departure coming closer!

©expat copenhagen - Helsingør

everytime you leave town for any purpose it's the same! there are hundreds of things popping up in your mind, that need to be solved and to be finished and to be handed in, to be given to someone and so on and so on......

maybe it's only with me but I guess it's the same with everybody. It's not often that I had enough time to pack my stuff properly and think about what and which and why.

well, it's like that this time. jen's got her bachelor thesis to hand in. I've got a hand in for a project that I'm doing aside of work and there is loads of stuff to do at the office! Additionally, there is the big opening of the shopping center that I was partly working on, tomorrow, and so on and so on! (not that I like shopping centers but sometimes it just happens to be the thing you have to work on!)

we didn't find apartments, yet, to visit, aside from that lovely christianshavn-one of our friends when we're in Copenhagen, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. (because most of the apartments are rented out within some days. we just need to be the lucky first!).

I hope to offer more new pictures of Copenhagen in spring, because I'm running out of my own pictures anyway!

train or car? ferry or brigde?

when you travel with a little doggy you never consider flying. at least we don't! I know it sounds like a pain in the a**, but you learn to get along with it, and there are seldom possibilities to have holidays without the doggy. It's good also for your carbon footprint! (for those who care about it!) so there're only trains or cars to choose!

©expat copenhagen - night train somewhere between münchen & kobenhagen

wien <> kobenhavn 1.400 km by train
from vienna there are two possibilities to get by train to kopenhagen. both are going through night. the one line goes overnight to hamburg with a german train and continues to kobenhavn. the second one is a fast train to nürnburg (ICE) and continues with the overnight train coming from münchen going to kobenhaven!
we joined that night train for our first visit with a second class double cabin. well, I wouldn't say it's spacious, as you see, but if you take some sleeping pills and ear plugs you'll sleep well! You wake up with a little breakfast and you're fitter than you are when you ride a car!

costs vary, but you have to think of 600€ both ways in a double cabin!

Storebælt-Brücke - picture from flickr

wien<>kobenhavn 1390km by car over the bridges
when you take the car it's exhausting! you should sleep over night somewhere inbetween. (which is always a possibility to see nice little villages/towns or cities, as we did in Germany: Würzburg and Hamburg. For this, the Etap Hotels are great! cheap & clean & easy!) It takes you about 13-15h pure driving time. we use to listen to audiobooks a lot, because it keeps your mind working and keeps you focused.
the storebælt-bridge connects Fyn with Sjælland and is very spectacular! the toll is 30 € each way and can only be reduced if you've got a little electronic box for frequent drivers!

Storebælt-Brücke - picture from flickr

wien<>kobenhavn 1250km by car & ship
almost the same way, only that you pass Berlin and drive to the little town of Puttgarden from where you take the ferry to Sjælland, Rødby. It saves you 150 km but also takes 45 min with the ferry. costs for the ferry are 64€ (from 00:15-04:15 only 50€) and it takes 45 min.

in terms of carbon footprint the train wins over the car! in terms of budget it's vice versa!
(train 600€ - car 300€) still it's far better then traveling by plane, but we're still unsure if we should drive over the bridge again or take the ferry for the first time!?

any suggestions?

copenhagen visit

apartment in christianshavn - all pictures from sune spang

we've got new plans! our next (third) Copenhagen visit is scheduled from the 3rd to the 10th of April. We hope we'll have nice spring weather for our numerous "assignments"!

1. boliger

as we already posted and talked to many people to,we'll be able to visit the lovely apartment of our new and first copenhagen friends, Kristina & Sune in Christianshavn! Since we have talked so much about it and we have seen so many pictures and heard so many nice stories about the area we are very much excited to finally see the place. BUT we'll also have a look at other hopefully beautiful apartments which will either confuse us with additional choice or help us by picking the right one!

which means that the easter bunny will know where we stay for the first time in denmarks delightful capital.

2.cpr

with a little luck we'd be able to register for the public identification number, cpr number. it's a funny scandinavian system, without it you kind of don't exist and can't get a library card, a dankort for paying stuff and so on. I think we'll have to convince them that we can sustain ourselves somehow to get one. how, we still have to figure out. it could be very helpful if we'd be able to get it I guess!

