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Day Trip to Tisvildeleje

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There are places that seem to have more soul and charm than others, Tisvildeleje is one of them. To me, it hasn’t really been summer until I have been to this little beach town on the North Coast of Sealand. Good news is that it is quite easy to get to this charming town with beautiful beaches and a large forest. If you are visiting Copenhagen and feel like venturing out to experience the country side, and maybe even go for a swim, I highly recommend a day- or weekend trip to Tisvildeleje. You can take the S-train from Copenhagen to Hillerød and from Hillerød Station the “Gribskovbane” train no. 960R to Tisvildeleje Station will take you straight to the heart of Tisvildeleje which is the end station. This train ride passes by forest, fields and gently rolling hills so it gives you a great opportunity to see what the Danish landscape is like.

Tisvildeleje is a former fishing village which since the 1900’s have risen in popularity as a favorite vacation destination for Danes. There is just “something” about Tisvildeleje with its narrow mainstreet that leads you by original boutiques, cafes and restaurants, winds past charming old houses and finally mounds out in the wide public beach and Tisvildehegn/Troldeskoven (“The Troll Forest”). But before you get to the forest or beach, don’t forget to stop at the bakery on Main Street (“Hovedgaden”) and get yourself a nice and sticky Danish cinnamon bun (their “kanelsnurrer” are also amazing) to enjoy with a thermo coffee in the forest or on the beach!

Troldeskoven is a fun place for an adventure walk in its fairytale-like low-growing vegetation with curly trees shaped by strong ocean winds. On a windy day it is good hygge to have a picnic in one of the many clearings in the forest, sitting on a fallen tree trunk, protected by the surrounding low but sturdy trees. On a sunny day you may want to move on to the beautiful dunes by the water and enjoy your picnic on a blanket. If you prefer a wilder setting you could walk back in the direction of the town but along the beach. As you move away from the wide public beach you will find some unique beaches walled against a steep slope overgrown with wild roses, sea buck thorn and other wild flowers. At the bottom of the slope are large rocks which make great picnic chairs and tables while you can enjoy the free view of the foamy waves.

My absolute favorite area of Tisvildeleje is the street that leads from Main Street towards the beach hotel and the summerhouse area. This street and its little side alleys are full of charming old summerhouses in the classic North Sealand summerhouse style with black painted sideboards and white trims. Right after the beach hotel you will see a sign to “Helenekilde” which is a holy spring on top of a steep slope towards the ocean.

From here you will get a splendid view over the beach in all its dramatic beauty. A great place to end a day trip and say goodbye for the day to the sun slowly setting over the ocean, coloring the sky in warm gold and pink hues. A beauty and peacefulness that will remain with you as you return to the city.

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Hygge for Foreigners

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One thing that might surprise foreigners either visiting or working in Denmark is how hard it is to get to know the Danes. If you start a casual small talk with a Dane on the street or in the supermarket line, chances are they will give you an extremely short answer – maybe even just a disapproving look – and hurry on with their day. Generally speaking, Danes don’t small talk. They don’t smile much to strangers either, or at least not when the weather is cold and grey – which is quite often.

So, if you are a foreigner visiting or working in Denmark you might start wondering: “How is this possibly one of the happiest countries in the world?” I think the best answer to that is that Danish happiness isn’t the excited kind of happiness like that of your birthday or Christmas but rather it is a feeling of contentment.

Danes like to keep to themselves, their closest family and friends. They are nice and social but primarily with people they have known for a while. Someone once told me, that Danes have been given a hand of five “friend cards” at birth. Most Danes fill that hand up during their childhood and then there isn’t room for more friends. This is an exaggeration but the point is, Danes like to know people really well before they open up (unless you get a few drinks in them 😉

Those few trusted friends and family members are usually the only ones they are comfortable enough to hygge with. So if you are visiting Denmark, expecting to experience all that world famous hygge, you might have to readjust your expectations. Hygge is mostly private and reserved for the safeness of home and a few close people.

left: homemade peanutbutter cookies and coffee in cup from lerler in Humlebæk, upper right: Årstiderne in Humlebæk, lower right: Eremitagen in Dyrehaven North of Copenhagen

But not to worry! I will give you some ideas on how to bring some hygge into your life and home. So if you are dreading those dark, cold wet Fall and Winter months ahead of us, learn from the Danes and their long experience with surviving the dark months. It might be hard for someone with no Danish background to understand what this hygge involves but as a native Dane who grew up with hygge I can give you insight into how we Danes have hygge in our homes which is where it mostly happens. In the months to come, you can follow me on my own journey to get more hygge in my life to withstand the cold darkness.

