Dublin Day 1

This is going to be a very short post to detail some of my first impressions of Dublin.

My flight here was with Norwegian Air, one of those low-cost airlines that charge for checked baggage and food etc. It was fine, though the bi-lingual announcements became a little irritating, mostly because the Norwegian announcements had twice as many words as the English ones...

Dublin seems much more alive than Copenhagen: more people about, more cars, more music (four different buskers within 500m). The architecture is fairly typical terrace-housing style. Lots of brick but there are a lot more newer, modern buildings around. One truly weird thing though is this really tall spire in the centre of town. It looks like a flag pole and is ridiculously high. I will snap a photo tomorrow.

Other strange sights include newspaper sellers walking amongst cars, waiting at intersections for the lights to change, purveying their wares; and watching an afternoon TV show where the hot topic of conversation was the perils of cobblestones as footpaths.

The other main issue here in Ireland is the banking bailout. According to the news, the cost of bailing out the Irish banks may be north of 80 billion Euros... It appears that Ireland's economic woes continue.

Anyhow, that's all for today!

Home Away From Home

This is a very short post about a really cool cafe that I was shown by some friends over here.

Cafe Retro is a not-for-profit cafe that is run by volunteers. Any profits they make go to helping disadvantaged people in Africa.

It has really cool vintage furniture and nothing really matches. The sign outside advertises one of its offerings as 'hygge' which (according to a Danish source) is pronounced something like 'hyoog' and is, according to the web, a fundamental concept in Danish society. The word has no direct English equivalent but is indicates something similar to cosiness/closeness.

They serve delicious beer, which I think is organic, and coffee, They also have tea that is donated to them by a Danish company called A.C. Perch which has been around for some 300 years and is the purveyor of fine teas to the Danish Royal Family. I have tried their Earl Grey and it has a really nice, subtle, well-balanced flavour.

I say it is my home away from home because it has free internet and it is the only place I can get any study done. I have found that if my surrounds are too quiet, I can't focus and my mind floats away on a daydream. Cafe Retro has nice surroundings and is just noisy enough to keep me on task. Today, I spent five hours there and managed to get through five Space Law readings, bringing me right up to date!

ChinChin Jones and the Temple of the Dead!

I now present the, possibly long-awaited, post that I promised last time!!!

Recently I went to Roskilde, a small town about 30 minutes away from Copenhagen that is apparently famous for three things, four if you count the fact that it used to be the capital of Denmark. The first is an annual summer music festival that, if my sources are to be believed, is on a par with Glastonbury. The second is a Viking Ship Museum and the third is a rather impressive Church. The Roskilde Festival is not held till late June, but I did check out the other two things.

Place of Interest #1: The Viking Ship Musuem (I warn you, there is a history lesson embedded here)

I read about this in a pamphlet that I had foisted upon me at an orientation meeting, and thought I might go have a look-see. The building itself did not look like a museum at all, and had it not been for the flags outside and a nearby street sign pointing to it, I may have been tempted to ignore it. To me, it looked like the sort of building that might house a public swimming pool. Yes, that dull.

Smaller Trading Vessel Circa 1040AD

Confusion aside, the museum was quite interesting if somewhat lacking in ambience. Quite a number of years ago some historians received information that in the Roskilde Fjord that the town overlooks there were possibly some Viking ship remains dating back to around 1040AD. The theory went that they were scuttled to prevent the Norwegians from traversing one of only three passages through the fjord. The reason there were only three was because there was an elaborate barricade system across the fjord (and the reason for that is because all the Nordic cultures were at war with each other at some point in time). The barricade system no longer exists though. At any rate, historians went looking and found the remains of a staggering five ships which were raised from the bed, preserved and put on show.

A small trading vessel also

One of the ships was the classic longboat and the rest were shorter, broader trading vessels. I learnt a lot about the Vikings and how far they travelled. Apparently they got to America before the Southern Europeans ever did but a) had difficulties with the natives and b) found nothing there that they couldn't get back home so a permanent settlement was never created (how different might the world be if they had stayed?) Also, most of the main towns on Ireland's east coast, including Dublin, started out as Viking settlements (hence the preponderance of blonde hair and blue eyes in the Dromgool family).

