Day 45 - Contract Review and Translation

We are very close to signing a lease for our permanent apartment, or flat if you're going to be that way. Permanent sounds very harsh, I'm glad that I put it in italics to soften it up a bit. Good work me.

All legal documents in Denmark are written in, you guessed it, Danish. As such, Susan - my real estate agent / fixer - needed to translate and explain it to me in English.

To recap, the standard lease in Copenhagen runs for 2-3 years. It requires a three month deposit and - in our case - first and last months rent. Sometimes, landlords require the deposit, the first month, and three more months rent. This is all due on the day that the lease is signed. Given the fact that checks don't exist in Denmark, the money is removed from your bank account immediately. Horrible.

Such is life and there's really no sense in complaining about it any further. I just need to accept it and move on. Life goes on. I would be an awful twelve-step-program participant.

So, our apart..pfft...flat. It is here.

I do like that Google maps has an interior map of the mall! Good work Google maps. Apple maps would have probably missed the mall all-together. Thanks Apple maps!

It looks like this.

We're on the first floor above the restaurant, on the left side. Anyway, it's a large flat. Probably larger than we need. The price is / was right and it's in a superb location. Steps from the metro.

I have this ridiculous boulder of anxiety weighing me down regarding this security deposit and the possibility of losing most of it. Let's talk about walls. And paint.

Places are freshly painted. Always. There is no getting around this. If you rent a flat, it will be freshly painted and the last tenant will have paid for that work. Fun fact, you are not allowed to do the painting yourself. The tenant can either A) trust the landlord to hire a government approved painter and pay accordingly or B) hire his / her own government approved painter. Why can't you paint it yourself? Painting is serious business and should only be done by professionals. Painting is a sunk cost. Horrible.

My other favorite bit is the dørskilt or "door sign" fee. This is the fee associated with putting your name on the door. And the mailbox. It is 500 kroner. It is non-negotiable. From what I was told today, this is actually on the lower end as far as dørskilt fees go. You are not allowed to put your own name on the door. You are not allowed to put your own name on the mailbox. This process would probably cost me less than one dollar. I am paying ninety dollars. Horrible.

You'd think that I'd be used to these kinds of things coming from Boston. Maybe if I had lived in the Peoples Republic of Cambridge, the transition would be easier.

This is what happens when you decide to live in a Commun... er Social...er country like Denmark. Alla, now is the time to say "I told you so". 

I promise that tomorrow will not be another complain-o-post. Until then, hej hej!

Day 44 -- One month already?!

Today marks one month since Collin and I arrived in Copenhagen on that cold, firework-laden day.  Wow, how time flies.

A few things we have learned in our short time here so far:

• Danes love to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries by sticking as many Danish flags as they can into cakes and rolls, plastering the Danish flag motif on wrapping paper, ribbons, plates, napkins, you name it.  
• Copenhagen is not a friendly place for renters.   Places to rent are hard to find (especially places that allow large 85 lb dogs), expensive, and require 3 months deposit (which you almost never get back) along with a few months pre-paid rent all before you even move in.   
• Danes apparently don't like bath tubs...not sure what they do with washing 2 and 3 year olds!
• There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
• And of course, Danes love fireworks!

Our first month here has been even better than we could have expected.  We've met tons of really interesting, really nice people, experienced some unique food items, booked travel to a number of European cities, and embraced the concept of "hygge".   We look forward to many more months to come!

WotD #13 - Søren Brun

Thanks to Netflix Nordic and Kill Bill Vol. 1, I now know what to call my dog in Danish.



Søren Brun fails the Google translate test. Silly Google. Thanks again to the Crazy 88s and Sakichi Satô.

DotW #5 - Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid

Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, 1940

Queen Margrethe II was born to Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark in 1940. Upon her father's death, she became Queen in 1972. She is the first female monarch of Denmark since 1412.

On her name, specifically the "Þórhildur"

She was named Margrethe after her maternal grandmother, Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, and Ingrid after her mother. Since her paternal grandfather, the then-reigning King Christian X, was also the King of Iceland, and Margrethe until 1944 was an Icelandic princess, the Princess was as a tribute to the people of Iceland given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur (Thorhildur).

In 1953, Danish parliament passed a new act of succession that granted female heirs succession to the throne - this had been impossible due to laws enacted in the 1850s.

