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Published: August 26th 2009
Bug bites on the face!
From our night spent in Leer, Germany outsideDenmark - pre Bornholm
8/17 - 8/22
So we got our ride into the Center of Odense by Siva, who gave us each 200 kroner, and then went to the Library to try and find a place to stay. It didn’t take long at all actually. After only about 30 minutes of looking on CouchSurfing.com we got a response that we could stay at this wonderful chick Pia’s house. She lived about 4.4 kilometers (about 2 miles) away from where we were and welcomed us at anytime, even on such short notice. So cool!
After the Library we headed to get some food with our 400 dkk. We really had no clue how much that was, even though it sounded like a lot to us. There was a little eating market place with a few restaurants, so we checked out the menus to get a feel for what the cost of things were. At one place a burger was 120 dkk, and the other it was only 99 so there we went. We ordered a burger and waters, and when the drinks came - so did the bill! Right away. The waters ended up costing 10 dkk each! So
The Little Mermaid!
It is ACTUALLY a Danish story, by Hans Christian Anderson, who is from Odense we got a small beer each instead. We figured if we were going to pay for something to drink it may as well be a real drink. The total ended up being 155 dkk, which we hoped was reasonable. Later on we found out that 5 dkk is about the same as 1 USD! So the burger and two small beers cost us about $32! Ridiculous! Luckily for us, there is no tipping over here though.
After we ate we headed toward a park, but stopped by and climbed this incredible tree. It almost looked like the leaves started growing down instead of up! Honestly it looked and felt tortured and sad, but was truly unique. We ended up sitting by a tree with a heart painted on it and played some music. Didn’t make much, but these two boys Ramus and Oskar came and sat with us. They reminded us a lot of a young Jay and Silent Bob, Oskar never stopping and Ramus never starting. They were cute and I’m glad they came and hung out, regardless of how crazy Oskar was, haha! We made about 47 dkk and then headed back to the Library to check
on Pia’s response and load some pictures.
When the Library closed we started our hike to Pia’s. Got a little lost, but again we were lucky that everyone speaks English. The city of Odense is really beautiful. It is where Hans Christian Anderson came from, which I got to see his house a couple days later. The buildings, like the rest of Europe are old and historic - a lot of the houses and shops still kept from the 1800’s. Bicycles are really popular here too, but not as much as in Holland. And interestingly enough, the bikes here are newer while the bikes in Holland were older looking and decorated by their owners.
We got to Pia’s around 8:30pm and she welcomed us right in. We stayed up and shared stories and lives until about midnight. She is a wonderful musician, playing folk music with her violin, which actually makes it a fiddle. She’s one of 25 applicants to be accepted in her year to a specialized music school! Music is her whole life, and it is so beautiful.
Oh, so in Denmark they don’t really pronounce the “d” so Odense sounds like “Oh-ens-ah”. Also, the
The crazy tree!
A very sad feeling tree, but beautiful still. They cut the top and the roots every year to keep it like a Bonzai Tree government pays for they’re college PLUS a monthly stipend. Hospitals and other social programs are taken care of too. But their income tax is super high, of course. So far though, everyone I’ve asked says it’s worth the taxes. And of course everything is really expensive here, especially for Americans.
So, Wednesday the 19th was the first time Phoenix and I split off from each other. The biggest reason we even came to Denmark was for her to explore a few locations that have been important to her since she was young. One was Egeskov Castle, on the Island of Fyn where she has some really intense visions from and the other was on the island of Bornholm where she has some family history. Today was the day she was going to Egeskov on her own. I was pretty nervous about it since we don’t have a cell phone, but knew she would be just fine. She left pretty early in the morning and Pia and I saw her off to the bus. She looked so cute and nervous as the bus drove away!
As Phoenix accomplished one of the most long standing goals of her life, I
got the very wonderful experience of exploring Odense with Pia! She took me along the walking path behind the houses that led to the Center. So much nicer than the roads we walked the night before! It winded along a beautiful river with long water grass all in it. The weather, of course, was incredible and sunny. It was very easy to talk with Pia, so we had such a pleasant walk just chatting, sharing and laughing. We got in to the Center and again I was amazed by the old housing and shops. There was a cute little market going on, and then we walked to Hans Christian Anderson’s house. Didn’t do the tour, but did peek in the windows a bit. He’s a big tourist attraction for the town and there are sculptures and such around the city in memory of him. We even went to a beautiful park dedicated to him and dipped my feet in the river while munching on carrot sticks. We also stopped by the main church of the town, which is incredibly huge and beautiful. Not beautiful because it is glamorous and filled with impressive, gold trimmed things…but actually beautiful in structure and
simplicity.
