Easter Holiday in Copenhagen/ Stockholm

I wrote my previous post I was heading out the door to go to Copenhagen where I would rendezvous with my parents and sister and then together we would travel to Stockholm for Easter weekend. I have so much to tell about that trip that I am going to split it into several parts. The first part will be my time in Copenhagen which consists of Tuesday night to Thursday afternoon. Due to length I will most likely also break the part about Stockholm in half however I have not completely decided that yet. I have yet to load all the pictures onto my computer but I had some time to write this text so there are no pictures in this post but I will have another post shortly with the pictures for this part followed by the Stockholm posts.
First I have to say that with the except of one or two days, every day since my birthday has been in the 60s or 70s and sunny here in Denmark which has been awesome. Tuesday was no exception and was in fact possibly the hottest day thus far. I decided to pack a light sweatshirt and rain coat just in case but I could not help thinking that they would be useless because I knew the weather was going to be similar in both of my destinations for the remainder of the week. One interesting thing about the weather here is how it is predicted compared to the US. In the US they choose the model with the most shocking or "exciting" weather because that increases ratings and makes more people check therefore more revenue from advertisements. However this weather is very frequently incorrect. However here in Denmark they do not advertise and can not make any revenue via that media type which is why websites like Pandora or Hulu which excuse copyright information for use of advertisements are blocked. Therefore there are no ridiculous weather forecasts and I find that they often under predict the weather if anything rather than exaggerate it.  For instance if they say it will be 15 and sunny it is likely to be 18 or 19 and sunny or if they say snow showers it is will briefly be dumping snow then nothing other than cold wind.... Anyways so I knew it was going to be warm. Having already familiarized myself with the procedures at Aalborg International ( much like Burlington international in size...) I knew there was no rush getting there and if I arrived a mere 30 minutes before my flight I would have no problem getting on. Unfortunately for reasons I do not know my flight was delayed nearly a half hour however before long I was in the air peering out at the danish countryside of cut into farms with wind turbines popping up like the daffodils that were now in full bloom. Unfortunately for me when the plane docked there was an issue with the jetway so even though I was in the closest part of the terminal to the metro they had to off load us onto buses then drive us to the farthest away terminal so I had a 1 km walk back to where I had just been. However it was still quite warm and sunny out despite being after 7 pm so I got my metro pass and met my family for dinner at a cozy little restaurant off of Nyhavn. The next day (wednesday) we ate breakfast at a little bakery they had found that offered up a nice selection of pastries, juice, and coffee. I showed my parents the traditional danish breakfast of a bun with butter or cheese on top. There was also a nice selection of what Americans call Danishes and what the Danes call Weinerbrød (Which would be Austrian bread? I wonder what the Austrians call it...)
After breakfast we got some additional metro passes and headed north to Helsingør a small town with one of Denmark's largest and possibly its most famous Castle, Kronborg Slot. This castle is made additionally famous because it is where Shakespeare's Hamlet takes place. The castle is perched at the corner of Zealand (The island that Copenhagen is on) closest to Sweden and the Swedish town Helsingborg (Used to be a part of Denmark). It was built because there is a choke point in the water there and it was a good location to build a structure that could control boat traffic into and out of the Baltic sea from the Atlantic. In fact from the early 1600s when the original building was built until the 1850s Denmark charged a fee to any boat passing through the waters and any boat that tried to avoid it would have to deal with the guns of the Castle as well as the Danish Navy stationed near by. (Punishment for a captain that did not pay the fee was extra fees for each cannonball fired and beheading of the captain). Due to the modernity of the castle it did not have quite as tall or majestic walls as some in say Portugal or France but it did have an impressive star fort around it along with two moats. The castle was only once captured by an enemy force and that was during the war with Sweden. It served as a giant source of revenue for Denmark as well as the residence of many of the Danish kings. During our visit we went under the castle to the basement where the ever famous Hølger Danske sleeps. The Danes consider him the protector of Denmark and when Denmark is threatened he will wake up and defeat Denmark's foes. In addition to him the dungeons are where many of the soldiers who defended the castle lived, worked, trained, ate and slept. In the dark cold and musty space below the castle 1000s of men were kept only leaving and entering the world when they were summoned to battle. Possibly the only thing that kept these men sane were the 12 liters (3.25 gallons) of beer that they were rationed, daily... We also saw the Royal Apartments in all their splendor including paintings and tapestries the size of the wall and luxurious furniture. After touring the castle we enjoyed the nice weather and shopped around Helsingør until we took the train back to Copenhagen.