From what I gathered, the museum is much more interesting in Summer because they have made modern reconstructions of a number of Viking boats based on the info they gleaned from the scuttled ships, and you can go sailing on them.

I have added some photos for your enjoyment.

Place of Interest #2: Domkirke (aka the Temple of the Dead (my title incidentally))

The other big attraction in Roskilde (and I am not kidding, it's huge!) is Domkirke. It is the main Cathedral in Denmark and also the place where every King and most of the Queens of Denmark have been interred. This Church dominates the Roskilde skyline and is built nearly entirely of red brick. There were apparently two Churches there before it dating back to the 1200s but this is the most recent and is about 300-400 years old.

I can't really tell you much else in words so the rest of this post will be a photo essay of snaps from inside the Church.

Church Front

Cool Silhouette effect

Tomb of Margrethe I, the most venerated Queen.

His and Hers Granite and Marble Tombs

Marble Tombs

Church Interior

My final note regards three big urns that I found on the way back to the train station. A local saw me taking a photo so decided to give me a brief history. Apparently they cost NZ$250,000 each, had to have special ovens built to fire them and are made of liver-paste. I can't help but feel that that last point may have suffered a translation error. Or it could be true. In which case, those urns are both innovative in terms of material, and slightly disturbing for the same reason.

Farvel!

The Adventures of ChinChin

This morning as I lay in bed musing on the ways of the world, I had a rather delightful thought: my last two posts almost have an Indiana Jones-esque feel to them. They chronicle my adventures to far-flung locales and surprisingly do kind of relate to the titles of the Indiana Jones movies. 

To this end I now present the Adventures of ChinChin Jones:

ChinChin Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Art (a.k.a my trip to Louisiana Art Museum)

ChinChin Jones and the Holy Jar of Vegemite (a.k.a my trip to Malmo)

And coming soon to a Blog Post near you:

ChinChin Jones and the Temple of the Dead (cue: ominous organ music)

However, to tide you over till then I shall recount the tales of ChinChin and his faithful sidekick, Sanyo the wonder camera, and their escapades around Copenhagen over the last couple of weeks.

Escapade #1 - ChinChin goes to Statens Museum for Kunst.

Two weeks or so ago, ChinChin went to the Statens Museum here in central Copenhagen. He had heard about it from some friends of his and so thought it was worth a look. For the record, the Danish word Kunst means Art. The museum has a pretty vast collection starting from about 1300AD up to the present day. The Museum also has temporary exhibitions and on this particular day there was a Picasso exhibition and an exhibition of Bob Dylan paintings.

The bottom word is the Danish translation. Those strange Danes.

The general collections were certainly interesting, and a couple of the gallery rooms had walls covered in art. A lot of the older stuff started to look the same after a while though so ChinChin got a little bit bored and walked a little bit faster. There was also a whole wing dedicated to religious iconography like all the weird reliefs that have a really heavy focus on gold that you find in some Churches. ChinChin recalled that his parents have some pictures that are modern knock-offs in the same style as what he saw.

There was also a section dedicated to modern art some of which was, well, bizarre. Literally one of the displays was some piles of salt crystals on the floor with panes of glass joining them up. In the same vein, they have a room called the X-room which is for installations of modern artwork. ChinChin and the friend he went with were utterly bewildered by the random hodge-podge of, well, crap that littered the floor in the near pitch black room. ChinChin wonders whether the artist was making some grand interpretive statement about our evil ways of consumption. Or just plain high.

As for the special exhibits, well Picasso was a let down again just like in Raiders of the Lost Art (Louisiana). The focus was on two or three motifs that Picasso explored quite often and most of the pictures were just line drawings. ChinChin fails to see why people want to pay millions for that sort of artwork, other than being able to name-drop to the Joneses from number 42. To be fair, some of it was OK, like the series of 26 pictures that Picasso drew of a bullfight. The whole series took only 3 hours and was rather skillfully drawn.

