Funny things about Denmark...

A break from the usual this week - I'm going to write about a few things that are different in Denmark from Australia. While I have been fairly surprised at how similar a lot of things are to Australia, there's many, many subtle and not so subtle things that occur here that would be very strange if they occurred anywhere else.

Firstly, using the flag, or the "Dannebrog", at every significant occasion. The Danish flag is the oldest national flag in the world. The myth goes that the flag fell from the sky during battle in 1219 at a critical stage of the battle, resulting in a Danish victory. Most houses in Denmark have a flag pole, from which they will always raise the flag when someone in the house has a birthday and when it is a special national occasion, eg Easter, Christmas or Queen Margrethe's birthday. The main streets of Ry have special flag stand holes in the ground every 10 metres, from which on these special days, flag poles are placed and the Danish flag raised which makes the entire town feel very festive.

Constantly talking about the weather and the seasons. My first memories of Denmark involve my then host mum telling me that "Don't worry, Denmark is beautiful in the summer!" As I froze in the often sub-zero temperatures, this seemed like a distant comfort. It seems the whole of Denmark looks forward to the time the trees begin to regain their leaves at the beginning of April. We celebrated mid-sommers dag here on the 23rd of June. It is called "Sankt Hans aften", and involves the burning of massive bonfires in towns and cities across Denmark. It was a beautiful sight to see on the lake in Ry as they burnt a big bonfire with a witch on top. The sun is setting now at approximately 11pm, and rising at about 3am. It is incredible to actually see a massive season change, as in Australia I'm not used to it, but it's also very funny to note how excited Danes become as this change occurs.

Drinking of Alcohol. Alcohol is a major part of Danish culture. The drinking age in Denmark is 16, although you can't enter a bar until you are 18. The Danish youth drink more per person than any other nation on the Earth, and in Danish eyes, it's not a party without alcohol, be it at home, with your parents or at school. The student union is permitted to sell alcohol at all school functions, which includes "Friday Afternoon cafe" and the big "Gym" parties held once a term. The major generalisation explaining this is that Danish people are always very reserved, and need alcoholic beverages to loosen themselves up. Of course, not all Danes fit into this catagory. Other explanations say that because the weather is always so awful in Denmark, the only way youths can enjoy themselves is by drinking.

Danish Language:
An often puzzling yet very interesting way to speak. I was at first stumped when I saw the new letters, ø, å and æ, but it was explained to me that ø equals oe, å equals oo and æ equals ae. The Danish language also has this strange soft "d" sound, which makes "hedder" sound like "hether", and "hvad" sound like "hval".

Norwegians make a lot of fun of the Danish language, as illustrated in this video:



The number system is very difficult to get used to. In Danish, one says the second number before the first, so that 21 is one-and-twenty, or "en og tyve". When one asks the time ("Hvad er klokken?"), the response is "Klokken er tre". But three thirty is said as halv-fier, or half four, and 3:20 is said as ti minuter til halv fier, or ten minutes until half four. It is very easy to get mixed up with these!

Danish foods:
Potatoes, potatoes and potatoes is the main food consumed in Denmark. Generally, a meal will comprise of boiled potatoes, a little salad and some pork. Pork is consumed much more than any other kind of meat, and there are more pigs in Denmark than people. Danish bacon is known as the best in the world. Frikadela is also very popular, which is basically a special kind of rissole. Danes consume BUCKETLOADS of butter, and will put a good table spoon on a slice of toast. Danish strawberries are to die for, and they sometimes will spread sugar over several in a bowl, cover them with milk and eat them like cereal. This tastes delicious, and I can highly recommend it! Thin slices of chocolate are placed on lightly toasted "bolle", or rolls, for breakfast with a good helping of butter underneath it. Black tea is virtually unheard of, with "fruit tea" being much more popular. Mango, raspberry, passionfruit, strawberry, blueberry, forest berries, blackberries and normal green teas are some of the many different types of fruit teas.
Rugbrød is to be found in every household, and is very very very dark rye bread:

Cold meats, cheese and jam are spread over this rye bread, and eaten as an open sandwich for morgenmad (breakfast) and lunch (frokost).
Danish houses do not own toasters, but instead a kind of "bread warmer" heater thing on which it takes 10 minutes to warm both sides of your slice of toast. A capsicum is regarded as being "spicy." Poulser, or hot dogs, can be found at stands EVERYWHERE, and are a very popular, cheap lunch. Pickled herring is the infamous "old peoples" food, and is not eaten very often. "Coffee" in Denmark, be it at a house or a cafe, is always black filter coffee. Pandekager (pancakes) are thin like crepes, and are eaten fairly often. The food most despised by exchange students is Rødglød med fløde, (strawberry porridge with cream), but only because it is nearly impossible to pronounce, sounding more like you are making strange gargling sounds in your throat. Lakrids, or licorice, is very strong and very salty, quite unlike Australian sweet licorice.

