Open Prisons, Danish Reggae, and the Beatles: Western Denmark tour

[WARNING: Long blog post. Read at your own risk.]

Today is Wednesday, which means no class (best idea ever), so I can finally sit down and write about my short study tour last week! This could take awhile, so I will settle down with my favorite snack, tea and fresh bread with Nutella. (This is my favorite time of day because the sun is shining directly on me through my window and making me feel hopeful about spring.)

The Folkehøjskole: Thursday

Conveniently, there was a bus strike on Thursday morning (sarcasm), so I had to walk an extra 15 minutes to the Metro lugging my heavy bag. I was still on time, though, so all was well. We drove 3 and a half hours (across 2 bridges) until we got to Ry, a small town outside of Arhus on the mainland of Jutland. We were greeted by a delicious buffet lunch being served (can I just say that we ate like royalty this week? SUCH good food). Let me explain what a højskole is: basically, a glorified summer camp with amazing food (and alcohol). After finishing regular school, students can go to a højskole for about 6 months--it's much more normal to take a few years off before continuing to university (which I think is a wonderful idea). So, students are usually from 18-24 years old. There is a focus on figuring out who you are and less of a focus on grades and strict classes. You can choose to do art, ceramics, theater, music, journalism, or nature, just to name a few. Although you do have to pay to go, everyone is accepted and there is no worries about "getting in." They want it to be "education for life" and let students develop and love for learning on their own, without being forced into it. As a teacher-to-be, I think this is a wonderful philosophy and I wish the U.S. had an equivalent! There are about 80 højskoles all over Denmark, and there are only about 70 students there at a time. That way, you get to know everybody and form close relationships. In the afternoon, there were different activities to chose from (including juggling and African drums), so I chose to go on a walk with other Danish students to get to know them. We walked about 7 km through the countryside, and it was so beautiful! (And a little muddy...)

It was really cool to talk to students my age, and one girl I talked to had the exact same birthday as me, year and all! We even think we were born around the same time, because I was born in the afternoon in the U.S. and she was born in the evening. Weird coincidence!

After dinner, we could choose another activity to do (including guitar, hip hop, or Danish sign language), so I chose drawing. It was very "hygge" (cozy), listening to music by candlelight and drawing. I'm not the best artist but I drew a person that I was reasonably proud of! They even have a bar at the højskole, which they opened for us that night, so we all had a great time getting to know the Danes and I even went to bed at a reasonable hour (11)!

Open Prison, Art, and Danish Reggae: Friday

In the morning after breakfast, we attended the morning assembly, which they kindly did in English for us. Guess what song we sang? Let it Be. I was very happy and definitely didn't need the book with the lyrics! Then we drove to an open prison to get a tour. What is an open prison, you might ask? As you might gather, it's open so there are no fences or barbed wire surrounding it. It's where white-collar criminals are mostly sent, although there are also criminals from the closed prisons that sometimes get transfered there. They want to get the inmates ready to go back into society when they are released, so they focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. They have a single room, some prisoners can have TV and internet, they make their own food (there are even knives in the kitchen), they have tennis courts, a gym, mini golf, and even a chapel. They often get menial jobs on the property to get them used to going to work every day (which some of them have never done before), and they can get an education. There is a lot of trust built into the system, and if they are well behaved they can visit their families for a weekend every 3 weeks.

You're probably wondering why don't people try to get into prison on purpose then? Because of the Danish welfare system, you're practically guaranteed food and shelter, and you have to WANT to be homeless to not get these benefits. Therefore, no one needs to go to prison to get these necessities. This type of system would not work in the U.S., unfortunately, because Danish culture is so trusting that they're able to have prisons like this. In the U.S., the system would be taken advantage of because people would just try to escape. And the Danes must be doing something right, because the return rate to prison is only about 30%, the lowest in the world! It's still not perfect, but it's still doing a lot better than the American prison system. It's still prison though--you don't have any real freedom, and you're stuck in the same place for however many years. But even though they're punished, the inmates still have a chance to integrate back into society without ruining their entire lives. It was extremely interesting to see this in person!

In the afternoon (after an amazing traditional Danish lunch at an old inn), we went to an art museum that was in the middle of nowhere. This is because since the late 1800s, the Danes began educating the peasants and farmers and bringing them culture from the cities. This is one of the reasons why there was never a big revolution in Denmark like there was in other European countries. The museum was very interesting, and had some beautiful sculptures.

However, it was cold and rainy outside so we couldn't see a lot of them without getting wet and miserable. Oh well.

We drove to Kolding ("Kulling") next, where we were staying in a very nice hostel. Even though it was extremely cold and windy and rainy, we went out into the town to get dinner and, of course, got lost. We were very cold and wet. We ended up eating at a pizza place that put kebabs on the pizza. Interesting but delicious! That night there was a Danish reggae concert (random, I know), so we got tickets to go since there was nothing else to do. However, we got cold and lost yet again. (Seriously, it was SO WINDY. Are there hurricanes in Denmark??) The band were called Von Dü (I think they have a myspace page if you want to look them up, haha) and they were actually pretty good! Not that we could understand anything, since it was all in Danish... still, an experience!

One of my friends took a video:

Old Runes and the Beatles: Saturday

On Saturday morning, we went to Jelling ("Yelling"), which is basically the birthplace of Denmark. (also, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site which means I've been to all 3 in Denmark now!) They have an extremely old stone with runes that mention "Denmark" for the first time in recorded history. (from the 10th century!) There are also two mounds, one of which is where the first known king of Denmark (Gorm) was originally buried. It was very interesting to me (as a history major), but also very wet and cold so I was glad to get back on the bus!

After another amazing brunch, we went to Koldinghus, the castle in Kolding. It was really cool because it had burned down in 1808 and stood as a ruin until 1980, when they decided to restore it. Instead of trying to recreate what one of the old models looked like, they left the old stuff and integrated it into a new structure. It was very tastefully done and was a very beautiful melding of old and new. It now houses a museum with a variety of exhibits. While we were there, they had a Beatles exhibit, which was one of the highlights for me! They even had the original instruments the Beatles used when they were on the Ed Sullivan show. SO COOL.

In the picture you can see the exhibit and also how there is both old and new parts of the castle combined. Fascinating! We drove back to Copenhagen after Koldinghus, and I definitely listened to the Beatles on my iPod... :)

All in all, this trip gave me a much better understanding of what the Danish culture is like, and made me love Denmark even more! I loved riding on the bus and looking at all the scenery go by. It might be small, but it's a beautiful country!

Skål!