The next day we only had a few hours after checking out of our hotel until we had to make our way to Kastrup Lufthavn (Airport) to fly to Stockholm. After checking into the Jewish museum we found out it did not open until one. So we decided to go to the church with the spiral tower on Christianshavn's island. For a small fee you can climb this church and the spiral stars on its steeple and get one of the most impressive view of Copenhagen. After climbing several flights of "normal" stairs we next moved into the bell tower area and climbed some steeper and more tight and windy stairs and ladders to get to the steeple. In fact we climbed right past all the bells but unfortunately I never got to see them ring. I would have liked to even though they would likely have been deafeningly loud. Finally we emerged outside and what a view. It was possible to see an unobstructed view of the entire city and even as far away as the bridge to Sweden. Despite the clear skies it was a little hazy so we could not see Malmø more than just shadows. However our climb was not done and we then climbed up the slick brass stairs around and around the spiral. Impressively my mother, who is terrified of edges continued upwards even though there was a good 100 feet between us and the streets below. However possibly the very tall guardrail had something to do with that. I climbed as high as one could go... The stairs became so small I could no longer fit and the handrail was much lower so it was a little scary up there especially when you could feel the tower swaying due to the slight breeze. On are way down we bumped into Ari a guy who is from Missouri and is studying abroad in Aalborg with me, he was just returning from a trip to Budapest and Prague and he said they are places I must go, so hopefully I can see at least one of them. After the tower we went inside the church which had a magnificent pipe organ that was one of the most ornately decorated I have seen. We then crossed back over the water and headed over to the Jewish Museum. It was small but interesting, mostly concerning the arrival of Jews in Denmark and their escape during WWII.  It had some cool artifacts and was a very interesting design because it was done by some famous architect. My dad calls them "starchitects" because everyone wants them to design some ridiculous structure. After that we headed over to the airport via the metro and boarded our plane to Sweden.

21st Birthday

Sorry I have not written in a while. I am currently packing up to go to Copenhagen to meet my family. Then on Thursday we will travel to Stockholm for the weekend before they return home to the US via Iceland.  The reason I have not written is the weather has been incredibly nice and I have not spent much time inside or on the computer and at night there has been a flurry of birthday parties for me to attend including my own so I have not spent much time on the computer recently. For instance, for the last 5 days it has been in the 60-70s F and sunny with few clouds and limited win. In fact this is going to be the weather here for the next week as well so my family will have excellent weather in both cities they are visiting with me. In the nice weather I have spent the day outside going on long runs or bike rides and playing football. Yesterday in fact I traveled all the way to west Aalborg ( about 8-9km away from where I live in East Aalborg) to play football. We were not planning on going so far but a lot of the other small fields were in use due to the nice weather (it was in the 70s yesterday).
My classes are almost all finished I only have one last class next tuesday for energy and the environment. So now it is time to really crank out the project which is due at the end of may. I am going to have some leisure time though in may. In the middle of the month I am traveling to Berlin and I just bought my tickets today for that trip. I will also go to the northern most point in Denmark called Skagen. And then just before my project finishes Lyndsay will be arriving and we will spend the last weekend in May together in Aalborg enjoying the festivities of Carnival before heading off to italy for the first week of june.
My birthday was excellent. I invited a bunch of friends over and cooked some bacon cheese burgers and hot dogs for them which they were all very excited about. After we hung out and had lots of cake because another one of the guys from my collegium also is born on April 11th (In fact I now know 9 people that I share my birthday with). He was turning 25 which is a significant thing in Denmark. They have a tradition that if you turn 25 and you are not married your friends can throw cinnamon on you. And if you turn 30 and are not married then instead of cinnamon they throw pepper... Unfortunately for him he was "cinnamoned" several times. First was during the day after class because he is also an engineer so I witnessed a very thorough cinnamoning. Below is picture to show the scene. To prevent him from running away we used 4 industrial strength zip ties to fasten him to a light pole. After he was doused with water and 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of cinnamon he was cut free and we all had to take off for fear of being hugged by the cinnamon-man. However that was not the last time as later that night after he had showered for the second time that day some guys in my collegium got hold of him and more water and cinnamon... I know one thing I will stay far away from Denmark when I turn 25....

