Blowin' in the wind

I can't see anything.
I'm sitting on a kind of staircase, and the wall behind me is dripping from humidity.
I'm naked. No, I wear a pair of flip-flops which are definitely not mine.
Heavy air, hard to breathe.
The skin on my arms and thighs is pink.
I can see an old scar on my shoulder shining in a fierce, red colour as I feel the blood pulsate through the thin veins in my skin.
The burning feeling tells of the rough treatment some minutes ago.
The ice cold water, stinging like a thousand knives everywhere on my body. Scrubbing until it burns with old fashioned soap flakes and water, and then into this place.
I am sitting in a kind of tunnel. White tiles on the walls and the vaulted ceiling. There is a dimmed light on the wall, shining like a pale winter sun through the mist.
I can see about two meters in front of me, before a thick white mist takes over.
My hair sticks to my face and neck.
Hard to breathe.
Something warm and wet runs down the side of my face.
It tastes salty.
A neverending sizzling sound like oil in a frying pan fills the room.
The white mist seems to come in through my ears, mouth and nose and fills my head with cotton.
There's a strong smell of peppermint.

A door opens, and a voice from behind the whiteness talks.
"Are you okay, honey?"

I sigh, stop the sweatpearls that are on their way into my eyes and answer honestly:
"I've never been better"


I have been to the old bathhouse in Silkeborg this morning - Silkeborg Badeanstalt.

Entrance in the baths.

Making some well deserved advertising

One hour in the steam bath, and you feel like you have been reborn.
Wonderful.

Happy, hot, scrubbed and clean as never before

The lazy numb feeling in your body lasts the whole day.


Back to reality.

Denmark is WINDY.
And with -5 degrees celsius in still air, that means pretty cold weather.
My grandparents live on top of a hill, which makes it even windyer.

Yesterday and the day before I defied the rough conditions and went out to get fresh air. I found a way to get some exercise even with my crippled and useless knees that keep me from running.
I put on this funny radio channel on my phone, that mainly sends old music and hits, and I dance, jump and run sideways and backwards on the curved roads.

Denmark

Pretending to be sporty and pretending not to notice that I was actually taking a picture of myself. Clever.

Road through a little wood near Laven

I actually walked a lot these days. 6 km on Tuesday, and yesterday I first walked for 30 min, and then 3 km to the train station in Laven (even though my grandma is worried I get exhausted from all that activity...
...and they feed me THIS as appetizer for dinner! Avocado with mayonnaise. But yum!)
, and when I arrived Silkeborg and my uncle Karsten (after some complications), we walked for another 1,5 hours!

My legs hurt!
In a nice way:)

A beech surrendered to the forces of mother Nature

Popular boat place

View from Amalienhøj (??) over the woods and lakes of Silkeborg

The steepest place in Denmark?

Nightmare. SCARY PICTURE

Beech in twilight

After this long walk in the woods, and some interesting discussions, I realised how many fascinating people I actually have in my family, that I just don't know. It's different coming on my own as a grown up person than as the little kid of the family, like I always have been before.

Uncle Karsten is a wise man. He knows a lot. And he is strong. He has seen how life can be.

And he wears Norwegian sweaters!

And orders Mexican pizza Extra strong, so I got fever

After walking around in the dusk and cold for so long, it was a blessing to come home to a warm house.
Because of laziness, the dinner we ended up with was pizza from a pizzeria nearby and some beer to kill the hot jalapeno taste.

Maybe it was from walking, maybe from watching a Japanese/Russian movie called "Dersu Uzala", or maybe it was from reading "The Process" of Franz Kafka and challenging my intellect after going to bed. Anyways, I slept like a baby. I haven't had so strange and yet so realistic dreams for a long long time.
I was back at Hogwarts as the fourth member of the group of friends there, like I used to be in my dreams when I was younger.
I like that!


After the baths in Silkeborg, we went back and had some good, traditional lunch.

Denmark on a plate. Rye bread with herring, egg, capers, an some olives (to represent the multicultural society? haha), accompanied by Danish beer and Linie Aquavit.

Waiting for summer. View from living room

Competition. Karsten hides his keys in one of these rocks. Which one is holow and made of plastic?
I'm impressed.

The artsy picture of the day.
Solveig's violin.
May she rest in peace, that lovely woman.

Uncle Karsten took a nap, and I continued my work through Kafka's psychological mazes, until it was time to head back to Silkeborg, him to some kind of lecture about the brain and religious faith, and me to walk around until I the train went.

Sneak photo with mobile phone, pretending not to be a tourist in Silkeborg

Stupid phone.. Weird effect on Silkeborg Museum which happens to be a charming building

During a little hour of waiting in the center, I went into Frellsens Chokolade (YUMMI) and got some confectionery for my grandparents, and a lovely (the best in the world, I would say) cream puff, or FLØDEBOLLE as it's called here.
I also got some books!
Three books for 60 DKK. I love cheap deals!
The cheapest book I ever bought was "The Clan of the Cave Bear" of Jean M. Auel. Almost 500 pages for 10 DKK.
I'm still shocked.

I found my way to the train station just in time.
The ticket machine was out of order.
The train arrived, and I had to enter without ticket.
A sign screams against me from the train door:
"Travelling without ticket is expensive. 750 DKK if you don't have a valid ticket or travel card"

My trip took 11 minutes, and I sat sweating and stressed planning on excuses and fairytales if they would come to check my ticket.
Luckily there was another girl who hadn't had time to stamp her card, so we got into a chat about that, and then we laughed. Funny when you share those situations instead of worrying by yourself.
Happy moment:)

Grandpa came and picked me up, and we went back to this windy little top with a nice view.

Now we are watching a debate program about the situation in the Arab world, and whether they are ready for democracy or not.
I love when politicans fight on air.

Grandpa is listening with his eyes closed.
Because then he doesn't get distracted by the eyes.

He's unique.
Haha:)