After my lab's day out last Tuesday (where I left off last time), the remainder of last week was fairly uneventful. Bruno, my Brazilian friend in the guesthouse, bought a grill, so we had a couple barbecues which were fun, and I made tasty grilled chicken (the stores here sell really good marinated chicken). On Friday, I left work early so that I could catch a 6 PM train to Copenhagen (København in Dansk) with Rui, Akshay, and Sam.
We got on the train only to discover that it was the most crowded train any of us had ever been on. While we initially hoped to find four seats together, when we boarded we realized we might not get seats at all. We initially had to sit on the ground by the doors, which was uncomfortable, and we had to move whenever people walked by. Eventually, we split up and took random seats (except Sam, who probably could have found a seat, but chose to just sit by the door the whole time).
After taking a seat, I met yet another Canadian and a Danish claymation artist who produces short films for his company Porkfish. He showed us several of his video clips, which were incredibly detailed for claymation, and then he showed us his new 20 minute film, which he spent two years working on, and is submitting to film festivals. I usually don't meet people on trains, so this was definitely my most interesting train ride.
In addition to meeting people on the train, there is also another unique thing about trains from Germany to Denmark, which probably also explained why there were few seats available. The train had to be smaller than other trains travelling between big cities, because the entire train fit on a ferry. The ferry crosses the Fehmarn Belt between Germany and Denmark. It was neat getting off the train inside a ferry, and taking a break from the train to stand on the top deck as we crossed over to Denmark.
Eventually we arrived at the train station in Copenhagen and met up with Vishal, another RISE student interning in Greifswald. We walked to our hostel to drop off our stuff. The four of us from Lübeck shared a nice private room in the hostel, and Vishal had a bed in the mixed dorm of the same hostel. After dropping off our stuff, we went out to explore a little bit and check out some bars for Danish beer (Carlsberg and Tuborg). We went the last weekend of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and we found a bar that had a jazz band playing, but the beer was too expensive (Copenhagen is an expensive city), so we didn't stay too long. We found another bar where we were able to play foosball, dance, and drink more reasonably priced beer, which was fun.
In the morning, Rui, Akshay, Vishal, and I went on a free walking tour of the city, while Sam went exploring on his own. If anyone reading is planning to travel to major European cities at some point, I highly recommend New Europe Tours. The tour guides work only for tips, and give really good, thorough tours. Our guide was actually an American master's student studying in Copenhagen, but she was quite knowledgable and shared lots of great stories. She shared interesting stories about Denmark's role in WWII. While the country surrendered to Germany a mere 2 hours after invasion, Danish people, including King Christian X, continued to protest in some way throughout the war. And of course, Neils Bohr made sure Sweden would offer political asylum to the Danish Jews before agreeing to work on the Manhattan Project, saving 8,000 Jews. 99% of Denmark's Jewish population survived the Holocaust. Our tour guide taught us the Danish word "hygge" (the closest pronunciation an American can do is probably "huga"), which has no direct translation in English, but combines concepts such as coziness and solidarity. Because of hygge, Danes felt a sense of solidarity with the Jews during WWII, which led to the population being saved from the Nazis.
On the tour we saw a lot of great sights in Copenhagen, including the Christiansborg Palace, which houses the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of Denmark (the only building in the world to house all three branches of a country's goverment), and Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Danish royal family. I also noticed some great street musicians while I was on the tour, some of them were affiliated with the jazz festival.
After the tour we met up again with Sam and headed to the Church of Our Savior for the best view in Copenhagen. The spiral church spire was built 260 years ago in 1752, and a climb up the building, you can climb up a staircase on the outside of the spire. This was a bit terrifying (it was windy up there, and while I didn't know exactly when it was built when I was there, I knew it was old), but the view was incredible. After admiring the great view, we headed to Freetown Christiana, which Wikipedia describes as an anarchist community. The residents of the area, which was once owned by the Danish military, claim that Christiania is not part of the EU. Here we got to see a reggae band doing a soundcheck for a concert later in the evening, and eat some shawarma (which was prepared pretty much just like döner in Germany, but smaller because Denmark is more expensive).
