Summer solstice weekend

We have sadly passed the longest day of the year, which was last week. Over the weekend, there were several fun activities celebrating the summer solstice...
Friday night I went with Dave and SM to Tivoli. We ate at a brewery, then watched the Fredagsrock free concert outdoors. The headliner was none other than Grace Jones! She is very strange... she spent a good 2 minutes with her back to the audience, lifting her skirt up, and jiggling her well-toned behind. She's lucky she can still get away with it. There were several other Danish bands, and one very enjoyable artist named Thomas Buttenschøn. Then in an incredible coincidence, I ran into someone I vaguely knew from the Media Lab! He is engaged to a Danish woman and they invited me for Saturday BBQ.

Saturday I ran, during what was the only hour of pouring rain for the day. After drying off, I met up with the ML alum and some Danes and actually experienced a real Danish dinner at an apartment! It only took 6 months to get to this point, but I was proud. And I could converse somewhat so that was appreciated. After dinner we headed out in search of bonfires for the celebration of Sankt Anne. This is a bizarre ritual around the time of year of the summer solstice, where bonfires are set up all over the city and witches (now fake) are burned. We ended up at the lakes, and I got some good pictures of the group, the sunset, and the bonfire (you can kind of see the witch's broom).

(Spot the non-Dane!)





Sunday I went for a longer run (17km... training is getting more intense! ...and painful) along the coast. Afterward I went to SM's for some tea, and then to another concert at Tivoli. This time SM was singing in the Tivoli concert choir, and they performed Haydn's The Creation. It was quite an impressive piece! The soloists were also excellent; it is quite an undertaking to sing for 3 hours!

I also spent the weekend thinking more about music (merci JA!) and downloading a few more songs. I've been meaning to make a list of songs that will always remind me of my time here in Copenhagen, because they play on the radio frequently. My favourites these days are:

I don't feel like dancin (Scissor Sisters)
Grace Kelly (Mika)
Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani)

... and all of Justin Timberlake's new stuff. I'm pretty bummed that I missed his concert on Saturday night! The Danes are REALLY into JT, and apparently the concert was fantastic. Oh well...truth is, I couldn't find anyone my age who wanted to come with me.

The summer nights are still long, so summer is hopefully far from over...