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