Trip Report: Love The Danish.. And I Don't Mean The Pastries!

When I first learned that I could travel to Copenhagen, Denmark for a mere $360, thanks to the wonderful offer by SAS (Scandinavian Airline System), I was simply elated. After all, you usually pay that amount to fly to Los Angeles or San Francisco from New York. So it was between the choice of seeing my friends in either one of the two Californian cities or befriending tall blue eyed and blonde haired guys named Gukki or Per. Clearly that was a very tough decision to make.

Disappointingly, after spending four days here, I didn’t see many tall, blue eyed and blonde haired guys. Apparently I got the countries mixed up. It is Sweden that breeds those high cheekbones, model-like specimens. I did see a lot of sunshine and picturesque sites however. Believe it or not, the weather was nice throughout my stay here. In fact, I got a tan on my last day here. Yes, a tan from a Scandinavian country in early April! The weather was chilly (40s-50s) but the sun kept shining.

Being the first country to legalize gay marriage back in the early 80s, Denmark is a liberal and progressive country that has always adopted a "live and let live" policy. It is a country with approximately 6 million people. About 2/3 of them live in the capital city, Copenhagen. There are no must see monuments or structures here, but the city is definitely worth a long weekend trip. From sitting in a café to walking around the old city, you will experience the side of Copenhagen that the locals seem to enjoy.

Danes love to bike. You will see bicycles everywhere. It is very much like Amsterdam in that regard. It also has a few canals, but nothing that rivals those of Amsterdam. But what makes this city so special is the friendliness of its people. In fact, many Danes would claim that they are the friendliest people of the three Scandinavian countries. According to them, perhaps a tad biased, the Norwegians are reserved and the Swedish all have attitudes (after all, they all look like models so they must act the part too). You will also find it easy to communicate with the Danes since most speak English fluently. You can even find a few English channels on the Danish telly. This was very much unlike Turkey, where I had a VH1-like Turkish channel on 24/7 and fell in love with one of those Turkish dance tunes that were overplayed.

I found Copenhagen to be a very expensive city. To experience the warmth of the Danes you will have to put up with the super high cost of visiting the city. A hotel room the size of a closet costs US$70 a night, a cup of small regular coffee costs US$3, a lunch with three open-faced sandwiches and a small bottled water costs US$30, and a train ride that lasts up to half an hour costs US$22. In fact, this is one of the countries with exceedingly high income and sales taxes. But some locals told me that when they retire, the government would take care of them. So the high taxes are all worth a secured retirement I guess.

I also found Copenhagen to be a very safe city. Of my four-day visit here, I only saw a handful of homeless people. You can walk on the street in the wee hours of the morning without being mugged, but most people would rather pay the high cost of taking the cab because it is usually too cold to be walking outside.

On the third day of my visit, I took a half-day trip to Malmo, Sweden. I was hoping to meet some tall blonde Swedes but unfortunately, due to its proximity to Copenhagen, many people there looked like the Danes. There was really nothing spectacular in Malmo. They had some streets for shopping and a couple of town squares. There were also some museums and palaces that were not that historically significant. I guess you have to travel up north to meet the stereotypical Swedes or flip open a fashion magazine.

All in all, I enjoyed my short and costly trip to Copenhagen. For those who are interested in going, check out the SAS website for off-peak season fares that start at US$360. Off-season periods are anytime with the exception of late spring and summer (May-Sep). Even then it could be a little breezy in Copenhagen, or any Scandinavian cities for that matter.