After our exploration we walked back toward the house, stopping to do a little grocery shopping for our next little adventure - a folk music jam session tonight with her and her friends! OH WOW! What an extraordinary treat that was going to be! We hoped it would be easy to get Phoenix there, since we didn’t know what time she was going to be home. But within an hour of us arriving back to the house, Phoenix called and said she was on her way! Perfect of course. So after she got home safely and shared her experience at her castle, we headed to Pia’s friends garden-house to start the evening off.
The garden-house was really intriguing. It was just on the other side of the river so we could walk to it. And it was a small plot of land with a tiny shack and no electricity, which was part of a garden community. So there were tons of other plots like this right next to each other, which people use primarily for their gardens. It’s actually illegal to live in these places during the winter though. Pia’s friends’ place was so very cute and
Our friends Ramus and Oskar
Very much like Jay and Silent Bob...Oskar with our hat on we felt welcomed as soon as we showed up. It was great to play some of our music for them before it started to really kick off. But once it did we were smothered in brilliant talent and traditional Danish music. Almost all the people that were there were other musicians from Pia’s school, so were incredibly talented. They would pass around different instruments, sing, and even sometimes translate the songs. Though honestly they played a lot of English songs…probably for our sake. Around 2am, Phoenix and I fell asleep by the fire while listening to the music flittering in the night. Eventually, we walked home along the river and silent woods to crash at Pia’s, totally satisfied with life and grateful for the incredible experience.
We decided to stay another day in Odense, to relax and make sure we were prepared for our next hitch to Copenhagen. With Pia’s Danish expertise we were able to make æbleskivers which is like a traditional pancake ball thing. They usually eat them around Christmas, but we made an exception! They were delicious! Pia told us about some of the other traditions in Denmark, like a birthday cake shaped like a person
Egeskov Castle
Phoenix went all by herself, which she has been planning on doing since she was about 14! with candy used to make hair and faces and such. Then the birthday child cuts off the head for themselves, crawls under the table and pinches someone’s toe! That person gets the next piece of cake. Hahaha! That’s so cool!
Then Phoenix and I got a nice Italian dinner cooking for Pia. It was super yummy, as her dinners always are. And of course it is SO much cheaper to get food from the grocery store than the cafes. That night Pia went to a concert and Phoenix and I were able to rest for the next day of travels. We had only been at Pia’s for a couple of days, but it felt like a long time - jam packed with experiences. And Pia is such a wonderful host, everything went so smoothly.
So Friday we all took our time waking up and getting ready for our day. We had to contact our next couchsurfing host in Copenhagen to try and figure out what times were best to arrive. And buying the bus and ferry tickets to get to Bornholm on Saturday. Then of course get a bunch of directions from different locations, just incase. But one
of the more exciting things was that Pia was having a folk music gig in Copenhagen that night, so we would get to see her again and experience some more folk music! A pleasant thought as we packed our bags and said goodbye until tonight. Then Phoenix and I set off walking in the direction of the appropriate highway with our “København” sign flying.
Once we got to the main road, about 4 kilometers (2 miles) away, it didn’t take long before we caught a ride. Two boys (20 and 21) were headed to Nyborg, a city right before the bridge to the next Island that Copenhagen is on, which is supposedly the second longest bridge in the world. They were sweet hearts, though one couldn’t speak much English. It was fun to hear their music, which was actually Pakistani, where one was from. We also talked to them about why we were against littering but ok with peeing outside in the woods! Haha! Once we got to Nyborg they confessed they were actually going to Copenhagen but didn’t know if we were safe or not when we first got in. So now they could drive us all the
way! The toll to cross the bridge was 250 kroner, which is around $50!
They dropped us off about 17 kilometers from the Center, but we quickly got another ride all the way in. Really we have been having such wonderful blessings with our rides. Everyone has been very nice and we always seem to get a ride quickly (if we’re on the right side of the road) and just where we need to go. That last ride dropped us off about 3 kilometers (1.5 miles) from our next host’s place, so we walked and stopped in at a grocery store along the way. What a feast! We got bread, brie, ham, fruit, and two local beers for $79 kroner ($15ish)! After a little walking we stopped and dined on a bench, talking and people watching. It’s legal to drink on the streets so we just sipped our beers and had a wonderful time. It was nice to have some time with just her and I, since a lot of this trip has been spent with other people (drivers, hosts, friends, etc).
The rest of the walk wasn’t bad at all, though we were glad to put down
our bags when we got to our next host, Nat’s place. She lives in an old apartment building, so we had to ring the buzzer. Unfortunately we didn’t have a way to contact her otherwise and let her know we had made it into the city. After a few buzzes and no answers, we sat down on the sidewalk and waited, hoping she would come home and we could drop off our bags before walking to Pia’s gig. After a while though we had to leave if we were going to make it by 8pm, so we wrote Nat a note and headed off in search of the Folkets Hus, huge packs and all.
