John Mitchbryson (Part One)

I’ve long been a fan of Bill Bryson’s books. Whenever I head off to the Continent, I always check Neither Here Nor There to see whether Bryson had anything to say about the place I’m visiting. As any visitors to my Project 365 will know, I’ve recently been in Copenhagen, and I thought I’d do a Bryson style write-up about the trip – broken down into several parts (I’m not a big fan of long blog posts).

So what does Bryson say about Copenhagen? (Having said how often I read his Europe book, I actually can’t find my English copy, so I’m having to use Streifzüge durch das Abendland, the German version). He describes it as not the most beautiful city in the world, but one that has an unassuming charm, more in common with a small university town than a city that was once the capital of all Scandinavia. He wonders what Copenhageners do with their old people (and said that a director in the city could find an entire cast for a Pepsi commercial within 15 seconds, full as it is with good-looking blond types) and that the Danes are particularly friendly people (both these thoughts occurred to me as I walked through the city... Not the Pepsi bit). However, I did notice that all Danish men have the exact same haircut. It’s a good haircut though, so that’s ok.

I was going to be spending six days in the city – spending the vast majority of that time at the Danish National Library. When choosing my hotel, I was determined to avoid a particular street in Copenhagen that doesn’t have the best reputation – slightly difficult as it’s also the place with all the cheaper* hotels – but I found a good one, close enough to the train station and centre of town, but not close to afore-mentioned street. As I walked from the main station to the hotel, map in hand, I was interested to discover that not only was my hotel closer to this street than the map had (presumably intentionally) led me to believe, but it was, in fact, on it. The hotel was, however, rather nice and, address aside, fantastically located.

Having said that, the fact that the name of the long road that connected me to the National Library translated as ‘West Violence Street’, did somewhat unnerve me as I set off very early in the morning to the ‘Black Diamond’, the National Library on Slotsholmen.
I won’t write too much about the Library other than the fact that it was very useful and it was also possible to get a seat at a desk, unlike the British Library, should you arrive there after 6am. Now, the British Library is fantastic in terms of its settings and collections, but is so overrun with undergraduate students that it makes any kind of research rather difficult. I’m not saying it should be restricted at all – it is a national resource and one that we should take pride in and make the most of – but I was able to complete an entire BA and MA without a single visit to the British Library, so why are these undergraduates there every day? I digress. The National Library was also the first place I ever heard someone sneeze in a Danish accent.

*Note the use of the word ‘cheaper’ and not ‘cheap’. Nothing in Denmark goes cheap, apart from chicks.

PS. I haven't said anything about the flight, which was largely uneventful. However, anyone who has been through Stansted Airport will be familiar with the sample of hell on earth that is this: The bear that plays the drum outside Hamleys ALL THE LIVE-LONG DAY. I had been sitting there for about twenty minutes before I went completely crazy. How do the staff cope?

Part Two to follow...