Alex's Alliterative Adventures

Thoughts on Programming, Life, and Travel

Prosperous Pirate Postlude

The pirate party was, in short, awesome. A scavenged wheelchair was turned into a mighty vessel that mastered the seas. One of my Canadian floormates is officially my new favourite drunk viking. I suppose I should really let you guys decide for yourself, though.  Here’s an excerpt from the new album:

If that’s not quality internet content, well then dang nabbit I just don’t know what is.

I don’t have any pictures from Aarhus yet, but there weren’t that many anyways, so for now I’ll just weave my tale of adventure and lederhosen. The morning after the pirate party, Dalia and I hopped aboard a series of trains bound for the second largest city in Denmark: Ã…rhus, or Aarhus to the rest of the world that uses real letters. Sunday was the last day of a 10 day annual festival in Aarhus, so we planned on showing up on Saturday afternoon and seeing where the wind took us.  We arrived a couple of hours before the main music stages opened up, so we wandered around the city to see the sights it had to offer. The church in the centre of town, Ã…rhus Domkirke, was quite beautiful. It contains the largest organ in Denmark, as well as being the tallest church at 96 vertical meters. Pictures of that one will be available when they actually exist.

After touring the church, we wandered outside to hear a danish children’s choir singing to a captivated audience. I was amazed by how good they sounded.  I guess Richard was right, there’s really no reason why children can’t learn to be amazing singers. From there, we followed our ears to the sound of traditional Danish music.  A band dressed in traditional garb (read: lederhosen) had the stage, and their tubas, flugel horns, and clarinets pumped out the oom-pah-pahs like it would be outlawed when their set ended in only one precious hour.  We grabbed a drink and sat down and found that the crowd was just as entertaining as the band. A group of twenty-somethings were making the best possible use of the festival by displaying their Danish pride and singing along with the band and its yodeler. When they saw Dalia snapping pictures and capturing their patriotic swaying on video, they immediately cleared a few seats and gestured to us to join them. With in minutes, we were sharing a pitcher with what seemed like old friends; linking arms, swinging side to side, and yelling along to a tune you can almost hear was really the only appropriate course of action at the time. The Danes told us that the band was, in fact, German. Oops.

After the band’s conductor finished chugging what may have been her fourth beer on stage, the band’s set ran to a close. Our newfound Danish friends were parting ways, but a particularly friendly fellow by the name of Rasmus took us on a tour of the city. The 23 year old was born in Sweden, but he moved to Denmark at the age of 13, so he really helped us to appreciate the subtle differences between the two cultures.  By that of course I mean that he laughed at us when we chose not to grab another beer at one of the beer stands on the street. By the end of the night, he had introduced us to over a dozen Danes, pointed us in the direction of a proper Danish dinner, bought us drinks at at least 5 different establishments, and was generally a classy fellow. We drank and swapped tales with his friends until 4am, at which point we headed to a local bar to dance to Danish favourites until 5:30 or so.

I never stopped feeling welcomed by Rasmus, his friends, or the Danish people.  I spoke with the two Danish girls who insisted I dance with them about how different Europe and Canada are, and yet how similar they can be. I’m reasonably certain that I had at least two conversations with people that didn’t speak a word of English. I didn’t wear my new cowboy hat on the 7am train ride home, but that’s just because the sheriff’s star would’ve caught on too many things when we tried to find unclaimed seats for the 3rd or 4th time. (Seriously Denmark, get your act together.  Sell reserved seating tickets, or sell general tickets.  Don’t sell both on the same train, especially when we want to sleep.) I stumbled home just before 1pm feeling exhausted, broken, and completely satisfied with how I had just spent what may have been the best 24 consecutive hours of my life.

When I asked one of the Danes I drunk the night away with what I should bring back home to best represent Aarhus, he thought for a few minutes and translated a Danish saying for me: “Take what you can, and leave with a smile”. He said it exemplifies the Danish people and their openness, generosity, and trusting nature. The warmth and happiness I felt while getting to know these strangers can’t quite be summed up by that phrase or any other, but it’ll have to do. I’ll leave you with a random phrase you can use to make people think you speak Danish: “Jeg elsker Djursland”. When people think that you love Djursland, the nose of the face that is the shore of Denmark, then you’ll have a pretty hard time convincing them that you’re not actually made of Danishes.

3 comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Grandma September 11th, 2006 8:31 pm

    I am over whelmed by the 24 hours you have described. You must be in a culture shock
    It could have been bcause you were still wearing your pirates outfits and everyone had to be nice to you.
    I know that the Dutch people revere the Canadians because they were the first troops to liberate them during World War 2 but I dont think that wandering students are in the same caategory.
    The church that you visited is named after the patron saint of sailors – I guess that includes pirates Just a matter of interest when do classes start?

  2. Alex September 12th, 2006 2:29 am

    I guess I did go through some mild culture shock, but I’d say it was definitely the good kind. More of a “wow… this is the way life should be” kind.

    My classes started on the 28th of august, if you don’t count the swedish orientation business, which started the day after I got here. If you mean what time, anywhere between 10am, 1pm, or 5pm, depending on the day.

  3. Grandma September 12th, 2006 9:09 am

    what I meant was that with all your other activities I had assumed that they had not yet started. However with you paper on 9/11 I guess you are more knowledgeable than I had expected. I give you an passing grade on that.

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