The Capital of Happy is . . . Copenhagen

I had never been to Denmark. And to be honest, while I have been to almost every country in Europe, Denmark has never been at o the top of my list of places to visit. But there I was in Belgium for work with an extra four days off so I decided to give it a chance. It was dead in the middle of a cold winter, but I decided to
go nonetheless.

Upon arrival, I saw a huge sign at one of the stores that read “Copenhagen: 2014 World’s Happiest Capital.” And that’s not a joke; that’s a real thing. There was a real study conducted worldwide in which each major city was given a ranking based on many socioeconomic factors and Copenhagen’s rating always hits at or near the top of official global happiness surveys.

Upon checking in at the hotel, I dropped off my bag and immediately left to see the sights. I was just a block away and so taken by the architecture while snapping photos, I didn’t realize I was standing on a curb. I lost my balance and fell to the street and wrenched something in my ankle. It was so painful, I was in tears. In the days that followed, I had to hobble around as I made my way around the frigid city.

Copenhagen has much more to offer than anticipated. The city has storybook charm with its marvelous buildings, cobblestone streets and pretty canals, and please forgive me for saying this . . . but OMG the locals are so ridiculously attractive. And they are everywhere. All day long they dash from one spot to another, not in cars, but on their vintage bikes. They shop at gorgeous organic supermarkets like Irma and live in trendy mid-century modern designed buildings by the ocean and seem to eat fish by the ton.

I regret coming in the winter, I’d have wanted to see these same ridiculously gorgeous locals in their swimwear. But nonetheless, this gives me a reason to come back and take a closer look at the passersby. I mean, the architecture.

Enjoy new highlights of travel photographer Edwin Santiago’s journeys each week.