3. work / uni

for me some work interviews are coming up, finally I hope that I'll find a position for the first couple of month. I've applied for a young architects work scholarship which will help me to find work and enables me to work as an intern. still these days architects are having troubles because of 9/11, oh sorry with the financial crisis or whatever,....

jen, is now applying for 2 different universities and 3 different courses! well, you never know which works out in the end!

4.prepaid card

we'll check out a 'three' mobile phone prepaid card. we'll post our new numbers soon!

5. explore the city!

tetsuya (our lovely doggy), jen and I will explore the city with rented bikes from København Cykler close to the train station or Baisikeli which uses part of the rental fee to renovate bikes and send them over to africa, which is kind of a nice thing. I'll try our to ride a christiania or comparable bike for the first time with tetsuya in front. I'm a bit afraid he might not like it and try to jump out of the basket! well we'll put a nice soft and cosy blanket in it for him and maybe tie him for our first couple of rides!

6. new people,

we'll try to get to know new people to make new friends to have some fun and to go out for some parties! jeh! some jazz music maybe!

all in all we are really looking forward to visiting our future hometown again, some spring air and hopefully an apartment and some more insights when we come back!

Servus and Baba,

Jen & Paul

H.O.M.E. Opening Party!

home depot opening - picture from oe4.com

home depot opening - picture from oe4.com

home depot opening - picture from oe4.com

yesterday evening, we followed an invitation to the opening of the design/lifestyle-magazin - exhibition H.O.M.E. Depot in one of viennas most beautiful buildings, the semper depot. glamour - glamour, and a lot of fancy-schmanzy 'un'known celebrities surrounded by beautifully displayed design products from furniture to dyson vacuum-cleaners, fancy lamps and designed electronics made a brillant night for us.
the famous swedish furniture company Hästens also presented their reaaaaaaally comfortable beds there (believe me, I tried, the nice swedish salesmen even covered me with a blanket and a teddy bear *g*). speaking of people, the manager of the scandinavian design house who sells the beds in vienna happens to be a dane who was very interested in our soon-to-be copenhagen adventure and told us to visit him in the shop, so we can practice our danish ;-) also the young swedish guy told us that it was a good thing we move to copenhagen in summer, so we can experience some of the marvelous scandinavian summer and told us to hop over the bridge sometime to smell some swedish air.

all in all a nice evening, with a scandinavian touch and lots of free prosecco *g*

jen & paul

error! 11.03.

there was a big fault in the post from 11.03, bolig!

"andelsboliger - Housing cooperative - Genossenschaftswohnung
that's a system which was common during he 80/90ties in Austria, in Austria you pay a kind of membership deposit depending on the object your interested in, and on top of that you pay a very low monthly fee! I've found out that in denmark it's almost the same system only that it is very popular. so there are many of these flats on the market."

this is wrong from the basis!

andelsboliger - is owning a part of the house. that's what I found out while posting in my new favourite forum, dk-forum.de ! So it is much cheaper then normal ownership! well as soon as I find out more I'll let you know!

in-between

©expat copenhagen - habour helsingør

when you decide that you move to another country it's all dazzling new! you are happy about everything and you are excited! images pop up in your mind and you see yourself in that or this position, place, .....

the time between your first thoughts and the rush you are in when it all actually takes place is strange. at least it's for me! you confront yourself with different questions that occupy your mind although you're still far from facing them! you think about apartments weeks long and lose your mind in little details like mobile phone rates.

meanwhile you talk to many friends/people about your plans. you'll find supporters, opposers, happy and sad people. some will tell you they'll visit you, some you know will actually do it some wouldn't. some tell you things you didn't know before.

when you enter that phase of migration you're in-between! you and your mind don't really live on the same spot any more. it happens that you're lost in thoughts. it happens that you forget stuff, that you're scared and that you're tremendously happy! all maybe only within some weeks or months! with us it's months, since it'll take till early July until we move to Copenhagen. a long time will pass and some things in life will pass by while I'm/we're occupied by ....

did you ever have this kind of experience?

