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Culture
So you are interested in someone. Maybe they don’t even know you exist. Maybe you’re actually quite sure they think you are pretty amazing. The million-dollar question is what happens next? University Post gives you 10 mad date ideas for Copenhagen
You are probably a star in front of the mirror, but out in public you eat your words. Your heart beats away like you’ve just finished a marathon when you see your certain someone. Inviting the person out for coffee is simply too boring.
If you want to impress, here is what you do. You look through our 10 crazy date ideas and decide on one of them. As they say, pain is a reflex but courage is a choice. So grab yourself in the balls or somewhere more decent, and get ready to be wild at heart and blow your crush away.
Denmark doesn’t have that much of a dating culture. Whether your crush is native or from somewhere far away, things are done differently here.
If you don’t want to be eyed out at a bar, feeling like you have a huge sign on your head saying I’m-on-a-first-date-and-this-is-really-awkward, seek other options.
You can rent one of those big cargo bikes people put their kids into. Buy some fruit, maybe even a beer, and take turns to cruise the streets. Bring a blanket and you’ll have plenty of time to talk, and laugh without having those silent face-to-face moments. People will probably shout at you for taking up too much space on the bicycle lane, but you’ll definitely live out the Bonnie and Clyde dream for a day.
Rent your bike for DKK 285 a day here.
Coffee dates don’t always give you a fair amount of dating time. If you’re not the one who makes a triple-shot macchiato last for an hour (who is anyway?), you’ll end up being high on caffeine or get to know the toilet better than your date.
An alternative version of the coffee date is the Clockwork Orange model. Visit one of Copenhagen’s many malls. Find the kitchen essentials department. Go to the place with all the kitchen timers. Many malls have a fair amount of them. The more the merrier!
Discreetly set all the kitchen timers for 20 minutes, and go find yourselves two coffees to go. Hurry up back to the mall, and find a spot where you can watch all the timers go off from a pleasant distance. It’s fun and innocent, and you’ll definitely find out whether your crush is as playful as you are.
Check out a list of shopping malls in Copenhagen here.
»If you can use some exotic booze, there’s a bar in far Bombay,« croons Frank Sinatra. Chances are you’re a poor student like the rest of us. Inviting someone to fly with you to Mumbai for a cocktail is hardly an option.
It does not cost all that much to invite your chosen one on a trip to the airport though. On Amager Landevej, an extension of Amagerbrogade, you’ll find a cosy little diner called Flyvergrillen. Only a wire fence separates this small joint from the airport’s runways. The place is filled with old and new photos of airplanes. You can even take a closer look at the take-offs and landings by using the restaurant’s fixed telescope.
Flyvergrillen is open every day from 10:30 to 20:00. Enjoy traditional Danish fast food delights and have a beer. You’ll be entertained no matter what. Apart from the several planes hovering overhead like giant vultures, the diner is usually filled up with enthusiastic geeks noting down every single flight arrival and departure. This place is legendary. Your date here may also be likely to go down in history.
Flyvergrillen is open everyday from 10:30 to 20:00. See a map of where you’ll find Flyvergrillen here.
If you’re a little more extroverted and sexually liberated the next date idea is for you. As we all know the weather was pretty crappy this summer, even for Danish standards. We hardly got to see each other half naked at the beach.
There is hope! Though we are in November, the temperature of the water is actually still okay for skinny-dipping, at least for the ones with Viking ancestry. If you know that your crush would be up for it, invite him or her to go to the beach with you one evening.
Charlottenlund Strandpark and Amager Strandparrk are two beaches that don’t close up during the night. Bring some towels and enjoy a whiskey AFTER you’re done dipping.
Check out what the costal water temperatures are like today right here.
The zoo. For most of us the zoo equals too many children and a nasty stench of animal fart. But if you are in the right mood, accompanied by a cute date, it could turn out to be just the setting you want. The zoo is entertaining, inspiring (…), and safe to say a get-away where you can easily flirt for more than a couple of hours.
To spice things up do what the Danes would do. Bring alcohol! Denmark has a bizarre but proud tradition of producing liquids and foods named after animals.
