Many people heard for the first time about the city of Aarhus in Denmark, which actually is the second largest city in the country having around 300K inhabitants. For me Aarhus was the “promised land”. I’ve applied for master studies here 10 years ago, but since there was change in the study program, the idea fell apart. Here we are 10 years later in the summer when I spent most of my days in Berlin, I said its now or never. The easiest way was by train, but we’ve “spiced things up” and went to visit Gdansk first, then took ultra budget Ryanair flight to Aarhus and after work and travel, came back to Berlin by train.

Even though booking.com is my preferred mean of finding accommodation, the offer was not really good or so to say non existent, unless you were in the higher paying range, so I turned to airbnb, and found one of the most perfect stays in the Latin quarter. One street away from the “happenings”, 5 minutes walking from the sea, and with such minimal yet cozy interior. Can’t recommend it enough. Best of all, the owner let us checkin early and I am still thankful about it.

Stepping in Denmark you are already aware that everything is on the higher cost side. It starts with the transport from the airport, which is synchronised with the arriving flights, and whose ticket ride costs more than the plane ride.
We arrived so early, saw all the streets empty, and could not wait for “eleveness”, to go out to La Cabra Cafe. At this time the city was something different, all the shops, bars, restaurants and cafeterias were open. It was sunny, so I guess the whole city was out. We are suckers for food stands and local junk food, so before heading back we had to try the hot dog from the “childre’s office” – Borners Kontor, and obviously check the offer at the closest 7Eleven.

The second part of the working day was reserved for the docklands area, a real gem for architecture lovers, as it has all the shapes and forms of buildings, from old to new, from Icebergs, squares, to lighthouse buildings, to tiny houses which can be rented out via airbnb. There was also the beach front, wakeboarding and a food market. Since it was raining all of the people were here in the Nicolinehus Food Market.
We finished the night right in front of our house at the Erlings Jazz- & Ølbar, great drinks, great mood, and super helpful staff.

Early sightseeing is a must, and this morning the final point was Jumbo bakery at the docks. The food was more than amazing, sandwich with zucchini like i’ve never tasted, views on the harbour, many many locals and a sunny day. My picture perfect morning, and luckily a real life too.
On the way back we spent some time in the library, it is amazing, apart from the reading/studying spots, it has children’s lego part, restaurant and very nice views of the sea. It reminded me of my student times in Finland and it brought only best memories.

Since the weather was more than amazing I used the opportunity of an allhands meeting and listened to it right at The Harbour Bath, experiencing this brought happy tears, and I was seriously asking myself: Should I move here?
The official afterwork was spent checking out some of the touristy famous spots like the Aros Museum, the Street food Market, and I think I tried something homey danish for the first time, it was chicken casserole filled in a pastry. I have jad similar dish in Belgium, but I will not discuss origins now. As it was getting dark we visited the Aarhus C area, and one of the most bustling streets, Jægergårdsgade, it had plenty of bars and restaurants and a lot of people enjoying the time off.

What I found really impressive in Aarhus, was the mobile payment, I mean it is not something new, but how widely it was used, you could buy clothes on the street, ice cream, pay for entrance and much more with it, I haven’t seen this in Copenhagen but you need to be resident to be able to use it.
Our third working day started at Coffee Collective for cappuccinos & cardamom buns from Jumbo bakery. On the opposite side at Emmerys we bought bread for home made bread and cheese. After the 3rd day the price of cappuccino starts to hurt the wallet, but we didn’t want to give up on it. Instead, we went for home made bread and cheese.

On my lunch break I visited few vintage shops, as it was the only chance for this, most of the stores close earlier on Friday, as early as between 14-16 o’clock, bought some books and enjoyed watching people before finishing the final tasks before the weekend.
Then we went to the Domen cultural center enjoyed the nature, and now together were discussing things like why we still haven’t moved here :). There were many cherries on top moments on this trip, one of them was the literal rooftop of the department store Salling. My expectations were low, but it was actually amazing, the drinks, the DJ, the views on the city.

Then we’ve spend the night on another very evening popular street Møllestien, together with the Vestergade.
We were so much at peace in this city, that we were occupied with indulging more and more from the sights and forgot to have proper meal, so we ended the night at Gusto Pizza.

Even though small, i felt like it was not enough of the city, but anyways we planned to go a bit out of it. We had to start at a bakery, this time it was Berta Bakery, and maybe my favourite one, even though this is hard to tell, it functions on self service to self payment principle, and this amazed me as well, in sense of yes things and processes can function well. Especially the savoury pastries were out of this world. In order to burn some calories we went to the other Jumbo location in Ankersgade, it was interesting, but I liked the one by the sea more.
Our next quest was the saturdays farmers market at Ingerslev Torv, again without cash or mobile payment you cant do anything. This area was also amazing and had some nice cafes around. but for us it was finally biking time,

We actually started walking towards the sea, but once we’ve reached the endless bridge, and the Marselisborg Deer Park (both free and both very kids friendly) we took the Donkey and started our journey towards the Moesgaard Museum. This is maybe the most visited place in the Aarhus area, the bikes were in a bad condition, but coming here made everything very worth. The museum, the outside of it, the programme and the lunch. 7 stars out of 5. Then, we drove a bit through the suburbs of the city, passing by the Marselisborg Castle and Tivoli Gardens, and decided to make another stop at the harbour.

Our slow evening was spent at Bad Bar, and instead of bar hopping we were searching for a Mexican place (Four Amigos) we couldn’t find, and finished the night at home.

For the last day, we decided to try the deliciously looking granola at La Cabra Cafe, and it was major win, we passed by Den Gamle By, the open air museum of the city, but somehow I became stingy for paying the 29euros entrance fee, even though to be completely honest, I still regret it especially because of the Design Museum part.
Nevertheless we spent great morning at the Aarhus K area, visited a market at the Godsbanen cultural Center, went through the ruin bars area next to the University of Architecture and ended our visit open toast lunch at Restaurant Kalas.

The way back home was super smooth and without delays Aarhus – Kolding – Hamburg – Berlin, and I didn’t know this before, but danish trains have 7Eleven coffee service.

I loved many things about Aarhus, it is always the little things and I am not sorry at all for not visiting another city on the same journey. It is maybe not the smartest place to go for a workation, but in our case it was perfect, and don’t let the temperature fool you, 18 degrees there are real feel of 25 degrees on a southern place.