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!