Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

A lot of people asked me if they could read the article I wrote in English language at York College, which I mentioned in one of my recent blogposts (HERE). So if you are interested in reading the article or simply just get a lot of information about my beloved city, here you go with the article! Remember it’s a college essay made up of real statistics about Copenhagen but the persons in the interviews are fictive.

Picture from Google. 

Copenhagen: the place to find the world’s best restaurant, the inventors of Lego, and the capital of the happiest country in the world.

written by Maria B. Andreassen 

Denmark is the perfect proof that sometimes more isn’t better. With only 43.094 km², Denmark may be an extremely small country, but with the title of being the capital of the happiest people on Earth, size apparently doesn’t matter when it comes to a country’s happiness. The compact country with high taxes, free health care, and free education, also has hold of the world’s best restaurant – and perhaps that might be the reason why Danes are the happiest people on Earth!

It’s a matter of fact that most of Denmark is covered by fields. But if you go to the heart of Denmark, the capital city Copenhagen, you will for sure think about other things than fields, pigs, and Vikings, next time someone mentions Denmark. Nevertheless Denmark used to be a powerful Viking country that had colonies all over the world. Believe it or not, but York even used to be Danish, which you can clearly see on the road names; most of them ends on ‘gate’, which is Scandinavian for road. What then happened to the big Scandinavian empire is a whole other story…

Today Copenhagen is known as a compact and kind of cute country with a special word called ‘hygge’. When a Dane says that something is ‘hyggeligt’ it’s a way to express Denmark’s candle-lit, woolly and snuggly version of cosiness.

Picture from Google. 

Back to the history, when Denmark was a bigger and greater empire, the Kingdom of Denmark even inspired the brilliant, memorable, and incredible William Shakespeare. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark turned out to be Shakespeare’s longest play and one of the most influential tragedies ever in English literature. And believe it or not, it all takes place in Copenhagen!

According to John Hansen, who is half British and half Danish, Copenhagen is definitely worth considering next time you are planning your holiday.

“Not only is Copenhagen the perfect place if you feel like snugging up in a café with a good book; which could be one of the great stories by the Danish author H.C. Andersen, Copenhagen is also the place for everyone who adores fashion. With shops like Valentino, Michael Kors, Monclér and even more, the shopping street called Strøget, is the most fashionable place ever,” John tells while sitting with his fresh pressed ginger juice from the local ‘Joe & The Juice’ shop; a brand that started as a small beginner café in Denmark. Today ‘Joe & The Juice’ is in both London and New York.

With the biggest smile on his face John keeps telling about his hipster life in Copenhagen: “I live on Vesterbro, which is probably the coolest part of Copenhagen. Not that the rest of Copenhagen isn’t cool, but Vesterbro is just a tiny bit cooler. I can’t really describe why… I think you just have to go there yourself and sense the atmosphere!” he laughs taking another sip of his juice, and it seems like the smile is just glued to his face. Apparently the ‘world’s happiest country’-title isn’t completely taken by mistake.

It’s no wonder that the famous writer H.C. Andersen called Copenhagen ‘wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen’. Wonderful once, simply isn’t enough.