I had a dream

22Ian09

For those of you who are patient and interested in insights… – Hectic and emotion-driven  post

My fascination with Sweden began when I was about 15 and starting to understand the surrounding realities. The bits of information I had were scarce and my access to the Internet was…limited, at best (year 2001-ish) but the general image that began to take shape in my mind included the concept of  better. Better wages, better services, better respect for others, better past, better economy, better people (you know, nice, tall and blond?) It’s a common Romanian belief that any other country is better than ours – not getting into details now. 

So around 2002 I made up my mind: I wanted to go to Sweden. I had no idea when that was going to happen and made no real plan concerning the visit, it was just wishful thinking at the time. In the meantime I kind of grew up and snapped my fingers and I ended up in Copenhagen. This was actually my first time out of the country, I’d never been abroad before so I really had no real perception about what I would find or whether I could cope with all-new surroundings or not. It’s one thing to know the theory about culture shock but in a real life situation it’s just you and the unknown.

Just a few days before coming to Copenhagen, my feelings were mixed. Excitement seemed to dominate me, but there were also fear, insecurity and a lot of question marks tossed into the mix. Eventually I just decided to be positive: should something go wrong, there was always the way home – but that would have been labeled as a failure. Sometimes, even months before leaving, I would dream about walking around Copenhagen, taking pictures and enjoying every minute, but then I”d wake up and think to myself: “Where the hell am I going?! I’ll be alone in a strange country, among strangers speaking crazy words that mean nothing to me. What if I get lost? How will I get by? Is this fo’ real??” 

my first picture of CPH

When I got here I was disoriented. I mean, I was trying to find an exit from the airpot to get a bus, instead I ended up taking the metro, and surfaced in a crowded street, full of people, cars and an unlimited number of bikes, old buildings, something that looked like a station, buses coming from directions I could not identify. I panicked for about 20 seconds and then took a cab to the hostel – big suitcase, tired, no good map, no orientation skills. After checking into the hostel, I left my big suitcase is the room, took a small(er) bag with me and just headed out. Out where? I had NO idea. Just OUT. I’d seen a big, brown-and-green building on the way so I thought I’d go see what that was. My excitement was so great that I didn’t care that it was dark, cloudy, almost raining, humid and extremely windy and that my bag was very heavy and hurting my back.

I left with just a general direction I wanted to follow in my mind. I found the big building, with its big square, a weird fountain, a nice terrace and a lot of people swarming around them, most of them tourists. The thought that I was here to stay longer than most of them made me smile and I suddenly realized the discovery moments are unique: I’d never see these places for the first time again. I started walking along the pedestrian streets in the old part of the city, checking the map every now and then to see whether I was still in Denmark :) I strolled for hours, discovering buildings, streets and canals, the old and the new combined in harmony – I’d never seen that before. As for all the water in the city – well, that was about the greatest thrill of all! I love everything that involves water, from fountains to rivers and seas. As I grew up in a city surrounded my mountains and hundreds of miles away from the sea, it was only natural that I would love what I did not have access to – that’s actually a great part of my personality and, whether I like it or not, this “principle” has steered many of my actions.

I’ve been living in Copenhagen for almost 5 months now, and the city still fascinates me. Somehow I always discover new things even around familiar places. I know the center of the city well enough to forget my map and not get lost. Today I passed by the hostel where I spent my first few days and remembered my first walk along the street, Hans Christian Andersen’s Boulevard, where I also took my first picture. The first building to impress me was the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum “guarded” by lion statues.  The simple, stupid fact that I can now name the places and buildings I saw back then amazes me and I feel like a kid who’s learned something new and beautiful that has changed his universe. To this day there are big areas of the city I haven’t seen, or that I’ve only crossed to get to some other place, but I believe it’s far more important to get the feel of a place and to enjoy it rather than be concerned about not missing anything. 

I’m sure I won’t remember to visit everything I ever thought of, but I won’t let that stress me out in my last days here. I have 8 more days to spend in Copenhagen and I’m already missing it. The other 3 days left until the 31st are dedicated to Stockholm – which brings me back to the beginning of this “story.” Sweden becomes a dream come true for me, although in the past years I stopped obsessing over it ;)) I only realized that two days ago, when I was on the train. To Sweden. The city of Malmo, to be exact, which is across the Oresund Bridge from Copenhagen, a ride which takes about 40 minutes. I’ve been planning to go there for months, but somehow never got round to it.

Why? Because people tend to take things for granted – myself included. The idea that I could see it whenever I wanted made me postpone it indefinitely, and made my last two weeks here full. Which is not bad, actually. I think I’ll remember this as one of the happiest times of my life so far. My stay here as well as the travelling I have done exceed the expectations I had. It could have been better and it could have been worse.

But it’s been wonderful.

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Tags: copenhaga, countdown, denmark, dreams, impressions, insight, personal, sweden