LA: For that reason, is it somewhere that mostly locals are going or people who are familiar with that part of Denmark, as opposed to tourists because you have to know the coast, know the tides and the currents, and have an understanding of what that landscape is or that ocean is?
DN: It’s quite interesting. There are a lot of summer cottages. There are hot spots for tourism on this coastline. There are a lot of Germans who go there. Germany doesn’t have a lot of coastline and they don’t have much ocean, so they go to Denmark.
The interesting thing is that there are a lot of drownings every year because it’s dangerous. It’s almost always German tourists because the Danes are used to this ocean, and know what to do and not to do. Traditionally, the locals don’t swim in this sea. Nowadays, they have constructions where they will have very big nets that are built into the sea if people want to go swimming because sometimes they will be pulled out by a stream, the undertow will take them. Then they will be stopped before they end up in Scotland.
LA: Which sounds so cold, I’m going to say. Beyond terrifying.
DN: I think people from Hawaii would find it cold. But at this time of year, late summer, it’s quite blissful.
LA: Your cottage, can you describe it? What does it look like? What does it feel like when you walk in?
DN: It’s 21-square-meters, which is really small, when you open the door, you enter into a very, very small kitchen that has wallpapers from right after the war and the ’50s. It’s like a time capsule. We cook and make coffee on gas. Then when you turn right, you walk into a little living room, very little living room that I use for my office because I of course use this place for writing more than anything else.
LA: It sounds a magnificent place to be going to write.
DN: It’s a lovely place. One of the best things about it is of course the view from the windows.
LA: I was about to ask what your view was when you write.
DN: It’s the Limfjord, it’s the biggest fjord in Denmark, right where it runs into the North Sea. It’s magnificent. I can’t even believe I have that kind of view. I don’t have running water, I don’t have electricity. I can’t write there during winter because I can’t heat it.
LA: No AC in the summer I assume? Although, maybe it doesn’t get it hot enough.
DN: That’s no problem in Denmark. You just open the doors, it’s no problem. But you probably know these shelters that people sleep in during the summer that go there with sleeping bags and their mosquito nets. It feels like a little luxury shelter. Where you can have your table, and your coffee, and you coziness, and then this wonderful, wonderful view to both sides of the house.
