5.8.10 – LegoLand

I had to get up early, early in the morning to head into the city this morning. This is mainly because I was meeting up with a group of DIS students at 7:30am in the city to head to LEGOLAND! The worst part was that my bus doesn’t run that early in the mornings so I had to walk to the station to get into town.

Once in town, I grabbed some breakfast at the 7-Eleven, where I met up with several other students also seeking the same morning fix. On the bus, I then got a chance to eat and then proceeded to fall asleep to catch some sleep that I had missed out on the night before. Just so you know, LegoLand is in Western Denmark and about three hours from Copenhagen, so we did have quite the journey just to get out there.

Like the night before, when we got there, we received out ticket to the park and were on our own for the rest of the day. The first stop, MiniLand! This is the area of the park where they have a variety of reconstructions of different monuments or towns all made out of Legos. They had Denmark attractions like Nyhavn and Amalienborg as well as other areas from around Europe like Amsterdam. They also mixed in some American things (like a NASA center and a Hollywood set) and an Asian section (which was rather random). It was really cool regardless just to know that the whole thing was made out of Lego bricks. They also only used the basic colors.

After seeing MiniLand, my friends Xue and Nanette, and I began making our way back to the area with more rides. We ended up going on practically everything we could – a miniature railroad, several small roller coasters (where we got some awesome on ride pictures), and a few other random ones. None of the rides were too overwhelming. The park, I found, is mainly geared to families and younger children, however this didn’t stop us from having fun. We also went to a 4-D show, which was sort of interesting. I don’t understand what make it so different from 3-D though; it looked rather similar.

After the show we headed to one last ride, which was really interesting. The best way to describe it was that it was like a simulator, and you got to individually program your ride before you got on. It was really interesting. By the time we were done with the ride, we didn’t have much time left, so we made our way back to the entrance and stopped at the LegoShop along the way. I was a little disappointed because I was hoping they would have some the buildings for sale, however most of the sets were simply regular Lego series.

We then made our way back out to the bus to start our journey back to Copenhagen. En route, we stopped for a normal DIS dinner – decent food and a lot of it – and then back on the bus. I was rather proud of myself because with the remaining two hours on the bus, I managed to look over my history notes, which I had dragged along with me. It wasn’t serious studying but it was good to at least get a look and overview at all my notes again.

WE arrived back in the city around 9:00pm. Since it wasn’t too late, I decided to give Dad a call to see if I could meet up with them. Coincidentally, they were no farther than about a block from where I got off the bus. I then headed over to meet them and say “hello”. They had yet to eat, so I decided to sit with them during their dinner and simply talk for a little bit. After dinner, we walked along Stroget for a little ways before I headed down to the metro to make my way home. It was a goofy time to spend with them, but it was really nice at the same time, especially since I had missed them the day before.

5.7.10 – Tivoli

Today was considered the legitimate last day of classes! I went in a little early – simply because I had nothing to do at home, read over my Danish paper one more time, then simply waited around a little bit prior to going to class. In Danish, the remainder of the class was giving their individual presentations. Then in honor of our last day, our professor brought us pastries for class. They were so good. I handed my paper in at the end of class, which officially signaled the end of my Danish class!

I then headed to my last leadership class, which was rather uneventful. We simply did some recapping of the semester, in addition to going over our last case study project and briefing a little for the final.

After classes, I had about a couple of hours of free time. In this time, I was planning on trying to find Bob and Dad – they arrived in Copenhagen today. It was sort of odd though because I kept calling and texting Dad, and he never responded. Therefore, I didn’t even know if they had landed. I decided to head over to their hotel just to try to figure out if they were at least in the city. Once I arrived, the front desk informed me that they had checked in. I then tried to call their room – no answer – and proceeded to leave them a note. About 30 minutes later as I was making my way back to DIS, Dad called me. Apparently, his phone was not working and he had spent the past 45 minutes at the hotel computer trying to figure it out. He then told me that the hotel computer was in the lobby, which is why they weren’t in their room. Therefore, I was about 100 meters away from them and simply had no idea. Oh well…

Now the reason I couldn’t go back to see them now that I knew where they were was because I had signed up through DIS to go to TIVOLI! I was so excited. I met up with the group, which included one of my best friends, Gillian, at the front gate. We then all headed inside and from there we were on our own for the evening. The first thing we did was to buy an all ride pass, so we could go on as many rides as we wanted. Our first ride was the tallest carousel in the world. It is a set of swings, which gives you a great view over the city. Following that, we went on several roller coasters and other thrill rides. It was so much fun.

