A Day In the Vikings' backyard

Step outside Copenhagen Central station and you immediately begin to feel the grandeur of the Danish capital. Massive buildings with a somewhat simplistic but impressive architecture donning the wide avenues, and numerous canals criss-crossing the city like arteries. The layout of the city was much similar to Eastern European capitals like Prague and Budapest, albeit in a more modest design and colour.

I felt a certain sense of cold and gloom prevailing over the city as we walked, perhaps due to the chilly and cloudy Sunday morning that it was, with few people out on the streets and most of the shops closed. The huge dark buildings only added to that effect. But ignoring this spoiler, we armed ourselves with a map and began our on-foot navigation in the city of spires.

As we explored the streets and walked alongside the canals, I couldn't help getting amazed by the tremendous level of cleanliness and civic sense visible everywhere. Admiring the crystal clear waters of the harbour, we soon found ourselves in the middle of Nyhavn, located alongside a small canal with locks separating it from the main network. Magnificent is the word! Colourful old-style ships lining the canal and a very pretty market located along both its banks - a really good-vibes kind of place, very photogenic and perfect for spending an idyllic day sipping coffee and reading a book.


Luckily, the sun was kind enough to show itself up at the right moment and the bright colours of the ships and the shops soon started basking in the rare glory of a Scandinavian sunshine. This is how in fact the whole Dane country seems to be like. Other Europeans in the dark ages of their history could not have even imagined that these dreaded Vikings of the Baltic Sea would one day park their pirate ships inside tiny canals and embrace the tenets of peace and development to forge a society which would be the envy of the entire world.


But I was instead looking for a legendary statue located somewhere near the old harbor, a spot where a century ago Hans Christian Anderson used to fish herring and compose the beloved fairy tales of his masterpiece, The Little Mermaid. After more than two hours of searching in vain, I found that the original statue had been shifted to China for the ongoing World Expo and a dummy one had been installed at a nearby location. Disappointed with the Chinese, I tried to find solace by clicking pictures of this new (and larger) statue before walking back towards Nyhavn.

Rest of the city was rather ordinary from a traveller's point of view. Too much order, symmetry and macro-level precision tend to squeeze the charm out of a capital. Nevertheless, I was impressed by the royal palace and huge blue-white church located nearby (forgot its name). We spent some time in pissing off the immaculately dressed royal guards of the Queen's palace through our antics, before deciding to leave for lunch. This was a damn expensive city - a backpacker's nightmare! Plus, Denmark is dreaded by all food-lovers, and being a vegetarian here is worse than being bankrupt.

After a stroll through the famous Tivoli Gardens, a short visit to a Danish-Japanese friendship concert and a few clicks of the spire-topped buildings to capture the distinct Danish sense of fluid line and form, we returned back to the station. Here we boarded the express train which took us across the sea into Malmo, over the huge and awe-inspiring Oresund Sea-link. An engineering marvel of this century, this nearly ten km long link comprises of a huge bridge and a tunnel that connect Denmark and Sweden. From Malmo, we caught the night train to Stockholm.

Cosmos Conspires. Only a few months later I got a chance to visit the Shanghai World Expo! And yes, the original Mermaid was indeed there!