Hygge  

Posted by Colin Fahy

Knowing nobody and with roommates that are never around I figured I should just try to find the party on my own Friday night. Reading about the bars online I found that there was going to be a free show of this band that was described as electronic with a middle eastern sound at this one bar that was about an hour and 15 minute walk away. (Yes, there is excellent public transit, but I have all the time in the world and no reason to waste the 4 dollar equivalent per ticket.) The Danes don't party until midnight. Although they might hang out at a relaxed bar for some hygge before that. Hygge is an untranslatable word, seems to be like a state of content, or relaxed quiet happiness. I left at around 10:30. Some of that blue before I left and an elephant(7.2% beer) for the walk equals tipsy trying to find this bar. I heard some loud bass coming from blocks away and thought perhaps that could be it. But when I checked it out knew it could not be the bar I was looking for, this was an outside party. I kept walking and found the place. Went inside to find 4 people sitting at the bar, and one DJ. He was playing some pretty good music, but this was obviously not what I was looking for. The four people clearly all friends moved over to the couch section and I got out of there. Regrouped with a falafel across the street, watching a british movie featuring(but not starring) that guy from Crank and etc. Between the heavy accents and the Danish subtitles I could not understand a word except `bob´ which was said about every sentence.
After much consideration, I decided to head back to the place with the bumpin music. It had a 60 kroner entrance fee, about 10 dollars. It was definitely worth it.
It turned out to be a reggae show. I bought two Tuborg Golds which set me back 40 kroner, you don't have to tip bartenders in Denmark, and hit the dancefloor. The German reggae dj just arrived at the same time. Although he really wasn't a dj. There was a dj behind playing many recognizable reggae and dub dance songs, and the shaved head German guy just stood up front with a big smile on his face and told us what dance moves to do. This included:
(you can imagine all these in a German reggae voice)
'Put your two hands in the air'
'Put your one hand in the air, and move it from the left, to the right. Left. Right. Left. Right.'
'Lighter! Lighter! Fire! Fire!'
'Helikopter! Helikopter!' (This one is where you put one hand in the air and spin it around)
'Put up your ten fingers for (Denmark, Africa, etc.)'
'Gunfinger! Gunfinger! Let me see your Gunfinger!' (This is where you make a gun out of your hand. Possibly shoot at something or someone?)
And people would actually do these moves like they were legitimate dance moves. At least for about 10 secs after he said it.

It of course had about 15 minutes of clips from all of Bob Marleys top hits. Some Michael Jackson? Just because they love him I guess. Other wonderful nineties hits like Nirvana. And was so much fun!!
I did not make any friends there, you couldn't really talk over the music. I did dance to thriller with the cutest danish girl there though, but she lost interest quickly.
The party ended at 5, long after the sun was up. This guy had just handed me his bottle of Smirnoff a couple times, which was not really the best timing, but certainly made the hour walk home easier. It is quite nice to be able to walk home from a party in the warm morning sun.

Some girl put this sticker on me.
Apparently it is a clothing brand. Not nearly as exciting as I had hoped.

I slept most the next day. My ears still ringing for over 24 hours afterwards.

I bought lunch from the sandwich cart guy close to my apartment.
Delicious cured salmon sandwich, of course with dill sauce. And a Faxe Kondi. Its a clear soda much like sprite, but way better. Coke and Faxe Kondi are definitely the two most popular soda drinks here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 2:00 PM . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

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