Hello my wonderful friends, family members, and others whom feel bored enough to read about my epic adventures in Denmark! I am writing to you for the last time in Aalborg!
It's quite a bittersweet feeling knowing that in about 30 hours I will be stepping off the plane in Minneapolis, MN! Knock on wood that all flights are on time!
The past two weeks have been filled with a lot of emotions.As you may recall from the previous blog, I said goodbye to some awesome friends that I met here and I also did some traveling. I traveled to Copenhagen, Berlin, Vienna, and Hamburg. With an unintentional stop over in the Czech Republic.. more about that in a few minutes! The goodbyes were really hard, but the semester has come to an end and everyone wants to get home! And today, I will also take that trip myself!
The past few days before my trip were rather uneventful as most people have already left the AIK or were doing their own things. Either way, it was exciting to finally see people out and about for a birthday party in the kollegium! Not only was it a birthday, but it was a 25th birthday party for a Dane! I have talked about the exciting thing that happens on one's 25th birther in previous blogs, however this one was for a Dane! The excitement of it all! It was a fun night of talking, a little bit of drinking, and watching one last cinnamon before I leave this beautiful country!
I suppose you would like to hear about my trip! I set out to see 4 cities in 3 countries in 7 days. Two of the cities I was able to explore by myself. And I was able to meet up with some friends for the last four days! I was super excited to see these cities and to prove to myself that it's okay to travel alone! So here it is!
Sunday June 30th:
I set out to explore Copenhagen. After living in the country for 5 months I decided it was time to explore the capital! I took the train from Aalborg to Copenhagen and arrived in the afternoon giving me the rest of the day to explore what ever I wanted! I grabbed the map and decided to head towards Den Lille Havfrue or The Little Mermaid! Along the way I stumbled upon Rosenborg Palace and King's Garden, St. Alban's Anglican Church, Gefion Fountain, the Little Mermaid, the Kastellet, and Nyhavn. I did not expect everything to be so close to each other and easy to find! It was a nice surprise! I wondered around for a while and headed back to the hostel kind of early as I stayed up pretty late the night before.
Rosenborg Palace and King's Garden
St. Alban's Anglican Church
Gefion Fountain
Den Lille Havfrue
Nyhavn! --very colorful and full of people!
Monday July 1st:
I set out to explore more of Copenhagen. I had a few things left on my list that I wanted to see so I grabbed some breakfast and headed towards Christiansborg Palace! It took me a while to find the entrance as it was not marked very well! But I got my ticket, put on these lovely things
and started to explore the Palace! It was so beautiful! I spent about three hours exploring around the Palace. There was so much to read about the history and also a lot to see! It was wonderful! I now know how the Danish flag came about, the success of Danish royalty, and just how difficult it is to walk with plastic covers on my shoes! When I finished exploring the palace, I wandered around the outside as well! Very pretty! From there I some how managed to find myself on the shopping street in Copenhagen. Probably not the best thing for my bank account, but everyone will be happy to know that I spent the most amount of money for my family and friends! :) From there I headed back to the hostel to drop off my purchases and rest before heading out. After a short break, I headed out to Assisten's Cemetary. On the way I walked through Rosenborg Palace and stopped in to see the Crown Jewels! Super exciting! My purse was "too large to bring in" so I had to put it in a locker. Once I got in the palace I noticed a lack of signs/labels on anything! It was three full floors of pictures, mirrors, dishes, furniture, and what not that the royals used or had. None of it was labeled which was a treat. After a bit I noticed some scantron things posted everywhere. If I would have known about that, I would have brought my iPad in to scan and read all about the objects! Needless to say, I brushed through those three floors pretty quickly then headed downstairs to the Crown Jewels. First I saw a large collection of guns, swords, knives, pottery, and other random accessories before heading into the vault! The Danish Crown Jewels are very gorgeous! I was happy with my decision to visit them! Not only did it show the crowns, but also other bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings, and what not that the royal wore. The nice thing with Rosenborg Palace, you can get up close and personal with the crowns. It was fascinating to see them up close. From there I continued on and made my way into the Botanisk Have or Botanical Gardens! It was so pretty. I walked around for quite a bit before a very nice Danish lady started talking to me. We talked about the gardens and she pointed out some things to go and see within the garden! So I set out and found some of these lovely things.
walking along the little river in the gardens
Cactus from Colorado!
