From Denmark with Love

so, it was my second trip to scandinavia...if last time I went to Sweden, this time Denmark was my destination...I remember how I really wanted to go to scandinavia when I just moved to Germany...don't have a clear reason actually, it just the name "scandinavia" sounds somehow exotic to me, makes it different from "europe"...though it then turned out to be not so different from other parts of europe, I'm very happy to have the opportunity to visit scandinavia...Two more trips to Norway and Finland, then I can say "I've visited scandinavia"...

I write in English this time, since this posting is also for the whole groups: Björn, Heike, Peter, Matthias, Monica, Wichard, Ulrike, Karsten, and the baby Gabriel.

Preparation and on the way (Fri & Sat, 14th & 15th Mai)
Wake up at 10 in the morning, I know right away that today will be a hectic day...my head still spin from last night party, haven't packed, haven't washed the dishes, still have to finish my application for mentoring project, and I only get 3 hours until we meet in Mensa and start the trip...so, despite only 5 hours sleep, I force my self to wake up...

Start with packing, it takes me already quite a while...Björn and Heike, who were already in Denmark several times, told us that the weather is quite moody there...you never know what you gonna get...so we get to prepare everything, from swimsuit to coat, from sandal to sneakers...

Finish with packing, I know I will not manage everything, so I decide to skip the dishes stuff and go directly to mensa...I still have to finish my application, and luckily everybody agree to start the trip at 3, so I have about an hour...

After again have to deal with this and that, finally we go at 4...pfuiiihhh, what a start...

The whole trip is over 1000 km, but we decided to go first to Padebborn and stay there for one night at Björn's parent, and continue the rest of the trip on the next day (saturday)...

In general, everything goes smoothly, and we arrive in Denmark at 7 in the evening...a nice start with a BBQ-party at a friend's house that coincidentally was also in Denmark at that time...



Day 1: Meet the others, Slettestrand
It's a lovely day, perfect sunny day, we have directly the opportunity to have breakfast in the terrace on our first day, and meet the others...the others? yap, this is the short story...Björn is my friend in the university, he went already to Slettesrand (where we stay in Denmark) several times with his siblings and their better half, and this time, they take Peter, Matthias, and me with them...so the others are Björn's siblings, Monica & Karsten, and their better half, Wichard & Ulrike, and also Karsten & Ulrike's cute baby, Gabriel...

A sunny day like this don't come every day and of course we don't want to miss it, so we start our holiday with beach...perfect! Don't imagine since it is sunny we will wear our bikini and sunbathing there, I'm talking about Denmark here, the wind is, wuiiiihhhh...cold...but as Ulrike and Monica said, that's why we go to Denmark, for a heat we go to Spain...and I agree...luckily I didn't spend time to look for a nice bikini, otherwise I would have been so piss...

As the guys busy building their dam, the gals have a relaxing day on the beach, and I finally get the time to read The Da Vinci Code...thanks to Yolla to lend me this wonderful book...

Interestingly, here we may drive along the beach...cool, right? But as you can imagine, once the sand is quite soft, the car will get easily burried...and this also happened to Björn's car...we get off the car, and as Matthias and Peter try to get the car out of the sand, I decided to take pictures of it...somehow, Wichard and Karsten manage to get some boards...magic wonderful boards that help us several times on that day...



Day 2: Bulbjerg
Today is not as nice as yesterday...the wind is crazy, it's very cold out there...beach is out of our list and we decided to stay home...some play board game, some play computer, I continue reading The Da Vinci Code...

After sometimes we get bored and someone came up with the idea to go to Bulbjerg...it's a cliff not far from Slettestrand, and it is the only bird cliff in Denmark (more about Bulbjerg)...It must be really windy there, so we take our coat with us...and indeed, it is windy...I've no idea how fast the wind was, but 70 km/h won't be a hyperbole to describe it...but I have to say, this strong wind makes Bulbjerg more interesting, it gives us a touch of challenge...it was somehow difficult to walk against the wind, and I have to take care of my sunglasses to make sure that it won't fly away...it would be so sad if I would have lost it, remember how I spent days to look for it...

