Skanderborg Fest + more

I'm just two days away from my 7 month anniversary in Denmark. How time flies!

I was home just a few days from Belgium before I went to Skanderborg Festival.

Skanderborg Festival is the 2nd biggest festival in Denmark, and is called Danmark's Smukkest Festival, or, in english, Denmark's Most Beautiful Festival. It's in a town just 10 kilometres from here, located in beech forest around the town. The camping sites are on football (soccer) fields and the stages are located around the forest in various little clearings and up and down little hills. It's a very "hyggelig" (cosy, warm, nice, friendly, happy) festival, and the atmosphere is very very warm. That may be helped a little by the sheer amount of alcohol consumed by party-ready Danes, but it was I beleive, at least in part, due to the surroundings of the festival. The festival is watched over by an ancient Danish troll, Gunthler, who is a drunken, non-pants wearing, partying troll who apparently roamed the woods many years ago.

I was camping with about 10 people, mainly from my class, along with Camilla, a friend from Argentina. Our days were spent sleeping in, checking the schedule to see which good bands to see in the afternoon, hitting up the festival for the afternoon, grabbing some dinner from a stall or eating rugbroed and tuna at the tent. Then we would see the bigger bands at night time.

The main stage:


Classmates:


Lenny Kravitz, a definite highlight!


Exchange students:


An installation/bar in the festival:






A map of Africa made entirely from empty beer cans:




It was a brilliant class bonding week, and I got to know a whole bunch of Danish bands that I'd never heard of but are really good. It's rather strange to be at a festival when a classic Danish band is playing a classic Danish song and the whole crowd knows all the words, bar you. However, I could sing along well enough to Franz Ferdinard and Eric Clapton.

This weeks project has been to check out the library and borrow cds from all the Danish bands to listen to more of their music.

School went back on Wednesday, and it was awesome to see the class again. Some people I haven't seen since before Euro-Tour, right back in mid-May. It's really cool to come back and to be able to now understand the classes. I can actually participate in things and help a little which is, for now, quite a nice novelty! After not doing so much serious study for such a long time, it's a nice change.

New exchange students arrived at Silkeborg this week from about 10 different countries. I'm trying to learn the names to 15 different faces and getting to know and showing around people, like my "oldies" did with me when I came 7 months ago.
I took a few of them out, along with some other oldies, to Silkeborg on Friday night to a big fireworks/city party as a bonding/icecream eating activity.

Louis from Dominican Republic, Megan from NZ and Andrea from Italy.


Live jazz and masses of people in the town:




Laser light show:


Local oldies:


And that's that. School is all that's on in the near future. I'll be changing families, rather reluctantly, at the end of August. But I'm sure things will be sweet there too, just like my other two families. I've been playing a lot of piano here, writing and learning tunes borrowed from Silkeborg library, and I'm going to miss that.

NOTE: I've just found out I won't be changing families until the 1st of October. And have also just discovered that there is a free place on the language school trip to Tunisia! (13th-19th October.)

Love to all, Daniel

Belgium

The trip to Belgium was a great way to break up my extensive summer holiday break in Denmark. I was there from the 17th of July until the 1st of August.

I took a train to Hamburg, spent the night in the airport, caught a plane to Geneva in the morning and then finally a plane to Brussels, adding up to a total travel time of 18 hours. I was greeted my Claude and Brenda at the airport, and we went straight to their house in Brussels. I felt like an adopted grandson the whole time I was there! They treated me to many little trips around the country to various tourist spots, allowing me to soak up the atmosphere in the land.

First was the Atomium, Belgiums slightly strange answer to Paris' Eiffel Tower. It was built for the World Expo of 1958, and was thus celebrating its 50th anniversary.


We also saw underground caves in the south, went to a reconstructed Gaul village, saw Brussels on Belgiums national day, went to Waterloo, and I was treated to an extensive study of Claudes well-stocked Belgian beer collection.

A village in the south:


Gaul Village:


Claude and Brenda:


Waterloo:




Brussels on Belgium's national day:






mmm, chocolate!


After my time there, I caught a train to St Niklaas in the Flemish speaking area of Belgium to meet with Soetkin, my exchange student friend from Silkeborg Gymnasium who is now at home. I had an absolute ball of a time there! We went to jazz festivals, gyspy festivals, explored the hip city of Antwerp, wandered the romantic/touristy streets of Bruges, went to a beer factory in Brussels, ate way too many waffles, chocolates and icecreams, met with her friends and generally enjoyed ourselves well. Her family were very sweet and welcoming to me which made the stay very "hyggeligt".

Castle in Antwerp:


Antwerp Station:


Beer brewery in Brussels:


Pawell, Soetkin's brother, in brewery:


Centre of Antwerp:


Bruges:


Bruges:




woman making lace in Bruges:


One of many concerts attended:


I'm back safe and sound in Denmark again now. I was shocked to see at the baggage checkin in Brussels that my baggage weighed 20.8 kilos, as I had left most things in Denmark! It's going to be tricky to convince baggage handlers in January that I need to take 60 kilo's home with no extra charge please? Although, the situation wasn't helped by my mass purchase of Belgian beers and chocolate, which probably made up half that weight.

