This weekend was the last weekend of Festuge (literally “party week”) here in Aarhus. It’s a week and a half filled with events, entertainment, and alcohol, and it’s a pretty big deal in Aarhus. It’s been going on forever, and many many people descend on the city to participate, especially for the last weekend.
Brian and I couldn’t participate this past weekend because we were moving, so we made sure to get out this week and enjoy the festivities. Friday night we headed to the Latin Kvartet where we had some drinks, ate some hotdogs, saw some jugglers and parades, and generally wandered around along with everyone else in a 100 km radius.
Sights of the Festuge
Just to give you an idea of the typical Festuge happenings: In the Store Torv (literally “big square”) in the Latin Quarter, students from the Aarhus School of Architecture built a giant structure called the “Little Big Thing.” Bands played at the bottom, and you could climb up to the second level to watch from above. Also, a block of a street called Frederiks Allé by the ARoS art museum was covered with sod, making a temporary new park in the middle of the city with platforms for picnicking and a bridge for pedestrians to cross over the bike lanes they left in. (Which, thank goodness because the diverted traffic was bad enough without also diverting all the bikers around this street.)
There were a lot of bands playing all over the city this week, which was lots of fun. You’d be out for a coffee on a normal Thursday afternoon, and next thing you knew a band would set up next to you and start jamming. There were also pleanty of street performers, including one of those guys who sits yoga style 3 feet above the ground (This guy totally blew my mind. How did he do that?!) and a one-man-band playing crazy-fast pop music à la Weird Al Yankovich.
Saturday morning, Brian and I put together most (but not all) of our recently acquired IKEA furniture. We now have a desk and a dining room table, and our apartment is looking more and more livable with every day.
That afternoon, we went to another Festuge event, the Aarhus Food Festival.
It’s only its 3rd year, but already the Food Festival is a big hit. It was filled with booths containing cooking demonstrations and samples of some delicious food. Among other things, Brian and I ate a giant blackberry; sampled some cabbage from an old, previously extinct Danish variety; went on a tour of gourmet honeys; and tried to see if we could taste the difference between beef and horse meat. We also ate probably our most Danish meal yet in Denmark: a giant plate of mashed potatoes covered with bacon bits and garnished with beets, parsley, and chives. Mmmmm, it was so good.
Walking through the fair, Brian and I turned the corner and saw what had to be the longest line in the entire fair. And guess what booth it was for.
The Lakrids Line
That’s right, it was for the licorice booth. Look at all those people lined up to get some free licorice! Brian and I felt like we had to try as well. We tasted gourmet liquid salty and sweet licorice and licorice powder. And oh my god it was the worst.
Sunday, we decided that it was time we finally got ourselves a Danish television. So we got on a bus heading North towards Bilka, a Danish big box store. There, after many hours of debate and some chicken nuggets and french fries to keep up our spirits, we finally settled on a 47″ (they do them in inches even in Europe for some reason) LG, which I must say looks very handsome set up on our TV console. Its features include 3D capability, and apparently it can somehow turn normal 2D shows and movies into 3D. I’m not sure how that can possibly work, but it does. A little bit. We tested it out. It’s also probably the most useless feature for a TV to have.
Our new TV
The best part of the whole day? Carrying the ginormous box home on the bus. Don’t worry, though. People do it all the time here. You should see the bus back from IKEA! It’s filled to the brim of students carrying home giant furniture.
Our House in Aarhus 
Weird to think that people carry furniture home on the bus. I think it would be declared a Workplace Health & safety hazard here! But then it is Denmark, and they love that disgusting salty licorice, so anything is possible. 🙂
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Hehe, true. I think it’s assumed here that people of a certain age will not have a car, so you just deal with a certain amount of furniture on public transportation. Usually, the people with the furniture or other large items are really polite about it and try to get as much out of the way as possible.
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That’s what that panoramic feature is for! Capturing the lengthy Lakrids line!
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Did you guys ship your TV stand to Denmark?
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We did indeed. Instead of various electronics, it now holds board games and movies. Although it’s still home to the Xbox and PS3.
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You would think ikea and other companies would offer free home delivery since they know their customers usually don’t have an easy way to get their purchases home. At least that’s what I would do if I owned a business there. But I would of course have an all electric van/truck. Or maybe a peddle power helicopter.
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Good idea! Instead, they charge like $60 for home delivery because they can. There actually are these tiny motorcycles – they almost look like toys, Kawasaki Ninjas! – that people ride in the bike lanes. I tried to find a picture for you, but I couldn’t. I’ll take one the next time I see one.
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