This garden was packed with flowers, trees, plants, cactus, and what not from all around the world! Really cool to see all of them and where they came from! I was finally on my way to Assisten's Cemetary and was able to find it with no difficulties. This cemetery is the burial grounds to some of Denmark's more notable figures including: Hans Christian Anderson and Søren Kierkegaard. I walked around for a bit before it started to rain. I took that as my cue to head back to the hostel and find some food. That night I went to Nyhavn and enjoyed the sunset!
Tuesday July 2nd:
I still had quite a bit of time left in Copenhagen before my plane to Berlin so I decided to have a chill day. I had breakfast in the King's Garden as it had became a favorite place of mine. After I walked to Amalienborg Palace and sat by the fountain for a bit enjoying the sun and tourists walking around. Shortly before noon, I got a place to watch the Changing of the Guards! It was a cool experience.
Amalienborg Palace
We were able to get up close to the guards- no fence blocking us!
From there I headed to the hostel to get my things and to get to the airport. My wait at the airport and flight to Berlin went by very fast! I had no difficulties getting to my hostel, thank goodness, so I headed up to the room to relax and decide what to do from there. I started talking to one of the girls in the room, Chelsea from Perth. We talked for the rest of the evening which was really good as I was quite exhausted and didn't want to do much!
Wednesday July 3rd:
BERLIN! What a wonderfully large city! As I pulled out my list of things I wanted to see and my map another girl in my hostel suggested a bike tour. She said with limited time in Berlin, the tour would allow me to see a lot of the city. So I grabbed a brochure and went to the meeting place. I was unsure what time they started and ended up there about and hour and a half too early.. so I grabbed a Subway sandwich and Starbucks coffee and enjoyed the sun! The tour started around 11am and the crowd was pretty big! We were split into seven different groups. We got introduced to the tour, picked out our bikes and headed out!
My bike for the day named "The Pretenders."
Here are some of the things I saw:
Bebelplatz-- where over 2,000 books were burned. I was unable to get a photo of the actual thing.. so here's a quote in German! "Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people" by Heinrich Heine. This was located next to St. Hedwig's Cathedral and Humboldt University.
Checkpoint Charlie-- one of three checkpoints were people from West and East Berlin were able to cross through. This is not the actual checkpoint.. it's just the cool artwork I saw near there.
The Berlin Wall--part of the East Wall still remaining. Behind the wall is where Topographie des Terrors is located. Opposite of the wall is one of the Nazi headquarters. It was weird to see something that I had read about in high school and college as it did not have the most positive reputation. We also heard some stories of how some people successfully and unsuccessfully passed the wall.
We biked through the Tiergarten where we had lunch at a beer garden. We set out on the second half with a stop to see "Golden Lizzie" or Victory Column--statue to Prussia for winning the Prussian-Danish war!
Next was the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe- this monument was huge! All of the concrete slabs are at different heights as well as painted with a special paint so if they were to be painted on, it would be washed off by the rain. Controversial as the company that makes the chemicals in said paint also made some chemicals used in the Holocaust. It was very cool to see and hear about.
Reichstag--Berlin's Parliament building. Also a common place where people come to sit and relax on the grass outside! This building is meant to show how 'open' they are by allowing visitors to walk around the glass dome on top of the building to view the Parliament sessions.
This was our last stop. There are three main buildings I will explain left to right. Building with the green roof--Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson infamously held Blanket out of the top floor! The building in the middle with American Flag-- the American Embassy! Lastly, Brandenburg Tor--former city gate of Berlin. Now it is a symbol for the disorderly history of Europe and Germany as well as European unity and peace!
I was so happy with the bike tour! I got to see everything I wanted to on my list! If you go to Berlin-- Fat Tire Bike Tours is where it is at! After the tour, I was rather tired and dehydrated so I headed back to the hostel. Chelsea had just returned from her day trip so we talked for a bit before deciding to go for supper. We picked a restaurant/bar and decided to try some of the 'local specialties'!
