Eesti
After my heavy travel season last months I’ve now been catching up with friends, studying a lot, discovering the city with my lovely visitors and partying properly. So I’ve just enjoyed my life and have done nothing special, really.
But as I’ve been living abroad for quite some time now, I have discovered a few things I still get impressed by that are done in a different way here than back at home. It’s been fun discovering and getting used to these strange habits on my own and even though I should be used to being surrounded by different kinds of people and culture, it’s been a great struggle at the same time.
As it took me about 5 months to find out what’s special about Denmark, I’ll tell you my findings:
- Biking – I knew it’s kind of a big deal here as the first thing I ever bought in Denmark was a bike not groceries BUT it’s even more insane than I thought it would be. Stats say that around 50% of Copenhageners arrive to work on bicycle EVERY day, come rain or come sunshine AND bikers are much more important than cars or people on sidewalks. They (we.. I!?) have special elevated roads for bicycles. I mean, if I was to use my bicycle in Estonia, I would most probably get killed by crazy car drivers but here.. Biking is an actual activity and the best way to get to places… also way faster than using cars or public transport as no street goes without a special road for bikes AND Copenhagen is just small enough to have everything around 20-30 minutes bike ride away. AMAZING!
- RAIN – I’ve always thought I’m more of a person who should be living in Spain or Australia or Africa. Therefore, in a country where sun is constantly shining and rain is just for cooling down a bit YET I came to Denmark. Some random websites indicate that on average Copenhagen accepts 600mm of rainfall per year, or 50mm per month also meaning on average there are 171 rainy days per year, meaning 14.3 days per month. So, basically every other freaking day I leave home knowing it might be raining today (yep, my best friends these days are wellies and a raincoat) and it sucks. Fortunately, I’m not living here alone, so everyone has to deal with it and eventually I got used to it but it can be extremely annoying sometimes when scheduling the BBQ-ing with friends and ‘oh wow’, it’s suddenly raining. Not fun, Denmark, not fun!
- Brunch culture – OH MY! The best culture ever. As I’ve been told now it’s also pretty common to go for a brunch in Germany too but I literally had no clue that this whole ‘let’s-eat-lunch/brekky-together-in-a-cozy-place-with-good-food’ is such a big thing here. Copenhagen has a lot of small cafeterias where you are very welcome at any time of the day but the best moment to go is every day between 8-12AM where these places offer a special brunch menu. What they offer depends on a place, of course, but the overall idea is the same – pick some food, chat with friends and enjoy. I LOVE IT. If Denmark weren’t that expensive, I’d be brunching every day. My very favorite place is Mad&Kaffe (the pronunciation is ‘mal’ – how weird??! And translates as ‘food and coffee’) which is a quite popular place for brunch. You can never book a table there and have to wait in a queue depending on a day maybe even for an hour but it’s so worth it. They give you a menu from which you have to pick how many small dishes you would like to have (3, 5 or 7) and bring you what you want. I usually go for a delicious avocado, amazing blueberry yogurt with toppings, cinnamon bun, chicken and porridge. AND besides that you can order home-made lemonade and coffee. I could talk about all the great food for ages but if you ever wonder where to go in Copenhagen, give me a call, text message or whatever and I can provide you with a huge list of places where to go for a brunch.
- Money – I’ve been living in Italy, travelled around the world and seen a lot of different currencies but coming from Estonia and euros to Denmark and kroners sucks extremely badly. First of all, Denmark is an expensive place to live. Their average gross salaries per month are around 5000€ (around 38000 kroners), so it does make sense to feel extremely poor here when the average for Estonia is 1100€. I’ve more or less never spent less than 20€ for grocery shopping and it doesn’t even include chocolate…. how sad? But I guess you have to get used to it eventually. Secondly, as said before, Denmark has its own currency. SO ANNOYING. The exchange rate from euro to kroner is around 7.4. I just dislike going to a shop while all the prices are in this weird currency and because of that I almost always get a heart attack when I see the final sum I have to pay. When the number is 180 kroners it just feels an extreme amount to pay.
- MobilePay – what is that? In 2013 Danske Bank created the MobilePay app to address the need for very simple money transfers. Basically meaning that transferring money to friends and businesses is as easy as it is to send a text message. And guess what, it’s working perfectly here. People use MobilePay everywhere; from design markets to usual groceries and friend-to-friend transfers. I can’t wait for this to come to Estonia. Seems so easy and quick and convenient. No need for cash even when you are at a random design market. It currently works only for the Danish people with Danish bank accounts though.
- Canteen system – Canteen is actually our cafeteria here at CBS. But what makes it special is that it has very few staff compared to usual cafeterias as here it works on the grounds of honesty when paying. You go for your lunch, take a juice, some salad and a bread and go to an automatic cash register, where you register your purchases using bar code and pay whether in cash or by card. Quick and easy. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a queue for more than 2 minutes. Isn’t that amazing? To prevent fraud, of course, there are some random controls and you can’t finish your purchase before some staff member has concluded your purchase as valid but it still works quite well.
- People – every country has its own culture and people. For some reason, the men here are extremely hot. It could be that it’s very common to wear suits daily – isn’t that cool? I love that formal stylish look. Furthermore, their personalities are probably more similar to an Estonian than to an Italian, so for me it has been much easier to relate to this culture and understanding of life than it was in Italy. Oh, and I haven’t seen a Dane who would not be able to speak English. Besides that, the Danes tend to hide themselves during the rainy season somewhere inside but as soon as the sun comes out, they are everywhere. Literally. I was shocked when the first sunny day came around. I went for my evening run and there was no place where you wouldn’t spot a local – sitting next to the canal, on a bench, on the Islands Brygge ground area etc.. They love sunny weather and they just gather together with friends, have a beer, talk, enjoy and just sit outside.
- Tivoli and parties – I love Tivoli. It’s in the middle of the central city with a wall around it. Keeping in mind it’s in the city it’s much bigger than it seems to be. It has a lot of carousels for every taste (I was kind of disappointed that not too many that actually got me excited but it was good enough) but probably mostly fun for kiddos. Other than that, Tivoli is definitely a must visit place just because it has such an amazing atmosphere, lots of restaurants and it turns into a wonderland as soon as the evening comes. It has a lot of little lights on the trees and on each Friday and Saturday throughout the season there is a band performing in the evening. You just have to love the vibe of the whole place. Besides Tivoli, I have discovered myself from a lot of parties. It’s a shocker, I know. But for my own surprise, I’ve mostly been to techno parties here (to which I previously never went on purpose) and those are way better than the ones with mainstream music. You just have to experience the atmosphere of Culture Box or go to this INSANE event called Distortion where you can dance on the streets from 2PM to 2AM.
I bet there are many other interesting things here in Copenhagen but as no one wants to read an article that is 10 pages long, I had to stop somewhere. I’ve loved my way of getting used to this culture and I do think it’s something everyone has to experience at least once in a lifetime to appreciate more of what you might have at home.
Ciao!
Lisanna
Photos: Lisanna Pihlak
Editor: Kärt Mättikas
