1) It was cold, and not in the “OMG is it really still snowing in late-March!?!?”-cold, it was cold like, “yep this is March in Scandinavia”-cold. And you know what, the people were just crazy happy that the SUN was OUT, and that seemed good enough excuse as any to grab ice cream and sit outside for lunch. And that’s what it seemed the city was doing, sitting outside for lunch in the sun, and grabbing ice cream on their way home (or wherever they were off to).

2) The men were total peacocks. They had perfectly styled hair you knew has taken a lot of time and probably money to get, and they had really cool thought-out clothes and shoes (in my opinion at least).  The women were more plain, a lot less makeup and accessories than I am certainly used to.

3) It appeared completely common for the dad/husband to be in charge of babies and young children when out of the house. I can’t count how many dads I saw with strollers and with their children sans-mom. You don’t really realize that it’s different, until it hits you that this is NOT like how it is in the US. For the record, the dads all seemed completely capable of handling the children on their own.

4) The people of Denmark really must be the happiest in the world (after UD students of course). They were just beyond friendly and courteous. Must be all of that ice cream and fresh, cold air.5) If you think the US has some hippies you should check out Christiania. I won’t go into any details, but there is a strict “no photo” rule, so the only photo we have is this first one:

This is the ice cream shop we hit up on our last day, it was quite a crowd for such a cold day:

Oh and 6) BIKES. The biking culture is not even a subculture like it is in DC. People bike, and that’s just how it is. The bike lanes were safe for riding on, there were bike traffic signals, and EVERYONE was biking around. Hence, floods of bikes tied up outside their metro stations:

Kyle looks good in Denmark’s hats: 

On our last morning, before heading to the airport, our host couple treated us to some DELICIOUS Danish rolls – yes, those are pumpkin seeds on bread – I still have dreams about it: 

Can’t wait to go back next year for the big wedding!