Updates from Denmark

by | Apr 13, 2017

24 March

I’m in Sønderborg. It’s a little town, kind of in the middle of nowhere by the Danish-German border. The house is in the countryside and the next door neighbours are horses, but everything you could possibly want is about a five minute drive away.

Bo is one of the viking gods I met on Camino last year. He owns the house, which is currently a second-hand shop. He also owns the car, which I’ve been driving while I try to figure out where things are.
Right now he’s turning one of his spare rooms into a living room so there will be someplace to sit down. Next week he’s going to move the shop to a new place a few miles away. I’m fairly sure he’s doing that because he wants to, not just because I’m here, though he says that he’s doing it for me. It’s a bit intimidating to think of someone undertaking such a huge amount of work for my sake. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all though. Last night he was painting the living room at 2 in the morning.

The government is giving me danish language lessons, but I think that won’t start until my id card comes in, maybe next week. Work doesn’t start till April 10th, either. In other words, I have absolutely no excuse not to be writing – and no pics, because my phone is trying to commit suicide.

27 March

There are some advantages to living in an antique shop. I was making carbonara for dinner, and couldn’t find a cheese grater. He ran off and made noise for a few minutes, and came back with one. From somewhere. Same with the coffee press, produced out of thin air. And a bicycle, and a bike lift.

The only thing I can’t find is empty space, but we cleared a little area in the front porch and mounted the bike lift in the rafters. This thing is an antique three-speed cycle path cruiser with a dyno light and a rat-trap rack. It has everything, it’s just a little dusty. I meant to buy a new bike when I got here, but I have a vision and it’s going to take a little time to find the bike that fits it. So I’m working on this one in the meantime.
It needs new tires, chain, headset and bottom bracket, and repairs for the hubs, dyno, and shifters. I can do about half of it myself, I think, and there’s a guy at the local bike shop who has a good attitude and says he can fix everything I can’t handle.

There’s a second local bike shop where the guy had a less good attitude and wanted to sell me a used bike that doesn’t meet my incredibly picky standards. So I’m getting to know the town. Here’s some pictures!