After some time we set out to find some good amusement park food – aka fries and burgers. It was also a nice dinner because the food was warm. (It was a chilly evening, so it was nice to have something hot in my hands.) Following dinner, we went on several more rides – many of them were repeats including the carousel and my favorite roller coaster. We then simply started to walk around the park a little bit and stopped in a few shops in an attempt to warm up a little bit – unfortunately the shops had open doors and therefore weren’t much warmer. Lastly, we congregated in this large open area of the park to watch one of the Friday music concerts. The performer is apparently some well-known Scandinavian pop artist; she was only okay and singing in Danish, so we didn’t stay too much longer. We all ended up leaving the park around 10:30 to head off in different directions. I myself headed home because I had to get up early the next day.

I did really enjoy Tivoli. The best part about it was definitely our timing. We were able to see the park in the daylight and then progressively got to see everything light up, as it got darker. It was very beautiful and charming. One of the most interesting parts about it is that once inside is does sort of feel like you are transported to another place. It definitely doesn’t feel like you are in the middle of the city.

5.6.10 – Carlsberg

Today was the first last day of classes. I managed to get up to go to my last history class. Not that I was thoroughly excited about this, since as I mentioned before I absolutely love my professor. It did make the end to a very knowledge intensive class though. Being the last class, it was also rather simple. We reviewed some of the things we had learned the day before from our field study, then Carsten wrapped up the class with a very condensed overview from where we began in January to the present, and then he ended with this really cute little speech and closing. Ah! I love Carsten. We also unfortunately had to be briefed about our final, but I am not expected it to be too difficult, so that was okay.

I then spent my last five-hour break between classes continuing to work on my papers – reviewing, editing, adding in length, etc. I still didn’t make much progress on my Danish paper (mainly because I was running out of things to say). Then around 2:30 my marketing group met up or one last look at our paper to make sure that it was ready to print out. In total, the whole report ended up being 42 pages! It is probably the largest project that I have ever worked on.

One of my group mates did freak me out a little bit because right after I had printed the whole thing out, she said, “you spelled my name wrong”. I completed flipped for a moment because I checked everyone’s names like 10 times to make sure that I had them right. Luckily she was just kidding ☺. We all then headed to class together to hand in our report, which was really the only thing we were doing. It was such a relief to get it out of our hands.

After our short class our professor, Leif, was going to take us all out for a goodbye beer. Unfortunately, this conflicted with the entire business programs trip to Carlsberg for the evening. I had decided to go to Carlsberg, so that I could see some of my IBE friends again. I also knew that it would probably be a little bit more fun of a time. I know what you must be thinking, and yes, it is very tasking trying to decide where to go for free alcohol when you have so many options – this is something I must admit I will miss about Denmark. Not only drinking with your professors but also having them provide the alcohol for you!

Once we got to Carlsberg, we had a little tour of the old factory. We were at the factory, which is located right outside the center of Copenhagen, however about 18 months ago production was stopped and moved to their facilities in Western Denmark. As part of our tour we got to see the largest unopened bottle of beer collection in the world – it was ridiculous and of course special placement was given to Carlsberg & Tuborg bottles. The crazy thing about it is that is NOT owned by Carlsberg but rather a personal collection, which is on exhibit there (the gentleman’s wife got too tired of having beer bottles all over her home ☺).

We also got to see the brewpub, the cellars where beer containers would have been kept, and lastly had out tasting at the bar. We were each allowed to get two beers. Interestingly, my friends and I were stilling with our professor who was in control of the extra tasting cards and offered us extras. However since we are all lightweights, we declined. We all had a really good time though simply sitting around and enjoying a key piece of Copenhagen culture.