As we walk towards the beach, we have to walk against even stronger wind, so strong that the sands fly towards us, slap our faces and ears...ouch, it hurts...close the eyes (luckily I get my sunglasses), otherwise your eyes will be full with sand...what an unpleasent thought...

After about 15 min, we go back...the 1-hour trip does worth...



Day 3: Day trip to the north
We are so active today...forget a lazy doing nothing holiday, we will spend the whole day with a trip to the north...that means, be sporty...We start with North Sea museum, it's like seaworld, full with big aquariums and interesting fishes (more about North Sea museum)

We saw a big lobster there, o my god how it looks like a monster compare to the other living creatures in the same aquarium...when we saw it, they were just given food, and we saw how they struggle to get some part of the food...as the smaller fishes try to swim as fast as possible to the food, the big lobster come slowly, wants to get the whole food...miss, it was piss, and became more aggressive...oh how the fishes were afraid of it...I tried to make a video, but unfortunately I'm so unprofessional that you can't see the lobster in action on my video...

We continue our trip to Skagen, or Skagen-Grenen, the very north part of Denmark where the North Sea meets East Sea (well, it is Baltic Sea, but North-East as direct translation from German sounds better than North-Baltic to me)...first we climb up the tower, to see this meeting point from the top, and then we walk to see it closer how the waves come from both of the oceans, meet in the middle, and each go back to the ocean where it belongs...the water from north sea will never go to the east, and vice versa...if this is a natural phenomenon since they are two different oceans, or if it's caused by some other reason, let the experts explain it to us...in any case, it's interesting...but for me, the indian ocean is still the best...Baliiii! been around the world, there's no place like home (though I've never been around the world and Bali is not exactly my home)



We ended our one day trip by visiting a shifting sand dune...it looks somehow like dessert...walking there is not really easy, the sand is soft and burry our foot in each step...but Peter, Matthias and Björn didn't only walk, they run after each other and try to soap each other with sand...that finished them off...

Day 4: Alborg
Big city trip is our plan for today...Alborg is not a metropole, it is only slightly bigger than Kaiserslautern, but at least we go to a city, to check email, shop, and Monica and Wichard want to go to a cinema to try their luck if they can get tickets for Star Wars...

So after checking emails, we split our way...Monica and Wichard go to cinema, Björn, Peter, Heike and I go shopping...we go to a poster shop...they have many nice posters there, and after spending some times comparing this and that posters, I decided to take three of them...Two are a coffee and tea posters for my kitchen, and one is a poster of Einstein, with a sentence "Do not worry about your problem in mathematics, I can assure you that mine is still greater", a must have poster for a mathematician (wanna be)

After that, we again split our way...I want to go shopping for clothes, and I'm sure it won't be so pleasent for Peter, Björn and Heike...so we will meet each other after two hours...unfortunately, it was unsuccessful shopping! I didn't find anything nice, instead I met a group of marching bands, they celebrate "cake day" in Alborg...what's that for a day...

Heike got a call from Monica, they managed to get Star Wars ticket for all of us, premierre ticket...hell yeah...I will watch Star Wars on the first day...

Day 5: Candles shop, Star Wars, BBQ-party
This is the last day for Peter, Matthias and me...Peter wants to go jogging, Matthias wants to stay home, I prefer to go to a candle shop with Monica, Wichard, Karsten, Ulrike and Gabriel. It was a right decision, they have many cute candles in any forms...cheese, mouse, cats, flowers, whatever...they also get nice candle holders...I was lost there and gave up many of my Krones for those cute candles...



Since this is a last day for us, we want to make a BBQ-party tonight...so we prepare for the BBQ before we go to Alborg for Star Wars...hey, somehow I did enjoy the movie...that surprises myself...

Coming back from Alborg, we start our BBQ...it was raining, so we had to make it inside the house...anyway, it was so tasty...lamb steak, with potatoes and butter...hmmmm...yummyyyy....my Denmark trip was started and ended with a BBQ-party...Bye Denmark...

PS: More pictures in my photo album