Sunday, June 28, 2020

The long days

In the summer, Denmark heavily overcompensates for all the grayness, sunlessness and darkness that lasts between 6 and 7 months. Last year it started with September 1st. On that day the clouds came and they stayed all the way until March 15th. In that whole period, there was in total 4 weeks of sunny days but they were spread out far from each other.
But then the sun came and now the situation is completely different. Rainy days are few and spread out thin. Weather is beautiful but not too hot and the days are long. And when I say long, I mean loooooong. Today on 22nd June sunrise is in 4:28 and sunset is at 21:59. But in reality it means even more daylight, that I had the opportunity to experience firsthand. Last year I was volunteering on Roskilde Festival and one shift was a night shift, from 10 o'clock in the evening to 8 o'clock in the morning. It was completely dark from 11:30 until approximately 3:30. At 3:30 it slowly started getting brighter.
Some time ago I read a comment, from another foreigner who also lives in Denmark, where he said that Danes are taking their holidays in the wrong part of the year because in the summer, parks in Copenhagen are one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
The longer I live her, the more I see reason in his thinking. Denmark is indeed a beautiful place to be in the summer months. Days are long and sunny, temperatures are moderate, it rarely goes above 30 degrees and nature is beautiful in a gentle Danish way. It will not leave you breathless though, like some beautiful sceneries from the Alps, Greece or Norway might. In summer months Denmark is indeed a place to be. You don't need a break from Denmark in the summer, you need it in the winter. You need it when the clouds return and when you experience first hand why does the word 'sky' in Danish stand for a cloud. That's when Denmark gets hard to endure, that is a part of the reason behind the whole hygge 'concept'. It is basically danish coping mechanism against the heavy Danish fall/winter weather. That is the best time to go for a holiday to some southern European country or a north African country.
Even though I miss my family and I would rather go for a summer holiday vacation then not. But corona makes planning a bit tricky and there is a real risk that you could get stuck outside Denmark. It is just the fact of life and it is the same for everyone. Spending the summer in Denmark actually isn't that bad at all. This year hopefully I will have the opportunity to get a break from Denmark when it is really needed.

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