Aarhus is a Beautiful Place

I'm coming to the end of my fourth week in Aarhus! Sorry about the sporadic posts it seems I'm not too good at setting a day and sitting down to write my blog, it seems that I always have something to read, somewhere to go or failing that I just want to watch Mad Men. Yes, I recently got into Mad Men and in two weeks I've made my way to Season 3. It's a little bit too addictive. Besides all that I have three things I want to talk about this week, firstly my experiences of the beauty of Aarhus, second my Birthday which was last Friday and finally my hilarious attempts at trying to cycle like a Dane.

Aarhus is a beautiful place

Last Tuesday I booked myself onto a Cultural Tour of Aarhus which also involved a trip to the Viking Museum. Yet again I got horribly lost trying to find the group. I was cycling and hadn't given myself enough time to get there. I'm sure everyone's been there when you've left yourself just enough time to get somewhere but not factored in any time for getting lost. So I got lost and had to ask some ladies who were walking around Aarhus for directions. They were extremely helpful though and I managed to find the right place in the end, I even bumped into my classmate who'd also got lost. The tour took us around the city on foot. Once I'd joined the tour we went to look at an old courtyard which dated to the fifteenth century. The houses looked very much like Tudor houses in the UK but they were a lovely orange colour.

We then moved on to an old street with brightly coloured houses. These houses are extremely expensive to buy in Aarhus now and are protected. It would be a truly beautiful place to live. In the photo you can see my classmates walking up the cobbled street. The houses on both sides are cottage-like in size and each one was a different colour.

  

Apparently the main river of Aarhus, which now flows through the city centre, was completely taken out at one time and filled in with concrete.  It's hard to believe that today because the canals in the city centre are lined with cafes and restaurants and are a tourist attraction in themselves. The funny thing is hearing any Dane say the word 'canal.' Instead of saying 'caNAL' as we might say they place the emphasis on the 'CANal' so it sounds more like 'Kennel'. It took me a while to work out what they were talking about. 

The tour took us along the river side and into the main square of the city then into the Viking museum because it started raining. The best thing about the museum is that it was built on the level on which they found Viking artefacts. That means that to enter the museum you have to go underground and as you walk down the stairs you can see the different layers for the different time periods right up to the 1970s. The museum itself is built on the site of two longhouses and you can see the different artefacts they found around each of the different buildings. There is also a 3D model of what Aarhus might have looked like in Viking times. The original name of Aarhus is Aros which means 'river mouth' and so when you look at the the town plan you can see how the original settlement was built around the river mouth.

We emerged from the museum in bright sunshine. The Cathedral and Theatre looked stunning in the bright Autumn sun. 

The Theatre

The Cathedral

We finished up our tour with a walk into the Dockyard area of Aarhus and learned of the new developments happening there. Then we went to the Latin Quarter which used to be an unloved part of the City but was renovated to resemble the Latin Quarter in Paris. 

The tour was fantastic and I saw a lot more of Aarhus but the weather has been so nice recently that I often find myself on my bike or walking home looking at the beautiful buildings and feeling very lucky that I have a whole year to explore and appreciate this beautiful city. 

My mentor invited myself and her other mentees over for dinner on Sunday and I cycled to her place which is close to the harbour. She has a lovely flat and she made us a Danish variation of pizza which includes a layer of potato on the pizza dough with tomatoes and pesto. It's occasions like this that I love, getting to know Denmark, Danish culture and my Danish friends. 

It's been quite hard settling in because I know that there are many people on my course living with or very close to others from our course. There are only two of us from the course in my halls. But it has meant that I've got to know my housemates and they are a wonderful group of people. I just got in from another common dinner and we always have a real laugh and a nice catch up with each other. 

So I am truly experiencing the beauty of Aarhus and getting settled in, I live in a beautiful place. 

My Birthday

It was my birthday on Friday, 20th. I had been really worried that I would not have many if any people to celebrate with as I've only been here 3 weeks. However, I was wrong, I had a wonderful day. 

I woke up really early. I tend to do this on my birthday even though I'm 22 now. In the past I have shared a special moment in the kitchen with my dad at around 6am in the morning of my birthday. He told me that I was born at around 6.30am and he remembers watching the sun come up with me so in the years since he shared this story with me I often wake up and watch the sun rise. I sent my dad this photo of the sunrise.

The Sunrise from my window, 7.30 Danish time, 6.30 English time

I had a whole day of classes so from 10am-4pm but it was a great day. I'd invited my classmates to join me for a celebration in the evening so many of them came up to me during the day and gave me hugs for my birthday. It was also wonderful this year to receive birthday greetings in so many different languages.

In the evening, I skyped my grandparents, my parents and my boyfriend and opened my cards which was really nice. Then I'd organised a pizza party at my flat before going into town. My flatmate Bianca bought some balloons and candles and made the whole party special for which I was so grateful. I celebrated my birthday with my lovely flatmates and my coursemate Hannah, we had a fantastic time dancing around the kitchen, chatting and eating pizza. Then just before we left, the girls sang Happy Birthday and I had to blow some candles out on a pudding that Bianca had made.

My lovely flatmates

Then we cycled merrily into Aarhus to a ping pong bar called Shen Mao. It was a really cool place which had one large table tennis table and a dancefloor. Many of my coursemates were already there and I was overwhelmed by how many came out to join us. It was probably the biggest party I've had to date! I rented a table tennis paddle and joined in the game which was effectively a large game of everyone taking one turn to hit the ball back and the whole group moving around the table until everyone is out except two. Needless to say trying to hit the ball when you've had a fair bit to drink brings a whole new hilarity to the game!

They played some great music all night and I had a fantastic time pulling all kinds of shapes on the dancefloor and drinking cocktails. I had an incredible birthday and I was so thankful to everyone for helping me celebrate in style, it's so nice to know that although we've only been here for a few weeks we're forging strong friendships and having a great time together.

Cycling 

Finally I just wanted to share some of my first experiences of trying to ride like a Dane. Everyone in Aarhus cycles, and it's not surprising since they've really built their roads to accommodate for cyclists. The cycle lanes run parallel to the main roads and here you have to cycle the same way as the traffic. This I found tricky to start off with because I'm used to cars travelling on the opposite side of the road. I got seriously confused, especially at crossroads.

However, once I got the hang of that I then had to work out how to get on my bike and peddle across the road whilst the light was green. It seems they don't give you enough time to make mistakes. I'm not used to having a bike which has peddles which act as a brake when pushed backwards. This means that when I'm waiting for the traffic light I have to get my pedals in the right position so I just get on and go, but I can't just push the pedals around so it takes me longer. The first few times I cycled anywhere everytime I stopped at traffic lights it took me ages to sort the pedals out and the lights changed at least three times!

Having said that, the worst thing I've done on a bike since I've been here is crash just as I left my halls. I was cycling down the path and at the end there are posts on both sides. For some reason I because fixated on one of the posts rather than thinking about where I was going. I braked but I crashed straight into it. It hurt so much! The bike went up backwards and the handlebars went straight into my stomach. I'm not a bad cyclist, I've cycled since I was about 6 years old but every now and again I make a complete idiot of myself! There were so many people watching too!

The weirdest thing about cycling here is that they seem to have trouble with people cycling and texting. I just cannot comprehend how someone can cycle and text as they cross the road! I also don't understand how they can talk on their phones whist cycling! There have been so many times when I've been overtaken by someone either talking on their phone or texting. I'm an accident waiting to happen without the added factor of a phone so I think I'm going to leave that to the Danes.

In the meantime, thanks for reading! As you can see I'm settling in and starting to really enjoy my time here, as always thank you for your continued support :)