Copenhagen is a city which is not easy to expand. It started out as a small fishing village back in the mid 15th century, and now it is the capital of Denmark. The Copenhagen muncipality itself, which is divided into 15 different districts, has a population of around 500,000 who are sharing 88km² of land space.
Even though city life in Copenhagen is nothing compared to the hustle and bustle of the city life in Singapore, I am contented living here in the Copenhagen muncipality. Yes, I do miss the late opening hours of the shops (they close at 5pm or 6pm here on weekdays, 2pm on Saturdays, and are not open at all on Sundays) and I do miss the inexpensive local and international cuisine, but at least I am still surrounded by people and not cows, sheep, horses or pigs.
Also, it is easy for me to go to work, hang out with friends, play tennis, or to go to various parties without thinking so much of when the last train or bus is going to leave. Depending on how far away from the city you live, some places have the buses running just once an hour after eg. 9pm!
Cars are super expensive to own in Denmark, and petrol prices are sky high too. Since Martin and I live just 10-15mins by bus from the city centre, and we both have the same direct bus to and from work in the city area, it is not necessary for us to own a car. If we ever own a car, it will be either for practical reasons, like if we ever have kids, or for pure, unadulterated luxury reasons, like having too much money to spend ;o).
There are a lot of very old yet very expensive apartments in Copenhagen. There are also not enough apartment units to go around (with a government rule which does not allow buildings to have more than 5 or 6 stories in most areas in the city, it's no wonder there is a shortage).
Housing here is therefore a big problem indeed, and more people are either finding it difficult to find accommodation in the city, or are not willing to pay such a high price for such small space. It is not surprising also to find apartments with no bathrooms (built in the period where people didn't often take showers)! If you are fortunate to find an apartment with a bathroom, they are usually so small that it would make it difficult for even slim couples like Martin and me to shower together (yes, yes, we do that a lot. It's called "couple bonding").
Judging from this, I can say that Martin and I are very blessed to have found our apartment. It is close to the city centre, yet not in it. It was within the price range which we were willing to pay for at the time we were looking for a place back in 2004 (expensive then, but considered very cheap now due to the high property price hike). It was built in 1991, so it's not more than a quarter of a century old (yet). We have a big kitchen and a big bathroom (compared to the average apartment in Copenhagen). We have peace and quiet from traffic. And though the size is written as 68m² on paper, the space is used in the most efficient way that it feels bigger than 68m². And as a bonus, we have an empty attic above us which can be transformed into an extra room if we ever need it (or want it) in the future. A potential penthouse :o)!
If we should EVER decide to move out of the city and into the middle of no man's land, then it should only be to a house which is at least double the size of our city apartment. Anything less than 100m² would be immediately struck off the list, especially if it is a house with double storeys because that would make the house very small and packed up.
Size matters a lot to Yellow Goddess. Whether it is the size of her diamond ring or the size of her home, she will be happy as long as they are bigger than those of people she knows. In fact, it is an extra bonus if they are bigger than Sheila's! Hmm...no wonder she was upset when I didn't congratulate her / acknowledge that her tummy was getting bigger than mine... ;o). Good thing Bil and Martin are twins, otherwise she'll be trying to compare whose husband's gun (piss-tool) is bigger!
Since she is playing this size competition by herself, it is important for her that I do not see just how small their new home is because that would make her lose face to me. After all, she did comment to a friend that our apartment was very small (even though she and Bil had been living in 50m² of space for around 5 years before they moved to a bigger apartment in 2004, and now to a smaller terrace house of 88m²), so it will not do for me to see her downgraded dwellings and know that she has "lost".
This is what I mean:
Perhaps it will be easier to visualise with furniture?
Notice how we get an extra room already just by putting our kitchen in our living room. I don't like "open kitchens", though. The cooking just stinks up the whole living room and makes it smoky, dirty and oily. And hey, our bathroom is at least big enough to have a bathtub in future (we just have a shower at the moment).
But yeah...from the looks of it, the 20m² which they have more than us is probably just for the bigger terrace, the staircase area and the staircase landing on the upper floor. A waste in m² for the stairs area if you ask me... . The only plus I can see is the bigger terrace, but then again, since it is a terrace house, it means no privacy from the neighbours who can easily peek in... . Besides, with Denmark having cold weather 75% of the year, one cannot really enjoy being outside very much.
When the time comes for us to convert our empty attic into another room, I won't be surprised if Yellow Goddess and Bil start looking for bigger place to live in, simply because she has to have better. The question is though, why didn't they just look for a big house from the very beginning when they moved so far away? The brand new ones would of course be too unaffordable for them, but does it have to be brand new then (their current place was completed last year)?
Indeed....so far away, yet for so small a place:
Red dots indicate where we live (they in Roskilde, we in København).To put the distance in relation to something, we can say that if you were to drive from the east side of Singapore to the west side, you will find yourself falling off the island of Singapore and into the water... .
I wonder if heaven has Internet connections... . Yellow Goddess will not be too pleased with me if she goes online and chance upon my blog... .
