Simple Danish Newsletter #15

Hi friends,

We hope you are all having a great week. We are sending this week’s newsletter late on a Monday because we have just taken a few days off to spend time with family.

If you did not know, Thursday the 9th of May was Ascension Day, which is a public holiday in Denmark. Because of this, many Danes use one of their vacation days on the Friday to get a 4-day weekend, and that is also exactly what we did this weekend.

We spent our weekend in Jutland, visiting the beach on the west coast, and visiting Legoland in Billund. I had not been there since I was a kid myself, and so I was a tiny bit skeptical as to how fun it would be for adults, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. But, I am a pretty big LEGO fan already, and I did enjoy the watching the LEGO movies, when they came out.

There are plenty of roller coasters (nothing too crazy though), and I can say that I enjoyed the miniature cities and monuments much more than I did as a kid. They recently built an addition to the park, dedicated to the LEGO Movies which was quite nice, and kind of had a Disneyland vibe to it where kids could meet and greet characters from the films.

We can definitely recommend the trip, if you like Lego yourself or if you have kids, and you are in the area already. It is super close to the airport (Billund) and is also located right next to the water park, Lalandia, which makes for a great combined trip with kids. The surrounding area, known as trekantsområdet, consisting of Kolding, Vejle and Fredericia (and the surrounding municipalities) also has lots of offerings on their own, with beautiful nature, cultural offerings and nice beaches.

LEGO, for those who did not know, is a family owned, Danish business. The impact that these little blocks have had on the country is pretty amazing. If you were ever wondering why there’s a major (by Danish standards) airport in Billund, it is thanks to LEGO. We have found a deep dive (in Danish) on their history here for those interested History of LEGO. LEGO also has a “History” page on their website (in English) here.

 Our Favourite things

Idiom of the week: Lokummet brænder.

Litterally: The toilet is on fire.

Either you are in big trouble or you are about to be in big trouble when your toilet is on fire.

Lokum in Danish used to refer to the old shed behind the house, where hole-in-the-ground-with-seat type toilets with no running water were found. Nowadays the word can also refer, with some disgust, to normal toilets.

For example:

• Danskerne er gode til at få psykologisk hjælp når lokummet brænder.
• Når lokummet brænder, ved jeg at jeg altid kan regne med dig.

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Word of the week: Barnemad

Litterally, childrens food. You call something Barnemad if it is very easy.

For example: Jeg var ude og løbe 5 kilometer i går. Det var barnemad.

You can also use it ironically: Jeg skal bare lige støvsuge, vaske gulv, rengøre badeværelse, handle ind, lave mad inden vi får gæster her om en time. Barnemad.

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Inspiring Guy We’re Following: Oliver Hvam

Oliver, who is 19, decided one day to do something a bit out of the ordinary and then he walked from Odense, Denmark to Zagreb, Croatia. 3.000 kilometers through 12 countries. He documented all of this on his tik-tok, which gave him quite a following. Recently, he’s done it again, cycling from Børkop, Denmark to the Sahara desert, this time documenting it on his Instagram as well. He has put up daily videos, documenting his journey, and narrating the process in Danish. Not sure if you can call his feats Barnemad! 😉

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That’s all we had for you for this week. We’ll get back to the pancakes, and we hope you’ll have a great week 

Best regards,

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Antonina & Rasmus

Denmark&Me