Happy Halloween

Last Saturday I went to check out halloween at Tivoli with a friend before it closed and suffice to say, it didn't disappoint. There were pumpkins and witches galore and even a haunted hotel surrounded by zombies. It was so well decorated and even the zombies were perfect. They were wearing normal clothes and generally made you do a double take. The hotel itself was also really well done leaving you with no idea what to expect or where to expect it from. And now with autumn drawing to a close all I can say is  I'm really excited for Christmas Tivoli.

 Next post will be Russia photos, pinky swear.

Viking Excursions

For my Nordic Mythology class we got to go on a couple of excursions the first of which was through Denmark. We went to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde where they had complete replicas of all of the ships they have found that you are able to go out on and have been used to test known viking sailing routes. Our next step was Trelleborg which is an old viking fortress though no one is entirely sure what it was for. It has four entrances and the buildings, mapped out in stone, are entirely symmetrical to one another. It is also not the only one of it's kind with a few others having been found in both Denmark and Sweden of varying sizes. The last stop was to a viking ship grave which was very interesting. Again not a lot is known about the grave specially since it was robbed around 50 to 60 years after the ship was buried. As a result the only skeletons left are that of 11 horses and 2 dogs. Despite not knowing who exactly was buried in the ship, and whether or not it was just one man, from it's size it is obvious that they held power and wealth. At the museum near the burial site there are also a group of people attempting to rebuild the ship using (mostly) traditional viking methods.

__________________Trip Two________________

The second excursion was to sites within Sweden and as you can see from the photos the weather was not quite as pleasant. Copenhagen is connected to Sweden by the Øresund bridge. Southern Sweden used to be ancient Danish land so our lecturer told us that the bridge is part of the Danish plan to reclaim that land back. It was most certainly the oddest feeling of driving for not even an hour and being in another country. In Sweden we visited a stone ship burial, which is simply a burial where instead of using a ship, rocks have been laid out in the shape of one. Unfortunately the site is yet to be excavated so no one knows what is underneath. The second stop was to a viking graveyard, most commonly thought to have been for non warriors (commoners). Like with the first stop the remains have been buried under a shape created with rocks though in this instances it is not only ships. The last stop was to see some runic stones and one of the most extraordinary aspects of these stones is that they have not been moved, like most others.

September Touristing

I am well aware of how long it's been and I apologise. I got lazy and suddenly it was October, but the good news is that I have lots of photos.

On the second to last weekend of September I finally went out and did some touristing. On the Friday I spent three and a half hours in the National Museum (and that's only because my legs hurt and it closed). The big exhibition on at the moment is on the Vikings. The museum has collected artefacts from all over the viking world and laid them out perfectly. Instead of signs they also used tablet type computers allowing for more information (both general and specific) in both English and Danish. The rest of the photos are from the other permanent exhibitions which were also very interesting.

Saturday was an excursion for my Nordic Mythology course which I'll get back to in my next post. Sunday was a big day, at 11am a bunch of us met to go visit the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which, despite its name has very little to do with beer. The Glyptotek is an art museum containing primarily sculptures. Unfortunately quite a few rooms were closed and as it was so close to lunchtime we explored only the first floor. Since we are living here for another few months we figured we could go back. For lunch we went to Paludans, a lovely cafe filled with old books, for lunch and then to the Nørreport food market for afternoon tea.

After 5pm on Sundays entry into tivoli is only $10 (just over half price) and as it was the last day of the summer season and since very few of us had been yet we had to go. I sucked it up and bought a year pass so I can go back as many times as I want and maybe even next time I'll go on some rides. The weather, unfortunately, was not great. By the time it got dark it was drizzling and most of us were already a bit damp so we didn't stay for the light show or the fireworks. However that didn't stop us from having an amazing time. The entire place is picture perfect so it was hard to narrow down the photos. But with half of the park left to explore and both the Halloween and Christmas season to come there will be plenty more in the near future.

I know this picture is blurry but I couldn't leave it out. The little boy was supposed to be leading the parade but he fell quite far behind so he had to be rushed to the front by one of the guards.

Next post: Viking excursions!