Travelling to Aarhus, Denmark

After the long winter we decided it is time to have a shot trip to Aarhus, the biggest city in near vicinity if we don't count our Aalborg. So we took the morning train and arrived at rainy Aarhus around 9am. You know, rainy, as in ~ in Denmark the only seasons are "rain" and "wind" ~. But it was nice.

   As a Bulgarian, it really stroke me when I saw the city. The hell with it, it looked like Plovdiv. I felt like home. And a little bit sad, because I was not at home and I didn't want it to feel like home or look like home, or to has anything to do with home. As a traveller I really wanted to enjoy the new and different culture but so far, my travels within Denmark and Europe in general make me think that the whole continent is just one big huge "village" and all countries are pretty much the same people with the only difference being their salaries. But then again, people are all the same, no matter where in the world they live.
     So, me and my huge international family too the decision to visit as much as possible in Aarhus but failed to do so miserably. We needed the whole day just to visit ARoS and the Old Town. I'm really sad we couldn't visit all the museums, but alas, when you have a group of 10 people, you can't fit 5 museums and 3 parks into the picture :D.
    First stop - ARoS - Aarhus Art Museum. A huge modern building filled with art. And some art it was! When we arrived there, the first thing that greeted us was a line for tickets going across the ground floor. 10 minutes of waiting and 90DKK (student price by 22.2.14) later we were on the first floor greeted by an even longer waiting line of a special exhibition that we never visited as sadly we had no time to loose in waiting in line. So we went straight to the Rainbow Panorama. Never heard of Rainbow Panorama? Well...it's a terrace...and...it's rainbow-coloured....and it's awesome!

You can see how beautiful it looks, coloured in all the colours of the rainbow. I suggest it as a destination to all Aarhus visitors. Otherwise the museum shocked me with the contemporary art as I'm not much of a fan. I have no understanding of modern art, I'm sorry, I admit my ignorance. We visited the Director's choice floor where we were greeted by Heaven, Hell and Eeriness - frightening and disturbing to some point exhibition. Art has never been my thing but mummified cat (if it was a cat) and jars of pickled organs and a naked man dancing on the TV proved my lack of connection to any form of art whatsoever. On the other hand, The Virgin exposition on -1st floor was a most interesting and enjoyable to us, ignorant brats visiting the cradle of modern art. Colour, glitter, forms, mirrors and fabrics were original and definitely more appealing than anything else we have seen. And then, at the bottom of the museum, the 9 circles of Dante awaited us. It said 9 circles based on the Divine Comedy, but if you ask me, these were more like 9 circles of Hell and maybe some in Purgatory, but no Heaven. Even if you don't visit any of the other parts of ARoS, you need to visit this, as, maybe just for me, but the mirror room alone is something you need to experience!
     Our next stop was The Old Town Open Museum. One good thing is that everything we wanted to visit in Aarhus was in walking distance of 30min at most from the station (by feet obviously) so we did not need any money for buses. Furthermore there are signs for visitors everywhere. Now that's something we need to fix in Bulgaria. The Old Town is located within 5-10 minutes from ARoS. (In case you want to plan your trip to Aarhus, I suggest you refer to VisitAarhus webpage).
     The Old town was like the Danish version of Etur in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. Pretty much the same thing but with less nature, more interaction and less crafts. But quite enjoyable even in the rain. (it was raining the whole day, obviously) You can enter every house and enjoy exhibitions of old crafts and lifestyles.  

Unless you encounter domestic geese that would not allow you to get near them. Ever been bitten by a goose? It's not something you want to try.  We also bought some awesome souvenirs and I can't wait to go back there in May so I can buy more.

 The thing is we ended up being in the Old Town after closing hours (4pm closing time for February) and the cafe was closed (and we were told by local people that the cafe is great and we should try it, so maybe next time ;) ). There were also construction works in the new part of the Old Town so we couldn't really go there either but that was not a big problem. Indeed, this was one of the best places we could visit in Aarhus.
     Around 5pm we were out of options where to go so we decided to get a cup of coffee somewhere in the centre of the city. Alas, it took us more than 40minutes to actually find a place big enough for 10 people and (surprisingly) OPEN around 5pm Saturday evening. As you know, most (if not all) cafes in Bulgaria are open around that time so it's a bit of a shock when people were closing right under our noses, but they were also kind enough (and I find this so surprising and so good that I need to prais all Danes for being such awesome people) to point us to other places where we can sit and have rest before returning home. This is how we ended up at Løve's Bog og VinCafé (this is their webpage if you want to check it) who had a table for 10 people. We were greeted by the lovely atmosphere of a small book-cafe and a very nice waiter, poor thing, it's not easy to deal with so many foreigners at one place :D The service was quite fast and we had our drinks in less than a few minutes, no matter that the whole place was full. My latte was nice and my friends loved the hot chocolate, cappuchino and brownies.

I was also enjoying my souvenir from the Old Town in the form of colourful beads (just 5kr per piece! :D hehe).
   So, if you have the chance, you need to visit Aarhus! It's an awesome place! :D