In Copenhagen, there’s no shortage of old buildings, but you don’t have to go far to find new ones. On Amager, the island south of Copenhagen, there’s a building boom in progress, and every building is new. The area being developed is called Ørestad. The developers are marketing the central region as “Ørestad City.” There’s even an English version of the Ørestad website.
A Danish rite of passage occurs when a child gives up their pacifier. All their pacifiers are gathered, and the family makes a trip to a pacifier tree. The pacifiers, and sometimes bottles as well, are left on the tree. Often notes are left as well, that explain that the child no longer needs these comforting items because he or she is older now.
For Christmas I got a new digital SLR. My last one came out in 1999, and it’s mind-boggling how far things have progressed. The new camera is lighter, smaller, has a far superior screen, and vastly improved battery life. Furthermore, the new one costs one tenth of what the previous one did ($599 vs. $5,500). There are more pictures here.
It didn’t seem to be big news for the world media, but Copenhagen has had rioting all over the city, including in my neighborhood. At the time, my brother Diego was visiting. We had no idea that rioting had been breaking out all over the city for twelve hours at this point, but at about 9:00 pm he came into the apartment and told me about a fire across the canal.
Recently I was asked if it’s hard living in a city where I can’t read most of the signs or understand most of what’s being said. I said no — not at all — as long as you don’t mind being suddenly demoted in status from that of a normal adult to that of a retarded person or a dimwitted child.
Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in the world. At first I didn’t really notice because I was distracted and confused by Danish currency (The “krone”, or crown in English). By the time I could gauge prices without doing a currency conversion in my head, I was used to these prices. Now, when I go to the states, I’m shocked at how low the prices are.
On my first trip to Copenhagen, I learned that the trains have motion detectors that trigger the interior doors to open. These detectors don’t work very well, and so it helps to wave your hand in front of them. This is a common sight, but only on the regional train line (which I take to work). The “S” trains, however, don’t have motion detectors, but I didn’t know that.
Taking pictures in Copenhagen during winter is challenging. Everything is sort of grey, there isn’t much light, and the days are very short. But I saw some winter photographs of Denmark recently and realized that you can solve the first problem by shooting in black-n-white. I took these today in Christianshavn and Kongens Nytorv. There are more here.
This is kind of strange. Apparently Denmark is the happiest country on earth. And apparently Microsoft is the best place to work in Denmark. I’d better be really careful about any complaining I do.
This is a sort of public service commercial (topless women alert!) that the Danish government created to generate awareness of speeding. Pretty clever, as they just released it on the net and let people distribute it, so they spent no money on ad space.
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