I wish to revisit my dear Denmark.
This was the most wonderful week. I really enjoyed staying with Kirsten, Jens, Anton, Emil and Freja. And there are many bits and bobs I never really wrote about so here goes…

Denmark, I think, was a beautiful, comforting embrace for me. I felt almost at home here. Bike riding around Farum, you just get this sense of peoples happiness and ease with life, with the daily conundrums and the stillness that sometimes is so forgotten. I loved the sound of the danish language rolling along the flat flat ground as I rode and waited for the train to Kopenhagen. the irresistable pull of those danish pastries in the morning. My favourite was 'thebirkes',these amazing almost-croissant things but so much lighter and so modest, with their little poppy seeds and lightly sugary but not too sweet aftertaste. So delicious! I was fed so very well during my time with Kirsten, we had her amazing bread which she baked and it just made me think of Mette's bread that I would always dream about. The danish just know bread, there is no competition there (sorry frenchies). We also had really good jams and cheeses and I even tried deer for the first time in my life—I was ashamed, but really liked it. Oh, and ofcourse, I consumed copius amounts of my ultimate love, Remoulade. Now this is probably the most genius thing ever to be invented, I know it is not exclusively danish (I wikipedia'd it) but I swear the danes do remoulade better, cos they put it on everything. It is like mayonaise-ish with pickles kindof but not, I don't even like mayonaise. And you can have it on anything, I even had it on carrot (some may find this disturbing, but Matilde understands.) It is truly a revelation.

A lovely day trip was driving up the coast with Kirsten's neighbour Marianna, such a lovely woman, to Helsingor, which is a cute little port town with ferries shuttling across the Oresund Strait to Sweden (I even picked up the swedish reception which was nice.) but more exciting was checking out Kronborg Slot, made famous as Elsinore castle in Hamlet—which, may I add, is performed every year at this very place, and with some nice choices as the lead, including this year the extremely hot Jude Law. (!!) It is suuuuuch a cool castle, so grand and old and full of intimate little rooms that are just so, well royal and danish, and I found them more modest than versailles which was nice for a change (both are faves). Inside was also this really great art exhibition by…… called "To be or not to be" (playing on the whole Hamlet thing) which was actually so interesting, some really great portraits, including one of Queen Margarithe and Crown Prince Frederik.

Another day was spent with David driving up the coast of Zealand to pretty much the same area as Kronborg, but a bit further I think, past Hillerod and up to Hornbaek or something like that, to this lovely spot on these hills, where he goes paragliding. It was the best day ever, I watched him and his pals go flying and I walked up the rolling hills and admired the beautiful coastline, looking across at Sweden, I didn't even think about doing anything else, and suddenly I was getting harnessed into a tandem flight up up and away! I got to fly. I actually flew, for free, with the nicest instructor Steff, who was so cool and funny. There really is nothing like it, I have never felt anything so free before, looking down at this blue blue water and feeling this euphoric stomach flipping happiness that is unlike anything else in the world.

I remember lots of things that make me smile. Swimming in the lake, bike riding to the shops, walking to the local farms, cooking dinner with Jens, trying to speak danish, wishing I could understand Freja and sometimes succeeding through the magic of her cuteness, walking around Norrerbro area where Anton's school is, laughing at the fact I didn't see the little mermaid statue, exploring Copenhagen alone, admiring the danish beauties on their bikes (wearing heels on bikes is seriously a revelation!) the bustling and beautiful quayside of Nyhavn, having dinner with Pernille and David and meeting their gorgeous girls Dia and Tilly, picking and eating the apples off trees , they were the size of a baby's hand, wow-ing at the prehistoric and viking history on display at the National Museum with Anton, being awed by the view of Frederiksborg slot from the car, the gorgeous castle and gardens where Prince Frederik and Mary now reside, and even more so by the royal hunting grounds, where over 2000 deer roam free and so majestic, you could go right up to them, their antlers where like fairy towers on some.

Denmark, jeg elsker dig!