Day 3 in Denmark - 31st August

Today was an awesome day. Really long as well – but great. I initially thought we had to to leave by 8, and so woke up by 6 – but turned out we had to only leave at 9. so spent some time after breakfast just walking around a little bit nearby. The weather was perfect today – sun was out, slightly cloudy skies, but that just added to the beauty. Went to the city hall – was ok, some sort of art exhibition going on in there.



There was a statue of Hans Christian Andersen outside the hall – interestingly, in Copenhagen, they’ve made a lot of stuff, such as statues, spires of buildings etc with copper, which gets oxidized to give it this strange greenish tinge – so looks quite interesting. Walked a little bit on some of the cobbled stone streets – I’m really starting to like those! I’m sure they’re quite bad for cars/bikes – but they certainly look very nice!



We were then picked up at 9 by Sergio, who works for Niras as well. He had a couple of his students with him – one Russian, one French. And he himself is half Italian and half English – so at this point we had a highly international group with everyone representing different countries! We took the train to this town called Roskilde about 30 minutes away. On the way we had quite an interesting conversation – this Sergio dude was quite interesting, very Italian in the way he spoke/behaved! Also seemed very passionate about his work – he’s a specialist in ventilation and air conditioning – at a very philosophical level – actually looking at how one can merge tradition and modernity, use the available knowledge in a useful way, and so on. So we had an interesting talk about knowledge in general, how in spite of its availability, most people don’t tend to use it, why that might be the case, the inertia of people to change, and so on. At Roskilde we saw one of his projects very briefly, where he took us to this office building being renovated, in which he was trying to apply some of his principles. He himself stayed just across the road from there, so he took us through his house very quickly, so we could kind of see what a typical Danish house looked like! It was quite nice and quaint, made of brick all over, but with wooden floors, as seems to be typical in Denmark. Had quite a nice garden, with a small lotus pond and all :)



Then we just walked through the town, which was just awesome – very nice and quiet and kinda cute. We went to this huge cathedral which seems to be the pride of Roskilde – its from the 12th century (!) and actually has the tombs of a lot of the kings and queens of Denmark. It was currently being renovated, so couldn’t see everything – but was very beautiful indeed.



From there a short walk through this most beautiful park – a beauty enhanced by the sunshine shining through the trees onto the greenest grass I’ve ever seen – took us to the harbor, where there was this small Viking museum which we just quickly walked through, as we had to get to the Niras office soon. Saw some Viking boats on display, took some photos, and then we were off. Took a taxi to the main Niras office which was about 45 minutes away. Turned out the taxi driver was from Afghanistan, so we were truly international in that taxi there – 6 people representing 7 different countries from 3 different continents! Didn’t quite expect that in Denmark – especially since none of us was actually from denmark either!! The drive down was quite nice, we drove along the sea for a bit, saw some windmills – for which Denmark is quite famous.



Got to the office by 12, where everyone seemed quite busy getting prepared for the reception. In the central courtyard, a large tent had been set up for the reception, with a stage and all, where a polish band was supposed to perform. We had quick lunch with a couple of people, including the Managing Director of the company, and one of the judges. We got changed into our suits – which we’d carried with us instead of wearing all day – after which a photographer came to do a photo shoot. He took us out into the fields about a 100 yards out of the premises, and spent some time taking photos – felt quite like a model, with the dude insisting on taking tons of photos at what seemed quite weird angles. :)

We got back, and by then it was mostly time to begin. The ceremony was to be in the courtyard in the center, and then right next to it was the cafeteria which had been emptied out and set up with food/drinks for the guests. It was all quite nice, especially this ice sculpture of a swan that had been made to hold some of the bottles of water! Also, very interestingly, they’d made these pretty cool posters using quotes from both our essays which were put up all along the walls – that was really cool, just the way they’d done it. Almost like how you see these framed quotes from famous people in museums/libraries! Very tastefully done as well – all Jacob’s stuff in blue and mine in green. They’d also printed out this small book with both our essays in it, which was to be given out to all the guests attending the reception – and again they followed a similar color format in that. That was really nicely made too.



As guests started arriving – it was largely a lot of Niras clients and customers – the program was kicked off about 2pm with the polish group performing. They were basically a jazz group, didn’t really do polish music as such – just a lot of usual jazz stuff. Had a female vocalist, bass guitar, synth and drums. They were actually really really good. The singer had an awesome voice, and the keyboard player was too good as well.

