Nørrebro

Copenhagen has three major neighborhoods which lie just outside the lakes: Østerbro, Nørrebro and Vesterbro. 'Bro' means bridge, and the three neighborhoods are in the east, north and west. The lakes were once used as a moat around the city, and the names of the three subway stations, Østerport, Nørreport and Vesterport relate to where the gates or doors to the city once were.

Pictured: Husumgade. Thomas' building is the brick one with the yellow first floor.

Thomas lives in Nørrebro, which like Vesterbro is a traditionally working-class neighborhood. More recently it's become populated with immigrants from Arab and African countries, so it's more diverse than some other parts of Copenhagen. (A bonus, in TK's opinion.) The main thoroughfare, Nørrebrogade, is home to cafés, shawarma bars and green grocers. It has been closed to car traffic for some time because of the high number of cyclists--imagine, they had to expand the bike lanes! There's a digital sign as you bike from the city over the bridge into Nørrebro, that says "you're biker number xxx today." That number easily reaches 10,000, and reports have shown that Copenhageners bike 1 million kilometers on an average work day. Imagine if all of those people were driving cars!

Thomas' apartment is sandwiched between Nørrebroparken, which is part of a greenway system that runs all the way across the city, and Assistens Kirkegård, one of the largest and most beautiful cemeteries in the city. A number of famous Danes are buried here, including Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard and Niels Bohr. What's nice is that people use it like a park, going for a stroll or a picnic on the grounds.