Episode 16: Summer Hygge in Denmark: Beyond Candles, Blankets & Winter

In this episode of The Scandi Shift, Meg and Selena challenge one of the biggest misconceptions about Denmark.

Everyone thinks hygge is candles, wool blankets, fireplaces, and surviving a long Danish winter.

But what if the most authentic hygge actually happens in the middle of summer?

From spontaneous evenings by the harbor and backyard barbecues to long, light-filled nights where nobody wants to go home, we explore what hygge really feels like when you live in Denmark—not just how it's described in books. 

We talk about:

•  Why hygge isn't just a winter tradition 
•  What summer hygge actually looks like in Denmark 
•  The magic (and madness) of endless Scandinavian daylight 
•  Danish summer rituals, traditions, and quality family time 
•  Why Danes embrace spontaneity when the sun comes out 
•  Midsummer celebrations, bonfires, and the famous "witch burning" tradition 
•  Parenting during a Danish summer versus summers abroad 
•  Why slowing down may be the most Danish tradition of all 

Whether you've recently moved to Denmark or you've lived here for years, this episode explores the side of hygge that most visitors—and even many expats—don't discover until they've experienced a Danish summer for themselves.

Because hygge isn't really about candles.

It's about creating moments that make you want to stay just a little longer. 

Summer hygge, hygge Denmark, Danish summer, living in Denmark, expat life Denmark, Scandinavian summer, moving to Denmark, Danish culture, Copenhagen summer, parenting in Denmark.

 🎧 New episodes every other week — follow to stay updated!
 📩 Email: TheScandiShift@gmail.com

 📍 Instagram: @TheScandiShift
⭐️ Please rate + review — it helps other expats find the show! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Scandishift, the podcast where two expert moms talk honestly about surviving, thriving, and building a happy life in Denmark. I'm Selena and I'm Meg.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

And today we're talking about Houger.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Which I know, I know. Everyone talks about Hugger.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Every book, every Instagram account, anything that basically says Denmark, it's usually followed by Huger right after.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah, but here's the thing: we're not talking about the cozy candles and blankets version. We're talking about what Houger actually looks like in a Danish summer. When it's light until half past ten at night, kids are still playing outside, you're sitting in someone's garden, and nobody wants to go home.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Which is a very different picture from the one I had before I moved here. Whenever I thought about Hoogh, it was just cold candles and like big textiles.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

And I didn't even have that before moving here because uh all those books, I'm not sure they'd even been written before I moved here or they'd just come out. They weren't big.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Your old hat now. I know and you're a pre-hook your pre uh life of hooga or whatever the book is called.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Life of Hooga. I don't remember. I think there's the little book of Hooga. And then it's uh living Danishly. Maybe you've kind of you've there's another one as well. There's parenting, there's all sorts, yeah. That was a blend.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I think when you read it, and especially when it became so popular in the States where everyone's like, oh, the Danish word for coziness, but it's even more than that. It's so cool, it's so cool, right? It was really very wintery. It was always about how do you basically survive the winter here and how do people stay happy and connected in a winter environment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

But hoogah is not seasonal. It is not seasonal, it is all year round, and it is very different to what most people would be expecting when it's in the summer.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

So we thought this would be kind of a fun topic to do since we are very much in the middle of the summer.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah. Um, well, we're in Danish summer, right? So two weeks ago we had what I would consider a true summer. It was lovely, it was hot, everything. And now, as we are recording this, we're in the midst of a true Danish summer. It is cold, it is rainy, but it is also sunlit like most of the day and night. So, with that said, I think summer hooga is a completely different version of the same feeling that we kind of have come to know and love with winter hooga. And it actually, I think in some ways, it feels closer to what I'm like naturally did in the state when I was younger. So summer was always about being together, being outside, gathering friends, like pop-up picnics, drinks, you know, fireworks in the 4th of July, all of those things that kind of make you happy and interested in being together and being outside and taking advantage of the weather outside. Um but Copenhagen kind of does it in its own way.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, and I I moved here summer 2017. So I landed straight into this summer version, actually. It was the first hour experience, if you like, that I got because I wasn't here in the winter like you were. Yeah. And I think what took time wasn't like feeling it or recognizing it, or those, you know, warm evenings that you're outside on some kind of like pop-up, let's be honest, festival or something extremely fun because I didn't have children back then. So willy-nilly, I was just outside. If the sun called to me, I went.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

I answered at all hours, too.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

