Denmark and Sweden - 2012-13

Short trip back to Denmark and Sweden

First post in 2013. And I'll start it with a write-up from last year's X-mas dinner.

Asli, Erkan and Leif joined us on Christmas Eve for dinner at our place. I can't say that it was a very Christmassy dinner in terms of the menu chosen - at least not a Danish Christmas dinner - but it was nice nonetheless. We stuffed ourselves as tradition is on Christmas, and then we proceeded to the pass-the-present game, which was thoroughly won by the Erkul's. They cleaned us out!

Fast forward to the 28th. I was checking which seat we had been allocated on our flight home the next day when I realized that we had been waitlisted although we had previously been confirmed. After spending half the day trying to figure out what was going on (SAS had cancelled all flights from China and Japan), we were finally re-booked on the Finnair flight from Seoul. Unfortunately there is no flight Ulsan-Seoul for such an early departure (not actually very early, leaving at 11:15am), so we had to go by train instead. In some ways we were lucky, as there was no problem getting seats for the 5:22am departure - my colleagues had to stand up for their train ride as all airports in Korea bar one were closed on the 28th due to snow. But we didn't feel lucky as we had to get up at 3:30 for a 4:15 pick-up!

Flight was good apart from the sore throat I picked up on the 10-hours in the cabin. Funny (not really) how I felt great entering the plane and could hardly swallow when I left it. Bugger !

After a stopover in Helsinki we landed in Copenhagen and went straight to our friend's apartment. Rocio and Thure had been in Mexico the last couple of times we were in Denmark, so we hadn't seen them for some years. It was good to catch up. And to do it without stress. Due to the holiday season most of our friends were away, so we had only planned to hook up with them and my cousin Ingerlise and Matthias, which we did next day. Ingerlise had put together a great "julebord" - late lunch with all the traditional dishes and drinks. It was just what we needed. Paula as a vegetarian enjoyed the wide selection of fish and schnapps whereas I just enjoyed everything! We had also missed the Lohans the last few times we were in Copenhagen, so Lisa had grown up quite a bit since we saw her last. She's a cutie!

Then on to my parents' place on Fyn for New Year's Eve. Another crisis when their land line didn't work and we couldn't call them to when we arrived (it's a 5km walk from the station to their place - not an option with our luggage!). After trying to reach them for two hours I looked up the neighbour's number on the yellow pages and called her instead. The funny thing is that last year for X-mas we gave them a cell phone, but they never turn it on ! For them the cell phone is only to be used when THEY have to call somebody !

True to tradition, Paula and I were not able to both make it to midnight together. Paula went cold after dinner at 21:30 while I had a second wind and stayed up with my parents and my uncle Ernst and aunt Karen. It was a nice quiet evening for us right until the fireworks started. For some reason the generally peaceful and considerate Danish population goes berserk this one day of the year - recession or not. My parents live in a small village but it lit up like any respectable capital for two hours around midnight. Fireworks are not really my thing, so happy to watch it from behind the kitchen window.

The eating regime continued the next days. Both at my parents' place, at my sisters place, at Gitte and Peter's and at Vanda in Juelsminde. I love visiting Denmark at Christmas time !

On Saturday 5th we took the train to Sweden and met up with my old classmate Robert, his wife Diana and their son Sixten. First for dinner at Vai Piano at Caroli (newly renovated) and then at their apartment. Walking through Västra Hamnen it was funny to see how quickly things changed there compared to the centre, where as an example Caroli has been undergoing renovation the last year without being completed yet. Västra Hamnen we didn't even recognize from a year earlier...

In Sweden we got to visit Heini in her new apartment (niiice!), Tom and Noelia and Jackie and Tue. Again we missed out on some good friends due to the vacation time and our own time constraint, but at least we had some good times with the remaining friends.

On January 7th we flew back to cold but sunny Korea. Back to a heavy back-log at work but also back to our other friends ...