Kronberg Castle

About 30 minutes north of Copenhagen is a town called Helsingor, which is located on the water at the narrowest point between Denmark and Sweden. We went to see Kronberg Castle, the setting for Hamlet. The original castle is 600 years old but the one standing today was built in 1640.

The foundation of the original castle is still in tact and is used as the basement/storage area called the casemates. It's basically a labyrinth of corridors and small rooms that acts as a barracks during times of war. This is where Holger the Dane lives. He's a legendary soldier who wakes up during times of war to help fight for Denmark. He is yet to awake from his slumber.

My First Night 'Out'

Last night DIS hosted a party for us at Luux, a pretty fancy club in central Copenhagen. It was only for us students and we were given free entry and 2 free drinks. We showed up there around 9:30 and it was pretty cool, everyone was having fun and I saw familiar faces all over.

Got to the bar and learned that our free 'drinks' consisted of either Carlsberg, vodka or rum drinks. And not a pint of Carlsberg but a 10 oz glass, not even a full beer's worth. Whatever, it was free so I shouldn't complain. Well 30 minutes later it was time for another drink so we got in line to wait. and wait. and wait. we stood there or 35 minutes before we could order and surprise surprise, no more beer, no more rum. Only vodka tonic and cranberry juice.

We finished our drinks and went to find a bar where we were supposed to meet a friend. Well, the friend never told us where the bar was and we ended up walking around for about 40 minutes. We eventually stumbled upon it and realized that he wasn't even there and the bar was too full to sit down. Went to another bar; also too full to sit down. It was late and we were tired, time to go home after an uneventful night.

I took my friend home who also lives in Frederiksberg-albeit on the complete opposite side-and waited for the bus. It came...and went as I discovered my metro pass gone. It hasn't left my wallet since I bought it earlier this week and I had it with me when I went to the club. I'm not the sort to be clumsy and drop something from my wallet without realizing it. But for whatever reason I decided to put my wallet in my back pocket that night and the metro pass sticks up about half an inch. I guess someone must have grabbed it as they brushed by me in the crowded club. Not the night out I was hoping for.

Metro pass: $100

Taxi home: $20

New Metro pass: $90

First Friday night in Copenhagen: Priceless

Worst. Jet lag. Ever.

Jet lag flying from North America to Europe is pretty bad. Most people aren't tired when it's their usual bedtime and end up waking up after a few hours of sleep. It's different for everyone but most people end up feeling it at least a little bit.

It's Thursday now, making it my fifth day in Copenhagen. My jet lag was pretty average when I arrived, going to bed at a 'reasonable hour' and waking up later and later. 2am, 5am, 5:30 am. Two more days and I should be perfectly on schedule....right?

Orientation week has been pretty busy and extremely tiring. Waking up early and miles of walking every day is not a good combination. At first I thought it would be pretty easy to deal with. Just force myself to stay awake as late as I can and hope that I'll wake up at a reasonable hour. Seems easy enough. Turns out I'm not that strong-willed.

The first few nights were fine, going to bed around 9 or 10; getting a reasonable amount of sleep. Tuesday however was another strenuous walking day. I walked to DIS, walked all around the Latin Quarter and so I planned on going out for a beer to reward myself. Well, the walking really did me in so I decided to take a nap around 7. Let me rephrase that. I decided to lay in bed with some music on, thinking that the music would wake me up after a little while. Well apparently I woke up and turned the music off, only to return to bed. I woke up at 9pm, just in time for dinner which my roommates were nice enough to make for me. Oh well, 2 hours isn't that bad, I just won't do that again.

Fast forward 24 hours. I did it again. Much worse this time. I told myself I would not lay down in bed to compromise my sleep schedule. Well, 7:30 rolled around and I had once again been walking around all day, woken up early that morning, and just finished eating a big Asian meal. Fine. I'll take a quick nap. Only 30 minutes and I'll be sure to set my alarm. Now it's 2am and I find myself waking up from what was essentially a full night's sleep, on top of my alarm clock. I'm pretty angry at myself right now, because I'm sure it will now be an extra couple of days until my schedule is normal. And to top things off, today is the first day of class which starts in 6 hours.

I'm pretty angry at myself right now but I know I'll look back at this and laugh. This is one of those things you need to learn from experience, and when you tell yourself 'do NOT take a nap' you'll learn not to do it, no matter how many miles you've walked or how much Asian food you have eaten. I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I can only guess crashing in the student lounge during my 3.5 hour break today is the most likely event, followed by another long evening of trying to keep myself awake. On the bright side, I have plenty of extra time to finish all of my homework!

Arriving in Copenhagen

It's 9pm here and I've been awake for about 26 hours. The flight went by quickly, even though I couldn't fall asleep. The plane was delayed two hours but luckily there were about 15 of us (2 of which were guys) on the same flight together. We all found each other as we got to baggage claim and shared big van taxis to the orientation site.

There were students everywhere. Literally hundreds of them, all looking very tired with a lot of luggage. We found our way to the registration desk and a DIS person ran up to me and asked me if I was Andy. Apparently they somehow missed the fact that I was on the delayed plane and were looking for me all over. My roommates were there when I arrived. After introductions I asked them if they have been waiting long. "No, we're really hungover so we only just got here." We took the metro to go back. It's really nice and brand new, a lot like the 4,5,6 in NYC. It's only one stop from their place to the university or a 15 minute walk.

They are very cool people, easygoing and laid back. After showing me the apartment they took me around the area of Copenhagen in which they live, Fredericksberg, and got some pizza for dinner. Why pizza? "We were going to cook you traditional Danish meatballs, but we're too hungover." Apparently pizza is the only food that is reasonably priced in Copenhagen, it costs about the same as in Seattle, so I'm probably going to be eating a lot of it.
As you can tell, I have wireless! On the way over I talked to some people who live in host family houses 1hr+ away and don't have internet there. I'm very lucky to be in this location with these great people. I am extremely tired and I'm going to go to sleep soon; tomorrow morning we have a welcome speech at the Royal Library. I'll add pictures in a few days and keep updating!