The topic of this post will be again travelling! :)
Last Christmas I could not stand any more my sedentary life in Spain, and I decided to travel again and visit an old master colleague in southern Sweden. Apart from visiting him, another reason to go there was the opportunity to discover one more of the Nordic countries: Denmark!! That way, and after my previous travels to Norway, Sweden & Finland, I completed the poker of Nordic countries!!! Now only Iceland is missing!!
Nyhaven area in Copenhagen (Denmark)
Copenhagen is a city that I always wanted to visit due to its bicycle urban culture, because of the massive utilization of these vehicles in people's everyday life. I was really eager to pedal on the extensive bicycle lanes that cover the entire city, to see all those Danish going by bike despite the wind, the rain, the fog, the snow, the adverse climatic conditions..., to see those super-cool bikes that they use to bring kids to school....yes, they even take kids to school with them!!
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| 1) Bicycle culture; 2) Multifuctional bicycle "baths"; 3) In front of the Royal Palace |
The excuse to write this time about the Nordic
countries was, first, because I am absolutely in love with them, and second,
because I have recently read an article in The Guardian that I found
really interesting! (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/scandinavian-miracle-brutal-truth-denmark-norway-sweden?commentpage=1)
The
article questions the image that we have about the Nordic system, habits, facts
and all things in general, about considering all these countries
supermodels in terms of democracy, organization, education, quality of life,
etc.. The same author (Michael Booth) has been living in Denmark for more than 10 years
now, and he admits to have contributed to the idolatry of all the
wonders in Scandinavia, but now, he changed his mind and said ENOUGH!
His
reaction made me really curious and I asked myself why? So I
decided to buy his new book in which he presents a more detailed analysis
of each one of the Nordic countries (The Almost Nearly Perfect People – The Truth About the Nordic Miracle), and he puts on the balance not only all the wonderful things that we heard about all these countries, but also the dark side of each one, and that we may not be as aware of.
I have not read it yet, but I can not wait to do it and see if my opinion of this region and its inhabitants changes. Be sure that I will let you know if that happens!
If you are interested in this very singular part of the World, and want to know more about it, I think this can be a really interesting book!
Cheers!!
Marc.
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