The feeling of being next to a global, trendsetting metropolis crept in as I finished my first year living next door to Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen. So I decided to roam wild-eyed on its streets to find out for myself all that makes the city unique.
Moving with a city
Soon enough, I was out under the grey skies and cobbled pavements. The pedestrian street, Stroget, is a shopping street. However, on a good day, one can find obscure jazz bands, forgotten singers, performance artists all dotting the street. To someone from the sub-continent, Stroget quarters an obvious equivalence with the village fairs in our part of the world. Spend an hour on this street and you will get a glimpse of a world full of hope, despair and longing. I walked past the colourful buildings at Nyhavn that once served as the old stock exchange. A popular tourist hangout, this street is littered with seafood joints, and expensive boats that dot its canal outline. On its far end is the black stone building of the Royal Danish Theatre.
A ferry to everywhere
With no destination in mind, I boarded a ferry that runs on the waterways fractioning the city. A regular ferry service runs between the Opera house, Church of Holmland, Nyhavn and the Black Stone. The one that I boarded took me to the library, the Black Stone. The library had hosted Gunter Grass and Salman Rushdie last year, and was running an exhibition of the press photographs of the year. So there I stood, watching over Lars Lokke Rasmusen hosting Obama during the Climate Summit.
A ferry to everywhere
With no destination in mind, I boarded a ferry that runs on the waterways fractioning the city. A regular ferry service runs between the Opera house, Church of Holmland, Nyhavn and the Black Stone. The one that I boarded took me to the library, the Black Stone. The library had hosted Gunter Grass and Salman Rushdie last year, and was running an exhibition of the press photographs of the year. So there I stood, watching over Lars Lokke Rasmusen hosting Obama during the Climate Summit.
From watching the scenes on the streets to listening to the orchestra in the ultra modern Opera house, the transition was fluid. In these few hours, Copenhagen provoked me into believing that its prodigy is not without substance. Though few hours are too little to read its streets, it is evident that from a sleepy Scandinavian capital that grew in the shade of its big brother Stockholm, Copenhagen has managed to project itself as far more significant than just being a gay-friendly destination