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My Copenhagen: “Life and free time are truly valued here”

Spanish-born Míriam Enguita is a contemporary dancer and student of humanities.

25 year old Míriam Enguita has been studying dance her whole life. She grew up in Spain, where she started out with hip-hop and urban dance, before training in ballet and moving to Copenhagen to pursue contemporary dance. Besides her dancing career, she is studying humanities at an online university.

I settled in Denmark because… I was looking for a dance school and I liked the one I found here in Copenhagen. I arrived three years ago – right after the first lockdown – to join a program at the Contemporary Dance School. I am about to finish my studies.

If you ask me if it was love at first sight, I would say… Yes, I loved it. It is a really safe place to live. Of course, when winter approached it was a bit tough, but the moment the good weather came back I started to enjoy it again.

My favourite thing about living in Copenhagen is… that everything is calmer. Your life and free time are truly valued here.

Here in Denmark, I never get used to… people leaving their babies outside all on their own. This is something I simply don’t understand.

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Jeg kan tale… jeg kommer fra Spanien. It means I come from Spain. I took some classes but I have been so busy with everything going on in my life that I stopped after module 3. So, I can understand a lot but I can’t speak it.

On an integration scale of 1 to 10, I would say I’m a… 6. I think that if I spoke Danish, I would feel more integrated. I still feel quite well adapted to the country, however.

I have more international friends in my social circle because… there were almost only internationals at my school, and it was my main source of social interaction.

I think the best way of making Danish friends is… to be nice and honest. As long as you are nice to Danish people, they will be nice to you.

I recommend that visitors to Copenhagen avoid… Christiania. It might be an unpopular opinion but I personally don’t like it. And don’t just go to tourist places like Tivoli – there is much more to see.

Instead, I recommend going to… now that I live in Sydhavn, I have discovered plenty of great harbours there. I strongly recommend visiting them.

Three great places for food and drink are… street food markets such as Reffen and Broens Gadekøkken, near to the Opera House.

Then, if you like Moroccan food, the place where I work besides doing my dance projects is called South Harbour Café. I personally miss Moroccan food because my father is from there. For me, it tastes like home.

And finally, Folkehuset Absalon. It is a nice place because you can go for a party or a community dinner, but also for brunch and breakfast.

The best places to visit on a budget are… the parks. There are a lot of nice green places here.

The three words that I think best describe Copenhagen are… cosy, cute and contemporary.





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