However, the highlight for our favourite hero was the Bob Dylan exhibit. ChinChin states that all who have the opportunity to see it: MUST!!! It was really good. The exhibit was a series of paintings that Dylan did after a trip to Brazil in 2009. While he was there he did a series of pencil drawings that he then made a painted version of. Dylan's skill with the brush is exceptional. The focus was very much on the everyday world and not the sterile version that tourists see. That said, not one painting contained a trace of social commentary. They merely captured a scene. Absolutely amazing. 

ChinChin feels that he may like to go see it again.

Escapade #2 - ChinChin raids the Arken

ChinChin found out last weekend that the S-train is free to use on the first Sunday of every month. He was well-excited and decided to go down the coast to one of Copenhagen's outer suburbs called Ishøj (pronounced Iss-hoy) to a museum that featured in his guidebook called Arken Museum of Modern Art.

The Museum was just 200 metres from a beautiful sandy beach that had a power station at one end. It has a focus on modern art from the last 20 years or so, and while only a few pieces from the Museum's collection were on show, there were some really cool installations dotted around. They also had a couple of temporary exhibits. One of these was a tunnel that had been filled with a really dense fog and had different coloured lights at various points along it. It was also quite long, about 50 metres or so. Needless to say, ChinChin found it a truly freaky, haunting experience. 

Another highlight was a series of paintings called Welcome to the Jungle. They were exceptionally detailed and well done with an almost surreal mood in some. The other big exhibition was works by a Danish artist called Anna Ancher. The pictures were done in the late 1800s, which ChinChin found somewhat strange as this can hardly be considered post-1990s modern art. The pictures were primarily in pastel. She is apparently the only Danish woman to ever have a statue built to commemorate her (other than a Queen). Her pictures were certainly well-done but, again, not modern art so a slightly weird encounter. Perhaps there was an underlying commentary that good art is timeless.

There wasn't much else to see so ChinChin instructed Sanyo to take the obligatory picture of the building that was designed in the 80s and looks like a moored ship. ChinChin did find the really strange red writing on the wall quite the let-down to the overall effect of the building on its landscape. Equally bizarre was the stream of tourists that were standing against the white wall and having their photo taken from afar. Oh so very original.

Because the S-train was free ChinChin decided to keep going to the end of the line to a place called Køge. He came, he saw a port on one side and a charming village on the other, he felt rather underwhelmed, he left.

Escapade #3 - ChinChin learns the best Danish word ever: Gratis

Yesterday ChinChin went to the Glyptoteket, a sculpture museum here in Copenhagen. He had heard that it was gratis admission on Sundays. Gratis means free. Free is good.

The building was originally built in the late 1800s by the founder of Carlsberg Breweries and is filled with sculptures that he purchased every year. The Brewery has a Foundation that has purchased most of the art in many Danish museum collections.

Rodin's The Thinker

Highlights for ChinChin were the French sculptures by Rodin and others, the beautiful rooms that they were housed in, the special exhibition of mediterranean art from around 6000BC to the fall of the Romans that featured much pottery, and the happy joy in being able to take photos of anything you wanted as long as you didn't use flash on the paintings. Sanyo the trusty camera got an exceptional workout.

One particularly delightful sculpture was one of Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Thor looked bored, and a little glum. ChinChin mused that the source of Thor's boredom was likely the fact that the Danes converted to Christianity around 1000AD. Consequently the new entrants to Valhalla dropped off and the lack of new conversation topics after 1000 years would make even the most resilient Pagan god a little depressed.

While exploring the Mediterranean art, ChinChin unearthed a pure gold nugget of knowledge. We all know that purple dye is associated with royalty because it was so expensive to buy. ChinChin found out why: the Phoenicians (traders) produced the dye by harvesting special sea snails that produced it naturally along the eastern Mediterranean coast . It is estimated that it took around 8,000-10,000 snails to make ONE GRAM of purple dye. The Phoenicians were most active around 500BC.

A rather amusing observation that was noted was the lovely line of Danes patiently waiting for a table at the on-site cafe. The wait time was fairly considerable yet there they were. ChinChin was surprised they didn't have a special machine where they took a number and then waited their turn as is so common in every chemist shop and train ticket dispensary.

