There is a brand of chocolate milk in Denmark that is called Cocio. It never struck me as being better than any other kind of chocolate milk — to me chocolate milk is chocolate milk — but their lattes in a can are to die for.
Decorative canals
In Orestad it seemed like there were a lot of canals, and that for the most part many of them seemed to serve no real purpose. I don’t think they were natural bodies of water or really served a water drainage function (though I could be wrong about that) instead to me they were just there for aesthetics, they were purely decorative canals. Put there because they looked pretty and made Danes happy in a weird suburban way. And if you ever need to get rid of a bike in a hurry they are a convenient place to dispose of it. (I did not dump my bike in a canal but I sure thought about it.)
Things Calgary can learn from Copenhagen
I recently got back from four months in Copenhagen and living abroad teaches you about what you love and hate about where you are from. I am proud that I come from a place that I think it worth visiting — although that goes down considerably during Stampede — even if it’s just because the mountains are gorgeous. Calgary has ample sunlight and nature abounds. The mountains hover at the eastern edge of the city and are a mecca of natural wonders. Then there are the eternal downsides, which are what Copenhagen has to offer. Calgary is a farce of urban planning. Single family homes and cars rule the day. Building an additional six C-Train stops was an impeccable feat that is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. Copenhagen on the other hand is a city designed to live in — both intentionally and unintentionally. That is partially what drew me to the city. Monocle published published an article raving about all that the city had to offer. I agree it is so very liveable. You do not need a car. Buildings are all about 6–9 stories high. Calgary has the opposite cars are almost mandatory and buildings are either a single family home or a skyscraper. Calgary wins on the sunlight factor. Copenhagen is known for grey days, which only got worse as we got deeper into winter.
- Metro: Copenhagen has a magical public transit network. You can get almost anywhere you want in the city fairly quickly by public transit. For me this mostly meant the metro, and on occasion the s-tog (s-trains) which are slower and serve areas just outside Copenhagen as well. Between the metro and the s-tog most parts of the city have access to quick and easy trains.
The c-train is great, if you live or work close to it but two lines for a city with a population of 1.2 million is a joke. Buses are painful to take during rush hour and get stuck in traffic. The west LRT is one thing but was long over due and only begins to scratch the surface of what is needed.
If Calgary was willing to see LRT infrastructure as an investment and good planning then perhaps we would be a better planned, more liveable city and fewer people would have to drive to work. - Night transit: In Calgary the bars always thin out around last train/bus. This is a sad sad situation. It would not be very hard to run trains every 30 minutes after 1 a.m. and it would leave Calgarians with far more options. In Copenhagen trains run around every ten minutes during the night. This seems like a very long time by Copenhagen standards — yes in Copenhagen trains run often enough that when you miss one you know another is coming very soon and ten minutes is a long time to wait.
- Quantity over quality in grocery stores: I was lucky to live within a two minute walk of three groceries stores. There was one in the building next to mine where it took longer to ride the elevator down than to walk to the store. There are small groceries stores very frequently meaning that almost everybody is within walking distance of a grocery store. Not everyone has as many choices as I did but they can hop out for some milk and don’t have to grab the car keys.
In Calgary I am a thirty minute walk each way from my nearest grocery store. I have little choice but to drive there. There used to be a Safeway a five minute walk from my house but it got closed down because it was too small and not competitive enough. The same thing took our library. We don’t need huge groceries stores, we need stores that stock enough to make dinner or lunch. I prefer going to the store quickly everyday or popping out for that one essential ingredient because it will take five minutes. I don’t want to buy a weeks worth of groceries just because my city is so poorly planned that I don’t live near a 7/11 let alone a grocery store. - Cycling: Everyone has heard about Copenhagen’s legendary bicycle lanes and cycling culture. It is said that there are more bikes than people in Copenhagen and I don’t find this hard to believe. Getting a bike after arriving was absolutely essential and was a huge part of my exchange. The first upside was that my bike was far cheaper than taking transit (a single fare costs about $4 CDN, which at a $1 more than Calgary at least you get what you pay for).
