19.1.10 - Scavenger Hunt Around Copenhagen

Today, I had to wake up very early – around 6:30 – so that I could get ready and head to the bus on time. (I think I may try to sleep a few extra minutes tomorrow though). Once again I got into the city without any trouble. Once I got there, I then headed to my classroom for my first “Survival Danish” class – a several hour class just to teach us some basic Danish as well some need to know things for living in and around the city. In that class we did learn a little bit of Danish, including how to say our name, where we are from, what we study, and where we live in Denmark; unfortunately I have forgot most of it already, so it’s a good thing we have a second class tomorrow. Also as part of this class, we went to the grocery store to familiarize ourselves with some of the more common items; this will definitely be helpful once I go to the supermarket with my host family.

After that session of class ended at noon, we had about an hour to get some lunch on our own. Even though my host mom suggested it to me this morning, I did not pack a lunch, so I had to find something in town. Another girl from my class and I found a little sandwich shop around the corner, where we purchased our lunch and then took it back to DIS to eat. (Side note: People kept telling me that the prices were going to be outrageous here, however I have yet to feel really shocked by the prices. For instance, today my sandwich cost about $8, which I do not find to be too expensive for a sandwich in the city – however I am going to start packing my lunch so I don’t get too carried away.) The DIS building was very crowded though with a bunch of people trying to find a seat and eat lunch. It is sort of funny because with the weather being colder and still finding our way around the city, pretty much any time that we don’t have something planned everyone hoards to the main DIS building. I am sure this will also die down once classes start and everyone is on different schedules. (By the way, once I found a place to sit and eat, my sandwich was very good.)

After lunch, we were then given the DIScover Copenhagen Scavenger Hunt. Basically it was two and a half hours of trying to locate different places in the city that are culturally and historically relevant. In total we had 6 places to go on our list, however we only made it to three of them, mainly because my group and I ended up adding some places of our own choice to the list. We first headed out to find the “Magasin,” which is the big department store in the city of Copenhagen. We approached it from the more modern looking side, and at first it was a little of a disappointment because it didn’t seem quite as grand. Then we decided to go inside and take a quick look…it felt odd being there since I am a 20 years old student in the afternoon, and this is a more upscale department store (I would compare it to Harrods in London although maybe not quite as upscale). Once we left the store we then headed off to our next location which was the Amalienborgmuseet – aka the Royal Palace, however on our way we found the other entrance to the Magasin, this one is much prettier and much more reminiscent of Harrods. (I have it pictured here in case you were wondering.)

Continuing on our walk we then approached the street that seems to be in every guidebook and Google search for Copenhagen – the one with all the colored buildings and ships in the middle. While this street wasn’t one of our destinations, we decided that we just had to walk down it and check it out. It was really cute and fun looking; there are a lot of little restaurants and bars (however I am sure they are rather expensive). It seems like it will also be more of a fun place to be once the weather turns warmer because it had a lot of outdoor seating and walking area.

Once we made our way to the end of this street we re-navigated our route to the Royal Palace. It was only a few more blocks to get there. It is a really interesting “palace” because it is very open. You can actually walk right up to the buildings and into the cobblestone center, which is surrounded by the living quarters and offices of the queen, the prince, and several other important buildings. We were additionally surprised to find the guards changing as soon as we approached the area; this wasn’t as big of a ceremony but the guards still marched through the cobblestone courtyard and changed positions. It was interesting to see. At this particular location, there was actually a professor from DIS who told us a little more bit about the history of the royal palace, the family, and Copenhagen’s monarchy as well. It was definitely fun to hear some facts I had not known before, like Danish Kings only have one of two names – Frederick or Christian – or that the area was modeled like Versailles such that there is a layout of God (a church), the monarchy (the palace), and then the people (opening out into open space).

A block down from the Royal Palace was the Marmorkirken, a baroque church that is part of the Royal Palace complex. Again this was not a sight on our scavenger hunt, however since we were so close we all wanted to go inside. It was simple yet still very beautiful. The coolest part about it was the painted interior of the dome, which is a picture of the 12 disciples. We only stayed for a few minutes since there wasn’t too much to see, however it was still very pretty.

We then took a 10-15 minutes walk over to the parliament building, where once again we met up with a DIS professor to tell us more about the history of the building. Probably the neatest thing about it was that the land that it sits on used to be covered by water. It was later filled – for a reason I cannot remember. Also it is the third building to in that place, however it is of the same basic structure because to construct the building they have to level it on hundreds of pillars so that it will be stable upon its base. The professor also pointed out that the area itself was the center of politics and finance for the city, and is surrounded by all the major offices of the government, including defense, environment, education, etc. and by the stock exchange and major banks. (Interesting note about the stock exchange: it was built so that when the water was high enough boats can dock on both sides of the building, and literally trade their “stock” – goods, back before wealth was more than just paper.)

After the parliament building, we began to head back to DIS. (Once again everyone was congregating in this one location.) We had been out walking for about 2.5 hours and were getting cold and tired, so we decided to forget about the other locations on the scavenger hunt.

Then I just relaxed for a little bit and then started to make my way up to a sort of organization fair that DIS was holding in case students wish to become more involved with different clubs and programs while here in Denmark. I grab a few brochures, however there isn’t that wide of a selection beyond sports and religious groups. I think I am going to try to take advantage of a couple of them as well.

After that I simply made my way back to the train station, and began my journey home. I actually noticed a few DIS students on the train with me, which is fun. Also, when I went to wait for my bus, there was a whole group of students that I hadn’t noticed on the train. They said they are staying at a Folkehøjskole – which is like a college with classes but without finals for 19-25 year olds to “become educated for life”. They all seemed really nice I hope that I run into them more often. They said they were actually going out at some point tonight and kindly invited me, however I had not informed my host family and I was/am exhausted, so I declined. However I will probably take them up on their offer in the future. I am now probably just going to hangout with my host family tonight and maybe try to go to bed early, since once again I have an early and long day ahead of me tomorrow.

PS – Sorry that one got to be so long…I mentioned that this is also a journal for me, so I don’t want to leave anything out.