I had been forewarned that Danes are not outwardly friendly people and tend to be quite reserved so I was generally prepared for some quiet people that it may take some time to get to know. That's fine but today I met 3 very rude Danes at the grocery store and it upset me. I was in a long line at the cashier and the Fakta employees were talking in Danish and suddenly the line seemed to move to the other till. I couldn't read the sign they had put up and while I was trying to figure out what happened, 3 danish people behind me in the original line walked over and basically budged me in line. I must have looked confused because some old man took pity on me and told me that particular cashier had closed and we were all to line up at the other cashier and then he let me in the line. What a nice old man but how rude of those other 3 people right?! Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest. Especially since had those people not gotten ahead of me in line I would have just missed the huge downpour outside on my bike ride home. Instead, me and my groceries got soaked because of those 5 extra minutes I had to wait. Sigh. Oh wells.
There are nice Danes though and I met my first Danish friend today. Or at least I'd like to start calling him my friend. He is in my foreign investments class and we had to prepare a presentation for class together with the rest of our group who actually dropped the course. So it was just me and Rasmus. He was really nice and we got on really well. Being that he was my first real Danish friend I asked him all the questions I could think of: What is the Danish kijiji? Where can I buy a kettle? Where are the good cheap eats close to school? What is bike etiquette? (Apparently most intersections have 3 sets of signal lights: one for cars, one for bikes and one for pedestrians. And to think, all this time I have been blowing by like I'm colourblind!)
Anyway, Rasmus was awesome and showed me a cheap pizza joint with student pricing, how to scan documents at the library and we also killed our first class presentation. Rasmus is a very popular Danish name. We have two in that class alone and one of the football coaches also goes by that name. I felt like we got on so well I asked Rasmus if I could please call him Razzie. He laughed and then very seriously said, "No." So I said fine, maybe Razzie is a bit feminine, how about Raz? He gave me a look and said no, there's no nickname, just Rasmus. To be honest I was really disappointed. Razzie just sounds so awesome to say! Guess I'll just have to get friendly with all the other Rasmus's and see which one will let me nickname him. Lol.
Another administrative matter: I have been going on and on about J Fern and some of you are like, who is this person? She is my partner in crime here in Copenhagen. We are both from University of Calgary Law and she is a mad party animal who makes me drink and go hard or go home pretty much every day of the week.
ANNDD I have another thing to get off my chest. There is a senior citizen who lives in the flat just below mine and he must be deaf because he just pumps the tv volume at audio level 45 from dusk until dawn. Literally. I am listening to it right now. He doesn't do it every night of the week (thank god) but once every week or so he has an all-night slumber party. Just him and his tv. I don't really know what to do with him because it isn't quite loud enough to file a complaint and yet I am above him and can hear it all. Especially when he runs his tv ALL night long. Perhaps we have thin walls/floors but STILL.
On the day before I left for Århus, I woke up sick but I still managed to run some errands and hang out with Noora in the centre. It was probably the nicest day we had seen yet so we took in the Christiansborg castle and the Royal Library.
On the way home that day I found these and thought they were quite entertaining. Tomorrow is the federal election for Denmark.
Onto our first weekend trip to see more of Denmark!
It began with an early morning flight to Århus at 0800. Nothing better than a 7-11 hot dog for breakfast at 0930! We then checked into a great hostel called Danhostel and went to make the most of our day even though we were dead tired. First stop was the Aros Museum which was very cool architecturally. The color ring pedestrian walkway on the top of the building was really neat! We spent quite a bit of time checking out the exhibits and J Fern even took a short nap in between exhibits. After a quick dose of caffeine (and a chocolate croissant for me!) we were ready to rock and roll again to Den Gamle By (The Old Town). It was kind of like Heritage Park but better. No rides but the old buildings were real buildings preserved and moved from different areas of the country and put in one place. They had bakeries, horse carriage rides and really rickety cobblestone.
The next morning we headed off to Moesgard Museum to see the infamous bog body. And since J Fern takes way better photos than me these are stolen off her album just so you can see it clearly. Apparently bogs have some sugar compound called sphagnum or something which preserves things. So human bodies, butter, bread etc. This dude was killed and dropped in the bog from 2000 years ago and they found him intact like this. Pretty darn cool.
That night I had my first plate of nachos since I left Canada and although it was sort of a disappointment (no tomatoes, jalepenos or olives! What is going on??) the supercute bartender made up for it. He was so friendly it was quite obvious he wasn't Danish. =) He was Norwegian with a hint of Aussie, having spent a year surfing there. This photo didn't really turn out that well but know that he was much cuter in person. And don't worry, I am going to continue to document all the interesting bartenders I meet. Seriously. How is it that all the people here are blonde and gorgeous?? It just doesn't seem fair!
As for Skagen, I have 3 words: SO DAM WINDY. On our way to the northernmost tip of Denmark I seriously biked and walked thru a hurricane to get there. Wind and rain pelted us at speeds of at least 30 km/hr. I definitely questioned why I went there but after two train rides (where we almost accidentally went to Hamburg instead) there was no question, I was for sure making it to that bloody tip. And we did make it! See happy photos below.
