Jul

We spent Christmas in Denmark, and it went by way too fast, the way it often is with vacations. Silja had a blast hanging out with all her many big and small cousins, and I suppose that was the greatest gift for me this time around. Somebody need to invent a travel machine, so it's possible to go instantly back and forth between places: Snap we are Vienna, snap checking in for coffee in Fredericia and snap dinner with the grand parents in Reykjavik... Imagine that. Till that is taken care of, we'll continue to treasure those kinds of moments with extra care as they are long in between for us.

Due to the upcoming craziness of thesis deadline, packing and moving us and our stuff halfway across the world, this trip was more quiet than usual (I didn't see any old friends as I normally do, but we are coming back in April on our way to Boston, and count me in for a date then if you happen to read this!) but it was great with a little breather.

We came back to Wien late last night with a little one who started throwing up in the middle of the night, a messy apartment, a library late fee and stacks of papers waiting to be 'dealt with'. Bvaah. Every day life again -- which is not that bad after all, it's just the transition from fun days together with dear ones to that everyday jumble. We have spent the day scrubbing the place down, which all of a sudden has a strange temporary feel to it now that we are past Christmas. We got three months left in Vienna.

A very belated merry Christmas to you. Glædelig jul/Gleðileg Jól!

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Visiting Home

Denmark this time around was lots of strawberries, sweet cousins, old friends, dinner dates, summer rain, colorful art, salty licorice and a job interview; the last one resulting in much reflection about living in Denmark. Having lived away from home the past five years, going back on a visit like this one is a strange mix of feelings of fitting right in and feeling strangely out of place. I suppose it is unavoidable when developing ties to more than one place, combined with being out of the daily loop of one specific place in terms of all those big and small changes that are continually taking place. Nevertheless fingers crossed that things in Aarhus pan out...

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Christmas in Denmark

We had a wonderful WHITE Christmas in Denmark. As usual time went by way too fast, and I did not manage to see all of those I was hoping to see. Nevertheless it was great to hang out with the family, play with the nieces and nephews and eat a lot of (Danish) food. We left Denmark with even heavier suitcases than when we arrived, and are currently R E L A X I N G in Northern Iceland. We are on an equally tight schedule in Iceland, but Bjarni is down with a stomach flu, which has resulted in a small but much needed breather.

Pictures from our Danish Christmas days:

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Danish Visitors

In the beginning of the week three lovely guests arrived from Denmark along with candy from home, Stryhn's leverpostej (a Danish must-have spread for lunch) and one of these happy fellars. Great!
As our visits in Denmark/Iceland are always rather short, seeing old friends usually means catching up in a few hours, which never really feels like enough. Thus having Jane and Rasmus here for five days was a real treat, which allowed in-depth conversation and lots of time to watch and play with little Jeppe. Speaking of Jeppe, turns out our apartment is not quite baby-proof yet, which among other things meant the little guy had to drink from a shot glass! (picture 1)
After as much sightseeing as possible in the cold winter weather, we were treated with the Viennese speciality Sachertorte, a much talked about chocolate cake at the fancy Sacher Hotel. And fancy it was -- the cake itself probably a bit overrated though.
Tak for besøg til I tre! Det var skønt.

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All Smiles?

I very rarely watch TV here in Austria, because almost everything is in German, which I can only take in a limited amount of doses. After weeks of not watching anything but occasional CNN news I turned it on last night to find a program about Danes, the supposedly happiest people in the world. I was switching between finding the whole phenomenon a bit overrated and missing home.

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