While I rarely advise making life-changing decisions on a whim, that’s exactly what I did when I moved to Denmark. It was the first spring of Covid, the height of lockdown, when my weekly highlights included Thursday evening claps for the NHS and digital quizzes on YouTube. I had just handed in my university dissertation and was temporarily sleeping on my sister’s sofa. Add to that a recent breakup and the eternal question of what I wanted next… There was a lot to consider. One morning, when trying to figure out my plan, one of the first thoughts that popped into my head – it sounds clichéd, but it’s entirely true – was Scandinavia.
The pull north had been simmering for years. In 2013, I went down a rabbit hole of Nordic music, and by 2015, my playlists were overrun with Ásgeir, Aurora, Sigrid, Robyn (and, of course, ABBA). I’d also been studying fashion theory and had developed a firm fixation on the region’s creative pulse. Fashion brands, from Ganni to Acne Studios, were beginning to shape the industry globally.
When I eventually visited Stockholm and Reykjavík for the first time in 2017, I fell in love with the lakes, green landscapes, and the slower, grounded pace of everyday life, which felt like a stark contrast to life back in the British metropolis. In Scandinavia, it felt like someone had hit the pause button. So when my gut instinct kicked in during the pandemic, I decided to go with it.
I arrived in Copenhagen for the very first time with two suitcases in hand, and had an instant feeling of home. The plan was to stay for three months tops, but over six years have passed, and I haven’t returned. Instead, I’ve had stints living in various places across Denmark and Norway, with plenty of long stretches of travelling in Sweden.
As it turns out, many other expats have been charmed by the ever-happy Nordics. Australian-born Isabella Rose Davey, COO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, puts this rather aptly. “Copenhagen is a little like sitting down in a bean bag: familiar, comforting, and so hard to get up out of, a comparison that can be applied to Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Lest we forget the “landscape, and weather, which set a tone and a pace that is fundamentally grounding,” as British-born Isabella Maidment, Chief Curator at Henie Onstad, reminds us. And then there’s the people, “the amazing creative community and friends” that you’ll “have for life,” as Australian-born, Stockholm-based PR and creative consultant, Alice Ekberg Betts, says.
