Cultural differences part I: time and cycling

After living in Denmark for a year and a half and experiencing a lot of the Danish culture it is time to make a brief summary of the biggest cultural differences between Danes and Croatians. What are the main points in which Danes and Croatians differ the most? There is a number differences, some small ones and some big ones but I will start by saying that it is clear, beyond any reasonable doubt that both groups have both good traits and traits that are lacking and most importantly they are both human beings with the same wants, needs, desires and human flaws. The difference that differentiates them most is how they have made their societies tick. Let's go through two moments that are standing out the most.

Take on time

Danes are all about punctuality when it comes to appointments of any sort. Danes are not late, for anything ever. There is no difference between going to work, doctor, cafe with a friend or a party. If they are invited, let's say at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, they will be there at 5 o'clock no questions asked and they will go out of their way to make it on time. If an appointment can't be reached in the agreed time it is a cause for a lot of stress and it is considered disrespectful to the host (in case it is a party or a dinner date).

Croatians have a bit more relaxed take on time in general, but they are also making a distinction between appointments that are considered serious and appointments where one can be a bit more relaxed. Work, doctors appointment and similar type of other appointments is taken seriously and one is never late for those but when Croatians are meeting friends or going out being up to 15 minutes late is acceptable. Thing that best explains Croatian take on time is actually on universities. Being late for a lecture for up to 15 minutes is acceptable in most cases and it is called an academic quarter. So, when you are meeting a Croatian and he is late, don't get angry, he is just invoking his right to an academic quarter

Cycling

This is one of the cultural moments where these two societies stand starkly apart. In Denmark cycling is a way of life, in Croatia it is hobby for enthusiasts. Being a passionate cyclist in Croatia is not easy, sometimes. Bike lanes are few and most often bad. Sometimes the only way to go is to break the law because it is impossible to follow it. Plus, Croatians have a lot of excuses why not to use a bike. Some of the reasons are: it is either too hot, too cold, it is raining, one doesn't want to be sweaty on work etc.

In Denmark, where weather is much worse, people are cycling all the time be it rain, snow, hot or cold. And almost everyone cycles, young and old, parents, politicians and businessmen. Every apartment building has bicycle parking space, bike lanes are everywhere and weather is always good enough for cycling. No weather is too bad for cycling, one can only be improperly dressed.

Cut-throat world of the danish bike lanes

It is a cut-throat world on the danish bike lanes. On some days it feels like everything is out to get you. Children, elderly people, other cyclists... especially other cyclist and they are creative about it. Everybody except the car drivers, they, are super considerate to cyclists. And of course they are, if there is a crash with a cyclist and driver being a part of it it will be drivers fault by default unless cyclist went through red light. But at the same time, deep down, drivers hate cyclists.

"Copenhagen cyclists are the worst", one of my friends said.

And I must say that I understand the sentiment. 

When I just arrived I was working with a friend who isn't a passionate cyclist. Also, we both recently moved to Copenhagen and we didn't know the city so we were relying on a GPS a lot and we weren't riding fast. We were definitely slower cyclists out there. Oooo boy, I was feeling like a moving target! Other cyclist were just swooshing past us, often angrily using their bells, somehow you can just hear the frustration from the way the person uses a bike bell. We were just a slow crawling nuisance that was reducing Danish commuting efficiency.

That lasted for two months. My friend and me learned the ropes of our job and we started working independently. Since, by that time I got to know the city as well I started riding my usual style, fast and determined, like a well integrated immigrant.

Since then I saw the other dark side of Copenhagen cyclists. They don't care for pedestrians at all and sometimes they really should. Danish cycling infrastructure is great but it has it's flaws. For example bus stations are in between the road and the bike lane, so when passengers are going on or of the bus they must go across the bike lane. On multiple occasions, when bus would stop and passengers would start going of, I would either stop or crawl so people can normally get of the bus. I thought other cyclists would do the same, I was wrong. They don't, they just go into mode; moving obstacles... avoid... avoid, so they just go zig-zaging through the passengers getting of the bus and almost colliding with me, since I am letting people go over the bike lane. Even though the default is, squeeze through the pedestrians and try not to hit them, I still stop and let them through and risk being ran over by a determined Dane on the bike. It is the same with crosswalks. You would think when people are crossing the road on the green light that cyclists would let them through, they don't. I guess their reasoning is that if someone ends up under their wheels, it is their fault.

Position of the bike lane in between the road and the sidewalk causes other problems as well. When people are getting out of the car, or fetching stuff from the car they have to be on the bike lane. That is what is causing a lot of potentially dangerous situations. On multiple occasions I was in a situation where I thought that I will slam into the person getting out of the car, or into the person going across the bike lane. Two times I was in a situation in which the person going across the bike lane saw me, looked me straight into the eyes, acknowledged that I am approaching and still made a step unto the bike lane even though I was just 2 meters away approaching in high speed. Fortunately for me, disk brakes had enough power to stop me before I hit the person.