At the age of 18, Margrethe was granted a seat on the Council of State in order to prepare her for her future role. The role of Queen is largely symbolic - the royal family has no role in Danish politics. It serves mainly to meet foreign dignitaries and provide a unifying theme for the Danish people. The queen does not - by her personal choice - vote in elections.

Margrethe is an accomplished artist and designer. Her illustrations were used - under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer - for the Danish translation of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Additionally, she has designed costumes for the Royal Danish Ballet.

She smokes. Constantly.

In 2006, the royal court announced that she would no longer smoke in public.

Denmark has steadily become an increasingly secular society. Here is what she had to say about Islam in 2005.

We are being challenged by Islam these years. Globally as well as locally. There is something impressive about people for whom religion imbues their existence, from dusk to dawn, from cradle to grave. There are also Christians who feel this way. There is something endearing about people who give themselves up completely to their faith. But there is likewise something frightening about such a totality, which also is a feature of Islam. A counterbalance has to be found, and one has to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on you. For there are some things for which one should display no tolerance. And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction.

Thanks to Wikipedia for most of this info. Additionally to Hell Bent for Taters for the LoTR / Hobbit pics.

As always, any opinions / thoughts / etc are mine and do not reflect the views of the Danish people or anyone else other than me.

Day 43 - Post Danmark

The Danish Postal system, like most things in Denmark, is both efficient and expensive.

There are two classes of mail in Denmark - brev; A, or first class and økonomibrev; B, or economy class. Stamps, for mailing domestic letters 50 grams and under (1.75 oz), cost 8 kroner for brev ($1.44) and 6 kroner for økonomibrev ($1.08) . Generally speaking, any letter mailed in Denmark domestically via brev is delivered the next day. Økonomibrev class stamps take 2-3 days for delivery.

Obviously, the heavier, the costlier. It comes out to 35 kroner ($6.30) for a one pound package. Domestic.

To mail letters brev to the US, it is 14,5 kroner ($2.61).  For comparison, to mail letters internationally from the US it is $1.05.

Above is the international stamp featuring Queen Margrethe II, the reigning queen of Denmark.

Today I went to a posthus. It was inside a supermarket.

For our American friends, be happy to know that Danish postal employees are as curmudgeonly, if not more so, as their American counterparts. Upon mailing my letter, I asked about the electronic touch screen / self mailing station I saw on my way to the posthus. "I don't know about any of these things!"

They are called døgnposten. They look like this.

It was unclear what kind of things you can mail here. The touchscreen was less than helpful.

A major flaw / failing of the Danish system is translation. Websites or kiosks, like the above, often have UK / English language options. Unfortunately, they are almost always  A) incomplete or B) horrible. 

Most of the time, the translations are not direct translations of the content. The union jack icon generally takes the user to a different version of the website / menu that is designed for an English speaking audience. Generally, these alternate versions feature less / different content and are inferior to their Danish counterparts. I'm not sure why it is done this way.

A better tactic is to use google translate. Unfortunately, this only works for plain text, not embedded stuff, pics, etc.

At any rate, I hope to learn more about the døgnposten. 

A cool feature of Post Danmark is mobilporto. It allows you to do all sorts of postal related stuff on your mobile phone. This includes paying for postage via SMS. You send a text. They send you a code. You write the code on your letter. Pop it in the post box.

To finish - at least in Copenhagen - mail carriers deliver mail in these.

Day 41 - Danish Handball

Team handball is the second most popular sport in Denmark. Soccer / futbol / football / fodbold is number one. Tonight, Denmark faced Spain in the World Men's Handball Championship in Barcelona. Spoiler alert!

The actual team handball is remarkably similar to the intramural variation that we played in high school. Thanks Mr. Margerum! It's sort of an indoor lacrosse without the stick-with-net things.

Denmark has never won the World Championship - they have several European titles. It's a fun / fast game. Teams usually score around thirty goals a game.

This is Mikkel Hansen, arguably the most famous / best handball player in Denmark

He seems a bit like the Wayne Rooney of Danish handball. With much more hair. A bit, dare I say, overexposed?

Day 40 -- Bowling and Greek food

Last night, my department hosted a bowling and dinner event in honor of my addition to the group and one of my colleague's departure.  Fortunately, and generously, Collin was also invited to attend.

