I wonder...

I wonder why anyone would toss an entire box of old bread in the park.


I wonder what the signs in Arabic in the immigrants' shops around here mean.



I wonder why my punctureproof tyres do not prevent me from actually having punctures.



I wonder why it has to rain so much in Denmark.


I wonder how every sunset can be a masterpiece of its own.

A place where you MUST smoke?

Last year in August, Denmark finally got a "clean indoor air act" prohibiting smoking in public places like workplaces, restaurants, bars etc. However, this wouldn't be Denmark if the law did not have at least a few loop-holes. For example, you are still allowed to smoke at your place of work provided that you have your own office, and remember to close the door while smoking (it's true!!). It is also allowed to smoke in smaller pubs, bars etc., provided that it is smaller than 40 square metres. That's why you sometimes see signs like the one on the (otherwise not very good) picture above: "Her må ryges", means "Here smoking is allowed".

I wonder what a Norwegian would think if he saw the sign. While Danish and Norwegian are very similar languages, there are a few things you should be aware of. The word "må" is one of them. In Danish it's main meaning is something that is allowed: "Må jeg spise nu?", means "Can I eat now?", while the same sentence in Norwegian would mean "Must I eat now?". So I guess most Norwegians would think that the sign means "You must smoke here".

And sure, Danes are pretty bad when it comes to smoking and drinking, and miscellaneous other vices (at least compared to our goodie two shoes-neigbors), but even here it is very unlikely to find a place where you must smoke. At least I would like to think so.

Childhood Memories Food

When I was a child Fridays often meant that we would have Yellow Peas Soup and Pancakes for dinner, eaten simultaneously. It may sound odd, but it's actually nice. I love the mix between the salty soup and the sweet pancakes. They also serve it in Sweden, but on Thursdays, and not simultaneously (soup first and then cream filled pancakes for dessert).

Yesterday
Although it's not a Friday I thought I'd prepare it for high tea today. So yesterday I went to the store, looked all around for the traditional yellow peas, but could not find them (found chickpeas though). I didn't give up, and after a while I found a package with yellow peas, allegedly pre-cooked, so they needed only five minutes. Happy, I returned home, thinking I didn't need to pre-soak them.


Looks perfect, doesn't? The package says: «The millers yellow peas. Boiling time 5 min. Peas for ten portions».

Today
So close to heaven, but a long way to go. After cutting all the vegetables, making the broth (alas only bouillon from the store), I opened the package of yellow peas. But, hey -.. what's this? No peas, just small yellow pellets. Shocked, not understanding what was wrong, I almost started believing that in Denmark, this is what they call peas.
Nevertheless, I added the pellets, and hoped for the best.


Weird pellets, looks like it's meant for a gold fish.

The Result
As a sceptic, you might understand why I felt cheated on, but the result looked quite nice. The soup turned yellow. Puh... at least they've added colour to this strange type of strange peas ... :-)


Not too bad, I think? I'm used to more texture, from the peas.

First thing Jan said was that he hadn't had Yellow Peas in ages. During dinner Jan told me that only people living in the countryside still eats old fashioned peas. In Copenhagen they make soup from these pellets. How convenient ... I'm a peasant ...

An afterthought: It may be that people in Copenhagen are like a friend of mine. He can't stand the peel texture of beans, lentils and peas. Clever they are, no more peeling, just use pellets. It's a perfect gift for my friend. :-)

Show me your books

When you merge two households, you suddenly realize that there are a lot of things in your home that you don't know about. Not to say that it is an entirely new experience for me - cleaning out my room in the basement when I moved last year definitely was an eye-opener in that respect. In our case we merged two collections of books (of very different size) - so now we have decided to share knowledge about our books to get better acquainted with the content of the shelves in our living room. On a regular basis we plan to take out a book and say a few words about it. What's it about? Where did I get it? Did I ever read it?... So far we have shared introductions to one book about theology and one about history. We might begin to see a pattern already :-)

Pictures from Greece 2008

We have now created an album with some of the pictures from our vacation. We've also put the pictures on the Google map (check out the amazing satellite picture function!). Enjoy (we did)!

Greece 2008

Great Days in Greece - Vacation 2008

In 2008 we decided to go to Greece for our holidays. More accurately to Northern Greece, mainly to the province of Macedonia. John-Arne has been to Greece once before, on an excursion during his New Testament postgraduate studies, but Jan had never been there before. We booked our tickets some months ago, and made an initial draft of the itinerary of the journey. And a car was rented a couple of weeks before the trip, which was to last a fitting period of 12 days in total (including travel).


The Old Citadel of Kavala and Jan dipping his feet at Lydia's baptismal place.

Day 1: Wednesday
We flew to Thessaloniki (Salonica) and headed by car for the bustling city of Kavala in the eastern part of the province of Macedonia. Kavala (ancient Neápolis) was where St. Paul landed for the first time in what we today reckon as Europe (Acts 16.11). The first evening we settled in at a camping site, just west of the city, and took a drive through the centre. Our camping site had a great beach, and one of us did not avoid the warm waters of the Aeagean Sea the following days. And we sipped our first glasses of Retsina at the beach restaurant.

Day 2: Thursday
This day we used mainly to explore the ancient city of Philippi (situated just north of Kavala on the Roman road Via Egnatia) Here St. Paul founded the first church in the ancient Roman province of Macedonia (Acts 16.12-40). In the evening we went for a walk in Kavala.

