Thursday, May 31, 2007
Sun Rise


This was taken from our bedroom window at sunrise about a week ago; I can't remember the time. I just thought it was so pretty :)

P.S. My little sister, Shannon, is visiting over from England so I haven't posted since Monday! Oops! Sorry... I went back and post-dated some entries so it looks like I posted it then. A little sneaky but better late than never ;)

Hope you are still having a good time here in Odense, Jan, if you are still here :)
posted by Erin @ 12:02:00 AM   3 comments
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Kings House


I mentioned before in my "Park" entry, when trying to describe that park I took a picture of, an old residence where an old Danish king died. Well here is a more close up picture of it. I don't know too much about it... I think I'll try and find out more about it. As far as I know, it's a private residence - in fact, I think the local council now uses it as offices. I think I remember hearing that somewhere. Anyway, it's a really beautiful long, white building which is nice to walk past as you walk through the park.
posted by Erin @ 12:00:00 AM   2 comments
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Summer Nights


Ahh summer nights. We're almost there! Sunset isn't until around 10pm now and I love it. Warm, summer nights with those who you love. That's one of my favorite things in life :)
posted by Erin @ 11:54:00 PM   0 comments
Monday, May 28, 2007
Tivoli Fair


Finally I got my phone working so I can show you this picture! This is how I spent some of my Friday night. Man, I got so sick on these rides. And they were so expensive! You know you're getting old when you start complaining about these things. But it was a lot of fun; you just have to watch out for pick pockets!

Hello to Jan and her husband; I hope you both are enjoying Odense immensely! Also, your hotel is actually a 30 second walk from where I live ;)
posted by Erin @ 9:20:00 PM   0 comments
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Where was this photo taken?


My phone is not connecting to my laptop, so I can't post some pictures I took of the fair that's in Odense right now, something I REALLY wanted to show you. But hopefully I can get it working within the next day or two and show you what we saw.

Instead, I have this strange picture from you. Can you guess where I took it? Hint: It's in our house...
posted by Erin @ 9:19:00 PM   3 comments
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Front of the House View


This is the view from the roof of our house facing the street (yesterdays post was from the back). The entrance across the street goes into the music school across the street; the cars parked on the right is where we park our car (that grey car isn't ours)... there's about 5 spots there in total. We do have a driveway but it's kind of a double one we share with the neighbors, so neither of us tend to use it unless we HAVE to - like for instance if we just went grocery shopping and we don't want to lug 10 bags across the street...

Also above the grey car on the right, beyond the fence where that bush is... that's the WW2 bunker I posted about before :)
posted by Erin @ 12:45:00 PM   2 comments
Friday, May 25, 2007
Roof tops


Here is a picture of Johannes, my boyfriend, looking from our roof top window over the other roofs of the houses in Odense. Behind us there aren't that many houses, because where those trees are at the very back of the photo is where the river is :) After the river, the houses are more heavily condensed.
posted by Erin @ 12:43:00 PM   2 comments
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Houses and Flagpoles


I don't particularly like this picture but it shows the Danish style of houses common here and the flagpole that SO many people have. This flag is one I thought was so weird when I first saw it: a skinny flag. Some flagpoles have regular big flags, but most - I have found - have this style. Unfortunately ours is so skinny it got wrapped and tied around the top of our pole :( So we can't get it down. Not easily anyway!
posted by Erin @ 9:56:00 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
View from Our Window


Here is the view from one of the windows from the very top of the house; the window is in the roof (I can't remember the name of that style of window). As you can see, you can see the two churches, St. Albans Kirke and St. Knud's Kirke from our window. It shows how close inside the city center we are! Right in the middle of things.

Odense is stretched out with a lot of suburbs sprawled out for miles - Johannes and I drove through one yesterday and agreed on how much we loved living right in the middle of the city. So much nicer!
posted by Erin @ 9:34:00 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Magasin


I'm having a much better day today - despite hearing some more bad news. Yesterday just got a bit much, because I was suffering the worst of a cold. I'm still sick today, but feeling infinitely better than yesterday so... on with the post!

This is a close up photo of a department store here called Magasin - it's not selective to Odense, though, I believe they have branches in other towns and cities in Denmark. Magasin of course means "store" in French, but I'm sure most Danes don't know that. It's just a regular over-priced department store, but I love having a browse through there on a rainy day or when I'm walking through town. I don't know why, but when I didn't live in Odense and I came here, I would go in there ALL the time. It's not even that great. I guess just because I was used to department stores and here was one that was very similar to home. I don't go in there too much anymore.