We ended up leaving Carlsberg around 8:00pm. I was going to make my way home, however some of my friends were making a quick stop in town for some food. Since I had yet to eat and need some sustenance in my stomach. We stopped at a Schwarma place to get falafel – a new favorite of mine. It was so good.

After getting food, I then made my way home. Once I got there, I managed to finish my Danish paper, which was due the following day.

5.5.10 – Oresund

For my last Wednesday free, I began with my last field study in the morning. It was for my history class, and we were venturing out to the more “modern” area of Copenhagen. We were over on the island of Amager and went to three different sections: Havenstad, Sluseholmen, and Orestad

Havenstad is an post-industrial area right along the harbor, which used to be dominated by a variety of factories and shipping docks. Due to post-industrialization and industries relocating to outside the city center, the area has been left as available space for development. Over the past decade or so, there has been a lot of new construction occurring in the area. The coolest part about it though is that architects have been able to maintain some of the landscape that dominated the area. For example, a pair of old silos was converted into apartment buildings. The interior remains hollow, however the have built apartments on the exterior. Projects like this were really neat to see and look at in attempt to find the original structure. There are a lot of other completely new buildings in the area, but these few “special” ones make it very unique.

Sluseholmen is entirely of Dutch design. It is a planned settlement with man-made canals and blocks, which make the area more appealing. The individual blocks of apartments are also really interesting. In designing the project, the planners hired over 25 architects to design different facades for the apartment fronts. In this way, the area definitely has a “new” feel, but it is not boring because all the buildings add variety.

Lastly, we went over to Orestad, which is designed to be the new center of Scandinavia – not only for its central location but also the number of people who live in the area. The whole area is broken up into four sections. The two newest ones consist of a variety of apartment buildings, office spaces, the largest shopping mall in Scandinavia, and the metro line running straight through the middle. There is definitely a huge difference from this section of the city and the center. Personally, I think the area works really well conceptually (it feels like you are walking in a model), however it lacks a sense of friendliness and desire to be outside; this gives the whole area a dull and cold feel even though there are a lot of people living there.

I did really appreciate seeing it though mainly because I keep hearing about all the modern architecture in Denmark and really had yet to see any of it. It was also interesting to know how the harbor front has changed for the better over the past years and how people are really trying to make it a more people-friendly and lively place. Even though it isn’t ideal now, I think in the not so distant future things in the area will definitely improve – especially now that planners are aware of some of the problem areas.

The best part about the whole field study though was when we went into the mall. We were led up to the top floor so that we could see a view over the whole area, which was interesting – mainly because you could see the contrast between the “new” area and the older suburb, which neighbors it. Our professor then surprised us with cinnamon pastries! They were absolutely huge and amazing! It definitely rejuvenated the rest of us for the remainder of the field study. For little things like this, in addition to his crazy knowledge about Copenhagen, I really love my history professor, Carsten.

After the field study, I headed back to DIS with a couple of friends in an attempt finish my Danish paper as well as continue to make some adjustments to my marketing paper. I would say that I was somewhat productive – although it could have been better.

After some time spent at DIS, I simply decided to head home to try to continue working on my own. I usually find this a more productive means of my time than getting more easily distracted when I sit with friends – of course I appreciate that at time too.

5.4.10 – Danish Oral Presentation

This week in general was characterized by a lot of Danish projects. The big event in store for today was my individual five minutes presentation where I could only speak Danish. I was able to prepare a PowerPoint in addition to a general outline of what I wanted to say. I could really talk about anything I wanted; I decided to talk a little bit about my travel break including the Czech Trek and my travels with mom.

The most nerve-racking thing about the whole thing was once I was done talking my classmates and teacher could ask me questions in Danish about the things I talked about. This was probably the hardest part because I didn’t know what they were going to ask. I still think I fielded the questions pretty well and in general I was happy with my performance. This was also the “language” aspect of the class for me, and it was a huge relief to have it completed.

