Well, first of all, the weather has required some adjustment. I don’t mind the cold, but it rains constantly. We see the sun maybe once or twice a week, if we’re lucky (no exaggeration here). Plus, the sun starts going down at around 3:30-4:00. By 5pm, it’s night time. It’s very strange to not see the sun for days on end, and bike home from class at 5:00 in the darkness. I’m not sure I would want to live here year-round, it’s very bleak. And I’m so tired of being wet. One day Bri and I met a friend in the city for coffee. When I left the house it looked okay outside – no sun, but no signs of rain. So I left with no raincoat. But by the time we left the coffee shop to go home, it was pouring. Bri and I biked home in pounding rain, and it was awful. I was nervous because everybody gets more aggressive, I can hardly see, I worry about people seeing me, and I was soaked! Mascara all over my face, hair drenched…But by the time we got inside it was so funny we had to take a picture:

Bri and I after the terrific bike home, with our angry faces on (being silly). But notice the mascara that ran all over my face..

And a full body shot, notice the jeans...

Besides the weather, autumn in Copenhagen has been gorgeous. The trees turned all sorts of brilliant colors, and it was a fall like I haven’t seen since I lived in Virginia. I loved it, and it helped to cheer up the dreary weather. Now all the leaves are falling off, so that sucks.

One day as a class excursion for Danish Culture we visited Frederiksborg Slott, an old castle turned Danish history museum. It was a very interesting place actually. But I'm showing this picture of the castle's gardens so you can see the pretty autumn colors.

Another picture from around Frederiksborg's gardens.

And one more, because the colors were so pretty..All of Copenhagen (or Denmark for that matter) was full of trees with brilliant red, orange, and yellow leaves. I actually wish now I had gotten more/better pictures.

Oh and by the way, the wind is still my nemesis. It is still the bane of my cycling existence, and I still hate it with a hot fiery passion.

One cool event that has happened: “J-dag”. Every year, the breweries here in Copenhagen release a “jule øl” (Christmas beer). On the day of its release around the city, each of the big breweries is out in trucks or horse-drawn carriages, “delivering” their beer to bars/pubs and spreading holiday cheer. At each stop, they give out a certain number of free beers. My friend Patrick told me that this event is pretty much the beginning of the holiday season here. So of course my friends and I went out to partake in this holiday tradition. More important than the free beer (which we only got at one bar because they were all so crowded) is the holiday atmosphere around the city. All of the breweries hand out santa hats, and one was even handing out flannel shirts bearing their logo. Some bars had artificial snow blowing out of an upstairs window, and there was Christmas music playing. Everyone was just out in the streets, celebrating and drinking beer and welcoming the holiday season.

Artificial snow!

The horse-drawn carriage the Royal Beer company was going around delivering their beer from.

I very badly wanted one of the shirts and hats that the Royal Beer company was giving out. We came upon this square, where there was a Royal Beer trailer set up, with a huge line in front. I had a feeling something big was going to happen in there. I pretty much cut in front of the whole line, and was the 3rd to enter the trailer. A Royal Beer girl led me in individually, gave me a gingerbread cookie, then a shirt, then a hat, then another girl stamped my cheek with a kiss and with a flurry of snow released me back onto the street! So here I am still celebrating my victory.

So, the day after that was Halloween, which was great fun. A friend of ours threw a huge party, and me and 4 friends dressed up as the Spice Girls. I was Sporty, and we were a hit.

Martyna aka Ginger, Bri aka Baby, Me aka Sporty, Wiktoria aka Scary, Edyta aka Posh

 

Now I have one last piece of news, and it is sad. A few days ago, on Saturday November 7, I had my first bike accident. I was riding home from Caitlin’s apartment, where we had had a quiet evening eating candy and watching a movie. It was about midnight, and I was on the bridge from Amager (where Caitlin lives) over to the city center. As I came up to the apex of the bridge, I saw that the police had pulled someone over into the bike lane. I had awhile to decide what to do. I considered going into the stree around them, but it’s a busy bridge. Even though no cars were immediately behind me, I wasn’t sure if that was the right option with the police there. Then I considered getting off my bike and walking it onto the sidewalk around the police (in retrospect, I should have opted for that one). But no. I looked at the curb and thought, “Hey, I can get up on that. It’s a bit bigger than usual but I handle the others fine, I think I can do it.” So, thinking I’m some big professional curb-jumper, I swung my bike out and headed toward the curb. I promptly found myself on the ground, half on the curb and half on the street, with my bike on top of me. I immediately got up, and realized that my ankle hurt a bit. Some people walking a bit behind me came up and asked if I was okay, I assured them I was and started collecting my belongings.  I took a step and realized that my ankle definitely hurt, so I walked my bike for a bit. After about 5 minutes the pain faded and I thought I had just twisted it and it was fine. I biked the rest of the way home, and realized that my ankle really did hurt. But I could walk on it alright, with a bit of a limp. So I iced it and went to bed. The next day I woke up and it was really swollen, with some bruising. I tried to  stand and couldn’t put any weight on it. Thank God, Bri got home from her trip to the Czech Republic and was there to take care of me. She got me some frozen veggies to put on it, and basically tended to me all day. But I was horrified, because on Wednesday I was set to leave for a trip to Germany with Caitlin. Well, the next day (Monday) I could walk on it a bit but it was painful. I called a doctor I was assigned to, and they told me to give it another day. So today (Tuesday) it was pretty much the same. I went in to the doctor, who then sent me to the ER for x-rays. Bri was with me the whole time by the way, and I’m so grateful for her! Anyway, they took x-rays and found that, fortuntely, there were no fractures. Just a bad sprain. The doctor told me I could go to Germany, but that it’s going to be painful (duh). So anyway, I’m walking on it, slowly and gingery and with a brace. And I’m headed to Germany tomorrow, so that I can limp my way through Berlin and Hamburg. I can’t believe this happened. Most people I know here have fallen off their bikes while drunk, and walk away unscathed. I fall off my bike completely sober, and end up with a sprained ankle? Not fair, world. Not fair at all.

But, it did give me an insight into the Danish health care system. Since I’m legally a resident of Denmark right now, I had full coverage under their government health insurance. That means I was seen, x-rayed, and treated for free. Absolutely free. When I first realized I might have to go to the hospital I felt sick at what the cost might be. Even though I have insurance, and travel insurance, I was sure it wouldn’t cover x-rays and such here. Then some people told me it would all be free, and I couldn’t believe it. But it was true. I won’t say anything political, obviously it’s a matter of great debate in the US right now, and I think even those who support universal healthcare are waiting to see how this new bill pans out for us. But an exchange student in the US in my position, would have been screwed.

So anyways that is the end of my original update, which was supposed to be posted over 2 weeks ago. Since then, I have limped around Germany on my sprained ankle, but had a great time. The ankle is doing alright, by the way. Still not 100% but I’m getting around just fine. I’m even going down stairs normally again. This morning I picked up Mallory, one of my best friends in the world, from the airport. She’s here to see me for a week! I was overjoyed to see her. And she brought me American snacks (goldfish and reeses!). So this evening we are leaving for Amsterdam! We will be back on Tuesday, and then I will get to work on my next update regarding Germany and Amsterdam and the Copenhagen Thanksgiving we are planning.

