From East to West: A new home
It’s been quite a few years now since that magical late-summer day in 2015 when I moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. I can’t recall much of the days leading up to my move. I assume it was just “business as usual” like it tends to be with me. Meaning that I don’t really spend much time thinking about it. Helps with not getting stressed and losing any sleep over such things. Then suddenly I’m one day away from the move, or whatever other given big event, and that’s when I “wake up” from my dormant state and start preparing. I do, however still remember in great detail the evening of my arrival and the day after.
Prior to my departure, I had managed to arrange a half-year accommodation contract through the student Housing Foundation. I recall it was a bit of a convoluted way of getting a place, but as I would learn later, it is really hard finding an affordable place to live in Copenhagen. I will come back to this discussion at a later point.
For now, I had a roof over my head. I also kept working on my part-time job as a content writer. The pay was ok for Romania, but for Denmark it was little to nothing. Still, money is money and at least it would help cover some of the monthly food costs. The rent costs, however, I have my mom to thank for that. We had a little money put aside from a few years prior when my grandmother had died. She gave me all of that to cover my rent for half a year and help get me started until I would hopefully find a student job and survive on my own.
Luckily there were no tuition fees, as all education in Scandinavia is covered by the state. Still, I knew this would be the biggest challenge of my life so far and I was eager to prove that I could succeed.
The trip
There were no direct flights from anywhere near my hometown to Copenhagen. The nearest “big” Romanian international airport is in Cluj Napoca, my old university city. However, the closest you could get to Denmark is to take a flight to Malmö, Sweden, and then take a bus to Copenhagen. Another option was to take a shuttle minivan to the Budapest international airport and then take a direct flight from there. I chose the latter, because it seemed to involve less logistics.
The flight was during the day, I believe sometime around the afternoon. A fairly short 1.5 hour flight. Not like the drive to Budapest, which took around 5 hours. Even though I was excited and mentally at peace, there was still an unconscious level of stress in me. My stomach was in a knot the whole day.
Arrival
My only contact in Copenhagen was my mom’s former work colleague’s son, Balint. I chatted with him before the trip and he offered to wait for me at the airport and help me get to my place.
I remember I was so disoriented when I got off at Copenhagen. Don’t get me wrong, I could navigate the airport just fine, but I was just so out of it all. I guess even without realizing it, or acknowledging it, the stress must’ve been quite high. I finally met up with Balint after checking multiple times his Facebook photos so I could recognize him. We then took the metro from the airport to downtown Copenhagen. That was Nørreport station, right in the heart of the city. There we had to get on one of the S-trains, but first Balint wanted to take me topside to have a quick look around. I’m fairly sure he kept pointing things out left and right, but I was like a brain-dead zombie, just smiling and nodding with nothing registering in my head.
A short train ride later we had arrived at Østerport Station. From here it was a short 10 minute walk to my dorm in Østerbro. On the way Balint gave me a bunch of life-tips like which were the better and cheaper supermarkets, or where to get a sim-card. Above all else, he emphasized on getting a bicycle as soon as possible. This is the number one advise I would also give to anyone moving to Denmark. Especially Copenhagen, which is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. Get a bike. You’ll need it!
Finally, we had arrived at my dorm where I met my new roommate for the next six months. His name was Nao, short for Naonori. He was a young exchange student from Japan. Very nice guy. Balint then handed me my keys and gave me more helpful advise, which I immediately forgot because I was so zoned out. After he left, I surveyed my new temporary little home with a smile, and then immediately rushed to the bathroom with intense diarrhea. That lasted throughout the whole evening… Yeah… I think the excitement/stress was a bit much.
My first day in Copenhagen
Before heading out anywhere, I needed to get my stomach back in order. So I went out to buy some rice to cook. There were quite a few supermarkets in my area and I had forgotten which one Balint was telling me about. I remembered he mentioned something about Irma, so I decided to give it a shot. I ended up buying the most expensive pack of rice in my entire life. As it turns out Irma is this kind of an exclusivist, all organic-type of supermarket. He had likely warned me that it’s extremely over-priced and I should try to avoid it. Ooof… Good start, good start.
The next order of business was to get a local sim-card for my phone. The weather was nice and sunny, so I decided to just go out for a city walk and start exploring my new town. I had also talked with Balint about meeting up with him and some of his friends. They were going to be somewhere around the old port, a place called Islands Brygge.
I headed out and started walking down the big nearby boulevard Østerbrogade towards the city center. On my way I purchased my new Lebara sim card and was once more connected to the world. I was delighted by everything! The red-brick architecture, the beautiful green areas, the funny-sounding Danish language in the background, it all felt so cozy and welcoming. I would later learn a famous Danish word for this feeling: hygge.
After a couple of hours of walking and still far far away from Islands Brygge, I realized I wasn’t going to cover much ground by foot in Copenhagen. Balint was right. I needed a bike asap!
Enter “Shame”
I went back to my dorm and started joining various Facebook groups for buying and selling second-hand bikes. It didn’t take long to pick a few out from the sea of posts. This one guy I had contacted said he could meet on the same day. So in the afternoon, I went out again to check out his bike. It was a simple looking little thing with a rusty chain and a damaged seat. His asking price of 700 DKK wasn’t exactly low, but he was hyping up the speed, quality and resilience of the bike. It was actually very light indeed… Oh, and the security lock was included.
I decided to buy it. My first Copenhagen bike, with a simple word written on the frame: Sram. I never heard of this brand, but later on I would become friends with a Bulgarian fellow named Venko and he pointed out that Sram means “Shame” in Bulgarian. It would sure live up to its new name in the coming months!
From crappy breaks to losing the chain in mid-traffic, Shame and I would end up going through quite a few adventurous months. But after discovering a free student-run do it yourself bike repair shop later that year, I would start upgrading Shame and turning it into a true joy to ride! I still left the chipped off seat as it was, just for nostalgia’s sake. Besides, who would even think of stealing a shitty looking bike like that? Little did they know, this shitty little bike was a true gem that I’d end up keeping up to my last day in Denmark four years later.