angst

vienna - picture from virtualsightseeing

it might seem a little stupid, but those last few days I realized that we will really move to copenhagen. but the feelings I get from this sort of late epiphany is mixed. suddenly a hundred things pop up in my mind that I haven't done during the past 6 years I've lived in vienna. I have never been to the Lichtenstein Museum although I've lived right next to it for 3 years, I've never been to the Prater, actually I've never really done anything "touristy" here. When I arrived 6 years ago, I immediately started with my studies, so there wasn' t really a lot of time to do things like that. except for going out to get to know people of course. :-)

that's actually another things that gives me the creeps: friendship. it took me so long to build a circle of good friends whom I can trust and who've really grown on me. and then, do you know how long it takes to befriend a viennese person????? it's almost impossible, they don't seem to care about making new friends. it took me years to befriend some of them and that my boyfriend is from vienna certainly helped, though I still got know people while going out and so on. I have the bad feeling that danish people are not so different concerning the friendship thing, I've heard they will have a good time with you, but to really make friends with them is very difficult. I mean, as I said, I'm used to it from Austria, but on the other hand it makes me sad to know that the first few years will be rather difficult and may involve the feeling of being a stranger without family ties in a foreign city. especially when now some of my friends are getting married and having children and I won't be there to take part. also my parents just moved to vienna, which was actually nice as well.

then there is the study thing. now that I'm almost finished with my bachelor I'm really afraid that I won't get into a msters' programm here in cph, I don't know if this is unrational, but I always panic when my future is not planned out, yet. all these horror scenarios about what I will do if I don't get to study and so on and so forth.. I know I should focus on the good things and that everything will eventually work out, but you know, my nature..

on the other hand, this time i am not starting out alone, I'll have paul and the doggy with me, which already makes it tremendously easier! and I'm sure that we'll get know some people in the beginning, maybe not danes, but other people who are new to the city. I'm really looking forward to cycle everywhere and to live close to the sea!
although paul may deny it, vienna is kind of morbid, especially in the winter, and often I felt really encased here by this gloomy atmosphere. there is a reason why freud lived here..
copenhagen may be dreary in the winter as well, but when I was there it still felt differently to vienna. people where still smiling at you and trying to make it "hyggelig" inside during the dark winter months, at least that's how we experienced it.

well, that leaves me to say "gute nacht" and tomorrow we'll be one day closer to spring! :-)

07.07.2009 i København

©expat copenhagen - jen's pullover & our KoL Tickets!

©expat copenhagen - collage of habour bath

since last time we've been to copenhagen we're big big big fans of kings of leon! the last concert in copenhagen was a real great experience. they're live as good or better as on their albums!

last time we were in cph we desperately wanted to see them, but of course the concert was totally sold out and we already buried our hopes of going there. but then the night of the concert when we were just walking out of the stylo hostel near islands brygge where we were staying at, paul suddenly stopped at the reception and pointed at a small note from an australian guy who wanted to get rid of this tickets because he had to leave earlier. we didn't hesitate for a second and half an hour later we were enjoying one of the best live gigs I have seen so far. danish people really know how to party! in vienna people are really lame and quiet during concerts, but wow, the danes know how to rock the house!!!
well, this time round, we secured tickets as soon as we could get them and we are already exited about next time at kings of leon in july.

friends

©expat copenhagen - royal copenhagen café

when you leave your old home it's always a pitty to leave friends behind! some might be very good friends and the friendship might hold, some might not.

but you get to know new people, and find new friends.

a week ago good friends of us told us about a danish couple who are interested in renting their old apartment because they are moving to vienna! they also told our friends about their apartment in copenhagen. well the world is very small sometimes, so we got together. today we met the lovely young couple from denmark in vienna where they live now. they told us about the apartment and about the nice area where it's situated, christianshavn. it was a very nice gettogether in vienna with a copenhagen spirit! funny how fate draws people together. soon we'll be visiting copenhagen again and then we'll know if that apartment is our new home. if not, another" apartment-search" stories will appear.

so far we're off for the first weekend without greyness in vienna this year!

bolig?

