Bikes and snow

It's SNOWING!!!
This Wellingtonian is very excited by the white stuff. It has snowed where I am living a total of ONE time in my life, so this is a major novelty! Out came the camera of course….

If you count 6 windows in from the right on the top floor of the closest block - that window and the door is out flat!

View from our window

There is no change in the number of cyclists on the road. There is no such thing as bad weather here, just bad clothing choices, apparently!

Speaking of bikes, on Sunday we took a bus, then another bus, then walked a while because we mistranslated to the bus driver and got off the bus too soon, and finally got to a little residential house owned by a little old fella who has a tiny shed attached to his garage where he refurbishes old bikes then sells them on the Danish equivalent of Trade me.

He didn’t speak a word of English, so, using gestures and google translate on the phone, we spent a bit of time with him, negotiating the purchase of a bike for Barry. We had already sussed one for me, through a polish friend of a Taiwanese friend of Barry’s, who is doing the same course as him.

When Barry wanted to go for a test drive, it was indicated that I was to stay as ‘collateral’. So I did. I ended up taking a ride with the man to the petrol station where I got money out to pay for the bike, and then back to his house to get the tyres pumped as they felt unsafe to Baz and he needed to check it was just a bit of air needed. The man (no idea what his name was) kept rambling to me in Danish then laughing so of course I laughed too. It was all very jovial.
So in the end it was all good, we made the purchase and the old fella was kind enough to take us both and the bike into town from where Barry rode back to our place in just 13 minutes.

We also bought a bike for me from said friend of friend. Mine is not quite as flash as Barry's, but definitely cuter with a basket, a purple paint job, and strawberry seat cover. It only cost me DKK300 (about NZ$60) though will probably cost us that again to replace the chain, and fix it up a bit.

There are loads of shops full of bike stuff here. Everyone seems to ride bikes. There are dedicated cycle lanes which also host mopeds and are a trap for newcomers like us as they look just like footpaths so are easy to wander onto. We’ve had a few bells rung at us so far! In fact the Danes we have met are super friendly and lovely people, until you stand in their way whether they are on bikes, mopeds or in a car. The other day Barry stopped to adjust his scarf when a car chose that moment to use the park he was standing in front of – never mind that there were a loads of other empty parks around. The driver decided it was that park and Barry was in the way, and was going to get run over if he didn’t move right then!
I think its because they pay 150% tax on their cars.

Barry in the student hall. I set up here every day to do my work.

wienerbrød and flødeboller

Hey, so one does what the locals do right?
Cosy cafes are very 'hyggeligt' and what the Danes do to escape the dreary outside. So here we have a wienerbrod and coffee, and later on in the afternoon, we have a warm cocoa and flodeboller.

Another almond paste and pastry delight with yummy coffee

These were divine but more than a bite was too much. The marshmellow is something between cream and the stuff we get at home in Mellowpuffs.

Hyggelite-ing

Barry contemplates upsizing his backpack 😂

And meets a couple more local 'hund'

Ahh, a normal shop at last! 😂

Gingerbread houses and concentration bloks

We arrived in Copenhagen at midday, 30^th January. We were to discover:

·        It really was freezing in Denmark in late January - 1°C to be precice

·        The coffee is excellent (Phew)

·        The style in a basic hotel lives up to the Danish reputation, check out the alpha-world map headboard in the Zleep hotel we stayed in on our first night in Danishland…

With four suitcases to lug around in the misty cold of winter, we didn’t stop for sightseeing. Our first full day in the new land was spent catching busses and trains firstly to the state administration to begin the process of getting ourselves registered (in order to receive our personal identification cards and gain access to public services), and secondly, to get to Horsens, and to our new home – a top floor flat in one of several blocks of flats that sit right next to the university.

From the outside it looks a bit stark and bleak, especially in winter where the trees are just skeletons, and the sky is grey.

But inside the rooms are light and bright and very warm with central heating throughout.

The past few days have been spent shopping to see what’s on offer and to buy some supplies. Like bedding, and towels, and toilet paper…

Food wise, we have mostly been happy with the fruit and the vegetables, and the amazing seeded buns and ‘sandwiches’ (filled seeded buns), not to mention the mouth-watering ‘weinerbrod’ (Danish pastries) which have lived up to all expectations so far with some kind of baked almond paste with jam in a sweet pastry…

However we have had a couple of mishaps.

