Danish Christmas song

One Danish Christmas song for you.
Its about nisse (kind of elf) who eats his Christmas pudding. Rats are going around and want to eat it too. He don´t like to share a Christmas pudding with them and threaten them with a cat. Very popular among the children :o).

Christmas heart (julehjerte)

Traditional danish Christmas heart can by used as a decoration or a basket for candies. Oldest christmass hearts were made by Hans Christian Andersen in 1860. You can easily make your own heart from paper of two diferent colours. In Denmark red and white color are mostly used for hearts. 

Christmas heart behind the window.

 

Christmas beer

In Denmark you can buy Christmas beer (Julebryg) before Christmas. Beer is more alcoholic then usual, it has around 7 percent of alcohol. It is a good idea to buy it when you want to be drunk soon. Beer has nice package, which is returnable as well as all bottles and cans in Denmark. 

Denmark Christmas beer.

One month without public transport

I wasn´t using a public transport or a car at all for last month. It is a very strange idea for me who was used to go by a metro or a tram at least three times a day. For last month I traveled everywhere only on foot or by bike. In rain, in snow, in cold weather... 

And what about my feelings now? I feel no difference. Odense is a bike friendly city, so I am able to get everywhere in the city in a half an hour. In snowy weather, bicycle paths are clean after couple of hours after the snowfall.

Yes, it is a bike. I had a big fortune to meet it. They are only two in Odense.

Christmas lunch (Julefrokost)

More than one month before Christmas Danes start to organize Christmas lunches (Julefrokost), Christmas parties where they meet with friends. Parties usually begin soon in the afternoon.

I attended the Christmas lunch organized by Odense Couch surfers. Party took place in a flat of the organizer and started in the late afternoon. I met there approximately 15 new people. Most of them were Danes, but there were people from Greenland, Portugal or Greece. Party was mainly about food and we were eating for four hours.

We started with the fried fish fillet with bread, continued with roasted meat, ris alamande (rice pudding with cherry sauce) and fried danish pancakes æbleskiver. We were drinking Christmas beer and snaps (akvavit).

Skål! That is the Danish word for "Cheers!" Legend says that the word come from the Vikings who drank from skulls of their enemies. It is only a legend but who knows?

Roasted meat

Wash house

In Czech Republic we are used to have own washing machine in every flat. In Denmark there are wash houses or special rooms for laundry instead of home washing machines. They are used by couple of block of flats. In laundry there are big washing machines and big dryers.

It is very fast to wash clothes in a big washing machine. It takes one and half hour to have clothes clean and dry. With our washing machine in Czech Republic it takes two hours only to have clothes clean. 

Big washing machines in the wash house.

The Danish Christmas market in photos

Hans Christian Andersen Christmas market takes place in Odense in the first half of December. Christmas market is similar to markets which I know from Prague. Let´s go on a short walk through the market.

Dog family made of moss.

Barrel organ prepares to play.

Musicians with a violin and a accordion are walking through the market.

Traditional crafts, bobbin.

Stalls of the historical market.

Gate to the historical market in Møntegården. Do you see four dwarfs?

In many stalls it is possible to buy moss.

Christmas musical trio.

Biking in the rain

It often rains in Denmark, but it doesn´t discourage Danes from riding a bike. Now the moment came when also I needed to ride a bike in the dark and in the rain.

It had already been raining for several hours when I first time took on my new waterproof clothes. Journey went well until I needed to stop at a red light at the crossroads. In the cycle track there was a large and a probably 5 cm deep puddle. I felt like a ship when I tried to land on the edge of the pavement and don´t step into the puddle. 

Gusts of wind were another unpleasant surprise for me. They sometimes tried to tumble me off the bike. Thanks to waterproof clothes only my shoes were wet when I arrived home.

Now I understand why some Danes wear rainboots when they ride a bike. The lesson for the next time: Take waterproof boots and the waterproof cover of a backpack when riding a bike.

Bike and waterproof clothes

Water center as a Big Brother

Two weeks ago I took part in the excursion to the Odense water center organized by Work in Denmark. In Odense drink water comes from wells. In Czech Republic we mostly use water from rivers.
Lot of interesting information about water center and cleaning of water was prepared for us by students of English from the water center under supervision of their language teacher:

• The water center buys grounds to plant forests there. It uses roots of trees as a natural system for cleaning of waste water. 
• The water center has a monopoly to supply the city with water. All money which the company has come from consumers only. To have a motivation for improving the system, there is a fixed maximal price of water for each year given by the government. 
• There is an environmental tax for water in Denmark to motivate inhabitants to save the water which is included after Moms (VAT or DPH in Czech republic, Moms is 25%) was added to the price of water. This means you pay a tax from a tax. The final price of the water for households is approximately 3 times higher than the price in Czech Republic. 
• The sewerage in Odense has the same pipeline for wastewater and for rainwater, so that the wastewater treatment plant has to clean everything. In Czech Republic we mostly have separate pipelines for waste- and rainwater and family houses have to care about rainwater on their land. 
• Water center can watch what is going on in the city like a Big Brother. If there is an important football match, consumption of water decreases. During the halftime break the water consumption grows quickly, so you can see the course of the football match in the graph of the water consumption. You can see the same trend during the royal wedding. 