It's about bedtime now, 11:30pm and the sun has just gone down. My holiday days consist of saying farvel to all my exchange student friends who are going home this month and next month. It's sad to say goodbye to these people that have helped you settle into this new Danish life, or to people you traveled with over all Europe, or just to people that you know you're not going to see again, even if you didn't know them so well.
I'm off to Copenhagen this weekend with the family, and we shall visit all the tourist attractions and stay with Kim's mor og far. On the first of August, my host sister comes back from Chile, and I'm going to meet a Danish penfriend I've had for many years and stay for several days near Roskilde. On the 16th, I'm travelling to Belgium where I will stay for two weeks.

It's a good life.

Hilsens, Daniel

EUROTOUR

Eurotour 2008 was absolutely and brilliantly perfect. I had the time of my life, and there's no exaggeration there. How more perfect can it get, than driving 4000 kilometres around Europe with 40 other like-minded people from 10 different countries of the globe, exploring, socialising, discovering, learning, sleeping, partying, dancing, laughing, singing, screaming and all other kinds of things potentially not suitable for my public blog! I have made intense friendships with people from Brazil, the US, Lithuania, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Italy and of course Australia and though I know I'll never see some of them again, they'll always be remembered.

Our route went like this:



Skanderborg, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Lido de Jesolo and Venice, San Remo, Monaco, Avignon, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and back to Skanderborg. Over 4000 kilometres in a bus with a blocked toilet and broken airconditioning, winding our way through the back streets of Vienna and around the grand buildings of Vienna, up the mighty Champ D'Elysee and down through the "Hills are alive" of Austria, across the rivers of Northern Italy and into the beautiful villages of Southern France.

I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow account of the entire tour, otherwise I would be typing for weeks and your eyes would turn to squares, but a brief overview and some pictures.

Berlin was our first stop, in a hostel out of the city. I shared a room with James (a US jazz drummer), Lukas (a frisky Lithuanian) and Cristiano (the "little brother" of the bus, Brazillian). Us four boys spent most of the Eurotour together. Though we hadn't met before, we were pretty much instantly friends.

As in most of the cities, we had only two nights here, and that equals only one day of sightseeing. Minus the time it took for our bus driver to find a park, in each city we had an average of about 6 hours. We were allowed to do what we wanted in the cities. Essentially our three tour guides (Max (60ish), Esben (22) and Cecilia (22)) left us to do as we wished. In Berlin, the bus dropped us at three different locations over the course of the day, and we walked through and saw the sights at our own time. The Berlin Wall, or the relics of was the highlight of Berlin for me. We saw a church that had been between the two sides of the wall that had been demolished, but was now rebuilt as a kind of memorial to the wall.


Brandenburg gate:




From Berlin, we went to Prague, a fascinating city with an incredible mix of Eastern Europe and Western Europe. It was also very cheap! We spent the morning with a bunch of Brazillian girls shopping, but broke off when we realised that we had only one hour to see all the sights! Us boys decided to run around the city, and in an epic effort covering 6 kilometres of the city we managed to see most of the sights.

Drengerne (the boys) in Prague


Looking like we are out of "High School Musical" in Prague:


An incredibly beautiful church that we ran up 400 stairs to see in Prague:


Hiding from the rain, having a "hyggeligt" time in Prague:


We stayed in a brilliant four star hotel in Prague, where us four boys shared a huge room where we hosted a little party during the nighttime.

From Prague, it was onto Vienna, the city of incredibly intimidating large white buildings, and home of Mozart.

Alle sammen (together) in front of the Schonnbrun Palace:


Mig og min "oldie", Dierdre, med Schonnbrun Palace:


Intimidating white buildings in Vienna:


Yasmin(Brazil) and I, Vienna gardens:


James and I in gardens:


Mozart house!:


Our hotel in Vienna was in the mountains, prompting many a "Sound of Music" moment.

