At Rejse er At Leve

What does it mean to live? Some may say it is simply to be alive, others may say it is to surround yourself with people, experiences and places that make you feel alive. To me, “living” is keeping my eyes open; noticing new people, places, and customs; and attempting to understand different perspectives and cultures. Before embarking on my semester abroad, I composed a list of goals for myself. These included everything from learning a bit about the culture of Denmark to becoming a more independent and outgoing individual. Reflecting back on my semester, I can’t help but think that trying to check goals off of a list is an inaccurate representation of an experience. Looking back at my original list, I did not meet all of the goals I set for myself, and the ones I did meet I would not consider to be the most important aspects of my time abroad. My experience has taken me by surprise, but has also exceeded all my expectations and I am incredibly content with the decisions I made, the lessons I learned and the adventures I embarked on.

The most important decision I made in coming to Denmark was the choice to live with a host family. This decision shaped my entire experience in a way that no other decision I made since my acceptance to DIS did; it had an impact on every aspect of my time abroad. Living with a host family provided me with an insight into Danish culture and introduced me to a whole new set of family values and customs. I definitely would not have tried nearly as much Danish food; learned about Danish neighborhoods, communities, and extended families; or grown to understand the Danish point of view on politics, education or travelling. In addition, living with a family of a different culture enlightened me to how much I do not know about my own culture. My host family constantly asked me questions about the U.S.; however, I found that I am unable to fully explain the issues facing our social security system or provide advice on how to use a comma. It was also very interesting for me to just observe my Danish family’s home life and compare it to my own. My Danish family is very focused on spending quality time together through cooking and eating meals, participating in sports together, having game nights, and constantly hosting and attending parties with family friends. Living with a family so focused on togetherness definitely made me think about how I live my life and how I would like to do so in the future.

My academic decisions at DIS also contributed largely to my experience abroad. I chose my courses based on what class topics seemed of interest to me and could also count for my major at my home university. Luckily those two criteria overlapped and I ended up with an interesting and exciting course load. I greatly enjoyed my courses for two main reasons: first, the teachers running the classes always had extensive first-hand experiences and personal relationships to the subject, and second, we were able to see the real-life implications of the course material through a variety of field studies. In my Sustainability in Europe course, for example, when we discussed how to involve local communities in improving local city environments, my professor contributed with her experience on the neighborhood council in Vesterbro. This neighborhood is in the process of under-going changes to add more green spaces, decrease the health risks associated with car traffic, and bring about a larger community atmosphere in the area. A walking tour through the neighborhood then showed us exactly what the process entailed and where these changes could be implemented successfully. Having professors very involved in the fields they are teaching about and dedicated to sharing as much information on the subject as they can with us made a big difference in the courses – all of the students contributed regularly to the discussions and debates because of their genuine interest in the class. I can honestly say that my semester at DIS was my favorite semester of courses thus far since I have been in university.

My education at DIS did not stop in Copenhagen and Allerød; my travels over these past four months have opened up my eyes in a variety of new ways. As I moved from country to country experiencing different ways of life, I gained a wealth of knowledge. I gained education in classrooms, in the field, in museums, and from many personal interactions. I have learned the importance of planning and also of not planning; how to live on a strict budget in a new city but also that some occasions and opportunities call for loosening a budget; and that it is possible to survive for a week with only a small backpack full of the bare necessities. I now know how to travel and share close spaces with others as well as how to conduct myself in a foreign country to keep myself and those I am travelling with safe. Most importantly, though, with everything I have learned from all these nations, cities, and people, I have realized more than ever that the world did not begin on February 27, 1993. Rather, people everywhere are dealing with the effects of recent history that seems so distant and unfamiliar to me. I have also realized that while there are many aspects of other countries I may prefer to my own, I am incredibly lucky and take for granted the opportunities I have had and the environment I have grown up in.

In addition to everything I have learned about the different societies and cultures I have experienced, I have also learned a lot about myself. I have learned that I am willing to take risks and follow them through; I am a much less picky eater than I thought I was; and that it is important to reach out and make connections to people. Had I not decided at the beginning of the semester to take advantage of every opportunity as it presented itself, I would not have travelled to ten countries; I would not have experienced what it is like to live in hostels and explore cities over the course of a few days; I would not have realized I like a lot of traditional Danish, Czech, Viennese, Hungarian, Swedish, Parisian and German foods; and I would not have met as many diverse and interesting people. By branching out to people I opened up a lot of doors for myself and am very grateful that I did, as although alone time is occasionally necessary, it is always nice to have people around that are happy to spontaneously explore and spend time with.

Oftentimes when I look back on experiences, I wish for a second chance to return and alter my actions and behavior in order to achieve a more satisfactory outcome. Before I came abroad, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to make sure that was not the case. I may not have had exactly the experience I predicted for myself, but if given the chance to study abroad over again, I would emerge from those four months having had a very similar experience to the one I just finished. I arrived in Denmark hoping for an opportunity to break out of my shell, to meet new people and to experience new adventures. I left Denmark having succeeded in these areas, as well as having unintentionally learned much more about myself, the culture I had been immersed in, and what it means to truly “live” than I expected. Anyone can stay in one town all their life, but to truly experience everything this world has to offer, we need to branch out, take risks and do things we are scared of. H.C. Anderson’s quote “To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,/ To gain all while you give,/ To roam the roads of lands remote,/ To travel is to live,” could not resonate with me more. This past semester I have moved, breathed, flown and floated; I have gained and I have given; I have roamed and traveled; and most importantly, I have LIVED.

My Last Two Weeks in Denmark

My last two weeks in Denmark were a whirlwind of school, sightseeing, spending time with my host family and saying goodbyes to my friends and classmates.

Two weeks before departure:

The second to last week I spent in Denmark I dedicated mostly to schoolwork – I passed a lot of my time in various libraries, cafes, and at my desk furiously writing my way to the end of the semester. I knew I had about a week’s worth of work left, so although not due until the last days of my semester, I chose to get it all done early and then spend my last week relaxing and enjoying myself. I finished up most of my work, all my classes and said goodbye to all my teachers and classmates. My Sustainability in Europe class (the one I travelled with) had its final goodbye that Wednesday, where my professor decided to take us to a beer tasting at a micro-brewery in her neighborhood. We enjoyed one great last night of beers, cheers and tears before saying our farewells.

During that weekend, I decided to spend most of my time with my host family. On Saturday we had another Danish Christmas. In the afternoon we went out and bought a Christmas tree for the house. Fun fact: Danes put their Christmas trees in the center of their living rooms so on Christmas everyone can gather together and dance around the tree while singing. They also have a tradition of lighting real candles on the trees, so despite my concerns about burning down the house, we lit maybe ten on the top of the tree. We decorated the tree with lots of Danish flags, woven baskets, and both bought and homemade ornaments. Afterwards we had a traditional Christmas dinner of pork, red cabbage, sugar potatoes, and some salad. For dessert, we had rice pudding with cherry sauce and gummy bears! Typically in the rice pudding there are lots of chopped almonds and one whole almond and the person that gets the whole almond in their dish wins a prize. This year, since I can’t have almonds, we used gummy bears instead. I found the gummy bear in mine (not surprisingly as my host mom rigged the game in my favor by putting an extra gummy bear in my dish which was quite funny) and I won some Christmas cookies. After dinner we made some more Christmas cookies from scratch (by some I mean dozens and dozens and dozens) and watched the annual New Year’s programming on YouTube. Overall, a great Christmas celebration!