The night started at 17.00 with an hour of bowling at the Grøndal Centret just 2 miles from our apartment.  Bowling was pretty much identical to what you get in the US, outside New England and their inferior candlepin bowling, of course.  The balls were the same neon colors, the shoes were the same ugly grey and blue...even uglier if possible as they were all velcro enclosures.  Although here you walk in and they just have piles of shoes sorted by size and you help yourself...I guess they are not worried about people walking off with them.  Even the music was the same -- blaring Maroon 5, Rihanna, and other top 40 hits.  (I still can't get "shine bright like a die-mon" out of my head)

After figuring out our European shoe sizes, we hit the lanes.  Collin and I paired up with another newbie to my group -- in fact, he doesn't even start until March so he's technically newer than me, but has been at Novo for 7 years and is Danish which gives him a bit of a head start.  I am proud to say in our first game I had three strikes which is some sort of career record I believe, ending with a respectable (for me anyway) 92.  In fact, all three of us on our lane ended with a 92.  That was a bit odd!  I've come a long way from bowling in my own lane against the wall in high school gym class.  Sadly in my next game, which we didn't have time to finish, I was on my way to maybe a 40, which is much more in line with my typical bowling prowess.  but since the game was cut short, we will never know!

After an hour of bowling we headed over to a nearby Greek restaurant.  We had a room reserved just for the 20 of us, and food and wine was just brought out to us.  It was pretty similar to Greek-American restaurants...tzatziki, calamari, fried shrimp, seafood salad and greek salad to start.  Meatballs, souvlaki, lamb, rice, greek potatoes, french fries and skordalia as entrees.  It wasn't the best Greek food I have had, but wasn't the worst either.  The meatballs, fried shrimp and greek potatoes were especially good.  I did get a little sick of Zorba the Greek which I think I heard a minimum of 5 times throughout the night.

 

The night was a lot of fun overall.  It was great for Collin to meet my colleagues whom he has heard so much about.  And maybe he will even get some job possibilities out of it as many people seemed to have ideas of where he should apply.

Skål!

*New* Phones

Our SIM cards finally arrived from 3.dk today. Happy times.

They wouldn't sell us a plan in the store because we had neither a Danish passport nor a Danish drivers license. Stupid worthless American passport. And the Danes wonder why others find them xenophobic!

Weirdly, we were allowed to purchase phones via the interwebs. Success.

It will be difficult to get comfortable with the "rhythm" of Danish phone numbers. I'm obviously used to the one.two.three...four.five...six.seven. I mean there are other ways to provide American phone numbers, but the previous is just how my brain works.

Here it's 4 sets of 2, for a total of - you guessed it - 8 digits. They are always written in pairs, but I'm not sure how people acutally say / hear them.

It is pretty awesome that we can still use our dinosaur iPhones. Plans are ridiculously cheap here if you already have a phone - we'll cut our bill by $100 / mo compared to our ATT plan. If you "buy" a phone through the mobile phone company, the cost is built into your monthly payment - usually, IIRC, for six months. 

That could easily take a a 130 dkk plan to 300 dkk. Thanks ancient 3GS!

Day 39 - How did I miss the Fransk?!

Fun fact, the Fransk aspect of our first meal in Denmark is not limited to hot dog carts. In the local grocery, you can buy something called Fransk Sauce. It is packed in a mustard / ketchup style bottle. It is white. It looks like mayonnaise. It may well be mayonnaise. I have yet to partake.

In Denmark, whatever it may be, we - and I use that term loosely - call it Fransk Sauce. I will need further review. Sorry Myriam!

This is all a round about way to say, we have a blog visitor from a new country. France!

WotD #12 - Hva' så?!

This is essentially the Danish equivalent of ¿qué tal? or, for the gringos, what's up? Or, for the late nineties, early aughts Budweiser commercial watching gringos, wazzup?.

If I remember correctly, my very first Spanish textbook as a freshman in high school was titled, rather fantastically, ¿qué tal?.

I can't describe the ways that I would love to see an English textbook, in any language, titled What's up?. Or perhaps the Joey Tribbiani inflected How you doin'? Obviously inflected with the appropriate inflection, er, accent.

Day 38 - Ich bin ein Berliner?!

