"Awesome" København

Thursday, September 28th, came fast. The week after Bergen was a busy one for me (like all recent weeks), but this was due to more personal reasons- the slowest real estate deal in history...originally I was supposed to close on September 15th)...anyway I had a LOT of running around, signing documents, copying, scanning, mailing, etc - it was just crazy!

But Thursday was here before I knew it and I still had so much left to do! And after our International Business class, Karin and I stumbled onto BI's tenth annual Karrieredagen (Career Day). This was an unbelievable turn out of companies, global as well as local Norwegian companies. The best part was that every booth had some kind of freebie...from hair products at L’Oreal and Proctor & Gamble, to food at Deli de Luca, to kitchen utensils at IKEA. :-)

I couldn't stay long, I had to get home and finish getting ready for Copenhagen. The plan was to meet at 14:30 at the door of BI, and we'd walk to the docks as a group. The GSS/InSA class trip included 125 students, 60 of which were international students...and one of which was an American from Michigan who does not attend BI, but UiO, and had heard about the trip from a friend of a friend of a friend. I walked with Eric to the docks talking about his impressions of Norway; see if they were similar to mine, and they were...it was strange talking to someone with an "American accent"! Soon we boarded the boat, which was TOO simple of a process. I've only been on cruises departing from America, and usually they have metal detectors or at least someone to check ID or something- but for this boat - nothing- just walk right on! So we found our sardine-can sized room, which I shared with Nina, Katja and Marie. And after wandering around the ship, taking a *quiz* and visiting the on-board duty-free shop, we returned to our room to hang out and wait for our buffet seating time. The oddest part of this cruise was that food was extra- what kind of cruise was I on?!?! Americans GO on cruises to eat- and here you had to pay extra? We did, and we went to a buffet...apparently a seafood buffet! Oh my lord- how much seafood can one buffet contain? A LOT apparently - fish of every kind, crawfish, octopus, and various other seafood delicacies...too much for me and I stuck primarily to the salad bar and kids' section of the buffet.

After our buffet, we went back to our room and Peter (or as I was told, Howard), Hannes, Matias, Christoffer, and Renate joined our cabin and we drank and hung out. All the BI students were stuck in a little hall, which was smart thinking on the part of DFDS, I mean 125 drunk college students? Needless to say- it was loud - ALL NIGHT! (There was one family in our corridor and I felt so bad for them!) But soon enough it was morning and we were docked - ready to hit the streets of Copenhagen!

Our first order of business was to find the "Little Mermaid" statue - Hans Christen Andersen the author of children’s fairy tales, most specifically, the Little Mermaid (inspiration for the Disney film) is from Denmark, and Copenhagen has a statue along the harbor commemorating the mermaid. We walked along the water for a few kilometers and found her, indeed, she was a *little*, but she also had legs? After the mermaid, we went searching for our hostel. We dropped off our bags and headed toward Strøget - a pedestrian street of stores, stores and stores! Since the girls wanted to go into the stores, we split up. After walking through a few shops, we headed towards Nyhavn , then towards the Amalienborg Palace and Square. Denmark's Queen Margrethe II and her family live in one of the palace's mansions, while her son (and heir to the Danish throne), Crown Prince Frederik (with his Australian businesswoman wife, Mary Donaldson) recently moved into the mansion across the square. We decided to go on a tour of the palace, and I paid 20 dkr in order to take pictures in the museum. Not much to take pictures of, but since I'd paid to take pictures, I TOOK pictures! Its funny cause all my friends know all about the Royal families (from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and England). Shoot! I know England has a queen, but that's about it!

After the palace, we headed back to Nyhavn to catch a DFDS Canal Tour, which was part of our InSA Copenhagen package. The tour wasn't all that exciting, we saw all the sights we had seen that morning, and the boat was soo crowded to take many pictures. Mostly, it was a challenge to even keep my eyes open!

After the canal tour, we wandered towards Rosenborg Castle, but it was closed so we kept walking. (Side note here- apparently this is something Europeans, or at least Northern Europeans, do...instead of the type Bachelor party that - as an American - I'm familiar to, they groom's friends make him dress up in some silly costume and ask for money from strangers. So when we got to the King's Garden, such an individual approached us. We all got a kick out of it and gave him Norwegien kroners - which are worth more than Danish kroners- and he was very excited and told us that he could buy his new wife something nice. I thought this was hilarious! I guess this is what they do- to raise a little money before the wedding - we also saw a group such as this when we were in Gøteborg, but I didn't really believe Christoffer and Katja - just a little too strange for me!)

