Thanksgiving in Denmark

Naturally, Danes do not celebrate Thanksgiving... unless you are friends with a Dane who is hosting American exchange students. Basically Izabel and I wanted to do something for Thanksgiving while we were here and Britta was all for that idea. So she invited a bunch of friends and family over to eat delicious Thanksgiving food. Izabel made all the food, including the Turkey. She really enjoys cooking so I didn't complain and attempted to help where I could. And in exchange, I got to make dessert. Delicious apple pie. The food we had wasn't what I think of as traditional Thanksgiving food because Izabel made food that fit all of her dietary restraints. It was really good food and I probably ate more than I usually do on Thanksgiving. They were mostly dishes like kale with roasted squash and rice with roasted grapes. It was really good and every one enjoyed it. They also enjoyed the pie which was nice.

 

Unbaked pie! Yum!

 

I asked Izabel to stick her head by the oven to illustrate just how small it is. We only had an 11 pound turkey and it could barely fit. 

 

Plucking out feathers from the turkey....no joke, it was covered in them.

 

Izabel doing her thing.

 

While Izabel was cutting onions, she said she needed ski goggle. I suggested sunglasses. It didn't work as well as we hoped. 

 

I went on a cleaning rampage. Normally every surface is covered with piles and piles of papers and other things. 

 

Food is served!

 

 

Baked pie! Even yummier!!!

It was really cool to be able to share this tradition with other people and teach them about it and how we celebrate. Everyone who came really liked both the food and learning about Thanksgiving. We all just sat around and talked for hours. It was very Hyggeligt.

What's interesting is that people are trying to bring Thanksgiving to Denmark. Weird right. They want to make American football a bigger deal here (it's slowly been growing in popularity). SO basically their attempts to have Danes celebrate Thanksgiving is really just a way to sell food and alcohol and make more money.

Yesterday Britta took me and Izabel to Helsingør and Helsingborg. And for those of you who don't know your Scandinavian geography, Helsingør is about an hours car ride north of Copenhagen and is the home of Hamlet's castle. It was really cool to see Hamlet's castle. Though the interior was not nearly as decorated as everything else I've seen here in Europe. It felt like all skin and bones with white walls and very few ornate pieces of furniture. Though that could be because they just don't have much of the original furniture left.

 

Castle chapel

 

Ballroom

 

 Helsingborg was just a twenty minute ferry ride away from the castle and was also very cool. We weren't there fore very long and we just walked around a little bit so it was hard to get a solid feel for what Sweden is like. Though I did like what I saw. We primarily walked along a shopping street that reminded me a lot of the one in Copenhagen. Only, I definitely liked this one more because it was was a bit more quaint. The buildings on the walking street in Copenhagen are taller and the street itself is wider. And, since this was just a small city I really don't think it's a good representation of the entire country. Guess that just means I'll have to go back another time.

 

Street in Helsingborg (not the quaint walking street)