My City
AARHUS
Actress, rock singer and local fashion icon Iza Mortag Freund explains why she calls Denmark's second city home
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"I do a lot of travelling with my band, The Echo Vamper, but Aarhus is the perfect place to come back to. It has a different pace to Copenhagen, the best of both worlds: it's creative, but the atmosphere is relaxed."
"My favourite area is Mejlgade. A lot of the artistic educational places are here - the theatre school that I attend, the art academy - so lots of life. I often eat at Oli Nico (35 Mejlgade, tel. +45 8625 0570,www.olinico.dk), a great place run by an eccentric rockabilly. They serve properly made fish and chips, and I love the steamed mussels. It's incredibly cheap, a €6 meal! Perfect for poor artists."
"I only get clothes secondhand,and the Latin Quarter is where the flea markets are, as well as some nice restaurants. There's also a lovely chocolate shop in this part of town, called Summerbird (31 Volden, tel. +45 8619 0050,www.summerbird.com)."
"The best time to visit the city is during Aarhus Festival (www.aarhusfestival.com), which takes over the centre in the first week of September. It's a celebration of the area's culture: art, music, dance and theatre."
"A new hot spot is Godsbanen (3-5 Skovgaardsgade, www.godsbanen.dk) a railway building converted into an arts centre. The conversion took so long it became a joke, but now it's a success. The big music festival Spot has now moved here (www.spotfestival.dk), and so has the music venue Radar (www.radarlive.dk)."
"I also have to recommend ARoS (2 Aros Allé, tel. +45 8730 6600, www.aros.dk), a brilliant art museum. Your Rainbow Panorama by Olafur Eliasson, an installation on top of the building, has become a symbol of the city. It commands spectacular views. A by-product is that at certain times it projects beams of coloured light onto buildings, and into people's apartments." "The creative types in Aarhus are always to be found at Under Masken (3 Bispegade, tel. +45 8618 2266), the best bar in town, run by a wonderful artist called Hans Krull. There are sculptures around the door, a monthly film festival, live magic, and many rock bands have their release parties here. It's an amazing mix of people."
