An Old Hope In a New Age

Yesterday morning gave me the fullest view of Copenhagen that I would ever probably get to see within the span of an hour. Not only was I able to experience the architecture, but I was also learning about these buildings, and getting to see them from one of the city’s greatest resources: its canals. I had the privilege of understanding the scenario in Copenhagen and also, I feel, that of most European cities; a healthy dose of antiquity and modernity. On one hand there was the ornate, old buildings of Amalienborg (the royal castle), the old National Brewery (because water was so bad in the 17^th century, this institution rationed 10 liters of beer to each soldier per day) and the Stock Exchange, on the other was the Opera House (which is awesome because 5 of its stories are underwater), the National Theater and the Maersk headquarters (the windows reflect the color of the sky, and are thus nearly always blue). I got to just wander around the pedestrian sector near Nyhavn, the new port and see the shopping district, which is where I really got my first glimpse of a flood of red and white at the multitude of sports stores.

Football fever! It’s an illness I will never grow tired of. And neither will Europe; football, I feel, holds together the social framework of Europe’s nations. With a game so easy to understand, it unites the rich and the poor in a spirit of hope. I think the jerseys that stores were selling adequately show what soccer is to these people. In Copenhagen, alongside the current official jersey, a retro jersey from the ‘80s and ‘90s is displayed for the same price. Why? Wouldn’t you expect to be lower because it is obsolete? Absolutely not. The retro jerseys here reignite nostalgia of a Danish team to be feared and reckoned with; it reminds the people of a team led by Michael Laudrup, arguably the best Danish player and goalscorer of all time. Football is unfortunate, in a way, for smaller sporting nations, because this is not necessarily a sport where results can change with a fleeting glance. Whenever you ask people about the fate of their nation, they are pretty sure about it: there are usually never any “maybe” or “it’s kinda possible” responses. So, this being said, countries scrounge and scrape hope up from the times of triumph to give them the fervor to cheer for their country. What do you know, Denmark was victorious over Senegal in tonight’s friendly.

One such example of people’s certainty about their teams was displayed to me last evening. I met a girl from Mexico City who was studying in Florence and on a vacation in Copenhagen. She was going to go to South Africa for the end of the World Cup; you could imagine my intense jealousy at her glorious situation. When I, however, asked her if she was expecting Mexico to get so far, she responded with a puzzled, blank stare. After a few seconds, she firmly responded “no, not Mexico, USA”. I was taken aback by this confidence in our soccer team. Usually, the feelings about Mexico are heated against the USA, especially amongst Mexicans. But, if anything was learned by this conversation, it was that no matter how much national pride a person has in football, they are always honest with their judgment of a team’s true skill. This girl was no different; she was proud of the Mexican team’s position, but aware of their lack of skill compared to the US squad.

It’s really wonderful being in an environment where all one has to do to learn about something in Europe is look, ask and listen. Three simple tasks with clear spots in the brain laid for them are all it take. Now that two days have hit this nail firmly into my head, it is clear that this will be my process in this excursion.

Cheers for now, mates.