The next day we visited the family we travelled to Italy with for dinner so I could say goodbye to them. We watched the girls’ rendition of the New Years’ programming that they filmed the year before just for fun. The programming consists of a hilarious skit that has been played on tv for decades that is of an old butler waiting on his Mistress at a dinner party where he becomes excessively drunk, three songs sung by the national choirs, and an address given by the queen. The girls’ versions were absolutely hilarious so we had a lot of fun watching those. We also had a nice dinner, played some games, and had dessert before saying goodbye.

Last week in Denmark:

My last week abroad I spent finishing up my assignments and sightseeing. My only sit-down exam was for economics and was Monday afternoon so I had the entire rest of my week off besides just finishing up some of my papers. Here’s a brief description of my last week:

Tuesday morning I walked around the harbor for a while before heading over to the Royal Family’s castle, Amalienborg. You’re allowed to go into one of the four buildings where there’s a little museum set up and you can also see the recent portrait of the Family that looks like a scary movie. Luckily it looks a bit better in real life than in pictures, but still was an interesting design choice. After the museum I headed back out the courtyard and witnessed the Changing of the Guard for the first time this semester. How I didn’t realize that the soldiers march about a mile through downtown Copenhagen every day of the week around noon until the last week I was there is beyond me. I’m glad I was able to witness it though! From there I headed to the Nationalmuset for about half an hour before I was supposed to meet up with some friends. The National Museum has extensive exhibits on everything Denmark dating back to the Stone Age. I’d been there once before but could still spend several hours there wandering around the many exhibits. I met up with some friends a bit later in the day to visit another Christmas market in Christiania. As it was in Christiania we weren’t sure what to expect, but it was a typical market in the auditorium there – there were lots of stands selling everything from hand knitted gloves and hats to tree ornaments.

Wednesday morning I spent starting my Christmas and souvenir shopping that I left until the last minute. I also spent a bit of time at DIS finishing up one of my papers before meeting up with one of my friends to head to Tivoli for the last time of the year. Despite having already seen it, it was still amazing to visit for the holiday season. We had some more æbleskiver and gløgg of course and enjoyed the markets and lights. When we had seen everything, we also decided to wander around the Copenhagen pedestrian streets to enjoy their lights at night as they are all lit from above and there are fantastic window displays in many of the shops.

Thursday I spent with Madhuri exploring the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Both of us had wanted to see it this semester but we didn’t get around to it until the last minute. It is located in Helsingør which is a 45 minute car ride away, so it was quite a struggle to get there through public transportation. An S-tog (commuter train), two buses, and an Ørsundstog (coastal train) later, we finally made it to the Louisiana. My favorite exhibit by far was based on the Arctic. The exhibits were huge, so there was a lot to see – there were hundreds of images of the landscapes in the artic, exhibits on expeditions through the Arctic, simulations of icebergs collapsing, and an exhibit where you could watch snowflakes grow. There was also an exhibit on artists Jorn and Pollock and the permanent exhibits of the museum. By far the best room in the museum, though, is an installation where the walls are covered in mirrors and the floor has a layer of water on it. Hanging from the ceiling are 100 lights that change color and are reflected an infinite amount of times through the mirrors and water. It is definitely a sight worth seeing. In addition, the Louisiana is located right on the water, so from the second floor there is an amazing view of the Ørsund and of Sweden, especially as we were there at sunset. Despite the hassle of getting there, the Louisiana was well worth the effort.

Friday, as it was my last day in the city, I had to run a few errands. Most importantly, I had to return my bike L. As much of a pain as that bike was with the tires never able to keep their air pressure and constantly having holes, it was still sad to say good-bye. I also had to finish my Christmas shopping (seriously last minute) and I spent a lot of time with friends. One of my friends took me to Grød, a restaurant that only sells delicious porridge, a must-have while in Copenhagen. Afterwards we walked around the city for a bit, visited Sankt Peders Bageri for the last time (my favorite bakery EVER), and met up with some more friends to watch the St. Lucia festival in Copenhagen. St. Lucia is a big holiday for the Danes, with concerts in all the schools during the day, and a wonderful tradition in the Copenhagen canals at night. Every year, about 100 kayakers decorate their kayaks with Christmas lights, mini Christmas trees, wreaths and a variety of other decorations and sail through the canals together. They make several stops throughout the city to sing where hundreds of people gather. My host mom’s brief explanation of St. Lucia’s Day is that it is meant to “bring light to the dark” that is Copenhagen in the winter. This fits really well with the entire holiday season in Denmark and wintertime in general – Danes focus a lot on a feeling of warmth and coziness called hygge. It was an amazing sight to see – hundreds of people gathered in the cold and rain to celebrate light and the holiday season in a unique way.

My last day in Denmark, Saturday, I spent entirely with my host family. I had finished all my assignments so it was time to spend a little more time with them before packing and heading home the next day. In the afternoon, Lasse, Jens and I went out to a forest while Linea and Lisette were at work so we could have a nice walk. We also went into a nice restaurant that reminded me a lot of ski lodges in New England and had some hot chocolate and gløgg. Afterwards we headed to Lisette’s work to pick her up. She was just finishing up an event at the shopping mall, so Lasse and I participated in making a Christmas candle which we burned later in the day. When we got home, I packed for a few hours before dinner. We had a nice last dinner, swapped some presents (they made me a beautiful book of pictures of all of us throughout the semester) and had a game night. We also decided last minute to frost the remaining Christmas cookies that we had made the week before at 12:30am. So of course we had some fun with that before heading to bed.

Sunday I woke up early to finish packing and cleaning up my room. We had a nice breakfast together before heading to the airport. It was a bit of a struggle to get all of my bags checked correctly and find security, but eventually it was time to say a tearful goodbye. I could never emphasize enough how thankful I am for my Danish family – it was incredibly difficult to say goodbye and realize that I do not know when I will see them again. I truly enjoyed living with them and learned so much from the experience.

Unluckily, my flight was delayed for two hours, but I found some friends in the airport (a large portion of the travelers were DIS students) to spend the time with before boarding. We headed to Reykjavik, Iceland for our transfer, which meant a really interesting view out the window. Since we were late leaving Denmark, we started flying around sunset (3pm) and because of the time changes, we followed the sunset east for three hours. Let me just say, the sunset and night sky in Iceland in the winter are amazing. The North Star looked just as it looks in cartoons with a huge, bright cross in the sky – it truly is indescribable. Also, Iceland is really cool looking – there are a ton of islands covered in ice and snow that look amazing in the sunset, and the airport itself is located in the middle of nowhere. Literally, we flew over the land and all I could see anywhere was ice. Ice, ice and more ice. There were no roads and no lights; nothing. As we approached the airport, we could see the city off in the distance, but the utter emptiness of the land was remarkable. Anyways, as we were late leaving Copenhagen, we had to run to our connecting flight which they actually delayed for us (most of the flight would have been empty otherwise) and we boarded for our final leg into Boston. We reached Boston around 7pm EST time, had fun filing reports for our missing bags which did not all make the connection in Iceland, and made it through customs easily enough.

I then walked out of the arrivals gate, reunited with my family and we headed home as my semester abroad came to an end.