©expat copenhagen - view from islands brygge

køb-, lejeboliger og andelsboliger

moving into a new flat is always a question of budget and of what you can do with it. in times like these where lowns are hard to get and money is nowhere really safe, it's even harder! Knowing your choices is more then important before your make the move!

lejeboliger - classical renting
the usual choice, easy, known everywhere, you have the costs of the space, and on the side heating, wires, etc.

køb bolig - bying property
"if you have the money, I guess it would be funny,....." well funny not these times for people who sell! not too bad for buyers.

andelsboliger - Housing cooperative - Genossenschaftswohnung
that's a system which was common during he 80/90ties in Austria, in Austria you pay a kind of membership deposit depending on the object your interested in, and on top of that you pay a very low monthly fee! I've found out that in denmark it's almost the same system only that it is very popular. so there are many of these flats on the market.

in the end it's a question of two things, what is my budget and do I need to OWN my place!
there are economical theories calculated over 5, 10, 15, 20 ,25 years and no one can really tell you if renting or buying is the best option!
most important of all is that you find a place you love and then it should be worth the money!

danish

to learn danish is not easy. well, you only have to learn 3 more letters "æ ø å" but still there is the problem that you say things totally different then you write them.

but there are still some things, I managed to remember:

jeg hedder paul, jeg kommer fra wien i østrig.

I am paul, I'm coming from vienna in austria.

jen er vel nok god til et lave mad.

jen is very very good in cooking. :-)

well, since we are doing the course at the danforum in vienna, learning how to pronounce words is easy. it also helps to see that other people learning with you suffer the same problems with their tongue.

also funny, most peoples' motivation to learn danish is LOVE! Two women have danish boyfriends and want to communicate with their family and one guy has a danish girlfriend and he'll also move to copenhagen. only one guy is going to study there in next semester which is a very technical reason.

what ever the reasons are, learning a new language is always tricky and keeps you working on your brain fitness.

tak for i aften og farvel

paul and jen

mobility everywhere!

©expat copenhagen - mandela café vesterbro

©expat copenhagen - mandela café vesterbro

since communication is very important for us web 2.0 freaks, a nice broadband and a good mobile phone connection is elementary! in austria we are quite lucky with a very high quality of connections both by wire and wireless. when you come to another country you never know what kind of company you shall take? do you take a contract or prepaid?

during our first visit to Copenhagen we used our lovely contract from 3 hutchinson, that allows us to make calls within all countries operated by 3 for the same rate. this is a useful thing, there are many companies nowadays that offer european contracts and maybe this is something for you. it always depends on what your use is.

a very nice 3 shop salesmen told us that one needs a permanent residentship to get a mobile phone contract. (& it's not so easy to get this permanent residentship) so the only solution for a danish number is a prepaid. the prepaid cards are very reasonable so it might be a very flexible and good solution!

there are quite a number of companies you can find these under dk communication.

we didn't check for landline and broadband connections yet, but as mobil broadband sticks are getting more common these days it's not a must have. most of these companies also offer hsdpa sticks that enable a quite professional internet use. if you know something about landlines or standard broadband please let us know.

till then stay connected.

cycling as a religion

©expat copenhagen - sortedams sø

©expat copenhagen - østerbro bycycle path

when moving to another town, commuting is always an issue! will you take the car, the tram, go by foot, take the metro or the bus or, like 36% of all copenhageners, use the bike to go to work. here in vienna it's rare that you find people who really commute with the bike. here it's dangerous, and it is hard to keep a bike since thieves steal everything from the sattle to the wheels.

so what makes copenhagen so different? first of all they have a high tax on cars! well, we austrians are used to high taxes because we have the luxury tax and this and that, but in denmark, cars have a registration tax of 180%! (no kidding! I didn't believe it till I've read it on the ministery home page! (very good explanation of this problem ...)

secondly, copenhagen is flat and has perfect street conditions for cyclers! there are blue colored pathes over large crossings, 3-4m wide bike lanes, stops and facilities to park your bike. if you like to see some of that the best web tip is copenhagen cycle chic. this is a web blog with beautiful pictures of people cycling in copenhagen.