Actually, not long ago they did this "Girls Night" - which I am SO bummed about, because I didn't know you had to get tickets and I missed the deadline for buying them - where they shut down the store to only the guests, had fashion shows, a life and style coach talk with you, free hand massages from The Body Shop (who has a corner in the store) and free gift bags... things like that. I think they do it every year, though, so I will NOT miss it next year!

Thank you very much for all the kind comments on my pictures. I have had NO time to do anything but post once a day (I work 2 jobs and right now I'm sick, still having to work so...). But I really, really look forward to your comments. They really make my day!

Hope you are all having (or had) a wonderful day today :)
posted by Erin @ 10:42:00 PM   2 comments
Monday, May 21, 2007
Green Filled Path


Not going to post anything else today... having a really bad day today :(
posted by Erin @ 7:58:00 PM   2 comments
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Our House


Here is a picture of where we live in Odense. It's funny, I STILL remember the very first time I came to Odense and when I pulled up outside this house for the very first time. It's such a different image of what I have now, but I can still remember the old one very clearly.

Danish houses typically have very high ceilings and large, long rooms. The white bit at the bottom is the top of the basement; the ceilings aren't AS high down here. That's where Johannes and I live, the bottom floor. There's a shower/bathroom down here, a toilet room, a kitchen and 2 storage rooms.

Then on the second floor (where you enter up some steps at the side, which is the front door) is a clinic for Johannes' moms' homeopathic practice and two rooms (+ kitchen) which are let out. The third floor is the huge kitchen and living rooms and the top floor is bedrooms for Johannes' parents and his little sister.

As you can see, we're very spread out :P I love this house, it's really old and it's in - I think - a nice area of Odense, because it's right in the center of it. And I love living in the basement, believe it or not!

Anyway, just thought I'd show you where we live :) And what the houses are like here.
posted by Erin @ 4:17:00 PM   1 comments
Saturday, May 19, 2007
McDonalds


A very boring post today, a picture of McDonalds which is in the Odense train station. I don't even eat there, but just wanted to show you how a Danish McDonalds looks like (i.e. exactly the same everywhere else :P) It looks small from the other side of the street, but that's only the entrance where the counters are. Then it goes off to the right which is the seating area and then an indoor exit which leads straight into the train station.

Exciting stuff!
posted by Erin @ 6:33:00 PM   2 comments
Friday, May 18, 2007
Copenhagen Today!


This photo was not really taken in Odense, per se... I would say it was taken "in transit" somewhere in Denmark, because we were on our way to Copenhagen. DSB, the national rail service, had for the first time ever a Døgnet day (don't know how to translate that) where basically all the tickets all over Denmark were EXTREMELY cheap. People went crazy for it - it's the first time they've ever done it - and they sold out quickly. We had seats reserved for the 3 o'clock train to CPH, but we wanted to go sooner than that, so we had to give up the luxury of actually sitting in seats.

The train was PACKED. As you can see here, Johannes (pictured) and I had to sit on the floor, kind of inside the luggage area! The place where you put suitcases and stuff between two chairs that are back to back. It was okay for me, because I'm small and can fit in easily, but not so much for Johannes :P Poor him!
posted by Erin @ 6:24:00 PM   0 comments
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Park


It's so hard to get a decent picture of this place... it's a kind of park (not the playground type) which sits in front of a really old building, now used by the danish council or whatever. The building is important, because some old Danish king supposedly died in it. I don't have the name of the building, so I can't find anymore information on it just yet.

Anyway, this park is so hard to take a picture of... no matter what angle you take it from. There's a million objects in the way so you can't take a clear photo of the entire place. Maybe I'll go back and take pictures from the four corners (it's square) so you can get a better idea. I has two statues, one of a man on a horse and a huge line of bikes all along the left side. There are dozens of beautiful old trees places around the park, where people go to picnic or just relax under in the shade (or they even lie out in the sun on the grass). The path, as you can see in the picture, goes from the bottom left corner to the top right in a diagonal... more or less straight line. People cross there to reach the train station and stuff, or if they're going in the opposite way, they could be going to the theatre, the ballet school or a little bit further into the town center.

It's so nice to stroll through on a sunny day. During Christmas time (shit, I should have taken a picture of it!) every night, they lit over a hundred candles stuck in the ground and let them burn all throughout December. And during the summer, there's always music festivals, fairs and all sorts of fun stuff going on there. It's so nice! I'll have to go back and take more pictures.
posted by Erin @ 4:30:00 PM   2 comments
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Rain, rain, go away...