A Very Merry Denmark

These past two weeks since I have returned from my travel week have been a lovely mix between school and the holidays (the holiday part being much lovelier than the school part). Since it’s been a while, this post will just be a summary of the highlights:

One of the first days I came back I spent the afternoon in Ishøj (a town south of Copenhagen) at a gymnasium (term for a high school in Danish). I went with the DIS Ambassador’s (the community outreach type club) to go and talk to a group of students about American culture. We were supposed to discuss topics they have been learning about lately, but as our topic was the Declaration of Independence, it was pretty much a question and answer session on whatever they were curious about. We talked about everything from religion, to the education systems in the two countries, to binge drinking, which was their favorite to discuss, of course. After the discussions we had a tour of their school which is much different from the one I went to. The students were allowed to roam the hallways, leave the campus, play foosball in between classes and lounge on couches throughout the school, whereas at my high school, if you were caught in the hallways without a pass, you received a one way ticket to detention. Overall it was a pretty cool experience to hear from them on these topics, especially I have learned about them in class but 17-19 year olds have very different opinions than my professors.

In the past two weeks, Christmas has gotten into full swing here in Denmark! As soon as I came back there were Christmas decorations up – in fact, there was a Christmas tree in the middle of the runway at the airport greeting us when we landed. Christmas time in Denmark means lots of Christmas markets, ornaments and decorations hanging in all the shop windows, lights suspended across the streets, Christmas trees everywhere, and some traditional food and drink such as æbleskiver and gløgg. There are a few Christmas markets right around my school, so whenever I have a free moment I tend to head over there and see what they are selling and just enjoy the fake snow (no real snow yet but plenty of frost) and cheery music. The Christmas smells are also very pleasant at all the markets, particularly the gløgg which is a hot, spiced wine you can smell everywhere. The best Christmas market, though, is the one at Tivoli. I have said before how Tivoli knows how to celebrate, and just like at Halloween, they pulled out all the stops! There is snow everywhere, every shop now sells Danish Christmas goodies, the restaurants have the delicious snacks including æbleskiver (which are little doughnuts made of pancake batter that you dip in jam and confectioner’s sugar – aka perfection) and there are reindeer! Basically, Tivoli is the most magical place on earth – even including Disney.

The most important part of these past few weeks, though has been the holidays! I have celebrated Thanksgiving three times, and Christmas once. And it’s only December 2^nd. My first Thanksgiving was celebrated November 23^rd with my host family, my friend Madhuri’s host family, and a few other DIS students. Madhuri was hosting, so I arrived at her house around 11 am and we baked all day long listening to plenty of Christmas music. We made stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and turkey while the others brought salad, sweet potatoes, an apple cake, and of course some pickled herring and schnapps for appetizers (when in Denmark!). After stuffing ourselves we watched Love Actually and enjoyed the holiday season properly. Per usual, there was a ton of food and leftovers that lasted the week, right up until my second Thanksgiving.

On the holiday itself, I went to classes before spending the afternoon in the freezing cold wind teaching Danes about the holiday. The Ambassadors program decided it would be a good idea to set up shop in the square next to our school, so we decorated a table complete with plate settings, flowers and candles for the holiday – it would have been much easier if the wind had decided not to blow everything over every few minutes, though. We invited everyone walking by to have some free coffee and cookies as we tried to teach them a bit about the holiday. We had quite a few people interested, so it was a lot of fun trying to explain everything. After a few hours, I headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with my host sister. We were able to watch most of it so it was fun to have her see a bit of our traditions. Around dinner time my host grandparents came over and we had an “American” dinner (no turkey, I had had plenty by this point though from the leftovers) and a very good time. Not a traditional Thanksgiving day for me, but definitely a special one.

My last Thanksgiving was this past Saturday, the 30^th. During the day I headed to Helsingør with my host parents to see Kronborg Slot (Hamlet’s castle). It is one of the last castles in this area I had yet to see, so I wanted to make the journey North to it at some point. It is right on the water facing Sweden (my phone actually sent me a text saying welcome to Sweden) and is a baroque style which is different from most of the other castles in Denmark. It was definitely not as extravagant on the interior, but it is difficult to know for sure what it looked like when it was built because most of the castle was burned in a fire a few hundred years ago. After roaming the rooms and chapel, we headed to the town of Helsingør to visit the Christmas market. The problem, though, was that we went around four in the afternoon – aka closing time for everything in Denmark during the winter. Instead we went to a café for some gløgg and æbleskiver before my host parents dropped me off at my friend Eleanor’s for a Thanksgiving dinner.

Eleanor and two other friends had been cooking all day and were finishing up when I arrived with more food to cook. We had green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potato latkes, cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, stuffing, and probably more that I am forgetting. We of course ate way too much (it wouldn’t be a proper Thanksgiving otherwise), so decided to take a walk before continuing with dessert. Eleanor lives right near a large lake and the Queen’s Palace, Fredensborg Slot. We walked for about an hour around the two (this was the first time I had seen this castle) before heading back for some cake, apple crisp and ice cream. Overall, a wonderful night filled with lots of food and fun.

Moving on to the next holiday, yesterday we celebrated Christmas in Denmark! I went with my host family to my host grandmother’s house for Julefrokost, or Christmas lunch. The julefrokost is very important in Demark, it is a day where the entire family gets together and sits around the dinner table eating and laughing for about 8 hours. No lie. We arrived at 12, began eating around 1, took a break for a walk around 3:30, resumed eating around 5:30, and finished by 7:30-8. The food was all traditional Danish food so lots of varieties of fish, pork and bread (if you want a more detailed description just ask, it would take way too long to explain everything here). Dessert consisted of lots of Christmas cookies and cake, and I don’t think I have ever been fuller in my life. The hour and a half long walk definitely helped, and was beautiful in its own right. We headed to my third castle of the weekend, this time Fredericksborg Slot. I have been to this one a few times (and have described it in a previous post), but never at this time of day. We were walking through the gardens at sunset so had a perfect view of the castle surrounded by the water with a beautiful sky in the background. Overall, despite the slight sickness resulting from the excessive and strange food, Julefrokost was a great way to spend the day getting to know some more of the family and enjoy living in Denmark.

So outside of all these holidays, there has not been too much going on. I am finishing up all of my classes (I am done with three so far, two to go) and now just working on preparing for my finals. Still to go, I have an economics exam, a 6 page policy strategy paper, a six page reflection paper on my semester, and a 15 page law research paper. I am hoping to finish most of it this week, so I can have next week to finish my sightseeing and Christmas shopping. I don’t know where this semester has gone, but it is quickly coming to a close!

Travel Break 3, Part 3: Berlin

After a short flight, we arrived in Berlin on Wednesday night to begin our next adventure! However, since it was already late when we landed and then we needed to figure out the transportation system (always a challenge in a new city), we found our way to the hostel and spent the night resting up and planning for the rest of the week.

Both of us were quite exhausted on Thursday, so we slept in a bit (which was very easy as we were upgraded to a double the night before as there were already people sleeping in the beds we reserved), and were up just in time to make it to our walking tour starting at Brandenburg Gate.

We were greeted at the start of the tour, strangely enough, by many people dressed in bear costumes and flying Soviet and German flags. The funniest part was when a tiny dog decided it didn’t like the bears and barked and growly incessantly at them – of course the person in the bear antagonized the dog back. Quite hilarious, but yeah, weird. But we met up with our tour guide, Seb, and began learning all about the amazing city that is Berlin. The tour began with the square we were in, in which the US Embassy was the oldest building having been erected in 1999. This square was completely destroyed in the war, and the only building left standing afterwards was the Gate, even though it was largely destroyed. Our tour guide also pointed out to us the floor where the US had been spying on the German Chancellor for a few years (as we were the only Americans on our tour, our tour guide gave us very friendly looks).

