A Sensational Weekend in Copenhagen

Cori and I with our glüh wien and punsch

Last week on Wednesday, it was Austrian National Day, which is their holiday similar to the fourth of july because it was the day that the Nazi's and the Soviet's left Austria and Austria gained control over itself again. All of the stores were closed down and we didn't have classes so I met up with Cori and Louise to go to a museum. This was after waiting around all morning for the power to come back on in my dorm, which took about 5 hours. We went to the Kunstforum Bank Austria museum that had a Botero exibit. We then walked through Hero's Square where a big festival was going on with food stands, zip-lining, dance competitions, and a band. It was fun to see and we got waffles and glüh wien and punsch (two typical Austrian winter drinks, glüh wien is hot wine and punsch is a warm juice).

Beautiful Fall Colors in Copenhagen

 Friday, Elizabeth and I woke up at 4 am to catch a 6:35 am flight to Copenhagen. We got in around 8am and met up with Travis who let us leave our bags in his room until we were able to check in to our hostel. Travis took us around to see this beautiful star shaped park near his place, the Parliament, the old Stock Exchange, the Black Diamond, a modern library that is quite famous, Stroget the famous long pedestrian shopping street and other places. We ate lunch at Magazin, a department store that has a cafeteria style restaurant and we had some ice cream too even though it was cold (Travis couldn't believe us). We went on a Canal Tour, leaving from Nyhavn (New Harbour), which was a great way to see a lot of the city. The weather was pretty chilly and foggy in the morning but it cleared up and the sun came out by the time we were on the Canal Tour. For dinner, Travis took us and Elizabeth's friend Howie and his friend from abroad Scott (who were also staying at our Hostel for the weekend) to a place near the university that had delicious food and looked like a library inside. I had a fantastic salmon with some pesto pasta. Then Travis and Elizabeth and I went to an Ice Bar, something I had wanted to do for a long time. It was pretty cool (no pun intended).  The bar, seats, tables, and glasses were all ice and the drinks were really delicious. Elizabeth and I had one that was called Passion for Jewelry that had champagne and vanilla vodka and lime juice and passion puree, it tasted really good. Then we went back to our hostel and got to bed early after getting 2 hours of sleep the night before we wanted to be rested for Saturday.

Me, Travis, and Elizabeth in the Park

Nyhavn

Beautiful Fall on the harbor in Copenhagen. 

On Saturday, we got crepes at a crepe stand for breakfast (banana and nutella, yumm!) we met Travis again and the five of us went to Amalienborg Palace to watch the changing of the guards. It was so foggy that day you could barely see the palaces (which are more like mansions). We also stopped in this beautiful church before making our way to Christiana. When we were getting on the metro to Christiana, I ran into Maya! my DG friend who I met up with in Munich, it was very funny and random. Christiana is an old army base that was abandoned and it was taken over and turned into a hippie commune with all these people living there, with their own restraunts, school, etc. It was very interesting to see it with all the graffiti and the whole atmosphere. After that we went back to our hostel to start getting ready for Sensation White.

Elizabeth and I at Sensation

Sensation White is a huge rave like concert with trance and electronic/house djs who play into the early hours of the morning. Everyone is required to wear all white. It was a lot of fun. The atmosphere is so intense and they had cool props like these globes that would drop down from the ceiling and raise back up as well as a mushroom looking thing that reminded me of the agro crag from Guts on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. There were so many people there (60,00 I believe) and it was awesome to see everyone's take on the white clothes. There were people wearing wings, masks, etc. When we got back to our hostel, I woke up around 5 am with this guy talking away about his night and we ended up talking for a half hour about how he's from Staten Island and what trips we were both taking. Elizabeth managed to sleep through the whole thing,  what a feat.



On Sunday, we had to check out by 10am. We were freaking out a bit because we hadn't heard from Howie and Scott and their stuff was locked away in a locker in our room, but as we walk out of the elevator there they are all in their white from last night. They apparently got back to the hostel around 7 am and slept on a table in the basement to avoid security. We said goodbye to them after they got their things and then we went back to Travis's to drop off our stuff for the day. Elizabeth and I went to Stroget to get some brunch and then met up with Travis again. We went to Rosenborg Castle to see the castle itself and the royal treasury. Then Elizabeth and I walked around, grabbed our bags from Travis, and got dinner on Stroget before heading to the airport and flying home to Vienna.

I loved Copenhagen, the city is beautiful.  But, it is seriously expensive. The cheapest meal is about 16 or 20 USD. Copenhagen was my second choice so I'm glad I'm actually saving a little bit of money in Vienna.

Yesterday, I had my Organizational Behavior Management class from 9am to 6pm. It was pretty rough. We did this cool simulation in the afternoon though where one person was the CEO, there were workers, Consultants and Observers. I was one of the consultants which was great because its a career I'm seriously considering so I'm glad I got to try it out. We had to advise the CEO on how to make his company more profitable with the people he has. It was interesting and definitely better than a lecture. Then we went out for Halloween with a bunch of exchange students. It was a lot of fun but I didn't have a costume. Such a shame because of the amount I have at home. I wore a blue dress though so i could have passed as a crayon with the top broken off.

Today was another holiday, All Saints Day so again no class and everything was closed. Cori and I went to get 25 minute massages. We were going to go to the hot springs too but they were more like pools rather than hot springs so we decided to skip out. My massage was a bit odd, i was not a fan. Europe is really weird but it was an experience that's for sure.

Emily, Elizabeth, Alex, Cori, Jeff, and Me

Tomorrow my parents arrive for the week! They will be here until Monday morning. I can't wait to see them and show them around my beautiful city!