My day in Aarhus

I woke up at 12 o’clock. Felt strange in my body. A feeling of wanting to do something. Just something else that just laying in my bed the whole day (my main occupation when I am free from work). I had been talking in the phone until 03.30 in the night the day before, so I was still tired….

I decided to go and visit AK in Aarhus. For people not knowing Danish geography, it is not right around the corner. I live on the main island in a town called Haslev (Seelands Paris) and Aarhus is 3½ hours away. For a Dane that is very far, however after having crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it is just a ticket away.

I packed down the necessities; A tuborg six-pack, my Ipod, Siddartha by Herman Hesse, one black shirt, my blazer, my red/black striped shirt, 2 cokes I found, one bottle of Jack D., my diary, and my VISA card. I was ready to enter The Wild West…. I was going west…I was on my way to Aarhus.

DAMN, I thought at the first sec when the nice lady at the ticket office told me that there were no more tickets for Aarhus. Only in smokers’ wagon (If I want to kill myself, I would like to decide the way myself…). I decided to pay the extra dollars and got a first class ticket.

It was a pure flashback to my bus rides in Argentina, now I have paid extra, I would also use it. Bought the best newspaper in Denmark, took a cup of the free tea, took three of the free apples, took a handful of the nice Summerbird chocolate; first class can be a profit ride if you just use enough of it.

I was reading an article about the New White Trash that we have en Europe. In the old days the workers wanted to go from the bottom to the top, they have a big social aspect, even though they were poor. They sang songs, went to demonstrations, and organized themselves. Today’s white trash works from the top and down. They get fired, live on welfare, isolate themselves…. Some TV producers actually try to make programs for these people. Programs without meaning. Programs that you can enjoy without thinking. Programs that I watch when I am not working.

“Ding-Dong, Next station: Aarhus”. I had reached my final destination and stepped. In front of me a young beautiful woman was walking, I could see she was seeking for something. I asked her if she needed my help, and when she turned around I realized that she was blind. I followed her to the stairs, she needed to find her next train, but told me that she could do it herself. I was impressed. A young blind woman travelling alone in a horrible train system, that even I have problems getting around.

I told her she was beautiful and walked away. People too rare tell other people that they are pretty. She really was pretty. Incredible to think about that she will never see herself in the mirror.

My biggest fear is to get blind. Let me be mute, deaf, lame, everything else than blind. I can live without hearing the birds’ songs, but not without the great authors describing Love, Music, Fights, and Birdsongs. My personal library is getting bigger and bigger for everyday, please, I don’t want to be blind. My only fear is blindness.

I walked through the terminal, everyone was going somewhere, everyone had some kind of destination. No one is ending there travel at a terminal, it is never a place that people stop. It is the place between A and B. Beautiful choir singing was echoing in the terminal and looked up and saw a group of elderly women singing Christmas songs.

I went outside to wait in the rain; AK would be there in a few minutes. The rain was falling slowly on the streets and I thought for a moment that this is how I remember Norway. Sad, but true.

The walking-street was nicely decorated with lighting all the way down, the shops were open (all with a special Christmas offer) and I thought for myself how much I despise Christmas and everything around it. My wish list only consists of two wishes. Number one is “books”, number two is to donate the money to Folkekirkens Nødhjælp or Red Cross. You can actually get giftcards now, so one can decide to donate 1 pig, 200 condoms, or maybe 1000 HIV pills. Now, that is what Christmas is all about!

I saw AK before she saw me and started to walk towards her. When I met her I couldn’t help thinking how lucky Max is. And vice versa.

We walked the 35 min. it took to AK’s flat a bit north of the city. She lives right next to the university in a really nice and cosy flat. One relatively big kitchen, two bathrooms, one living room and three bedrooms. All in all a perfect place for a student to live – the jealousy was growing in me, nevertheless I have learned (after too long time), to appreciate other peoples luck.

The music went on, the talk started and after 45 min. we were sitting with one frozen pizza, a ball with chips and dip, cold Tuborgs, 1½ L. of coke and a bottle of Jack D. The music was playing the songs, both the new once that fill out your ear in a nice way, and the old nostalgic once that goes deeper into the ear. The songs that knows the path to the Memory Lane. The water pipe we smoked was the perfect way to frame it all in.

Three hours, Three phonecalls and one shot later we went out to hit the town bad. I was in a good mood, not only from the good company, also from talking with Mathias for 20 min., saying a short “hi” to Itay and from waking up Michelle.

We walked through the universitypark, down to the “Quartier latin” in Aarhus. Find a nice little crowed pub and started out with a Christmas Beer….and damn, beers always make me SLEEPY (except on Roskilde…dunno why, Roskilde just has a magic influence on me), so we bought two “Polar Bears” instead, little did I know that I was going to drink at least 7 more “Polar Bears” that night…. (for the people who doesn’t know “Polar Bear” I can tell you that they are made from 4 cl. of vodka, 6 cl. sprite and 1 cl. blue curacao)

Our goal for the night was to meet up with a bunch of Greenlandics living in Aarhus, find a girl for Mads and then go home.

We went to a little pub in a basement where we started to “rape” my credit card, we bought so many drinks and I got in a better and better mood. I met my third year from Greeland (Helena), I met one of AK’s friends that I knew from before (Stefan) and then I try to meet all the hot girls in there….but to quote Mr. Powers: “I lost my Mojo!!!!”……. I hate when girls are too picky, so instead of finding a nice female to share the night with, I ended up having a great time dancing and screaming songs with AK, Stefan and Helena – oh yes, I found one girl. 36, living alone in Aarhus and from Greenland….. she was very interested in me, and yeah, I listed to her, but also try to escape.

Our next goal was “XL”.

XL is a place where there is a restaurant during the day and karaoke in the nights. We drank even more, sang a lot of songs, danced like crazy and at 03.00 we decided to go home again.

Before we went home we passed by a Sharwarma place to get some food – everyone who has been out in Denmark know that this is “No. Uno” rule!. Then Mads got this great plan of meeting with a old friend of him. I tried to call her, to write her, to scream her name and after a short visit at a club called “Sam’s”, I ended up finding her drunk in a club called “Social”, apparently “THE Club” in Aarhus. My memories from 03.00 to 06.00 are very blurred I must admit, so the only thing I remember is falling asleep happy and tired in AK’s flat.

I woke up at 12.00 o’clock when my phone ranged, took a shower for 20 min. where the only thing I thought about was the yellow rubber duck in front of me. The person who has designed that one, has changed the world of rubber ducks, because they all looks exactly the same….ehh, don’t know if you follow my mind, but what I mean is that ONE single yellow Rubber Duck made the whole difference.

I shared a cup of nice KUSMI tea with AK (if you haven’t tried Kusmi yet, then go and buy it right now!!!)

I hugged her, said goodbye, told her how glad I was to visit her and then I ordered a taxi so I could go to down-town where some family members were waiting for me.

I went out with my aunt and cousin to eat a nice little brunch, before we went to one of the best (and newest) art museums in Denmark, it is called ArOS and it mostly had Modern Art. A place that I would recommend if you should ever stop by in Aarhus.

The traintrip home seemed like 23 hours more than the 3 hours it actually took. My hangovers was killing me and my bed was screaming for my body.