Cyclist are also a menace to other cyclists. A lot of them is making turns without signaling, joining the bike lane without any thought of the incoming traffic, squeezing in past you in places where there is enough room for just one bike, people riding children bikes overtake when it seems there isn't enough space. On occasions it can really feel like: "Ok, this one will crash into me, but then they don't." I will conclude that I am the inexperienced one.

To conclude these 2 cycling posts. Danish bike lanes are amazing. If a person lives and works in Copenhagen there really is no reason to commute by car. The fastest way of commuting is using the bike, but it isn't the safest one. So, in a tame country of Denmark, where everything is regulated and controlled, if you want to get some adrenaline, get a bike and jump in! Who knows, maybe that is the reason why are Danes doing it, so they can feel alive at least while they are in their daily commute.

Cycling in Denmark

Cycling is a great hobby of mine. In the second year of studies I was mugged in a tram in Zagreb and for a short period of time I was afraid of using Zagreb public transportation. That didn't last long but it lasted long enough for me to notice the crappy old green bike in front of the apartment. I think dad bought it when I was a kid, but nobody ever used it. That time I thought, why not, let's try. Oooo the freedom.... being independent from public transport, not wasting your life away in traffic jams and the commuting speed. It was love on the first sight and it just grew from there. First it led to me working as a bike courier as I was wrapping up my studies. And I loved that stupid job. Roaming around the city on the bike for the whole day, beautiful! 

After I got into the grove I was doing between 50 and 80 km a day and then one day I woke up and asked myself: "How far could I go if I just cycle in one direction?" The answer was the coastline. Zagreb is located a bit less then 200km from the coastline. And that was it, eternal love between my bike and me was sealed.

As it turned out my dear friend was equally crazy about cycling as I was. From 2010 to 2016, 4 out of 6 summers we spent on cycling trips around Europe: Berlin, Tirana, Lake Ohrid, Swiss Alps, Krakow, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Prague; to name just a few places we have seen with our best 2 wheeled friends.

Cycling is just a part of me and it will always be a part of my life in a smaller or larger degree.

Before I moved to Denmark I knew that Denmark has an amazing cycling infrastructure and that the cycling is a big thing there. Even with that knowledge I wasn't prepared for reality, which was just WoW.

First time Al'Shadar took me to the center of Copenhagen I felt like a small child, full of awe and wonder for the new world. Bike lanes were everywhere and they were wide enough so you can overtake and they were packed! First group of people commuting was around 70 bikes large! Up to that point the largest group of other fellow cyclist I was waiting for the trafficlight in Zagreb was 5! So I recon you can understand my surprise when I saw a group of that size.

Danish cycling infrastructure is just amazing. There are not two places in Denmark that are not connected with a bike lane. Bike lanes are just everywhere in Denmark even between nowhere and nowhere. For real! There are even bike lanes in rural area with just couple of people living in them.

But, cycling lanes is one thing but bicycles are something else. Before I moved I expected that in a country with such a great infrastructure, quality of the bikes will follow but it doesn't. Most of the bikes you can see in traffic are crappy old city bikes and when I say crappy I mean crappy! If bikes were supposed to pass some road safety test, most of the bikes on Danish roads would fail. At first I was surprised with that but as I started to get to know Danish culture it started to make sense. People in Denmark don't cycle because it is there hobby, they cycle to commute. Bicycle in Denmark is a transportation device and Danes treat them as such. Bicycles are tools to be used for commuting and not hobby items you will pamper.

But that can also be seen on the Danish streets. During workdays most of the bicycles looks like they will fall apart if you look them in a bad way. Weekends are a different story though. Then avid cyclists pull out their babies out of storage and these bikes are something else. Sexy roadies worth 10000 dkk or more. Mountain bikes are a rare sight in Denmark. When you get to see one, you will remember it, and that makes sense. Of course mountain bikes are not popular and why would they be. Denmark is FLAT and the usefulness of mountain-bikes is very limited. You just don't need mountain-bikes in a flat country.

But there is a lot of weird looking bike-things that are used for transportation of people and/or things. On multiple occasions I have seen a parent transporting their two or more children in children-bikes. Some of them are three wheeled with a transport spaces on the front axle, some of them have two wheels with transportation space between the wheels, but these are made just to carry cargo. The most interesting one I have seen is for transportation of blood.

To conclude, biking is huge in Denmark and you can see it everywhere. But it isn't huge because Danes are passionate bicyclers, it is huge because it is a mean of transport. But if you are a passionate cyclist, moving to Denmark will be a huge quality if life improvement.

In the next blog entry I will talk a bit about how it is to cycle on danish bike lanes.