). Luckily, the Danish have decided to preserve the ageless beauty of the city and there are endless spires, copper topped architecture and statues. We found ourselves a cute little danish cafe with brilliant pepper cookies, gingerbread and danish pastries (we visited this cafe everyday.) The Nyhavn harbor is the most beautiful Scandinavian harbor I have seen, even under the grey skies, the color of the boxy 17th century buildings were popping (see top photo). The Danish are bike-friendly, in fact they have bike lanes all over the city and during rush hour you are more likely to be run over by a cyclist rather than a motor-vehicle. Copenhagen is cheaper than Oslo, so we splurged and had ourselves a nice dinner at a Mediterranean buffet for 69Kroner = $12US.

Denmark is also known for it's socially liberal views and one of the "tourist" attractions is the self-governing, free city of Christiana. This shanty-town began back in the 70's as a "social experiment" for hippies, artists and musicians, now it has become a city of 1,000 who peddle drugs and drink heavily. Walking through the free city, we saw numerous people with blurry eyes at different stages of nirvana. As we walked down "Pusher Street", the main drag (no pun-intended), a gang of policeman sauntered past us, packin' big guns. Just recently, the police enforcement of Copenhagen have decided to crack down on the hash market in Christiana, you might have seen this on CNN.

5 comments:

The Gaslight House said...

“The Danish are bike-friendly” – I completely agree. And they look happy riding their bikes, unlike some bikers I saw in other European cities who give you the feeling that they are just forced to ride their bikes because they don’t have cars – ooppps...

Did you notice how blue the Danish’s eyes are? I mean, a really nice, bright, noticeable shade of blue. My classmate thought it is because of the water there or something. :-)

We went to Copenhagen last February, just before moving to Finland. So you didn’t go to the Carlsberg Visitors Centre? My classmate deleted all her photos, just because I refused to drink my free beer. Long story!

-- Catherine Batac

About Me said...

Hey Catherine! Thanks for checking out my blog...I'm sure you can relate to many of my posts. I did notice that there were some beautiful men in Denmark with funked out hair. Those Scandanavians LOVE the hair gel. No Carlsberg for me...I'm a wine drinker, but my mates went, without breakfast and they were quite happy after the FREE beers.

fanatic4u2 said...

Hey Leasa... I take offense to the mates with no breakfast comment... I had a cup of coffee. Doesn't that constitute breakfast? But I was QUITE happy afterwards, breakfast or no breakfast!! = )

Ali said...

Why does everybody look so crooked at the pub photo!! Then you have to mad jumping frogs in the next one! LMAO... we did have fun!!!

bnsweimer@gmail said...

Copenhagan looks like a beautiful city. I, also, wanted to add that the photographer takes really great pictures. It certainly adds to the commentary, which I must say is very interesting. I really like the facts and details. I know you don't tell us everything, but......Oh, so you enjoyed a little of their Danish, sweet or nonsweet.