The Jo Show

Amalienborg Palace

The Danish monarchy has existed for more than 1000 years and is among the oldest royal houses in the world. The Danish Royal Family has nine castles around the country, but their main residence is Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen, where both Queen Margrethe II and Crown Prince Frederik’s family spend much of their time.

Amalienborg is made up of four identical palaces:

Christian IX’s Palace (home of the Queen)
Frederik VIII’s Palace (home of the Crown Prince Family)
Christan VIII’s Palace (guest palace for Prince Joachim & Princess Benedikte & the Amalienborg Museum)
Christian VII’s palace (guest residence)

Everyday at noon there is the changing of the Royal Guard and the size of the Guard and the amount of musical support is dependent on who is in residence at Amalienborg Palace:

Kongevagt (King’s Watch) when the Monarch is in residence the Guards are accompanied by the Royal Guards music band.
Løjtnantsvagt (Lieutenant Watch) when Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik or Prince Joachim are residing at Amalienborg the Guards are accompanied by flutes and drums.
Palævagt (Manor Watch) when the Crown Prince or Prince Joachim are in residence or the Palace is uninhabited the Guards march through Copenhagen without musical accompaniment.

When we were there, the Queen was in residence so we were lucky enough to see the entire Royal Guard’s music band play!

Freetown Christiania

This month we left the European Union… kind of.

We visited the partially autonomous community, Freetown Christiania, in Copenhagen.

Christiania is built on an old abandoned military base that was taken over by hippie squatters in 1971. The community quickly turned into a hippie, anarchist and collectivist community. After forming a collective fund in July 2012, Christiania residents officially purchased the land Christiana is on from the Danish government.

Today the 900 people that live in Christiania govern themselves and set their own rules/laws. A few examples of these rules include: no cars, no bulletproof vests and no hard drugs. Additionally, taking pictures and videos is prohibited.

Christiania is most known for “Pusher Street,” which is the street filled with marijuana vendors (also known as the Green Light District). While marijuana is technically illegal in Denmark, there is an understanding that the government will allow marijuana to be sold in Christiana but cannot be taken out of the area. Christiania is still subject to raids from the Copenhagen police from time to time.

While there has been conflict around Christiania, specifically around the Green Light District, for the most part the area is an interesting and eclectic place that is the fourth largest tourist attraction in Copenhagen.

2022 in Denmark!

On New Year’s Eve, Brev’s team manager, Hanne, hosted her family, friends and Team FOG for a New Year’s party at her house. 🎉

Every year at exactly 6 pm, about 2 million Danes tune into the Queen of Denmark’s New Year Address. During this address, the Queen speaks about the current state of affairs in Denmark and this year she also highlighted the work of medics and researchers battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

After the New Year Address, we sat down for a long dinner consisting of:

A shrimp salad with bread and butter
Roasted beef tenderloin, boiled potatoes and whole mini onions
Homemade pudding, meringues, and chocolate and strawberry ice cream for dessert

Throughout dinner, we sang seven different songs (in Danish of course) and Hanne had given everyone hilarious bibs with the song lyrics on the back to follow along. Additionally, Hanne had placed a small “secret task” underneath each plate for everyone to complete during the evening. Mine was to stand up and announce to everyone when I had to use the restroom and Brev’s was to shout “Happy New Year” at some point during the meal.

Instead of a ball drop, the Danish countdown to the New Year is watching a black and white sitcom, called a Dinner For One. It is also custom for people to stand on the couch and “jump into the New Year” at midnight.

In Danish “SKAL” means “cheers,” and we ended the night with lots and lots of skal and fireworks! 😉

Rosenborg Castle

During one of our weekend trips, we visited Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. Rosenborg was built in the Dutch Renaissance style as a summerhouse in 1606 by Christian IV. Then the castle was used by Danish regents as a royal residence until the 1700s. In the 1700s the castle became a place where kings stored all of their oldest, finest, and rarest objects. This way, guests would be able to see the wealth and status of the Danish kingdom.

Rosenborg opened to the public as a museum in 1838. It currently houses many historic artifacts and some rooms in the castle are believed to be preserved exactly as they once were — including the rooms that contain solely glass works and ceramics.

The Great Hall, which is on the top floor of the castle, houses a coronation carpet and the Throne Chair of Denmark. This chair is a physical representation of the Kingdom of Denmark. According to legend, the chair is made of the unicorn horns, but in reality it is Norwegian narwhal tusks. It is also guarded by three life-size silver lions that each weigh about 300 lbs.

In the basement of the castle is the treasury, which has weapons, chess boards, ceramics, riding gear and many other artifacts from Danish history. Our favorite part was seeing the crown jewels and the Danish crown regalia. The crown jewels primarily consist of a diamond set, a ruby set, a pearl set, and an emerald set – the emeralds being among the world’s finest. The Crown Jewels are always worn at the New Year Reception and sometimes during state visits or special family events.

Brev’s Danish Game Day

Today Brevin will be sharing a blog post on what a typical game day here in Denmark looks like for him. Check it out below:

Game days in Serbia were much different than here in Denmark.

For example, in Serbia we would arrive to games about 75 minutes prior to tip off and we would watch film. Of course, my teammates would have to translate the entire game plan to me while my coach was speaking it since he only spoke Serbian. Luckily, this year my coach speaks English, he is actually American, which has made communication much easier.

On gamedays in Denmark, our team manager, Hanne, and her daughter, Sabrina, set out our jerseys in the locker room prior to our game and have fruits and coffee ready for us when we arrive.