After Danish and my leadership class, I then headed home because I had a rather large task in front of me for the evening. As part of my marketing class, we have been working on a single project all semester. It has accumulated to about a 35 pages paper, which needed to be completely read through for clarity and general editing. Another one of my group mates and I volunteered to do this final editing of the project. Therefore, I was determined to attempt to edit the whole thing this evening; then I could send it to Emily so she could read it after me. Fortunately, our writing styles meshed rather well and there wasn’t much need for real editing. It was definitely a process to get completed, but I did somehow manage to get through all 35 pages that evening (although I was up rather late doing so).

5.3.10 – Det var hyggeligt

Today wasn’t too eventful. It consisted of my history class in the morning, followed by my long break in the afternoon, my marketing class (which we simply had time to work on our projects), and then following that I had presentations for my Danish class.

For Danish, we had group projects where different group looked at different parts of typically “Danishness”. We had then planned an evening where we would give our presentations in addition to having a “hygge dinner”. We started the evening with two groups presenting (including mine). I think we ended up doing well, although one of my group members talked for only about a minute, which meant needing serious time fill (the presentation was supposed to be 15 minutes long). Overall, the presentation wasn’t really that big of a deal, and it was definitely a relaxed atmosphere.

We then stopped halfway through presentations to have our “hygge dinner”. Interestingly, the term “hygge” is very Danish in itself. There is actually no translation for it into English. It is more of a feeling that one gets in a certain situation – sort of like a state of being relaxed, calm, and simply enjoying the time in the present. We simply had smorrebrod (open-faced sandwiches), a typically Danish meal, and were able to talk as a class. It was a little goofy, but I did have a good time. I also know that many of my friends who are not with host families (and therefore have to cook for themselves) really appreciate free food. After dinner, we went back to presenting. Det var hyggeligt. FYI: I think that is the one phrase in Danish that I am going to adopt regularly.

4.29.10-5.1.10 – Bornholm Biking

Thursday night, I got into the city with more than enough time to meet up with DIS to head off one our bike trip. There were about 90 students and chaperones on the trip. We left Copenhagen around 10:00pm to drive about 45 minutes to another town (Koge) south of Copenhagen, so we could catch the overnight ferry to Bornholm. We had two options on the ferry, either to stay in the seating section (where you attempted to sleep in an airplane like chair or on the floor for the evening) OR you could pay extra to get a cabin in the upper deck. I decided to just stay in the seating section. I had to bring sheets and a pillow for the overnight in the hostel anyways. About 2 hours into the ferry ride, I finally got tired enough to sleep. I went straight to the floor and managed to sleep decently for about 3-4 hours. It wasn’t too bad, but the hardest part was getting up in the morning and being ready to bike all day.

Once we got to Bornholm we disembarked and got a couple of buses that took us to the other side of the island where our hostel was located. (In total, the island is about 40km north to south and 30 km east to west.) When we got to the hostel, we were told where our rooms were, had a little bit of time to get settled, had breakfast, got our bikes, and were on our own for the remainder of the day.

I ended up with my friends Gillian and a girl, Jen, who I had met the night before on the bus. We decided that we would try to tackle the ‘Killer Tour’ as it was called in our booklet. (We get these info booklets with practical information for every trip you go on with DIS. In this one they had outlined three suggested bike routes for us.) Now the reason we decided to go on the hardest tour they outlined was because it would take us to the southern most beach on the island, which is known for its ridiculously white sand. It is actually from this beach that people will export sand to be used in hourglasses.

So we began this intensive tour. We actually began with a bunch of other people around us, but then we all eventually spaced out within the first 5-10 kilometers. It was also within those first 5-10 kilometers that I began to worry about biking all day long, luckily once we got into a good rhythm my leg muscles began to function a little bit more properly.

The first town we stopped at is called Svaneke. It was still late morning by the time we got there (and it was a holiday), so things we still pretty quite although there were a few shops and restaurants being to open. Originally, we were thinking of eating here, but it was a little too early. Instead, we simply took a short break down by the harbor, which is lined with small mustard-yellow houses. It was rather quaint.


We then tried to find our way back to the bike path (they tended to sort of disappear once we got into any town). On our roundabout way to finding it though, we passed a few random sights including: a dead tree filled with birdhouses, a lighthouse, and this rather interesting rocky area that extended out into the water.