Anyway, we walked back through Strøget to our hostel, stopping at virtually every store on the way. After QUICK showers, we were off to our (trip-included) Turkish buffet. I think the 125 students arriving at once was little overwhelming for the restaurant people! I don't believe I've ever had Turkish food before, and while it was alright, its not something I'll go out of my way for. After the restaurant, we went to a (trip-included) nightclub, Rust. We had to get there by 11 o'clock in order to use our free tickets. We had some difficulty catching a cab - and once we did- it was a terrifying few miles to the club! The nightclub wasn't really happening until around 12-1 am - and then it was PACKED. Beer was cheap, but mixed drinks were OUTRAGEOUSLY priced! It was fun and we stayed until like 2:30...the bar was open until 5, but we wanted to be able to sightsee on Saturday.

We had to check out of the youth hostel at 9 am, which was good cause it gave us reason to get up and get going. We split up first thing - Katja went off to go shopping while Nina, Renate, Hannes, Christoffer, Peter, Matias and I headed towards Christiansborg Palace (a complex of government buildings standing on the ruins of Copenhagen's original 12th-century fortress; the Parliament, Supreme Court, prime minister's office, royal reception rooms, royal library, several museums, and the royal stables.) This building is the 6th one to stand in that very spot in 800 years...they kept burning down and they're rebuild in the same spot over and over.

After the Palace, we continued on towards the Vor Frelsers Kirke, in Christianshavn. The cool thing about this church is the golden spiral staircase winding its way up the outside of the spire. It was a tough climb, but the views were absolutely breath-taking (or maybe it was the climb that left us breath-less?). Of course, being an American, I had to say it was awesome. Definitely something to check out (especially on a nice day) if in Copenhagen. Check out my gallery for pictures, it was truly amazing!

Next, we split up again, Hannes, Peter and Matias were running off 2 hours of sleep and had NO desire to go to a brewery (guess they'd gotten their fill of beer at Rust!), so Renate, Marie, Christoffer and I headed to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitors’ Center or Besøgscenter. Since we're students, it was only 25 dkr (or 28 nkr = $4.22 USD). While we didn't have ALL that much interest in the actual brewery, we were VERY interested in getting to the "Beer Sampling" part of the tour. After one pass through the Gift Shop, we headed upstairs for our 2 free beer products, PLUS our additional 2 since I'd accidentally stolen someone's tickets. (Seriously- I was trying to hurry Marie along so I was carrying all her stuff and at one point she stopped and pointed to a set of beer tickets on the floor, I thought she was telling me she'd dropped her tickets, so I picked them up- later I found out she didn't drop her tickets, instead I picked up somebody else's! I felt bad, but nothing that 2 free beers couldn't fix!)

After another trip to the gift shop, we had to HURRY back to the city center - so I could power shop. I had seen a purse the day before that I really liked and I wanted to buy it. We had 7 minutes before we were supposed to be at the train station (to catch a taxi to the docks) and I had about 4 blocks to go - thank God I've been working out and jogging! I managed to get to the store and I bought myself a Friis Company purse :-) (Which I found out later is a Danish company- so I'm glad I got it in Denmark - I have seen it here in Oslo, but for 40 USD more than I bought it for!)

Then it was time for our cruise back to Oslo. Since none of us were overly impressed with the buffet going to Copenhagen, we skipped it. We wandered around the cruise ship, watched the impromptu beer drinking game in our hallway (led by my very own BSN roommate!), and did some duty free shopping (ie we bought cheap alcohol for Oslo). Nina, Marie and I were beat so we went to sleep while Katja and Christoffer went out to Karaoke. Bright and early Sunday morning, we arrived in Oslo, and instead of waiting around for the bus, I walked to the Radhaus to catch a tram but had JUST missed it so I continued on to Nationaltheater to take the t-bahne home.

Yet another action-packed weekend, leaving me utterly exhausted! Luckily I'll be in Oslo this coming weekend (something about a party and a Parliament tour), so I can recuperate, catch up on my homework, and prepare for my week-long vacation in Milan with my friends from home!