Perhaps. At least for a long weekend.

It's almost certain that we are all Berliners in the Mayor Qui...er...JFK sense. This obviously excludes any pinko-hugochavez-obamacare-russkies in the audience. I may need to excuse myself.

Thanks to the amazingly awesome cheaposity of easyJet, Emily and I will be headed to Berlin at the beginning of March to celebrate my 35th - insert sad trombone here - birthday.

In the meantime, I plan on learning all of the cold war facts that I've failed to learn / forgotten.

Here's where you - the loyal reader - come in. I need suggestions. Places to go. Things to see. Food to eat.

Ich glaube an dich, Berliners!

Day 37 - Self Checkout and Pageantry

Today I hit the grocery store early and was terrified to find that the only checkout aisles available were of the self check variety.

I wandered around for a bit, pretending to shop. Eyeing the register area. Back. And forth. How many times have I looked at this pack of Haribo? Had I missed something?

I had not. So to self check I went.

I'm not quite sure why I was fearful of self check - there was an English option! It worked pretty much the same way that it does in America. The shopper scans his / her stuff, keys in bulk produce, hits finish, and pays. The self check area even has its own dedicated "helper boy" to show stupid people - me - how to insert their Dankorts. Thanks helper boy!

On the way home I experienced this sort of pageantry

Upon inspection, the cart didn't seem to be carrying anything other than the red-coated fancy-men. I'm not sure if this is a regular Copenhagen thing or was for some sort of event / fair / state function.

WotD #11 - Det er venstrehåndsarbejde

I apologize to the left-handed friends of watersindenmark, but now is the time to degrade you, Danish style.

The phrase...

...is one synonymous to a job done poorly. That's left-handed work!

Take three or four tries to parallel park? Det er venstrehåndsarbejde!

Measure a T when it calls for a t? Det er venstrehåndsarbejde!

Miss a few spots while shaving? Det er venstrehåndsarbejde!

For me, it's a bit confusing. I'm a right-handed lefty, but I find myself doing left-handed work right-handed. Such is life.

DotW #4 - Hans Christian Hagedorn

Hans Christian Hagedorn, 1888-1971

Hans Christian Hagedorn is best known for founding Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium (Nordisk Insulin laboratory) and later creating the diabetic treatment NPH Insulin. Today NPH remains the most widely sold insulin preparation in the world. 

Hagedorn was born in Copenhagen on the 6th of March in 1888. His father owned a massive steamboat and tooled around with the young Hans, moving freight and also providing education in some sort of floating teaching institute.

By the age of seven, Hans was hooked on science. He even went so far to explore the science of examining dog, um, excrement with his sister. Fun times.

He earned a medical degree and - at one point - assisted the great Niels Bohr's father, Christian.

By 1918, after a series of personal problems followed by stability in western Denmark, Hans had developed - with pharmacist Birger Norman Jensen - a method for measuring glucose levels. It would be from heretofore referred to as the Hagedorn-Norman Jensen method and would be used nearly exclusively for the next forty years.

Hagedorn continued to study blood sugar and in 1936 - with Norman Jensen - patented NPH, a long lasting insulin treatment for diabetic patients.

In 1989, Nordisk merged with Novo Industri and became today's Novo Nordisk.

Hagedorn himself developed diabetes and had this to say about it

The sweetness of life gradually reduces. All that is left is renunciation and the consolation of religion.

He died from the complications of Parkinson's disease in 1971.

As always, I apologize for any errors - let me know and I will change them as need be.

Sources, great ones...

- Diabetolgia's sketch. So much of this was grabbed here. Nice article.
- All of the Wikis, Novo Nordisk, Hagedorn, etc

Additionally, I am not in any way, shape, or space a representative of Novo Nordisk or its subsidiaries. All of these things are my thoughts / stolen history. Thanks.!

Day 34 -- My first attempt at baking

Tonight Collin and I are having our first guest over for dinner.  To celebrate the occasion I decided to attempt to bake chocolate chip cookies.  What could be more simple than that?!

To start with, the ingredients.

 Everything in the Danish grocery stores are in very small containers.  I used almost half the bag of brown sugar on just this batch of cookies.   Baking soda was difficult to find until I looked up what it was called and how it was packaged.   Chocolate chips are nearly impossible to find.  I was all set to just break up some chocolate bars when Collin found this package of chocolate morsels (about the size and shape of dimes).  I'm still not sure what our "butter" actually is, butter or margarine, salted or unsalted, but I just went with it.