And if you are curious to venture out and experience more than The Little Mermaid, Nyhavn and Strøget, I will post lots of ideas on how you can experience all the charming and hyggelige cafes and places that can be hard to find if you are not from here or haven’t lived here for long. The best part of it all – most of it is super easily accessible by train, all towns are very walkable and we have bicycle paths crisscrossing all over this beautiful landscape. In my opinion, bicycling is the best way to truly experience the Danish countryside, of really being there, not just watching through a window. So please follow me on this journey of (re-)discovering the natural beauty and culture of Denmark 🙂

Happy as a Dane Reporting Live from Denmark!

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This is the most exciting post I have probably ever written! One I have been dreaming about being able to post one day: After a fun and exciting 12 1/2 years in America – my family and I now live in Denmark. It hasn’t been easy to get to this point and there are still lots of challenges involved with relocating our family but we made it and I can now give you current updates on Danish culture and share with you hidden gems only the locals know about.

On this past year’s journey I have come to realize that visiting Denmark is a whole different story than actually living here. For over ten years I was a tourist in my native country and I could fill my visits with fun and all the best Denmark has to offer. Now, that I live here I feel like an immigrant seeing things from the outside. I realize how tough it is to be a foreigner in this little country where the majority is so alike that it can be hard to tell one Dane from the other! I have also come to realize that you cannot just leave a place where you have lived for so long, it stays with you the way a person you have loved and lost always stays in your heart.

The excitement I first felt from returning to Denmark is slowly evaporating in the midst of all the challenges of relocation and everyday tasks. Nevertheless, I refuse to let it ruin the joy of being back home so my intention is to keep on the tourist’s sunglasses and explore all the best that Denmark has to offer with the amazement and wonder of someone who sees it for the first time. Like the sunflower I will bend, not break, with the wind and turn my face towards the sun. So please join me on this journey of (re-) discovering all that’s beautiful, warm and sunny in Denmark – we all know it’s needed in these dark months to come!

Calm December with help from Nature

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If you are like me, you are currently stressed out over Christmas and how fast December goes. How does this happen every year? Thanksgiving is over and before you know it, it’s the middle of December and last chance to buy presents online in time for Christmas. It not only makes me stressed but also sad because shouldn’t December be the month of hygge and joy with family and friends? The strange thing is, that while a calm and enjoyable December is what most of us wish for, that is not what we usually get. Is it because we want the perfect Christmas so much that we push ourselves so hard to make it perfect that we don’t have time to enjoy it? Like when you want to fall asleep but can’t because you’re stressing over it? It is definitely hard to slow down with work deadlines, all the shopping, class parties, cookie exchanges, gifts for teachers, bus drivers and family.

While I’m no master of chill and calm, my Danish culture does lend me some help with this. Danish Christmas decorations involve a lot of nature and nature is calming. Today, I took my puppy, Ozzy, outside with a thermo mug of hot coffee and felt inspired by the dormant nature. There really is a beauty to every season if you take time to appreciate it. While Ozzy attacked an old bucket, I got some clippings of evergreens and red berries and put them in little vases around the house. Bringing nature inside somehow makes me more connected to the season and its sleepy beauty.

If I get really crafty next week during the kids’ Christmas vacation I might even spray some gold or white paint on some cones and make Christmas decorations like the ones my Danish mother-in-law made with the children last year. So if you’re not big on spending time out in the cold nature, then bring it inside! It’s December now and now is the time to enjoy! Racing for the perfect Christmas will only lead you to loose it – like me who have already lost half of it. So take a deep breath, maybe do a five to ten minute meditation or just enjoy a mug of hot drink and enjoy the month of December!

Here are some Winter pictures from the snowy and frosty Denmark followed by our Christmas decorations from last year. And you can look forward to my next post about Danish Christmas gnomes, called “nisser”, whose job is to bring hygge and Christmas joy to people (no spying on kids and punishing them like the Elf on the Shelf – the Danish nisser only want fun and joy for everyone. I can’t wait to share this tradition with you 🙂

Danish Children’s Carnival/Shrovetide Buns

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Line West's avatarHappy as a Dane

Today February 27 is “Fastelavn”/Shrovetide in Denmark. It is a children’s carnival based on pre-lent carnival traditions of the Roman-Catholic church from before Denmark became a Protestant nation. Children dress up, beat a hanging barrel filled with candy (similar to a pinata), eat sweet buns (“fastelavnsboller”) and also get a so-called “fastelavnsris” (twigs decorated with candy, feathers, paper flowers and home crafted masks, see images here Fastelavnsris photos). A lot of this tradition has to do with getting rid of evil powers since the Danes say that “we beat the cat out of the barrel” and originally there was a poor black cat inside. Now there is just an image of a black cat on it. The children stand in line with a short wooden bat and take turns beating the hanging barrel. The child who beats the bottom out of the barrel becomes Cat Queen and the child…

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Give Thanks to Earth!

