Denmark workaway diary 1/2

I have wanted to visit Scandinavia for very long. First thought of actually going to Sweden in 2020 for a volounteer work holiday (using sites as these), but Covid19 was in the way, so i postponed that. Summer 2021 could have been my last “free” summer and didn’t want to waste it, despite covid not being over. My initial target was Southern Sweden, but I would have had to land in Copenhagen first, and to avoid issues with borders as a third country citizen I went for Denmark. I picked the Aarhus area because I already knew (online) a couple girls I could meet, two birds with a stone!

I found a workaway host related to a community of artists in Djursland! It also had a quick reply ratio and I signed up to the site (which did cost 40 € but seemed worth it) and contacted the host, in Danish of course. I got really nervous about not getting any answers for a couple days, and after talking to a friend’s advice I contacted a couple other hosts, not available. On a beautiful windy early-summer Saturday I was just enjoying the day and thinking i had to give up. Then, around midnight I got a reply by the host, telling me I could go! I was overjoyed and thrilled.

Danmark jeg kommer! Arrival in Denmark

I had my flight at 10:30, luckily on time, I flew to Billund Airport and I couldn’t believe I was actually in Denmark, just a few months earlier it was a distant fantasy…. I then took the bus to Aarhus (read about the city’s history and attractions) enjoying the view of the Danish countryside.

BUS 912X: Billund – (Østerlund – Skanderborg) – Århus

It was such a beautiful day and I managed to meet a friend, who welcomed me so nicely with the flag and took me to Dokk1, a really nice place on the harbour (actually cooler than I thought) and she had Studenterbrød and Tebirkes (so good!) and a drink called Stella (“star” in my language! nice coincidence). We couldn’t obviously do much but honestly it was more than enough and I was so, so happy, and i even spoke Danish the WHOLE TIME, it’s just easy when you feel comfortable with people.

then after a couple hours i took the Letbane (a metro-train?) to Grenaa, actually to the stop right before. I was even risking to have to take 2 buses instead which would have been a pain with a big suitcase, but luckily it wasn’t the case.

Letbane L1: Dokk1 – Skolebakken – Østbanetorvet – Riskov strandpark – vestrestrandalle – Torsøvej – Lystrup – Hovmarken – Hjortshøj – Skødstrup – Løgten – Hornslet – Mørke – Thorsager – Ryomgård – Kolind – Trustrup – Hessel – Grenaa

So I got down at the stop I was supposed to, a place in the middle of nowhere with no one, it felt amazing to be there nonetheless. I waited some time for my host but honestly I didn’t care because I was still realising I was there. I did wave to someone passing by with the car thinking it was my host since it was the first car passing by in like 10 minutes, guess they thought I was trying to hitchhike? Haha. My host arrived with her dog, an Australian shepherd called Taika, and we went to the supermarket, a Netto! We then got to the house, had dinner and then went for a walk in the village, some 3 km from Grenaa (or Grenå)’s centre.

I basically only spoke Danish that day and I was thinking I wasn’t that bad for never having interacted with a Dane face to face

The following day we went to the wood where they meet with musicians and other artists, I spent much of the time drawing and sitting by myself, which was quite good because I was feeling hell down because of personal reasons. We ate pølser for dinner and made brownies – twice because the dough fell the first try.

On 1^st July, Thursday, I helped mowing the grass and later Sara Came with her daughters, Rosa and Viola, (they are both called like flowers, in Italian they are at least, how cute) and the dogs Nuni and Nunika, mother and daughter! We ate together and I talked in Danish! Then we went outside and the weather was so nice, warm and windy. We ate Koldskål (sour liquid yogurt?) with Kammerjunkere, a kind of cookies that go with it. It was windy and nice weather so I sat outside for a while just enjoying it. The dog almost ate my fliflop, but the girls helped me save it.

Painting at The Garden Studio

In the afternoon of the same day my host took me to the Garden Studio, a artist house with workshop and a huge garden. My host had mentioned to me the artist who did some painting she had on the walls, Ulla Lundsgart, and I was looking forward to go there and maybe manage to paint a little! Anything is fine to me as long as it slightly has to do with colours and creating stuff!

 There was a workshop, Værksted, with a lot of plants and paintings. I was introduced to a ceramic artist who was in his workshop, Philip. Then I sat somewhere and doodled for a while.

I hoovered and I saw the beach at last! The weather was terrible but still it was nice to have my feet in the sea. We went to the supermarket and I saw the party section, in Denmark it goes wild with flags, read more about the Danish flag madness.

Inside the house there were a lot of beautiful books, in the workshop there were mostly art and painters related books, I would have spent ages there! Here are just a couple classics in Danish:

On 3rd July I gave online lessons (I had asked if I was allowed to do that during my stay before deciding to leave). It was a bit hard to adjust everything but I somehow managed to.

Afterwards I was allowed to paint a bit! I didn’t really know what to paint although I was super excited to do it! I never get to paint such big pictures, and with acrylics.

Then in the evening my host and me drove somewhere to have a walk in the forest and towards the sea (going anywhere in Denmark is going towards the sea to be honest).

On 4. July I was given a lemonbrus bottle at the Garden Studio, I don’t think it tasted exceptionally good but the label looked so pretty! I had a lemon on my socks as well and with a pepsi top, red shorts and red-blue sneakers I felt like a living lemon pepsi or something. I later went with my host to the wood where i drank it on a swing.

In the afternoon I spent some time painting. Once again, I didn’t really know what to draw although I was excited to do it as always. I started painting a boy but ended up covering it with a big face with the sea in it. There were visitors to the workshop, with children being curious about me painting.

5th July started by going to the wood, Sara was there too with her dogs. Later I went to the Garden Studio, where i helped by weeding and such activities. As usual I went to pain once I was done. This time I simply painted myself!

On 6th July I painted my original sea boy character wiht Fish! In my imagination he comes from the North Sea coasts, between Denmark and Holland, so right place to paint him. On the evening Italy played against Spain in the Eurocup, we won!!

On 7th July I helped cleaning the house of the Garden Studio, then ate lunch with Ulla, and found this quote in a book case in the house:

Alt, hvad du elsker, vil sindsynligvis gå tabt, men I sidste ende, vil kæligheden vende tilbage på en anden made. (Everything you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way.)

Kafka

After lunch i was free to go to paint, and I started an idealistic self portrait braiding my hair in front of the sea, in a dress i unfortunately last-minute decided not to bring with me. (it would have been perfect for a day I’ll talk about in the part 2 of this diary)

Volounteering at the Havmøllen

On 8th July my host drove me to Havmøllen (“sea mill”), where I volounteered at an event with dinner and concerts. I started the day by cutting bread and I didn’t bother speaking Danish since I was already in an environment out of my comfort zone..

I would have liked to listen to the concerts but after having helped with serving and cleaning I answered to the nature’s called and went for a short hike.

I then spent time looking at the sea while eating an apple. It was a bit hard to talk to others since I didn’t know anybody, so i just enjoyed the place by myself!

See you in the next article of my Denmark diary; with more art, pictures of Denmark, trips, fancy drinks and so on!

Read Part 2