I followed a recipe courtesy of this blog from an american in denmark.  This procedure went against all my "training" as a baker.  Measurements were greatly approximated, dough was overly handled, oven temperature was adjusted a few times during baking.


I also purchased a shiny new hand mixer and baking sheet (thanks Jamie Oliver) for this.

The recipe seems pretty good although in my opinion it called for way too much flour.  I should have gone with my gut and cut back but I did not.   But here's the dough....it tastes good, just a little dry.

I baked the first batch as rounded tablespoons as per the instructions, but the cookies didn't spread at all (again, too much flour...and my butter may not have been butter after all).   But after that I made flattened cookies and those were at least flatter, but still cakey.   Overall, the cookies taste good but I wouldn't exactly call them chocolate chip cookies, more like chocolate chip mini-cakes!

Not too bad for my first attempt at baking in Copenhagen!

Day 33 - Who will win?

My money is on Oprah.

Day 32 -- Part Deux. Danish apartments

Today Collin and I began our search for a permanent apartment.  We have our current place until the end of March and then we have to move out.   Apparently apartments go REALLY fast here so we need to start looking now.

So I got to leave work around lunch time and meet Collin and our handler, Susan, to look at three places.   These were all in Frederiksberg where we currently live, and all allow dogs (#1 priority for us).

The first place we went to looked like this from the outside

It was a quaint building on a nice, quiet street just steps from the main drag of Frederiksberg, with the flat on the 2nd floor, 100 sq m (roughly 1000 sq ft).  Sadly it was not so nice inside.  The bathroom was tiny but was going to be renovated so it is hard to judge what it would be like.  The kitchen was not too bad, but the bedrooms and main room were both a little on the small side.  And for the price of the place due to its prime location, we didn't think it was worth it.  No yard and no storage either.  As this was our first place to see it made me a little nervous that we were in for disappointment in our searching.

The second apartment was a huge improvement.  This one was 137 sq m and newly refurbished.   

The bathroom was great...although just a shower...we are learning bathtubs are not too common here.  The place was mainly an open floor plan for the kitchen/living room/dining room with a bedroom on either side of the other rooms.  The apartment takes up the entire floor so those huge windows in the front let in lots of light and overlook a big parking lot with a park on the other side.  The ground floor is a sushi restaurant owned by the same people that own the flats...discounted sushi maybe???  This apartment is just minutes away from the metro which would shave about 7 min off my commute too!

The third apartment was owned by the same people and was just behind this one.  But it was on the top floor with a gigantic balcony and therefore much more expensive...and sadly much smaller (108 sq m) and more poorly laid out than the sushi apartment.  

Both apartments have storage in the basement and a communal park in the backyard, as well as an event room that can be rented out to tenants for larger parties!  oh and both buildings had elevators which was awesome.

Overall we were very happy with the second apartment, but would like to see some more neighborhoods of Copenhagen before making a decision, even if that means this apartment will be gone. 

Day 32 -- Danish bread

Danes love delicious bread.  Even the most convenient of convenience stores seems to sell good bread.  And not only is the fresh bread wonderful, but their frozen stuff, THAT YOU MICROWAVE, is also quite good...at least the ones we have tried.  Today I learned two new things regarding Danes and bread.

First, we enjoyed something called "Ferieboller" at work today which I believe literally translates to "Holiday buns" or holiday rolls.  And no, it has nothing to do with Christmas as I initially thought.  They mean "holiday" in terms of "vacation".  Someone in my lab is going to be gone all next week so she brought in the ferieboller.  I failed in my online search of this term, so maybe it is a novo nordisk thing and not a danish thing, after all.

Second,  in addition to the normal cheeses Danes usually have with bread, and in addition to quite an interesting and tasty-looking array of marmalades,  lemon curds, and jams my department also has on hand for bread breaks, I learned today that Danes like to smear their bread with a little bit of butter (that seemed to vary person to person though) and then top with thin pieces of dark chocolate...not a chocolate spread like nutella but actual wafer thin chocolates.  It's quite a nice combination.

