Day 2 Aalborg
I didn't really have much in mind for my trip to Aalborg. I mostly chose it because I saw this blog series from this guy who had visited Aarhus, Aalborg and Skagen and made them all sound pretty super. Sponsored by Visit Denmark so I guess he did a pretty good job if he got me to go.
And I really probably should have done some research before I booked the nights. There's not really that much to do in Aalborg that interests me. I don't really want to do any museums or galleries after doing a couple in Aarhus. So I guess I'm having a relaxing time here.
Charlotte's friend who works at the craft beer bar (Patrick) crashed the night on the couch and he had the idea for the two of them to feed me a traditional Danish breakfast called ollebrod which is basically porridge made out of rye bread and beer. Apparently it's mostly served as a simple meal or for children because neither of them had had it for years but they tell me it's pretty divisive when it comes to Danes. About 50/50 love/hate.
Bread, beer and sugar. What could go wrong?! They served it with a couple of sides ... raw sugar, whipped cream and whipped cream mixed with vanilla.
I thought it was pretty good! I don't think I could have it every day but it's a rich sweet taste and it's very filling. I'd add some fruit or something to it myself. I think apple or pear with cinnamon would go really well with it.
Patrick had invited me to a craft beer bottle share with him and a few others at 1pm so I'm going to try to make it to that if I finish up with whatever I'm doing.
I started out with a walk around the Music Park. Some dude had the pretty cool idea to ask all major visiting artists who do big concerts in Aalborg to plant a tree in this particular park so they leave something tangible here to commemorate their visit. Next to the tree they put a little machine with a button that plays a medley of the artist's songs when you press it. It's actually a really good idea. There are 80 trees in the park so far and no artists have turned down the request according to the spiel I read. They even change the music over to their Christmas songs if they have any in December.
Obviously the first thing I did was to hit as many of the buttons as I could before the first one ran out. Could be fun to do something like a progressive picnic in the park. Take a group of people everyone gets to pick an artist and you move spots after a certain period of time.
Next I went and had a look at a place called Nordcraft. It's an old power plant or something that's been converted into a community centre. They've got function rooms, restaurants, a theatre, a cinema and various other things. There's even supposed to be an indoor beach (read: sand on the floor) but I'll be damned if I could find it. The building isn't that big so I'm not sure where it was supposed to be hiding. Maybe it's gone for the winter? Or maybe they don't put it back until December? I dunno. Instead there was a market on the ground floor selling mostly food and beer. I thought about picking up a couple of bottles for the bottle share but I was starting to get the impression that I wasn't going to make it and I didn't really want to lug the bottles around for the next few hours.
Across the road was the local concert hall which was a pretty cool building. Not very impressive from the street but the design from the river side was kind of funky. There wasn't anything happening there that night so I couldn't go see a show but the inside of the hall looked pretty interesting. They were running a tour but it was in Danish so I didn't join in.
They've done a lot of work developing the waterfront here so I imagine it's pretty popular in summer and spring. That said it's mostly concrete and you can't swim in most of it so I'm not entirely sure how appealing it is. Needs more trees and grass.
Down the river a ways is a building designed by the architect who did the Sydney Opera House. I'll just leave this picture here and say it's no Sydney Opera House.
After that I pretty much just had a wander around the old town. I had a look at the stupid drinking street (which was very boring during the day), saw some beautiful old buildings and stuck my nose into a few interesting looking shops. I do still need to pick up a few things for later in the year but Denmark isn't likely to be the cheapest place to do that.
Eventually I'm about to buy some food for a really late lunch and have a giant OH SHIT moment. I can't find my wallet! PANIC STATIONS EVERYBODY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
I check all my pockets in pants, jacket and bag and it's not there. I start to retrace my steps and figure out whether I'd felt anything that made it seem like I'd been pick pocketed or whether there was anywhere I might have dropped it or failed at putting it back in my pocket.
Then I realised that I hadn't actually bought anything today and I hadn't actually used my wallet. And that I had locked it in my backpack last night before I went to sleep. So I hustled back to the apartment and thankfully the damn thing was still in my backpack! Fark. I'm sure it would have been exceptionally tedious having to cancel all my cards and get replacements in the middle of Denmark when I'm constantly moving around.
I'd pretty much exhausted all I wanted to do in Aalborg at this point so I mostly kicked around the apartment for a while and chilled out.
I decided I felt like cooking so I went out and bought some food at the local market. I wandered aimlessly for a while then settled on making burritos. Something simple and fresh.
Cooked later, chopped a bit of my finger off (well not quite off but it's pretty deep and bled like a son of a bitch), did some laundry then went out around 9 and had a look at the drinking street. Busier now but still not really pumping. A bit early maybe and probably not too surprising after the big day that J-day would have been. I can definitely tell it's not my kind of place though. Saw a couple of groups of guys at bars doing rows of shots and I'm like naaaarrrrrr.
Instead I ducked into a British pub I stumbled across on my wanderings earlier in the day. It was pretty busy as there was a Liverpool game on and this is apparently the local Liverpool fan spot. I even saw Patrick there. Apparently he works there as well but he was there as a customer tonight watching the game. He saw me and came over for a quick chat. Invited me to join his group if I felt like being social but they were having a good time and I didn't want to intrude so I left them to it.
I do regret not joining them and also not making it to the bottle share. Patrick had gone out of his way to be friendly to a visitor so I'm sorry I didn't make more of an effort. The bottle share particularly as really this was just another town. It could be any town in the world. I really should have gone. Ah well. I might send him a couple of bottles of Australian beer once I get home.
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