After coming home for a while, I have written just a few of the things I do and do not miss from my time in Copenhagen.
What I miss:
my friends
chocolate milk cartons littering the streets
Monday Peder Oxe night
Sankt Peter's bakery
7-11
the wonderful springtime weather
the long spring days
the bikes
restaurants being open past midnight
Keops Kooking Krew
Keops in general
Nyhavn
occasionally being mistaken for British by Danes
free health care
The fact labor day=communism day
Anywhere in Europe being a short flight away
Being in a city
the architecture
brie
Danish rudeness
the museums
no open container laws
all my friends being legal
What I won't miss:
paying for water
ice
no free refills
always feeling out dressed
the bad winter weather
unpronounceable Danish
things being closed on Sunday
not driving
flying whiskey glasses
spending too much money
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Why you always need your CPR card
This past weekend was a pretty eventful one! Friday was May Day, which is National Laborer's Day in Denmark. Everyone goes to this one park, Faeldparken, where there are food booths, music, speeches, and demonstrations.
Only part of the crowd for May 1st
It was a great afternoon. We brought blankets, sat by a stage, and listened to terrible Danish pop music. Unfortunately, my night was not so good.
That night a group of us decided to go out, but stayed close to our home since we wanted to keep it more mellow. Well, that failed. While on the dance floor I see a fight break out in the corner. The two of us facing that way start yelling at my friends to move out of the way. As we attempt to, the guys in the fight shifted toward our direction. As the bouncers were trying to break up the fight, the DJ turned off the music, and suddenly everyone could hear a glass shatter. Then, I suddenly felt intense pain in my shoulder and my arm felt wet. I look down and my arm is covered in blood. I obviously start to kinda freak out and just hold out my arm as it spurted blood. My friends went into crisis mode and were wonderful. Kelly was my humor/distraction and also yelled at everyone to get out of the way and let me outside. Sarah, immediately ran to the bar to get towels and get someone to call the ambulance. Chelsea, the pre-med, was my nurse. She applied pressure and gave me general medical attention until the ambulance came. She also rode with me in the ambulance.
I got to experience the Danish health care system, and I have to say, it wasn't fun. First, the medic wrapped my arm so tight my arm eventually started turning blue. Sarah and Chelsea had to keep massaging it to keep the circulation going. A nurse talked to me once I arrived, and eventually Kelly and Sarah arrived too with my CPR number (my Danish insurance number), without which I could not have gotten any medical care. After about 3 hours, a nurse took off my wrapping and put on a bandage. Then, after another 3 hours I was finally stitched up. Obviously everyone by this point was falling asleep, except for me. Too much adrenaline I guess. In the end, I had a grand total of 11 stitches and will now look super tough. I get my stitches taken out after 10 days, after which I will get some sweet scars.
no one will mess with me now!
Only part of the crowd for May 1st
It was a great afternoon. We brought blankets, sat by a stage, and listened to terrible Danish pop music. Unfortunately, my night was not so good. That night a group of us decided to go out, but stayed close to our home since we wanted to keep it more mellow. Well, that failed. While on the dance floor I see a fight break out in the corner. The two of us facing that way start yelling at my friends to move out of the way. As we attempt to, the guys in the fight shifted toward our direction. As the bouncers were trying to break up the fight, the DJ turned off the music, and suddenly everyone could hear a glass shatter. Then, I suddenly felt intense pain in my shoulder and my arm felt wet. I look down and my arm is covered in blood. I obviously start to kinda freak out and just hold out my arm as it spurted blood. My friends went into crisis mode and were wonderful. Kelly was my humor/distraction and also yelled at everyone to get out of the way and let me outside. Sarah, immediately ran to the bar to get towels and get someone to call the ambulance. Chelsea, the pre-med, was my nurse. She applied pressure and gave me general medical attention until the ambulance came. She also rode with me in the ambulance.
I got to experience the Danish health care system, and I have to say, it wasn't fun. First, the medic wrapped my arm so tight my arm eventually started turning blue. Sarah and Chelsea had to keep massaging it to keep the circulation going. A nurse talked to me once I arrived, and eventually Kelly and Sarah arrived too with my CPR number (my Danish insurance number), without which I could not have gotten any medical care. After about 3 hours, a nurse took off my wrapping and put on a bandage. Then, after another 3 hours I was finally stitched up. Obviously everyone by this point was falling asleep, except for me. Too much adrenaline I guess. In the end, I had a grand total of 11 stitches and will now look super tough. I get my stitches taken out after 10 days, after which I will get some sweet scars.
no one will mess with me now!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Buda-pescht!
Last weekend my friend Lindsay and I took a trip to Budapest. My bad travel luck continued, as we had a half hour connection in Munich. We prayed that we would make it, and hoped there would be a little delay to make sure. Unfortunately, we made it with time to spare and instead had over an hour of sitting on the tarmac while a propeller was repaired. After we finally made it to Budapest, we made our way to our hostel. Our hostel was very small and we had a great hostel owner. He was super-helpful and pointed us to a great restaurant. Budapest is soooo cheap compared to Copenhagen. We were able to have a huge four-course meal with a beer each for less than $10!
We spent the rest of the day exploring Buda, more specifically Castle Hill. We saw the palace, Matthias Church, and the statue of Tural Bird. We were there right when the sun was setting, and we got some wonderful views.
View of Parliament from Castle Hill
Another view from Castle Hill.
That night we further followed our hostel owner's advice and went to a cool bar down the street. It was cool, it was open air and had bathtubs as seats. I guess they used all the bathroom equipment as furniture because when I went to the bathroom...
This is what I found! Yes, that is not a toilet, but instead a hole in the ground. It was a shock when I entered the bathroom.