And as long as I am talking about chocolate, this is a picture of a candy bar we found in our local grocery store. The Yankie bar -- original.   Since 1946.  Apparently the Danish company, Toms, was commissioned to make these for American troops in Germany just at the end of WWII.  It's like a Mars bar.

WotD #10 - ingen ko på isen

No problems. No worries. All is well.

Literally? No cows on the ice. 

Personally, I agree. Ice with no cows is probably a good thing, unless they can skate.

Day 30 - Danish Culture Lessons / Christiania

This morning, I had the opportunity to take a "Danish Culture" class presented by Anette Pilmark of spousecare. Spousecare is, again, the group supplied - generously - by Novo to get the spouse, in this case me, adjusted to Denmark.

I made the choice to walk - it was about 2.5 miles each way. About 40 minutes or so.

It was a great class. There was great conversation. I met many other ex-pats, and learned a bunch. Great experience.

After class we walked our way to Christiania.

You can read the Wiki, but to summarize; it's a bit of a squatters paradise / hippie commune right in the middle of the oldest area of Copenhagen.

Did I mention the dogs?

Big, super friendly, dogs. Everywhere. Loose. Running amok. 

The dogs were at highest density in the "green light district", formerly called "pusher street". Use your imagination.

Needless to say, the experience was quite surreal. I would have pictures but there is a sign in the entrance to the green light district that specifically prohibits them. It also prohibits running as "it causes panic". Sounds about right.

Another product of Christiania, the Christiania Bike. They're super expensive, and they are everywhere. Kids enjoying a sweet ride.

WotD #9 - Rødgrød

As it turns out, in the quest to find a Danish word of the day, I learned a new English / Hebrew word. Shibboleth.

A shibboleth is a word, sound, or custom that a person unfamiliar with its significance may not pronounce or perform correctly relative to those who are familiar with it. It is used to identify foreigners or those who do not belong to a particular class or group of people. It also refers to features of language, and particularly to a word or phrase whose pronunciation identifies a speaker as belonging to a particular group.

For our Boston folks, I'm not sure if the grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall counts as a shibboleth. Emily and I were told on a freedom trail walking tour - perhaps spuriously - that a common revolutionary era Boston test to determine one's Boston-ness was to ask "what's on top of Faneuil Hall?". Well, it's this.

Who knows if it's true, but it makes for a good story. One that I've told others as fact.

Anyway, on to the Rødgrød. It's hard to pronounce. That's step one.

I think the day that I pronounce this correctly will be the day I can say "I understand Danish". To be exact, the dish is "Rødgrød med fløde" or with cream. 

Preparations vary, but the common ingredients are a mix of red / black summer berries / black cherries cooked briefly with sugar and then thickened / gelatinized with with a starch, usually potato starch.

It is served hot or cold as a dessert and paired with milk, cream, whipped cream, etc. 

Day 28 -- A Cold Cold World

First off, apologies for not posting a "Day by Day" posting yesterday.  Our day was pretty boring filled with grocery shopping and lounging around the apartment, skyping with my nieces and nephew, and recording the Golden Globes to watch today as they DID air it last night at 2 am.  (It's much better to watch recorded so you can skip all the commercials and the more boring of speeches!)

Anyway, as the thermometer drops to a brisk -3 C today (26 F for you Yanks) I thought I would comment on an interesting cold weather phenomenon that happens here.  It appears that the children of Denmark do not own a typical winter jacket.  Instead, every single child I have seen, from baby up to easily 8 years old, wears a head-to-toe snow suit.  and not just when it is snowing, and not just to play in the snow, but just to be outside in the cold.   It looks something like this. (don't worry, I took this image from the internet and didn't look like a crazy person photographing random children) but I have definitely seen this same sort of thing.

Although this seems to be confined to children, this weekend I did see an adult wearing one as well. 

It has been snowing the past few days, but not enough to even make a snow ball, yet alone roll around in the snow.  I guess these kids just don't like to have cold legs.  I think my family in Maine could teach them a thing or two about toughening up in cold weather! 

Godnat, og indtil i morgen....

DotW #3 - Verner Panton

Verner Panton, 1926-1998

In the pantheon of Danish designers, Verner Panton is perhaps the most influential furniture and interior designer of the 20th century. He is best known for his innovative work with plastics.