At about 3, the official part of the ceremony began with the MD making a speech – entirely in Danish, of course. Seemed like it was a pretty funny speech, as the crowd kept laughing all the time – but of course we couldn’t tell anything! Its quite strange being in a place where you don’t speak the major language of the people – half the time I kept expecting the entire crowd to suddenly turns towards us, point at us and start laughing at us or something!



After the speech, one of the judges, Nina Smith, who’s actually a professor at a Danish university, took over and introduced the concept of the essay to the audience, and then announced the winners. Thankfully all this was in English. We both got these huge cheques, the kind one sees in cricket matches being given to the winning team! Looked pretty cool – especially with the amount that was written on them, of course. :)

After that the rest of the evening was mostly informal, with people just mingling around and talking. The music group sang again – it was more like just background music for most people really, as they were trying to talk to each other, but I quite enjoyed the music. After the announcement, of course, everyone knew who we were, and we’d keep getting accosted by people congratulating us. Met quite a few people, some working at Niras, others including the former Danish Ambassador to India, the head of the dept of Civil Engineering at Danish Technical Univ, and so on. Everyone was very nice, very encouraging, and quite keen to make sure we were having a good time in Denmark. In fact all through I’ve just been amazed at the hospitality of the people, especially these people at niras – they’ve just taken such good care of us, right from picking us up at the airport to arranging for every single thing in our schedule, to the extent that till now, 3 days into our stay, we’ve yet to spend a single kroner on anything!

Things started getting wrapped up by about 6, when most people started leaving. I spoke for a while to some of the people in the band, and they were quite nice too – talked a bit about the music scene in Poland, etc. The keyboard player actually turned out to be a classical pianist who did jazz once in a while – which was all the more incredible as he was so good, and I would have thought he was just a jazz pianist.



After that, we changed into regular clothes, and Mille and her boyfriend Mads took us to Tivoli Gardens, one of the premier attractions of Copenhagen. That was quite awesome. Its sort of a theme park, but with a lot more to it – they have quite a few rides and all, but more than that its just the ambience of the place, the lighting, the greenery, the flowers….Was really really awesome. Jacob, Mads and I went on all the rides – they were totally awesome. One quite amazing roller coaster, which did all possible things, including going upside down a couple of times and all. Then this one ride where you side on a chair suspended at the end of a long chain which hangs from this thing that turns around on a tower. That thing then goes all the way up to the top, from where we can get a great view of the city, and then starts rotating pretty fast – so with the centrifugal force, the seats are just pushed outwards, and you’re turning around at what seems like a completely wrong angle! Felt quite interesting. Looking at the city below and the people in front of you, you could actually see how impossible an angle you were at – and its all open, so you can see everything! Not a ride for those scared of heights!



The final ride we did was the best, really – you sit in a chair, attached to this structure that takes you right to the very top of this really tall tower. Once you’re at the top, it just stops and waits there for a bit – sort of like the quiet before the storm. And then – it drops. In fact more than that – you’re actually pretty much PULLED down at an acceleration slightly greater than gravity! That was truly awesome – we were actually levitating in our seats, and the feeling of weightlessness is really really amazing. So the thing just drops till it almost gets to the ground, then bounces up a couple of times before it stops. We actually did that ride twice, back to back – it was just too amazing. That initial fall feels really good – and then as you bounce up and down, its actually quite beautiful!!

We had dinner after that at one of the numerous restaurants in the park – finding vegetarian food everywhere is kind of a problem, so had to make do with this kinda random sandwich with potatoes (which seem to be the staple starch provider in Danish food) and tomatoes and mayo. But followed that up with this slice of fried Camembert cheese with black currant jam – that was really really good!



All in all had a great evening, and got back to the hotel at about 11.30. Mille and Mads are tons of fun – just very nice to hang out with. Again, its just amazing how hospitable these niras people are being to us – as I was telling Jacob, they’re actually paying us to come all the way from the US, so they can be nice to us! I mean, what could be better!!

Tomorrow we’re seeing another of the projects of niras, and then in the afternoon actually doing some sightseeing with Mille and Mads, visiting some Viking ruins and castles – that should be good fun! So more on that later!