This is what it looked like at the bus stop today... this is what it looked like pretty much all over Fyn all day! It's so depressing, I hate heavy rain especially when I had to run around as much as I did today (work, errands, more work, and so on).

I'm going to wait until it's sunny again until I go back to that building I posted about yesterday and take some more pictures for you guys. I'll get my boyfriend or someone to take pictures of me walking in it, too, so you can get an idea of the scale. It'd be really interesting if it gave you guys more clues as to what it could be; maybe we'd be a little closer to finding out what it was!

In the meantime, help me wish all this rain away!
posted by Erin @ 9:20:00 PM   5 comments
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Unidentified Ruins


This strange building - or rather the ruins of it - stands in the city center, right next to the cyclist counter which I posted a picture of yesterday. My boyfriend isn't sure what it is either, so that means it's been in ruins for AT LEAST 4 years, but to be honest, it looks like it's been in ruins for hundreds of years or something.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Maybe it's something REALLY old; you can see it used to have a chimney in it and it's right next to the two huge churches in town, not to mention the town hall and market square in front of it. Maybe it's positioning is a clue to something...?
posted by Erin @ 7:30:00 PM   3 comments
Monday, May 14, 2007
Head Count!


I love this thing the city has; it's a cyclist counter. Whenever a cyclist rolls by, it counts it on the post and the lines underneath represent, like, the percentage of cyclist that week or something... I can't remember what it says :P But it's always fun to ride past it and say "Oh, I'm number 3304 today!"

Or maybe that's just me ;)

Do any of your cities have anything like this?
posted by Erin @ 11:10:00 AM   2 comments
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Cafe Biografen
Okay, today is a slighty bigger picture post (4 pictures!) because it's a place I really want to describe well and pictures simply do not do it justice.

This is where my boyfriend and I ate lunch today: Cafe Biografen. It's a very hyggelig cafe and movie theatre all in one. Except the movie theatre... it's more like small, intimate rooms (there are only 3 screens, to my knowledge) with huge comfy chairs and it only seats about 50 people - maybe even less! Very cosy.

And the cafe is just to die for. The food is amazing and it has this theme of old Hollywood, as you can see in the last picture they have some old movie stars' pictures on the walls. The menu has things like "Bogart Burger" (which we each had yesterday) and the Monroe Brunch. Everything is very tasty and well priced for the portions you get! We love coming here - so do most of Odense :P

And in the summertime, they set out a TON of tables and chairs outside (I forgot to include a picture of that) in the court in front of the cafe. If you ever come to Odense, THIS is the place to visit!




posted by Erin @ 11:04:00 AM   2 comments
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Not A Regular Post
I thought I'd take time out from my usual posting around Odense pictures - yes I know this is a CITY daily photo, but I just couldn't resist!

One of our dogs (we have two dachshunds) gave birth to three beautiful little puppies just over 3 weeks ago and I really wanted to share the pictures with you guys. There's one boy and two little girls; I'm getting one of the girls to keep.


And a picture of the proud mother, Darcy! She is SO protective of them, you wouldn't believe!


There's Peanut on the far left, Luna on top and the boy on the right; I can't actually remember what they've called him temporarily right now. I'm getting Peanut :)

Anyway I hope you didn't mind me posting those :) And normal posting will resume tomorrow!
posted by Erin @ 1:52:00 PM   5 comments
Friday, May 11, 2007
Fyns Stiftstidende


This is a photo of the offices of newspaper, Fyns Stiftstidende. I took a photo of it, because it has a really cool screen on the front of the building (the blue one you see in the picture) which tells you the time, the current temperature, the current news and a couple advertisements. This all loops all day, every day. I don't even think they turn it off at night :O
posted by Erin @ 12:24:00 PM   2 comments
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Danish Chocolate Shops!


Mmm chocolate! Well, I don't actually like chocolate myself, but if you do then todays post is for you!

Labels:

posted by Erin @ 9:49:00 AM   4 comments
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
En Hyggelig Cafe


An idea of a nice British afternoon spent eating somewhere would most likely be at a nice old pub somewhere out in the country. If it's a particularly sunny day, you would sit outside and enjoy the view.

The Danes have this word, "hyggelig", which you can't actually translate into English (there is no translation) but it can be used as a verb or an adjective to say that something is... that the atmosphere is comfortable, nice and comfortable. Like an evening in with your friends with candles lit everywhere, chatting and laughing with a bottle of wine - that's hyggelig. That kind of feeling, that kind of atmosphere.

