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!

My home 'til January

So I live in student accommodation in Ørestad which I know means nothing to most of you so here's a map:

I live a 15min bike ride away from uni and a 25min ride away from the centre of the city. Where I live is very open with quite a few parks and a almost country feel (seriously I saw cows in the big green area north of where I live yesterday). Anyway so here are some photos of my area and building that I took over the past few weeks.

Dodgy lift is dodgy

Bird's eye view from my balcony

The park behind my building

Bjerget building for any architecture geeks

Every apartment has it's own garden

Metro stop on the way home from uni. Fun fact: the metro here is all automatic so no drivers

The giant shopping centre directly across the road from my building

2 weeks in Copenhagen

 Today marks two weeks in Copenhagen and unfortunately I have left my camera behind on most occasions but fortunately there are still a few photos to accompany this post.

The Story So Far:

From Amsterdam I took a 15hr overnight train that went via Germany to Copenhagen. Whilst it wasn't that bad I certainly wouldn't recommend it. After Amsterdam and the train my first day was spent unpacking and catching up on sleep. On day two I started Danish course and spent the afternoon in the kings garden with the other exchange students. Friday night I went out and didn't get home until 6am (mainly because we couldn't remember which direction the train home went in). On Saturday I went bike shopping and on Sunday we went to a free concert in Christiania, a hippy commune also known as mini Amsterdam. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos there (fun fact you're also not allowed to run because it will cause a panic).

Last week I went to the Studenterhuset (Copenhagen's version of unibar), visited some cute cafes, took a walking tour focusing on medieval Copenhagen (where the photos were taken), did some window shopping in chic Scandinavian fashion stores, attended a fashion week street party and found my way to Ikea.

This week, so far, I've been to a couple more cafes, had the best baked good of my life and casually attended a party on the Copenhagen metro. Tomorrow I'm going to watch Django Unchained for free in a park and maybe make my way to the Little Mermaid. As for this weekend, that's yet to be decided but there is a never ending list of free things on this month.

So after two weeks I can say that:

• I have a basic understanding of basic Danish phrases
• I can ride my bike without fearing the Danish cyclists
• I can ride into the city centre without having to check a map (mostly)
• I am (nearly) used to the currency
• I can cook couscous without a microwave
• I can unlock my apartment first go

Next post: Where I'm living and I promise to take more photos xx