The holidays are here. The holidays are here! The holidays ARE HERE! Can you guess that we are excited? 😛 Yep, Friday was the last day of school for my kids. It was a beautiful warm, sunny summer morning and we cycled over to school with a song in our heads, not a care in our hearts, bike baskets full of teacher gifts. Now, please, indulge me here, because I couldn’t resist stopping at the aptly-named Sommervej (‘Summer Street’) to take a pic! Oh, and the little red dot above the letter ‘j’ on the street sign isn’t a dot – it’s actually a ♥… Remember my post, “I ‘heart’ Danish street signs!”?
But, as usual, I digress! Anyway, later that morning, just before noon, I was making my way back from the (fantastic Danish) library. Yep, tootling along in my car, full of the joys of summer. And then – wham – I drove right into a cortege of Danish high school students, waiting to be waved off. I’ve told you about the students before (Danish) High School Musical (Trucks). But this was amazing… The road was literally blocked with the trucks, the students, their parents/grannies/siblings/next-door-neighbours/the neighbour’s cat.
So, naturally, I had to ditch my car and go take a closer look…
It was – selvfølgelig – a few minutes to noon and the trucks were just about to depart on their loooooooong journey. (They will stop at every student’s home for drinks and snacks. And – with about 25 students per class – that means that they’ll be driving around on the truck until the wee small hours of the next morning…)
Even though there was actually a Danish policeman (Oh dear – am I showing my age? Should I be saying the more politically correct ‘police officer’?) on hand, inspecting the trucks, it was total mayhem. Fantastic! 🙂
Are we ready to rock’n’roll?
Flags? Check! Beer? Check! Air horn? Check!
Even I – the girl at the party who always turns up the speakers to 11 – thought it was extra loud this year! Remember that *every* truck has speakers and is playing different playlists. And that they play music for the entire duration of their trip around the area, usually 12 hours. Plus any passing cars or lorries will toot their horns and join in. Boom, boom. Toot, toot. Boom, boom! So it’s a very noisy afternoon and evening around these parts… Are you beginning to get the picture? Here’s a quick video I snapped of one of the trucks leaving the school (apologies for the shaky-hand) to give you a glimpse!
All aboard and ready for the summer holidays? Toot, tooooot!
Diane 🙂
What a way to celebrate! But I think the fact that the community play along and toot their horns and smile is a good thing; is that a generally Danish way to look at things? I just think some more stuffy members of society would complain here.
And another question; do the students set out to get drunk or are they happy getting happy? What is legal drinking age in Denmark?
I love reading your blog, it gives me an insight into Danish life. I've adopted Denmark as my second country this year. I'm trying to learn Danish and all about the way the Danish society works. Not for anything, just for fun.
People here don't really mention the noise of the student trucks – it's just a tradition! 🙂 I'm not sure if the students set out to get drunk, but that's usually the end result… You can read up about drinking ages here blogs.denmark.dk/diane/2013/11/27/kids-booze/ Good luck with learning Danish – you have your work cut out for you! 😉
Help Diane! I am traveling to Copenhagen with my 14 yo son on July 12 for 4 nights. It's challenging to figure out where to stay so that we are walking distance to attractions. Also, my son is determined to visit a Dane village, outside of town. Any suggestions? Actually, ALL suggestions would be so appreciated! You have my email and my Twitter is @kimorlando. Thank you!
Hi Kim! I'm hoping others will chime in with suggestions 🙂 The centre of Copenhagen is actually pretty small, so most attractions can easily be reached by foot. My favourite way to show visitors Wonderful, Wonderful CPH is by canal boat. Guided tours leave from Nyhavn ("New Harbour"). Not sure what you mean by Dane village..viking?! But you could do a day trip north to Helsingør and visit Kronborg Castle. From Helsingør you can see across to Helsingborg, Sweden, or even take a 15min ferry ride over there. Not at my computer, so can't give you links. Have fun, weather is mixed right now but basically warm and sunny 😀
[…] you’ll have seen from my recent posts, my kids are on their summer break from school (six whole weeks, woop, woop!) and the weather in Denmark is fan-flippin-fantastic (upwards of 25 […]