Copenhagen has worked hard to have the cycling infrastructure that it has. Bike lanes are present in almost all places, and where you don’t have them you don’t really need them. As much as everyone loves Copenhagen’s bike lanes, which don’t get me wrong are great, I do have one major problem with their godlike status: their elevated nature (they are between sidewalks and the road in elevation). I was always terrified of passing someone and going too far towards the edge and falling or trying to get onto one and missing the ramp and falling hard on my face and arm. I’ve heard horror stories of falls like this and though I never feared traffic I did fear that edge. I don’t mind Calgary’s bike lanes that are even with traffic. They could be wider with room for two bikes like Copenhagen’s are, but they leave you with the ability to leave your lane and enter the road easily if need be. Rumble strips could be a good way of creating a boundary without physically creating a boundary.
But more than their bike lanes is the attitude of Danes. Cyclists are king of the world, pedestrians yield to them and more importantly so do cars. The consequences of hitting a cyclist are enormous legally and generally there is an attitude of respect for cyclists. As a cyclist you don’t stop for pedestrians or cars because you are first priority. You are doing something sustainable and healthy, and also it is harder for you to stop. Everything is put in place to favour and encourage cyclists. It is impossible not to feel safe. Though riding downtown during rush hour can be a harrowing experience. It was like the Tour de France peloton but with much less effective breaks.
The biggest thing that makes cycling safe is that everyone is looking out for and respects cyclists. Drivers are so aware of cyclists that they would never hit you while turning and yield to cyclists without hesitation. Calgarians have a long way to go on this front. How many Calgary drivers shoulder check for cyclists before turning right? Probably about one or two per cent. How many drive in bike lanes to dodge traffic? Far too many — seriously they’re called bike lanes for a reason. We can put in all the bike lanes we want, and yes we should put in lots more, but if drivers don’t do simple things to protect cyclists then it will always be dangerous.
The other big difference is that in Copenhagen buses don’t pull into bike lanes (probably because they can’t) eliminating one of the biggest problems with Calgary’s bike lanes. If buses don’t pull into bike lanes then cyclists don’t have to worry about getting caught in a blind spot. Only bikes should go in bike lanes.
Calgary is starting to get more and more bike lanes and that is great. We should be putting them in in a lot more places. We aren’t going to become Copenhagen but we can at least start moving in the right direction.
There is also the upside of the Copenhagen fit. When you ride your bike everywhere you are generally in very good shape. You don’t have to think about going to the gym because you know that by just living your everyday life you are getting in more than enough cardio. You don’t have to worry about eating that brownie for desert because you will surely burn off the calories on the way home. - Regional trains: It is not exactly revolutionary to say that Calgary would be better off if there was regional train service or it had a Via Rail terminal but this hasn’t happened yet. I have no idea why this is.
Copenhagen is well connected to its surrounding area and like any good European city (or any sensible city) has a vast and efficient train network. You can hop on a train and get just about anywhere in Zealand, Denmark or Europe for that matter. The s-tog also serves the Copenhagen region and not just the city proper, so people living in suburbs and neighbouring communities can take the train to work instead of driving. Imagine if residents of Airdrie could hop on the c-train to get to work instead of the Deerfoot. Crazy right? Imagine if everyone in Fort Mac could hop a high speed train, or you and your friends could take the train down to Edmonton for a shopping spree at West Ed. How liberating that would be for high school and university students.
Neon signs
I always love riding up HC Andersen Boulevard at night and then coming across the bridge and seeing this set of neon lights perched above the rooftops. The colours were so bright and always made that part of my bike ride a little bit more enjoyable.
Bilka
There was a superstore across the street from us called the Bilka. It was a lovely place where you could find just about anything.
Fjallraven
Good news all, I have finally managed to scan my watercolours and figured out how to edit them so that they don’t look extremely pale — push the contrast in Photoshop.
My first one is of a Fjallraven backpack. Upon arrival in Copenhagen it became quite apparent that this brand was very popular and I spent most of the rest of my time there talking myself out of buying one. They are fairly expensive but also gorgeous.
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Update: I did end up buying one of these backpacks in a different style. I have a problem. It is beautiful and incredibly comfortable. I had my doubts but it seems I was wrong.
Autobus
We get into the cab and ask for the cab and ask for the bus station. In this initial encounter the driver gives off the impression of speaking far more English than he actually does. We pull out a map and once again say bus station while pointing to our destination. He still doesn’t understand. He starts driving off, we hope in the right direction.
Then we start throwing languages out there. One of my friends speaks some German and some Chinese. These fall flat. I speak French fluently. I start saying autobus and Francais and he perks up. He speaks French. Excellent.