We moved on to see the Reichstag Building which is the home of the German Parliament, the Holocaust Memorial, the square where Hitler’s bunker was located, various pieces of the Berlin Wall, the Topography of Terror Museum, the location of massive protests carried out by East Berliners fighting for their rights, Checkpoint Charlie, the location of the Nazi Book Burnings, Museum Island, and various Churches. Overall, quite a bit for a three hour tour!

After the tour, Allison and I grabbed some traditional German street food, including sausage, mushrooms, onions and a roll (surprisingly very good) and backtracked our trail from the tour. We stopped again at Checkpoint Charlie to get a closer look and see a bit of the museum about it. We then moved on to the Topography of Terrors museum. The museum was very interesting and covered a lot of information about the policing forces of the Nazi regime. We learned about the SS, the Gestapo and two other forces – the museum focused mostly on their roles in the country, but also had occasionally profiles of members, which I thought was the most interesting to see.

After a few hours spent there, we moved on to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. About the Memorial itself first: it is a very unique monument. It consists of hundreds of rectangles coming up from the ground that are all identical except for their height and the slant of their tops. They are arranged in an open area, and you are meant to walk through them. As you start, they are only about 2 feet tall, but by the time you are in the center, they tower over you at about 8 feet tall (from a distance it doesn’t look like they are that tall because they don’t rise above the smaller ones, rather the ground they rest on is lower in the center than on the edges. Walking through the monument, sound is thrown off because of the shape and layout of the rectangles, sight is thrown off because you can only see directly in front and on the sides of yourself with no diagonals, and you feel claustrophobic due to the instant height of the rectangles. There is nothing mentioning that this is the Holocaust memorial though, the artist wanted it just to impose itself on the city and it certainly does that.

Because of the lack of references to the event itself, though, there is a small museum that was built underneath. It is definitely my favorite Holocaust museum I have seen thus far, because it is not focused on the overall statistics of the war. Rather, it focuses on individuals and specific families. There are exhibits with excerpts of letters written by prisoners in the camps, there are stories read aloud in one room, and another is dedicated to tracing large families through the war. Overall, a very different museum than any I have seen.

After this long and rather depressing day, Allison and I decided to try some more of the local cuisine, Asian food! The amount of Asian food in Berlin is absurd, but it’s also really good! After we finished dinner, it was very late and we had to go back to the hostel to sort out our rooming situation again. They tried to move us back to our original room, but there were still people living there. So, we were upgraded again, this time to a room with six people and given a free cooked breakfast pass.

Friday was another busy day. We started out our morning at the East Side Gallery, which is by far my favorite art gallery I have ever seen (a lot of favorites on this trip…). The East Side Gallery is a stretch of the Berlin Wall that was left standing. The government of Berlin asked 105 artists from around the world to each come and paint a section of this wall, covering it with their art. There is a vast array of subjects portrayed on this stretch of wall, everything from the infamous picture of the two Russian men kissing, to a cartoonist depicting Checkpoint Charlie. It is amazing to look at all of these pieces of works, and at times, the graffiti that covers them as well. One thing I’ve learned about myself on this trip – I think street art is awesome. Not the ever prominent tags that cover everything and anything, rather the actual pieces of artwork that take significant amounts of time and talent to complete.

Anyways, after the East Side Gallery, we headed to an early lunch at two food stands highly recommended to us. One was a currywurst stand, and another was a kebab stand. Because we both wanted to try both types of food, we split them and had an amazing lunch. (Another thing I’ve learned, I like a lot more food than I ever would have thought).

From there, we headed to Potsdammer Platz to have a peak around. The first thing we saw: snow. Yep, right in the middle of the city. There was a temporary sledding hill installed in the middle of the square set with snow and tubes. It was difficult not to take a ride. Potsdammer Platz also had a lot of Christmas markets set up, so we wandered through all the good smelling food and interesting Christmas tree ornaments for a while. We then made our way to the Tiergarten, the big park in the middle of Berlin. It was really like being in a forest in the middle of a city – you couldn’t see any cars, only trees, people walking their dogs, and grass. It was a nice way to enjoy a bit of the afternoon.

After our nice afternoon strolls through the frigid weather (Berlin was very cold and I was definitely not dressed for it), we headed to our second tour of the trip. This tour was focused on “alternative Berlin.” Allison and I decided that since the underground scene is so prominent in this city, we should definitely make an effort to learn a bit about it. This tour did a very good job at helping us do that – we learned a lot about different street art (this was kind of a theme in Berlin it seems), the most popular artists in Berlin, the reasons why Berlin is so full of artists, the squatting culture, and some more. We also saw a lot of squats (this tour didn’t take us through the nicest areas, obviously), famous artwork like the astronaut painting where the man is reaching above himself for something (google it and you’ll easily find it, or just look through my Facebook pictures), our tour guides favorite pieces and we ended at the East Side Gallery, of course. This tour was very interesting and taught me a lot I would never have known otherwise and our tour guide was really passionate about the subject, having squatted himself the first few months he lived in Berlin.

After learning about the alternative side of the city, we went to the opposite end and to a nice tea café to plan out the rest of the night. The tea was outrageously priced, but I think the heat alone was well worth it. We had dinner soon after and headed back to the hostel where a band was playing for the night.

Saturday was our last day in the city, but of course we still had plenty to see. Our first stop was an 8:45 appointment to visit the Reichstag Building, a brisk 30 minute walk through the cold. As I previously said, the Reichstag Building is the German Parliament, and anyone is allowed to go up into the Dome to get a view of the city. The interesting thing about the Reichstag is that it has always been the home of the Parliament and it has always had the same architecture. However, it was under construction/damaged or otherwise out of commission during the Nazi Regime so the Nazi’s never had control of the building. In addition, the building was seriously damaged during bombing in the Cold War, so the Dome had to be rebuilt. The architect decided to keep the original size and design, however this time made it transparent. The idea was to emphasize that the government of Germany was also transparent and based off of the will of the people. Now you can go up into the dome and see through a part of the floor into the main chamber of the Parliament itself. Of course we did that, had a nice view of the city and listened to a bit of the history of the building with an audio tour.

Afterwards, we decided to check out the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island. This is definitely the most unique museum I have ever seen (once again with the superlatives). The museum is named after an ancient city recently excavated by a German archeologist, who decided that in order to preserve the ruins he was uncovering, he needed to move them to Berlin. That’s right, there are entire facades of ancient buildings in this museum. It was quite something to see. The museum was also filled with a variety of other artifacts from this time.

After the museum, we headed back to the hostel to use our free breakfast cards for lunch, before we walked to our last destination, Kollowitz Platz. My host dad recommended visiting this area, and it was definitely worth it. It was basically a small outdoor flea market selling food, jewelry, clothing, and more. We walked around for a while enjoying the company of Berliners and some sweet crepes, but in the interest of keeping our fingers and toes from freezing off, we didn’t stay too long. Before we knew it, we were grabbing our bags at the hostel and headed for the airport.