The walk wasn’t too bad and only took about 35 minutes to get there. We could tell when we were near because we could hear the folk music coming from inside a building. It was like a shining beacon to us and our tired backs! The building was not what I was expecting, covered in artistic and anarchistic graffiti…but the music was wonderful. When we walked into the little hall, there were a lot of older people at the front playing their fiddles, accordions, guitars,
clarinets, and recorder flutes. It was quite an incredible scene! There were also a few couples on the little dance floor area doing cute traditional Danish folk dances. One of the organizers of the event immediately came over and told us about the building and how they let politically active youths stay here, but they graffiti all over the walls, sometimes even on the old paintings. It was sad, but neat at the same time. Then she hopped up and went to go join the band with her fiddle.
Shortly after Pia brought me out to dance! I was quite fumbly, but it was so fun! From then on we were asked to dance almost every dance by the different men in the room. It was really cute, even the older generation is very fluent in English as they spin you around and around. Sofie, a girl our age brought us out too and taught us to Polka. She was a really excellent dancer and super awesome teacher! I really liked the dances where everyone holds hands and spins around, then does a little “dosy doe” around with different partners. The dances are really simple, but so fun! I
Pia making us ebleskivers!
A traditional Danish Pancakey thing was glad that there were a lot of people enjoying themselves, and even a few younger people did the traditional dances. Pia’s performance with her trio-lady band was wonderful of course. It was so great to see her lit up and enthusiastic when playing, you can tell she loves to do it. Same with her fellow band members, all were very gifted.
Around 10:30 or so we suddenly were approached by a beautiful girl and realized, IT’S NAT! She came! I had left her directions on the note we left, and was so very glad she showed up. We honestly weren’t sure what our sleeping plans were going to be if she wasn’t home. But it turns out she was there the whole time, but her buzzer doesn’t work! So, she joined us at the little folk gig and we introduced our two couchsurfing hosts and friends to each other. That was cool. Nat was so super sweet! She didn’t want to dance, but it was really great that she came. We got to get to know each other a bit too, which was nice before we became temporary roomies. So after a bit more music, dancing, and we
pulled out the drum to join in the last open-jam-session we said bye to Pia and headed back to Nat’s house for the night.
Of course we sat and talked until about 4am. She told us it was too bad we had bought our tickets to Bornholm for the following morning because there was a huge pillow fight happening in Copenhagen Center! Well it didn’t take much more to convince us that we needed to change our tickets so we could participate in this wonderful event. That was the very first thing we did the next morning. The turn out was small but still you can’t go wrong with whacking random strangers with pillows in public. The grown was strewn with feathers too, which was fun. Although, during a throw-pillow evasive move…I rolled my ankle with an impressive “CRACK!”. A small bit of fear went through me - oh no! How can I hike around with a broken ankle?? But I quickly realized that it wasn’t broken, just a bit sore and I was fine.
After the little pillow fight, Nat gave us a quick tour of the city. We headed to Christiania, which is a small art
city within Copenhagen. They don’t discourage picture taking, don’t have cars, sell cool hippy gear, have lots of free expression and art, and rumor has it don’t pay taxes, and have a running competition with the Hells Angels for the Hash market in the area. They were definitely selling it right on the street, which was interesting to see.
We were all pretty tired though, so we soon headed back to the apartment and dined on wine and cheese. It was a wonderfully relaxing exploration of what it was like to live in Copenhagen…inside. Haha! We really need days like that every once and a while, since we’re constantly running around trying to make sure we see everything the area has to offer. It was nice to just sit and talk with Nat about the Danish culture.
The next morning Phoenix and I got up early, gathered our gear and were on our way again. With all our gear we got on the city bus, which is always full of people (so great how the people here either ride bikes or busses). It took us to another bus that would take us to Sweden to switch to our
first ferry! It was so much bigger than I thought it would be, like a cruise ship. Very luxurious inside! We wanted to ride the whole way to Bornholm on the deck of the boat, but we realized when we got out there just how FAST the boat was going. The wind was so strong that people were battling it to walk around. We had to hold on to our skirts and the railing, and kids raced up and down challenging the wind. After a while we decided to head back into the boat to snack and wait out the rest of the ride, which was only about an hour.
We arrived in Bornholm and were immediately picked up by our new host! But I’ll leave that for the next blog…
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todd
non-member comment
Ebleskivers
They have those little pancaks in sweden also and they eat them with this red jam kind of like cranberry taste.