Further exposure to the local history

Part of our settling-down process naturally involves a progressive discovery of Denmark. After a discovery of Aarhus that is still undergoing, we started widening the circle to close-by towns (within 20-40 miles) that we can reach using Q’s mom’s car that we are fortunate to still have with us for a little while longer.

Two Sundays ago, while C was working in the lab to make up for vacation days, a still unemployed Q went to check out the cute and charming town of Ebeltoft. The old part of town is reminiscent of what visitors can already see here in Aarhus when going to Den Gamle By (see post entitled “So, what’s Aarhus really like?”). Although in Ebeltoft, the town is an actual living town, with shops, restaurants, etc, so that gives it a different appeal.

On the way to Ebeltoft, Q also stopped at the ruins of Kalø Slot (slot = castle in Danish), which are still standing on this tiny peninsula overlooking the Aarhus bay. The ruins by themselves don’t have much to offer, as they consist mostly of broken walls and a tower (reminiscent of Panama Viejo, see post entitled:"Wandering among the ruins of Panama Viejo”). However, with the particular backdrop of the bay in the background, they added to the dramatic nature of the scenery. Q was sort of expecting ghosts and headless horse riders in full-body armors to come after him at any minute... I mean, we are in celtic country here, to which stories of Hamlet, of Thot, and of a certain Ring belong...

Off to more historical adventures last Sunday, with a trip to the castle of Gammel Estrup, about 23 miles north of Aarhus. Passing through villages reminded us of how proud the Danes are of their flag, as it was displayed about every 30 feet, on both sides of the road, from one end of the village to the other... And when we thought Americans were sometimes overly patriotic!

The castle of Gammel Estrup was now a Renaissance castle, built and rebuilt between the 14th and 18th centuries. No more spooky spirits and specters, but rather an invitation to romance (I mean, look at lovely C among those daffodils! :-). Q was reminded of that French movie “Peau d’Ane” by Jacques Demy, for those who might know. We both thought that this castle was probably a popular destination for wedding parties... And for the difficult father or mother in law, there is always the option to have him/her sleep in the Green Tower room, which owes its name to the still glowing green from the arsenic-based dye that was used in the coloring of the wallpaper that sticks to its walls after a few centuries. Hmm, isn't it always so wonderful to stick to those things from the past that otherwise we would miss too much...

Our second home in Aarhus

Dear family and friends,

We are back with some new posts of the latest news up here in Aarhus, Denmark. Not much traveling has happened, as you might guess, so our posts are a bit less frequent. We are looking forward to some adventures in South of France in three weeks though, to visit Q’s first niece, Mila, who was born today, May 2nd, 2010 :-)

It is still cold and windy at the beginning of May, but that won’t change much any time soon. Or maybe it will get warmer, but it will still be windy... But we love it! At least it is sunny a lot—almost daily, although perhaps not for the entire day. We really appreciate the sunny weather in our new place, which has lots of big windows all around, and some even through the roof (see photo).

Our second home here in Aarhus is slightly further away from work, but not by more than a few minutes of walking distance. We are closer to the historical downtown area, with its cafes and shops, so we enjoy the opportunity to just be able to walk everywhere. The street we are on is pretty quiet, and although from the outside it looks like a row of apartment buildings (see photo), on the other side the buildings actually surround an open space area with people’s backyards, a little soccer field, among other things. So it is great to be downtown yet to see the trees slowly turn green. Our apartment is on the first floor from the street side, but that ends up being garden level on the other side. Our apartment ends with a door that opens to one of these yards, which is almost in the sun all day (see photo).

Other than that with about 800 feet of surface area, our place is quite big by Aarhus’ standards, and for what we are paying per month ($1,100). It has hardwood floors throughout, and came with some rather useful furniture, if not of the best quality... Oh if you could see that old yellow leather couch! Reminds Q of used cowboy chaps... But the high point when we first arrived was the tiny bathroom (train/plane size of course) which is at the end of a hallway, with no window. On top of that the bathroom and the shower are really one single space, i.e. the floor of the bathroom floor is the shower floor, you know, European style... The mold that had consequently been growing behind the sink, the toilet, and inside the drain over years of poor maintenance made Chrysa really unwell at first. Luckily lot’s of cleaning and the purchase of a dehumidifier/air purifier were able to reverse that. We just loved the irony that after living in dry Colorado for several years we were thrown right into having to deal with the exact opposite problem: too much humidity!