From here I manage to explain that we are not trying to go to a hotel or hostel — I fumble for the word then remember it is auberge — but to the bus station. We are thankful to make it to our destination — especially since our bus leaves very soon — and I am pleased with myself. I conversed in French. I got us to our destination. Once I stopped being worried it was fun. At home I never have a reason to speak French but for some reason in Lithuania I am given the chance twice — the border patrol also speaks to me in French.
For the most part you can get by with just English while traveling, especially in Western Europe. But then my encounter validates my belief that one should speak at least two languages, and probably more. I have been thinking of learning Chinese or German or something else for a while. I feel two languages are not enough. It reminds me of how handy it can be to communicate with others.
My roommate has also been telling me that for him learning Chinese was as much about speaking the language as learning a new perspective. The language is much different than any European language and reflects the culture and nation that spawned it.
Then I think of university Spanish. I took two semesters of it because of a language requirement and remember how to say I don’t like cheese and ask where the beach is. The second semester went so fast that by the end I barely remembered the present tense. And to make matters worse it was marked on a ridiculously hard scale — my eighty per cent only earned me a B, with a ninety-four per cent required for an A. To say the least I wasn’t really invented in Spanish. I took it because it was supposed to be easy if you spoke English and French, and I had to do a language. In the end it was a lot of work.
Learning a language was tricky and one has to really be invested in it to put in the work. That is why I resolved to never take a language for academic credit ever again. That is why I didn’t take Danish language courses while on exchange in Denmark. That is why I barely speak Spanish.
I think that doing it on your own time is different. I would learn Chinese because I am interested in China. I wrote my honours thesis on Sino-American relations and would consider living there. It would be a project undertaken because I believe it to be valuable and enriching. Who knows maybe one day in a cab I will have a driver who doesn’t speak a word of English. Perhaps it will come in handy. After all speaking French is the reason we caught our bus.
I do not like rye bread
Rye bread is a big thing here. Everyone tells you you have to eat it, it’s the Danish thing to do. I fell for it. I bought into the trap of trying out Danish cultural things. I have an entire loaf of rye bread in my kitchen and I have made an informed decision that it does not taste good. Sure it has lots of nutritional value but it also tastes like it has lots of nutritional value. It tastes like eating seeds, and not in a good way. I regret not just going for the delicious (and potentially far less nutritious) white bread that I am so fond of. Perhaps rye bread is like wine you hate it at first and then if you drink enough it becomes tolerable and then if you drink more you might actually grow to like it — it is presumed that this processes occurs over a period of time longer than one night. Maybe. Probably not. I will let you know in about fourteen slices if I feel any better about rye bread. I know one thing for sure, it will not be on the list of things I miss about Denmark.
Rye bread update
Rye bread is better with just butter. It almost cancels out the nutritional value. Oh yeah.
Everyday is a winding road
So it has been a while since I posted on this blog. Too long probably. Traveling and school got in the way, but that is no excuse.
I had an awesome idea for posts a while back and I am going to try and put those into motion before departing this lovely city. My plan is watercolour sketches of my favourite things about Denmark and Danish culture like bike lanes, candles and bakeries.
One month
I have a little over a month left in Copenhagen, this crazy city that has grown quite dear to me. It sometimes feels like I am running out of time, that there are too many things I want to do still, neighbourhoods to explore, and baked goods to consume. I feel like one semester is not enough — but then again in life we only get so much time and we have to do the most with what we get.
I feel like I have begun to know this city very well. For the most part I no longer get lost — except when I go new places and have minor disagreements with my navigation app. I know which streets lead where, and where the cool coffee shops are. I have my spots and places that feel quite at home to me. I even now know of a place where I can take my bike when I get a flat — yes I have another one and don’t feel excited to deal with it.
There are still so many places to explore and so many readings left to do. One month and counting.
Christmas time in Copenhagen
Everything in Copenhagen seems to have become very Christmassy all of a sudden. One day I was walking down stroget and noticed that there are now Christmas decorations everywhere. They are in coffee shops and all over the place.
Danish Christmas decorations place a strong emphasis on hearts — hearts also appear on Danish money and in the Danish coat of arms — and garden gnomes — the second one I don’t quite get.
Now that fall is over it is quite a lovely time to be in Denmark. It may be cold and gets dark quite early but the Christmas feel is lovely.
