The first few days in Copenhagen!

June 20, 2022

The first few days in Copenhagen!

Hi All! Wow wow wow. We’ve seen so much in the few short days that we’ve been here. There are so many people out enjoying the city at all parts of the day. The feeling of life in the streets is really incredible. Rain or shine we see people out biking and walking. Really the amount of people on the streets is kind of mind boggling. In Eugene, I always feel like a second class citizen on a bike; I’m competing for space with cars, there’s never enough lighting when I need there to be, and I have to rely on others for rides to get to specific places. Here, a whopping 50% of Copenhagers commute to work or school on a bike (Welcome to Copenhagen Tourist Information). Waaayyy back in 2016, only 6.2 of Euginians commuted by bike (Eugene Weekly). Today, we sat at a cafe for a few hours, and the number of cyclists and pedestrians VASTLY outnumbered the cars that came by. It was an astonishing realization.

City life also spills out from cafes onto sidewalks, with cute tiny tables just big enough for two cups of espresso. This can make the sidewalks feel tiny, especially when you're walking and talking and passing two people who are talking, past a tiny table! Every single block we’ve walked on has had at least one cute small eatery (to be fair we are staying in central Copenhagen). This city life happens in parks too, and the first night we were here, we brought our dinner to a big park by our hostel. It was a sunny Saturday evening, but I was still amazed by the number of people there! It felt like everyone and their mother! Literally, actually a lot of extended families gathered there to picnic and hang out. Pretty sure it’s legal to drink in public here, because that was a popular pastime in the park (kinda jealous not gonna lie, this seems like a great way to enjoy an evening)!

Every time I see a cargo bike here I’m astounded! They’re really expensive in Oregon, and so aren’t very common, and people don’t usually ride in them either. Here, it’s really common to bike a friend around in your front basket. I’ve seen dogs, three children with ice cream, a mom and two children, and two kids under an umbrella in the rain, all getting carried in the cargo hold! It really seems like the superior way to travel, getting to enjoy the ride and watch the world pass by. I saw a teen sporting a cargo bike out with friends, and we all thought, having the cargo bike must be like being the friend with a van!

A long time ago, I read the book Soft City by David Sim (https://gehlpeople.com/shopfront/soft-city-bringing-density-for-everyday-life/). It’s an amazing book about the semi public spaces in Denmark, like shared courtyards and outdoor spaces. I’VE BEEN FINDING SO MANY ADORABLE COURTYARDS! A lot of them are hidden away behind gates and fences, but the ones I have seen are absolutely adorable. These courtyards are climate controlled and allow the Copenhager access to their own outdoor space in the dense bustling city. There are also so many balconies. I think embracing time outside when you can get it is really important for Copenhagers, which makes sense being so far north! While walking around, I was surprised by the number of plants growing everywhere! They’re so cute and make the city feel so much more welcoming.

While walking around the city, I noticed how abundant small grocery stores are! There’s two within a block of our hostel, and it’s made getting some groceries so easy! In Eugene it took me 15 minutes to bike to a grocery store (sorry Market of Choice, you’re too expensive to count). There’s also grocery stores near every metro station, which seems so useful and practical!

The street surfaces are fascinating too. There are tons of cobblestones, and I have to say, it’s kind of challenging to walk on! I can’t imagine how hard it would be to navigate for someone with mobility issues. The surface of the street tells what should happen there, cobblestone usually denotes pedestrians as far as I can tell.

In Oregon, the new mini cooper looks really small compared to all the other cars on the street. Here, it’s an average sized car! It’s not even on the smaller size! I think the roadways might be smaller too! There’s a base assumption that driving here is harder because of all the bicyclists. However, I’ve heard that the opposite is true. Having so many people biking is just that many fewer cars on the road, which is less traffic to navigate around. Additionally, there is such good biking infrastructure here that cyclists have their own space on the road out of traffic.

Some other observations include roses growing everywhere in the streets (and they’re all in bloom now too!), the amazing amount of snails in Christiana, so much more cigarette smoking, so many children everywhere (apparently Denmark had a baby boom during the pandemic, opposite of the US’s decline in births), and muted clothing with interesting pops of color (why is that one shade of green so popular?).