Day 3: Friday
Friday was spent in Kavala (exploring the ancient castle and the old citadel) and then we went by ferry to the island of Thassos. Thassos is an island with great natural beauty and the northernmost of all Greek islands. We drove around the island, stopping for lunch in a small mountain village and a swim in a natural pool on the coast. In the evening we went for a walk in a little town called Panagia, a town with waterfountains and a great view of the bay below.


A natural pool on the east coast of Thassos and the memorial of St. Paul in Vieri.

Day 4: Saturday
The day started with a walk in Limenas (where ancient Thassos city was, it's today found scattered in between the buildings in Limenas). We then took a ferry back to the mainland, and drove for quite a distance. We drove all the way to the western part of Macedonia, stopping in Amphipolis to look at the famous lion (Acts 17.1). We also stopped to see the royal tombs in Vergina, the city of Vieri (biblical Beroia, Acts 17.10-15), before ending up in the city Edessa.

Day 5: Sunday
Edessa is a pretty city with a lot of waterfalls. After a short walk to look at the highlights we drove northwest, to the border between Greece, Albania and F.Y.R.O.M - to the Prespa Lakes. There we had the fattest lunch ever! In the afternoon we drove to Kastoria, the city on the lake. In the evening we went for a walk along the waterfront with all the chique coffee-houses.

Day 6: Monday
Before driving south to Meteora, we went for a walk to look at all the ancient churches of Kastoria (of an astounding original 72, there is still 54 that still stands) and old Turkish houses. Meteora was our destination for the day and already the first evening we saw the largest monastery (the Great Meteoron) on top of one of the strange looking mountains. Imagining seeking the austere and ascetic lifestyle on top of one of those mountains. At least there would be a great view of the valley below.


Lakeview of Kastoria and a monastery in Meteora.

Day 7: Tuesday
We saw a small monastery in the morning (St. Nicholas Anapausas) and still being impressed drove after lunch to the peninsula of Mt. Pelion. Mt. Pelion is situated on the eastern coast of mainland Greece, not far from the city of Volos. There Jan had wished for some time for relaxation by the sea ...

Day 8: Wednesday
We spent some time at the beach, and John-Arne got to read a bit. In the early afternoon we drove to a small mountain village called Makrinitsa (allegedly the most beautiful village in all of Greece), with a magnificent view. Later we drove to Volos, to go to an internet café and make sure that Jan got some proper coffee at Starbucks (guess who was happy after that ...).

Day 9: Thursday
The morning was the coldest morning so far, so we skipped the beach and packed our tent once again. This time moving to Chalkidiki, to stay for one night at a camping site outside of the city of Nea Moudania. On the way we stopped first at the foot of Mt. Olympos and at the ancient holy city of the Macedonians, Dion. In the evening we went for a walk and a meal in Nea Moudania, a quite bland city.

Day 10: Friday
We drove early to Thessaloniki and handed in the car at the rental shop. After installing ourselves at a cheap hotel in town we went for a walk to get a feel of the city. We saw a couple of things like the famous White tower of Thessaloniki, the Arch and the Rotunda of Galerius (with astounding mosaics).


Jan on the waterside in Thessalonika (with the white tower in the background) and the roof in Hagia Sophia.

Day 11: Saturday
The program on our last day in Greece was not too busy and we started off by walking through the upper city (Kastra), then seeing the church Agios Demetrios (dedicated to the city's patron, St. Dimitrius), the Roman forum (once again cathing up with St. Paul, Acts 17.1-9) and the church called Agia Sophia. We also walked through the city's basar, seeing that Northern Greece has a lot in common with the Arabic world.

Day 12: Sunday
We got up way too early, and had an almost four hour layover in Munich (and lunch being the regular German curry würst with pommes frites) before landing in Copenhagen.

The last week of the holidays is to be spent at home. Enjoying that the heat has followed us back home. Next year we hope to go to the States again.

July in Jutland

Jan's parents lives Holstebro, Denmarks 18th largest city. The city is not far from the western coast of Jutland and is renowned for it's art and culture.

We've been her for the first three days of our holidays, and been around a lot. Saturday we went out to the coast, to a little town called Lemvig. They have a Museum for Religious Art and this summer there is an exhibition with a Norwegian painter.


(Museum for Religious Art, Haunstrup brown coal mine, Jan blowin' in the wind)

Sunday we started the day with a service in the local church, but after that we went to a forest not far from the city Herning, just souteast of Holstebro, near a small village called Haunstrup. The area was formerly a place where they made brown coal (opens a pdf in Danish). After the trip to the forrest we drove to a place that is over 100 m above sea level, to look out on the flat Danish countryside.

Monday we drove a bit north to see an old castle, Spøttrup Castle. It is the best preserved Danish castle from the Middel Ages. It has a moat surrounding the castle, and there is also a thick wall protecting it from cannons. We had coffee in the castle gardens and also had a look at the herbal garden. After the sighseeing at the castle we drove south again to an area called Stubbergård Sø, a bog. We walked a short route ("mosestien") and got some fresh air.


(Inside Spøttrup Castle, a lake near Stubbergård sø)

All in all it's been a great weekend with Jan's "mor og far" in West Jutland. We've had a lot to eat and been well entertained.