How do you make a seventeenth trip as interesting as the first? Go by car, for a change, and tack on a recon mission to Bornholm. You might find the Baltic island’s combination of pristine beauty and disciplined utility mesmerizing: a Western rural utopia, rich with rules being followed in the spirit of restrained enterprise. After a few dips in the sea and some smoked fish on rye, you, too, might imagine you could live here. Days later, in Copenhagen, however, you may find yourself reconsidering that position. Your future here calls, damn the obstacles. As perverse as it may be to study København from a car, it’s also convenient, eye-opening, and a stimulating contrast after so much bornholmsk peace and quiet. Those perfumed blackberries and hourglass-grade white sands notwithstanding, it sure was a sleepy, contained microcosm, you’ll decide.
Back in Warsaw, 1003 kilometers later, you might realize that it’s your destiny to stay put in Masovia, but you will smile at the thought that it’s also your fate to keep making trips back to Denmark. In a car, most likely, via Bornholm, from now on.
The collage above includes sights from Bornholm and Copenhagen, a city split between the islands of Sjælland and Amager (as are the images). All photos taken with the Fujifilm X-T20 and the Fujinon 23mm f1.4 lens and edited in Lightroom.