Today I bought a wee packet of sliced cheese to go with a couple of seeded buns I bought for the road – we had planned a trip to Aarhus to visit the humongous IKEA. Once we were on the train, I got the buns out and pulled them apart for the cheese, then opened the cheese...

Wow. It utterly reeked with what we could only imagine a rotting festering piece of dead flesh could smell like. I wrapped it back again and buried it in the plastic shopping bag, then a plastic rubbish bag, and we still couldn’t get the smell out of our nostrils. Barry chucked the thrice wrapped bundle into a vacant seat and it went straight into the first rubbish bin we saw upon arrival at Aarhus.

Not long after that we were at the Aarhus central library café where I ordered what Barry described as a ‘Turd’. Yes it looked like one but it was actually a Rugboller chocolat and ablet (chocolate and apple rye bun). How bad could it be?

It was bad. In fact it tasted like half cooked bread that had also gone soggy with some bitter cocoa nibs, no sugar at all so no sweetness to speak of, and bland apple bits clumped at the bottom. Turd was pretty much accurate and the turd was turfed pretty quickly.

So onto the nicer discoveries, such as how all the houses (that are not blocks of flats – which are all pretty much of the same stark style as ours) look like gingerbread houses. We have yet to learn more about the age and history of Horsens but many of them look like they are hundreds of years old.

Some are separate, some are grand and embellished and there rows of different sized and coloured houses all next to each other like something from a children’s storybook.

I’ve started taking hundreds of photos of these quirky quaint, wonky little and big houses but can imagine how much lovelier they will all look when its brighter and sunnier and the trees are full of greenery and the well-tended gardens full of bloom. I can hardly wait.
Here are some photos of Denmark so far...

First day in Copenhagen. Excited but cold!

The chandelier in Copenhagen grand central railway station. All the lighting in Denmark is very stylish.

Barry waiting for the right train to get us to Horsens - we hadn't realised we had to get off the first train and transfer.

Barry meets 'Winston' an 8 week Cocker Spaniel puppy who was shivering as it was so cold. Poor wee thing.

Barry dwarfed by the humongous IKEA. I couldn't fit the whole building into the camera frame!

The 'wienerbrods' are out of this world. I'm so going to get fat here!

Artemis

Thought of Dad - this wee scooter would be ideal in the wind and rain!

Australian beauty

There is beauty everywhere and the sprawling suburbs of Brisbane are no different. Here is some bushland in Griffin and some evening shots at Northlakes.

Living in a sauna

We're in Brisbane, a couple of days into a new adventure. t's 8am on Saturday.  Barry is logged into the 'VIA Studentnet' learning all about his course and the people he will be studying with over the following year in Denmark. David and his flatmates haven't emerged from their respective rooms. The ceiling fan is going so fast, we have a breeze and it sounds like torrential rain is falling but the second an arm or a leg sits too long against the body, we break into a sweat. It's so hot here. Hot, overcast, drisly, sticky, steamy. Like a sauna. Too bloody hot for this kiwi.
But it's so good to see my Dave. He's like a happy ray of sunshine full of life and plans and totally not ready to go home to NZ any time soon. He's painting and his beginning works show a huge talent in the making...

The first one was inspired by a similar painting his Dad did of Perth and the second one by a photo I took in Auckland at the east Tamaki estuary.

Yesterday we went into the city to Southbank and walked among the other tourists. We didn't take many photos ourselves having been here before on sunnier days. Winter is the time to be here. It's cooler and sunnier. It's the wet season now.

It's afternoon now and we are resting in the lounge with the aircon on. It's slowly cooling down from 32 degrees. The day is hot and sunny. We went to cafe Ramekin for a coffee and early lunch with David. Good coffee, good food. Very nice. We thought about going to the beach this arvo but I think the heat has sapped us of energy. David tells us that on weekends he is either in an air conditioned mall, the beach, or at home. It's only after 5pm when it cools down that he considers doing anything outside!

Napier

I'm Oh Napier, it's so lovely to be back. I have missed you! 

Central Hawke's Bay, from the car!

Hastings Street Art

Winston Land Studio

Art Deco