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On Dec 30th I took a train from Hamburg to Odense, which is Denmark's fourth largest city. It is on the island of Fyn, which is between the mainland (Jutland) and Seeland (the island where Copenhagen is). There I met up with my Danish friend Henning (I know him from Karlsruhe, he is also here on exchange). He studies in Odense. His German girlfriend Stefie was there too. We stayed there in his sister's small one bedroom (I slept on the couch) apartment. The apartment is on the 11th or 12th floor and has an impressive view. 
We spent a day walking around Odense, a very nice city with a lot of small streets filled with small homes. 
Odense is also the hometown of Hans Christian Anderson, the writer who wrote the Ugly Duckling story. Here Stefie and I stand in front of the "Hans Christian Anderson Hus" (also quite small). 
On Dec 31st we spent a little more time in Odense. A common sight in Denmark is the Danish flag, many of which are here in front of the town hall. 
While in Denmark I learned that a violent storm (a huricane in fact), the strongest in over 150 years, had hit the country during the first week of December. Here you can see some holes in the roof of this church as a result of the storm. 
On the 31st the three of us took a train to Skanderborg in Jutland where we were going to celebrate New Year's. The party was great, a private party with about 45 guests. The entrance to the party was decorated with a red carpet and torches. 
Everyone was dressed up (fortunately I had a shirt and tie with me) and the dinner was great - traditional Danish food. Everyone in Denmark (or all of Scandinavia for that matter) pretty much speaks perfect English so there wasn't any language barrier. I have to say that after a week in Denmark I found Danish people to be very nice, helpful, proud (of their history, culture, royalty) and extremely good-looking. Danish women are gorgeous. There was also a girl from Australia there and three Americans. We had our own fireworks at midnight, and nobody ever mentioned y2k or seemed to ever care about it, which was pretty much the attitude in all of Europe. Fireworks must be really easy to buy in Europe, or at least in Denmark, because the whole city was full of private firework shows in all directions. That was quite the sight. The next morning, after about three hours of sleep Henning and Stefie woke me up saying it was time to go back to Karlsruhe!!! I told them to go without me, I was going to stick around in Denmark and see where I could go. Around noon (Jan 1st, that is) I woke up and had breakfast with the guests who were remaining and then helped clean up. I met one guy Bjarne who gave me his number and address in Copenhagen and said I could visit on the 3rd (which I did - see the next story). After cleaning up I got a ride with one of the guests back to Odense (still the 1st). There I found that both of the youth hostels were closed and that each hotel was also closed or wanted $200 for the night. Finally after trying about ten hotels I found a room for about $50. One DKK (Danish Kroner) is about $0.20 Cdn. I stayed there for the night. Back to the Main Page - Zur�ck zur Hauptseite |