Once back on the path, we began to make our 9 kilometers ride to Nexo (Bornholm’s second largest town). Unfortunately, we began to realize that some back weather was going to fall. The clouds were getting darker and there wasn’t really way around it. Just as we were approaching the outskirts of the town, the skies opened up and it began raining rather hard for a good 15-20 minutes. At this point, we were out in the farmlands (which actually make up a good amount of the island), so the only thing we could really do was to keep going. Once we got onto the main road again, which appeared to being heading into the center of the town, we spotted a smoke house. Since it was still raining, we decided to take our lunch break now.

Bornholm is known for its smoked herring, and the three of us had decided that is what we should have for lunch. After translating the menu, most of which we were able to do by ourselves, however one of the guys there did help explain it to us a little more, we all ordered the traditional dish of smoked herring. It was rather simple, just a fish a couple pieces of bread and some vegetables. I was a little neverous because I didn’t really know what to expect, but surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. Herring is actually rather bland, so the only thing that it really tasted like was the smokiness. The hardest part about it was definitely pulling the meat off the bone and getting out as many of the little tiny bones that I could. It got easier as I kept eating. Interesting, we all actually enjoyed it, and it ended up being a really nice lunch.

After lunch, our goal was to get to the beach. We had about 10 more kilometers to go until we got there. Most of it was rather pleasant, however just when we were getting about three kilometers away, the bike path turned to parallel the roadway, which had these incredible winds on it. It got to the point where riding the bikes wasn’t really helpful (mind you the wind was not in our favor). We got off our bikes and began walking into this crazy wind, which wasn’t really that much easier. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anything we could do. Eventually, we made it to our turn off to get to the beach and then the wind definitely calmed down.

There was quite the walk down to the beach itself, however it was pretty flat and we were able to bike most of the way. The long trek down there was definitely worth it though. The beach itself was practically white, which in turn made the water appear like a crystal blue. It was absolutely beautiful. The only downside was that the beach was also VERY windy. At one point, we asked a gentleman to take our picture and he had serious trouble keeping the camera still. Once we got our fill we headed back down the path and out of the wind.

Now originally, we had planned to take a bus back from the beach area back to our town, so we wouldn’t have to bike all the way back (which would have been another 30 kilometers). Unfortunately, after looking at the bus schedule and consulting with someone working at the snack stand that was open, they informed us that the bus doesn’t run all the way down there at this time of year (only in the summertime). This meant that we had to get back on our bikes and try to get to the nearest larger town (sadly this was 16 kilometers away). We figured we could then get a bus from there to get back to the hostel. It was a rather tedious ride, mainly because we were all starting to get pretty tired.

We did eventually make our way to the town, however our plan still didn’t function as we imagined. We were able to find the bus station, yet hardly any buses were running (because it was a holiday) and there wasn’t anyone who was particularly knowledgeable about it either who could help us. We then tried to call a cab, however the cost of that was going to be astronomical because we not only had us but also our three bikes. We actually also had someone offer to drive us there (for a fee), but they couldn’t take our bikes so that didn’t really work out either. Therefore, we decided we had better just try to bike a farther and just hope that we make it back.

We could see from our map that there was a bike route back to our town, however we couldn’t figure out where to pick it up from the town we were in. We eventually figured our which way was north (where we wanted to go) and started biking in that direction. This turned out to be more difficult than imagined. After a few turns, we found ourselves on a gravel tractor road with only a basic idea of where we were. Once admitting that we were lost and way too tired to try to get ourselves home, we called the hostel (who we had been in touch with either, although they simply told us to take the bus or a taxi, which didn’t work as effectively as envisioned). We practically had to convince them that we were truly lost, and once we did, they sent some one out to come find us. About 30 minutes later (and a little more biking on our part), we were rescued. The odd thing though was the gentlemen simply locked our bikes to the tree in the forest and told us not to worry about them. If they only would have told us earlier that we could have left the bikes somewhere, this ordeal wouldn’t have been so cumbersome.

