Five Reasons Why Copenhagen is Not For Me

1. High Prices

Copenhagen isn’t exactly known for being cheap. It’s expensive—the food, especially. For example two burgers, two boxes of fries and two drinks at the FoodHalken costed United States Dollars 42.67. Part of it comes from the freshness of the food, and part of it is just the fact it is a city, where most things are expensive.

Curious about the affordability of the city, I did some research, and by many accounts the salaries are quite low, while the citizens are taxed at about 35% for income alone. On top of that, rent is pretty high, and the Danish pay more for consumer goods, making certain things more expensive. While the city has a lower cost of living than New York City, it is probably a place that I wouldn’t move to without doing additional research to find out what kind of healthcare coverage I would get, especially where my hearing loss is concerned.

2. A lot of emphasis of seafood

Copenhagen and Denmark are located near the sea, which makes sense that they would have a big seafood diet. But I’m not a fan of sea food beyond shrimps and fish, which limited my choices of the national dishes that I could try.

3. Not much to do

A four day trip to Copenhagen was enough for me to see the major attractions, and still have plenty of time to relax in the hotel. That’s kind of nice, except I don’t like having trips where I lounge around at the hotel, unless that is the sole purpose of the trip. I looked around for things to do, but there is really not much going on,and the options are very limited. If you are physically active and into kayaking around in the waters, or going on hikes, then Copenhagen has a lot of options for that, but not so much going on in terms of cultural events.

In that sense, it’s a quiet city, which is great for hard-of-hearing individuals who are sensitive to noise. But not so much if you are restless and need new things going on every so often.

4. Not Commuter Friendly

One thing that I noticed is that public transportation is pretty limited. There are some metro lines, and a few buses that get around the city, but other wise then that, most people bike or walk to work. That’s great if you are able to afford an apartment that is centrally located, or it’s the summer time, but if you’re far away and it gets cold, it can become problematic.

Furthermore, there’s not that much visible information on the transit times and the bus locations as in many other European cities, which makes it hard to commute. As Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals are visual beings, it’s important to have screens or some type of written information to make this information more accessible to them. Otherwise, it’s confusing, frustrating, and stressful in ways that it shouldn’t be.

5. It’s very far North

In summer time, the days were long and they were cool. In winter time, they will be cold and very short. It’s hard to leave for work and come home when it’s dark, and it’s hard to enjoy the outdoors when it’s cold. Furthermore, if you’re prone to depression and getting sick, then the location can compound these issues.