Christian getting "cinnamoned"

Additionally this past week a friend of mine and I organized a game of "the hit" to be played in our collegium. For those of you who don't know the hit is like the game "assassins" except everyone can "kill" everyone. The game started on my birthday and on friday in an epic firefight I was the victor and sole survivor of the game. This was our second collegium wide game and after two successes a third may be underway for mid May.
Also due to the good weather we have been doing a lot of grilling which has been awesome. Although the collegium has a large grill it is too big unless you are cooking for more than 30 people. So instead we are using small charcoal ones that some of the Danes have. One thing that I am very excited to make is something that only a Dane would conceive... A hot dog wrapped in bacon and then grilled... I am definitely making a bunch of these soon. This is like the most un-kosher food I can think of but incredibly awesome- Epic Meal time would be proud... Speaking of Kosher it is now passover however due to the lack of jewish people in Denmark I have yet to see a store selling even Matzah let alone anything else kosher for passover. Hence I will not be following that tradition this spring. I have to run for now because I have a bus and a plane to catch. A very long and detailed post of my adventures this easter holiday will soon follow...

Football, pizza and more football

Since returning from Sweden football (soccer in America...) has been the thing for me this week. Along with football has been lots of good pizza. On tuesday Vincent and I made a masterpiece of a pizza which you can see below. On top of the dough there were two halves although they were very similar. On one was tomato sauce and the other was creme fraiche (It is like sour creme but less sour and less viscous-more liquidy...) The rest of the pizza was the same on both sides. On top of the base layer was a layer of mozzarella then red peppers,  caramelized onions and basil/red pepper powder. Then after that we covered the pizza in ham and chicken nugget slices. To top it off it was clear we needed more cheese because everything is better with more cheese. So we added slices of bleu cheese and goat cheese and then covered the whole deal with the remaining mozzarella. 20 minutes of oven time and Voila, deliciousness.

 

 

 

 

Our yummy pizza

On wednesday was pizza and football night with my project group. After a day of working on the project we headed over to my group-mate, Jens' apartment for some pizza and after we were going to the Common House at his complex because they had a small cinema where we watched the Manchester United FC vs Chelsea FC game. This time Sandro, who in addition to being in my project group lives right below me in my colleguim was head chef. Conveniently he is from Italy so I got to have my second round of authentic Italian pizza. If you remember before he cooked a pizza dinner for almost twenty of us in February. We had the same pizzas this time, the "New York" that is covered in hot dogs and french fries as well as the really authentic pizza with hard boiled egg, mushrooms, peas, black olives, ham, and mozzarella. The football game was good Man U won 1-0 with a Rooney goal in the 24th minute.

The rest of the week was beautiful weather in Denmark however on thursday and friday it was incredibly windy. On friday the average wind was 60 km/h(~40mph) and gusts around 90km/h (~55mph). However the wind stopped for the weekend which was awesome. On saturday it was at least 16C (60F) and sunny with no clouds or wind. Today was over 20C (70F) and no clouds or wind. Yesterday afternoon I went and play football with my project group. We played a small sided 3v3 game and it was a bunch of fun. Today I woke up early and was very motivated so after tossing the pig skin around with Egon for a while we went on a 6k run. It was a bit hot but a nice run. It is rather nice to run in Denmark because it is relatively flat and there are paths everywhere. Also the few hills that exist are very gradual slopes up and down. After the run I biked over to play football like I did two weeks ago. That was a bunch of fun to play some more serious football with cleats and big goals etc. Needless to say I am quite tired today.

One other tasty thing of note was my dinner last night. Due to the gorgeous weather we had a barbecue. Everyone prepared their own food for the grill. I made chicken kebabs (on the skewer) with green and red peppers and onion. I made my own sauce with mustard, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some spices and it was amazing. The flavor was awesome and the chicken was juicy. I can not wait to try and make more food on the grill. Speaking of which I will be doing just that tomorrow, weather permitting as a celebration of my 21st birthday. I some friends over to hang out and grill some dogs and burgers. By the time I write my next post I will be 21! and finally considered an Adult in the US.

