A new weblog...

With my stay in Copenhagen coming to an end, I didn't see much sense in keeping this weblog up to date. But as I started to enjoy blogging, I will continue to write about my whereabouts, which will soon be found on http://glocalize.wordpress.com/

Thanks for following my blog. Good night and good luck.

All good things...

Quite unexpected, my project (and thus also my stay in Copenhagen) is finishing early. Whereas I was supposed to stay for another two months, I am currently on my way back to Belgium.

From there, I will be searching for a new adventure (hopefully interesting enough to dedicate a weblog on). But more news on that later.

For now: visiting Legoland, enjoying the Jylland sunshine, trying to cancel my Danish bank account (eventhough there is no money, it seems to be more difficult than expected) and figuring out how in the world it will be possible to move all the things I gathered back to Belgium in due time (which at least makes my other moving story irrelevant).

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God is dead.
-Nietzsche

Nietzsche has just been expelled from Facebook.
-God

Summertime Madness

These days, Copenhagen seems to turn into a city of total lunatics. It all started with the graduation party of Denmark's high school students. Some days ago a bunch of high school graduates woke me up - shouting, cheering and drinking beers on the back of a truck cruising around the city. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians along the road stop for a minute, ring their bells or simply shout their congratulations. I thought the party was going to last only a day, but as of now, three days later, trucks are still making their way around town.

Then there was the sudden news of Michael Jackson's death. Overnight, on a stage on Rådhuspladsen set up especially for the occasion, many fans gathered. A deejay playing Thriller, Billy Jean and Beat It over and over again. A 10 years old kid taking to the stage. Starting a session of moonwalking, he drove the public totally crazy.

And of course there's the preparation for Roskilde, the not-to-be-missed music festival, at least according to pretty much any Dane I met during my stay here. Everyone (really, everyone) keeps informing me on how much they have been looking forward, which selection of concerts they are going to attend, where their tent will be located, and, yes, of course how nice the weather will be. And some even seem to be offended by the fact that I don't really care to pay around 1800 DKK (or 240 EUR) to see bands like Kanye West, Coldplay or Oasis. But since I am keeping guard of the cafe (which is completely deserted in these tropical temperatures) during the next days, it's not like I had much of a choice anyway.

Skagen

Tuesday afternoon, 3PM. Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan on my mp3 player. Jylland's landscape, bathing in midsummer afternoon light, through the window. I am on the 13:59 train bound for Copenhagen.

After spending most of the week recovering/relaxing in and around Aalborg, Emin and I took a bus to Brovst, where we were invited to a (delicious) dinner by Amanda, another EVS volunteer we met during the on arrival training earlier this year.

And from there, I tried to make my way up to Skagen. Covering the relatively short distance eventually took me 4 hours. Due to a car accident on the railway line the service was interrupted. So at Hjørring station one of those dusty tourist buses was waiting to bring me further into the land.

Well, imagine the situation. To fit a hundred people (plus loads of luggage and three bicycles) into one bus isn't that easy. I prepared for a stuggle of the fittest-style boarding of the bus. But getting a place on the bus turned out to be much more civilized: to my absolute astonishment, people started queuing to get on (and the cyclists soon gave up the idea of joining the bus ride).

So far, so good. With all seats filled up and the bus reaching full capacity (at least from the legal point of view), the driver hesitated for a moment, but then allowed more people inside. A line of people formed in the corridor. I eventually was one of the last to be let onto the bus (I still don't know what happened to the passengers still outside when the door closed). In the front of the corridor, I had a perfect spot for overlooking the amazing landscape, but it also turned out to be a horrible location to keep my balance.

But eventually I arrived to Skagen, the idyllic village on the northernmost stretch of land of Jylland. Walking down the supposedly only-operating-in-high-season shopping street immediately gave me a holidays-for-the-working-class-hero feeling. Which I understood after the impulsive purchase of a cone with two scoops of ice cream (I don't even like ice cream).

So I walked all the way up to Grenen, the spot where the North Sea clashes with the Skagerrak (not sure if this is already the Baltic Sea, but must be a close call in any case). Passed by improvised nudist beaches, thousands of jellyfish in the (at least today) silent water, abandoned military installations, campings, lighthouses and kilometers of dunes.

And there, standing on one of the dunes, I saw a congregation of people in the distance. This must be the place I was looking for. I joined the crowd, sat down for a minute, smoked and contemplated in silence – mainly thinking why all those people around me attach so much symbolism to a stretch of beach which really isn't any better than other beaches around Denmark (similar reasoning: why nobody cares about art, but when they find themselves in an artist community such as Skagen, they are suddenly all ears).

Slightly disappointed I walked back into town. I had a quick dinner and took a train back. Overlooking the landscape, I understood it's not all about the obligatory ten square meters at the end of the land (or any other landmark not-to-be-missed). Once again I felt the prevalent traveller mindset – to enjoy the travel rather than to look forward to arriving to a destination – to be very much true. The prolonged train- and busride, the feeling of being on the road through unknown territories, made me enjoy the trip much more than actually arriving to Skagen.

Photoshoot by Emin

The promised pictures, now online here.

In Aalborg

With the decisive words, "a change of air will do you good," my Armenian neighbour finally made me hitting the road last Tuesday. There was no point in staying inside my dorm watching afternoon tv over and over again anyway.

Today matters seemed to get worse. My innocent cough of the last days evolving in bronchitis in the best case, or pneumonia in a worse scenario - a thing in which Danish weather is really cooperative. So I decided to see a doctor. While waiting for exactly 2 hours and 13 minutes to see the doctor-on-duty in Aalborgs sygehus, I was not so sure if the trip was a good decision after all.

The doctor, just returning from a coffee break, leaving a line of patients waiting for about 20 minutes, released me from the pneumonia idea at least. He prescribed me four more days of rest. Well, that could be arranged after the eight days I already had. So I joined Emin, the Turkish friend at who's place I am spending the days in Aalborg (and as I discover, one of the most hospitable guys in this world), to a relaxing Chill i Parken afternoon at the waterfront.

And there, it turned out that Emin is actually a really good photographer. The three pictures headlining this post are indeed his work, and I intend to upload some more to picasa soon. For now, my own - not so professional - pictures of a walk around the city two days ago, are already online.

Plans for the next days: relax, drink rivers of tea with honey, visit Skagen (the northernmost point of Denmark), relax again, visit an Irish EVS friend, relax even more and travel back to Copenhagen to celebrate the longest day of the year (which is called Sankt Hans aften here) on 23 June. And, yes, there is Jan-Sebastiaan, my neighbour from back home who will be visiting next week. Busy days.