After we headed back towards our hostel, briefly stopping by Rosenborg Castle, but the premises were closed so we had to return in the morning. After resting for a while, we went to another bar that had been recommended to Sam as one of the cheaper ones in Denmark, where we danced for a while. We agreed to check out a show affiliated with the jazz festival, but rather than jazz we ended up seeing an electronic musician, Nosaj Thing, that Sam wanted to see. At this point most of us were really exhausted, and I didn't really enjoy the music. Finally we returned to the hostel for some sleep.
On Sunday morning we split up again since we wanted to see the sights Sam saw the day before, and vice versa. We walked around Rosenborg Palace, but could not afford to go inside (in addition to Denmark being expensive, they use Danish Kroners instead of Euros, and we barely exchanged enough money). Next we saw the botanical gardens, which weren't quite as interesting as in Hamburg, but were still nice (and they had butterflies). We then visited Kastellet, a historical fort and memorial to Danish soldiers, before heading to the port to look for one of the city's big tourist attractions, a statue of the Little Mermaid. We walked a bit too far north, and first found a statue of a big mermaid, before eventually finding the actual statue, surrounded by tourists. While the statue has a history of vandalism for various protests, I didn't really see what made it so famous compared to the many, many other statues in the city. For example, we soon found the Geffion Fountain, an epic statue of the Norse goddess Gefjun driving oxen in a large fountain.
Finally we met up with Sam again and visited the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum notable for its extensive ancient collection. I didn't have time to see the whole museum, but I saw much of the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan collection, including many heads from Roman sculptures (I joked that we were in the head museum) and a lot of ancient pottery. We had to leave the museum early to pick our stuff up from the hostel and find some food before catching our train (despite being nearly out of Kroners). Luckily we found some cheap food: Burger King (which was pretty much the same as in the U.S.) and Nutella crepes. Apparently Sam and Vishal got to try a type of sandwich that Denmark is known for, but the rest of us never found them. Unfortunately, I didn't really get to enjoy Danish cuisine on my short trip (in addition to Burger King we also had a cheap brunch from 7-11, although I did have a good sandwich for lunch on Saturday); my advice to anyone travelling to Copenhagen is to prepare for the expensive city by bringing more money than you think you need so you can actually experience everything you want to in the city.
Finally, we had to catch our train back to Lübeck. We first got onto a car in which all the seats were reserved, and while I initially took a seat, it was reserved from the second stop and I was promptly kicked out. I resigned to sitting by the doors again with Sam, but when the conductor came by, he told us that there were seats in a car on the other side of the train, and we eventually were all able to sit together (other than Akshay, who took a later train). We enjoyed another ferry ride (I remembered my camera this time, and the weather was really nice, although very windy at the front of the boat), and eventually returned to Lübeck. Vishal came with us to Lübeck so that he could stay with us overnight (Akshay has an extra bed) and explore Lübeck the next morning (he got the day off work). We had some late night döner downtown (just about the only place open late in Lübeck) before returning home for some sleep.
Copenhagen was really beautiful, as you can see in my pictures here. I think I came back with a cold, but hopefully I'll get over it soon (I'm already feeling better). Next weekend I'm planning to take a day trip to Berlin to see some more sights I didn't get to see last time. The following week is the RISE conference in Dresden, on Thursday-Saturday (July 26-28th). After the conference ends Saturday afternoon, it sounds like I'll be taking a train to Prague, and returning to Lübeck Sunday night. I initially wasn't expecting to make it to Prague, but it's not very far from Dresden, so there's no good reason not to go. After Dresden and Prague, I only have a couple weekends left before returning home. By then, most of my friends will already be gone, which I'm not looking forward to. But hopefully I'll meet up with other RISE people during my last two weekends. I'm hoping to make a weekend trip down to München (Munich) before leaving, as I have not had a chance to see southern Germany yet.
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