Until then!

We started at Karlskirche, which is an absolutely stunning church. The inside was fantastic also, but my pictures are all kind of dark so I'll leave them out.

Next big thing: The National Library. It's pretty impressive.

We went further that day, but it was getting dark, and we revisted the places again the next day. That night we went back to Kiara’s and played a board game with her, then went to bed early. The next day we got up and went back to some of the sights we saw only in the dark the day before.

The Parlament building, with little me standing in front of it. It's very Roman-like..

Rathaus (City Hall) - it's so beautiful with its red flowers! We thought it was a castle from afar.

Don't know how well you will be able to see this, but it's Rathaus by night. This is how we first saw it, and it was beautiful!

Next we took the metro here - the Hundertwasserhaus. This artist/architect Hundertwasser built these apartments, and an art museum. He believed in a different type of architecture, obviously, that he believed connected man to his surroundings. This is by far one of the coolest places I've ever seen. If you want to read more I found this article about it: http://ezinearticles.com/?His-Most-Famous-Architecture---The-Hundertwasser-House-Vienna---Friedensreich-Hundertwasser&id=2346355

This is in the art museum he built (KunstHausWien) - see the rolling floor? An exerpt from the sign about it: "An uneven and animated floor means to recover the dignity of man, which has been violated in our unnatural and hostile urban grid system." Pretty cool right?

Next we visited Schloss Schönbrunn, the summer palace of the Habsburg family which pretty much ruled Vienna.

We got to the palace late in the day and the museums were closing, not that we would have paid the 18euro it cost to go in. Instead we toured the amazing gardens, seen here. There is big famous hedge maze too, but unfortunately it was closed for the day.

On our third and last day in Vienna we woke up early to go to perhaps my favorite event of our trip. The Spanish Riding School, home of the famous Lippizaner stallions, is in Vienna. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here: http://www.srs.at/index.php?id=265 or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn6Jmqs9IHQ (and I highly suggest watching the whole thing, or at least to the 5:30 mark). Unfortunately they didn’t have a performance while I was in town, but they let people come watch their morning training sessions. It was so cool! As a rider myself, I really appreciated watching them train, and I was able to see some of the nuances in their training methods. I was in raptures over what they can make those horses do (I’m certain Bri thought I was crazy as I went on and on about how hard that is, how much training that takes, look at that head carriage, look at that gait transition…etc). They are so amazing, both the horses and riders are incredibly talented. It really was a treat to see them, and it was one of my favorite things on our whole trip. I didn’t really get any good pictures because my camera sucks, and about 10 minutes in they asked people, out of respect for the horses, not to take pictures. And I may sneak pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but I will not disrespect the  Lippizaners! Oh and by the way I have a new life goal: to someday become a rider at the Spanish Riding School. They just recently accepted their first female rider, and I think I could do it if I really wanted to. Then I could live in the Hundertwasser house too!

Here's just one picture, that I took at the end of the last set, as the horses lined up to be untacked.

So after the amazing Lippizaners we went out for a "traditional" Austrian meal. First a traditional bread/broth soup, then schnitzel (too lazy to check the spelling on that), and then up there is me, looking fairly dorky, with my favorite part of the meal- the apple strudel dessert!

After our lunch we made our way to Zentralfriedhof, where many of history's great composers (Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms) are interred. Mozart also has a memorial tomb here, although he is buried in another cemetery which we couldn't find. But here I am with Beethoven

 After the cemetery we headed home. It was dark, COLD (it was so cold in Vienna) and we were dead. tired. I think at that point, the last day of our trip, we were just so tired we couldn’t even think. We got so silly. We caused a scene on some stairs down into a metro, and earned many disgusted looks from passing Austrians as we were paralyzed in a laughing fit. But thank God we got silly instead of irritable. That could have ended the trip on a sour note. The next morning, at some ungodly hour like 6am, we flew home to Copenhagen.

All in all, our trip was awesome. I love traveling! Of course, I have left so much out here, which I hate, because every little thing was so great. But if I tried to show every little thing we saw and did over those 9 days, I’m pretty sure the whole internet would collapse. People have asked me which city I liked best, and I can’t answer that. Each city has its own unique features and charms. I hope someday I can return to all those places!

Bri and I with our Spritz! They're even colorful.

So then we parted from Christian and navigated through Venice’s ridiculously complicated streets toward Piazza San Marco.

There we were met by this: Basilica di San Marco. It's gorgeous! My camera doesn't do it a bit of justice.

A closer shot because really, it deserves one. The colors on this church are really stunning, and make it stand out from a lot of the other churches we saw. The horse statues don't hurt either.

After that we had a gelato (just like every other day) and then navigated through Venice’s streets (really, they are impossible!) toward a point we could see from nearby Basilica di San Marco. There was a church there (there are a crazy number of churches in Venice, like 500 or something I don’t feel like looking it up but there are a lot) but really we just went so that we could walk through the streets and see the canals of Venice. That’s really what the city was about to me. That night we got home and ate dinner with Christian, getting to know each other. Originally we planned to go out on the town, but Bri and I were so so so tired, and we went to bed at like 11.

Me and Bri out on the point we walked to, as the sun set.

The next morning we  got up early(ish..) and headed back toward Piazza San Marco to visit the Palazzo Ducale.

Palazzo Ducale, adjacent to Basilica di San Marco, is the doges palace. If you don't know about the doges of Venice you should go read about them. Very interesting. We walked through the palace, the old governing halls of Venice, and the old dungeons (where Casanova was once held!) Very cool!

After that we grabbed a gelato, naturally, and headed back to Christians for lunch. Then, he had a special surprise for us. He belongs to a rowing club, and took us out around Venice on his boat!

Before beginning our boat tour, Christian took us out to a safe place and let us try rowing. I was uh, not very good. If you can see, Christian is sitting behind me, and has his hand on his forehead. That's pretty indicative of my boat rowing skills. I have great respect for the gondoliers now. And Bri also, who was at least able to make the boat rotate.

After our rowing attempts, our lovely boat tour began. Here we are in the Grand Canal, coming up to the Rialto.

Another picture from our boat ride.

This is also from our boat tour - I love this picture because that is a lone gondolier standing on a bridge waiting for some business. If it was bigger you could see the blue ribbon on the back of his hat. Very Venetian.

Just a random picture I'll throw in, because I like it. There's flowers on the building, a gondola in the canal...

After our lovely boat ride (which also saved us from having to take a 80euro gondola ride) we headed out for dinner. Originally I wanted to go out for a really nice dinner, and planned on spending a bit too much money on it. It was our last night in Italy, and I wanted it to be memorable. But the first place Christian took us to wasn’t serving dinner yet (it wasn’t a very nice place anyway) and then we were running out of time. Bri and I had to catch a night train to Vienna that night, so we ended up eating at this sort of cafeteria-style fast food Italian place. Not what I had in mind for our last night in Italy, but what can you do? It’s probably for the best, because I was liable to spend way too much money on a good Italian dinner.. Anyway, we said our goodbyes to our gracious host Christian and got on our way.