Well, the Danes love this and try to make all things as hyggelig as possible. This picture shows a nice cafe - and while it doesn't have a countryside view (this is by the town hall, facing St. Knud's church) - the cafe itself is still very welcoming and relaxing. The chairs have really nice cushions on them, the inside probably looks very modern, and there's some green plants around them. Anything to make them feel comfortable - that's hyggelig!

I hope I've explained it well for all of you...
posted by Erin @ 9:42:00 AM   3 comments
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Søstrene Grene


I love this store. I hate saying the name of it. Søstrene Grene. I don't even know how to type how you'd pronounce it. Whenever I talk about it to someone, I have to suddenly speak very slowly and say it syllable-by-syllable, because it's just so difficult for me to wrap my tongue around. That's because I'm a foreigner, of course.

Anyway, this shop is so awesome. It's one of those random shops where it has everything for cheap - but instead of looking like some gaudy Wal*Mart inside, it's got a beautiful dark interior. The walls are all black with skylights shining down on you and all the products as you make your way through a maze - yes a maze - which ultimately leads you to the cash point where you pay. It's so much fun! And everything is so cheap. One of my favorite stores here in DK, for sure.

Like I said, it is kind of random but there is a kind of theme to it all: in every shop there are home supplies (pillow cases, candles, things to decorate your home with), kitchen supplies (coffee/tea tins, things for your kitchen counters) and art things (paint, canvases, brushes) just to name a few. All the stores have these elements. But it's scattered so much so that it's not thrown in your face, 'Ok now this is the kitchen section' (*cough* IKEA *cough*)

Anyway, this shows the doorway that leads to the escalator which takes you up to the darkened beyond of... Søstrene Grene! :D
posted by Erin @ 9:36:00 AM   4 comments
Monday, May 7, 2007
A Modern H.C. Andersen Statue


In case of you weren't aware who this H.C. Andersen person I talk about and post pictures of his statues around Odense is: he's a famous children's fairytale writer who was born here in Odense (but moved to Copenhagen in his teens, as he hated it here in Odense, and eventually died in Copenhagen). He wrote The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid, just to name a couple.

Anyway, if you couldn't already tell, the people of Odense just LOVE him here. And I mean LOVE him. There are dozens of statues, his old house (which actually hasn't technically ever been proven that he ever lived there in the first place) has been turned into a museum, there's a festival each year on his birthday... and so on and so on.

I was horrified, though, when they built this statue right outside the Fyens Stiftstidende (local newspaper) building, opposite the train station. It is the most... ugly, intrusive and visually offensive statue I have ever seen. Now, Hans was not a looker by any means, and they seem to make him even more ugly with this statue; his ears and nose even BIGGER. But maybe that part's just me!

It's a huge statue of three of him entwined at the bottom in twists, instead of his legs. The only cool factor about it is that it has a neat little fountain in the middle, but it's so tiny you can barely see it. They finished building it around a year ago, maybe less. I just hate it so much. Everyone I talk to agrees.

But I thought I'd post it to let you decide. This is the most flattering angle I could take it from - here his nose doesn't look so big, but you get the overall gist of what it looks like.

Tell me your thoughts on it!
posted by Erin @ 9:21:00 PM   1 comments
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Train Station


This is the train station in Odense. Doesn't look like much, but it is pretty huge inside. In fact, it's not just a train station, it also houses a McDonalds, a Sunset Boulevard (same as Subway, but danish), a net cafe, a cinema (also very huge), a bakery, a two clothes shops, two convenience stores (one each on the top and bottom levels), a library (again, not a small one), a coffee shop, a souviner shop... oh and of course the office where you buy tickets, not to mention 6 train tracks filled with trains going in all different directions over Denmark - and in some cases, Germany.

Around the train station are a lot of businesses, like newspapers, and TV2 Danmark, which is a major channel here. That makes it easy for commuters, although more often commuters use this train station to go to COPENHAGEN, not come to Odense. That's just because there are larger businesses in Copenhagen and, of course, it's bigger there on the whole.

Since the statues around Odense seem to be popular with people who read this blog, I'm going to find as many as I can throughout Odense. Trust me, there's A LOT. Danish people love commemorating with statues!
posted by Erin @ 3:39:00 PM   3 comments
Saturday, May 5, 2007
H.C. Andersen Statue


Got another statue for you guys! This one actually sits only a few feet away from the He/She statue (I really don't know what to call that one). It's kind of a funny statue... sometimes it's not there at all. And you see the head at his feet? It's a replica of the head on the statue... sometimes thats not there either. My boyfriend says sometimes they - get this - wheel it around town! Or they wheel it away completely! I don't know where to... But for the past 6+ months, it's been there all the time, so maybe it's here to stay this time.

