Day 32 - Godmorgen

Since Spain is pretty much closed down for Holy Week, I made last-minute plans to hop over to Copenhagen, Denmark, which brought us Lego, Carlsberg beer, $7 cups of coffee, coed bathrooms, and blond hair and blue eyes.

Some observations based on the in-depth knowledge I’ve acquired in one day.

These relief sculptures above the main door of the Danish parliament, show people in anguish and pain, which are meant to symbolize the utter misery involved in trying to get laws passed. No sugar coating here.

This is a highly bike-centric place, with 600,000 people and 700,000 bikes. When it snows, the city government clears the bike lanes before they clear the car lanes.

The food is very pretty.

Everything is really expensive. I found a decent hotel and minimized the cost by choosing a room categorized on the hotel website as “tiny.” Which it definitely is. This is the bathroom, which is actually just one large shower with a sink and toilet in it. Hey, I’m on a budget.

But the deep thought for today is this. Our tour guide this morning kept emphasizing how happy Danish people are, with their fantastic lifestyles, their candles and their hygge (look it up if you’re not familiar with the term). But during the tour she also mentioned that there is one state-sanctioned religion, which the government supports financially so they have services every Sunday even if no one shows up, all of the schools, both public and private, teach the same state-approved curriculum using the same text books, the population is 20% immigrant, but most of the immigrants come from other European countries, and 80% of the laws are passed with unanimous consent. Not judging at all here, but there’s also something to be said for messy. 

Yes, there really are coed bathrooms. Get used to it.