Overall, I loved Venice. Honestly, I thought it would be a bit more beautiful though. A lot of the buildings are a bit run-down, although I suppose it’s hard to keep buildings in good shape with all that water. Also, we weren’t there in the summer, so I don’t think we got the full effect of flowers on window sills and all that. But, that said, Venice has a charm all its own, just the way it is. It has a very cool atmosphere, an interesting history, and there’s no other city like it in the world.

We flew that evening to Rome, where we were picked up by a young couple we were couchsurfing with. Couchsurfing is a relatively new idea, where people traveling stay with people who live in whatever city they’re going to. It’s all run by this website, http://www.couchsurfing.org,  and it’s very legitimate. We found Francesco and Adriana through that, and even video chatted with them on Skype before deciding to stay there. Couchsurfing is great because you meet and get to know locals, which gives you a cultural aspect you probably wouldn’t get in a hostel, plus it’s free. Well, it’s supposed to be free. Francesco and Adri made us pay, but that’s an exception to the rule. So they picked us up from the airport, which was really nice. They are 31, getting married in the summer, and just a really warm and friendly couple. Their apartment was also really nice, and we had a surprisingly comfy pull out couch bed to sleep on. The next morning Francesco and Adri made breakfast for us (part of the reason they make people pay, I assume, is the time and service they give their guests). They make THE best cappucino I have EVER tasted in my LIFE. It was UNbelievable. Anyway, they gave us a map and some tips, and we headed out. Our first stop was the Colosseum. Adri warned us that when you get out of the metro at the Colosseo stop , the Colosseum is right there towering over you. Well, she was right. We walked out of the metro and BAM! there it was. The freakin Colosseum! I read in my guidebook that the Colosseum (and many other things in Rome) can be disappointing to some tourists when they actually see it, because it’s a landmark that is so famous and built-up. Well, in my opinion, it was every bit the wonder I expected. It really was breathtaking, and powerful, and impressive.

Bri and I inside the Colosseum.

Me outside the Colosseum. I have always been fascinated by the Romans, so it was one of my favorite things on our whole trip.

Next we walked down the street to the Roman Forum, which was really cool as well. The columns on the left are the remains of Tiempo di Saturno, the big white arch in the middle is the Arco di Settimo Severo, and the tan square building to the far right is the Curia.

Standing by Tiempo di Saturno, looking back at the Forum. There are ruins everywhere it's very cool.

From the Forum we climbed up Palatine Hill, where the most powerful Romans built their houses.

Next we visited the Pantheon. Originally built in 27 B.C. as a temple to all the Roman gods, it is now used as a Catholic church. Still today the Pantheon has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.

Then we went to the magnificent Fontana di Trevi, which "depicts Neptune's chario being led by Tritons, with sea horses representing the moods of the sea" (according to my guidebook). It's really a spectacular fountain, AND it has horses.

The tradition is to throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain to ensure your return to Rome; a second coin grants a wish. So here I am ensuring my return to Rome!

Then we bought a gelato and ate it while gazing at the Trevi Fountain. What could be better? (Mint chocolate and Nutella - yum)

After this we visited several other big beautiful piazzas, but for my sake I’m going to leave them out. That night Francesco and Adri took us to a local bar, where we had “aperitivo” for dinner. Basically, for about 6euro you get a drink, and then they bring you several rounds of food. It’s not heavy meal type food, but more like enough appetizers to make a dinner out of. It was a really nice night. The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, sucked down another delicious cappucino, and headed to Vatican City.

Standing in St. Peter's Square, looking at St. Peter's Basilica

Me standing inside St. Peter's. It's rich ornateness can't be captured, so this is the best I will even try to do.

Then we went into the Vatican museums, which you have to go through in order to get to the Sistine Chapel, which was our ultimate goal. But the museums were very interesting as well. The best part to me was the 4 Raphael rooms. This is a picture I took of his most famous fresco, School of Athens

Finally, the Sistine Chapel! I got this picture of the ceiling as we walked in, before the security guys (who were quite rude, in my opinion, for people who work in such a holy place) snapped at me that pictures weren't allowed. Bri said it's out of respect for the artist? And/or the Lord?

But then I just had to sneak a picture of the wall behind the alter, bearing Michelangelo's "The Last Judgement". Sorry Michelangelo, I meant no disrespect. But yes, anyway, the Sistine Chapel was absolutely beautiful and amazing.

That night Adriana cooked a delicious meal of pasta carbonera. And this is when the bad night happened. We had a flight out to Venice the next morning at 6:30am. Right after we arrived in Rome, Francesco and Adriana expressed their concern about us getting to the airport. Apparently, all of Rome shuts down from about midnight to 6am. Coming from Copenhagen, where the metro runs all night, we thought this was crazy. But it’s true. So we came up with this plan…Francesco and Adri thought there was a night bus that ran from around their house and could take us to the central train station. And from the train station we could get a bus to the airport. So before going to Vatican City we went to the train station and bought bus tickets for 4:30am. Then, that evening, we tried to determine where the night bus left from/how often/etc. Except, we couldn’t find out for sure. We asked people at the metro station, we looked online, everything. We couldn’t say for sure when or from where a night bus ran. So it was 10:30pm and Francesco presented us with 2 options:  either he could take us to the train station at midnight and we could wait there until 4:30 for our bus, or we could catch a few hours of sleep, then call a cab at about 3:30 to take us to the train station for our bus. He said the cab would probably cost us 20euro total. I was leaning toward the second option, until I looked at Bri. As soon as she heard 20euro, her face said “hell no”. So…we had Francesco drive us to the central train station at midnight. They said their goodbyes and drove away, then we walked up to the train station only to find out that the whole terminal was closing until 4:30. Basically, we were out on the street. We called Francesco and Adri, but they didn’t seem so keen on driving back to us (nice of them right?) SO…Bri started talking to this sketchy taxi driver who kept bugging us, and using her Spanish, talked him into taking us to the airport for 35euro. I looked at his poor excuse for a taxi and said, “Bri. I don’t think this guy is legit.” But she said, “No he has a taxi license around his neck.” And I said, “Yeah, that MUST mean he’s for real…” But, in the end, I put my bag in the trunk, got in the car, and just hoped he was really taking us to the airport. Well, he did, but I’m still convinced he wasn’t legit, because he had to drop us off outside the airport- he couldn’t go in. Yeah, so Bri and I walked into the small arrivals area that was still open, and slept there for a few hours. So, to put things in perspective: instead of getting a few hours of sleep in a nice bed, then taking a 20euro taxi ride and catching a bus, we paid 35euro for a taxi, slept in an airport, and wasted our 5euro bus tickets. Really swell. But – like I said, if that was the worst thing to happen to us on our whole trip, we did alright.

Overall I really loved Rome, and was happy with what we got to do there. People said that 2 days wasn’t enough for Rome, but I got to see all of the things I really wanted to see. Of course, I wish I could have stayed there for weeks, but, I have wished that about every place I’ve  been to.

