“Opening Champagne with a sword is more fun. You can feel it in your stomach.”

So says Marianne Sass Petersen — a bookkeeper from Amager whose life changed when she attended a Champagne sabering competition at Tivoli.

Dedicating herself to the art of opening Champagne bottles with swords, she went on to win the Danish championship — and launch a successful business teaching sabering.

In the final episode of the season, we visit Marianne's house in Amager to find out why she loves sabering, what it entails, and how it could change your life, too.

For good measure, there's a pair of improbable references to hip-hop, as well (neither of them to Liquid Swords, alas).

Further information

Champagne Sabling

Squares and Triangles

Scenery

In episode five, we meet the chef trying to put Amager on the culinary map — quite literally.

Yngve Fobian is the head chef at Øens Spisested — a "local" restaurant in more ways than one.

For one thing, most of its ingredients are from Amager — a haul celebrated on a map in the dining room.

Fish come from the icy waters of the Øresund, vegetables from fields near Dragør, game from the island's forests, and fruits and flowers from its commons.

Yngve also gives free meals to locals who share the bounty of their allotment gardens.

Yet at Øens Spisested, locally sourced 'mad ' (Danish for 'food') isn't the only thing on the menu.

Amager's rich — and often infamous — history is, too.

Indeed, Øens Spisested is as much a celebration of the island's identity as its food — which may make it the most distinctive restaurant in town.

Further information

Øens Spisested

Squares and Triangles

Scenery

The Helgoland sea-bathing club, at the northern tip of Amager's beach, is home to one of the world's oldest winter-bathing associations, Det Kolde Gys ("The Cold Shock").

In episode four of This Amarkaner Life, we brave the heat of the sauna and the icy waters of the Øresund to talk to some of the association's hardiest members.

We meet a woman who's been winter bathing for 30 years and a local physio who swims in the sea every morning and is one of the club's saunagus "masters".

They reveal why they love winter bathing so much, how it makes them feel, how to get started, and why Helgoland, in particular, is so special.

Further information

Helgoland

Gys og Gus, by Charlotte Ringbæk et al.

Squares and Triangles

Scenery