Sometimes you'll see ole' Hans holding a beer bottle or can, or something equally silly; things left by the drunk people overnight, as it's right by all the bars and - more importantly - the kebab shops!
posted by Erin @ 12:01:00 AM   3 comments
Friday, May 4, 2007
City Hall


I've mentioned the City Hall many times before and it's always been in the side of pictures or blurred shots, so here is a nice clear shot of the City Hall in Odense. It looks pretty impressive, but it's pretty 'eh' inside. They have sometimes art exhibitions or special events in there. Like, for example, my boyfriends little sisters' school did a Christmas production there (not a nativity thing - more like singing Christmas songs while holding candles). There's some offices in there and the web cam I posted a link to yesterday sits on top of the top right corner of it. It's RIGHT smack in the middle of the city center, by the shops, the churches, the market square, the He/She statue I posted about earlier.

Here's a bit of fun trivia for you: Before I ever heard of Odense, or even Denmark (unless you know where it is, you generally don't tend to pay attention to it), I lived in a town in England called Aylesbury. It was about 25 minutes away from another town I knew about, called St. Albans, and I'd been there quite a lot. Well, it turns out, St. Albans is TWINNED with Odense and one of the reeeally old churches here is even called St. Albans church (where St. Knud was rumoured to have been killed). Hows that for freaky coincidences?
posted by Erin @ 11:51:00 PM   1 comments
Thursday, May 3, 2007
He-She Statue


This is a statue that is a cross between a male and female (it has male genitals plus about 3 pairs of breasts, as far as I can remember). It lays outside the town hall in the open square area and everytime I go there, there's ALWAYS little kids climbing all over it; they love it. It's not too high off the ground and relatively easy to climb. Plus it looks pretty cool.

You can get another perspective of it on Odense's webcam at Fyn.dk. On the right hand side, under the Fiona Bank ad, it clearly says "WebCams". Click on "Flakhaven" and it will show you the large square where the statue is lying down, from the perspective of the Town Hall :)

You can also take a look at other areas of Odense. But don't click on anything that says Svendborg, because that's another part of Fyn (the island that Odense is on) altogether!
posted by Erin @ 1:13:00 AM   7 comments
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Sct. Knud's Kirke (St. Canute's Church)


Okay so I can't sleep and TECHNICALLY it is "tomorrow", so I'm going to make an early morning post.

This picture is of St. Knud's church in Odense. A very, VERY old church which has been built and rebuilt a number of times but is still standing quite prominently in the city center (the building you can see with the Danish flag on the left is the Town Hall).

Saint Canute's Cathedral (Danish: Odense Domkirke or Sct. Knuds Kirke) is named after the Danish king Canute the Saint (Danish: Knud den Hellige). Although King Canute the Saint was, historically, not much of a saint, there is an unusual reason for this nickname. Fleeing a rebellious force, the king took shelter in the Church of St. Alban's, a wooden church in Odense.

The rebels, however, were not about to let him flee, and killed him inside the church. The story tells that he died kneeling in front of the altar, praying, although his bones, which can still be viewed, tell a different story. King Canute was struck low in the abdomen by a spear while he was standing facing his attacker, and most likely killed by a blow to the head which fractured the skull.

Having been killed in a church by rebellious subjects, he was declared a saint in 1101, mostly for political reasons, and against the wishes of his successor and half-brother, Olaf I. Saint Canute's Cathedral was built in memory of this, although not in the same excact place as the original church. The oldest parts of the cathedral are from the early 1300s.

Source: Wikipedia

The church is REALLY beautiful inside and I've seen the bones of Knud and his brother who lies next to him. That part is not always open, though.

Oh and also, going past the church, you can see one of the cream-colored Fyn Buses that I made a post about a couple days ago ;)
posted by Erin @ 12:21:00 AM   4 comments
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Straight Roads


I don't know what else to call this post... basically, the picture is of the road which goes straight to one of the churches in the city center. It's interesting, because there are probably around 3-4 (maybe more) roads coming from completely different areas which are so long and so straight that you can see the churches from miles back, kind of like a beaconing into the city center.

I'm sure it's a very old design, to guide the old Odense locals to church every Sunday but when you're driving from very far away, it looks cool when you can spot the churches.

It's not too hard to see, but see if you can see the church at the end of the long road :)

P.S. Sorry for crappy quality; it was taken in a car and our windshield is in DESPERATE need of cleaning! Hehe.
posted by Erin @ 1:58:00 PM   0 comments
A daily photo from Odense, Denmark - the third largest city in DK! Situated on the island of Funen.
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