So next we have Venice…

Our vacation was fantastic – really, really great. There was only one night that went wrong, and I think if thatwas the worst thing to happen to us we did pretty good. But more about that later. I’ll start from the beginning, and narrate largely through pictures.

We landed in Milan at 10:30pm on Monday night (Oct. 12) and went straight to our hostel. It was midnight by the time we found it so we went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up early and went to explore Milan. We were leaving for Rome that evening, but fortunately one day is pretty sufficient for Milan. Our friend in Copenhagen, Guiseppe, is from Milan, and he wrote us a complete day’s schedule of what to do – it was a really great guide, complete with where to eat. He even had us go into this really high-end grocery store, just to “walk around and appreciate all the delightful smells”. So anyway we took the metro into the city, got out at Piazza del Duomo and began there. 

Milan's landmark, Duomo. This is the world's largest Gothic cathedral. It's pretty stunning.

Also in Piazza del Duomo is this huge shopping arcade, called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It houses some of the finest stores in the world (Gucci, Prada, etc.), and Milan is known as one of the world's fashion/shopping capitals. So later in the day we walked through it and its stores, just for a little bit of torture.

After that we checked out the high-end foods store (which I mentioned above), and its delicious-looking and smelling food almost caused us to recklessly buy out the whole store. Luckily we were able to not spend any money, or cause a scene, and we continued on to see the University of Milan, which was lovely. Then, according to Guissepe’s plan for us, we walked back toward Piazza del Duomo to get our lunch. And along the way we found this church…I think one of the very best things about traveling is when you find something really cool without even meaning to – when you just happen upon something unexpected, not mentioned in the guidebook, decide what the hell, let’s go in, and find something really interesting inside. As we walked back from the University we saw these 2 churches side-by-side. They were fairly modest, but pretty enough for me to stop and take a picture of them, as one had a tall bell tower. We stood there wondering if we should go in, so we asked a man passing by, who suggested we go into the church on the left. Although it was nice to look at, it was just a simple, unassuming (by Europe’s standards) dome. But we shrugged, and went inside. Like all churches I have seen in Europe, its interior was beautiful. But as we left the church, we saw a small sign pointing down a hallway that said “Ossaria”. What’s that? We had no idea, but followed the sign. What we found was this:

This is one wall of the Ossario - if you can't see, those are human skulls. Other bones also adorned the walls decoratively, and on one wall there was a display of Mary and Jesus after his death.

So yes, a bit shocking, a lot creepy, and strangely beautiful. On the way out of the church I was sure to find its name, which was San Bernardino alle Ossa. Later, I looked up what an ossuary is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossuary) and also San Bernardino alle Ossa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_alle_Ossa). Turns out, we had happened upon one of the best-known ossuaries in the world. It was a really cool and unique thing to see, and we found it without even trying. Ok, so now to continue: 

We got paninis for lunch, at Guiseppe's recommended place (I got the spinach and ricotta cheese one, and it was TO DIE FOR!) then ate them here, in front of Teatro alla Scala. According to my guidebook this is the most famous opera house in the world. But honestly I was more concerned with my heavenly panini.

On our way to our next destination we came across this small outdoor market and walked through it. There were a bunch of vendors selling their candies, cheeses, meats, breads, etc. A lot of them had samples out, and I ate them shamelessly. With the exception of this one kind of cheese that made me gag, everything was delicious.

Our next stop was Castello Sforzesco, built in the 15th century and the former residence of the Sforza family which ruled Milan. Now it houses several museums. We didn't go into them, but we walked through the castle, which was very impressive.

So after our gelato we headed back to Piazza del Duomo and looked around the shops (in the arcade I showed above). Then we found ourselves standing in front of the Duomo again, just admiring it. It was getting late, and we only had a few minutes before we had to head back to the hostel and then to the airport. We were standing there when, suddenly, a man literally came out of nowhere, grabbed Bri’s arm, turned her hand palm-up, and poured corn kernels into it. I was really confused for a second, thinking “why is he giving her dried corn…?” Until the first pigeon landed…As Bri shrieked and pigeons flocked around her, I was paralyzed by laughter. The guy just kept pouring more and more corn into her hand, and the pigeons were everywhere, and she just kept screaming about diseases – it was hilarious. And then, I felt my own hand being lifted and turned, and before I knew it, pigeons were landing on me! The two men stood back while pigeons landed on us and ate from our hands. Bri continued to shriek, although with a little less fervor, while I continued to laugh uncontrollably. Somewhere in the chaos of it all, Bri was able to hand one of the guys her camera, and he took pictures of us with our pigeons. Of course, when it was all over, they demanded payment and we refused. We didn’t ask them to do that, we didn’t even give them permission! They were pretty angry, and followed us to the metro stairs about 50 feet away. But it was pretty funny!

Next, Guiseppe's guide led us to "the best gelateria in Milan," Chocolat. And this is me with my first real Italian gelato (chocolate and hazelnut combo). I think the glazed over look of my eyes speaks for itself. And thus, gelato became a dietary staple for the remainder of our trip.

In the chaos of pidgeons

When the birds calmed down a little the guys had us turn so we could get this awesome shot with the Duomo in the back. It's one of my favorite pictures.

So that wraps up Milan. We flew that evening to Rome and…

To be continued in my next post about Rome.

Two(now three..) weekends ago I went with Bri and Caitlin to Stockholm, Sweden! It was fantastic. I really can’t even find the words to adequately describe the city. It was so beautiful, with some spectacular scenery. Stockholm is built around water, with several islands making up the city.  I had heard great things about Stockholm from my Aunt Kris, who spent a year studying there after high school, but I wasn’t even prepared for what a gorgeous city it was. Ok moving on, but really – it is a beautiful city and everyone should go there.

We took a night train on Thursday, and arrived on Friday at about 6am. We realized that no one had thought to write down the address of our hostel (well, I thought about it, just did not execute) but we knew that it was on Gamla Stan, the island that is the oldest part of the city. So we made our way there as the sun came up, and literally just happened upon our hostel. Well, we thought it might be on this street, so we went there, and luckily for us it was. It was in a great location actually, close to many of the sights in the old part of the city. We spent the first day walking, a lot. We visited Kungliga Slottet (the royal palace) and Storkyrkan (the Royal Cathedral), which were both pretty much around the corner from our hostel. We paid to go in and see the cathedral, which was quite beautiful. We walked around Södermalm, a pretty and trendy neighborhood. There we climbed up to get an aerial view of the city from Katarinahissen, an old lift/tower. We had a picnic lunch in a nearby park, and ended up taking a short nap in the sun. We were fortunate enough to have absolutely beautiful weather while there. It was in the upper 60’s (F) with not a cloud in the sky, all weekend! Each day we took full advantage of that with a lovely nap in the sun . For dinner, our hostel provided a kitchen and free pasta for all guests, so we bought a few accompaniments and had a nice, cheap dinner. We went out to the streets of Södermalm that night, and had a beer in a quiet-ish bar we found. But we were disheartened by the hefty prices on everything, and we were pretty exhausted from our travels and extensive walking, so we called it a night fairly early.