I usually arrive around two hours before tip to give myself time to use my massage gun and listen to music before getting dressed. During this time I always help myself to one or two cups of coffee, depending on what time our game is at, and I eat multiple plums.

Then I begin my shooting routine, which consists of about 200 made shots, before heading back into the locker to wait for our coach to come in and share the game plan.

One of the most exciting additions to game days here in Denmark is after every game, win or lose, there will be baked goods for us to eat. My favorite dessert we have had so far is American brownies.

Overall, game days in Denmark feel much more official than they did in Serbia and the food doesn’t hurt either.😉

Traditional Holiday Foods Part 2

On Christmas Eve we got to experience a traditional Danish Christmas meal. Brev’s team manager, Hanne, dropped off the ingredients and cooking directions (which were in Danish) early in the morning to be heated up and finished later that evening. Luckily, one of Brev’s teammates is engaged to a Danish woman, Cecilie, so she could read the directions and help us prepare the meal correctly.

A typical Danish Christmas meal consists of two types of roasted meat, pork and duck, along with boiled potatoes, red cabbage and gravy. Typically two types of boiled potatoes are served, one with a traditional gravy and one in butter and brown sugar. Cecilie insisted that we have potato chips and dip them in gravy as well.

Following dinner, we ate apples with jam and risalamande, which is rice pudding topped with cherry sauce, for dessert. Hiding in the pudding is one whole almond, and whoever gets the almond in their bowl gets special present. Brev found the almond and got a pair of headphones!

Unfortunately, at this point I was already losing my taste following Covid, but Brev ensured me that dinner was delicious. It was Brev’s first time trying duck and much to his surprise he really enjoyed it and even took quite a bit of it home to eat as leftovers.

Traditional Holiday Food & Drink Part 1

Glogg and Aebleskiver are apart of every traditional Danish holiday celebration.

Gløgg is a traditional Nordic wine that has been around since at least the 16th century. It’s a warm spiced wine, usually containing cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. Additionally citrus peels from oranges or lemons, raisins and almond slices are sometimes included.

Aebleskiver is a Danish pastry. It translates to “apple slices,” however in most present-day dishes the apples are not used. The crust is similar to a crepe with a light and fluffy inside and typically served with jam. These reminded me a lot of donut holes.

Overall, we liked the wine but felt the amount of raisins in the glass was a little off-putting. The aebleskiver was delicious!

Team FOG Covid Outbreak

When Brev’s team, Team FOG Næstved, finally returns to the floor tomorrow, it will be their first game in just under a month due to Covid-19.

It all started during their last game on December 7 in Randers, which is on the island of Jutland. Brev had been feeling ill going into the game but had tested negative for Covid and assumed he had a cold. Unfortunately, Team FOG lost on a lay up with few seconds remaining in the game, but little did they know that another L was coming.

Following that game, Brev continued to feel worse and decided to stay home for a few days. When Brev was feeling better and ready to get back to practice, his coach told him to stay home one more day because he wanted to make sure he came back fully healthy. That may have been the best thing to happen to him, because three of his teammates tested positive for Covid the next day (Saturday), three more tested positive on Sunday, and two more on Monday. Finally the last two players who were at practice and Brev’s coach tested positive on Tuesday. Of course, all activities (games and practices) were cancelled for the next 10 days.

In hopes to keep us healthy, Brev and I were moved into a local hotel since the two players we share a house with had Covid. We spent the next five days living in a tiny hotel room. We ordered food in and binge watched the entire Harry Potter series.

Unfortunately, this hotel quarantine didn’t help, as I ending up testing positive for Covid later that week. So, we went back to our shared house. Somehow, throughout all of this, Brev is still testing negative.

Luckily, I have had pretty mild cold-likes symptoms but am most sad about losing my taste. This week Brev again tested negative for Covid (for the 17th time!) – which is remarkable considering both me and his team have tested positive.

Thankfully, Brev’s team went back to practice on the 21st and fingers crossed that the league will proceed as normal.

Stay healthy everyone!

Naestved Christmas Welcome

Earlier this month, we joined hundreds of Naestved locals in their holiday tradition of welcoming Santa to the city.

Everyone gathered at the city harbor and enjoyed free traditional Danish holiday snacks and drinks, including Æbleskiver (a pastry) and Glogg (a spiced wine), while waiting for Santa.

Eventually, Santa arrived via a patrol boat and was welcomed ashore! After greeting the crowd and posing for a few photos, Santa hopped on a truck heading towards the city center. A dance team and drum line led Santa’s truck and the rest of us followed behind.

At the City Center, there was a band playing Christmas carols and people were singing along. It was fun to hear songs we knew being sang in Danish. Then Santa officially welcomed Christmas to Naestved by lighting the Christmas tree!

Jul Markets🎅

Earlier this month, Brev and I went to Copenhagen to visit the three Christmas Markets in the city.

The Nyhavn Jul Market is located along the canal and contained about 20 small shops selling an assortment of goods like spiced wine (glogg), Danish Butter Cookies, hats, gloves and mukluks. Here the vendors were very vocal in encouraging visitors to try their alcohol – so after many (😉) samples we decided hot cider with Captain Morgan was the best.
The second market we visited was the Julemarked Kongens Nytorv, or The King’s New Square Christmas Market. This market is larger than the NyHavn market and featured many similar shops but with a lot more food options. Here Brev ate some chili con carne that was absolutely delicious and I had a hot cocoa!
The third market we visited was the Julemarked Højbro Plads, or the High Bridge Square Christmas Market. This market is close to the city center and therefore very popular and felt especially touristy, but was fun to see nevertheless.

We had a great time at the Christmas Markets and we kept joking that we were in a Hallmark Movie!