Hej København, Danmark & Malmö, Sweden!

It's been a little while since I went to frigid northern Europe (two weekends ago) so I apologize for leaving out the details! Tara, Rita, Mike & Myself journeyed north to the land of taller mostly blond people, pastries, perfectly pronounced American English, darkness at 4:30 in the afternoon, flatlands, canals, and more and more bikes!!

So it's true, visiting Denmark and Sweden in November means that the days are short as it gets dark around 4:30. Regardless, we were kept busy in these amazing countries. First, we arrived at night in Copenhagen and bought tickets to Tivoli, a really really cute carnival park thing in central Copenhagen. The place was decked out for Christmas, complete with thousands of Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and Danish Christmas treats and even a laser light show. We walked around in the -1 degree C temperatures and sipped on hot wine with spices, a Danish specialty drink that keeps you quite warm.

The next morning we woke up early and rented bikes which is the main mode of transportation in Copenhagen (like Amsterdam, Netherlands). Lucky for us it was a Sunday so the bike commuters weren't out so we could ride leisurely without angering the locals. We rode everywhere, stopping to take pictures at the scenic spots--Copenhagen is an overwhelming beautiful city with pituresque colored row buildings on canals with a thin layer of snow that dusted all the streets, buildings and trees. We rode through a park with a castle and went to visit the famous Little Mermaid Statue that inspired the author of the story and eventually, the Disney film (the statue is surprisingly tiny). Even the areas of the city that were supposed to be more industrial were beautiful and clean. And Danishes in Denmark are THE BEST ever (though only we refer to them as 'Danishes' in the States). Danish, Swedes, and most Nordic countries in general speak incredible English with more American sounding accents rather than British--their school systems start teaching them when they're 8 years old. Danish and Sweden are complex sounding, but very unusual languages and the only phases we picked up were "Hej!" (Hello) and "Takk!" (Thank you.....which I noted is the title of teh Icelandic Sigur Ros's album).

So the city of Malmö, Sweden is only about a 20 minute train ride from downtown Copenhagen, so we figured, what the heck, let's go to Sweden for the afternoon. We wandered around a bit in the cold, saw pretty things and also the "Turning Torso" building, the tallest building in all of Sweden and a modern architectural feat. That night we ate cheap Chinese food....which was odd and seemed out of context. On the train ride back to Copenhagen, we made friends with the NICEST Swedish guy ever who was one of the train conductors. He had a long blond braided ponytail which was entertaining. When we parted ways we informed the man that he was the nicest train employee that we've encountered in all of Europe (which is a lot, believe me!) and it made his day.

I also appreciated the huge emphasis on environmentalism in both Denmark and Sweden, which are among the cleanest countries in the world. Malmö is working on initiatives to becoming one of the most sustainable cities in the world. And the people are among the friendliness I would say, along with the Dutch.

We had a very interesting experience in our hostel in Copenhagen. It was us four Americans staying in a room with one of guy, who we hadn't really spoken to and we didn't know where we was from. So we were all chatting in up one night in the room and the guy, after not speaking a word the day before, asked us "Are you Americans?" So we said yes, and asked where he was from and he answered "Iraq". Then followed an awkward pause in the conversation. We eventually learned that this man's parents both worked at the Iraqui consulate in Copenhagen and that he frequently flies up to visit them, but he was headed back to Iraq the next morning. We exchanged passports to look at and tried to talk with him a little bit despite his broken English. But still there was that feeling of 'oh gosh, what do we say?' How do you tell someone 'um, so sorry my country screwed up your country?' It was an interesting learning experience and I had wished we had more time to talk with this man about life, politics, our cultures. Each hostel we've stayed in has led us to learn a little something new about the world through its people.


So those were the highlights of the weekend. I'd love to return to the Nordic areas someday, but preferably in the summertime! I was sad to leave so soon and return to the congested chaotic streets of Milano, though with each week that I'm here, I see more of Milano's redeeming qualities which I've grown to love.

Ciao mi amici!