On Saturday we headed over the island Djurgården, which besides having several attractions, we heard was a very scenic place to go. And whoever told us that was correct! We walked through the gorgeous island on our mission to find Skansen, an open-air museum my guidebook recommended. Along the way we happened upon Rosendals Slott. It wasn’t much of a castle in my opinion, but the gardens were nice and we had another picnic and sunny nap there. Finally we found Skansen, and spent the next few hours there. They have taken old buildings (farmhouses, schoolhouses, town halls, manors, etc.) from all over Sweden and put them here to create a “Sweden in miniature”. It’s like a Jamestown type place, where people are dressed up like Swedes from back in the day, and they’re just going about their lives. There was also a mini-zoo displaying the native farm and exotic animals of Scandinavia. No need to say that that was my favorite part. But don’t worry, I will spare you all the pictures I took of the ponies, wolves, bears, mooses, seals, etc. So we spent a lovely day in Djurgården, then went out to have a grand time that night. Originally we planned to go to the famous Absolut Ice Bar, or this well-known jazz club near our hostel, but they were too expensive. So after walking around for forever looking for a suitable place we ended up at O’Connelly’s Irish Pub. A little blues band was playing, it was free entry, and the bartenders were young and friendly, so we had a great time.

On Sunday we were exhausted and sore from walking (we did not take public transportation once while there, mostly for money reasons - we walked everywhere!) but we dragged ourselves out of bed and to the island of Skeppsholmen, on which resides Stockholm’s Moderna Museet (Modern Museum of Art). They were having a Salvador Dali exhibition that we all wanted to see, and it was pretty cool. After that we walked up to Central Stockholm again, to see it in daylight and also to go to a flea market we heard about. It was closed, but we walked around, had delicious shawarmas for lunch, and took another sunny nap in a park. After that we of course had to…go souvenir shopping. I just had to buy a Dalecarlian Horse, one of the wooden horse statuettes, painted red and decorated with a harness. They are icons of Sweden, and I love horses, so I had to buy one. Even though the little one I got was waaaay too expensive.  After our urge to buy things had been satisfied, we just hung out around Stockholm for a few more hours until it was time to catch our night train back to Copenhagen. We were tired but happy, and the trip was a big success. The three of us traveled really well together, thankfully. Now for some pictures. These represent about 1/100000 of the ones I took, but I’ll try to provide some of the highlights:

Me, and my backpack, as we walked from Central Station to find our hostel at 6am

As we searched for our hostel

A pretty church

Early morning in Stockholm

Part of Kungliga Slott

Storkyrkan, the Royal Cathedral, which is pretty much right next door to the palace

Inside Storkyrkan. It was consecrated in 1306! Beautiful cathedral.

View from Katarinahissen, looking just across the street from it.

Looking toward the island of Gamla Stan

Looking toward the island of Djurgarden (I'm too lazy to put the special characters in again)

On our way to Djurgarden, a view of Kungliga Slot as a whole.

Officially over on Djurgarden. This is the Nordisk Museum, which is, as you can see, a very impressive building.

Djurgarden, a very scenic island.

Rosendals Slott? Hmm...I feel bad for whatever important family had to call this their palace.

But the "palace"'s gardens were lovely, and we had a scrumptious picnic of nutella/banana sandwiches there, followed by a fantastic nap!

Inside Skansen (a very cool place) we found this. Yes, a life-size Dalecarlian horse. Unfortunately we could not get Caitlin up for a trio picture. And I am not ashamed to say that this was the highlight of my second day in Stockholm.

Entry to a street that connects Gamla Stan to Central Stockholm

A pretty church we passed on our way to the Moderna Museet on Sunday

Seriously, Stockholm? Seriously?

A street in Central Stockholm

Near the end of our last day in the city we found ourselves hanging out on a dock on the street our hostel was on. This was one of my favorite scenes in all of Stockholm

And looking in the other direction on the dock, one of my other favorite scenes in Stockholm.

Because I feel that I haven't quite done Stockholm justice, here's just a few more pictures of places/views I loved. This is the Opera House, and behind it a red church we unfortunately didn't go to.

A view from our journey to Djurgarden

:)

On the right is the city hall I believe.

Storkyrkan, and the building to the right is part of the palace

I will wrap up Stockholm by reiterating what a great city it was. I wish I could put all of my pictures up, but I’m thinking about making an online photo album somewhere else, for anyone who is interested in seeing more. I’ll let you know.

The week after we got back from Sweden was busy. There were three 21st birthdays! First Ed had his party on Tuesday. Then Bri’s on Wednesday, which was spent at the international night at Studenterhuset. Then, mine on Friday! 21st birthdays aren’t such a big deal here in Europe. But I had a great time!

Last Saturday (Sept. 26) my Nordic Mythology class had an expedition to Skåne (pronounced like scone) in southern Sweden. We went to three stone formations from the Viking Age. First we saw a stone formation in the shape of a ship, in the middle of which is buried someone who, obviously, was quite important. Next we went to a burial ground for more common people, but it had several smaller stone formations. Last we visited some runic stones. All of these were from the Viking age, so like 500-1000AD. I thought it was so so so cool! I mean, vikings put those rocks there!Definitely the oldest things I’ve ever seen. Really neat. One of the best parts was also riding the bus through Sweden. It’s a beautiful country, full of hills and quaint, picturesque towns.

The impressive Swedish coastline, which my camera does not do justice.

The first site, a burial ground with a rock formation in the shape of a ship. Obviously ships were very important to the Vikings, and although this has never been excavated, others like it have been and it is safe to say that someone very important is buried here.

The bow of the ship

Our second stop, a burial ground for those poor folks who weren't important enough to have a whole ship to themselves

Our final stop, at some runic stones. This says "Fader, let these runes be hewn after Asser, his brother, who found death northwards, in Viking (i.e. in viking activities)"

The second rock: "Fader let this stone be hewn after Björn, who owned ships with him"

On the reverse side of the second stone there is this forbidding face mask. It is facing to the north, where it was thought the evil spirits came from, so it is perhaps meant to ward off evil spirits.

The final thing on my list of exciting things to talk about occurred yesterday, Friday Oct. 2. As everyone probably knows, there are many exciting things happening in Copenhagen right now. Soon some of the foremost leaders in the world will be here for the climate conference. But yesterday it was the 2016 Olympics location announcement that had everyone’s attention. Michelle Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, and Oprah and Michael Jordan were also in town to support Chicago. I’m pretty sure I passed Michelle’s motorcade as I biked home from class on Thursday. At least, it was a very big motorcade with many police, so that is what I choose to believe. On Friday President Barack Obama himself came to Copenhagen, for a whopping 4 hours or something like that. On Friday morning the presentations of all the cities were made to the IOC in the Bella Center. Bri and I planned to go, either to the Bella Center to try to catch a glimpse of him outside, or to the City Hall Square where they set up a stage and screen to watch the proceedings on. Turns out we didn’t make it to either, but that’s what we get for staying out a bit too late on Thursday…Later in the afternoon we went to the Square to partake in some of the Olympic festivities. There were a ton of people there, and representatives for each of the candidate cities. Although, Tokyo, Rio, and Madrid had far more supporters than did Chicago. After finding out that Chicago and Tokyo were out, Aqua came on stage to play. You know, Aqua – the international music sensation, hailing from Denmark, who brought us such timeless classics as “I’m A Barbie Girl”. I must say, they were pretty great. And I’m just so happy to be able to say that I have seen Aqua live. Also, we randomly met a guy in the crowd from the US, who won the Olympic gold medal last year in wrestling. He showed us his ring and pictures from his win and stuff, it was pretty cool. His name was Henry Something. He was pretty bummed about Chicago’s loss because he was going to get to be a spokesperson had it won. But all of us were rooting for Rio, so when the announcement came we were pretty excited. But not as excited as the Rio contigent, who went wild! I actually saw one man crying. After the announcement, Denmark’s most famous rock band, D A D, came up to play. Highly entertaining. It was a great party!

