Of course it would have been nice if I actually thought about how I would have to transport everything home...I was struggling through Copenhagen with all of this and finally managed my way home with only breaking a corner of the mirror. But I definitely love me bed--so much more snuggly and pillowy :) With this inspiration I was able to hang my 89 photos I printed before leaving so I am feeling much more at home in my room.
Then on Wednesday, the 9th, I had a double field study, one at 9:30 to the Danish Parliament and one at 1:10 to Christiania, which is that hippie town Mrs. Kramer talked about (Mom). The Parliament is really neat- so much history, but still very present. Each Prime Minister gets to choose an artist to have paint a portrait of them, and it was cool to see that some men chose very abstract artists, while others were very basic. But also, one of the best things there was that they have a sort of like, revolving elevator, meaning it never stops. It's basically a shaft you climb into when it comes up (there is no door) and it moves through all the floors without stopping, meaning you just jump out of it on your floor...can't imagine handling that every morning in heels!
As for Christiania...I could not live there, but I can see the appeal. In a basic sense, it is a little town made of the men and women who moved to the Christianhavn island when the military base left there. It is very controversial because Christianhavn is a veryyyy nice area--the most expensive real estate in Copenhagen (so probably in Denmark, but I don't know for sure). It's right on the water and very high end. But these squatters who claimed the land, pay nothing to live there and refuse to leave, despite different government demands over time. And the big thing is well, it's a big drug town. They believe very much in pot and hash, but are "Strongly against hard drugs." I took a picture of the rules:
I think my favorite is no bullet proof clothing? I would like to know the story behind that one...But in Christiania, you can't really take pictures, there are a ton of no picture signs. There was a news story this past week about a journalist getting beaten up for taking photos and not turning in his camera. Apparently there are big "bodyguard" types who protect Christiania from photographers and police. For some reason the police aren't really allowed to enter? But the big pull in Christiania is there is "Pusher Street," which is exactly what it is. It's where everyone can buy weed and hash, somewhat discreetly, but actually not at all. When I was with my class, we saw big bricks of what I guess was hash? I don't really know what hash is, just only heard of it so I assume it was that--at first I thought it was chocolate, oops! Haha.
Also, we got a guided tour throughout Christiania and I must admit--beautiful! It was very interesting to see children were running around with little to no clothes on in the day care center and that many people just seemed to drugged up, but the community is definitely very art friendly and seems to care about each other. But get this--so no one pays for the house, which means you don't own it, which means you can get kicked out at any point and be left homeless. Our guide was telling us that the town hall decides who can and cannot live in Christiania (you must apply to live here, you can't just set up camp..some have tried and were introduced to the bodyguards). If the town hall decides you can't live there they go to that house and kick you out. It seems ironic since Christiania was founded on a free love environment. But to each their own...
But that day was nice because I got to know Emily and Tim, who I have become pretty good friends with. We have both those classes together so we hung out, calling ourselves jokingly the Tripod. It was good that we got to know each other since literally, none of us could name one person in our European Politics class, which is the class we go on all of our travel tours with.
Speaking of which, that Thursday we left for our first short study tour. We left from Copenhagen at 8:30 to drive to the ferry, which we took to Lübec, Germany, which is apparently on the list of 1,000 places you must see before you die. In Lübec, we went to the Willy Brandt museum, who was a Nazi resistance leader. We also had a nice tour of Lübec from a man who had the most serious mustache:
The side view from the start of our tour
Here he is, at a 600 year old restaurant (where we ate when we arrived-wish I had known at the time to appreciate it more!) Here are more views of the restaurant:
A 400 year old table!
The restaurant name ^
Here are other pictures of Lübec:
And here is a piece of the Berlin Wall, at the Willy Brandt museum--very cool I thought!
Then we left for Hamburg on Friday, which is definitely a larger city with more stuff to do. I wish we could have had a lot of time there, but we were able to extend our stay, but not for the night since we were supposed to stay at a hostel in Sønderborg, Denmark (very southern part).
While in Hamburg, we went to their Parliament to hear about their relations with the EU. I also got to try my very first Schnitzel! Not bad...it reminded me sooo much of Milanesa from Argentina. In fact, I'm pretty positive it is the same idea. Lightly breaded thin meat. I went to the grocery store when I went back to Copenhagen and bought chicken schnitzel. I really wanted to get a pretzel while in Germany, but never did :( But hey, OKTOBERFEST IN 5 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay Richmond reunion!!
Oh and also, while we were in Hamburg, we saw a pro-Nazi and anti-Nazi march. It was so intense to see a pro-Nazi march! We briefly walked with the anti-Nazi march while walking to meet the bus.
