#FitrinaTravels: Copenhagen 2014

Copenhagen is a regular in international happiness surveys. Not just any regular customer, but a top one. The most recent one is October 2013's World Happiness Report from the Earth Institute at New York's Columbia University.

After spending 9 days in Copenhagen, I have to say that the city deserves the title through and through. I saw zero angry individual and had the pleasure to exchange smiles with countless others, even strangers. No one hesitates to say "good morning" to each other when you accidentally (or intentionally; the Danes are a good-looking bunch) see each other in the eye. My Danish colleagues were truly dedicated to their jobs and they were incredibly accomodating and cooperative, while still being critical at the same time. Makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with the Singapore working culture. 

As my boss said, "every employee is a boss in the company in Denmark". Nobody can force someone to do anything if they are not comfortable doing it. Saying "no" to a project is more recommended when extremely busy than saying "yes" and screwing the project up because you cannot handle your time well. If there's a question that cannot be solved, just ask someone else who knows something about it and discuss. Vertical hierarchy is non-existent. I just simply adore this kind of working culture because sometimes I get extremely irritated when questions were not asked prior to a project development and these questions could have prevented possible flaws in the completed project. And then when I have questions, I get conflicted myself because I'm dying to ask them, but I'm also scared I'll be annoying those people that I asked. This made me realise how communication is of utmost vital importance in any organisation. 

While being in the Copenhagen headquarters, both my colleague and I were taught of basically using "tough love" to enrich ourselves and enrich the Asian branch. Going into details will be stupid because of confidential company information. To sum it all up in on sentence - we are going to shadow the Danish working culture, hopefully to a large extent. 

Ok enough of the mundane work stuff. Continuing on my enjoyable (mostly) experience....

Copenhagen is not only home to very jolly folks, it's also the city that has the world's best restaurant (Noma!), the city with extremely commendable "green" efforts and a lot of other awards lah. 

Perhaps I should list the more memorable experiences:

• almost everyone cycles. There's a special lane on roads just for cycling. If you are a cyclist, you should be happy. I'm not, so... 
• you can walk to most of the attractions. Copenhagen is also "the most walkable city" in 2013. I only took train/metro 4 times in the 9 days and 2 were the rides to and from airport. It's very economical to walk and of course very healthy. Public transport fares are not cheap in Copenhagen (as with everything else lol) so just walk!
• the weather was phenomenal. Averaging 14-20 degrees during the days we were there. It rained heavily on one day (on the day we planned to go to the most numbers of attractions. Murphy did it again!) and the other days were simply magnificent. I loved how I could wear my normal blazers and layer up a couple of scarves and I was good to go. I don't have to get any new blazers for women online!
• there was SO MUCH SPACE. I think I wasn't used to it because in Singapore, we are used to crowds, and staying at home to avoid crowds. In Copenhagen, it's so spacious and empty! 
• ah, the good-looking people. I was so mesmerised by so many breathtakingly beautiful ladies who were rocking their monochrome outfits and high heels. Same sentiments for the suited up males. And then they cycle some more. It's like I'm living in the life of a fashion paparazzi blog or something. The 7-11 girl was damn pretty. The hotel girl was damn pretty. The guy selling hot dog was damn handsome. Aiyoh, good genes man good genes!! These vikings!!
• everything was expensive. I spent S$500 in 9 days and it was mostly spent on food from supermarkets and 7-11. Very small portion of my money was used on shopping and souvenirs. But lucky can claim. Heheehhehehhe.
• at first I loved the food. Then I got sick of it really quickly. Cannot man. I thought I could eat salads and breads for all my meals but urgh I want my wanton mee and porridge and bibimbap and cheap fruit juice. I'm not saying there are no similar food in Copenhagen. I just was not willing to spend more than $30 for every meal. 

I'm going to stop writing. Getting boring already haha. Photos!! 

I seriously love my job. :')

Have a great week guys!