I Found Happiness (In Denmark) By Getting A… Bicycle
There are no excuses when it comes to your well-being
When I arrived in Copenhagen six years ago, after a particularly hard year in New York, I needed to regroup, re-think and reinvent myself. I was stressed out, exhausted and confused — everything you’d expect a New Yorker to be. My salvation came from the most unexpected source — a bicycle.
If in New York cycling was saved for hipsters, exercise fanatics and tourists at that time, in Copenhagen, it was (and is) the main mode of transportation. Bike roads run alongside car roads there, with dedicated traffic lights, and bicyclists are respected and given priority. In return, they obey strict rules and laws. The whole thing is very civilized. No yelling, no honking, no confusion.
After two weeks of taking overpriced buses like a tourist and gawking at masses of bicycles at intersections, I gave in and bought a used bike. Little did I know, my rusty two-wheeled companion was to become my best friend in Denmark’s cold capital and my best chance at finding happiness.