Once we arrived in Sønderborg that night, we tried to find a place to go out. So a bunch of us walked for about 25 minutes and found a hopping little street where we first to Penny Lane, which was a Beatles tribute bar, where we met some Icelandic guys, who then took us to MexiBar....as sketchy as it sounds. We stayed there for about 12 minutes and left for our walk back to the hostel. And let me say, I hope to not stay in too many hostels...I could not help but think about all the hygienic problems with them....Thank goodness I brought my own sheets :)
On Saturday morning, we went to a lecture on German-Danish relations at Southern Denmark University, which was pretty interesting and then we went to the "Danish Gettysburg," even though the death toll was not even a quarter of Gettysburg. But it is where Denmark lost a huge part of their territory to Germany in 1864, I believe? Here is a photo from the fields:
After that, we drove a ways to go to an art museum, which I think was dedicated to Arne Jacobsen who was a famous Danish chair designer. It was a very contempary museum with lots of chairs. He created the egg chair and lots of chairs that are kind of funky that are veryyyy common. Here's an example:
After that, we traveled back to good ol' Denmark. That night Emily and I just hung out and had a good time. And then it was back to the grind when Sunday came. This past week was pretty basic. On Tuesday, it was Emily's birthday, so I helped plan her birthday dinner at her kollegium. We made our cobb salad (yesssss!), a creamy curry chicken, and I bought a bunch of Danish bakery desserts for her cake. I think it was a good time for all. Then we all went downtown to go out since she hadn't been out yet and we definitely got her to have some fun :)
Then on Wednesday I had a field study at an Islamic art museum at 8:30, and another tour of Parliament, but I also got to hear a very enlightening talk on Turkey-EU relations (since my field study was for my Turkey at a Crossroads course). Our speaker was very diplomatic in her talk, and helped sway me a bit to accepting Turkey into the EU. Right now, however, I don't think I really think it is the time for them to join. There are so many variables, like it will be the 3rd largest member state, meaning large amount of representatives, meaning strong voting power at first entry and within 10 years it is supposed to have the largest population....Also, with the EU membership, there is free travling within EU borders...meaning Iraq will now border EU nations...I am worried how that would affect terrorist activities...But a huge bonus of Turkey joining is there would be a bridge between "Eastern" and "Western" culture, as well as the Islamic and "Christian" culture, which I think would be a huge benefit for both sides.
Then on Friday, a bunch of us went to Tivoli for the evening and my friend Jen and I got to go on a bunch of rides, including the famous swings, which is (I think) the highest points in Copenhagen--you litereally see everything when you're on the swings and it's kind of like the ones at typical amusement parks, but A LOTTTTTTTTT higher, like a lot a lot, faster, and only seats of two every so often. But it is seriously AWESOME, one of the coolest things you can do. I hope they keep it open, even when all the rides close so we can go on them when y'all visit! Then we were able to hear the band that was performing that night, Infernal, which is a really famous Danish pop band. I think I am going back to Tivoli Monday night to see another concert.
Then after, Jen and I walked around and met many random people who came and talked to us, including some guys who were from Italy and Turkey. Then we finally settled on going to Happy Pig, which is a really popular bar/dance place. Reminds me of Richmond. But it was an awesome night, we just danced the night away with different people and stayed out until 6 AM! I saw the sun beginning to rise....
Then on Saturday, I went to my friend Brielle's (from UR) "apartment." It was a teacher she babysits for apartment, but while they were away she and our friend Abby were living there since they hate their kollegium. We ate pizza and drank some girlie drinks and then went out. We ended up going back to Happy Pig so we could meet up with some of Richmond guy friends. We ended up staying there until about 2, then we decided to hop around and then went back pretty early.
They had to take the night bus, while I had the metro. And that's when reality struck. It's amazing to think I have been here for about a month. But also because of that feeling, I felt safe and comfortable, so I'm glad I got this somewhat scary reminder. I admit, it's not smart that I went to the metro at night by myself, but it was just easy. But this man followed me down to the metro and cornered me against the esclator asking for my phone number and telling me how beautiful I was. And I told him I had a boyfriend and he wouldn't like this and he kept thinking we should be friendly companions, so I told him I saw my friends and went up to these Danish girls and grabbed one's arm and acted like we were best friends. Fortunately, the one girl whose arm I grabbed, understood, but her friends were confused and were talking so loud like "WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" but I just hung out with them. I got on the metro and then was going to get off with them and wait for the next metro (the guy told me he was going to my same stop--I never told him where my stop was or anything. I said I was from Canada, named Amalia and had been studying here a year and he didn't get why I wouldn't say where I lived). Anyways, as I was getting off, two girls from Richmond happened to see me on the metro and called my name (ughh since I was Amalia, not Caroline!--the guy was watching me the whole time on the metro). So I told them we had to get off at the next stop and wait, so fortunately we got off at Christianhavn and waited ten minutes for the next metro. Safe and sound and with others :)! A reminder to never be by myself, because that was definitely a bit frightening.
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