On The Road Again
It’s been more than a year since I have traveled anywhere outside Sweden. While Sweden kept open during the pandemic, the neighbouring countries weren’t letting people from Sweden in. Finally, last week, I did travel outside Sweden. It wasn’t a long journey, neither was it new to me. It was a day trip to Copenhagen.
Copenahgen is a city that I keep coming back to again and again since I first came to it in 2006. Usually, we get bored of seeing the same cities again and again. We have explored them at length, checked all the tourists hangouts, tasted all that these cities have to offer. However, a few places grow on you, their charm rarely fades. I would count Copenhagen as one of those cities for me. Despite it being the capital of Denmark, it retains a certain cosiness about it, a little prettiness that never fades away.
I last travelled to Copenhagen a year back. However, that time the city felt empty, almost soulless — without its people lining up outside Tivoli and without the tourists taking selfies along the Nyhavn. It was perhaps the first time that I disliked being in this city and that made me realise how much an empty shell a city is without its people. The irrepressibility of the disordered crowd on the street, the orphan notes of a street musician’s guitar, the tinkle of the bells from the fast-crossing bicycles, the relaxed vibes of the local cafes — they all make Copenhagen, and without them, the city felt alien.
This time, I came to Copenhagen with hesitation. Not because I was afraid of mingling with the crowd given that the pandemic is still rampant, but out of fear of finding an empty city again. The moment I stepped out on Copenhagen Central Station though, my reservations melted. The station, deserted when I last visited, was back to its busy self. Just outside the station is Tivoli. Calling it an amusement park would be an understatement, for it is more than that for the Danes. It first opened in 1843 and it would not be an exaggeration to say that almost every Dane has been to it. They come again, now with their kids and grandkids, to relive the memories of their childhood. Despite it being a weekday (which I had carefully chosen to avoid the weekend rush), the park was teeming and the queue to get into it snaked till the street corner. If I had any doubt whether the city has come back to its whole self again, it vanished when I saw this crowd lining up outside.
I made a mental note of visiting the park later when the crowd had hopefully thinned. I then walked further to yet another of my favourite spots — Storget, the walking street of Copenhagen. Storget is a couple of kilometres long narrow corridor flanked on both sides by some of the most famous shops and malls of the country. As I walked through it, I noticed one difference in the makeup of the crowd that occupied it. Earlier, I would find more tourists and fewer locals on this popular street, however, now the street buzzed with the locals. Why so, I wondered aloud at my favourite coffee shop that I frequent every time. “That’s because we don’t have anywhere else to go this summer,” the barista informed me while brewing my latte, “every summer Danes travel to Greece or Spain or somewhere exotic. This year they made no plans and stayed in the city.”
I strolled to the end of the street leading up to the colourful buildings at Nyhavn that overlook the waters of Öresund. There was no place to sit at the cafes here. They all were brimming over with people. So I walked over the Kissing Bridge to the other side of the water, where a temporary food court had come up. It was a bright sunny day, and several small boats punctuated the dark blue water below. I found myself some street food and settled on a spot along the canal.
I caught myself smiling. Though it was a day trip, I had managed to come to the city that I have always loved. I was surrounded by people, there was cheer in the crowd, and music hung in the air. I realised how much I love travelling and what the year of staying home had kept from me. But now once again, I am back on the road.
A version of this story was published in the Outlook Traveller
