København (Copenhagen)

The blog went silent but not because of some perplexing situation like peeing blood, or a parasite. I've been traveling throughout Europe since July 19, and well, since the blog is racingawareness and not travelingawareness, I wasn't sure if the trip is blog worthy. And even if I did, I didn't have much downtime. But I'm on the tail-end of my trip, and post 6 days of open water swimming in Croatia, and finding myself with more time to rest and relax.

København or Copenhagen has been on my bucket list ever since I saw the youtube videos of the amazing bike culture. The placed lived up to the hype and I'm so glad I got to observe the culture first-hand. As much as I would love to see a similar bike culture thrive in the Bay Area, it just can't happen because of the all of the hills. What makes biking everywhere work in Copenhagen is that it is absolutely FLAT! Thus, people young and old, fit or out-of-shape, can bike around. The city's infrastructure is so bike friendly with many bike lanes separated from the road, and often, the bike lanes were as wide as the road. When I first came up from the underground metro station, I was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of bikes I saw. Copenhagen is definitely for bicyclists, but for cyclists, I'm not so sure as I was unable to do any type of formal training. Put Copenhagen on your list and if you do go, here are the things I recommend:

Don't stay in a hotel, instead, rent a rooftop flat in a cool neighborhood, like Nørrebro, and hang and do what the locals do.

Eat at Manfreds. Amazing food, especially what they do with veggies.

Go to the Kastrup Strand by the airport and jump off the deck at the "snail" or just relax on the lawn.

Buy t-shirts, they've got some great designs.