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Flood in Cph?

A couple of weeks ago there has been heavy rain in many parts of Denmark … it rained all day and all night; so many basements and “low” parts of the country were flooded, filled with water, damaging a lot of stuff. My sister was one of the people who got down to a pool of water with things floating everywhere in her basment. In the news I saw pictures of (lyngbyvej) being totally flooded, where the cars were completely drowned, were you only could se their roof. The trafic stopped the places where there was low-land because of the sewer not being able to hold on to all the water, resulting in the superfluous water raising and drowning the streets and especially the underground tunnels.

Personally I experienced something rather unusual as a result to a train station being floaded.  I was visiting a friend of mine one day, were I the same day had to be at birthday party later; the thing about the birthday party was that I was the one picking up the birthday cake, so I had to be there on time.

I took the bus from my house to my friends house; but had to take the train to the birthday party cause it was faster and the “cake-shop” was near the station. I took of from my firends house to catch the train and to my surprise the tunnel that leads to the platform was closed, I looked around and saw some “station worker” standing beside a gate leading to the railway; I walked up to him and asked: “excuse me, If I want to take the train where do I get to the platform?” and then he answered: “I’m waiting for a signal to let people in and out through the railway”. That’s right, I had to walk about 10 meters up the platform through the railway. It felt like being in an old western movie. quite the experience though :)

The miniflood is all gone; from copenhagen at least. but when it rains it pours. so it’s still pouring :D

Regards,

Noha

By Noha Abd Elmobdy • August 24, 2010

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Between all the good things…

I’ve been very positive up until now, well I still stand behind what I said in my other posts… Cause it’s true. But honestly there’s a boogie monster after new danes, with a middle-easteren/muslim background called Danish People’s party. They have been suggesting everything from: that new danes get “some thousand” croners and get out of the country in return, to wanting to know how much of a load we are to the country by calculating what we are “costing” them to live here.

In return, personally I would want to know what it is costing ME to live here… I mean I pay taxes for crying out load! Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, not at all… but I mean if Pia Kjærsgaard (the leader of danish people’s party) wanted to know what new danes are costing she might want to put into consideration that we’re paying for her lunch… I’m just saying.

The article is in danish (http://politiken.dk/politik/article1027413.ece)

Regards,

Noha :)

By Noha Abd Elmobdy • August 3, 2010

4 Comments

Summer in Copenhagen, Denmark

Slowly but surely the summer came :) .

It has been great weather these past few days, and people are taking advantage of it! I could imagine that fælledparken has been stuffed with people, cause the past few days I’ve been at work (work at østerport st.) and people just keep rolling in needing to buy drinks to cool off. So I also finally got into the summer holiday after a hard semester… usually I’d be planing my trip to egypt by this time of the year; but this year I’m staying in Denmark, so I get to follow up on my missed summers here in copenhagen for that past couple of years.

Oh and ofcourse this time of the year also there are all the newly high school graduates who drive round in huge trucks celebrating graduation; an old tradition… it has been to years now since my high school graduation and i miss it :) good times!

I love love love danish summer, it’s not too too hot, but you know the sun is out and everyone is in such a good mood. Cause I feel the extreem heat when I’m in egypt in the summer everyones cranky and the humidity definitly isn’t helping either. So danish summer is fantastic (when it’s not raining of course :D )

Here are some top ten things you can do on a sunny day in Copenhagen ;) :

1. (personal favourite) canal tour

2. botanical garden (very beautiful and peaceful)

3. Round tower (a classic)

4. Lange linje (though the little mermaid currently isn’t there, but the icecream is great)

5. speaking of lange linje… The beach! wether it’s amager or hellerup :) it’ all good

6. Copenhagen Zoo (for the kids)

7. Bakken or Tivoli (amusement parks)

8. For the ladys in shopping mood, take a walk down “Strøget” tons of shops and eating places

9. Sight seeing buses, guess you can find those at “Rådhuspladsen”

10. This one you can do anywhere, but you don’t have danish summer anywhere :D so enjoy the danish sun and summer wheather with a good book in a park

to find out more visit: http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/tourist

have a great summer everyone

Regards, Noha :)

By Noha Abd Elmobdy • July 6, 2010

1 Comment

Really see Copenhagen

I was talking to a friend of mine that just got married a couple of months ago. She told me that her husband is the kind of guy that likes travelling alot and does backpacking whenever he gets the chance to see the world…  He’s not from denmark so when he got here on a visit before they got married he took a day to go out and see Copenhagen. She told me that he showed her pictures and told her about places she didn’t even know existed. She’s also born here, so I guess we don’t have the same interest in seeing the city the same way tourists do; and it’s typical that every time we “københavnere” are planning a day with our friends that we always say something like: “Where to go? We’ve already been everywhere!”… which surprisningly enough isn’t true… it’s a bit embarrassing that tourists know more about where to find places in the city we actually grew up in and we don’t.