You're like all hours 1 a.m. outside some kind of random cafe bar. Yeah. So, you know, I was just living it. And I wasn't actually calling that hooger. It's I was just doing it. Yeah, that's the funny thing about it.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Which I think is very Danish, is doing things and just being part of a bigger idea, but not having a label on it.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the biggest gap between how hooger gets sold and how it actually feels because everybody, when they do these books, they talk about it as like this thing. Yes, but it is a feeling. Yeah. They talk about it as like an ambiance that you're creating. And you can create that's it's actually so confusing. It's even confusing now. When I'm talking about it, I'm getting confused. Yeah. But it's not a concept that people reach for. I think that's the it's subconscious. Sorry, that's really what I'm trying to say. So people they sort of go out to create a hoogie atmosphere, but without necessarily thinking about it. It's just a way of life.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

It's innate, it's innate in being Danish, I think. And maybe Nordic, I don't know. Maybe anyone who is non-Danish and is a listener, write to us. So I think you're right. Hooga is creating a space for connecting. That's what it is. So, like in the winter, it's the creating the space with like the candles and the lights and stuff like that. And in the summer, it's more about outdoor openness.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

So it's just it's the same, it's the same thing. It's just being with friends, feeling of coziness, whether you're indoors, outdoors, whether you're on a boat, whether you're in somebody's yard, whether you're in a basement or some champagne cellar thing. Like it it can just take place anywhere. It's more about who you're with, how it feels, that sort of, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

I almost said the next time you're on a boat for hookah, you need to invite me, but then I realize we are going on a boat later this summer. We'll report back on that. Um but yeah, I think there is something really nice about the version of summer hookah, right? It doesn't require hosting necessarily. It's more of like a pop-up and be somewhere fun. Like for the people without children, maybe it's festivals. Uh, for those with the kids, it's like a beach day or a backyard barbecue or just a pop-up barbecue in a park or meeting in a playground or one of these uh new water parks that they have around the city and stuff, which are really fun. But uh, I think the good version is I met a friend uh for uh drinks a few weeks ago back when it was still really warm. And we just grabbed beers from 7-Eleven and sat by the harbor, and that was like super hoah. Yeah, like that was summer hoogah.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Also so Danish. Yeah, that is so Danish, it's unbelievable, but it is very nice. I love it when people just get a drink, a glass of wine or whatever, or bring their own bottle and sit around the lakes. Yeah, because everybody does like everyone can go to the harbor, but I it's funny the lakes is quite it's quite nice, it has like a real picnic feeling to it.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

It does. I've seen quite a few cute date nights there that I've always like, I won't be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

It's very quick because you could just be like, oh, should we in between places? Like maybe you don't make the final destination because you're like, maybe we should just sit here and you kind of just go with the crowd. Anyway, we digress here. But the point being, it's much lower stakes, it's much more spontaneous, yes, which is funny because Danes are not usually known for spontaneity.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

But you don't say, but I I think with the summer and the good mood and the fact that it's light more times than it's not, spontaneity, just like going with a whim, going with a feeling, is just I think it's just naturally with the summer.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Or at least for everybody with kids, we all know spontaneity is a rarity. Yes, it's wonderful when it happens, but it's still more rare, especially when your kids are small. But what it does mean is the plans that would normally be six weeks ahead, they might be like three, four days out. That's true. That's true. There's a bit of wiggle room, I feel, in summer. Well, because people are like, hey, do you just want to? It's so hot. Do you want to go to the sopper besin? You know, the splash pool. There's all splash pops. Yeah, it's just funny calling it a pool because it's like 10 centimeters of water and there's no swimming taking place there. But but I've done that several times because the weather has been so nice. So it's like normally I've invited or someone else, and oh, do you want to should we just grab the kids from school and just go here? Yeah, random stuff. So that's been really nice. You're right. Loosen is a good way to say it.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

I think though it comes back to the weather because the stains do not take a sunny day for granted. So the spontaneity comes when, like, oh, look, it is a beautiful day. It doesn't matter if I had planned on going to the movies. Uh-uh, now we're gonna be outside, right? I think the fact of like grabbing the sunshine when it's present is what drives the Hugo spontaneity.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Agreed. So now we talked a little bit about summer hugger. Now can we talk about the light? Uh, which is a it is a blessing and a curse. It really is. Uh I think it's the thing that underpins everything about summer here, and people truly do not understand it until they've lived through it. Yeah, and I think it is a live through it.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Because you think it's exciting and then it's a little bit like, okay. So it is my second summer here, and I'm not afraid to admit, I still underestimate the amount of sunshine and how early the light comes in. So you would think after doing it last summer, I would have learned my lesson and I would have gotten blackout curtains. Yeah. But based on our bedroom, most of the time it's it's it's quite dim, so it doesn't need it in my mind. But I don't know what the sun does. But like a little sneaky little pee for something, it finds its way into my windows, even though we are quite dark normally at 5 15 in the morning. It is popping my eyes wide open. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

