I’m in Denmark!

I’ve continued onto the second leg of my journey (in a three country study abroad trip) and took a long flight from the tip of South Africa to Denmark just a few days ago.

Of course, with every shift in country, one must adjust to an entirely different culture, and these two countries couldn’t be any more different. I am excited to explore these differences as I learn more about Copenhagen and dive deeper into them on my blog as the next six weeks progress. But the only way one can truly understand a culture is by trying to immerse themselves into it as deeply as possible. I personally like to do this by exploring the city by foot and stumbling into hidden jems along the way.

My first few days have been filled with orientation, so I haven’t had much of an opportunity to explore as of yet. But, yesterday was my first time walking around the city alone, and a couple minutes into my walk I had to go to the bathroom. I entered a restaurant and sat down on the toilet. I started adjusting my half broken glasses when they broke into three pieces and fell into the toilet.

Then it started downpouring.

Great first start to a new country, amiright?

I wasn’t sure where I was or how to get home at that point so I figured the best thing I could do was continue on and try not to be too upset about an unavoidable situation.

As I walked through the cold and rainy weather I ended up at the architecture museum and they had a special exhibit on kid’s spaces and how this fits into the larger sphere of city planning in general.

The main reason why I came here was to look at Copenhagen from an urban planning perspective. I’ve always heard that it is a beautiful city, extremely accessible via bike, and overall an equal society. I thought it would be interesting to explore how a society like this functions and why it has developed this way.

Coming from South Africa, where apartheid ended only 25 years ago, in which around half of the population is living in poverty, and race relations continue to be tense, Denmark is a drastically different place.

Why is Denmark considered to be one of the happiest places in the world? Does it have to do with their history? Is it the fact that they have free education and healthcare? Are happiness and equality linked? Is it because they’re homogenous and everyone shares similar ideas and therefore there’s less discourse politically?

I’m not so sure as of yet, but I do have some theories that I’m planning on exploring further.

Most of all I am interested in exploring the link between South Africa and Denmark. I also am going to look at the connection between the other countries I’ve been to and here. How are they different, and why? Do their histories largly determine their current societies? Are the histories and cultures of different countries related in some sense, and what is the underlying truth that exists in our world as a whole?