The weather in Europe has been a brilliantly consistant 25-30 degrees for 2 weeks now. The Belgian news was offering warnings for people to not go outside due to the heat! I am loving the warmth, and dreading the cold weather that is inevitably coming back soon. The sun is now setting at about 9, already an hour and a half earlier than it was a month ago. However, I'm far more prepared for it than I was when i had just arrived in Denmark!

Next week I'm going to Skanderborg festival with classmates. 50,000 people are expected to be in attendance over the 5 day festival, with names like Eric Clapton, Franz Ferdinand, Lenny Kravitz, Katie Melua and a bunch of others, both from within Denmark and outside of Denmark.
School's back on the 14th, and some structure and a forced reason to get up before ten am is probably a very good thing for me!

Love to all, Daniel

Recent times...

More brilliant times in this awesome country. It's been just the last month that I've been able to sustain conversations in Danish, and have even been complemented on my ability in this language, which is a huge boost to self-esteem as I was so sure that I was falling behind. The weather is above 15 degrees almost always, and it rains a lot but it's quite pleasant.

All the "oldies" have gone home now, leaving just us fresh newbies. I'm in no way ready to say that I am halfway through this exchange, but it appears to be that way. However, if the next 6 months are crammed with as many brilliant times as the last 6 months, things will be very very good.

A farewell party with my local "oldies":


I played a recent performance, accompanying a lady singing, for a very large Rotary function (several hundred people) in Ry, and it made it in to the newspaper!

If you look pretty closely, you can spy me playing the piano behind her singing. Front page in the newspaper!


Copenhagen, eller "København" på Dansk, was a brilliant trip. A little trivia for you - the name København comes from the Danish words for purchase (købe) and "havn" means port, as this is what Copenhagen was originally. It is a beautiful, and I would call it "cute", city. Very, very "hyggeligt", as the Danes say.

We took a boat cruise around the city first, through the canals and in the harbour of the city.

The little mermaid:


The Danish opera house:


And picturesque Danish harbour:


After that, we toured the city.

Jeanette (hostmum), Rebecca (3year old host sister) and myself:


Up the Rundetarnet, a great tower in the middle of Copenhagen that was used as an observatory, and actually doesn't have any stairs so the king could be pulled up by his horses:




The next day, we went to Tivoli, the amusement park/Danish institution in the middle of Copenhagen. It is located directly across the road from the central train station of Copenhagen, and soooo much money has been spent on maintaining the gardens, the palace, the grounds and of course the rides. It's been in existence since 1843, making the oldest amusement park in the world. I was with my host family and host-Aunt and Uncle, as well as two cousins.

Tivoli palace:


On a ride with my little sister:


On The Demon, with host cousins in the two seats next to me:


Relaxing with my host cousins after an awesome day:


After two brilliant days in Copenhagen, we picked up Aja, my 18 year old host sister, from the airport in Copenhagen after her exchange year in Chile.

Host family at the airport: (left to right) Jeanette, Kim, Rebecca and Aja.


From the airport, we drove directly to Roskilde, where my host family left me so I could visit an old friend from Denmark, Marie. Marie is a penpal I've had since I was 13, and we've written regularly (and irregularly) over the past 5 years over email. She played a major part in my choosing of Denmark as my exchange country, as after hearing about this place for 6 years, receiving emails from the strange country on the other side of the globe, one becomes rather curious. This was the nervous first face-to-face meeting, and it went brilliantly. I stayed at her house for three nights, and we explored Roskilde, a little more in Copenhagen and took a day trip to Sweden.

Picking tasty Danish strawberries:


The awesome organ in Roskilde Domkirke:


Christiania, a free hippy state in the centre of Copenhagen:


In Malmø, Sweden:




On an actual castle moat!:


After three very nice days with her family, I took the train back to Ry.

I took a 60 kilometre, two day biking trip with my friend, Tina, from my school class, around the beautiful Danish forest. We camped in open log cabins, riding from Silkeborg to Ry and then back to Silkeborg. It rained a huge amount, and we were without raincoats and got very wet. But that just added to the adventure really.

Tina with out campsite:


Standing on top of a 2500 year old Viking grave:


Angry at the rain:


But excited about Vegemite:


Since then, my host sister has gone on a trip to Italy for 3 weeks with a friend, and my host mum and two little sisters have gone away for a week for a kind of holiday workshop. I'm home with my host dad, Kim. Yesterday we went to see the 2000 year old preserved remains of an ancient Dane in Silkeborg museum. He was found preserved in a bog about 50 years ago, and the body was so well preserved that the man who found it thought it had been a recent murder. The following investigation soon revealed that the man was indeed murdered, but over 2000 years beforehand.

Tollund Man:


My host brother, Leon, has just today returned from a 3 month vacation to India where he went on exchange 4 years ago. It seems the members of this household are unable to be in the same place at the same time! We will have all home bar Aja from next week, but then I'll be in Belgium from the 16th. It won't be until the 1st of August that we all live in the same house.

Hoping all is well back downunder!

Knus, Daniel

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