I was a bit skeptical about visiting Berlin at first – I did not know much about the city and what there was to see. However, I would most definitely go back again and would recommend it to everyone. It is a very diverse city with a rich history (especially in the last century) and you never know what else may happen in the near future. As my tour guide said, the only constant in Berlin is change.

Travel Week 3, Part 2: Paris

Paris- la ville de mes reves!

After three days in Paris, I’ve decided I’m moving there one day. All three days were either cold, rainy, or a combination of the two, and still, I fell in love.

I arrived Sunday night after spending the day in the Copenhagen airport after seeing Dylan off back to St. Petersburg. I arrived around 5:30 and headed straight to Gare de Nord where our hostel was located. I met a friendly old man who tried to explain the directions on how to get to Gare de Nord in French, however that failed. I ended up going in the right direction, though, and rewarded myself for the long journey with a delicious crepe once I finally found the hostel.

I met Amanda at the train station, and after settling in, we headed off to be true tourists in Paris- we went to visit the Eiffel Tower!

We spotted it as soon as we stepped out of the metro station and it definitely lived up to our expectations. We made our way under it and strolled along the park in front of it for a while. Between the two of us, we took dozens of photos, and even more so when the tower lit up like a Christmas tree. It already had its lights on, but every hour for a few minutes, thousands of different lights blink on and off – it is spectacular. After getting our fill, we headed back to the hostel and called it a night.

Monday was a crazy busy day filled with all things tourist. We started out bright and early at the Louvre. Luckily there was no line and as we are now officially residents of the EU, we got in for free, so we splurged on an audio guide. We visited our friends the ancient Egyptians, lots of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, Mona, and hundreds and hundreds of others. They say that if you spend one minute at each work in the Louvre, it will take you a full 26 days to see everything. Taking that into consideration, we spent 2.5 hours – we were content with what we saw but acknowledged we definitely could’ve spent at least an entire day. We had to head out for our walking tour, though.

In the afternoon, we took a three hour long walking tour through all the major tourist areas of Paris- we saw Notre Dame, the Latin quarter, walked along the Seine, Pont de Neuf, the lock bridge, the obelisk, the Jardins de Tulieres, the Eiffel Tower, and the Champ Elysees.

We didn’t get to go into any of the places we visited, so after the tour we headed back to Notre Dame to see the inside. Needless to say, it was breathtaking – it was enormous with beautiful stained glass and gothic architecture. We also learned on our tour that it was intended to be destroyed, but due to Victor Hugo’s focus on its history and former glory in his novel the Hunchback of Notre Dame, it was saved.

We then moved on to explore the area a bit and find dinner. On the way, we happened across St. Sulpice, another gothic style church that we visited quickly. We found dinner at a touristy, but good and cheap restaurant (it was a fixed menu so I had French onion soup, chicken and a crepe) but unfortunately sat right next to the door that the host enjoyed opening every thirty seconds. It was a bit unpleasant, but the food was good so overall not a big deal.

To finish up the night, we headed to the Champ Elysees to see the Arc de Triumph. We accidentally got off at the wrong stop and from there went three wrong ways before we found the right one. Whoops. We got a nice view of the Hotel des Invalides and the Christmas markets that open on Friday.

All the trouble was worth it though! As Monday was November 11, which is the day the First World War ended, it was a national holiday in France. The Arc had an enormous flag flying in the middle, as well as flowers to commemorate the day. Definitely worth the visit.

Tuesday was just as jam packed as Monday. We started out at Saint Chapelle – otherwise known as the stained glass church, and for good reason. Three of the four walls were floor to ceiling stained glass. Each section told a section of the bible, both New and Old Testament, but I found it very difficult to follow.

Our next stop was the Bastille- we hoped to be able to see the building itself, but the best we got was the monument in the square, which was still good to see of course. From there we headed to the catacombs.

A 45 minute wait outside in the cold later, and we were descending into the depths of Paris. The catacombs are old queries that were transformed into mass grave sites in the 1700-1800s. Most of the large buildings of Paris, including Notre Dame, were built of the rock from the queries that goes back tens of millions of years. There are lots of relics of the queries still in the mines- there are etchings on the walls and wells, for example. They were really interesting to see, but most interesting were the graves. It was literally just piles and piles of ancient human bones (by ancient I mean a few hundred years). Usually the walls were composed of what looked like leg bones or arm bones, and there were skulls on top. There were also rows of skulls in the middle of the wall and occasionally designs in the walls using the skulls (hearts, circles, crosses, etc). There were a lot of poetic quotes about death and information in what cemeteries the bodies came from. Overall it was quite a site to see, but definitely fulfilled my quota of death for the day!

After the depths of Paris, we headed to the top of Paris- 650 stairs and an elevator ride up the Eiffel Tower! It was quite the hike after all the stairs in the catacombs. The first and second levels were most definitely worth it for the view. However, when we reached the top it was quite a different story. We were floating in the clouds! We legitimately could not see anything- we were staring into white space, which, while not what we had hoped for, was still pretty cool.

After the descent, we headed to our next stop, Musee Marmottan Monet.  Being one of my favorite artists, I definitely enjoyed seeing a lot of Monet’s work all in one place. There were a variety of other artists too and an exhibit on Napoleon’s sisters which was new to me, but cool.

We then headed to our last stop of the day, Sacre Coeur basilica (we did a lot of churches on this trip) that is quite the sight. It is on the top of a large hill with an enormous dome and of course lots of stained glass. It was beautiful inside and out, and was in a nice neighborhood we were able to find a small restaurant for dinner in. After dinner, we walked back to our hostel and explored the area a bit, ended up with some pastries and at a cafe for a drink before heading in for the night.

Wednesday was an early morning – we had to pack and check out before getting breakfast and going to Versailles! The directions the hostel gave us were most definitely not the most efficient, so it took us a while to finally get on the right train out if the city. We made it though, and managed to make our way to the great palace.

When I imagined Versailles, I always pictured it with great lawns in the front, so it was interesting to see that was not the case at all. We walked on pavement up to the front gates, went through security and entered the palace grounds. Our first stop was the museum inside the palace describing all the occupants and traditions that went on there. We then toured the rooms use by the kings and queens in their daily lives. As expected, they were magnificent. Italian frescos adorned all the ceilings, the walls were covered with paintings of the palace and its occupants, and the furnishings were grand. From there we move outside to the gardens that were fit for such a palace. They were sprawling with many paths through the trees, many statues and ponds with various sculptures. Overall, a wonderful way to spend a morning in France.

We finished earlier than expected so headed back to the city for some food and wandering before heading to the airport. We tried to find a street recommended by my host mom, but had some trouble so stopped first to grab a quick lunch. We wandered a bit more and finally found it, and it’s a good thing we did. It’s called Rue Mouffetard and has lots of cute little shops, cafes and bakeries. Most important to us though, were of course the bakeries! We had the best macaroons of our lives! After enjoying our snack we headed to the river to do some souvenir shopping and then back to the hostel to head to the airport for our next city.

Travel Week 3, Part 1: Copenhagen

Travel weeks are for exploring new places, seeing new sights, meeting new people. But they can be just as good when you meet people you already know, but are seeing for the first time in over three months. That was the case of the beginning of this week.

