Denmark

Sonya Van Schaijik PTC 04, , , , ,

My learning for Denmark included loosing my luggage at the airport after arriving from London. The other learning is lining up in queues. The kronnen was about a quarter in New Zealand money. EG: arriving starving, I grabbed a Macdonald Salad at 66 KK or about $15.00NZ.
I managed to purchase a telia data simm for 3 KB at 99KK. I bought this at a communications shop near the central train station. This was cheaper than the same price for 1 KB at the airport.
 Again I used my ipad to navigate a new city easily. The first day out looking for a simm, I discovered that my hotel was in walking distance from the train station but on arrival the previous day in the centre, I felt disorientated and took a taxi. DOH
I stayed at the Best Western Hotel for the first two nights and waited for my luggage. Luckily it arrived the following day. My room was really hot and fortunately I had a top level room with a balcony so opened the windows as soon as I arrived.
My two education goals was meeting a Danish teacher via twitter contact and finding my way up to Billunds to visit the brand new international school. In addition I wanted to reach my family in Kerteminde near the sea and to visit the place of my grandfathers birth, Tved near Kolding. In all I achieved three goals and missed Tved.
In Copenhagen, I took the Panoramic City Tour so that I could visit Langelinie, the little mermaid and in addition I took a canal tour. Both I did on the first day as part of the Copenhagen City Pass. In addition I also visited Tivoli and climbed to the top of the Round Tower.
Via the Internet I located Nyborg the closest city to Kristmende and took the train there. The trip was just under two hours. My cousin met me at the station and we drove up to her place in Kristmende near the sea. I spent three glorious nights with her and her husband and it was good to take a break and not think about my schedule and organising the next sections.
My cousin took me swimming in the sea and I was astounded at how warm the ocean was. We spent ages swimming and I loved it so much I really did not want to leave the water.
The second night it was her birthday and we woke on the day to see the neighbours with Danish flags flying and I found out it was a tradition when celebrating birthdays. I thought that this was a great tradition.
I met her husband’s brother and wife who are both deaf and was fascinated to learn how an iphone changed their lives. They showed me all that they did and loved facetime for communicating with their children and grandchildren.
My cousin’s husband introduced me to two Danish traditions. Schnapps and salted fish. For my first lunch I had a small glass of schnapps and slept the whole afternoon. My cousin took me to visit the Viking Burial site in Ladbury. The second day I declined drinking schapps because I had too much to see and could not afford to be sleeping.
The following day my cousin took me to the Danish doctor because I had picked up a cough which I suspected as asthma flaring up with staying in hotel’s air-conditioning then we visited Funen Village in Odense where I was able to experience a village during the time of Hans Christian Anderson. Wee watched the play of the swineherd and the princess and the pea performed by local children. Odense is also the village where this famous Danish author comes from. My cousin took me to visit his house. All were amazing experiences. On my final day, I was driven back to Nyborg where I caught the train to Billens.
Once in Billens, I caught the bus to Vejle and got off at Legoland. From Legoland I caught a taxi to my hotel. Once registered I returned to Legoland via the free shuttle and spent the afternoon and evening exploring this amazing little city of Lego. I ate dinner there before retuning to my hotel for the night.
The next day, I visited Billunds international school and will write more about that experience in its own post.
Because the school was near the bus station, I walked back to the station and reversed my trip back to Copenhagen.  This time I stayed in the hotel Phoenix Copenhagen which was most luxurious but again really hot. But all this no air-conditioning helped my asthma tremendously because the coughing stopped. I went out for dinner in Nyhavn, ate mussels and broke the bank. They were the small tender black mussels.
The following day, I awoke to a message the Lene would meet me therefore the one day I should have been up early I slept in. Because I had travelled north via train, taking the train to Roskilde was a breeze and I discovered if I stood between carriages for the 30 minute trip, I could save money. I took the train to Roskilde and visited Domkirke the church where all the Danish Kings are buried. It is a UNESCO heritage site.
I met Lene and we had a two-hour discussion about education. It was so exciting to meet a like-minded educator and to learn some new ideas. She showed me photos of the schools that she has worked in and I got some great ideas for our school. Afterwards her family dropped me off to the Viking Museum and I spent a couple of hours wondering and exploring past skills and tradition. The feeling of connection with peoples of past is amazing. I could really see why my grandfather had such a connection to Samoa. Thatching rooves, sailing ships, physical labour to produce products. What a wonderful experience. How do I share those feelings? On the way back to my hotel I found a supermarket and bought some fresh food for dinner and lunch the next day.
Denmark, not knowing the language was not a problem. I had an interesting final evening on the bank of Nyhavn where I spoke to a Slovakian lady using translate. It was wonderful not to have a barrier for conversation. We had a great conversation.
The following day, I caught the train from Osterport to the airport and had no problems.
My learning in Denmark:
-Use the trains as they can be booked in English at the station.
-Line up for everything and don’t forget to get a queue ticket. Learnt that lesson after lining up for 30 minutes only to not have a ticket and having to start again.
-Check that nothing is left behind after leaving my jacket and plane pillow on the bus to Billens.
-Find out if there is a bus shuttle to the airport. Again identify the area of accommodation and locate the train stations.
Some of the neat snippets I took away from Denmark are bikes everywhere, recycling of cans and plastic and the public are encouraged to recycle, fierce pride in their viking history, commitment to sustaining their language.

So do you have any interesting travel memories?

3 thoughts on “Denmark”

  2. Makes me remember luncheons and dinner with Soren and Grethe. More than just one little Aalborg 🙂 We always had a great time.

    Almost on the way to Kitzbuehel now? G.&G are expecting you. He wanted to write to you but do not know if he did (he may be a bit shy in writing in Engllish), but I am sure you will have a nice time there.

    And soon in Delhi 🙂 K.

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  3. Makes me remember luncheons and dinner with Soren and Grethe. More than just one little Aalborg 🙂 We always had a great time.

    Almost on the way to Kitzbuehel now? G.&G are expecting you. He wanted to write to you but do not know if he did (he may be a bit shy in writing in Engllish), but I am sure you will have a nice time there.

    And soon in Delhi 🙂 K.

    Like

    Reply

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