The next morning we woke up early and headed off to go to the Synagogue. It is the 2nd largest in the world. Sadly, it was closed since it was a Saturday. Since it was closed we walked around and did a little Pest tour. First, we walked and saw the Opera house, House of Terror, and St. Peter's basilica. Then we did a bit of shopping (couldn't resist the cheaper prices) and ended up eating lunch at the market. Fact: Italian sauce in Budapest means ketchup. Otherwise, it was pretty good.
The rest of the afternoon we spent going to the famous Budapest baths. They were so cool/ confusing. Finding our way through all the locker corridors and figuring out how to rent our towels and stuff.
This was the ceiling of the bath lobby.
We went to the bath in the City Park, which we partly chose because it wasn't a nude spa. That did not keep us from seeing at least 6 naked, old Hungarian women. It was not a pretty sight. The actual spa was cool, had all these different pools that were like hot tubs both inside and outside. Some even had current pools and jets that were so much fun.
After we finished up relaxing at the baths, we went to explore the city park. We went to heroes square, a huge Hungarian monument.
Heroes Square!
That night we went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant and then off to a Rick Steve's recommended pub crawl (we followed Rick all weekend!). The pub crawl was neat, because it started off with an hour long cruise on the Danube. All the buildings were beautiful all lit up and my new camera took much better night pictures than my old one.
Buda Castle
Parliament
Sadly, we had to leave early the next morning for our plane flight. I was not excited to go back to Copenhagen and get to work!
We spent the rest of the day exploring Buda, more specifically Castle Hill. We saw the palace, Matthias Church, and the statue of Tural Bird. We were there right when the sun was setting, and we got some wonderful views.
View of Parliament from Castle Hill
Another view from Castle Hill.That night we further followed our hostel owner's advice and went to a cool bar down the street. It was cool, it was open air and had bathtubs as seats. I guess they used all the bathroom equipment as furniture because when I went to the bathroom...
This is what I found! Yes, that is not a toilet, but instead a hole in the ground. It was a shock when I entered the bathroom.
The next morning we woke up early and headed off to go to the Synagogue. It is the 2nd largest in the world. Sadly, it was closed since it was a Saturday. Since it was closed we walked around and did a little Pest tour. First, we walked and saw the Opera house, House of Terror, and St. Peter's basilica. Then we did a bit of shopping (couldn't resist the cheaper prices) and ended up eating lunch at the market. Fact: Italian sauce in Budapest means ketchup. Otherwise, it was pretty good.
The rest of the afternoon we spent going to the famous Budapest baths. They were so cool/ confusing. Finding our way through all the locker corridors and figuring out how to rent our towels and stuff.
This was the ceiling of the bath lobby.We went to the bath in the City Park, which we partly chose because it wasn't a nude spa. That did not keep us from seeing at least 6 naked, old Hungarian women. It was not a pretty sight. The actual spa was cool, had all these different pools that were like hot tubs both inside and outside. Some even had current pools and jets that were so much fun.
After we finished up relaxing at the baths, we went to explore the city park. We went to heroes square, a huge Hungarian monument.
Heroes Square!
That night we went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant and then off to a Rick Steve's recommended pub crawl (we followed Rick all weekend!). The pub crawl was neat, because it started off with an hour long cruise on the Danube. All the buildings were beautiful all lit up and my new camera took much better night pictures than my old one.
Buda Castle
ParliamentSadly, we had to leave early the next morning for our plane flight. I was not excited to go back to Copenhagen and get to work!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Happy Birthday Queen Margrethe! + Legoland
April 16th was the Queen's birthday, and they do several special things for it. All the buses fly Danish flags and the fountain on Stroget has golden apples floating in it. Also, the Queen and the entire royal family comes out on the balcony in Amelienborg to wave to schoolchildren and the rest of the crowd. Obviously, since I had seen the Queen of England, I could not leave Denmark without seeing their Queen too! It was really cute, all the little children sang her happy birthday in Danish and kept calling her to come out again. Her little grandchildren were also adorable. Afterwards we had a lunch of smorrebrod at Nyhavn. Overall, we felt super Danish.
Us after seeing the Queen!
You can kinda see the golden apples on the fountain jets on the top of the fountain
The royal family! The Queen is the one with the pink sash.
On Saturday we went on the DIS trip to Legoland. I couldn't live in Denmark without going to see the Lego mecca, which is three hours away from Copenhagen. Legoland is AWESOME! There were lego figures everywhere and tons of fun rides. I would not recommend it as the place to go if you are only into roller coasters, but it had tons of really cute rides that took you past all the amazing lego creations. Also, it would be great in the summer because there were all these water rides and play areas. My favorite part was lego models of various monuments and cities. I liked lego Nyhavn best, we could even spot the restaurant where we ate on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera once we got there and broke it. Buying a new camera in Denmark is pretty complicated, but at least I still have all my pictures and my new camera is much better than my old one!
Us after seeing the Queen!
You can kinda see the golden apples on the fountain jets on the top of the fountain
The royal family! The Queen is the one with the pink sash.On Saturday we went on the DIS trip to Legoland. I couldn't live in Denmark without going to see the Lego mecca, which is three hours away from Copenhagen. Legoland is AWESOME! There were lego figures everywhere and tons of fun rides. I would not recommend it as the place to go if you are only into roller coasters, but it had tons of really cute rides that took you past all the amazing lego creations. Also, it would be great in the summer because there were all these water rides and play areas. My favorite part was lego models of various monuments and cities. I liked lego Nyhavn best, we could even spot the restaurant where we ate on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera once we got there and broke it. Buying a new camera in Denmark is pretty complicated, but at least I still have all my pictures and my new camera is much better than my old one!
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