So I’ve decided -when my exams are over- that I’ll take the time to go and see what I’m missing; cause copenhagen already is a very beautiful city, with features. I notice it on the old buildings, old shops, some old houses and streets. I’m already a museum kindda girl… Copenhagen has some interesting museums  (http://www.mik.dk/), check ‘em out.

Regards,

Noha :)

By Noha Abd Elmobdy • May 6, 2010

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When people respect…

I’ll feel as danish as people will let me!

I love this country, and I do feel at home when people can learn to see past the fact that I’m wearing a scarf. I was born here and I’ve lived here the most of my life. But I have egyptian parents so I don’t look danish, and I’m a muslim and that might not be all danes cup of tea. but that doesn’t stop others from accepting me as I am when they get to know the “real” me.

That gets me to an episode that took part yesterday. A friend of mine and myself were talking about school, since he goes to the same university as I do, and our conversation took a turn; where he wanted to know why I wear a scarf. I couldn’t have been happier to answer his questions. Because I’d rather answer questions no matter how personal they are rather than letting people misunderstand things. So we almost had a 3 hours-long conversation where he wanted to know the reason behind me wearing a scarf, and how I cope with some people not accepting it; because he does respect my choices. He tells me that he doesn’t really believe the same; but he respects it. And for me that was more than enough, that was all I asked; we are good friends and we treat each other as two human beings. We look past ethnicity and religion, and all my other danish friends are very understanding and they make me feel at home, in MY country (denmark) where I SHOULD feel at home.  Because I’ve been to a danish elementry school, danish high school and now I’m in a danish university and I have a part time job at a danish place.

To those who understand danish I’d propose to listen to this song: I Danmark er jeg født – by: Isam B, :) this song pretty much sums up how I feel…

And before I wrap it up I’d like to wish the queen a happy birthday. She turns 70 today! Hurray :D

By Noha Abd Elmobdy • April 16, 2010

19 Comments

Easter…

So I know that it’s a couple of days late to be writting about easter; but I didn’t get the opportunity  to do so sooner. But I have got to begin by saying that I haven’t experienced the kind of snow we’ve had in Denmark this past winter for a very long time. Everyone was excited about getting to have a white christmas, but in the end we were all missing the very enjoyed danish summer. So the weather has been nice this past few weeks; a little rain – but by now we all agree that anything but snow is good :)

So back to the actual topic – Easter. Since I’ve lived in Egypt for 6 years I have been lucky to have experienced easter in both Denmark and Egypt. Although easter is most known to be celebrated by the coptic church in Egypt in relation to their religion, all other religions there also do celebrate it as some kind of spring-fest. Families go out on picnics, either on the beach or in parks. And as a tradition on their easter picnics they take foods as: Salted/dried fish, coloured eggs, chives and bread. While the coloured eggs are an universal thing, I must admit I never really got to know why they eat salted fish…

As every other holiday, that’s being made much of, here in Denmark; Easter is no exception! Gækkebreve – a letter written to a person, usually a love interest, but written anonymus as some kind of puzzle or enigma. And the person the letter is sent to is supposed to know who the letter is sent from, if it’s guessed who the letter is from the sender is supposed to give out a chocolate easter egg; if it’s not guessed who the sender is, the sender gets an egg.  Another very cute tradition are the daffodils everywhere, the easter bunnies and easter chicks decorations; everything in yellow and green. Last but not least, although I’m not a drinker, there’s the “påskebryg”, yes denmark has to add beer to everything :D -Easterbeer. There’s regular Tuborg, there’s “Julebryg” – Christmasbeer and the there’s “påskebryg”…

It’s very interesting to experience the samme holiday celebrated in two different countries, cultures and traditions.

(A Late) Happy Easter :)

By Noha Abd Elmobdy • April 12, 2010

2 Comments

Noha Abd Elmobdy

Noha Abd Elmobdy

22 year-old with an egyptian background. I study mechanical engineering at the Technical Univesity of Denmark. I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. My famliy and I moved to Egypt when I was 9 years old; and we've lived there for about 6 years. So we came back to Denmark when I was about 15 years old; so you could say that I kind of learned alot from both worlds. Gave me a good perspective...