It's every year, every single year, my kids are surprised by it. I'm just annoyed by it.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Surprised by it. I think it's easy to be surprised though, because when they're so little, it's hard to think back. But I have the same problem. My son is like, but mama, look, it's still light out. I'm like, uh-uh, no, it's not. Once we get your room, you'll see how dark it is. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

And then you're like taping newspaper, and I've heard it all. Friends of mine living here who have had kids and you know, like babies have literally been putting newspaper up on the walls, uh, tin foil, like duct tape, like any anything. Yeah, you think I'm joking, but anything that blocks the light out. Because you're right, especially when they get old enough to talk, and then they're like, Oh, it's it's not bedtime, it's still morning. Because they have no concept of time. You're like, no, no, no, it's it's it's quite, really late.

unknown 10:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

It's quite late. I mean, I think the flip side of this though, for us adults, it does mean, you know, it's so nice at 10 o'clock. You can still sit outside if you have an outdoor space or be outside, and it's still bright out. It's not, it's it's really lovely. Yeah. The counter to that, and this is what it was said about the other day, fireworks. The fireworks then at Tivoli on Saturdays don't start until 11:30 p.m. No kid is going to be able to see that. Heck, most adults who have kids are asleep and can't see that.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Spoiler alert, it's not for them or us. It's it's for people who actually live their lives after 11:30 p.m. I mean, but when you're you're I love that that's your reference. It's like the one goddamn thing that annoys me that I miss Tivoli fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

I also back to your point about the like concerts and summer series. I had been speaking to my husband, you know, the other day when I was like, you know, I really wish we had moved here before we had our son, so we could have spent a lot more time outdoors and and kind of in taking what I feel the best of Denmark, because must most of it is after eight or nine p.m. when we're back home at bedtime.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

After nine summers, I still love it. I think it's better to have more light than a lot of darkness, and maybe that's just how I feel because we do come off an eight months winter living in Denmark, so I'm like, oh, when the sun's out. But it having kids completely changes your relationship with it because you need, like I said, you need them tied at bedtime. The sun has absolutely no interest in helping you with that. No, and it's light until like what 10:30. It's still 10:30, 11. 11. 11 feels like dusk.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

It does. It's it's still bright enough that you can see, you can walk around, and there's no, you don't have to put bike lights on her bike yet. Yeah, exactly. But I I love what the light does to the city. So you want to be outside, you want to stay out. Everything feels somehow like just more available and open. Yeah. I mean, putting like you know, putting our son to bed. I'm immediately like, all right, let's just grab some time outside still. Like we try and eat outside whenever we can. Yeah, that's really you know, it's just something really nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

We've also been doing that more this summer. You have we did it, we have like new furniture in the yard, so that's been really nice. Oh, that's so that is that is very cozy. But I agree, I mean, the city vibe in summer, it's so positive, energetic, honestly inviting. I think that's it. Like I went, oh, it's like the sun comes out and everyone's like, oh hell yeah, whatever we can do. I don't wear my shorts in like 16 degrees.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Maybe that's why my husband brought me to Denmark in the summer for the first time. And then I was like, Yeah, let's move there.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

That sounds lovely. And the funny thing is, when I always say this to visitors, this is a funny one for visitors. I, for some reason, all our visitors they come in like winter. Oh, and and we're always, yeah, sure, you could come in February. Uh, but it's quite a different city, you know. In summer, the harbour, the parks, the cafes, everything just comes alive. There's like this buzz, again, a bit like hooger. You can't really put a full name to it and describe it, but it's just an atmosphere that's really amazing. Energy and it's an energy. It's an energy, yeah. There's just this like positive energy. And it comes alive in a way that Copenhagen in February gives absolutely no indication of. So your visitors get a very different experience, which can also be very nice, but often very different in summer. And I and I think for visitors it's better for sightseeing and being outside.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah, but if you're coming in summer, I think there's one thing that is very Danish. Um, it well, okay, so all Nords have a summer, let's call it midsummer celebration. In Sweden, it's much bigger. And here, the big one for Denmark is Sanktans. Yeah. Right? So um Which is Midsummer. Yeah, exactly. Which is midsummer. But they celebrate it a lot differently. They just have to say it differently. Yeah, and also they do different things. So for you, those of you who don't know what it is, um, and you know what, we didn't do enough research about it to say, but there is there's one thing that we all know happens, and that is witch burning. It's witch burning. There is a giant bonfire where you burn a witch.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