Berliner Weiße! --Beer with raspberry syrup! So delicious! I also had some sausages and a pretzel! So German! It was a nice relaxing evening as we sat at the restaurant for about 3 hours just talking and enjoying having someone to talk to as we were both single travelers! So to Chelsea--thanks for befriending me in Berlin and have fun on the rest of your epic European tour, oh and enjoy the Rolling Stones concert!
Thursday July 4th:
Happy Independence Day America! My very first 4th of July, not spent in America, was my epic train trip from Berlin to Vienna! This was a unique trip. First of all, my ticket was only in German so I struggled to find my cart number and seat number. I did ask and got a very broken-English response, which was enough to help me figure out where I was! My next dilemma, my spot was preoccupied by a cat in a cage. I am not a cat person, so this was a struggle. I then came to learn that my cabin was full of non-English speakers. So I spent my eightish hour train ride with my headphones in and Kindle app up. Every now and then I would see some gorgeous views like this one.
Which helped the eight hours a bit. However, I started to notice that at our stops we were behind schedule. First by only a few minutes than it got progressively more and more behind. I knew that I had 6 minutes to change trains so I was starting to silently panic! I knew then that I would miss my train and I had no way of finding out what would happen to me. I was freaking out! I mean, I had no idea if there was another train that night, where I was, or how could I contact Ali to let her know I wouldn't be there that night?! While freaking out, I said about a million prayers asking for someone or something to help me! And my prayers were answered! On the last of about six different ticket checks the ticket guy informed me that I would not make my connecting train as we were an hour behind schedule! He did inform me that there was another train at 22:02 so I wouldn't be stuck over night! I felt so relieved! As my stop approached, one of the ladies in my cart started to talk to me. She assured me there would be another train and not to panic! I needed to hear that from someone other than myself! So I got off the train knowing now that I would have three hours to wait. I decided to find a bathroom and then some food. I felt it would be best to take out some money instead of using my card. Everything seemed fine until the money that came out of the ATM was not Euros but Czech Republic Koruna. That's right folks--I was stranded in the Czech Republic! I had no idea my train was suppose to go through the Czech Republic or if I could even legally be in there! It was a unique experience! My wait for the train did not seem long and neither was the train trip itself. I did end up in a different train station than I was originally suppose to arrive in, but with the help of Chelsea's map of Vienna I was able to figure out how to get there with no problems! Ali was relieved to see me walk into the hostel room just after midnight! It was a looong, stressful day!
Friday July 5th:
That morning, Ali and I slept in as we both were quite tired from our previous travels! We then got caught up and eventually ready to head out to see Vienna! On the maps we were given, it had a walking tour of historical Vienna so we decided to do that! We set out and found beautiful Vienna!
The first stop was Museum Quarter-- which is known for the many museums in this area. From there we walked through to find Heldenplatz or Hero's Square which is in front of this building.
The Hofburg Palace. It was a very large building- we couldn't get a photo of all of it!
On the other side we found some Ancient Vienna ruins! It was unique, lots of people have thrown coins in there. Not sure if they think it will bring them luck. but good luck to whoever gets to collect them!
We wandered through a park until we found this lovely building--The Austrian Parliament Building! With the Athena Fountain in front. It was gorgeous!
Next stop was Rathausplatz-- where the mayor and city council meet. It also happened to be the home to Vienna's Film Festival! With the film festival happening there were a bunch of food booths set up so Ali and I had a true Austrian meal!
Spritzer (white wine and sparkling water) and käsekrainer (sausage with cheese in it)! Austrians know what is up when it comes to food! After an awesome meal we set out for part two.
We stumbled upon a few churches and cathedrals including this Church-- St. Rupert's Church which is considered the oldest as it was built in the 15th century!
Next we walked through Stephenplatz--where Ali and I enjoyed the lovely red-headed harp player as he played "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz! We also went into a few shops and looked around before heading in to St. Stephen's Cathedral.
It was gorgeous, both inside and outside!
That concluded our walking tour so we decided to head back to the hostel to cool down and get ready for the evening! Daniela met us at our hostel after she got down with work and we made a quick stop at her brother's flat so she could drop her stuff off and get ready. We headed to a restaurant where we had another very Austrian meal--Weiner Schnitzel and Spritzer!
