Denmark workaway diary 2/2

Read about part 1: my first 10 days in Denmark

10th July was a big day for the artist community around the Garden Studio: exhibition with a cafe, concerts and such. I started the day by taking away weeds at the entrance, it was raining and my feet got soaked wet! I got so tired and after a short lunch I went home, and then went back where the real thing was waiting for me: the café. It was scary because of my weird relationship with Danish (wanting and knowing how to speak it but not understanding well enough to function well? Which is like, a nightmare), but luckily two girls, daughters of Marie, were there to help, and after an awkward begin where I wasn’t sure what to do I happily went to wash up things and prepare coffee in the “backstage”. Later other two guys, Nils and Knud, came to help, and after a while the amount of work was reduced and I could rest. I was eventually happy of how it went and really thankful for the help! And I got to rest drinking a Sodavand, not my fav drink ever but much cooler than a coke right?

When the event was as good as over I went to sit with Ulla and other women, who were pretty surprised when they heard I could speak Danish! I am just too shy to speak it to begin with with unknown people, because of what i said above. One of them wanted to see my paintings! I also got a free tshirt 🙂

On the 11th I was given a free day, I decided to go to the Garden Studio, and after having helped a little in the morning I went to paint, and I added the sky to the beach painting. After that I went to the house to eat (made myself the usual rygbrød+butter and anything I found, including Brunost (Norwegian brown cheese, delicious!), and I spent the rest of the day reading books, a really chill day!

That was the Eurocup finals’ night, Italy vs England!! England had beaten Denmark n the semifinlans, and whole Europe was rooting for Italy, pretty cool honestly. I am always anxious about these things so I was only relying to DR app updates (Danish national broadcasting company, I have had the app before I even knew I’d go to Denmark though) and my friends!! It was a pain till the end but I was really happy we won!! We revenged Denmark!

12th July was a super nice day and I was invited to go to the beach! (Grenaa is actually a pretty popular Danish beach destination i think?) Before leaving I read some other books I found in the library:

I spent time at the beach, not as long as i wanted to and the weather was exceptionally good? I was told the weather would be food for that day but I had low hopes haha. First got food at Kvikly: peaches, strawberries and a fat-ass burger to eat on the beach, I obviously couldn’t finish it at once so I got my dinner and lunch at once that day! I had to come back from the beach earlier than expected, but at least I got offered ice cream! Champagne Brus was a brilliant choice!

After watching videos and reading books the day ended with a roadtrip in the surroundings, and I saw the witch place (see part 1) again!! I’d say it was one of the best days in Denmark, I even got 2 tote bags for free, which i ended up using a lot!

On the 14th it was pretty hot upstairs in the workshop, so I ended up doodling on a whiteboard downstairs, invading someone else’s space. Once i made sure I was allowed to draw there i went wild as you can see.

I wrote one of my favourite quotes:

Livet må forstås baglæns men må leves forlæns (Life has to be understood backards but has to be lived forwards)

Søren Kierkegaard

I even added something more, copied Water Serpents by Klimt and more I can’t remember, but the board got cleared before i could take another picture…

15th July was a big day, I would go to Aarhus to meet my friend, a second time after the first day! I took the Letbane and once i got to Aarhus I walked up to my friend’s house and damn it was hot! I literally picked the hottest, stickiest day of the year! My friend said that heat wasn’t normal in Denmark. Well, wish I could say the same for the Italian summer. We went to a park and had a pic-nic, I got my skirt dirty with something and it was so hot we ended up going to her house, so I could get it washed. It was quite cozy and nicer than outside due to the weather.

I was eventually going to take the Letbane home, and while I was thinking I might miss it I decided I could just walk around in the city instead! The weather was not as hot anymore and I walked around quite a while for a couple hours, to Dokk1, then to (and inside) the station. I saw the iconic viking traffic lights!