Göteborg

The same boat we took to Gothenburg

This past weekend I made my first trek out of Denmark since arriving in Europe. I traveled to Sweden to the city of Gothenburg or Göteborg in Swedish. The city is located on the west coast of Sweden and is the second largest after Stockholm with around 500,000 residents. Instead of flying we took the ferry because it was cheaper, perhaps in some ways faster, and definitely easier. I traveled to Sweden with two friends from my collegium, Vincent and Mathieu. On friday we took the train from Aalborg to Fredrickshavn about a one hour ride then hopped on the ferry for the 3:25 minute ride to Sweden. Interestingly upon arrival customs was barely existent with the exception of a walking past a drug smelling dog. The ferry ride was nice and we left rain in Denmark for a setting sun in Sweden. After we found our way to the hostel with some difficulty navigating the tram we met up with some of Vincent's friends from his University in Brest who were currently studying in Gothenburg. We ordered some pizza and hung out with them at their collegium.

The trams (Trolleys) that dominated the streets of the city

On Saturday we wanted to get and early start. Luckily there was a grocery store literally right below the room we were staying in and I scored some fresh croissants for breakfast. By 10:30 we were down town walking the main street conveniently called Avenyn (pronounced Avenue). We walked all around the small island that made up the city center. Like the cities in Denmark it was filled with shops and had what was more or less a mall with outdoor corridors. In addition it had some very beautiful buildings.  The little island that this was a part of also looked like a star fort like Christianshavn in Copenhagen which makes sense because the city is young by European standards at only a few hundred years old. As a result there was a lot of more modern housing in the form of apartment buildings and many of the older stone buildings were of the Victorian and mostly Colonial styles. Nevertheless there was some spectacular architecture as some of the photos I put on facebook showed.

An old hotel/manor turned restaurant/bar on Avenyn

We say the national museum but unfortunately did not have time to go in with only two days to explore the city. We also say the ship yard which had a variety of sailing ships, military ships, and fishing boats. After lunch we traveled across the city to see the Slotsskogen park. The park was really nice and large and featured a zoo with both small and large animals amongst other things. The large animals conveniently live year round in the zoo so we got to check a lot of them out including moose a favorite animal in Sweden and goats.

I know he is a little blurry but this seal really was photogenic

After the zoo we headed back to our hostel where we made tacos for dinner before meeting up with Vincent's friends again. On sunday after checking out of the Hostel and grabbing some more croissants, chocolate ones this time we decided to explore a new part of the city. Unfortunately it was sunday and it was misting out so we were not able to feel the full effect of the section called Haga. Haga is the older part of the city with the more traditional houses and would normal have streets lined with vendors and cafes. Unfortunately that was not the case but it was still nice to explore it. It reminded me of Nyhavn in Copenhagen but less vibrantly colored. After Haga we traveled around the city looking for the large churches we spotted from the ferry on the ride in that we wanted to see up close. One of them was a beautiful gothic church that's copper roof had oxidized to green giving it a interesting contrast to the red brick walls.

Gothic church

Inside was beautiful stained glass windows but they were doing some construction so the pictures could not be perfect. After that we went to the small fort/tower on the hill overlooking the city. Apparently when the city was built it was the master stronghold that could protect the city from invaders. After lunch we did a very french thing and met up with Vincent's friends one last time and went to a cafe which was surprisingly enough french. There were an abundance of pastries there and the ones I tried were very good. After having some coffee it was time to return to Denmark so we took the ferry back. The last part of the adventure was back in Denmark. We quickly unloaded from the ferry and walked to the train station. However we were not quick enough and missed the train by only a few minutes. So we realized our fate of having to wait an hour for the next train. However after no more than 10 minutes of waiting we realized that there was a bus station next door. So we decided to check it out only to find one bus remaining that luckily was going to Aalborg. It cost the same as the train and took about as long so that was nice. Also as soon as we entered the bus it left for Aalborg so we diffinately caught a lucky break which allowed us to make it home before 10 pm on sunday.