Copenhagen: My Dream City

If you dropped me in the middle of the ocean, gave me a boat, and told me to pick a country to go live in (without regards for a language barrier or anything), I would pick Denmark. In fact, if it weren't for these things called school, parents, and money, I would be makin' my way over to Copenhagen right now.

One of the biggest reasons I want to go to Copenhagen is because it is straight up adorable. Most of the time, when I go to a city, my favorite thing to do isn't a big tourist attraction, but just to walk and look (and eat) around the city, and Copenhagen would be a great place to do so. It is home to the cutest colorful houses lined up on the Nyhavn canal and tiny little coffee shops with the weirdest names you ever did hear. Plus, Copenhagen has those really narrow European streets, which just make me really happy for some reason.

The cute buildings on the Nyhavn.
Image courtesy of: Condé Nast Traveller

Copenhagen streets
Image Courtesy of: Kevin McGrath

Another thing I would want to in Copenhagen is visit Tivoli Gardens, which is the world's second oldest amusement park and looks amazing. It has roller coasters and spinny rides and all that jazz you usually find at amusement parks, but minus the rednecks and incessant urge to bathe in hand sanitizer and add a classy old-school feel and some cool gardens.

Rides at Tivoli (I want to try those boat things!)
Image courtesy of: Wikipedia

*If you really hate politics, you might want to scroll past this next paragraph, because I am going to major rant (in a good way) on politics.*

Denmark knows what's up when it comes to politics. And so does all of Scandinavia, for that matter. They have free education (including college and graduate school), great welfare systems, and the lowest gender inequality indices in the world. In addition, Denmark also has 52-week paternal and maternal leave, more paid vacation days than any other country in the world, free health care, and free care for the elderly. They also have this thing where you get paid money just for having kids, so Danish kids don't have to end up like the 1 in 5 American kids that face hunger. As much as crap as Americans like to give the Scandinavian model, all of the Scandinavian countries rank in the top 5 happiest countries in the world (with Denmark as #1).

One thing I do have to say about Denmark is that it has a pretty weird language. According to my geography textbook, English is more closely related to Danish than to Spanish, but I'm not buying it. "Independent" in Spanish is "independiente"; in Danish, it's "uafhægig." What the hell type of word is that? I had to spend five minutes just figuring out how to type "æ"! If I am ever going to live in Denmark, I'm probably going to have to learn their language, but honestly, who even came up with this stuff?! Here is a list of more weird Danish words, for your enjoyment:

• breakfast - morgenmad
• pool - svømmevassin
• medicine - lægemiddel
• production facility of storage shelves of boxes for notebooks for the calculations of multiplication tables - multiplikationsudregningstabelshæfteopbevaringreolsproduktionsfacilitet

Copenhagen is a great city in a great country with great politics and a super weird language. I would love nothing more than to get to live in such a place one day!

I'm Dreaming of a Swiss Christmas

Christmas is only eighteen days, eleven hours, six minutes, and eighteen seconds away as I write this, and even though I am not really a religion person at all, Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love all the fluffy snow, and the christmas lights, and the christmas-y smell, and the hot cocoa! What better place to celebrate all this than the country home to the most adorable ski towns in the world, Switzerland?!

Switzerland on a map of Europe. (I know this because I
have my Europe map test in two weeks.)
Image Courtesy of: Wikipedia

I have wanted to go to Switzerland since I was like five. I mean, what's not to love about tacky Christmas sweaters, cuckoo clocks, and armed neutrality? One place in Switzerland I really want to visit is Zermatt, a teeny little town at the foot of the Matterhorn (the real thing, not the ride at Disney). My friend Alyssa told me about this little town today in English, and I thought it sounded really neat. They don't allow any cars into the town, so to get around, you have to take these little electric cars or walk, which is good, because I would work off all the fondue I would eat there!

A view of Zermatt and the Matterhorn in the summer.
Image Courtesy of: Tourist Destinations

Another Christmas thing I want to do in Switzerland is go sledding in Arosa. Here you can take a train up a giant mountain and sled down the whole freaking thing on a toboggan. I gotta say, though, it sounds a little bit dangerous, considering my sledding skills; I have lackluster balance and coordination and tend to fall off sleds a lot, and I don't imagine I would enjoy tumbling down an entire mountain. But whatever! The train ride there is supposed to be gorgeous (according to my friend Siena, who wants me to mention in this post that her dad is from Switzerland).

Train through the mountains in Arosa.
Image Courtesy of: TripAdvisor

Not too far from Arosa is a city called Zürich, which is the largest city in Switzerland. Looking at pictures of Zürich, it pretty much just looks like a giant ski town; it doesn't have all the concrete skyscrapers and taxis like New York or Tokyo. This is probably the biggest reason I want to visit Zürich: you get the killer people-watching of a city but the cozy feeling of a ski town all in one place.

Is that not the most adorable, North Pole-esque
little big city you ever did see?
Image Courtesy of: Hello! Magazine

One other thing I think is really cool about Switzerland (and this isn't really an activity, per se) is the fact that they have four commonly spoken languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansh, which makes sense if you look at the countries Switzerland is nestled between. You could go to one part of the country and hear everyone speaking German, and then drive for an hour so and hear Italian. I love listening to different languages, so I think this aspect of visiting Switzerland would be another one of my favorites.

Different language regions of Switzerland.
Image courtesy of: WHKMLA Historical Atlas

Switzerland is a gorgeous country with adorable ski towns (and cities), amusing activities, and a fascinating linguistic landscape. I would die to get to experience a hot chocolate-drinking, tacky sweater-wearing, and fondue-eating Christmas in Switzerland.