Panton studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Art and from 1950-1952 assisted Arne Jacobsen on a variety of projects. One such project was Jacobsen's "Ant" chair. The chair was commissioned by Novo Nordisk, for use in the company canteen, and was designed to be light, stable, and easily stackable. This was the result.

It was Jacobsen's research in new technologies and materials that most stoked Panton's curiosity and future design asthetic.

After leaving Jacobsen, Panton went on to design first the Bachelor and then the Tivoli chair.

It was the Cone chair that truly made Panton "known".

This chair caused a stir internationally and allowed Panton to experiment further with both materials and design.

He is, most likely, best known for this chair, from 1967.

There was a Simpsons episode - which I sadly cannot locate / remember - where Springfield Elementary received new chairs. Chairs specifically designed to make the students "pay attention". It was appropriately uncomfortable. I imagine that the Panton chair is not dissimilar.

During this period he experimented further with what he termed "total" environments. With this concept he wanted to build a modern living space that better suited the time and space and inhabitants.

He also went on to do things like this. For Bayer. On boats.

Edit : these styles / rooms / videos had to be the inspiration for Navin Johnson when he decided to build his mansion. Sophisticated!

Interest waned in Panton's works throughout the 70s and 80s. His work earned more attention in the 90s and he was invited to do an exhibition in Copenhagen in 1998, but died 12 days before its opening.

Thanks to the following excellent sources.

- Design Museum - an excellent biography. Much of the details were grabbed here
- Apartment Therapy - great pictures and more info.
- Wanken - more great pictures of "Visiona"
- And obviously the Wiki

WotD #8 - Hviløg

Garlic.

As in, Collin put way too much hviløg on the hviløg brød.

WotD #7 - Hej Hej!

When you want to say hello you say hej (prounounced as in english, hi!). Easy enough.

Saying goodbye? There's the very formal farvel, but for a more casual goodbye, double up the hej. Hej hej roughly translates to "bye bye" or "buh-bye".

Day 26 - The Six Mile Walk

Today, for fun and exploratory research, Emily and I made the trek to Islands Brygge (sounds something like, ees-lands broy-geh) to check out the lay of the land. It's an interesting development area - many former industrial buildings that have been transformed into high end apartment complexes.

Here's our path.

To properly orient yourself, the green "play button" bubble is our house. The red dot is the Gemini Residence, the dual silos which I mentioned in a previous post. The green dot is the Fisketorvet mall / shopping center. The black dot is the Carlsberg elephant gates.

So we crossed over the havnebade (harbor baths) via the langebro bridge.

The building in the second picture is part of the massive Nykredit complex / compound. It's tough to see from the picture but it's essentially some sort of crazy three-dimensional solid balanced at all sorts of weird angles. Here's a better picture on a better day.

I'd love to see the interior. A severely sloped first floor would be unlikely, but awesome!

Next we made our way along the havnebade. Bath here is more synonymous with beach / beachgoing. For example, there's this.

It did not look like a fun place to swim today, but I imagine it's fun in the summer. Everyone loves the baltic sea.

Next it was on to the fisketorvet mall. To get to the mall we crossed a narrow foot / bike bridge. I don't know if it's a Copenhagen thing, but people have covered the suspension wires with padlocks. Thousands of them.

Upon further research, they are love padlocks.

We entered the mall from the food court. They even had good 'ol Mexican food from Indiana!

We did not eat at Indiana Tex Mex, but it was described as "latin food". There was a buffet which definitely had mac and cheese, spaghetti with tomato sauce, and some sort of fried tater tots and / or chicken fingers. We wandered the mall for a bit. It was nice to get warm. Popped into a game and card store, Bog & Idé.

The Cluedo villains look particularly menacing. There were a series of games that looked interesting called "ego", but I still can't read danish so I have no idea what they are. Perhaps some day.

Then it was to McDonald's. Yes. We are exactly like that.

I assure the reader, there is nothing wrong with me / my face. This is what it actually looks like. 

Finally, it was time to head back home, we stopped by the Carlsberg complex / gates.

I am glad that they clarified the swastika. It's not that kind of swastika! Carl didn't know!

I also liked seeing Carl and Ottilia looking down at us.

As suggested by the title of the post, the total walk was something like six miles. I walked all the way to Islands Brygge and boy are my legs tired!