But it are the witches actually there because when we we were up in um White Spare Hale, yeah, and there was this fake bonfire because if we had gone further, that one was like I there's um a large bonfire, and I think there might be some type of form.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I'm not sure. Again, I missed it because we needed to be back home for bedtime. But uh in previous ones I've attended actually outside of Denmark, there was a witch. Oh. Yeah, like an F like a usually a stick-like person with some clothing on, right? Okay, we've just it's a raging assumption. Burn the witch. I did it did originally have a witch on it. There was definitely a witch. I don't not sure. Maybe it was the idea of like burning away like evil and darkness, and now you're celebrating the longest day of light. Yeah, or something like that. But it it's I mean, beyond the burning of the witch, it's just fun, right? You're just there. And when we went to the kids' version, that was a lot of fun, lots of music. The kids are singing, the dancing. Yeah, yeah. It was very cute.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

That is definitely a ritual here, I think. Most I I could there were thousands of people in that park. There was many beach locations, lots of other like uh squares and places around Copenhagen celebrating it. So I think a lot of people make real effort um finishing work early, picking up the kids early, and getting out there. And I and I think that's really nice. But what about other do you have other rituals that you that you kind of yeah? I mean it's a non-negotiable for you in summer.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Uh I mean, in general, non-negotiable for me is barbecuing. Just in general, just I love barbecue. I I cannot every day. I mean, if we can, if it's not pouring down rain, we will we will put something on the grill. Even if it's not true barbecue, we'll put something on the grill. Um, being by the sore by the shore, unless it's sore, being by the shore and just in general the beach, even if it's a little too cold to swim, those are kind of uh must-haves for me. And it's just in general being outside bike rides, especially since our son can ride a bike a lot longer. Um, yeah, anything that has to do with outdoors, like meeting friends for a boat trip or just wine outside, rooftops.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

I love that. Yeah, and I of course I'm always up for all of those as well. And I think the one for us as a family is the well, the biggest summer rituals become quality time. Oh, because we really try to see you being so nice.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

I'm like drinking and eating is my ritual. Basically, just on our own.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Like, yeah, barbecuing without my kid and my husband.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

The undertone is that I am with my family andor friends. So, yes, quality time.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

I like that you had to add that in overlay, like, oh yeah, that's right, family time. No, but the reason the reason I say this, as you know, my husband has an incredibly demanding job. And if we go on holiday outside of summer, often or Christmas, I guess summer and Christmas are the sacred times. If we try to do a holiday, like go abroad somewhere, yeah, often he'll have to work. Yeah. And the nice thing for us is, you know, then Mark closes down in July kind of thing. It's just and we just take advantage of that. Whether we go, you know, abroad or we take a summer house here or whatever. The main thing is it's ring fenced from work, and it that's become sacred because it's really difficult for us as for the five of us to spend that quality time. So I think I can honestly say that that is a ritual, like a tradition. That's something that we do every year and we take it really seriously. And then uh anyone who actually knows me knows that I'm always doomed with any kind of holiday. And I don't know, I don't know why. This seems to have just happened in the last two years, but my newest holiday that I was so looking forward to, and I'd just been sick last week, so I was like, okay, great, I'm in the clear. Yeah, no more sickness following me around because that's an actual thing. Now the airport is closed because of a volcanic eruption. So I'm just like, I'm sorry. So we take it really seriously.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

I'm not laughing at your pain. I'm just laughing at the like absurd.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

It is an ongoing joke.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

It is, it's ridiculous. You are cursed.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, I'm cursed.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Yeah, I I now that you okay, well, now that you said it, we it hadn't been a ritual for us before because yesterday last year was our first sort of time here. But that quality time and actually taking apart because, yeah, you're right, Denmark is closed down in July. No one's working, everyone's gone. It's almost sort of required, but it's one of those things where in the states where I was coming from, that doesn't happen because people don't have enough vacation for everyone to just do that. But yeah, last year was our first year and we went abroad for our summer vacation, and we actually went somewhere where our phones didn't work, which at first seemed annoying, yeah, but honestly ended up being the best thing. Like within a couple days, there was no iPad, there was nothing. We were technologically incapable of being connected with others. So we were forced to be connected with each other, which actually was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

