Oslo to Aarhus Denmark

Today is day 1 in Aarhus.  It is mid day here and I don’t train until 6pm this evening, so I’ll take this opportunity to write an update for the last few days.

While in Oslo, the city felt very different. Yet my Norwegian friends told me that Oslo is very similar to Minneapolis, probably as close as you can get to a “Minneapolis feel” in Scandinavia.  It was interesting being in an 'old’ city, where the buildings are built right up to the edge of the street. I seemed odd that with plenty of room for two way traffic and parking along the streets, everything was still packed so tightly. I suppose it seemed like a ‘typical’ euro city, but I haven’t been to many yet. 

Oslo is very young and urban. Lots of people in their 20s.  The clothing style is REALLY different, especially the men. More feminine style than I expected. I guess my euro friends at the U, really toned things down when they came to the states!  Deep V-Necks are huge and lots of very colorful shorts rolled up with your typical converse All-Stars.  Soccer is on all the time in pubs and restaurants, even with the number of European leagues winding down. Awesome!

Saturday evening I took a ferry from Oslo to Frederikshavn, Denmark. I wasn’t really sure what type of boat I was to being riding,  except the fact that it was going to take about 12 hours.  The boat was essentially a cruise ship, 3 floors were reserved for passengers cabin while the rest were restaurants, spas, clubs and a casino.  I wish I had more energy to check them out but the only places I went were the buffet at 6:30am when I woke up, and I also checked out the top deck to view the city coming into port.  The cabin was pretty cool though, 2 beds (I was nervous to be sharing it with someone and that could have been awkward) but luckily it was all mine so I slept like a baby.  After docking I walked to the train station and took a 3 hr ride to Aarhus where I was picked up by a club associate and taken to the house I am staying.

I had my first taste of Danish soccer that afternoon during a short kick about.  I trained with the reserves and all we did was a warm up with 5v2 keep away, then some passing followed by a finishing drill. So far, training both here and in Oslo, teams seem to have adopted the 'Ajax' blueprint for training. A lot of possession and touching of the ball followed by game like drills.  There isn’t much pointless time wasting during training.  Today marks the first real day of training. From now until Saturday is my opportunity to show what I can do in training, and also a couple of reserve matches.  Obtaining a VISA over the summer is the goal, which would require signing by a top division team. I will have to play some unreal soccer for sure. I learned that it will be difficult to get a work permit in Denmark, unless I make a top division club. 

I’m still hoping to upload some photographs, but I am still phone/data plan challenged. More later.

Joga Bonito

Jake