One day in Aarhus...

Last Sunday we decided to go to visit Aarhus which is the third city of Denmark. We left in the morning, it was a sunny day, good to visit a new city ! Unfortunately, the weather in Aarhus wasn't as pleasant... it was cold... very cold ! As we are now well acclimatized to the Danish weather, we braved the cold to discover the city... but not for long. After walking half an hour our bodies were already frozen, so we decided to visit Aarhus museum.

ARoS Aarhus museum

ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum is the main museum in Aarhus and one of the biggest art museum in Nothern Europe. It opened in 2004 and since 2011 it is recognizable by the circular skywalk "Your rainbow panorama" created by Olafur Eliasson, situated on the top of the museum.
It is a ten floor museum where we can see permanents expositions as golden age art, contemporary art, danish modernism and the famous "Boy" and we can see some exhibitions.

At the moment the exhibition is "Klein Byars Kapoor". Yves Klein (French), James Byars (American) and Anish Kapoor (British) are three famous artists from different period and different media known for their work with colour and material.

Your Rainbow Panorama
(Source : aros.dk)

Yves Klein's work is about the special and intense colour of blue. His different works are about using this blue with different materials.

James Byars is focus on the white colour. He was using noble material such as marble from Thassos in his work.

Yves Klein's exhibition

James Byars's exhibtion

Anish Kapoor's work was probably the most impressive. He makes very big sculpture using wax as material. The strong red colour in his work is very captivating. 

His work Shooting into the corner is a moving work, it emerges gradually during the exposition. This work consists of a canon, which every 30 minutes, fires a large canister of red wax into the corner. We were looking at some other works when we first heard the canon... it was surprising. After having found where this sound came from we waited for the next fire to watch it. It's actually a qualified person who come to operate the canon and he is not allowed to speak with any visitor. This work left us really wondering. And made us startled more than once a day !

Past, Present, Future by Anish Kapoor

Shooting into the corner by Anish Kapoor

The other really impressive work which is as well the symbol of the ARoS Aarhus Museum is the sculpture "Boy". It's a five meters tall and 500 kilograms heavy sculpture of a crouching boy made in silicon and glassfibre. This boy is really really realistic. Ron Mueck, the artist, created it in 1999 and spent eight months to make it in its real size.

Boy by Ron Mueck

After going all over the rest of the museum, we finished our visit by walking in the skywalk "Your rainbow panorama". It gives a great view of all the city. And whatever if the sky is grey outside, this work makes you see life in color !

Claire

Aalborg by night

Many many things to do in Aalborg by night.

Whatever your expectations, you can find THE place to go.

If you just want to have a beer in a nice atmosphere, you can go to one of the Irish Pubs in Aalborg. If it is the good day there will have football or rugby match released on big screen.

If you want to meet people and also enjoy a concert, there is the Studenterhuset (Student house) in the city center. In this place there are two rooms: in the first you can find many tables and sofa to have a drink and speak with other people. Also there are a foosball for free and a billiard. And in the second place, there is usually something organize like concert with different bands or karaoke or international night or swing night or games night ... They have a lot of imagination to find the way to make a party.

By the way we participated to the last karaoke. It was very funny. And because we were with other international students we chose to sing not a French song but a Spanish one: “la Bamba”. It was a good experience. I prefer to show you just a picture of that and not a video … It is better for you, for sure.

Also if you are undecided about the place to go, I recommend you to go on the most famous street in Aalborg and also in Denmark. It is the street called “Jomfru Ane Gade”. This street is full of restaurants, pubs and clubs. There is a mix of local people and tourist that made it very rich. All the pubs or clubs have his type of atmosphere. So you can choose your favorite.

 If I have an advice, it will be to go in the pubs before midnight because the drinks are very cheaper.

So now, see you there ! =) 

Camille

Our first visit in Denmark

During this first month we had got the time to enjoy Denmark and made some visits.

As we have a car it’s easier to move. So we try to discover as much it is possible.

So we went to the Lindholm Hoje in the north of Aalborg. It is a Vikings sanctuary. When we went there, there was a lot of snow so we didn’t see very well the different form draw by the stones. But the place was very nice. There is a museum on there but we were afraid that all the explanations will be in Danish so we didn’t go on it. 

Also when our French friends come from Horsens for one week-end, we decided to go on the most Northeast point in Denmark, in Skagen. 

Skagen is the place where the North Sea on the left join the Baltic sea on the right. When you arrive there, you park your car and after you have to walk on the beach around 30 minutes in order to enjoy the view. It was nice even if the sun was missing. But I think that we will go again in April perhaps.

Oh and when we were walking next to the sea we saw something moving on it.  It was a curious seal. He just stayed to look at what we were doing here and dived and came back… So amazing to see a real seal other than in a zoo.

To continue to explore the coast, on a sunny day we decided to discover Hals, a small city in the East coast just above the Fjord. 

So we had a walk along the sea. It was beautiful because with the high freezing wind the seaside was frozen. It is rare to see salted water frozen and very beautiful to see seashell stranded on ice. After that we went on the harbor to enjoy the sun again. And we took some rest on the only pub of the city. On there, the time seemed to be stop. It was decorated with old stuff, and everybody inside was smoking. And when we ordered a coffee, the bartender brought us a coffee thermos bottle. It was a very familiar atmosphere. And the people seemed very surprise to meet tourist during this season, and we began to talk with them. It was very nice.

And to conclude the day we sat in front of the sea to admire the beautiful sunset.

That's it ... for the moment !

Camille

Treasure Hunt in Aalborg

When we arrived in Aalborg a lot of people told us about I-life Aalborg which is Facebook group who organizes a lot of events for students like trip, concerts, game nights or parties. We participate to the most of them because it’s a very good way to meet new people and the atmosphere is very nice.

Two weeks ago they organized a treasure hunt in Aalborg to make us visit the city in a funny way. That was a great day because even if it was very cold… it’s always cold… it was a sunny day and it was a pleasure to walk around the town.

We first met at the student where we made groups and took the instructions. We had go in different places and answer some questions, find some elements or deal with little challenges as taking some pictures, finding hidden numbers or pronouncing a sentence in Danish… which is very difficult to do !

We went all around the city learning the story of the statue of the bull and the statue of Christian IX in the city center, visiting the main library of Aalborg. We went as well to the Nordkraft center which is a cultural center and a theater organizing concerts and different other things.

The view from the Nordkraft Center 

Aalborg's Bull

Christian IX

We visited the Utzon Center which is a cultural place with art exposition. We learnt the story of the ship that we can see on the Fjord, it's actually an ice breaker converted into a restaurant now. 

The Utzon Center

The Ice Breaker Restaurant

But the most amazing part of the afternoon was when we went into the old Aalborg. There we had to find one street. It was a little colored street going to a little colored place. There, there is an artist living and exhibiting his work. We were really surprised by this little square lost in the middle of the big town. And with the sun and the colors, discovering this place was a magic moment!!!

The little street

The little place

And at the end of the afternoon we all met at the Student House for a coffee and little pastries to wait for the final ranking. Our group composed by Camille, Axelle, Laura an Estonian girl and Pedro a Portuguese guy and me, were very happy to finish at the second place. We won beers and chocolates! It was a great day of discovering and meeting.

Claire