We have been living at this place for about a month now, and brought our cat back with us after a trip to France over Easter. So it feels good to be all together again. Sascha is definitely enjoying the opportunity to sit by sunny windows and to go outside day or night (no danger to be eaten by a coyote any longer ;-) (see photo). We should be here until October, when it will be time to move to yet another place (hopefully with a larger bathroom, but it is a challenge here, so we will keep you posted...).

So, what’s Aarhus really like?

Since we had a car (and no CPR number=we were forced to behave like tourists), we took some time to discover the nice things to do in and around town. We ate out in a relatively unexpensive but nice place, enjoyed James Cameron’s Avatar (in English and Na’vi with Danish subtitles), visited a bunch of Danish design furniture stores (fascinating stuff!) and walked around the parks, the sea front, etc.

Aarhus is a cute town (about Boulder or Annapolis-size) with a lot of brick houses and several churches, right by the sea, and is actually a main harbor for Denmark-think large docks and gigantic cranes. A role it has been serving since around the 7th or 8th century when the Vikings settled down here. Aarhus was their main port of call for their trips to Iceland, Greenland, and beyond (Disneyland?)... The main harbor is now next to the downtown area, with a more marina and fisherman’s wharf type of place to the North (a place where we’ve been told we can see dolphins). The South has a long beach, which makes for a nice area for jogging and sea kayaking, right in front of the Queen’s summer residence, and before a nice and enchanted forest (that is, when it’s not icy everywhere!). On the first time we were there the sea was frozen so there were little icebergs and all. We went back yesterday and that was all melted. An inspiring spot indeed, it’s like trading Boulder’s mountains for Aarhus’ sea front, and we’re not losing much in the process! Just complementary realities...

The big tourist attraction of Aarhus is its reconstitued ‘old town’, called ‘Den Gamle By’ in Danish. It’s like an open-air museum with plenty of houses from all around Denmark dating back to as early as the beginning of the 16th century, that got saved from destruction by being dismantled in their original location and then by being rebuilt in a corner of the botanical gardens in Aarhus. There are even a couple of water and wind mills! Houses were reorganized into what now looks like a real typical small town, with unpaved or cobbler stone paved streets, complete with reconstitued homes and shops inside the buildings. So it’s really like a history book come to life. Q even talked with a guy who was building wooden barrels inside one of these places. Q was there on an awesome sunny day, which made the reds and yellows of the outside of the houses look fantastic. And in the cold of winter, no tourists! A few school kids, but mostly a few geese wandering around, just like old times in the Old World...

Our first home in Aarhus

Soon after our arrival we quickly realized that without our ‘CPR number’ we were pretty much left to live like tourists: impossible to buy a phone, to open a bank account, to get an apartment, etc. This CPR number is technically a social security number that’s really an identification number. And naturally, it’s not just that simple to get that number! You need proof of a work contract (that’s what C has), or of enough funds to live (that would be C’s salary for the two of us for now), even for a European citizen like

Q. So we both waited for that

number for a while, as it comes in the mail in a week or two...

In the meantime we were fortunate that a professor two doors down the hall from Chrysa’s supervisor had a place he could rent us for a few weeks. He actually bought a house but hasn’t been able to sell his old one yet. So we are staying in the new one, which is a turn-of-the-20th-century house with large square-footage (about 1100 sq.ft.), hardwood floors (pretty standard here), a fine picturesque decor (see the column and the old fireplace), sunny all day long, a gigantic kitchen, and only 2 minutes from the lab. The house has a name on its outside: ‘BLAAKAER’, which we were told by our friend the owner means ‘blue pond’. Probably the family name of whoever built it.

We just still can’t believe the good fortune that brought us to this cozy place, only two days after leaving Strasbourg on a short notice, and only about four days after having landed from the tropics... To live here we did not need a CPR number, we did not need to give a deposit, and we have even had a delay to pay our rent! It’s good to have friends and friends who have friends! And we just keep loving Danish people more and more for their kindness and their diligence in helping us out.

Next, we are looking forward to receiving our 30 boxes that we shipped from Lafayette, Colorado. After all this time, it’s gonna be like Christmas all over again!