Denmark!!

DENMARK!!!
Day 1:
First of all, the night before docking was hell. We were to be docking in Korsor. Korsor is a tiny town that does not have a whole lot to offer, so most people’s plans included going to Copenhagen, as was ours. Well, we were supposed to have a hostel since Copenhagen is an hour from Korsor. By the time we booked, they were pretty much all filled. There were 9 of us all together. So we went through many hassles to get somewhere to stay and came up empty handed. I had bought a “Let’s Go: Europe on a Budget” book before I left, so decided to give it one more shot. I found a hostel in the bottom of a hotel just outside the heart of the city. I emailed them and they had a room available for the 9 of us. It would be a private room, which was nice. It cost us 300 Danish Kr or $60 for the 2 nights which was a good price. So, we took it. So in the morning, we ate breakfast and lunch on board the ship. Finally around 12 we got off the boat and headed for the 45 minute walk to the train station with our luggage. It was a long walk. So after a long morning, we finally get to rainy old Denmark around 2. It took us about 45 minutes to find our way to the hostel, but we made it and all was good. I bought a lock to lock up my stuff while in the hostel, because I do not trust them at all. I locked up my stuff and my friends Lindsey, Marie, and I headed out on our own – 9 is a big group to travel with. We just decided to wander around and see whatever we saw since it was rainy outside. We made our way to the round tower that was(/still is?) used as an astronomy observatory. It was a windy path up, but we finally made it. It was a gorgeous view of the whole city. Well worth it! On our way down, we stopped at an art gallery that was being presented on the side. They were serving wine, hummus, and bread, so we got a glass of wine, some bread and some hummus as we looked at the art. It was a nice little stop. (My dad would be pleased to know, I enjoyed the hummus).

After the tower, we headed out for some dinner and along the way found a lot of musicians playing music on the street. It was the week of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival! We found a cute little sandwich shop and got a sandwich to go so we could watch some jazz bands play. We sat down at a little café place, but we had to buy something to drink to sit there, so we shared a mini bottle of wine. It was a very cute evening. We had some fresh gelato and I also got a crepe with Nutella! Yuuuum! After we walked around some more, we met up with some other SASers and headed to an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens. We mainly went for the night laser show, and it was spectacular. It cost $18 just to get in and at least $12 to ride one ride, so we didn’t ride anything, just looked around. It was so pretty there! After, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed! It was a looong day!

Day 2:
It was so hot and uncomfortable in the hostel, so, I did not get a good nights rest. Two of the girls and I woke up at 6:45 so we could eat breakfast at 7 and head out for the day So after breakfast, we got some free bikes from the city and rode all around town. We went to Christiana, which is a hippie community that has a separate government from Copenhagen, but it still is in Copenhagen. They are apparently allowed to smoke pot there, but luckily we went there early in the morning, so everyone who lived there was still sleeping off the night before and we didn’t run into any of the inhabitants. It was actually really pretty there! After Lindsey made us go to Christiana, I made the girls go to see the statue of the Little Mermaid. It was small, but quite cool to see! I took a few pictures with her! We walked around after returning the bikes, got a smoothie and a scone, did some window shopping and then headed to the botanical gardens (which was not as cool as I would have thunk). There were many street performers, it was pretty cool; there was a guy ‘juggling’ crystal balls (look up Moschen), a man pretending to be a statue, a circus performer, and a guy playing crystal glasses like on Miss Congeniality. That was pretty much it, it didn’t really sound like a lot, but we did a lot of people watching and city touring. It was a lot of fun!!

Day 3:
Marie had gone home on the train last night with Marissa because they had a trip today, so today was just Lindsay and I. We had to check out of the hostel by 10, so we woke up at 9, got breakfast, and checked out. We walked around the city for a while, looking for a Jazz Festival shirt for Lindsey and then I got a crepe for lunch. We headed back to the train around 12 and accidentally sat on the quiet car. Ooops! We were not allowed to talk at all. That was okay though because it gave me time to think about all the things we did and just have me time. When we got back to the ship, I did some laundry in the sink, had some alone time, and then met Heather and Emily for dinner. After dinner, we walked to the grocery store to get some snacks for the ship, but they did not accept our credit cards, so we got nothing. On our way back, we saw a little girl, no older than 9, on the sidewalk with 2 puppies on a leash and crying. We asked her what was wrong and if she needed help, but she didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Danish, so she just kind of stood there for a moment before walking away. It was the saddest thing to see a little kid crying and not being able to help. So after that, we just went back to the ship and hung out before hitting the sac.

Day 4:
Emily, Heather, Marissa, and I ate breakfast on the ship before going out on the town in Korsor to explore where we were docked. First, we headed to the library to get some free internet, which was pretty exciting to catch up on pictures and whatnot. Anyway, Korsor is a very small city, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do. We just went around and looked in shops and got some soft ice. We went to a few places before stumbling upon an ALDI’S!! It was really strange! It was set up exactly like ours at home, but I couldn’t get anything because they did not accept my credit card and I was out of Danish Kroner. We had to get back to the ship so that I could work on my paper for biology and also global studies, so we went back, ate dinner, and did homework. Boo!! That was the end to a fun time in Denmark!

It is a pretty cool place to go. I just wish I could have explored a little more, maybe in the future. They get around pretty much everywhere by biking, as its relatively flat. This is why they have the free bikes for anyone to ride. Well its not exactly free, you have to put in 20 cents of DKroner (which is $4) but you get it back when you return the bikes. I really enjoyed that and wish we had stuff like that in America, but I feel like that would never work.

July 12, 2008
So, we left Denmark yesterday, but today we were able to experience a little bit of Germany! Captain Jeremy brought us through The Kiel Canal. We started going through around 8:30 in the morning, so my lovely bio professor - Iain Campell (a Scottish professor from Pitt who doesn’t really like PSU at all) let us out of class early so that we could watch our approach to the canal. It was really quite spectacular to see!

Some facts about the Kiel Canal:
• We saved 286 Nautical Miles by going through it as opposed to going around Denmark to get to Belgium
• We are about the largest ship that is allowed to pass through!
• It took 11 hours total to pass through
• It cost 15000 Euro to go through
• It was dug by hand and during WWI was expanded to let German warships through.
• Nationalized in 1930 by Hitler, not enemy or Jewish ships were allowed through
• Connects the Baltic and North Seas

Tonight, I also got to meet the ‘uncle’ of my sea family. Tom finally came on board in Denmark and will be sailing with us until Italy. He is very nice and so is the rest of my family!!