Copenhagen

City of bikes, fairytales and beer! 

I’ve always wanted to visit Copenhagen with its reputation as a major biking city and environmental hub, especially after the COP 15 meeting in 2009.  Like many bike-friendly cities, the city’s dedicated bike lanes are well-used and has a convenient bike rental/sharing system in the downtown area that allows anyone, tourists especially, to hop on and off bikes with a simple deposit which you get back when you return your bike back to any of the numerous bike stands.  Steer into the countryside and you might even catch some gorgeous views of wind turbines.  It’s absolutely amazing that close to half of Copenhagenians cycle to work or school!

 A biking/walking tour is perfect for a Hans Christian Anderson tour.  You’ll find traces of this storyteller and the characters from his tales all over the city.  There’s a statue of him next to city hall and across from the Tivoli Gardens (the world’s 2nd oldest amusement park).  Anderson’s famed nymph-The Little Mermaid by the harbour has been the icon of Copenhagen for some time.  She has been the centre of attention for tourists and political activists alike.  Apparently her head had to be replaced several times as activists kept sawing it off.  There are also plenty of hidden alleyways and old squares that make this fairytale city so charming.  On a side note, for those who are Shakespearean fans, check out the Kronborg Castle.  It was still under renovation when I went, but it was here that the Bard set his famed play Hamlet.

 While you’re by the harbour, the colourful facades of the Nyhavn waterfront makes it a great spot for photos and with the numerous bars and cafes, it’s also excellent for people-watching!  Can’t get enough beer?  Check out the Carlsberg Brewery Musuem where there are over 20,000 vintage beer bottles.  There are also 8 Jutland horses in the stables that you can visit and they also do wagon rides.  By the time I’ve tried just about every beer there was available at the brewery, it was about time to hit the sack.

 Next up: Sweden!

Iran's capital

Traffic mad Tehran

The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Tehran was the traffic.  Compared to Yazd, Shiraz and even Isfahan, this city is packed.  It’s not surprising that this city made it into the World Health Organization’s list of the world’s 10 most polluted cities.  Being the fifth largest city globally with over 12 million people, the city also has 3.5 million cars, aged cars that is.  The majority of cars are Iran assembled French or Korean cars.  Though the air wasn’t too bad when I went, the city did experience a five-day closure of government offices, schools and banks because of air pollution early this year.  Because of the sanctions on imports of refined gasoline, the country has resorted to producing its own gasoline.  To try to limit the number of cars on the roads, the government has imposed an odd-even traffic control plan based on the last digit of license plates.  But it is a good thing that Tehran is continually expanding its subway system.  While women and men are separately seated on buses in Iran, on subways, the first, last and half of the second and second to last cars are reserved for women but women are still free to ride on other cars freely.

 Tehran is a pretty cool city with a mix of the new, the traditional and the in-between.  The contemporary Azadi or Freedom tower situated in the middle of Tehran’s famous Azadi Square, where many demonstrations leading to the Iranian Revolution took place, is a key symbol of Tehran.  The recently built (2007) Milad Tower stands high at 435m is the sixth tallest tower in the world and offers panoramic views of the entire city.  During my stay in Iran, I had the chance to stay in a few hotels throughout Iran and I’ve got to say that these must have been the best hotels with top notch standards…when they were owned by brand name hotel chains before the 1970s.  Now they’re all government owned.  Being a child of the 80s, it felt like going into a time capsule and landing in the 60s and 70s since the furniture felt pretty retro but at least they were all quite clean!

 One of the draws to Tehran is the National Jewels Museum which houses jewels collected by the Iranian monarchy during its 2,500 year existence, the majority of which were acquired by the Safavid dynasty which ruled from 1502 to 1736.  The crown jewels were last used by the Pahlavi dynasty, which was the last to rule Iran and it was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last king, who decided that the best of the best jewels should be on public display.  You wouldn’t have known that the museum is actually in the basement of the central branch of Bank Melli just by looking at the façade of the inconspicuous building on the outside.  The museum has pretty odd hours as it is opened only from Mondays to Wednesdays for three hours in the afternoon and everyone is required to go on a guided tour.  No one can bring anything inside and there’s of course a security check, so unfortunately I’ve got no pictures, but you’ve always got to see these precious goods for yourself anyways, not just through a picture that somebody else has taken!  One of the must-sees is a jewel-studded globe with over 51,000 gemstones including rubies, emeralds and diamonds and 35kg of pure gold!  The museum also houses one of the largest diamonds in the world, the Sea of Light pink diamond, weighing around 180 carats.  The extravagance doesn’t end there-there’s a Peacock throne that is just covered with gold and encrusted with 26,733 jewels.  My eyes were seriously a little tired from staring at all the glittery jewels in this museum!

 Watch for my upcoming blog posts on my recent trip to Northern Europe and the Baltic countries!