Tivoli x Christmas
Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to got to Tivoli for Halloween but I have heard it was gorgeous. Thankfully I did get to go for Christmas and was impressed by how full out they go for their theme. The entire amusement park is covered in decorations, lights and fake snow. There is a Russian winter theme — Emily Gilmore approves.
Since first going to Tivoli I have come to appreciate it far more as a part of Copenhagen. It is in a fantastic location right between the central station and town hall. I ride past it every time I go into town. I overheard two Danish people at a hotdog cart discussing when Tivoli was going to reopen for Christmas.
Tumbling
I like to do my laundry in the morning, that way I know there will be no competition from others. I hate that feeling when you come back to the washing machines and dryers, and your clothes are no longer there.
In the house I grew up in there was one way to guarantee that you would get in a fight with somebody: move their laundry. The only exception to this was that if they were out of the house you could text them, ask permission, and then follow specific instructions as to what was to be done with the laundry. Outside of this a booming roar and the inevitable tension would arise.
Nobody touches my clothes. Nobody except sometimes my mother. Unfortunately she is the monster that eats your socks. Once she moves your clothes your favourite t-shirt will take a three month vacation to the Bahamas, and it will not be kind enough to send a post card.
I started doing my own laundry in grade six. I had this phase where I really wanted to wear the same t-shirt everyday (it was my favourite colour, and I later painted my room the same colour) but it had to be clean. After four nights of asking my dad to wash it for me he took me to the basement and showed me how to wash it myself. After that I did my own laundry.
I fear that one day a boy I am dating will ask me to wash something for him and I will flat out say no — and add please never wash my clothes, ever. It is a respect thing. I like you too much to move your clothes. Perhaps those boundaries will fade in a relationship but I will not have to deal with that for a few years yet.
The same applies even now that I live in student housing. Laundry continues to be a source of fun even though I no longer live with my family. For me it is not that bad. You just have to be strategic about what time of day you do laundry. Sundays are bad and early evenings are too. Mornings and after midnight are ideal. If your load finishes before you come to collect it it ends up in one of the bins. This has never happened to me, but I am afraid that it might. I am always too awkward to move somebody else’s clothes into the bin and will either wait or come back later. I struggle to turn the dryers on — mostly because the instructions are in Danish.
Some friends of mine live in housing that does not have as nice of a laundry set up. They have to book a time slot a week or two ahead of time. The only non-booked times seem to be on Friday and Saturday nights. Their laundry room is rumoured to be quite dodgy and is said to become home to uninvited guests hiding from the cold during the winter months. I count myself lucky that the only thing I have to wrestle with is the buttons on the dryer — one day I will win, one day.
Culture? shock
Before going on exchange I was warned that there was a chance that I would get culture shock, and find it strange to adjust to fitting into a different culture. This hasn’t entirely been the case. Ultimately the most confusing thing about Copenhagen is the zone system used on the S-tog and metro (mostly because the penalty for having the wrong zone ticket is almost as much as my bike cost and the maps are as clear as mud).
Overall most of the people I hang out with are international students — there aren’t a lot of Danish students in my housing and all of us English speakers seem to gravitate to one another. We are a jumble of people mostly from Australia, the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, as well as the Netherlands and Finland. There is really no natural culture amongst us. Some of us say elevator, while some of us say lift, while all of us complain about how slow it is — sadly I live on the top floor and have managed to paint several masterpieces in the landing while waiting for the elevator. We use different terms, with the Australians and Kiwis sharing a lot, and the Canadians and Americans sharing others. There is an on going disagreement on whether brunch is a favourite meal or a favorite meal — Americans do not use the British spellings of words.
Then there are other subtle differences. A Canadian invited me over for tea and I happily went over, while my Australian roommate fretted about showing up empty handed — apparently tea means a meal in Australia, whereas in Canada tea means a hot beverage. I never know whether to take my shoes off inside, usually it is split but I take them off because wearing them inside is weird. Apparently in Australia only lowbrow people drink beer out of cans or tins, whereas for me it is more efficient than having to clean out a glass unnecessarily. There isn’t really a culture to shock us, because we don’t really have a particular dominant culture. Sometimes differences are quite noticeable, other times they are funny.
Otherwise Danes are a very efficient and sometimes cold people. If you ask someone for help they tell you whether or not they can help you. That is all. Canadians are not so efficient. We are also far friendlier when checking out. One day I will train myself to stand stoically at the grocery check saying only ja and tak. No “have a great day” you crazy Canadian.
