Tivoli!

My host sister, Stine, and I visited the 104 year old theme park situated in the middle of downtown København: Tivoli. We were SO lucky, we had a beautiful sunny day, an afternoon where neither of us had class, and free passes to get in! (Stine had a season pass, I had a DIS discount) The rides did cost us 205 kr. but they were definitely worth it! We barely waited in line, and we got to try all the rides.

These are two of my favorite: on the left, "Vertigo" and flying swings on the right. They are 30m and 50m high. You can get some really nice views of the city up there! If you're not terrified the whole time anyway. I definitely was on Vertigo! That ride has an "interactive" option (which we opted out of!) to control the plane on your own, so that it twists and turns and goes backwards.

But besides the rides, the park is actually very pretty. There are lots of fountains, lakes, gardens, birds (including a peacock!) and even a ship you can eat dinner on. There a lot of very nice restaurants, Hard Rock Cafe Copenhagen is there, and cute shops everywhere. We didn't spend any money besides our ride passes...og en is!

Windy Day

First, watch this video. It's great, but make sure you watch the whole thing.

They Energy Academy I mentioned showed us this video, so funny...I had to share. Wind is so important in Samsø (and in Denmark in general), it's easy to see how they get excited about wind power! I wanted to elaborate on the most exciting part of my weekend in Samsø, the wind turbine we visited.

The farmer who owned it turned off the wind turbine for an hour so we could climb up it! We did pay him back for the lost profit (I think it was a couple hundred dollars??). There are ladders on the inside, connecting about 8 platforms so that it's easy to climb up. It was a little scary though, you can feel the whole thing swaying! The whole tower was 50m, and the propellers were 27 meters I think?

I planned it so I went up with the last group of students to the top, just because I wanted to hear what our guide knew about the contruction, costs, etc. It turns out that was a great idea, because our guide knew we were in for a treat if we went last! The farmer turned the power back on while we were on the top, with a warning to not tell his insurance company! He can lower the sides the capsule so you are in the open air and have 360 views. So, all 10 of us crouched down on the top and watched as the propellers started to turn...what a rush! It was a very windy day, so it was a little terrifying, but mostly just amazing!

Sustainble Samsø

Samsø is an adorable, tiny, island in the middle of Denmark. Home to about 4,000 people, it managed to win a government competition to be completely sustainble. It's 10 wind turbines and 11 off-shore wind turbines provide all of the island's electricity and often more, which they sell back to the grid.

I had an amazing weekend exploring the island with DIS, and once again, we were lucky with no rain! We did a lot of biking and walking, and took the train and ferry to get there. I guess we had to stick to the 'sustainable' theme of the trip! We visited the energy academy, there's a great Time Magazine article about Soren, the guy who runs it and who talked to our group. The exciting bits of the trip included visiting a windmill, walking along the coast, visiting an organic brewery, and lots of cute rural towns.

What is Danish Design?

For my Danish Design class, we visited several design-related places on Wednesday. First, with some classmates, I looked at the Danish Museum of Art and Design where we supposed to explore 'My Precious', Margit Brandt's fashion exhibition, and 'Utopia and Reality'. Definitely going back there sometime, it's fun to see all the famous pieces we talked about in class and really be able to appreciate them! Arne Jacobsen's chairs for example are "very Danish" and the new "Nobody Chair" (made entirely of recycled materials).

In the afternoon, the whole classs met up to basically go window shopping together! On the main pedestrian shopping street in København, Strøget, there are three connected shops that we saw : Illums Bolighus, Royal Copenhagen and Georg Jensen. There's no way I can afford anything in the last two shops, but everything is gorgeous to look at! We were lucky enough to watch a Royal Copenhagen artist demonstrate painting the porcelain. Before the pieces are done, 30 people touch each plate, bowl, mug, etc. A 30cm plate in the "Mega" line is about 800kr...about $140 for one plate!!!

Enjoy the picture above! Once again, I couldn't limit myself so I had to do a slideshow. Be sure to read the captions (it's easier once you click out of the ad).

This is how my morning starts!

Short Study Tour: Western Denmark

I finally made it to continental Europe this week! We drove from the island of Zealand (where Copenhagen is) to the Jutland Peninsula, the only part of Denmark that isn't an island. It connects to Germany, but I visited the northwest portion of the peninsula. To get there,
our bus drove over the Great Belt Bridge. The bridge is 1,624 meters longest, making it the world's second longest suspension bridge. As I was ON the bridge, it wasn't easy to get a nice photo. So I'm cheating, and I found this one online.

