A Trip Around Western Denmark

Hello! Sorry I haven't blogged in quite some time, this past week has truly been a whirlwind. This past Thursday I left for a three day trip around Western Denmark with one of my classes and am just now recovering from the exhaustion! I'm actually a little sick right now and I think it's just from traveling and touring, but I really can't complain because seeing Western Denmark was incredible. It's beautiful and I'm so glad I got to see other parts of the country I'm living in. During our trip we drove from Copenhagen (which is in Eastern Denmark) all the way to the opposite side of the country and everywhere in between. Denmark itself is pretty small; to drive from one side of it to the other is a mere four hours. Just to please my map-loving father (love you!) and hopefully help some of you see where I went here's a visual...

If you look on this map Copenhagen is on the far right, close to Sweden. On Thursday our class drove from Copenhagen to Esbjerg (on the western coast by where it says North Sea on the map), then to Ribe where we stayed for the night. Ribe is the most precious little town and we had a great time exploring. Unfortunately the town shuts down at 9 PM (not even a joke), so we had a difficult time finding things to do that night. However, our night did consist of climbing through a 12-year-old Dane's window since we were locked out of our hostel. We apparently didn't listen to the owner of the hostel when he explained how to get back into the hostel past 11 PM. Oops. Needless to say we found our own entertainment. Here are a couple pictures from Ribe


  

On Friday morning we woke up bright and early, got back on our bus, and drove to Arhus, which is right above the "k" in the word Denmark on the map. Later that afternoon, we drove from Arhus to Kolding for the night. On Saturday we saw a castle in Kolding called Koldinghus, which was really pretty. And after touring the castle we were given a "surprise", which of course was a pastry and coffee. This is something about Europe that I'm going to miss. America needs to start having more mid-day coffee breaks.

After the castle we went to a modern art museum, which was interesting to say the least. Apparently a bunch of chairs are considered art? I think my non-creative side kicked in because I was bored about three minutes into the tour. Naturally I started taking embarrassing pictures with friends in my class that felt the same way about the "modern art" as I did. By 7 PM we were back to Copenhagen and my roommates and I were exhausted to say the least. Since then, I haven't done anything really special and have not been doing homework because I can. There are elections tomorrow in Copenhagen, so things are a little crazy here. A lot of people have been walking up to me, trying to hand me roses in honor of the candidate they're supporting, and then we have the always awkward moment where I say, "Um, English?" (or in some sort of way that is much more polite). It's always a really interesting couple seconds after that. Do I smile and walk away? Do I speak to them in English? There really is no good way to make this situation less awkward. Other than that, I've managed to have a week with very few awkward Danish/English encounters, which I consider a success. I'll be sure to let you know when more arise, as I'm sure they will. Anyways, I need to wrap up this post because I actually have my first assignment due tomorrow. Weird. I'll update soon! Until then, farvel! (Goodbye in Danish. I'm learning.)