I'm sitting in the Copenhagen airport as I write this post (a day late), and I have to admit I have mixed emotions about leaving already. I loved our time exploring the capital city, but at the same time, I am looking forward to what our time in Northern Jutland will bring. Today will mostly be a travel day, so I doubt there will be much new to detail, but yesterday was pretty packed.
It began with a trip to the Viking Museum, then the cathedral where all of the Danish royal family is laid to rest, and finally a short tour of Rosenborg Castle.
Over the past few days, I've really gotten a strong sense of the Danish people's close ties to their monarchy. Living in Canada, the Queen seems to be not much more than a distant figurehead, and it's easy to feel that monarchy is a system that doesn't have much prevalence left in the modern world. In Denmark, however, the people seem to have incredibly close ties between their national identity and their royal family. All of their history is characterised by which figure held the throne at the time, and it goes back incredibly far. In fact, Denmark has the oldest monarchy in the world; over 1000 years of a traceable royal bloodline. Today, the country is a constitutional monarchy, which means that the Queen has no political power other than providing the final signature on all bills - not unlike the mostly symbolic role of our own Governor General. However, the reigning monarch is the head of the state church; the Church of Denmark.
After a few days becoming more familiar with Danish society, we were given a bit more liberty and free time yesterday. Being able to walk the streets of Copenhagen with just a small group of friends was a much different experience than travelling in a 30+ person group. In this setting, we picked up on many more astute cultural differences, including:
- When going to a restaurant, the service is friendly but very efficient. Because they are not working towards a tip, servers are unlikely to make special accommodations such as dividing up a bill
- The Danes' attitude towards water seems to be rather different than our own. In a restaurant, plain water costs as much as soft drinks, and seems to be valued a lot more. Our tour guide mentioned that all beaches in the country are public, and this is because of the belief that all people should have access to the sea
- The streets are lively, but not chaotic. Even in shopping areas, where the streets are pretty full, there doesn't seem to be the same brash busyness that I've noticed in cities such as Toronto or New York. There are still many street performers, street food carts, and bikes. However, there are separate bike lanes that are located in between the sidewalk and the road. As soon as we learned not to stand in the way of these, our time walking became considerably smoother.
Today, I will meet my homestay family and spend my first night at their house. I imagine the tone of the trip will become quite different at this point, but after several fast-paced days it will be a welcome change. I cannot wait to spend some time living more like a local than as a tourist and deepening my understanding of Danish culture.