ChinChin's final activity was to gaze in glorious rapture at a Van Gogh painting, a thing of such whimsical beauty as to rend the very fabric of one's soul asunder. OK, admittedly that was a little gushy. To put it more simply: it was cool.

All in all, ChinChin and his faithful Sanyo mulled upon, and mused about, over 8000 years of human artistic endeavour just by exploring three different museums. So inspired by the magnificent displays of art was he, that he Drew a Picture. Yes it was a simple still life, yet it represents the first proper picture drawn in over seven years. In the words of our delightful Southern Californian friends: ChinChin was hella-happy.

Ciao!

Please note: I am still in possession of my sanity. Admittedly it is dangling from my windowsill begging for mercy... but its still within reach. The idea of today's post was to mix things up a little, inject some silly humour and make a parody of tourists and tourism. Hope you enjoyed!

A Trip to Malmo

Two weeks ago I decided to go to Malmo, Sweden for the day. Malmo is only a 30 minute train ride away from Copenagen across the Øresund and you get there via an 8km long bridge that was only built in the last 10 years. The train ticket was really cheap, only NZ$20, which is less than it costs to go to the outskirts of Copenhagen! What is even better is that there are trains leaving every 10-20 minutes from Copenhagen Central Station.

As we entered Sweden, I couldn't help but notice their really amazing train stations. I think they have only been built quite recently because they looked really new. In one station there were LED strip lights in between the wall panels that changed colour and chased each other.

In contrast, Malmo Central Station had all these projections down either side of the train station showing what I am guessing to be images of Sweden.

Things like grassy fields, picturesque lakes and charming seaside cottages were in abundance. It was almost enough to fool you into thinking there is no such thing as winter there.

Malmo itself was really quite nice, when I wasn't standing in the viciously cold wind that made my face numb in mere minutes. Unlike Copenhagen it seemed much more modern and the contrast between old and new was more prominent. That said you could easily find examples of the traditional building style down some of the small side alleys.

It was down such an alley that I stumbled on quite a nice find. It was called the Design+Form Centre and they had some absolutely incredible furniture design, including a coffee table that was jointed in such a way that you could make the table top look like a three dimensional flower head if you folded the panels in the right configuration. Another design featured a number of sheets of what looked like plywood/laminate clamped together to make a dining table but at one end the sheets were left to curl up naturally like old sheets of paper. There were also all these interesting prototype designs like an electric racing motorbike, a bike helmet that had a built in airbag to protect your face if you went over the handlebars, and eyewear that was made of an interesting plastic or acetate that was incredibly thin and delicate looking. The Centre itself was part of a complex of buildings that appeared to have been stables once upon a time.

One of the strangest sights I saw in the city centre was a water fountain that was frozen over, yet still working. Upon closer examination, I realised that there was actually a statue underneath....

I found that Malmo had slightly better shopping than Copenhagen but a ridiculous abundance of shoe stores. In one street alone there were three side-by-side, not including the other half dozen or so within a 5 minute walk in either direction.

One big find of the day was a book store that was dedicated to selling only Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, as well as Japanese Manga. I was in 7th Heaven there and 90% of the books were in English! It shouldn't come as a surprise to know that I bought a book, and I would have bought more but I had more city to see. I may yet return...

Canal front buildings

Another cool find was a CD shop that was two storeys high and had the biggest selection ever. Half the bands I had never heard of. They also had a surprising number of vinyls for sale as well, and they were all well-known bands like The Who and Iggy Pop.

My other big find of the day was when I was walking back to the train station, I found a shop selling British foods. It was here that I finally found Marmite and Vegemite. It seems that while Denmark has banned the sale of these products, Sweden has not. On the downside, it cost me NZ$10 for a 150g jar of Vegemite but believe me when I tell you that it was worth every penny. Every single, well-earned and precious penny.

Also on the way back to the train station I happened upon a rather charming procession of sculptures that are called the Optimistic Orchestra. The procession appears to pay homage to Malmo's industrial and boat-building heritage with its strong lines and blocky design elements.