The study tour was through my core course, Sustainability in Europe. Our class visited several places in Western Denmark to learn about renewable energy plans, energy systems, wind power, and sustainability education in Denmark. Our first stop, one of my favorites, was at Energinet -"the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas" (Wiki definition). It was amazing to see the THREE guys running the entire countires electricity grid, and working with the fluctuating wind power. They gave us a tour of the control room (where I took a photo before being told we couldn't...then I accidently deleted it) and a lecture on wind energy in Denmark. It makes up 20% of their electricity overall, and the government plans to increase that to 50% in about 5 years. In comparison, the U.S. get 1% from wind power. On windy days, wind power can provide 100% of Denmark's electricity! If t

here is excess, they sell to Norway, Germany and Sweden and if there isn't enough, Denmark usually buys hydro-power from Norway.

Our other visits included a

- "folk-center", with the windmill museum seen to the right.

- Aalborg University, where we had a combined lecture with some

sustainble development grad students and joined them for"Friday Bar" and a BBQ.

- Thy National Park, it's right on the coast of the North Sea. Despite being cold and rainy...it was very scenic!

- An "eco-village" trying to be self-sustainable

- An art museum ARoS , in Aahurs, Denmark's second largest city.

Last Weekend in Sweden

This will have to be a quick post, because I am falling behind on my blog already! I just put up the slideshow about my trip to Sweden last weekend, and now I'm finally getting around to writing about it.

This was a "weekend adventure trip" I signed up for through DIS, and they took us canoeing, hiking, orienteering and rappelling in southern Sweden! We were mostly on and around the Kullaberg Peninsula, where there is a natural reserve. It was absolutely beautiful there, and we were lucky to have a sunny and fairly warm weekend. You can see a little more about the area here and also about the Nimis driftwood sculptures, shown in the slideshow.

Quickly, about the sculptures. A Swedish sculptor, Lars Vilks, has been making these towers and mazes for 27 years-and he's still not done. As they were built on a natural reserve, the government sued him in order to have them taken down. Instead, this area of the beach is now the free and independent micronation of Ladonia! There are 13,000 citizens and many were able to become nobility by paying $12 for a title.

Weekend in Sweden: Slideshow!

Becoming Dansk: Jeg cykler til klasse!

The weather in Denmark isn't always cold and rainy, today was really nice! I even wore a tank top on my bike ride home. I just started biking to class this week, and so far I am really enjoying it. I have to leave the house at 7:45 in the morning to make it in time for 8:30 classes, the ride itself is about 30 minutes. I took a few pictures today of my route, it's really pretty!

I think I mentioned this earlier, but A LOT of people use bikes here! My host family owns...5 bikes I think...and just one car. I think my family at home has about the opposite :-). So it's bike-rush-hour in the morning when I go to class, and it can be a bit intimidating! Sometimes at a stop-light there will be a couple dozen bikers all in a row. Copenhagen has bike lanes everywhere, which is really nice. If anybody ever visits the city, be careful that bike lanes look a lot like the sidewalks and you should not walk in them!

The Freetown Christiania

DIS gives all the students Wednesdays off from class, but our professors can use these days to schedule class field trips. My Danish professor took us to Christiania. It is part of Copenhagen, and for a long time was a military base. In the 70s the government deserted the barracks, and squatters (mostly young people, hippies, druggies, etc) moved into the buildings. In 1971 the inhabitants came together and declared themselves a free community, not under Danish rule. Since then, they've expanded to 800+ people and Christiania is regarded as a sort of hippie commune, or social experiment.

The government made an agreement in the 1980s to let the community remain as it was, even though they don't pay taxes. The more recent government wants to get rid of Christiana, you can read more details about that on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania.

One of the big controversies is the town openly sells hash on their famous "Pusher Street". This is illegal in Denmark, and Christiana is no exception. The police periodically do massive raids, but apparently lookouts in the city warn the dealers before they arrive. The police's more recent solution is to search people leaving Christiania, and if you're caught carrying hash, then you receive a massive fine. But, the residents of Christiana have banned all hard drugs, guns and violence.

The houses were fun to look at, as shown above. Everyone in the community is really into recycling and living sustainably. And they have some beautiful views, such as the lake shown, right in the middle of Copenhagen!