Finally, we got back to the hostel around 7:45, managed to have some dinner (which they nicely had put aside for us), showered (sort of – it was really, really cold water), hung out with everyone else for a little bit, and then we all crashed around 10:00pm. It was a rather long first day, and we needed to somehow get rested up for another full day of biking.

The second day of biking went much better than the first. To begin with we picked a path that seemed a little more feasible. It was heading north this time, and our goal was to see these ruins that date back to the 13th century. We began slowly (mainly because we were sore from the day before), but we eventually picked up pace once our muscles readjusted. We also had decided to try to make some short stops along the way, so as not to get too tired too early on in the day.

First, we stopped at the Bornholm Art Museum. We didn’t go inside, however behind the building there are these really beautiful cliffs that look out over the water. There is also a cave in that area, however we decided against going all the way down there.



Next, we were going to try to stop at a waterfall, what is supposed to be Denmark’s highest waterfall. However, it became a lot harder to find than we imagined. Additionally, there was a group of guys who were also trying to find it – they kept going back into these random trail and would then catch up with us again along the main road. Overall, it ended up seeming to be too much of a hassle to find it (and we had clearly must have past it), so we just kept going to the ruins.

Another sight that we made it too along the way was one of many round-churches. However, the one we made it to, we were told was the “highest round fortified church”. We initially thought it was simply worded wrong and they must have meant the tallest, however once we realized that it would take three kilometers going up hill to get there, we figured they really did mean the “highest”. After a good amount of time and a lot of walking uphill (cause we simply couldn’t bike the whole way), we eventually made it to the church. It was rather plain and simple but still nice. Sadly, it was locked so we weren’t able to go inside, however my guess it that it would be pretty plain inside as well.

We then knew from this point that most of the remainder of our ride to the ruins should be rather easy (basically because we couldn’t go much higher, so most of it had to be downhill, which it was). The bike path to get there was more enjoyable too. It was mostly through the woods and farmland. It was rather interesting because I didn’t expect to see such variety in nature on one small island, however it had its forested areas, open farmland, random rocky areas, and waterfronts.

Once we made it to the ruins it was about 1:00 and we decided to stop for lunch at the cafeteria prior to checking out the ruins. We were definitely in need of a recuperating break. We had biked about 25 kilometers by this point. Lunch was really good; huge sandwiches and good French-fries. While we were eating one of our chaperones, who was biking with the group of guys earlier, met up with us. He told us that after much searching they did find the waterfall, however it wasn’t really that spectacular. I guess it was a good thing we decided to keep going.

After lunch, we headed up to the ruins and walking around and in them a little bit. I didn’t stop to read much about them, but they were really cool. They also sat practically at the waters edge. You could get up on pieces of the ruins at some points and look directly out into the Baltic Sea. We took our time, but we also made sure to not get too carried away – we wanted to make sure that we were giving ourselves plenty of time to make it back.

Initially, we were once again going to try to make it to a nearby town where we could catch a bus, however by the time we got there, we still felt pretty energized and decided to keep going. We did stick to the bike trail though, which followed the bus route just in case. Luckily, the ride back seemed much more feasible than the ride out in the morning. Therefore, we proudly made it back on our own, by biking, with time to spare before we had to return our bikes.

With the remainder of the time before dinner, we visited the little ice cream shop in the town. We figured we deserved the treat after biking so much over the past couple of days. In all we think it was about 90-95 kilometers (that’s over 50 miles!).



For the rest of the evening, we cleaned up our rooms, ate dinner at the hostel, then simply hung out until 10:00pm, when the buses came to pick us up to take us to the ferry dock for the night ferry back to Copenhagen. I was so exhausted; I began to doze off on the 30 minutes bus ride, and then was completely out once my head hit my pillow on the boat. We then arrived in the Koge around 6:00am and finally got into Copenhagen at 7:00am. I still had to make my way home though. The train was running, which was fortunate, however I did have to walk from the train station to my house because the buses don’t run quite that early on a Sunday morning in Denmark. All and all, I eventually made it home around 8:30am in the morning. While I am still rather exhausted my plan is to make it through a semi-productive day, followed by a rather early bedtime. If I get those two objectives accomplished, I think I should be ready for my last week of classes for the semester!