And the 2016 Olympics will be held in......

Rio de Janeiro! Yay! After seeing the city's video presentation, I will be there.

Yesterday (Sunday) I made my first visit to Christiania, the “free city” within Copenhagen. In 1971 a group of young/homeless/hippies/whatevers moved into this area of Christianshavn that used to hold barracks for soldiers. They declared themselves free of the rules and regulations of the Danish government, and surprisingly, the Danish government let them be (mostly…from what I understand they’re not free from the rules, but they’re at least mostly exempt from them). People live there, in communal style, and I heard they even have schools and stuff. And yes, when you walk down the main road there are plenty of drugs to be bought. But from what I saw, nothing hard – just marijuana/hash. Although, I didn’t exactly check it out so for all I know you can get anything. But that’s just part of Christiania, and it’s not the only reason people like to go. It’s a very “chill” place I would say. There’s a jazz bar, a few nice cafes, and Sunshine Bakery, which is very famous for its cakes (I didn’t try one yesterday but you better believe I will be returning there…). It’s just an overall interesting place, and I’m not exactly sure how to describe it better since I’ve only been once. But the whole area has brick walls around it, and when you leave, the sign above the exit says “You are now re-entering the EU” Haha. Unfortunately I have no pictures, because they don’t allow photos inside, but I’ll make another visit eventually and maybe work up the courage to sneak one.

Besides all of that…Classes are going well. I like my Danish culture class, and I really really like my Nordic Mythology class. And the Danish language is HARD! These Danes, they are self-proclaimed lazy speakers. They pronounce about half of the letters in their words it seems! And they run words together, and combine them, but only sometimes, and once in awhile two d’s together sound like an impossible cross between an l and a y, and two t’s at the end of a word can sound like an l. What? Not to mention, they make sounds that my mouth just refuses to produce. It’s exhausting! But I think I’m actually making some progress. I can distinguish some words and phrases in conversations I hear out and about. And I haven’t tried out some of the phrases I’ve learned, but soon I will muster the courage to order a sandwich in danish (Jeg vil gerne have en sandwich med…ost/tun/skinke/etc). Or ask how much a beer costs in a corner store (”Hvad koster en Carlsberg?”) The grammer is easy, it’s actually quite similar to English – but the pronounciation!!! I’m still too self-concious, but I’m working on it.

And fall is definitely here. I AM COLD! It seems that one day it was nice, bright, sunny, mid-70’s, and the next I was biking home from class at 7pm in the dark, wearing a heavy coat, scarf, and with my hands and ears numb because I haven’t found a reasonably priced hat or pair of gloves yet (update: found hat, very cute and cozy. Still working on gloves). Meanwhile, as I trot around in my eskimo get-up, the Danes all seem rather unaffected in their medium-warmth coats, bare heads, bare hands, and light scarves. Perhaps this is a bad sign, seeing as how it’s only the first week in October. But really I enjoy the cold. I like walking out into the crisp chilly fall air. I just like to be warm too.

And biking is going well, except for THE WIND. My God, the wind! I loathe it. I hate it with a fiery passion and I’m convinced now that it was created by the devil to make cycling unbearable. The wind can blow so hard here that you pretty much stop moving forward, despite your desperate pedaling. And it’s not just me. The other day I was biking, and a man was a few feet in front of me. We were going along alright when a monster gust of wind happened along, and suddenly it’s like time stops for a second, for both of us. One second we were moving, the next we were simply struggling. It was so funny to see him in front of me, motion suspended, bent down over his bike and pedaling for his life, just like me, that when it was over and I was done cussing the evil wind, I had to laugh to myself. I wish someone could get a video of some bikers hit in the face by a gust of wind. It would be pretty hilarious. Except I hate it. So much. It really makes life (aka biking) difficult.

To wrap this up: big news! Next Monday, a week from now, I will be heading off to Italy and Austria! Bri and I are spending our autumn break in Milan, Rome, Venice, and Vienna. I can’t wait!!! I just hope I come back with some money left

I think it’s time to stop pretending that I will get any better at updating this thing. You will just have to settle for my extra long updates that cover long expanses of time. So, until next time…you know, probably a month from now…

Last Wednesday the University of Copenhagen held a “matriculation ceremony.” I guess it was similar to an academic convocation. It was at the University’s Ceremonial Hall in the center of Copenhagen (a beautiful building although I did not get pictures) and the first session was specifically for exchange students. Afterward they organized a social event in the courtyard next to The Ceremonial Hall where students could meet and talk, and more importantly eat and drink free food and beverages. So for this reason I and some friends went. We thought the ceremony itself would be long and painful, but it was actually not bad at all. The headmaster (I guess that’s what they call him?) of U. Copenhagen got up and talked to us for about 20ish minutes. He was actually pretty funny. To open his speech he told a story: Way back when, Ronald Reagan was supposed to meet with Olof Palme, the Social Democratic Prime Minister of Sweden. Before the meeting Reagan turned to his advisors and said, “Isn’t  this man a Communist?” To which his advisors replied, “No, Mr. President, he’s an anti-Communist.” And Reagan said, “I don’t care what kind of Communist he is!” Everybody, including myself, had a good laugh at this. Then he connected the story to his speech in a very clever way, which I can not remember. It was about integrating into Copenhagen, meeting people, being open minded, etc. It was a good speech, opened with a joke about an American

In the evening all of us went to Chun Li’s apartment to have a drink or two and hang out before the Wednesday international night at Studenterhuset. I met a bunch more exchange students. By now I have met people from all over the world – Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, Czech Republic, Mexico, Canada, UK…just to name a few. It’s very, very cool. After a while we all headed to Studenterhuset. It was packed again, as usual. I met a couple of Danish friends of Chun Li’s – Patrick and Henrick. I was excited to meet some Danes, because one of the big complaints from exchange students who come here is that they never got to meet any natives. The headmaster even addressed the issue in his speech at the matriculation ceremony. Both were really nice guys and we talked for quite awhile. It was another fun night!

On Friday the University set up a canal tour for exchange students. It was pleasant, but not something I would pay for normally. You don’t get too close to any of the sights, but you do get to see a lot of the city. Here’s some pictures:

Amalienborg Slot and Marble Church from the water

Not exactly sure...Some government buildings I think.

