Hell yeah, it's a cheesy title. Greetings and salutations, friends, family, loved ones, and complete strangers. I've returned from my travels, safe and sound and this is going to be a fairly long post as I record all of my Danish adventures.
When I left you last, I was in frantic preparation for my trip, while also attempting to deal with classes and theater performances. My last class on Thursday was architecture, in which three of the eight students were present, resulting in a small field trip to the Märkisches Museum, and surrounding area, to look at the architectural style of historicism, as well as models of the city of Berlin, and the home of the Berlin bear (yes, a real bear). Afterwards, I met up with my host father and we attended three theater performances, one of which my host mother starred in. Please ask me about my experiences with German theater sometime over a beer, as they are quite 'memorable' performances.
Friday began in a slow grind of arising at three-thirty in the morning to catch my flight at seven to Copenhagen. Things picked up as one of my companions overslept and arrived to the airport barely on time. Other than that the flight was smooth and easy, and we arrived at around eight, where we promptly boarded a very nice commuter train that whisked us into the city. After checking into our hotel and enjoying a delicious breakfast at a local cafe, two of us decided to wander the city while the third took a nap.
In our wanderings we saw: the town hall, the old stock exchange, the Christiansborg Palace, and the Black Diamond, home of the Royal Danish library. We went into the latter, since I am a library nut, and it was gorgeous. Half of the building is quite modern and recently built, and the second half is an older building, with gorgeous arches, old wooden bookshelves and reading rooms. The two are connected over a roadway by a walkway, and the entire place is heaven for someone like me. I could've spent hours in there. Sadly, we did not, and we headed back to the hotel, where we grabbed our snoozing companion and went on a canal boat tour of the city, which was cold, but enjoyable. That evening, we browsed in some shops, consumed delicious Chinese food (and a lovely local beer that was on tap) and I watched the other two get their feet and legs nibbled on by fish, eating the dead skin. Afterwards, we all crashed in the hotel around seven, and fell asleep at nine due to having been up for nearly eighteen hours straight.
The next morning, two of us wandered to the Church of Our Savior and climbed to the top of it see a stunning morning view of Copenhagen. The church itself has a spiral staircase around the outside of its spire, and it's free to the public. Afterwards, we explored the streets and canals a little more, in the early morning sun, and enjoyed the lovely weather. Then, we joined up with the other person and visited the citadel and famous Little Mermaid statue, honoring Denmark's native son, Hans Christian Anderson. Personally, I found the statue underwhelming, but I wandered along the beach and found gorgeous pieces of sea glass to take home. Following that, we met up with two others from our program for dinner and some beer, and then called it a night.
While Friday and Saturday were excellent in terms of weather, Sunday was fairly typical in what one would expect from a Scandinavian state, cold, windy, rainy and snowy. That morning I wandered around on my own. I visited the Church of Our Lady, or Copenhagen Cathedral, where I sat in on a service for about a half an hour, soaking up the beautiful music and architecture around me. Then I walked past the Great Synagogue, where recent events had taken place. The street was blocked on both ends by police cars, with two police men with large guns standing outside the structure. The building itself was ten feet deep in flowers, and other memorial items, including a couple Je Suis Charlie sign. I don't really know how to describe what it was like to visit the sight, it was an odd feeling, coupled with a sense of a national community in a time of uncertainty.
Afterwards, I visited the Round Tower, and then met up with my friends at Rosenberg Palace and Gardens. We wandered to the Marble Church, and saw the changing of the guard at Amalienborge Palace. Then, the group split up, with some going to the Carlsberg Brewery, others to tour inside the Christiansborg Palace, and myself to visit the top of the tower at the palace as well as the chapel. Both of which were interesting, but cold, causing me to return to the hotel where I relaxed for a couple of hours, studying for my history midterm until it was time to depart for the airport.
Our journey home was marked with massive airport security lines (due to an SAS strike), a smooth quick flight, and a simple train ride. I arrived back in Neukölln at eleven thirty, unpacked and went to sleep. Today, I attended two classes, took a midterm, and now I'm relaxing at home, after a long but good weekend full of adventures.
Copenhagen in a nutshell:
The Good: History, not a lot of Americans, everyone was really nice, old buildings, picturesque canals, the churches, the beer, wonderful receptionists at the hotel,
The Bad: Expensive (6E for one hot chocolate - no), weather on the last day, long line at the airport, communal bathrooms at the hotel
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to binge the new season of House of Cards.
P.S. One of my closest friends and Rome travel partner is visiting me in less than two weeks. Words cannot describe how happy and excited I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment