Holstebro 1.0

I woke up in my hostel room in the morning feeling refreshed and relaxed.  It's rather odd how the place changes in the daylight to a pleasant, if quiet hostel, rather than the nightmare-inducing terror-fest that it is at night.  Anyway, I woke up and headed down to the train station to meet up with a local I had met on the internet before the trip out.  She and I had numerous discussions regarding America and Denmark, and she was very helpful in answering questions about cultural differences, good locations to visit, and what I could generally expect.  As I was looking for a small town in Denmark to visit, and as Holstebro is located conveniently between Ålborg and Esbjerg, it seemed the perfect place to visit for a short while and hold a conversation in person.

We got a rather odd pizza - cheese (ost) and ham (skinke), baked, then topped with lettuce/tomato/cucumber (salat), and salad dressing.  Apparently that style of pizza is a Danish classic brought over from Turkey.  Oddly enough, most of the pizza shops in Denmark are run by Turkish immigrants.  Don't ask me why, I have no idea.  The pizza was tasty enough, though obviously very different from a typical American (or even Italian) fare.

We headed to a local park, ate pizza, and discussed the trip so far - what I had seen, liked and was looking forward to seeing later in the trip.  We talked about language, especially pronunciation, which is the sort of thing that is much easier to discuss in person than online.  After three hours conversing, she headed off to meet up with family, and I headed back to the hostel to nap.

I had little else planned for the rest of the day, so I decided to take the opportunity to check out the television in the hostel's lounge area.  The Center for Media Design requested that while I was in Europe I take a look at the interactive television capabilities over here, so I figured I'd kill some time doing just that.  Here's what I found:

The television appeared to be a rather straightforward setup.  It received digital broadcast antennae signals, which totaled about a dozen channels.  The TV itself had some fun features, like sleep, picture-in-picture, and so forth, but in terms of interactivity there was nothing more complicated than a TV guide channel.  Overall, the system seemed very much comparable to American television.  Perhaps it is only the cable channels and shows that have interactive capabilities?

After fiddling with the television for a while, I headed back into town to see what the night-life was like.  Overall, it was very cozy.  There wasn't a whole lot happening, but you could stop in various restaurants, and there were canals to sit by, lots of water sculptures to enjoy, and a large outdoor screen displaying a football match (or soccer, in case you were wondering).  I stopped at a steak house and decided to try their take on Mexican - ordering the nachos with chicken.  The food was obviously faux-Mexican (as Mexican-American is as well), but in a manner that wasn't really American.  The chips were covered in cheese and baked, and topped with tomatoes and jalapeño slices.  Guacamole and salsa were served on the side.

After dinner, I wandered around the city for a while, enjoying the evening, then headed back to the hostHell for a night of sleep. It was a quite, unstressed day, but I enjoyed the opportunity to relax in Denmark - it somehow seemed more in tune with how the locals spend their time.