I shall conclude this post of my visit to Malmo with an image of the underground portion of Malmo Central Station. It represents form, function and minimalism, the three main things for which Swedish design is most famous, and I personally rather loved it :-)

Louisiana

On Saturday I decided to go to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art which is about 30-40 minutes out of Copenhagen in a small seaside village called Humlebæk. I had seen all around town posters advertising an exhibition of works by Picasso called Picasso: Fred & Frihed (Peace and Freedom). I figured it's not everyday you get to see works by Picasso. The museum was also listed in my Wallpaper guide book as a cool place to visit.

The Picasso exhibition itself was rather dull. It certainly showcased some of the artistic style he was famous for, but the focus was on his political artworks so the range was limited. One thing I did learn was that the now widespread image of the Dove of Peace was originally drawn by him in the 40s and 50s.

The other main drawcard they had were some pieces by an artist called Walton Ford. He does watercolour paintings of birds and animals, but I assure you these are no whimsical, washed out yawnfests. They were bright, vibrant and incredibly detailed. They were also life-sized based on the subject of the painting. For example, one was of a Rhino that was painted to scale (read: BIG). Apparently, each painting takes five years to complete. While I couldn't take photos due to ever-vigilant security people, thanks to Google Image Search I can show you some examples here!

The museum also has its own collection of over 3500 pieces of modern art from the last 100 years or so. I saw the Chairman Mao print as designed by Andy Warhol (so cool!) as well as the famous Roy Lichtenstein image of the blonde-haired woman, among many others.

The one piece that really caught my attention was the most amazing painting of the Grand Canyon I  have ever seen. It took up nearly a whole wall and was made up of a series of about 60 smaller canvasses. Again, thanks to Google, I can show it to you here. It really showcases the epic scale of the Canyon and is painted in such vibrant, lively colours of orange and red. It is absolutely mind-boggling in terms of the sheer size of the thing and the skill that went into it.

As well as the above, there is also a really cool sculpture garden that overlooks the sea. I snapped the image below of what appears to be E.T. with reproductive abilities.

And this rather cool sculpture as well. Both of these are made of Bronze. I took photos of some other sculptures but I thought these two were the pick of the bunch.

The view from the sculpture garden was absolutely amazing, you could see right up the coast to the nearby town of Helsingør as well as across the Øresund to southern Sweden. Being winter the sea was a sheet of ice out to about 1-2kms off shore.

I finished off my day here with a quick explore around the village itself. I found some really quaint cottages overlooking the sea in what can only be described as prime real estate. I can imagine that in summer when the days are long and warm that living here would be like a little slice of paradise.

On that picturesque note, I bring this post to a close.

Architectour

In Copenhagen there is a very cool mix of really old and well-preserved buildings and newer ultra-modern designs.

In the last post there were some photos that mainly showed the older style of architecture in Copenhagen but there are some uber-cool modern buildings dotted around the city.

One example is the Black Diamond building that was only built in the last 10 years. It houses the Royal Library and a Museum and overlooks the main canal towards Islands Brygge. Apparently it was met with mixed reviews from the Danes but it has certainly become something of a feature along the canal. This shot shows it in profile.

When going for a wander (read: getting hopelessly lost) around the central city I came across this building that is under construction. It is unique in its very modern design and interesting mix of angles and glass while at the same time pushing the boundaries as far as height. As mentioned in the last post, the Danes feel a sense of antipathy towards anything approaching a skyscraper.

I also found the Saxo Bank building about 15 minutes from the CBD in a suburb called Hellerup, which is just north of, and no doubt influenced by, the affluent suburb of Østerbro. The building is, again, a really cool mix of angles and coloured glass and really stands out from the crowd when viewed from the end of a nearby beach. I love the other really cool stripey buildings that surround it, though the rather boring brown building (a school) in the foreground is a little bit depressing.

