Prague

Wednesday

We arrived a bit later than we were supposed to on Wednesday night. After being dropped off at our hotel (conveniently located between the red light district and the biggest tourist area) we started yet another pub crawl! Our tour guide was a 21 year-old local who took us to his favorite places. The first one was an old brothel where we were treated to a traditional meal of goulash with dumplings.

The next place used to be where the executioner of the city lived a few hundred years ago. The beer was fantastic, some of the best I've ever had.

Our last stop was an underground place pub we tried the last of the 3 main types of Czech beer, what our guide referred to as light (traditional pilsner, which comes from the city of Pilsen in Czech Republic) medium/middle (bitter pilsner, almost a pale ale) and dark (stout, the great one I mentioned earlier) This place had famous cartoons from a local artist all over the walls. Slightly on the vulgar side.

The girls wanted to go home and sleep, lame, so the guys went to explore the city. We walked along the river which had fantastic views of the castle and cathedral and found our way back to the hotel about an hour or so later...After having some fried cheese of course. Probably the best late night food imaginable. A piece of mozzarella deep fried and covered in mayo. After a small taste of the city I was really excited for the next two days.

Thursday

First order of business was to go on a walking tour of the city. I had wanted to wake up early to try and find a nice Czech breakfast, but our pub crawl guide told us those don't exist. He said everyone either eats at home or picks something up at the grocery store. We saw pretty much all of the touristy sites in the city. Starting with Wencelas Square and the Old Quarter, we moved on to the Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge, the castle and the cathedral. Since the Nazis took over early off in the war and there were rumors that Hitler wanted the Castle for himself, nothing was destroyed during WWII. It's really cool seeing a city that has buildings from the 14th century in great condition.

 

We had lunch on our own before visiting the Czech Beer and Malt Association so a bunch of us found a place by the Charles Bridge. I would call it Czech Fusion, the food was amazing. When the bill came he charged us for the marinated duck, instead of the grilled duck which four of us had. The marinated duck was 4 times the price so one of the guys in the group had to argue with the waiter. The school had given us money for lunch and the bill was only about $20 a person but it was the principle of the matter. The waiter wouldn't budge even though he was clearly trying to rip us off so we gave him money for what we actually ordered and walked out.

The CBMA is in charge of all the breweries in the Czech Republic. The CEO gave us a presentation in which he kept reiterating the health benefits of drinking a pint or more a day, saying that all doctors recommend this and it gives you much needed proteins. I guess the Czech people take this to heart because they have the highest beer consumption rate in the world. 160L per year for the average person. That's a pint every day. The world and US average is 80L, less than one beer a day.

He then gave us a tour of Staropramen, the second biggest brewery in the country.

After dinner we went out to a restaurant for crepes and beer. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so none of us wanted to go searching for a bar afterwards.

Friday

We visited the Czech T-Mobile headquarters which has about 80% of the market in the country. Then lunch at the Prague TV Tower, a weird space-ship looking thing that has metal babies crawling over it. Yes, babies.

This was the official end of our study tour so some people left to continue their travels-almost everyone is going to Italy-and the rest of us had 5 hours to kill before our long bus ride home. 2 of my friends were leaving and the girls just wanted to go shopping then sit at the hotel. Melissa and I wanted to do something fun and I had written down some stuff that I researched before. We chose to go to an old monastery that brewed beer. We took the metro and the tram to get there, and that only took 20 minutes! Prague is the same size, if not smaller than Copenhagen. The monks are long gone but the brewery remains in the form of a restaurant. All the beers are seasonal, so we had all four that were available. Great, but not amazing.

The walk back was incredible. The monastery was right by the castle on top of the hill so in 2 hours we saw the entire city from both sides. After doing some souvenir shopping we went back to the executioner's pub for dinner. One of the things we were told to try was pickled sausage. We found it on the menu for $2! It was literally picked, soaked in vinegar with a pickle shoved in the middle. So our evening which consisted of 3 beers each and a meal each came to about $15! Prague is amazing, definitely one of the coolest cities I've ever been to, I can't think of any place remotely similar.

The bus ride back was 14 hours! At least it was at night so I slept about half the time. What a great week!

Berlin

The first part of our week long study tour was to Berlin. I've been there once before and remember loving it so I was really excited to go back now that I can appreciate it a bit more.

Sunday

Our first stop was Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp about an hour outside of the city. It was really easy and definitely not the happiest way to start off the trip but it was still really interesting to see. It's so weird seeing something so tragic and horrible and it all happened just last century.

We made it to the city in the evening and checked into our hotel. We were given free 3 day metro passes and after a boring chicken dinner we were told to find our own way back.  It was a Sunday night so we figured there wouldn't be too much going on. We walked around for a while and then found a bar that was crowded. After ordering our beer we walked outside and a girl asked us, "Are you in the group?" "Yes..." "Here are some plastic cups so you can drink on the way to the next pub" Apparently we had stumbled into a group of tourists doing a pub crawl, pretty convenient! After 2 bars we were done and managed to find our way home.

I forgot what it's like to be in a big city! Berlin has the same population as the whole country of Denmark. Even though our hotel was in the city, it still took 20 minutes by metro to get anywhere. Pretty weird since I'm used to a maximum of 3 stops.