There are nice Danes though and I met my first Danish friend today. Or at least I'd like to start calling him my friend. He is in my foreign investments class and we had to prepare a presentation for class together with the rest of our group who actually dropped the course. So it was just me and Rasmus. He was really nice and we got on really well. Being that he was my first real Danish friend I asked him all the questions I could think of: What is the Danish kijiji? Where can I buy a kettle? Where are the good cheap eats close to school? What is bike etiquette? (Apparently most intersections have 3 sets of signal lights: one for cars, one for bikes and one for pedestrians. And to think, all this time I have been blowing by like I'm colourblind!)
Anyway, Rasmus was awesome and showed me a cheap pizza joint with student pricing, how to scan documents at the library and we also killed our first class presentation. Rasmus is a very popular Danish name. We have two in that class alone and one of the football coaches also goes by that name. I felt like we got on so well I asked Rasmus if I could please call him Razzie. He laughed and then very seriously said, "No." So I said fine, maybe Razzie is a bit feminine, how about Raz? He gave me a look and said no, there's no nickname, just Rasmus. To be honest I was really disappointed. Razzie just sounds so awesome to say! Guess I'll just have to get friendly with all the other Rasmus's and see which one will let me nickname him. Lol.
Another administrative matter: I have been going on and on about J Fern and some of you are like, who is this person? She is my partner in crime here in Copenhagen. We are both from University of Calgary Law and she is a mad party animal who makes me drink and go hard or go home pretty much every day of the week.
ANNDD I have another thing to get off my chest. There is a senior citizen who lives in the flat just below mine and he must be deaf because he just pumps the tv volume at audio level 45 from dusk until dawn. Literally. I am listening to it right now. He doesn't do it every night of the week (thank god) but once every week or so he has an all-night slumber party. Just him and his tv. I don't really know what to do with him because it isn't quite loud enough to file a complaint and yet I am above him and can hear it all. Especially when he runs his tv ALL night long. Perhaps we have thin walls/floors but STILL.
On the day before I left for Århus, I woke up sick but I still managed to run some errands and hang out with Noora in the centre. It was probably the nicest day we had seen yet so we took in the Christiansborg castle and the Royal Library.
Christiansborg Slot
View across the canal from the Royal Library
Royal Library
On the way home that day I found these and thought they were quite entertaining. Tomorrow is the federal election for Denmark.
Onto our first weekend trip to see more of Denmark!
It began with an early morning flight to Århus at 0800. Nothing better than a 7-11 hot dog for breakfast at 0930! We then checked into a great hostel called Danhostel and went to make the most of our day even though we were dead tired. First stop was the Aros Museum which was very cool architecturally. The color ring pedestrian walkway on the top of the building was really neat! We spent quite a bit of time checking out the exhibits and J Fern even took a short nap in between exhibits. After a quick dose of caffeine (and a chocolate croissant for me!) we were ready to rock and roll again to Den Gamle By (The Old Town). It was kind of like Heritage Park but better. No rides but the old buildings were real buildings preserved and moved from different areas of the country and put in one place. They had bakeries, horse carriage rides and really rickety cobblestone. 
Den Gamle By
Danish Pancakes are a historical tradition. Yum!~
Finally we found dinner along the canal and made it back to our hostel to rest up. I slept 13 hours that night and got over my cold. Amazing!
The next morning we headed off to Moesgard Museum to see the infamous bog body. And since J Fern takes way better photos than me these are stolen off her album just so you can see it clearly. Apparently bogs have some sugar compound called sphagnum or something which preserves things. So human bodies, butter, bread etc. This dude was killed and dropped in the bog from 2000 years ago and they found him intact like this. Pretty darn cool. 
That night I had my first plate of nachos since I left Canada and although it was sort of a disappointment (no tomatoes, jalepenos or olives! What is going on??) the supercute bartender made up for it. He was so friendly it was quite obvious he wasn't Danish. =) He was Norwegian with a hint of Aussie, having spent a year surfing there. This photo didn't really turn out that well but know that he was much cuter in person. And don't worry, I am going to continue to document all the interesting bartenders I meet. Seriously. How is it that all the people here are blonde and gorgeous?? It just doesn't seem fair! 
As for Skagen, I have 3 words: SO DAM WINDY. On our way to the northernmost tip of Denmark I seriously biked and walked thru a hurricane to get there. Wind and rain pelted us at speeds of at least 30 km/hr. I definitely questioned why I went there but after two train rides (where we almost accidentally went to Hamburg instead) there was no question, I was for sure making it to that bloody tip. And we did make it! See happy photos below. 
I love reading your Lemon Danish blog. It always cracks me up. You know Razzie is the award handed out for the worst Hollywood movies, right? I wonder if Rasmus knew that so that's why he won't let you call him that. ;)
ReplyDeleteNo I had no idea! Oops. I definitely won't be bringing that up with the other potential 'Razzies' tho. =P
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I'm a Canadian studying at Aarhus right now and heading to Skagen for a day trip at the end of the week!
ReplyDelete