Thursday morning, right after my Danish exam, I headed straight to the airport to pick up a friend of mine coming in from Brussels after having explored Moscow and Kiev during his travel week (you can read about his adventures in Europe here: http://dylanrussianaround.wordpress.com). After finding him, we wasted no time and jumped right on the metro headed back to the city to drop our bags off at the hostel we stayed at for the few days (too much of a hassle to go back and forth to my house all the time). We then got some directions to go visit a castle in the center of Copenhagen (there’s a slight possibility I led us in the wrong direction for 30 minutes first) and had an hour to explore before it closed. It’s called Rosenborg Slot (castle in Danish) and is the home of the Crown Jewels of Denmark. Definitely worth the visit! We then headed to a restaurant for dinner, explored Nyhavn and some other parts of the city before an early night catching up back at the hostel.

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city to see all the major sights including the Little Mermaid, Nyhavn, the Opera House, the Royal Library, Amalienborg Castle, the Parliament Building, the National Museum  and probably a few other things that I am forgetting (a path that takes all of three hours or so). From there, I ditched him so I could go to class and he could explore on his own for a bit, and then we walked around some more, had some pastries (a must when in Denmark), a nice dinner and overall a pretty good night!

Saturday was left for a few more tourist attractions in the city. We visited our friends H.C. Anderson, Soren Kierkegaard, and Niels Bohr in Assistens Cemetery and then took a trip to Christiania. As always, Christiania was a strange place to take a stroll, but it never fails to be interesting (I have a previous blog post that talks some more about it). The best part was visiting the Church in Christiania. It is a landmark in Copenhagen with a corkscrew-esque bell tower with an external staircase visitors are allowed to climb. The climb takes you up 400 year old staircases (that are more like ladders than stairs) and through tight passages and the bell room (luckily we made it out of that room just as they started ringing) up to the tower. There is an amazing view from the top (even on cloudy and rainy days) that was definitely worth fighting the intense winds for.

After we finished exploring the city, we headed back to my neck of the woods to drop off our stuff before visiting another castle. In the town next to my host family’s, there is Frederiksborg Castle built in the 1600’s by King Christian IV (I also have a previous blog post about this). We went on a walk through the walking street in the town to get the best view before heading over to go inside. Unfortunately, starting in November, all the castles in Denmark apparently close at 3pm – something we wish we had known earlier. We didn’t have time to go in, but still had a nice trip out of it, and headed back to my host families house to have a nice dinner and pack up for leaving the next day; him back to St. Petersburg and me to Paris!

Copenhurricane, Part 2: the Homework Edition

 So apparently the Copenhurricane did not end on Monday, rather it decided to shift forms and pound me in a new way – homework! As there are only two weeks between a lot of the travel breaks this semester, the week before the break is usually packed with homework, essays and tests. This week was no exception.

Starting from where I left off…Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all full of family activities. Friday night, my host family visited another family they are very close with and brought me along with them. We had a nice dinner and dessert, and Linea, her friend whose house we were at, and I watched a movie called “In Her Shoes”. It was a pretty good movie and it was very nice to have a relaxing night!

Saturday was my host dad’s birthday. Anyone that knows Danes knows that we were up very early that day – the Danish tradition is to prepare breakfast in the morning and then have the entire family wake up the birthday person singing and waving the Danish flag. So, of course, that is exactly what we did. I spent the rest of the morning doing some homework, because that afternoon we had to decorate and cook for a party. We had the three families we went to Sweden with in the beginning of the fall come over for a Halloween party. The house was filled with spiders, webs, witches, and a variety of other decorations, and of course some good food! We had a good night and rested up for our third day of social activities on Sunday.

Every year in Copenhagen, there is a traditional fox hunt. Yep, a fox hunt. My host mom’s father participated in it for several years, and my family has always gone to watch. The way it works is that at the front there are two individuals with fox tails attached to their jackets (no foxes are harmed in the hunt itself) and the riders follow along behind. The first group of riders is for horses, and the second group is for ponies. The track is located in the middle of the woods, near a very old amusement part that is the oldest in Denmark. The track is filled with a variety of obstacles, so it is a lot of fun to try and beat the horses to the next big ones by trekking through the woods as they continue on their path. Overall, we saw three people fall off (none really hurt – the interesting thing though is that the people behind stop to make sure that there aren’t any more injuries sustained while the rider is getting back up on the horse obviously, but also because the horses must stay in their exact order and the riders must try not to pass anyone). The funniest one is the one that everyone waits for, because the horses must jump over an obstacle and into a pond. There is someone that falls off every year and they always laugh it off as they clean themselves up.

After the horse race, it is traditional to have a big, Danish lunch. So of course, that is what we did. We all came back to our house and had lunch for about 6 hours. There was some interesting food (as always with the Danes, in my opinion at least) and everyone had a lot of fun.

So after such a busy weekend where next to no homework was done, I had three days to write several essays, prepare a presentation and study for an exam. That’s where the next round of the hurricane (figurative) hit. I stayed up way too late every night and spent all of my waking hours on my computer or having my host sister quiz me in Danish for my oral exam. Overall, a very very very stressful and annoying week, (not including the weekend of course), but it was all worth it because immediately after my exam on Thursday, I headed to the airport to pick up a very good friend of mine who came to visit!

Copenhurricane

(I wrote this November 1, but for some reason completely forgot to post it.)

This week, unfortunately, has not been one of the best weeks I’ve had here. There’ve been two main problems: I came home sick from my trip and am still recovering, and it’s been quite a hassle trying to get into the city for the past few days thanks to a hurricane.

Friday afternoon last week, I started to have a sore throat and as I had been travelling, I figured it was a combination of some bad water and the stress on my back and neck from carrying my backpack (suitcase) around so much. However, when I returned home on Sunday, I realized it was a bit more than that. The first thing both my host parents asked when I said hello to them was “what happened?” as I had lost my voice. All day Sunday I struggled to talk, and on Monday that evolved to not being able to talk due to a constant cough that has essentially continued to today, although it is getting a bit better. I did get my first Danish healthcare experience out of this though! It was basically just like going to an American doctor except after testing me for a few different things, they said it was a virus and to come back in four weeks if nature didn’t run its course and I didn’t heal naturally. Not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but according to my host parents, that’s quite common. So I will wait it out.

The second problem of the week: the hurricane. Monday afternoon, we were expected to get hit pretty hard by a wind storm, but Copenhagen didn’t exactly know how hard that would be. The wind started around 4pm, (I was in class until 5:45), and slowed down by 8:30pm. In those few hours, though, destruction ensued. In class, all we could hear was the wind slamming against the buildings and sirens going off everywhere – to the point where our teacher had to stop talking because we couldn’t hear her over the noise. By 5:30, when we were getting ready to leave and brave the storm on our way home, I got some news from my host family saying that the trains had been cancelled for the time being. An hour later, they had been cancelled for the night. In case you are unaware, my main way home from the city is by a 40 minute train ride each way. After this news, I hoped maybe I could get on a bus, but the mayor had declared a state of emergency, so all the roads were closed.

Thankfully, DIS came around to all the buildings at this point and gathered us up to tell us they would reimburse us for cabs once the roads opened, they were buying us pizza and drinks, and they would keep the buildings open all night if we needed to sleep here. Luckily, I was able to go with a few friends by metro (they opened at 9pm) to the end of the line where my host dad picked us up and drove us home, so we did not need to spend the night – lots of people did apparently, though.

Unfortunately, Copenhagen was not prepared for such a large storm (it really was a mess in the city that night – windows blown out, glass and signs everywhere, scaffolding and cranes falling down, etc.) and therefore has not yet fully recovered. My train line still is out of order, so I have been doing a train-bus-train route that takes more than twice as long as usual.

