Summer in Denmark

What is Danish summer all about?

We’ve spent the last few weeks of summer in Denmark trying to figure it out and help you make summer in Denmark make sense. Here’s what we managed to dig up for you.

Does it suck or not?

robetrotting

View more on Instagram

So much of life in Denmark is based around the weather, and that’s something that Annie and I broke down in a recent episode of What Are You Doing in Denmark.

We called this episode Does summer in Denmark suck? And we had a lot of laughs while debating the topic. Annie recounted her experience at CopenHell, a massive, multi-day, heavy metal festival in Copenhagen. She explained how the crowd was nothing like she expected. I also found it hilarious as she told me that she was unable to attend this year’s Roskilde Festival, and why it turned out to be a good thing.

While music festivals are a positive part of Danish summer, one downside is going all summer without seeing your friends. We explained why that’s a pretty normal aspect of Danish summer and how people deal with it - or don’t.

Whether Danish summer makes you think of a tent full of trash or drinking wine in the park (more details on those things in the episode) we invite you to have a listen.

Does it pay?

Whether summer in Denmark sucks or not depends not just on timing and the weather - it depends on what you make of it. Some people are really making the most of it with a new initiative rolled out by Copenhagen’s tourism board.

The initiative is designed to reward tourists for making sustainable choices while visiting Copenhagen. Participating attractions, restaurants, and cafes are giving away incentives to those who arrive by foot or bike, pick up trash, or engage in other greenwashing… err green activities.

It’s called CopenPay, running through mid-August, and maybe that was a giveaway that we are a little skeptical of its merits. You can read more about it on their website, but Mike and I also examined it closer on the podcast.

We wanted to know why the city is spending money to encourage tourists to do thing they’ll likely do anyway, and is it the best use of funds?

You can hear more of our thoughts on the topic by clicking below:

What’s coming up?

We’ll have some exciting episodes coming up through the rest of summer and during the back to school period?

Next week we’re doing a fun collaborative episode with Abby, Marius, and Owen from Coping in Copenhagen. We play a rousing game of Pyramid, based on the “not as famous as we anticipated” game show. Of course, it has a Danish twist and turned out hilariously entertaining.

Annie and I even tricked the gang into taking awkward family photos before we recorded and we’ll be posting to instagram with those hilarious snapshots. Make sure to follow us if you don’t already, you won’t want to miss those gems.

If you’re looking for a summer read, check out the book, Danish Humor: Sink or Swim. Danish humor can be a difficult adjustment for internationals in Denmark and I was fortunate enough to interview the co-authors of the book earlier this summer. I will be sharing that interview in an upcoming, two-part episode and highly recommend their book!

Thanks for reading, listening, and supporting us!

hej hej,

Derek