Sankt Hans Aften

June 24th is known as Sankt Hans Aften in Denmark, or St. John's night. In other places, it is celebrated as the feast of St. John the Baptist who, according to the Bible, was born six months before Jesus. Here in lovely Denmark, it is celebrated not with mass baptisms, but with mass burnings of witch effigies. It's festive.

Behold, the pyre in the background.

Prior to the fires, we had a barbecue on Amager Strand. Despite the spells of rain, and a relatively brief, yet dense and terribly annoying infestation of gnats, it was a great time.We then wandered down the beach, looking for the biggest pile of brush. When we came upon it, it was surrounded by a rather older looking crowd, all listening to a rather boring sounding speaker. As we rather quickly found out, we had stumbled upon the witch burning being held by the Danish Communist Party. We may all be on a government watchlist, but they were nice enough, and their bonfire was large, so we stuck around and their band played a medley of Beatles songs while the witch went up in flames. A nice extra touch were the noisy fireworks added to the fire for semi-realistic sounding screams.

The lighting in this country will never cease to amaze me.

As a celestial preamble to the bonfire, the sky decided to grace us with not one but two very vivid rainbows. After experiencing a double rainbow in real life, I now understand how that guy on YouTube got so excited about it. Unfortunately I was only able to get a good picture of one of them with the camera on my phone.

The evening was graced with rainbows.

A very vibrant rainbow.

Apparently Danes are the treasure at the 
end of the rainbow.

Burn witch, burn.

That's the ticket.

Sunset at 11:00pm. Or as we locals like to say, 23:00/

Yup, that'll do. The cherry on top of a great week.

Møns Klint

Møns Klint is a chalk cliff in southern Sealand, about an hour and a half drive south from Copenhagen. It's accessible by public transportation, but not easily, so we were all quite pleased when our lovely intern reps revealed that we'd be making an all expenses paid trip down to Møns. The cliff itself is about 6km long. The highest points along its length are about 120 meters, making it one of the highest points in the legendarily high-altitude country of Denmark.
Due to the chalk composition of the area, fossils are plentiful. The very white chalk and turquoise water also give it an almost otherworldly appearance.

Majestic.

The region surrounding Møns Klint was heavily affected by glacial activity. The chalk formed from tiny prehistoric creatures on the seabed, which was then pushed up by the pressure of huge glaciers moving westward. As a result, there are many folds in the composition of the cliffs, made very visible by the flint that the chalk is studded with.

Just look at that curvature.

More cliffs.

Interns, captivated by the scenery.

Looking down the very white beach.

Lukas, bringing art to the uncivilized wilderness.

James and Adam, skipping rocks. Zoe captures the moment.

A tree in the wilderness.

The beach below the cliffs can be reached from any of four staircases, all of which are close to 500 stairs high. Better make sure you're in pretty good shape before making the trip down, otherwise you may get stranded... Jokes.

But seriously, we were panting after reaching the top. But the view was well worth it. Plus we all got our exercise for the day and felt a lot better about spending a combined three hours on a bus.

Samer, Greta, Lukas and John, admiring the view.

Exploring and hunting for fossils and skipping stones. Credit to Adam Fishman.

The whole motley crew. Credit to David Gwynn.

Biking Bornholm: Day 2

On our second day in Bornholm, I took a little time to admire the beauty of the little town of Gudhjem where we were staying. 

Some picturesque rocks near our hostel.

A very intrepid family of ducks braving the surf.

For our adventure of the day we decided to bike up to the northern tip of the island, to the ruins of a castle called Hammershus. It is the remains of the largest medieval fortification in northern Europe. So that's pretty cool. It was built in the 13th century, and was long believed to have been constructed as a residence for the archbishop of Lund. However new evidence suggests it may instead have been built for the Danish King Valdemar II for use as both as a residence and a base for the Danish crusades. Which I didn't know were a thing.

Some quick research reveals that the Danish crusades were part of the larger Northern Crusades, a series of wars by Danish and Swedish kings against the pagans of norther Europe. Apparently a group called The Sword Brothers was also involved, which is a pretty sweet name. If my memory serves me correctly, this was the same group that built the fortress I stumbled upon in Sigulda, Latvia. Pretty sure they were a Latvian group. Fun connections!

Check out this here fortification.

The keep.

Some walls.

On the way back down to Gudhjem we stopped off at a fish restaurant that had been recommended to us. I had chicken. We also made a brief pit-stop at a cave on the coast, known as the Black Cauldron.

There were come cows near it.

Cliffs.

Inside the cave. It was uncomfortably narrow. And damp, 
due to the ocean being right outside of it. Slightly creepy, 
but really cool.

Biking Bornholm: Day 1

Bornhom is the second easternmost point in Denmark. The farthest east is Christiansø, a small archipelago about 18 km northeast of Bornholm. It boasts an impressive year round population of 96 people. 

The population of Bornholm is slightly higher, ringing in at approximately 41,000 people. Bornholm is a roughly rhomboid island in the Baltic sea with an area of 588 sq km (227 sq mi). With such a small size, it's an ideal place for a weekend of biking. It's famous for its beer, ice cream, smoked herring and glass.

Bonus: it's beautiful enough that even grey and rainy weather can't ruin the experience.

There are hills. More than I've ever encountered in a day of biking in Denmark in my life.

A field of rape. 

Picturesque horses.

A tree full of ladders. Normal. Located on the outskirts of Nexø.

For our first excursion we decided to bike down to the southernmost tip of the island- a 60-something km round trip. This end of the island is somewhat famous for Dueodde beach. (Don't ask- I have no idea how to pronounce that.)

The reason for all the fuss about this unpronounceable beach is it's sand. Apparently some of, if not the finest sand in the world, Dueodde sand is used in hourglasses. It's also quite the tourist draw in the summer it seems. The area around it was filled with cute little beach houses, reminiscent of Maine or Massachusetts, and of course, kitschy eateries.

It is a really nice beach. Very white sand, light turquoise water. Waling on the famous Dueodde sand is one of the strangest feelings ever. The closest thing I can liken it is walking on cornstarch, not that that's something I've done. But it squeaks and shifts like cornstarch, so I'm comfortable with the analogy.

One of the restaurants had a camel out front. Samer went for a ride.

The beach. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but alas my camera decided to die there. 

On our way back north to our hostel in Gudhjem we stopped in Sveneke and lunched at the Sveneke Bryghus. Much sampling of brews was done, and my illustrious co-leaders Samer and Frazer enjoyed some herring, another of Bornholm's specialties. Unfortunately we were so weighed down by the gigantic lunch we consumed that the first few kilometers of the rest of the ride back were, shall we say, difficult. But, no regrets.

Samples. Delicious samples.

Apparently there is a Koch running a guest house in Gudhjem. I did not get to meet them.