After Vienna, we went to Lido De Jesolo, a terribly touristy yet excellent place to rest for 3 nights. We met both the first and the 3rd bus here in Lido on our first and last nights, and we partied away all three nights on the waters of the Mediterranean. We all worked on our pale skin tones after months of Danish winter and relaxed on the thousands of beach chairs that covered the sand.

James and I on the beach in Jesolo:


My dreadfully pale self in Lido:


Italian food!:


On our 3rd day in Lido, we took a day trip to Venice. An incredible day of wandering around the beautiful alleyways of Venice and a "fantastisk" trip on a gondola made us very happy.
Gondola ride:


Squished in the tiny Venetian alleyways:


Streets that ended in water:


James and I:


Lunch in Venice:




Abusing our tour leader:


After Jesolo, it was onto Verona and San Remo.

Juliet's balcony in Verona:


Groping Juliet for good luck in love:


Love notes scrawled around the walls of Juliet's courtyard:


San Remo was merely a stoppover, and we didn't see the city. The next day we were in Monaco.

First crepe of the tour:


Side of the Monaco palace:


Windswept in Monaco:


After Monaco, it was onto Avignon, a picturesque French town where the popes lived in the 12th and 13th cent.

Drengerne:


Kiwis doing the haka in Avignon, in front of a fruit salad world record making attempt:


Tasty, tasty fruit salad (all the better because it was free!):


Avignon:


After two nights in Avignon, we went to Paris for three nights. Again, we met bus 1 and bus 2 here for our first and last nights, and we spent those nights under the sparkling Eiffel Tower until the early hours of the morning, along with thousand of Parisians and tourists. Our hotel was 30 minutes by metro from the centre, but being my incredible fourth time in the beautiful city, I could find my way around.

Triumfbuen, eller "L'arc d'Triomphe":


James and I and Notre Dame:


On our last day in Paris, James and I hired bikes from our hotel, 15 kilometres from the centre of Paris. It was just about the best day of my life. We asked directions to the Eiffel Tower from our hotel and were immediately laughed at, but 2 hours later we had made it. Rode up to Montmartre and discussed philosophy while sharing a plate of cheese.



From Montmatre:


Made our way through the crazy Parisian traffic and up the Champ D'Ellysee to the Arc D'Triomphe. Had a great time making our way through the incredibly disorganised Parisian intersections, including the Place De la Concorde, but made it alive.



Also popped over to the Eiffel Tower and to a little french cafe for a croissant. That evening, we found a jazz gig we wanted to see in a little book we'd picked up from a music store and caught the metro to the location, and then walked through the nightlife of Paris into a little back street that looked a little scary and deserted. But the cafe suddenly appeared around the corner, and we made our way into the hyggeligt little venue where a little jazz fusion band was playing Miles Davis covers mixed with a heavy dose of reggae. We got front row seats and the singer realised we didn't speak french, and he translated everything he said for us! We had a brilliant night there, and at midnight we left to go to the Eiffel Tower again until the wee hours of the morning.

Recovered sleep on the way to Brussels, where we had two nights.

Manekin Pis:


Near the EU headquarters:


Riding around Brussels:


Brussels:


We also went to a bar in Brussels with 2500 different types of beer. I tried Mango, chocolate, passionfruit, coconut, 15% alcohol beer, honey beer and many more!

The next day we went to Amsterdam, where we took a very hot canal tour.
Hot and pale on the boat:


Our hotel was in Arheim, and we had a very late night partying in the hotel as we celebrated one awesome Eurotour.

Our final picture together in Denmark:


And that was Eurotour.

It was nice to come home again, and to see my little sisters and host parents. I missed hopping on the trampoline with Rebecca and practicing English/Danish with Kira. I went to see Indiana Jones with my host dad, which was hilarious fun.

The last week and the next few weeks will involve many parties and gettogethers as all my "oldies" get ready to go home at the end of this month. I have also been catching up with my class mates who are taking their exams at the moment.

This weekend I am to fulfill a childhood dream and visit Legoland!

On the 28th of this month, I have been asked to play background music for the crowning of a Rotary District Governor. I will assemble a set of jazz numbers, and I will also accompany a lady to sing a Danish, a German and an English song.

I will also go to Copenhagen at the end of this month to pick up my host sister from the airport, and to do some sightseeing!

Yesterday I booked my flight to go to Belgium from the 17th of July until the 1st of August to visit Papa's cousin and wife in Brussels, and my friend Soetkin in Antwerp.

Mange knuser til alt,
Daniel