Denmark, the Last

From Helsinki, it was back to Denmark, where we made a tour of the country and visited what seemed like millions of mom’s old acquaintances. I had met most of them before, but, once again, I have very little recollection of my first Europe trip.

My head about died when suddenly, after a month of not speaking Danish, people began addressing me in Danish and actually expecting me to answer. After a few days, I began thinking in Danish – only problem, I don’t have a large enough vocabulary to properly think in Danish. It would, perhaps, have been a better learning experience in the beginning of my trip, rather than the end, but ah well…I was assured that the country Danes have heard from everyone about the difficulty of speaking Danish in Copenhagen, where everyone just speaks English as a convenience.

The city of Sønderborg, where my mom’s Danish family lives, has an annual Ringridning fest, which celebrates the old tradition of riders with lances trying to get these tiny rings onto the lances. It’s a big festival now. There’s a parade first with all the riders who are participating and also bands (There were Scottish bagpipers there! With the rest of one of the royal bands…they had a concert later in the afternoon, and it was so awesome. It also got me super excited for Edinburgh and bagpipers on street corners, even if they do only play the same song always…). Then they have the fairgrounds where the riders compete and there are also food stands and carnival rides.

I discovered that there is a point when a ride stops being fun. Mom and I went on this one spinning ride, and I was so impressed, because Mom was going on it…and then it was the longest ride ever. We timed it afterward, and it was five minutes of spinning backwards and forwards and whipping around. After about two minutes, I started thinking “This is really long!” After three and a half, I was thinking “I’m glad I didn’t eat lunch…” After five, I was about ready to kiss the ground when we got out. We couldn’t go on another ride for another two and a half hours, and even then, my mom still felt her stomach churn if she did something too fast.

I also saw the Jelling Stone (the largest rune stone, in which Harald Bluetooth claims to have united and Christianized Denmark), and two more bog bodies…one that was kind of random lying in a church in a town which appeared to be the hick-town of Denmark (all the rest of the time, the Danes have seemed so classy…but not in this town). The other was none other than the Tollund Man – a pretty huge deal in archaeology, and one of the best preserved prehistoric bodies. It seems that my study abroad could be relabeled as “The Search for Bog Bodies” and it has also made it one of my last wishes to, when I die, be thrown into a bog for archaeologists to find hundreds of years later.

One of my favorite places was Skagen, or the northernmost tip of Denmark, where the North Sea and the Baltic Sea meet. The weather had been sunny and even upsettingly hot (not as bad as Budapest, mind you, but bad enough) until, of course, the day we went to the beach. That day it rained – with a few thunderclaps thrown in there – until we left the beach, at which point it decided to clear up and get warm again. No worries – though I may have complained too much to my mom, I still loved it, and the beach was beautiful. The Baltic Sea was warmer than the North Sea by just enough that I could tell, and much warmer than the water in Finland, so I waded in the water, stood where the two seas crash into each other, and waded back. And to top it all off, when we returned back to the town, we saw an elephant walking down the road. Because Skagen is just that awesome. (Or possibly because there was a circus there that evening and they were promoting it…)

Leaving Denmark was not as sad as it could have been, mostly because of a mix-up in days when my rental agreement ended, leading to a hurried and frenzied packing job, but still a very nicely cleaned apartment – mostly thanks to my mom. Then came the task of hauling all my luggage (everything fit really nicely, surprisingly, but I forgot to be worried about the weight and annoyingness of carrying multiple bags each). Everything worked out in the end, though, and we made it to the ferry with a stop at Ribe – Denmark’s oldest, and cutest, town!. Then, we were on a boat, leaving Denmark, and greeting my old friend England.

It is only now, relaxing, unhurried by errands or sightseeing, that I can really realize that this amazing experience is over. It'll be a little weird to go back, but I am looking forward to it.