during our first visit over new years eve we didn't rent cycles because we liked to walk a lot and had our little doggy with us. that was a big mistake, we realized in early february when we visited copenhagen the second time and rented bikes for the whole week! it was fantastic, you reach every part of the city within at least 15 min cycling and you feel the freedom of going where ever you want to! of course we had muscles burning after the first and second day! but you start realizing why people look so fit and healthy there!

since that visit we started thinking of buying bikes when we move to copenhagen. well we will take our lovely car with us but since we never took it to work here in vienna we wouldn't in copenhagen. it's just good to have one to make weekend trips to skane (sweden) or to the beaches,... jen's favorit bikes are the velorbis, very beautifully old fashion bikes with high quality. since I'll have to carry our lovely whippet (doggy), a bike with a large basket will be my choice! There are a lot of these typs of bikes on the market, like the christiania bikes, the nihola bikes or more fashionable, the trio.

funny coincidences

©expat copenhagen - Islands brygge

everytime someone is moving to another country friends, family and all the people around are trying somehow to help or offer ideas. you talk to your friends and suddenly a friends friend knows someone and then you get help on the other edge of europe or the globe.

we had several funny coincidences since we started talking about our moving plans. the most interesting though is the following story. it's thursday afternoon I'm in the middle of a meeting at work and my phone rings. I could obviously not answer it, but I wondered what our friend lena would tell. later jen called me and was very excited about something but again I couldn't talk because of the meeting!

later I went out of that office, it was pouring rain, i called jen first and asked her about the news! she told me that our friends lena & michael who are seeking for tenant for their old apartment had someone from denmark seeing it. lena also told her that the woman from denmark is moving from copenhagen to vienna next month AND that they are seeking tenants for their apartment in christianshavn!

I was just excited! happy and already saw jen and myself wandering around the lakes with our doggy!

well all in the rush of a thursday later afternoon without having any ideas how that day would turn out lucky for us!

I think that these coincidences happen to everybody who moves to another spot cos as soon as you seek for a special thing opportunities around it pop up! maybe you had such a story a while ago?

your first place!

© expat kobenhavn - Østerbro kobenhavn

© expat kobenhavn - Ørestad Berjg by JDS Arch.

finding a place to live is after a job or study place the most important move for expats. copenhagen with its tradition for design and it's modern art and architecture scene is a spot with many nice homes!

since 9/11, ... upps no it's ahm, ... never mind you know what I mean, since the financial crisis hit Denmark hard housing prizes are effected by that as well! so finding a place for us shouldn't be hard. but it's always a whole bunch of things, neighborhood, shops, work, greenery, view, ....... for Danes your home must be "hyggelig"! I guess there isn't such word in english but there is in German (Austrian
German) "gemütlich"! well it shell be a cozy place!

during our first visits we've been seeing a lot of neighborhoods and it's still hard to decide!

frederiksberg, nørrebro, østerbro, vesterbro, amagar, city center, christianshavn islands brygge,...

© expat kobenhavn - Ørestad VM by JDS Arch.

© expat kobenhavn - Islands Brüggey Frosilo by MVRDV

lost in translation

© expat kobenhavn - café loundromat

it's 2009 and some expats may think that language is not as important as it was ages ago. especially when everybody speaks english nowadays. well, it might be true, when you see people like in that scenery sitting in front of their computer in a café in norrebro. but since we like to communicate and interact (and also want to study or work there) knowing the language is essential!

today we will have our first language lesson here in vienna! it was quite hard to find a proper danish course because skandinavian languages are not that popular here around the alps. and although danish is not a difficult language, it's very hard to pronounce or to understand, but i guess with a viennese accent you're better equipped for talking dansk, as they also speak very softly and swallow half of the word :-)
so after some browsing the net we found, that like every country, the danes have a cultural forum here in vienna. and luckily they offer danish courses! the forum is a cosy place in the 3rd district and our teacher is very nice. along with 3 other girls (all with danish boyfriends *g*) we hope to brush up our at the moment pretty non-existent danish, so that we can properly order our 7-euro tuborg in summer :-)

tak skal du have og god aften! and last but not least: hej hej! and see you soon.