At the restaurant
It was delicious! After that, we headed back to the hostel so Ali and I could change before hitting the club! The club in Vienna was awesome. It was hidden in a garden and felt like something I had only seen in movies before! There were inside and outside parts to it with both a pool and dance floor! It was such a fun night! And as luck would have it, I got accidentally elbowed and lost a contact making for a unique night with a slight lack of vision!
Saturday July 6th:
Ali and I met up with Daniela and we did some sight-seeing! We first went to Schönbrunn Palace and had a look around!
We decided not to go in as there was a lot to see around the palace itself! After a quick detour through a small garden we found our way in to Großes Parterre (Great Parteer). Which is a large garden located behind Schönbrunn and it lead us to Neptunbrunnen or Neptunes Fountain.
Ali and I in front of Neptunbrunnen--like my glasses? I was the cool kid that didn't bring my extra contacts! From here we walked up the rather large and steep hill to find this glorious thing!
Daniela, myself, and Ali in front of the Gloriette. A very beautiful structure that overlooks all of Vienna! After a few pictures we headed back down the hill and walked around the rest of the grounds. It was so beautiful and peaceful. There was a lot to see here!
From Schönbrunn Palace we continued on to Naschmarkt in the city. It was so fun to walk through. It was full of food and a few souvenirs. We started to get hungry looking at all of the food. Daniela brought us to a restaurant called Schweizerhaus at the Prater--Vienna's amusement park! It was a lot of fun. After eating that huge meal we were rather tired and not wanting to do much. We headed to a beach bar in Vienna and enjoyed the sun and sand as we sat in beach chairs for a few hours!
We even had time to get some strawberry daiquiris before Ali and I had to catch our first of four trains to get back to Aalborg! We made our way back to the hostel to get our stuff out of storage and headed to the train station. We said goodbye to Daniela and boarded our train. We had a 12 hour train trip from Vienna to Hamburg and were hoping it wouldn't be full and we were lucky! In our six person cabin, only three of the seats were books! So all three of us were able to fold out the chairs into beds! We were woken up once by police in Germany to check our passports!
Sunday July 7th:
We woke up bright and early with the sun at 7am and arrived in Hamburg just after 8:00am. We had a few hours to spare and had made friends with the guy in our cabin so the three of us set out to find coffee and a place to store our luggage. We were lucky to find both! After coffee, we parted ways and Ali and I decided to explore Hamburg.
Hamburg Town Hall-- very pretty! from here we walked over a canal and down a main shopping street. However, with it being Sunday everything was closed so we were not tempted to shop!
The canal we walked over. Very pretty, there was also a start of another lock bridge here! We walked around for a bit and made our way back to the train station for lunch. Not too long after that we boarded our next train. Our trip went by pretty well, it did get behind schedule by 14 minutes but they held the next train as the majority needed to make that connection. So we ran from one train to the next. We found our seats and enjoyed the second train of the day! Again, thankfully it went by pretty fast! We had a small break between our second and third train but this one was packed so we had to split up to sit in our real seats! However, it started to clear out and soon enough Ali and I were sitting by each other again enjoying the Danish countryside as we made our way to Aalborg! Once in Aalborg, we were able to get right on a bus and head for the AIK. It was a really long day of traveling so we were excited to get back, eat, and shower before heading to bed!
So that concludes my last European tour before I head home. The last few days have been full of cleaning and packing. It is not fun! I have no idea how I managed to bring all of this stuff and had room for it! Needless to say, it's been a bit of a struggle. We did take a break the other night and Ali and I made strawberry daiquiris so we enjoyed those while playing a Danish game called Ego with Anders. A really fun night--we even got to skype with Tara!
Wednesday morning Mathias and I brought Ali to the airport and waited with her before she left. As luck would have it her flight got cancelled and she had to re-book her trip home. Poor girl, but I'm glad we were there and were able to help some what! It also works out now that I'll get to see her at the Copenhagen airport tomorrow!
Well folks.. this concludes my semester abroad in Denmark! I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experiences-- the good, the bad, the funny, the boring, you get the point!
Next post will be back in America!
Skål Denmark-- it's been real!
Suz
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