No, it's it's so nice, and I think you've kind of touched on something that talking about you know being connected, that is another thing. Hoogie in the summer, like summer hoogie parenting. I don't know if that's right way to say it. And we talked about it, you know, briefly about quality time and and doing the fun things outside. And I think one of the things that most surprised me about Danish summer parenting, especially early on, is just how unhurried everything is. There's no pressure to fill every day with something structured. You can go to the beach, let the kids run around. That is the day. It's enough.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So if you are around in the summers, and even before we the July, like everybody disappears, like in June when schools are wrapping up and it's longer days and picking kids up maybe a bit early, heading to the beaches, to the parks, it's all this stuff. And I think I didn't have kids in another country, but I'm curious about how that compares for you for the US.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah, I think for the US, we're kind of, I mean, all right, we'll have to put a thing on this, but I'm gonna say it. We're fucked as parents. I was not expecting you to say that.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

You've actually said the F word twice. Did I already? We don't normally do explicit content, but here we go.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Uh yeah, no, but it's true because here is the this is the weird uh justiposition, or I guess like thing that happens with the US, right? So the average American. Can get three weeks' vacation. All schools, including most uh kindergartens, are closed for six to seven weeks. So mathematically, guys, something doesn't add up. Something doesn't add up. So what the hell do you do with kids? And so immediately it is from January. I kid you not, right after Christmas, you start thinking about what you're going to do with your kids in the summer. Because you know, yeah, all right, you're gonna take one or two weeks with them on a vacation, maybe go to a beach, maybe go to a lake house, do something, whatever, travel, come travel to Denmark and enjoy the hook experience here, whatever that is. But then you've got another four to five weeks, depending on your school district, yeah, on what do you do with them. And so this is when it becomes, especially in I'll call I'll talk about the Bay Area, a mad scramble. It is like survival of the fittest for getting your kid registered for programs that are not just like, oh, this is so lovely. They prepared this for kids. No, they're exceedingly expensive. When my son was three, just had turned three. That was his first summer where we had to figure this out and we didn't have our nanny. Uh, I put him in uh a cooking, a cooking class, like a little cooking camp. He was three. Most people are like, You had a camp for your three-year-old. I'm like, yeah, what else is he? Yeah, like you bad parent. Exactly. It's like, uh, no, he like there's nowhere to go. So he went to the little toddler cooking school for like a week. It was super cute. But I stood, I like literally stood up all night waiting for that clock to turn.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

That was like me getting tickets for Glastonbury.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

It's like refresh. Refresh. And then we're like, okay, hold on, let me go ahead and spend 800 US dollars for the week on this. Like it's yeah, and that's just one part of it. That is that is just unimaginable here, right? Yeah. No, here they're really good at providing lots of activities for kids. So the schools are out, parents, yes, have more vacation, but parents aren't staying off that entire summer. But you know, I see the billboards all the time in Patrick's bag, in like Copenhagen of summer school, summer activities for kids. And most of them are free or like lower price. Yeah, definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

And so I think they kind of build that into that. It's it's it's nice. Again, this emphasis on family time, being outside, public offerings, all of that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Agreed, exactly. And then spending a lot of the summer, you know, just being with other people, whether it's in a camp or exploring new activities like football camps or uh swim camps, all of that, which is is great, but it it's built in in a way that it doesn't feel so stressful to get into it. So I think that's the biggest difference.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah, and and I don't have a comparison. I can talk about you know, I can compare to England in terms of having grown up there and having friends there and family with small children, and it sounds vastly different to you, much more aligned to the US. For sure, we do not people do not take six weeks or seven weeks off in summer, and you know, it's the same, they have to find camps or somewhere, and we we all know childcare costs have been soaring in the UK, so that's that's been a big talk politically recently about how they can lessen that. But I think uh one of the funny things about summer with kids and this big shift for me personally, also my husband who I know listens to this, so he will definitely find this funny. Is what kind of holiday actually works with children? Oh because you know you have your first kid when you do take the holiday together when they're not in a camp and they're gonna be around. This is not the camp. This is just like now we're going abroad, okay, we're planning this trip. Where do we go? So we're getting out of Copenhagen, we're going somewhere, and then you're like, you know, previously we would have done like city breaks, you know, all this cultural stuff. So of course you try to do that with your nine-month-old or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's an evil, that's a well-timed evil. Yes, that does not work. And then you just learn. We had to learn fast because you know, it was a bit like boom boom boom with three kids. Uh no. So these big resorts with a pool and all inclusive or half board, whatever. Kids and magic. Everything, children are happier, we are happier. Yes. Lesson learned. This is one of the things actually, I still think creates a lot of like hoogie moments because there is so much zen around the trip. Yeah, yes, the flights are always annoying, the car trips, you know, everyone's hot and tired, and you do too many stops for like a three-hour journey or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