Monday

Woke up early for a bike tour of the city. I had already seen all of the sights but it was still a blast. The weather was decent and the bikes were really fun and comfortable.

For lunch we went to the oldest restaurant in Berlin, so I was really looking forward to  a nice traditional German meal...nope! More chicken. Our academic visit was to Deutsche Bahn, one of the biggest train companies in Europe. The presentation was nothing special but the view from the top of Potsdamer Platz was fantastic.

We had a three hour break, and everyone just wanted to sleep! I walked through the park and made my way to the Siegessäule, the Victory Tower. Turns out it was built to commemorate the defeat of the Danes! Absolutely beautiful view.

That night we went back to where the bike tour started to do yet another pub crawl. It's a great way to have fun and see the local bars.

Tuesday

Went to site of the future BBI Airport that they are hoping will become one of the largest airports in Europe. It sounds cool but right now it's just a bunch of cranes and dirt. Got dropped off at Hackescher Markt for lunch and finally got a chance to eat some traditional German food. Schweinshackse mit sauerkraut!

I don't understand why all the other students just want pizza, hamburgers and spaghetti...you can get that anywhere! That night the Festival of Lights started. Basically they light up all the big buildings around the city. The pictures can speak for themselves!

Wednesday

Took a tour of the 1936 Olympic Stadium. The tour guide was fantastic so it was a lot of fun. Tons of history there and a it's really cool looking building.

Now, off to Prague!

Malmo

So a bunch of us decided to spend a Saturday in Malmo. It's pretty cool being able to take a train 30 minutes to another country. The city was pretty small, and we saw almost all of it in about 4 hours. It's always nice to see something different though.

The Turning Torso is the tallest building in Sweden. I guess its paint is very light-reactive so one minute it was white, the next it was gray.

The parks in the city were huge and beautiful.

Møn: An Absurd Adventure

All DIS students have Wednesdays off because that's when there we have our field studies, short field trips in/around the city. This is the first Wednesday I didn't have one, so I decided to have an adventure. Most kids will just get drunk Tuesday night and sleep most of the day away but I felt like doing something special. My friend Carly and I both wanted to do this so we searched for day trips around Copenhagen. We heard of a place called Møn; home of the White Cliffs, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in Denmark. The cliffs themselves were gorgeous but we had more fun attempting to get there.

Train

We took a train from central Copenhagen to Vordingborg, which the tour book said is 1.5 hours south. After an hour the train came stopped with no announcement. A minute later we looked out the window and realized it was our stop! We jumped up just as the train started to pull away. The conductor was really nice and stamped our cards so we wouldn't have to pay extra to get back to where we wanted to be, luckily the next stop was only 20 minutes further. When we got on the train back the conductor checked our tickets. I showed him the stamp and started to explain what happened when he stopped me and simply said, "I know" and moved on. I guess the train conductors have been gossiping about the stupid American tourists! Finally, we arrived in Vordingborg an hour and a half after we were supposed to get there.

Bus

From Vordingborg we took the bus to Stege, the main town of Møn. It was only a 30 minute ride but cost $9 because of the crazy zone system in Denmark. In Stege we asked the people at the Tourist Information center how to get to the cliffs. They said there is no direct bus but there is a frequent one that goes fairly close. The bus arrived and we hopped on it. Well, the bus decided to change routes after we sat down and the bus driver only told us this after the one we were supposed to take drove away! Another 30 minutes until our bus. By the way, it was pouring with rain this whole time. It finally came and we took it to the other side of the island. I asked the driver when to get off, "Oh! You want to walk through the forest?" "Sure..." We got off and walked about a kilometer in the rain through the woods.

Cliffs

We made it! After 6 hours we finally made it to the cliffs. They were absolutely gorgeous. There were huge white cliffs rising 500 feet with the water being surprisingly blue for such a gray day. The rocks from the cliffs were like chalk, very white and soft. For a nice change of pace the rain decided to stop right when we got to the beach and it held off until we were finished there.

 

 

Bus #2

The woman at tourist information informed there was one direct bus from the cliffs...which came at 4 and then never again. We arrived at the cliffs at 3:30, meaning we had 30 minutes to see what had traveled 6 hours to see. After taking all our pictures and soaking up as much of the landscape as possible, we rushed back to the bus stop. We were waiting at a big sign that said BUS...which apparently is not the bus stop. We realized this at 3:58 when the bus drove by on the road 200ft away. Well, time to walk back through the woods and hope the bus we took there was still running. It was! and we made it back to Stege.

Stege

We were cold, wet and tired and just wanted to relax. We found the local brewery and had a cup of hot chocolate before enjoying a much deserved sample of the local beers. Sitting down and drinking something had never felt so good.

The Way Back

We had learned from our previous blunders and made it back to the train and eventually Copenhagen without a problem. It may have sounded like we ran into too many problems, but isn't that exactly what an adventure is? If I've learned anything from Indiana Jones, things aren't supposed to go smoothly and that's just part of the fun. Even if we had never made it to the cliffs it still would have been a great day. After 4 buses, 3 trains, 280km and 11 hours, we were home.