Due to both the health and train issues, I have spent a lot of time at home this week – which has definitely been helping my productivity at least and allowed me to catch up on some tv shows which has also been nice.
In other news, we need to start scrambling now for housing for the spring, and registration is next week for me. Also – Dylan is coming to visit next week before I leave for my next travel break! So hopefully, next week’s post will be much more entertaining.

Vi ses!

Praha, Wien and Budapest!

Praha

We started our adventure czeching out (sorry, had to do it) the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. I was there four years ago, but that didn’t make any difference, it was still a spectacular city.

Our flight left Copenhagen at 3:15, so we spent the morning exchanging our money and printing out travel documents and sightseeing tips. We headed to the airport around 1 and easily made it through checking in (very easy as we only brought backpacks which was convenient but quite painful for our backs) and through security. The flight was a mere 1 hour that flew by (I’m full of puns today) and we landed in Prague!

Step 1 was to find our hostel. We found some public transportation maps that were overwhelming at first, but very simple when we realized that there were only 3 metro lines and the rest were buses. We easily picked out our route thanks to helpful directions from the hostel and we bought our passes (about $5 for unlimited rides in 24hrs- that’s about the price of one ride in ever other city!).

We successfully navigated the system and arrived at our hostel around 6. We checked in and asked for some recommendations for dinner and headed back out again. We all had some traditional Czech food and since the restaurant was a microbrewery, we all tried some interesting flavored beers (there was lime, cherry and banana- all of which were good).

We then decided to find a Cold War bunker that was turned into a bar, so tested out the extensive tram system of Prague and wandered around the city for a while. We found the place but it was closed. Even still, it was cool to see the outside of the bunker. We were already in a park so continued up to the top of a large hill where we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the city at night. No pictures could do it justice- all of the landmarks were lit up so we could see the castle, all the churches and everything in between.

After appreciating the view for a time, we decided to head towards the most interesting and out of place sight we could see. There is a television broadcasting tower in Prague that is as different from the rest of the city as it could possibly be. It is the tallest building as far as we could tell and stands on three pillars lit up in blue, white and red based on the height. Upon seeing it closer, we realized that the architect also put sculptures of babies crawling up the sides of the tower. It is incredibly strange, but apparently his style.

We headed back to the hostel after that and rested up for the next day’s exploring.

Tuesday was our only full day in Prague, so we filled it to the max. We started out with an enormous breakfast spread at the hostel, followed by getting lost in the old city looking for Old Town Square. Through the help of various kind, English speaking passersby, we finally made it and met up with our tour group. We were mostly Americans (one family from Massachusetts and one woman that had gone to AU, so I felt right at home) and all visiting for just a few days. We started out in the old town square where we saw the astrological clock, the old town hall, and the two churches. We moved on to various other sites in the old city, the national theatre, the Jewish quarter where we saw the old Jewish cemetery and the oldest synagogue in Europe, and we ended after a nice lunch at the national opera, near Charles bridge and the castle. (Sorry I am not going into detail on all of these stops, if I did, that would be a very long post – longer than the novel it already is!). The tour lasted three hours and we had a really knowledgeable guide that made it very enjoyable.

After our tour we decided to czech out a beer garden on the far side of the river, near the castle. It was quite a hike, but well-worth it when we made it into the parks filled with people of all shapes and sizes enjoying the beautiful fall day and taking in the breath-taking view of the city- we’re apparently very good at finding these spots. We relaxed for a while before heading to our next stop, the Prague Castle.

All you need to say about this castle is that it’s huge. It is the biggest in Europe and covers a lot of land! We did not go into the main chapel (struggling study abroad student problems) but did walk through the complex and saw a few exhibits in side buildings. We once again had a view of the city from above before heading down to ground level to find the Lennon wall and Charles Bridge.

The Lennon Wall is a stretch of wall that has been subject to much revolutionary graffiti since 1988. There is everything from crude remarks to inspiring quotes and images, and the typical “so-and-so was here” notes, complete of course with several images of John Lennon’s head. There were also two talented young guys performing in front of the wall that definitely improved the experience a bit. We then wandered across the most intense lock bridge I’ve ever seen, then finally to the Charles Bridge complete with many sales people!

We then decided to head back to the hostel to rest for a bit before heading to dinner and out for the night.

We had a later start on Wednesday morning in the interest of some much needed sleep, so were checked out of the hostel around 10. We lugged our massive backpacks downtown again to check out an open air market. It was much less impressive than we had hoped- it was essentially like a Florida flea market, so a bunch of cheap, useless things. We then headed back to old town square for some lunch and souvenir shopping before our train to Vienna at 2pm.

The train ride lasted about four hours, with a few interesting, back woods type landscapes, and was a much needed relaxation time.

Wien

We arrived in Vienna around 7:30, in a highly confusing train station. It took us a while to figure out where to go, but we eventually found our way to the craziest hostel you could imagine. The fact that there’s a bar downstairs probably should have alerted us there would be a ton of people and noise, but it still came as a surprise. The hostel is huge with tons of rooms, has the bar, several lounges, a fully stocked kitchen and lots of young people pouring out of the front doors.

So for the first night, we decided first to drop our bags off and head to dinner. We had some traditional Viennese food and drink- boiled egg and flour dumplings covered in cheese for me that also served as Friday’s lunch. We then headed back to the hostel where they were showing two futbol games and we decided to attempt (and fail miserably) to play some pool. We went to bed at a reasonable time and had a full night’s sleep in preparation for our day in the city.

Thursday was our only full day in Vienna, so we definitely made the most of it! We started out with a walking tour led by our hostel that covered much of downtown Vienna. It started at the biggest market in the city, then we saw some houses belonging to Mozart and Beethoven, the National Opera, the Philharmonic Orchestra, the War and Fascism Memorial, various statues of past emperors, the Palace, the Spanish Riding School along with many of their horses, and St. Stephens Cathedral. By the end of the tour we had plenty of ideas for the rest of our day. First of course was lunch, but that was followed by a Church that highly resembled a mosque with a dome and extravagant minarets. We then headed inside St. Stephens Cathedral and back to the Palace. We wandered around the gardens for a long time, watched bungee jumping test runs (there is a crane set up for people to use starting tomorrow), made our way to various other interesting buildings and finally, the town hall. Essentially, our strategy was to pick out what buildings looked interesting from a distance and head towards them to see them up close. It was our own version of a self-guided tour that led us through historic architecture and government buildings as well as some nice parks. After about six hours interspersed with some breaks to sit and rest our feet as well as enjoy some gelato, we searched for somewhere to have dinner. We settled on an Italian restaurant (yes, even though we were in Vienna) and then headed to the most exciting part of our day.

When you think of Vienna, two things come to mind. The first is classical looking white buildings with beautiful architecture lining all the streets. The second is classical music. Having already seen much of the first, we decided we had to do the second as well. Our tour guide tipped us off to several inexpensive shows, so we went to the philharmonic and bought tickets for an “early-baroque” concert. We bought audio only tickets (cheap college student problems again) which meant we sat directly above the stage, but we were able to move as soon as the concert began to better seats where we had a decent view.

