80 free walking tours and 2 questionable snacks.

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Thanks to Free Sofia Tour for compiling this list of 80 free, world-wide walking tours.  Yes, free.  So you can spend more of your travel money on experiencing cultural delicacies, like Balut or Baby Mouse Wine.  You know you want to.

Free walking tours by city

A top way to see the world!

5 things I love about Denmark (part 5): the culture

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It’s customary in Denmark to drink beer and also to sit with friends in public, grassy areas.  It stands to reason then, the Danes combined the two and called it, ‘having a beer in the park’.  During summer, locals while away the hours, getting their hygge on any place there’s grass – even on the islands in the middle of the roads.

ImageLiterally translated hygge (pronounced something like HOO-g’) means fun.  Apparently though, it’s more about good friends, good conversation, and eye contact, maybe with candles. I don’t know if I’ve shared a hygge experience yet, but I think it’s something like chilling out and connecting with your besties – maybe with candles.

Danish fun isn’t the raucous, bravado sort.  Good manners and deportment are expected, and if you draw attention to yourself, you’ll soon be put back in your place.  This makes for a really pleasant experience: generally, there are no raised voices in public and nobody gives anyone attitude.

Denmark has a well-established culture of gender equality and, as a woman raised in a patriarchal western society, this has been both freeing and frightening.  Ladies, imagine a world where you are expected to make the first move, to initiate most dates and direct the course of your romantic relationships. In fact, maybe it’s not equality so much as role reversal!  Perhaps that’s a topic for another post.  Meantime, I truly believed I was all about equality, but dating a Danish man has shown me I still have a few sexist beliefs.  It’s a cultural difference I didn’t expect and it’s not easy, but it is worth it.  And it makes for some interesting chats over a beer in the park.

5 things I love about Denmark (part 4): the people

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Not only are the Danish ridiculously attractive, they’re possibly the happiest and most friendly people I’ve ever met.

But, shoot, if you lived in a country where your government actively ensured no person is forced to be homeless or jobless, where education and medical care are free and where manners and respect are expected (and usually deserved), wouldn’t you feel freed up to enjoy life a little more?

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That’s not to say the Danes are a nation of Caucasian zen masters, serenely navel gazing their way through life – my Danish friends take great pleasure in telling me plenty of natives complain about the state of affairs – but on the whole, they just seem to be more content than any other society I’ve encountered.  It’s all relative, isn’t it?

5 things I love about Denmark (part 3): Kulhuse

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Kulhuse is a charming blend of holiday homeowners, thatched roof Tudor cottages and society drop-outs.

It’s a picturesque depth of field of colour: rich, deep green grass in the foreground; pastel-coloured buildings in the middle; all framed by a vast, and vibrant cerulean sky.

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About hour north-west of Copenhagen, Kulhuse borders Nordskoven, a lush forest that is home to the worlds’ oldest oak tree (over 2,000 years).  There’s not a lot to do here.  It’s just a friendly pocket of peace and quiet with one supermarket, one antique store, one fish shop called Friske Fiske (Fresh Fish) and one gardening shop, that also sells anything from a glass skull to an antique cash register.

Kulhuse is also home to one of the Danish Armed forces’ training grounds so you do hear occasional bomb blasts and machine gun fire.  It’s all part of the charm.

5 things I love about Denmark (part 2): Vejlø

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Now this is a treat.  It’s like camping, but more rustic.

Denmark has a handful of camping islands that open for about five weeks over summer.  Each island has a theme, for example there’s a lesbian island and I think I inadvertently read the brochure for a tantric sex island.  Vejlø (pronounced VIGH-loo) is ‘the family island’.

ImageThere are no roads and it’s only accessible by boat.  There are no rules either, although you are expected to pull your weight with cooking, washing, cleaning and emptying the toilet buckets (yes, buckets.  And by the way, only some toilet cubicles have doors).  Solar hot water was recently installed so, weather permitting, there’s a chance you’ll have a warm shower.  You can pay for a hot shower and private, flushing toilet, although this is considered cheating and looked upon with the same contempt as yelling ‘lort!’ in a quiet public place.  I know because I’ve done both.

Vejlø has its veterans as much as its casual campers.  Some are firm friends, others catch up during the year and others only reconnect when their paths cross on the island.  There’s always a real sense of community, though.

You can sail, canoe, swim, play ping-pong or board games, strum your guitar, toast marshmallows around the campfire and generally do as much or as little as you like.  Just a warning; unless you have a will of steel, the experience does include a lot of beer.

All this including your food, is wonderfully affordable at around £100 per adult, per week.

5 things I love about Denmark (part 1): Charlie Scott’s bar

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It was the first day of my first visit to Copenhagen.  In a serendipitous twist of fate, I meandered into Charlie Scott’s in perfect time for Jazz Under Trappen.

This regular Tuesday evening gig features Melbourne expatriate, Chris Tanner.  (It’s funny how we Australians seem to find each other.)  If Mick Jagger played clarinet sitting down, with his own jazz trio, with a bear hat as a prop, that would be something like the charisma and talent of Chris.

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Chris Tanner Trio – and friends (photo by Peter Creaner).

Jazz Under Trappen is on the first floor of Charlie’s bar.  It’s cosy and intimate, and seems impossible to get those instruments in there every week.  I settled in, had a few beers and enjoyed the show.  When I returned the following Tuesday, strangers smiled warmly and said, ‘hej!’ (hi!).  Naturally suspicious, as anyone from a more guarded culture is, I asked my new friend what they were doing.  Apparently they just remembered me from the previous week.

Charlie Scott’s claims to be the number 1 jazz club in Copenhagen.  I can’t confirm that as I have no basis of comparison – nor do I think I need one.

5 things I love about Denmark: introduction

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I’m in love with Denmark. It’s not like my lust for Italy, the romantic fantasy I have for France or the sentimentality I feel for Australia. It’s a kind of practical affection that snuck up on me.

When I first visited Copenhagen, I had no idea what to expect, but I’ve come to know a handsome and pioneering country, rich with nature, history, culture and integrity.

Forget Carlsberg, The Little Mermaid and Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark’s treasures span far beyond its capital, Copenhagen, and delve much deeper than any sunken Viking ships.

These are links to 5 things I love about Denmark.

1: Charlie Scott’s;

2: Vejlø;

3: Kulhuse;

4: The people;

5: The culture.