Go to any well-sorted supermarket like Irma. Buy beers named after animals you’ll meet in the zoo like: Elefantøl (elephant beer), Bjørnebryg (bear brew), Tiger (tiger beer), and Giraf (giraffe). If you’ve lived here long enough to enjoy the spacey taste of salty licorice bring along some Jungle Vrål (jungle screams)!
For more information take a look at the Zoo website here.
Locals who hang out at the city’s cemeteries spook out many people unknown to this custom. Old and young, all Copenhageners find it completely normal to eat, drink, play, and tan next to graves.
Join in on the morbid fun by inviting your crush for a walk at Assistens Kirkegård, a nice cemetery in the centre of Nørrebro. Bring some coffee or a snack. There’s plenty to look at, like other people drinking beer, smoking Mary Jane, or making out next to some granny’s grave.
If you have a hidden talent for storytelling make up stories about the names on the gravestones. If you are a sucker for celebs and sightseeing check out H. C. Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard, and Niels Bohr, who are among the many historical stars actually buried here.
Find more information on Assistens Kirkegård here.
If you’re already getting cold feet, though you think that our date ideas are great, this next date suggestion is all yours.
Old school romance is a reasonably simple thing. It’s all about surprises, attention, and precision. Not to mention chocolate, poetry, and flowers. Find out where your crush lives. This wouldn’t be difficult. Chances are, you probably know already. If not, jump into an old trench coat and stalk him or her to their house.
Next step. Find out which bike belongs to your certain someone. Return to the location in the dark of the night with flowers and tape. Wrap the flowers all over the bike using the tape. Attach a note saying something along the lines of: I don’t have any ideas for crazy dates that I could invite you on. Maybe I’m a little boring, and this is a big fat cliché, but would you please go out with me anyway? Do remember to write down your digits and name as well.
Find out which florist is closest to your crush’s bike here.
What if going on a date was more like hanging out with friends? Wouldn’t it be nice to relax, not having to do anything out of the ordinary? Crazy often equals over the top. Maybe, just, maybe a crazy date could be doing something that’s almost too obvious.
It might sound boring to some of you adventurous action junkies, but what about simply asking your crush to go pub-crawling with you? Treat him or her like a friend. Play it cool. Drink beer. Enjoy the advantages of alcohol.
Meet up with your date and have a kebab. Share some fries and spice things up with an Arabic soda. Then walk around from bar to bar, drinking a single beer every place you go. After a couple of hours you’ll both be happy and tipsy. Take it easy, and see what happens as you go party-hunting like only friends would do it.
Start out at this kebab place, one of the finest in town. Find more information on Ahaaa Arabisk Madhus here.
While it remains a fantasy for most people, hitching is actually something that can be done in Denmark. Of course it might be dodgy if you’re all by yourself. If you are two it could turn out to be a blast.
You don’t really have to put a lot of planning into it. Wear some warm clothes. Pack some food and water. Look at a map of Denmark with your date and decide on where you want to go. There are a lot of highway junctions in the outskirts of Copenhagen, where drivers are most likely to be going out of town. Look at any map and you’ll be sure to find them.
Maybe you will end up spending your date visiting some far away city. Maybe you’ll be stranded at some highway junction in the outskirts of the city all day. Either way you’ll be in it together for better or for worse!
Find good advice on hitchhiking in Denmark by clicking here.
If you’ve been put off by all this outdoor mayhem, or your budget’s running low this final date idea is just what you’re looking for. Invite your date to come play a game of chess at your house. It doesn’t take up much room. It is a little geeky, but that can be pretty alluring. Put on some nice and comfy music. Make coffee, light candles, bake a cake, and pray that it rains all day.
In Danish there’s a saying that goes something like this: unlucky in games, lucky in love. Challenge this old saying in the privacy of your own home. At least you will end up knowing whether your future husband or wife is a sore loser or an obnoxious winner.
To maximise your chances of success get the excellent writer Vladimir Nabokov’s book ‘Poems and Problems’. The book is a mix of love poems and chess compositions, and it will take you far on many levels.
Buy ‘Poems and Problems’ by Vladimir Nabokov second hand here.
anna.m.gaonkar@adm.ku.dk
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