But you're just enjoying it.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

It used to be happy wife, happy life. I still think that applies to my husband, but I definitely think it's like it needs to start. My husband listens to you, and yes, that still applies to you.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Happy wife happy.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah, but I mean, like it's still then it's but it for me, it's like happy kids. Yes, then I'm happier, and then he's exactly so. We've both learned that you know, that's something that we needed to focus on.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

And we've been doing similar things a little bit more. I think we do have one, which makes it logistically a little bit easier to still blend a little bit of happy, not I wouldn't say happy around what I would normally have done if it was just my husband and myself. Oh, yeah. We would have done a lot more cities, a lot more things, built more, put more things into the day. We we do some of that with our son, but we definitely, if we had been, I don't know, say like exploring a Roman ruin a whole day plus something else, we'll do it for like a morning and then go back to the resort or back to the pool. I think I learned last year in this unconnected summer that it was really important for two things. One, I get to still find some cultural exploration, so I don't feel like I'm just, I don't know. I feel like I need something inputs in me, right? Like I need to like go somewhere culturally like stimulating. I need really good food. It doesn't mean it has to be expensive food, it just has to be good food, tasty, tasty, and I need beach ore and or pool time, right? Those are a smut book.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

You know, you need a smut book. I do. I already have two lined up for the vacation. I've been holding on to them, and I can just be like, yeah, I just dive into that and nothing else is really exciting. Mama needs me, Dad.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

I'm just gonna drink this margarita and and read this book. Lose myself in this aimed at 16-year-old boss.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Or get like unusually surprised by a book that I didn't know was gonna be as intense as it was. I was like, oh shoot, can other people see what I'm reading? This is amazing. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

You loaned me one of those. And I told you I read like 20 pages, I was like, okay. I'm like slightly embarrassed reading it on my own, and I'm not approved before anyone thinks it with the British. I am not approved. No, this one I definitely I was shocked at it too.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

But anyhow, sorry, we take care of it.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

That is very much hoogie in the summer. Yeah. But uh quick question. Yeah, because I feel like we're wrapping up here anyway, naturally, is if we just think hoogie specifically, yeah, do you think you can actually learn hoogie, or do you just one day feel it?

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Ooh, that is a good question. I think I think you can learn how to start developing it. Because I think back to our first part, it's two parts. It's the creating an atmosphere is part of it, but it's what comes from that atmosphere, or if an atmosphere already exists, how you take advantage of that that is part of the hookah, right? So exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. So in the summer, you don't have to create it as much because it's already there and you are then enjoying it. And in the winter, you have to spend more time building things around you to create that atmosphere that then turns into hookah. So I think it's it's twofold. It's one learning how to create it, number, but two, and most importantly, it's know it knowing how to capture it and like jumping in there with both feet.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Yeah. So the summer version is basically easier to access just because it's like the summer hoogies there in the atmosphere. Yes. Kind of all around. Whereas at home, you really have to kind of put more thinking into it. If your space doesn't just have like that natural, cozy atmosphere, you then need to create it.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

So I think that's exactly right. If you're heading into a Danish summer, or even you could try doing hoogah where you are if you're not here in Denmark, whether it's your first or your fifth or your ninth, you can lean into hookah, right? You can lean into the Danish hookah really easily, and you can kind of create or replicate Danish hoogah where you are. So just don't wait for the perfect plan, right? You can just take the sunny day when it comes. Exactly. Jump into it.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Couldn't agree more. Say yes to the garden gathering, go to the beach on a Wednesday, just you know, let the evening run late and get the bloody blackout curtains sorted before June.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

And then non-negotiable. That is non-negotiable. Do not use a towel. I'm pointing at myself now.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Oh, yeah, that's I remember that. Yeah, yeah. All right, but thank you for spending um part of your day with us.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

And uh, we'd love to hear what summer hookah looks like for you. Have you found your version of it? If there's a ritual that's becoming yours or a moment where it finally clicked for you here, or even aboard abroad, go ahead and write to us at thesc at gmail.com or find us on Instagram. We really do read everything you send to us. Most of the time, Selena will be the one writing right back to you.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

I do actually, yeah. Uh, but tech by day.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Tech for day