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The Safko Copenhagen Page |
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"The Little Mermaid" - Copenhagen's most famous landmark
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The Safko Copenhagen Page |
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"The Little Mermaid" - Copenhagen's most famous landmark
I suppose it's about time we made a Copenhagen page. I guess after you've lived in a city for a while, you take it for granted. This page will probably be more of a Danmark (yes, they spell is with an 'a', not and 'e': See, you learned something already!) page than a Copenhagen page, but you'll deal with it because I'm so damn sexy! Besides, you really want to learn more about Danmark, don't you? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Ok, since most people don't even know exactly where Danmark is, I guess I should explain that first. Danmark is north of Germany and south of Sweden & Norway. There is the mainland part of the country, which is attached to Europe to Germany's north and called "Jylland" ("Jutland" in English). Danmark also has numerous islands, some of which are quite large. Copenhagen is on the island of "Sjaelland" (pronounced like 'Zealand'). It is right across the sound from Malmo, Sweden (you can see Sweden on clear days). The sound (called "Oresund") is the body of water that connects the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. FYI- Danmark is Europe's largest country in land mass. You probably don't believe me but it's true: Danmark also owns Greenland.
The people are generally very friendly, but it does take some time before they make friends with outsiders (but isn't it that way everywhere?). I have some really great friends over here now!
The official language is Danish, however I've only met a handful of people that do not speak English (usually older people). I'd say that 95% of the Danes that do speak English do so quite fluently. Danish television consists mostly of American TV and movies (with Danish sub-titles), which helps (or maybe hurts) their language skills. I'm still trying to learn Danish, but it's really tough since they just laugh at you and start speaking English. I'll keep trying, though.
The weather in Copenhagen really depends on the season. Winter is a very depressing time here. It is cold, rainy, (yes rainy, not snowy) and dark just about every day. The temperature is usually in the 30s and windy. Yuck! The entire first winter I was here (2000), I only saw snow accumulation two times. 2001 was a little better as we has snow probably 5 or 6 times. My feeling is that if it's going to be that cold and miserable, I'd rather it snowed all of the time so that I can play (rental cars are fun and I have no sidewalk to shovel). Unfortunately, the city is surrounded by water, so that tends to keep it a bit warmer. It just seems wacky since Northern Germany gets hammered with snow, and that's to our South. Anyway, the worst part is the lack of sunlight this time of year: on the shortest day, the sun comes up around 9AM and goes back in around 3PM, and it never really gets too far above the horizon.
Spring was almost non-existent in 2000. One day is was winter, and two days later, everything was
green and the temperature was in the 60s all week. The next week was 70s all week long.
May was absolutely gorgeous, and it turned out to have been the best month of
the year. I actually went to the beach and got a bit of a tan. 2001
was pretty much the same. The temperature ranges a bit (chilly some days,
warm on others), but it's never overly uncomfortable this time of year.
On to my favorite season over here: Summer. It's not nearly as warm as home, and I do miss that a little. The temperature tends to hover in the 70s and 80s, and very rarely gets into the 90s. Because of that, very few places have air conditioning, so the really hot days are uncomfortable but there aren't many of those days. You'd only need a fan for about 10 days out of the entire year, so they're really not all that useful. Remember the problem with Winter in that the sun was almost never around? Well, the inverse is true now. The sun comes up around 4AM and goes well after midnight. You can always see some light on the horizon. I love it! The days just seem to last forever.
Fall is pretty much the same as Spring. The leaves change a bit earlier than back home in the 'Burgh. It's pretty and all that crap. I just like this time of year no matter where I'm at because football (the American version, not that pansy-boy soccer crap) and hockey are starting!
Like the rest of Europe, the big sport here is soccer. Ok, it's not just the big sport, but for the most part, it's the only sport. What a bunch of ninnies. They have some hockey, but it's not nearly as popular as you would think (I thought hockey would be huge all over Scandinavia... Nope!). I have yet to find a recreational team I can play on. It's either a serious every day sport or not at all. Baseball is practically non-existent. What a strange world....
American Football is semi-popular. They have a league, but nothing major like in the States. The league has 6 teams spread around the country playing at the highest level. Copenhagen has one of these clubs, The Copenhagen Towers. I somehow managed to end up playing for this team. Yes, I really suit up in full pads 3 times a week between mid-April and the first week in October (with a month long break in July). We have a game almost every weekend. It's very competitive, and I'm loving it. Who knew I'd ever play tackle football at any nations highest level. I met some of the guys on the team at a bar (Southern Cross - The patrons here are rabid football fans: they understand the game and are very into it. It's almost like I'm back home every Sunday night during the NFL season!) that broadcasts NFL and NFL Europe games. I started going to their games and helping them out. Then I started participating in practice, and the next thing you know, I was on the roster. It's awesome, and it's helping me fight the effects the great beer over here is having on my body.
Copenhagen now has a fantasy football league as well. I started a league for the 2000 season. The first season was a huge success. The majority of the guys had never done it before, but did fairly well. Most of the guys were Danish, but we had four transplanted Americans in the league. It was so successful there may be a second league for 2001. I'm proud to say I'm spreading NFL interest on the other side of the Atlantic.
I know I'm married, but the one thing most people ask about are the women. The answer to the most common question is a resounding "yes." They ARE mostly blonde-haired and blue-eyed: They're also tall, thin (there are very few obese people here), and most are blessed with rather large breasts. I love this town! Oh yeah, remember earlier when I was so excited about Summer? Well here's another reason: the women here are very comfortable with nudity. Sunbathing topless is the norm. As a matter of fact, many women will find a patch of grass on their lunch breaks and strip down to their g-strings to catch some rays (yes, you read that correctly: I said g-strings). Have I mentioned I love Copenhagen lately?
They eat lots of seafood here in Copenhagen, which I guess makes sense. The seafood seems fishier here, though. There are numerous types of salmon on many breakfast bars. I'm not a big fish fan, so I always pass on this one. Another big dish here is something called "smorbrřd." These are open faced sandwiches (only one piece of bread) with different things on them, but the normal toppings include salmon, liver pâté, egg, and stuff like that. If anyone ever offers this to you, run like you've never run before! Seriously, I'm sure it's not that bad if you like those things. I just don't, and I was sick for three days after trying this.
Fortunately, there aren't many restaurants featuring typical Danish cuisine here in town. I think they actually have a larger variety of food than back home. There are tons of Italian and Mexican restaurants (Woo-hoo for me!). They also have Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Greek restaurants around town.
Fast food DOES exist here, although it's not all that fast (they haven't caught onto the concept of having the food ready: they slap everything together after you order). There are McDonald's all over the place, which is unfortunate for me since I had that place. There are a couple of Burger Kings around town, though. There are also a few KFC joints around, but they don't have biscuits, and KFC just isn't the as good without them.
The Danes are definitely lacking in the pizza area. There are tons of pizza joints around town, but they all serve the same exact thin pizza crust with the same exact sauce. It's not that bad, it's just that every place's pizza tastes the same. Trust me, you get sick of it pretty quickly. I thank the heavens (and I'm not even religious) that Pizza Hut and Domino's also made it to Copenhagen.
BEER
Here are links to some of my other Copenhagen pages:
Here are a few more pictures of Copenhagen:
Go Back to The Safko Main Page
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