At the other end of the scale you have such buildings as Rosenborg Castle, built in the 1400s and originally intended as the Royal Summer House (and now houses the Crown Jewels) and the sculpture museum called the Glyptotek, which seems to be very much in the style of renaissance-era buildings that you might find in parts of Italy. I have been told that it is a really good museum and the best bit is that it is free to everyone on Sundays! 

Rosenborg Castle

Glyptotek

Holla from Copenhagen!

Welcome to my first blog post ever! I have no idea how this works but we will see how we go. The blog title is a reference to a scene from an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Anyone who is up to date with the show will hopefully get the joke. This first post will be really long but I will try to keep it succinct. It will be a really general intro to Copenhagen.

After 30 hours travelling time I finally arrived at my destination here in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was -6C when I arrived so quite a rude awakening. My first impressions of the city are that it is very clean, and with very few tall buildings. It turns out the Danes have a dislike for anything approaching a skyscraper. The architecture is very traditional. I later learned that the whole city was rebuilt in the late 1800s after Nelson bombarded it so the building styles reflect that era. There are also lots of churches around but I don’t think many of them are regularly used.

Food

Food here is quite expensive, a Big Mac combo will set you back over NZ$15 and that is just for a regular sized one. Other fast food outlets are equally expensive; I found a Domino’s Pizza the other day and they were charging $30 for a large pizza, which is three times what I have paid in NZ. Supermarkets prices vary from chain to chain but are either the same or more expensive than in NZ. Some budget chains are a little bit cheaper. Meat is particularly expensive, often going for around $20 a kg for basic stuff and over $40 for more premium cuts. That said you can score some sweet deals if you shop around.  I found some quite healthy frozen pizzas for $2.50 each the other day.

There are so many supermarket chains here. I have counted 11 so far and I am not sure that’s all of them. They range from really basic and poorly merchandised (Netto, Aldi as examples) through to more premium chains that have a focus on organic food (Irma, Super Brugsen). The ones I have found so far are: Netto, Aldi, Rema 1000, Lidl, Bilka, Super Brugsen, Irma, Fotex, Kvickly, Fakta, and Super Best. I prefer the last one most of all.

In addition there are lots of little Turkish food stores and so on scattered around the city with more specialized goods.

Most fruits and veges are pre-packed in the main supermarkets so if you just want a couple of individual bits you have to go to the little food stores around the place.

Beer

Beer is so ridiculously cheap here. It ranges from 50c a bottle for the cheap stuff to $2 for the middle of the range ones put out by Carlsberg Breweries. You can get it cheaper if you buy it on special. When you buy it, you get charged a small fee of 25c a bottle/can that you get back when you bring the empties back to the supermarket for recycling. You can use the refund towards your next purchase of beer/food or ask for cash back. They have special machines where you put the bottle/can into it, the machine scans the item and works out how much to give you back then you push a button when you are done and take the receipt to the checkout.

Transport

The public transport network is awesome. You can take the train, bus or subway and they run very regularly. You can expect to wait 2-5 minutes during rush hour, up to about 20 minutes at night. What is even better is that there is a common ticket system between the three networks so you can just buy one ticket and use it on any of the networks. Trains also service most of the main towns and cities in Denmark so you can get around the country very easily. The one interesting thing about the subway is that it is fully automated, no driver at all.

The network is divided into zones with zone 1 being the City Centre and zone 8 being the very outskirts of town. You have to buy a ticket that will take you the right number of zones to get to your final destination. The cost increases the more zones you buy (from $5 to $25). Conductors run ticket spot checks on the train and subway, and will fine you $180 of you don’t have one at all or if your ticket is not the right number of zones. I see them dishing out fines all the time.

The other way to get around town that is super popular is by bike. They are everywhere, filling bike racks, in front of shops, on the roads. Bikes have priority over all other traffic and there are special bike lanes on nearly every road. They also have their own system of rules for signaling and so on.  There are bike shops everywhere and new ones are really expensive but you can pick up second hand one for reasonable prices.

Cars are around but not in such great numbers. I read that buying a car here is excruciatingly expensive as the government charges a 200% import tax or something crazy like that.

I will finish on that. Rest assured my future posts will, hopefully, be shorter!!!