The concert was an ensemble of 5-10 people playing various instruments depending on the songs. There was obviously a violin and cello, there was an organ, a strange sounding piano, and then a few instruments we had never seen or heard before. The music was amazing- the acoustics were fantastic and they played a variety of songs. The room was also beautiful- it wasn’t the main concert hall, but was still decorated over the top as per usual.

The concert lasted about 2.5 hours, and afterwards we decided to head to a cafe, as apparently all Viennese spent significant portions of their lives in them. As we were wandering and trying to find one our tour guide recommended, we ran across two other people from our tour. They joined us and we had some delicious apple strudel together before heading home for the night.

Friday we had to check out of our hostel by ten, so we stored our luggage for a few hours as we went on a walk down by the Danube. The area is known for its street art, and for good reason. There were sculptures, paintings, and graffiti depicting everything from sea turtles to political messages.

After getting our fill of the art, we headed back to the hostel for our lunch of leftovers from Wednesdays dinner and then straight to the train station to make our way to Budapest!

Budapest (pronounced Budapesht)

After a two hour train ride complete with screaming old men, people sitting in the aisles for a lack of seats, and some beautiful scenery complete with hundreds and hundreds of windmills, we finally arrived in Budapest, Hungary.

As per usual, we struggled a bit with the transportation system- we couldn’t find an ATM and then couldn’t figure out the machines to buy tickets- but luckily our hostel wasn’t far from the train station. Unluckily, from the metro stop to our hostel was all construction so we had to find a detour, but it was well worth it as the first sight we had out of the metro was the Parliament building (modeled after the British parliament, only bigger) lite up in the night. Needless to say, it was breathtaking with the view of the Danube behind it with Buda in the distance.

We checked into the hostel and headed straight to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hostel- traditional Hungarian food that was very good. Afterwards, Taylor was not feeling well so we headed back to the hostel for a bit and then Miranda and I decided to go out. In the Jewish district there are these bars called Ruin Bars that Hungary is famous for. They are old buildings that housed schools, etc. that were abandoned and left to rot. Some artists heard about them and then decided to keep them as is, but turn them into bars. The result, huge building complexes decorated very eclectically with holes in the walls and ceilings, pieces of cars used as seating, and many other unique qualities. When we went at 9:30 on Friday we figured it wouldn’t be too busy, but we were wrong. We had to search for two stools to put together wherever there was space- and this place is huge. It was the first and is the most famous so everyone goes there. Also, they are open starting at noon, so lots of people go for lunch and after dinner- it’s not only a night phenomenon. Anyways, we stayed for a while then headed back so we could rest up for our busy day on Saturday.

Saturday we started out with a walking tour as always- but this was not similar to our others. For the first two cities, we had groups of around ten people, but this time we were one of three groups and we were 44. Our tour guide had a very loud voice though so it worked out fine.

The tour started out in Pest with a history lesson, information about architecture, the Hungarian language (which is incredibly difficult and complicated), religion, and the political system. I really liked all the information- the other tours generally stuck to the sites and not the country itself as much. We did see lots of sites though, including our second St. Stephen’s Basilica of the week. The best part, though, was crossing the Chain Bridge into Buda and climbing up to the Castle grounds. We climbed over 200 steps up a “mountain” to reach the grounds and we were rewarded with an amazing view overlooking the city. We saw the castle, some ruins from WW2, a church, and some more views before finding ourselves some lunch.

We bought some sandwiches and headed to our next stop, Margaret Island where we ate our lunch on the banks of the Danube (I should also mention it was about 70-75 degrees outside). It was a beautiful picnic spot, and the rest of the island was the same. There were a lot of people- families, couples (everyone is a couple in Hungary- they’re everywhere) – and it was basically an enormous park, some athletic fields, some fountains and lots of good food and drink stands.

After a relaxing stay on the island, we decided it was time to head to the main attraction: the bath houses! Hungary was at one point ruled by the Turks, for which the Hungarians are very grateful because the Turks left behind their tradition of bath houses. In going to Budapest, Taylor, Miranda and I decided we could not leave without trying them out. So Saturday late afternoon we headed to the most well-known bathhouse in Hungary, Szechnyi. It was everything we dreamt it would be. We walked in, gawked at the architecture and immediately headed downstairs to change into our bathing suits.

The bath houses are so famous in Budapest because they are all fed from natural thermal springs. People apparently come from all over to soak in the mineral rich waters and it is supposed to help with a variety of illnesses. Our illness? Exhaustion from walking all week. Anyways, we started in the outdoor pools which were 32 degrees Celsius I believe (sorry, not doing the conversions – but they were warm) and could probably hold close to 200 people. There were a lot of fountains and lights and even a whirlpool in one (they hold parties here in the summertime – we vowed to come back one day to experience them)! We then headed indoors, where the other 13 baths are located. Each one was slightly different – some were warmer than others (the warmest being at 38 Celsius and the coldest at 28), in some the water was thicker than others (a strange idea, I know, but it felt almost like we were swimming in a light marmalade in one of the baths), and some had different minerals than others (we could definitely pick out the one with the extra sulfur in it). There were also saunas that varied between 45 Celsius and 65 Celsius – I declined them all because it was basically like walking into a cloud with all the water vapor and smoke you had to inhale.

We ended up spending close to three hours at the baths, and we couldn’t have imagined a more relaxing and enjoyable way to end our trip. When we returned to the hostel, we found that the owners of the hostel had cooked a traditional Hungarian dinner for all the guests. We were late so there was not much left, but we still were able to enjoy a little bit. We then ordered a pizza and got to know our fellow travelers a bit. After dinner, everyone headed out, so we went back to the ruin bars so that we could show Taylor what they were like. We stayed out for a while, met some interesting (good and bad) drunk Hungarians, and then headed back to the hostel so we could pack for our trip home.

Sunday was an early morning as our flight left at 10am, and it was back to Copenhagen for us! Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better travel week or people to spend it with. We all had an amazing time and returned home exhausted, but with hundreds of pictures and thousands of memories!

Post-Venice, pre Eastern Europe

So my few days in between traveling were crazy. I had a ton of homework and essays to write, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying myself either.

Wednesday morning I had a make- up class for three hours and then spent the rest of the day doing homework. That night however, the best female futbol team in Denmark had their final match against Barcelona, determining whether they would continue in the series. My host family, since they are so involved in futbol themselves, decided to go and invited me along. As it was only my second ever futbol match I wasn’t sure what to expect but there were rowdy fans, lots of beer and cigarettes, and people of all ages- so I would think that’s pretty typical. The entire time I was asking my host mom questions about how futbol works in Europe with competitions and such, and it was definitely interesting to learn about.

Thursday I had classes and homework, then Friday I had homework, classes, homework and then a movie night with my host family. We watched the Intouchables which was a phenomenal film and I highly recommend it!

Saturday I spent the afternoon with a friend getting into the Halloween spirit at Tivoli. The park knows how to decorate! There were witches and pumpkins and spiders galore. Plus lots of good fall food including candied apples which made my day! We were there for a few hours before heading home and after skyping for a while, my family had a game night.

Sunday morning I woke up early to meet up with Miranda and Taylor to plan our trip this week, and then visited the castle in the town next to me with my host parents. This castle was home to Christian IV and many successive kings and queens. It also happens to be where my host parents were baptized and confirmed. It’s crazy that such a historical site is used regularly and it’s no big deal to the people of the town. There is a museum inside so we spent some time there before heading to my host grandmas house for tea and cookies. I rounded out the night with some packing and rested up for my trip!