The Opera House

A pretty street along the canal

Somewhere along the way

A little further along the way

Christiansborg Slot from the canal

I found out that this is the old Copenhagen Stock Exchange Building

The spire on the Stock Exchange Building. When Bri and I first saw it, in my first days here, we decided the creatures were Plutos (as in Disney..). Turns out, surprisingly, that is not so. They are dragons, and their intertwined tails represent the union of the Nordic countries. But I will continue to think of them as Plutos.

 

Old warehouse

 Later Friday night we all went to an event at “The Black Diamond”, which is the extension to the Royal Library. This huge library annex was basically turned into a club, complete with bars and a dj. I’m not sure what exactly the event was for, or if they will do it again, but it was pretty cool. Imagine a huge party in a huge library! And part of the Royal Library, no less.

The Black Diamond, as seen from the canal tour earlier that day.

Inside The Black Diamond, from the second floor looking up.

The djs

 

We stayed at The Black Diamond for awhile, then Chun Li’s Danish friends (the same guys from Wednesday night, plus a few other girls) wanted to go to another club. So a large group of us walked all the way down to Vesterbro, south of the city. Quite a long walk. This place had more of an underground feel to it, less mainstream - a place probably only known by locals. The charge to get in was 60DKK ($12!!) but it was worth it. The dj was good and we were lucky enough to get a table, so we had a drink or two, danced, talked and had a great time. I’m really glad to have met some Danes, and I have really enjoyed the company of those I have met. I mentioned in my first post how reserved most of the Danes seem. Well, I am realizing that that is not so at 1am or later, when they’re drunk. At the club Patrick and I took a break from dancing to get some air in the lobby area. We were standing there chatting when a pair of Danish guys came along. They said something to us (in Danish so it was jibberish to me) and upon hearing my American accent as I told them I don’t speak Danish, they immediately wanted to know where I was from and why I was in Denmark. Turns out one studied landscape design at the Faculty of Life Sciences, and we talked about the gardens in front of my residence. They were very curious and seemed excited to meet a foreigner. They were nice guys! Later, around 3am, as I walked with another girl back to the metro to go home, we were stopped 3 times by groups of drunk Danes. They would say or call or sing something to us, and we would be obliged to inform them we don’t speak Danish (something I must do very often here). Each time, their eyes lit up and they wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing in Denmark. Then, after my friend and I parted ways, I was waiting for the metro and was approached by another pair of drunk Danish guys. They were pretty funny, and we talked about American tv shows and football until I got off at my stop. They were all about the Dallas Cowboys, and their quarterback - what was his name? Sadly, I could not remember Tony Romo. haha! All of the Danes I casually met that night thought it was very interesting that I was from Texas, most of them mentioned George Bush, and all wished me a great stay in Copenhagen. The point of all this is that, maybe my original description of them is inaccurate. The Danes I have actually met and gotten to know are great people. And the ones I have met in the early morning drunken hours have been friendly, fun-loving, outgoing, and welcoming. As for daytime strangers, well, I’m still trying to figure them out.

On Sunday Caitlin (the other girl from NC State) came from her dorm in Amager to hang out with me and Bri. We walked around Frederiksberg, then bought a cheap pizza and sat on the fountain in front of the Frederiksberg City Hall to eat it. It was a really nice day, and we had a nice time. Sometimes I still can’t get over the fact that I’m sitting in this beautiful, old city just eating pizza out of the box on a fountain.

The view from where I was sitting on the fountain in front of the Frederiksberg City Hall

The fountain we sat on, and behind it the Frederiksberg City Hall

The statue is of a naked man and woman, back to back, holding hands. Why is it out in front of the City Hall? Hell if I know.

Another view from the fountain. Even the simplest streets here have such charm, but I fear it's not fully captured by my camera

Me and my bike!

In some reckless act of bravery I took this picture while riding my bike home from the city the day after I got it. Just to give everyone an idea of what it's like to ride on the bike lanes of Copenhagen!

Our view of Rosenborg Slot from where we had our picnic in the King's Gardens

The King's Garden

The weekend was fun. On Thursday night we went dancing at a cool club called Rust. On Friday, another Danish guy I met had invited me to a party his band was throwing in a tunnel under a street in the city. “Highly illegal, but it should be a great time.” So me and a few friends went to check it out. Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures, but it was pretty cool. And the police didn’t come, so even better! On Saturday my Danish friends invited me and a few others to a cocktail party at a spa in the city. It was a cool atmosphere and a laid-back party, so we had a great time. We had to take  our shoes off at the door and were given slippers to wear, which I took as a souveneir . After leaving the party at 4am we then engaged in a traditional Danish activity for the drunk: early morning shawarmas. If you don’t know what a shawarma is, I will try to explain. It is meat, usually beef or chicken, shaved off the bone and put into a pita or wrap with lettuce, tomato, and a special sour cream/cucumber/whatever sauce. That’s the best I can do, but suffice it to say they are delicious.

I got in last Tuesday at about 1pm. I was thankfully picked up at the airport and brought to where I will be living for the next few months. My first day was rather, um, interesting…About an hour after arriving I locked myself out of my room. It was about 3:30pm and almost all of the university’s offices were closed for the day (typical for Denmark as I have come to find out). The two guys who live in the room next door, both masters students from India, were so so kind to me. I called the international students office and was told that everyone had left, no there was not an emergency contact number, sorry there was nothing to be done. I thought, are you kidding me? What if something had really been wrong? Anyway, luckily the girl who picked me up at the airport is the coordinator for the mentor program here, and she left me her phone number. She was very helpful and in the end it was all worked out. Then I met Bri, a girl from North Carolina, who is also living here. She showed me around a little, we went to the grocery store, and then made dinner and got to know each other a bit.

Our place is, honestly, not the greatest in my opinion. I live in a “shared apartment” on the campus grounds of the Faculty of Life Sciences, just outside the city in Frederiksberg. It’s the top floor of the old gardener’s house. The bottom floor and half of our floor are offices, which can be a bit strange. I thought it would be like an apartment, with a central living room/kitchen and rooms off of the common areas. Instead it is more like a 5-room dorm. But I can’t complain because I have my own room, access to a bathroom and kitchen, and it was the cheapest option available. And there is definitely an advantage to living on the grounds of the Faculty of Life Sciences, because my front yard is the garden. And across the street there is a little park with many flowers and trees and a little pond. It’s all really pretty.

The view from my window

Gartnerboligen, the old gardener's residence and my home in Copenhagen

A view of the park across the street

Another view of the park. I love that willow tree.

 

On Wednesday Bri invited me to go to the beach with her and a couple other people. We met them at Nørreport, the metro station in the center of the city, and made our way to Amager (pronounced Ah-mah). I think the beach was called Amagerstrand. It was alright, nothing too impressive but a beach nonetheless! I put my feet in the water and promptly decided I would not be going for a swim.

We think the land in the distance is Sweden and that that's the bridge over to it..but we're not sure.