Look at the bottom of the first well in Odense. Now it is a gallery.

How I haven´t bought a bike in the Auction

In Denmark people use a bike as the main means of transport. I planned to buy one as well. To buy a cheap bike I visited auction of "lost and found" bikes in Odense.

In the Auction house there were around 50 bicycles and 100 auctioneers. Auctioneers were of all ages and nationalities. But bikes didn´t look very reliably. They were standing side by side and one had no chance to try them.

The announced price for each bike was 50 Kr. The price of first bikes increased fast and the final bid was higher than 1200 Kr. (Exchange rate is approximately 7,4 Kr for 1 Euro). By the time successful auctioneers left and the final bid dropped to half of the fist bid. At the end of auction everything was auctioned off, including a bike without a seat.

I left on foot. Instead of a pig in a poke I decided to buy a bike directly from the owner. I was successful at the end and now I have good bike and cheaper than from the auction. 

The first auctioned bike.

Ano Šéfe! in Danish way

This weekend I watched an episode of Ano, Šéfe! Czech version of Kitchen Nightmares, a British cookery reality show. In this episode from year 2010, Chef helps the restaurant in a romantic castle in South Bohemia. The restaurant has Danish owners and Danish guests. Owners would like to invite Czech guests as well, but nobody comes.

Episode perfectly shows the difference between Czech and Danish culture and eating habits. Sandwiches or salads for the lunch are not interesting for Czech people. Prices are twice as high as in Czech restaurants and behavior of owners is reserved at the beginning of the film. It looks very hard to combine the restaurant to for Czech and Danish guests.

Two episodes of the series are still worth seeing. You can see the first episode and the second episode on YouTube in Czech language. 

Pulling of the fallow-deer in Denmark.

Post box full of pre-christmas leaflets

This week we got the biggest packet of leaflets so far. Leaflets are from every shop which means something in Odense: The biggest shopping center RosengårdCentret, supermarket Lidl, hobby shop Panduro and others.

Sign on post box „No ads please“ doesn´t mean anything. Leaflets are sent by mail packed in a sheet of paper with the address of the flat. This means that they look like regular mail and not only as advertisements.

There is no difference compared to Czech Republic, signs on post boxes are ignored in the same way. The only difference is that in Denmark there are many more ads in post boxes than in Czech Republic. The piles of leaflets grow also in households of the most environmental friendly country in Europe. 

Our leaflets

Are Danes getting fat?

A few days ago, I read an article which said that Denmark planned to abolish fat tax. Danes have special tax on fat food like meat or butter. This tax was introduced a year ago because according to Danish Authorities, 47% Danes are overweight and 13% are obese.

It´s a big surprise for me that Danes are so fat. I thought that Danish people were very focused on sport activities and healthy food.

People here in Denmark are mostly using bikes for getting to work or for traveling around city. In the evenings I meet a lot of people jogging on streets. In the city, there is a big amount of fitness centers full of people. In groceries you will find a lot of a wholemeal bread and a good quality vegetables. Is problem somewhere else? 

This Danes will not get fat.

Evenfall in the city

I made short walk around the centre of Odense on evenfall today. There were crowds of people everywhere. Evenfall is here between 3 pm and 4 pm in November. 

Streets are full of people on bikes and there is a lot of pedestrians in the pedestrian zones. It looks that working hours end around 3 pm here. All people disappear after nightfall, shops close and after 6 pm you won´t meet anybody in the centre of the city. 

Built in 1683

Arrival and CPR number

I am freelance building engineer from Czech Republic. I moved to Odense in Denmark for one year and in this blog you can follow my experience with this northern viking country. I will write about buildings, culture and differences between Czech Republic and Denmark. So enjoy my blog spots :o).

I moved to Denmark a few weeks ago. First what I needed was CPR number and residence permit.

CPR number is an identification number of every person in Denmark who lives here for more than 3 months.

Similar number in Czech Republic is called "Rodné číslo" but these are generated differently. In Denmark CPR-number has wider use than "Rodné číslo". CPR-number is used for the whole communication with authorities. Process of gaining the permit and CPR-number was very fast, it took around one hour. So now I have two identifications numbers.

First visit of Odense centre