Samsø

If you tell a Dane you are going to Samsø, they will inevitably ask you to bring back some potatoes. While the Danes may associate the island with Denmark’s first crop of potatoes (which can bring in up to $80 a pound), to the international community it is known simply as “energy island.” In 1997, it won a competition to become the first carbon neutral area in Denmark. During the 10 years that followed, an infrastructure of windmills and district heating plants was constructed making Samsø an island that actually produces more energy than it uses! What makes it really unique is that many of the windmills are owned on share by the islanders themselves. In the small, conservative towns of Samsø, it took some convincing seeing as most were not interested in ideals of saving the environment or stopping global warming. They were convinced when they found out how much money they could save. One farmer we visited, Jørgen Tranberg, actually makes more money selling energy from his windmill back to the grid than he does from his dairy farm.  He let us climb to the top of his wind turbine. Some may say they are a noisy eyesore, but I think there is nothing quite as majestic in the manmade sense as a row of windmills spinning in synchronization…  

We also visited a district heating plant that burns biomass (woodchips, straw, etc.) to heat water which is then pumped to the nearby towns and directly into people’s homes. The water returns cold to begin the process again. The oxygen the straw releases as it grows equals the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the burning process. This particular one also had solar panels that directly heated the water.

 And at the end of the day, to give ourselves some extra energy, we built a campfire and made snobrød. Basically, you wrap dough around a stick, toast it over the fire, spoon in some jam, ketchup, or add a hotdog, and enjoy!

Samsø’s next goal is to become fossil fuel free by 2020!

You can read more here.

Tillykke med fødselsdagen, Queen Margrethe!

On Monday, Queen Margrethe celebrated her 72nd birthday! To celebrate, she, along with the rest of the royal family, came to the balcony of her palace at Amalienborg to wave and cheer with her people.

To celebrate, I went to Agnes Cupcakes for a yummy treat.

In other news, Copenhagen has blossomed beautifully while I was away. It’s good to be home.

Preikestolen

The highlight of my Norway adventure was Thursday’s hike to Preikestolen, Pulpit Rock. On this one day, we encountered practically every weather possible: rain, snow, ice, sleet, fog, hail, cloud, sun, rainbow. But the sheer magnificence of the mountain was SO worth it (pictures do not begin to do it justice).

The view from 1806 feet:

Stavanger

After the day in Oslo, we hopped aboard the 7:11am train to Stavanger, supposedly the most beautiful train ride in the world. It lived up to expectations. Every few minutes we would pass a little town surrounding a little lake hidden in the valley of the giant mountains. Seven hours later, we were in Stavanger. Stavanger is the 4th largest city in Norway. It is still relatively small, but survives on fishing and tourism. It is also home to the Petroleum Museum which boasts a playground made entirely from equipment used in the oil extraction and production process. Fun fact we learned from a local on the ferry: most all the houses are wood, making them very vulnerable to fire. However, one neighborhood from the 19th century remains:

Oslo

For the second week of travel week, a friend and I hopped aboard an overnight ferry to Norway to explore more of Scandinavia. I quickly discovered that Oslo is a really cool city, mainly for the architecture. Our first stop was the opera house, a beautiful structure that invites you to climb to the top of the roof and overlook the river and city.

Whilst exploring the city, we stumbled into the hip, artsy district Grünerløkka, home to lots of amazing street art.

As a close second to my favorite part of Oslo, we ventured past the royal palace and through the more affluent part of town to Vigelandsparken Sculpture Park, which features 212 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland.

As if it isn’t already cool enough, Oslo is in the process of building up the modern district by the harbor. The architecture was amazing: futuristic but still tasteful.

The downfall of traveling to Norway is that it rains almost every day and everything is very expensive, like when you find yourself starving after a day of wondering, and think, “Oh! They have hamburgers for NOK 175 (roughly $30), that’s so cheap!” It was a delicious burger though…

God Påske!

We celebrated Easter yesterday with a large lunch of traditional herring and rugbrød, schnapps, ham, potato salad, broccoli salad, and apple celery salad.

Then, as per Ganløse tradition, we painted eggs and rolled them down the hill behind the school. The goal is to make it the furthest down the hill, and you can try as many times as the egg is roll-able. My little Humpty Dumpty made it to second place, just short of winning the chocolate egg prize.

It cracked me up- and that’s no yoke (ok, my eggcellent puns stop here)!

Another Denmark: Vacation in Jutland

View 9480 Løkken-Vrå in a larger map

Having spent the past week traveling through Denmark’s mainland, Jutland, I can tell you Denmark is: sand, sea, sky; brown, green, blue; calm, quiet, and absolutely beautiful. We drove through fields of windmills to get to the little summer house near the tip of Jutland, our home for the week. The entire area is nestled with small cottages in the dune grass hills:

After 10 weeks of classes, it was nice to have a change of pace and relax on the beach (even if I was wearing a parka). I could not believe how expansive the beach was: miles and miles of wide, flat sand lands, so different from the Lake Huron shores I’m used to!

We ventured to the little town of Løkken (which means happiness) to see the German bunkers that dot the Danish coastline from WWII. Though half buried, we had a grand time climbing through and exploring the tunnels and rooms once occupied by German soldiers. Of course, many Danes, especially the older generation, dislike this symbol of war and wish to have them removed. Hostility toward the “tysks” is still evident as Germans must rent if they wish to vacation in the area as they are not allowed to actually own land there.

My favorite visit was to the migrating sand dunes in Lønstrup that are burying this lighthouse. Denmark is relatively flat, so it was a great change to be atop these dunes overlooking the ocean to one side and the windmill clad countryside to the other.

Next we toured the Northern most tip of Denmark: Grenen and Skagen. This is where the oceans converge. It is no wonder why this land has been home to many impressionistic artists including the Ancher family.

Finally, we traveled to Ebeltoft where out ferry awaited to bring us back to Zealand. On the way, we had a little forbidden picnic in a little forbidden castle (or at least there were signs saying “forbudt” everywhere but my Danish is still less than perfect).

Ebeltoft is home to a famous ship used during the war of 1864, Fregatten Jylland. The rest of the town is a sanguine daydream of cobblestone and boutiques.

Throughout the week, we dined with my host mom’s friends and family in traditional Danish fashion: schnapps and herring and rugbrød, salmon and salads, frikadeller and meets, bread and bread and more bread, cakes and cakes and more cakes. Then we’d take a break for a walk and start all over again. Super lækker!