Taken from the little pier

Windmills - I read that wind power provided nearly 20% of electricity production in Denmark in 2007. That's significantly higher than in any other country.

 

After the beach we walked around Copenhagen for a long time. We didn’t want to trek all the way home because Wednesdays are international night at Studenterhuset, the student bar in the city, and we wanted to go. But it was my first time in the actual center of the city so I was completely content to just walk around for 4 hours. We walked around Strøget, the area of streets full of shopping and restaurants, then made our way up to Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn. Later we went to the bar, where there were a ton of international students. Unlike in the U.S., you can just be out on the streets with drinks here. It’s a much more relaxed and fun atmosphere. Anyway we had a couple of beers, met some more people, and overall had a good time. By the way, it was my first time to legally buy alcohol! Yes, very exciting.  

Thursday and Friday were pretty quiet. I think the jet lag finally caught up to me because I was pretty tired. The Faculty of Life Sciences had an orientation on Thursday, which was alright. They gave us some good information but I was very disappointed that they didn’t do much to get people to meet and talk with each other. A lot of the people I have met so far are in the political science department, and various events were set up for them to meet and get to know each other. Other than that I tried to get some practical things taken care of, such as obtaining my cpr number (similar to a social security number) so that I could be legally recognized in Denmark. On the whole I failed miserably, but that’s a long story. I’ll just say that the working hours these Danes hold will take some getting used to. The immigration services office, for example, is open from 9am-12pm every day…

On Saturday I went out by myself to explore the city a little. There were a lot of things I wanted to see, so I took my Frommer’s Guide to Denmark and set out. I started at Christiansborg Slot (Christiansborg Palace) and walked along the water to Nyhavn, a famous street in Copenhagen. I continued on to Amalienborg Slot, Frederikskirke (Marble Church), Gefion Springvandet (Gefion Fountain), St. Albans Anglican Church, and Kastellet. Finally I made it to the famous statue of Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid), which was of course inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid.  (Andersen is huge here, as he was Danish). Then I looped around and walked back to the city on another road, stopping to see Rosenborg Slot and Kongens Have (the King’s Garden).

Christiansborg Slot - Not a good picture but they're doing construction on the tower.

Nyhavn - a street commonly featured on post cards. It's not hard to see why.

It's pretty much a street of high-end restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Very picturesque!

Amalienborg Slot

I believe this is where the Dronning (Queen) resides when she's in town? Not completely sure about that though..

Frederikskirke (Marble Church) - situated just behind Amalienborg.

Despite the construction I couldn't seem to avoid, it is quite a beautiful church. I couldn't go in because it was closed, so I'll have to go back.

The dome is beautiful

Another pretty church - St. Alban's Anglican Church. I wish I had looked to see when it was constructed.

Gefion Springvandet - one of my favorite fountains so far. It's right next to St. Alban's

Gefion was a Scandinavian goddess who plowed Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on) away from Sweden by turning her sons into oxen.

Finally - Den Lille Havfrue!

It's closer than I though it would be, only a few feet away from the shore.

I arrived only minutes before what seemed like 3 bus loads of tourists, and managed to get this picture.

Kastellet - a pentagonal citadel complete with moats! This fortification served as Copenhagen's first line of defense from seagoing invasion until the 18th century.

Interesting fact: Kastellet was made into the German's headquarters during the Nazi occupation of Copenhagen.

Inside the citadel. Today the Danish military uses the buildings.

Valkyrie, a statue in the park called Churchillparken that surrounds Kastellet.

I came across this statue in Churchillparken, the park that surrounds Kastellet. Basically, every time I find a statue that incorporates a horse it’s an automatic 7 or so pictures. I have spared all who will read this blog the many pictures of horse-incorporating statues I’ve found, but had to include this one because it really is the coolest. And more intriguing is its name, Valkyrie. I of course thought immediately of the recent Tom Cruise movie. Also, nearby is the Museum of Danish Resistance. With these themes in mind, I looked up what Valkyrie actually means. Turns out a valkyrie is, according to Norse mythology, ”one of a host of female figures who select from those who have died in battle. The valkyries bring their chosen who have died bravely in battle to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla…” (according to Wikipedia). So sorry to digress but I found all of this interesting. Really it’s just a cool statue with a horse in it. To continue:

Rosenborg Slot, my final stop. It's been there since 1633 and apparently hasn't changed a bit!

View from the garden I walked through to reach it.

The garden I walked through is part of Kongens Have (the King's Garden) which actually existed before the palace but still surrounds it today. It's a very large and beautiful park.

On Sunday I met my friend Luda, a guy from the Czech Republic, in Copenhagen. We walked around and hung out in the city, drank some coffee and such, then met up with a few others at an apartment in Amager. We hung out, drank some beer, migrated to a nearby quiet bar when we ran out of beer, and just generally had a good time!

On Monday, after several failed attempts and quite a bit of walking, I finally obtained my Danish cpr number! It’s pretty much like a social security number. It identifies you as a legal and existing resident of Denmark, and gives you health benefits and such. But you need it to do almost everything here, or at least all of the important things I needed to get done, so it was quite a relief to finally, finally win that battle. Later I went to the hostel where Luda and two of his friends from the Czech Republic have been staying until their permanent place opens up. A few other people came too. We drank some beer (because that’s what we do), conversed, watched funny George Bush videos online, etc., and again had a good time. 

Speaking of George Bush…Quite often while being introduced to someone not from America, when I say that I’m from Texas their immediate response is somewhere along the lines of, “Oh, like George Bush…?”  And they do not say his name with much approval or with a very pleased facial expression. So then I roll my eyes and shake my head and denounce him, and finally in most cases end up explaining that I’m not originally from Texas… This has happened at least 6 times now, and it’s getting less and less fun. Thanks G.W.

Overall I am loving Copenhagen so far. The Danes have been friendly to me, although I’m still trying to figure them out. I have yet to encounter someone who doesn’t speak fantastic english. Yet, they seem very reserved. I will hear two Danes talking to each other in danish, for example at the bank or the city hall, and they are animated and laughing. But when I get up to the person and say something he or she becomes reserved, and almost…I want to say mitigated. Like I said, every person I’ve interacted with has been friendly and polite, but they seem to be much less extroverted when speaking to someone who is obviously foreign. This is just my experience so far, but several other exchange students have said the same thing. Another observation about the Danes: they are all in great shape! I very rarely see someone overweight here. It’s really incredible to me for some reason. But they seem to live a very active lifestyle. Most people here bike all around, which is made possible by the bike lanes that are on absolutely every road in the city and surrounding areas. I’m trying to find a cheap bike to buy, although I’m not really sure I can make it in the bike lanes of Copenhagen.

Later this week the University of Copenhagen has set up a free canal tour for all exchange students. I’m pretty excited about that. Our group of friends has been talking about planning a trip to Tivoli Gardens (the famous amusement park here), the beach (again), and several other places as well, but who knows. Also there are a lot of museums and other places around the city I want to go see. I don’t have class until next Wednesday, so I suppose I have a lot of time. Whatever will I do?

Until next time!

P.S. Future updates WILL NOT be this long.