hygge afternoons

on friday afternoon i set out to more thoroughly explore norrebro, a neighborhood just north of the old city. two friends and i took a few trains to get to the station at the northern end of norrebro, which was somewhat of an adventure in itself, and then took the main drag through town. we stumbled upon a big cemetery. the word for cemetery is danish is “kirkegaard,” which is a bit confusing because one of the famous danes, the 19th century philosopher soren kierkegaard, clearly displays the same name. kierkegaard (as well as niels bohr and h. c. andersen) is buried in that kirkegaard. it was probably the friendliest looking cemetery i’ve ever been in— there were many people running, walking, visiting, and exploring it. afterwards we warmed up at the laundromat café, which i expected to be much more simple and run-down. i had read about it before coming to denmark and thought the idea of a laundromat and a café was an interesting idea. this place was very upscale and mostly patronized by hipsters. they had a huge bookshelf with all the books arranged by color. the three of us entered and didn’t know what the seating protocol was, so we just stood in the doorway awkwardly for about a minute, until one of the people working there approached us and asked us in english (i guess she just assumed we were american because of our awkwardness?) what we wanted. i had a delicious chai latte— for 35 kroner!!!! that is almost $7! i’m still not sure if i’m willing to pay that much for a late afternoon caffeine fix, but that is what the danes demand.

this morning i had an authentic scandinavian experience—going to ikea! apparently there are only a few ikea stores in denmark, which surprises me considering how close we are to its birthplace of sweden. in any case, the place was packed. completely full parking lot— it looked like december 23. there were danes from every walk of life, but i would estimate that 90% of them were middle-class (actually, thanks to denmark’s thorough welfare system, most people qualify as “middle class”), suburban families with young children. there were probably hundreds of small, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, fair-skinned, onesie-snowsuit-wearing danish kids there, most of whom seemed to be yelling “mor” (pronounced mo-ah)— mom. the three-story complex included a vast cafeteria, where i ate delicious indian-style chickpeas served by a man that looked exactly like the 90s pop musician sisquo. i went with my host mom and the kids (ages 6 and 18 months…and -6 months) as well as my host mom’s sister and the sister’s son (age 3). needless to say there was plenty of drama on that front— having to tell them to not touch the furniture, that they couldn’t have that chair, and to stop throwing pasta at lunch. there were a few tears shed but all in all it was manageable with the three little ones. i wanted to make a few purchases because ikea always fools me into thinking i need cheap, well-designed, and generally unnecessary household items or “brugskunst” (everyday art)— but i restrained myself because i’m pretty sure it was all the same merchandise that i could get at the white marsh, maryland store.

this afternoon i thoroughly enjoyed sharing a very hygge (cozy) snack with two friends-of-a-friend who are actually danish. marie, the hostess, had us over at her cute apartment just outside the city and prepared a delightful spread of danish “dream cake,” coffee, tea, rolls, and m&ms. i had been sort of craving a tea party just the other day and was so happy to see that in reality. we had a good chat (the danish word for “chat” is “snakker,” which i find funny) about the financial crisis, school, finding jobs, immigration, the us (they visited us in baltimore last summer), design, etc. they are so sweet and i hope to meet up with them again, although they are both busy individuals with their own work and school lives.