At a point I heard a man saying hej and I thought he would try to sell me something but no, he went like Jeg har set dig (somewhere), du er dejlig har en dejlig stil, helt kreativ, something like “you have a very nice style, very creative”; more or less that concept repeated more times. Basically he had probably seen me when I was walking in around Dokk1 and when he saw me the second time he took courage to tell me that, I still don’t know how to feel about a Dane doing that hahaha. Ironically enough I understood everything he said perfectly, wonder what he would have said if I answered I was not Danish.. And of course I have a hard time understanding things when I would need to! How annoying! I just replied with Ahh okay, okay, tak like twice.

After that unexpected encounter I kept on walking without a destination, till I randomly saw AROS, the museum with a rainbow circle on top of it, standing in front of me. At that point i thought it was really time to go home, I would have walked for another couple hours if only I could but my ticket would expire..

16th July had a bit of a stressing start, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what you should do exactly… But it went well eventually. Karina told me a Danish saying:

Det stille vand har den dybe grund (Calm water is deep)

meaning someone who doesn’t talk much is actually very profound deep inside

I remember someone saying I was so quite yet it seemed like I had a lot say, in 2017… I guess I do really give those vibes sometimes.

She also saw my doodles on the board and said I could go do graffiti at a place, but it was a bit late for that considering the 2 days I had left in Denmark… I still hate that.

On the 17th my fellow workawayer Mado from Iran made a (apprently Irani?) dish: rice with potatoes! I did enjoy it and happened to try that myself a year later!

Also got to drink Søbogaard fruity drinks, Hyldeblomst and Æble-Solbær flavours, these were really good!

We went to the wood to eat dinner, and it was pretty cozy, around the fire! Bent, Sara and her daughters were there. While others were walking around in the wood, I spent quite a while sitting by myself around the fire trying not to freeze (should have had a sweater with me..) and drawing a little.

18th July was another important day for the artists and musicians of the area, with an exhibition in the usual wood. started as a sunny and windy day, my host had her meditation meeting, so I walked the dog around the place of it. It was beautiful and I got very inspired for a painting!

After that I managed to go to the Garden Studio again, painted super fast to finish it in a couple hours! After that i ate lunch and Marie took Ulla and me to the wood for the exhibition. It was getting quite chilly! There were quite a lot of people who came to it and we were walking in the wood in lines basically, seeing wooden works and then listening to the concert in the end. That included some food too! I also helped keeping the dog, and ended up looking at the wood for one last time while I was on the swing.

When the exhibition was over and we took all the stuff away, my host was thinking of getting Thai food, which was not available, so we got food at Kvickly: Kebab Pizza for me, and then a kanelsnegl “cinnamon snail”

I spent the morning of 19th July, my last full day, weeding. We then went to the Garden Studio, so I could get my paintings (which I didn’t think would fit in my suitcase) and say goodbye. On the way home my host got potato chips at the Gas station: GÅRDCHIPS. We then watched Momo alla ricerca del tempo perduto, a movie from my childhood I barely remembered anything of!

We later drove to the beach where I had a last swim, i named it my Viking baptism since it was cold

20th July was the day i left, I would have stayed a bit longer so that maybe I could trY doing graffiti, and it always feels awful to leave! Anyway I made sure to buy a few souvenirs: a hurraflag of course, a couple magnets and 3 postcards (there was a 3-postcard deal, one of them had a picture of Odense where I havn’t been but oh well) the flag was too long to completely fit in my backpack so I walked around flying the Dannebrog.. My flight was a couple hours late, but I came home safe and sound 🙂

There were people i couldn’t meet despite being really geographically close to them, places I didn’t see, things I didn’t do, a lot of mistakes, a lot of Danish I didn’t understand, but I am truly glad I did this and wouldn’t mind being back in Denmark again someday!

Of all Danish words I learned during my stay, I always think of Trillebør (wheelbarrow) first, and I just googled now to find it how to say it in English, but it was part of my daily life when gardening in Denmark!

Some Danish songs I found about during my stay were Valby Bakke – Peter Sommer (my host listened to it a lot!), hurtige hænder – Minds of 99, +artist Alphabeat. Right after my stay I started listening to even more Danish music, among others one of my favourites is Halvnøgen – Ulige Numre, Drømmer Jeg – Johnny Deluxe, and for quite a while the autumn 2021 had rapper Clemens among my most-listened artists…