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Many native people across the world have rituals and ways of thanking Earth. They are aware that nature is a gift not to be taken for granted.

Robin Wall Kimmerer has written a beautiful book Braiding Sweetgrass full of essays that express an inspirational love to our Earth. As an Environmental Biologist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation she combines indigenous wisdom with her scientific knowledge. It is an uplifting book with no lifted fingers just an eyeopener and “hymn of love” to all the beauty around us.

Earth Day could be a good day to think of a way to connect with nature and perhaps even develop a ritual of gratitude for nature’s gifts, be it the sun salutation, gardening or going for a mindful walk in nature.

The New York Times has a beautifully illustrated explanation of climate change for children. Click the link to check it out!

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/18/climate/climate-change-future-kids.html

Let’s help children learn how to appreciate and care for their planet!

Play – therapy for the mind and soul

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And updated version of a post that’s even more relevant now than it was when I first wrote it!

Line West's avatarHappy as a Dane

“I never want to grow up,” he (Tommy) said determinedly.

“Me either,” said Annika.

“No, that isn’t something to strive for. Grown-ups never have fun. They just have a lot of boring work, stupid clothes and calluses and taxes.”(….)

“They don’t know how to play either,” said Annika. “Ooh, that you are forced to grow up!”(free translation from Astrid Lindgren’sPippi Longstocking in the South Seas, 1948)

Last night as I was reading Pippi Longstocking to my children we came across this great passage where the children, Tommy and Annika, tell Pippi that they never want to grow up because adults aren’t fun and don’t know how to play. To this Pippi replies that growing up isn’t something to strive for and then she offers the children some magical pills to prevent them from ever growing up.

This may just seem like a funny statement because growing up…

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The Beauty of Imperfection

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On a Winter walk through a Danish forest, the beautiful sight on the photo above suddenly materialized in front of me. A moss overgrown broken tree limp in a little pond. It was stunning in all its imperfection, a composition no human had planned or constructed, with so many details open for imagination and awe. Nature’s originality left me surprised and breathless in a way that a perfectly manicured yard could not do.

Another example of how beautiful nature is even though not completely perfect! Smoky Mountains, GA.

This made me think about the beauty of imperfection, the realness of it – because nothing is ever perfect. Like humans. I don’t think anyone would describe themselves as perfect. Most of us would probably feel misunderstood, not fully seen, if anyone called us perfect. If someone called us perfect we would feel that they didn’t see our flaws, downs and failures? Would they really know us, or just see what they wanted to see?

Does anyone even want to be called perfect? I doubt it because if people see you as perfect they don’t see the real you. They only choose to see the perfect side. But we all have flaws and dark sides and we all want to be loved for who we really are with all our imperfections which make us unique and human, not robots or mannequins.

Perfectionism steals energy from what is meaningful and important to our happiness. Since the perfect is impossible, chasing it will leave us exhausted and unfulfilled. Of course, we should strive to do our best and to be good enough but perfect is an illusion, inhuman and unnatural. We are all beautiful in our own unique ways, no one is more, no one is less. When everyone is allowed to – and letting themselves – be their true self, that’s when their beauty will shine, even if its not always pretty.

I am so excited to see that my fellow “hygge blogger”, Jo Kneale, who runs the blog howtohyggethebritishway.com is thinking along the same lines as me at the same time. Coincidentally, today, she posted a review of the book “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brene Brown https://howtohyggethebritishway.com/2020/01/10/book-friday-the-gifts-of-imperfection-by-brene-brown/. Thank you for sharing this book with us, it sounds like a must-read 😉 And maybe it is no coincidence that we are both posting critiques of perfectionism after the busy Christmas holiday?

Midsummer Eve Bonfires and Witches

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Line West's avatarHappy as a Dane

7DD37C30-D120-49F0-9796-75D61D8DA2B2 Sankt Hans Evening (St. John’s Eve) bonfire on the beach in Tisvildeleje, Denmark, 2013

Last night the Danes celebrated Sankt Hans Evening (St. John’s Eve) with bonfires and witches! This was originally a pagan celebration of summer solstice and the magical shortest night of the year but after the introduction of Christianity it also became the celebration of John the Baptist’s birthday which is supposedly today June 24th.

There used to be a lot of superstition related to this night. Mean witches were scared away and sick people went to holy springs hoping their illnesses would be cured on this night where light was stronger than darkness. As a symbol of chasing evil forces away Danes burned a hay witch on top of the bonfire – a practice that is still very common in Denmark! Danes jokingly say that on the evening of Sankt Hans: “the witches are being sent…

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