So, after 1.5 years in Denmark I finally got to go to LegoLand!!! A whole bunch of Interns have been looking forward to this trip for awhile which was organised by the AIESEC people. We woke up early Saturday morning to take the train at 7, where Cagri Han (Turkish) and Rob (Canadian) started downing some beers for breakfast. We arrived in Vejle where we had our own bus take us to LegoLand. And there was sooo many people waiting to buy tickets and get in but luckily we had a group booking. So once inside we made smaller groups and started going to place to place to see the miniatures made of lego, go on the lego train, jump onto a few rides etc. It was such a fun filled day. Danes kept telling me before I went that LegoLand was just for kids, but I think for all of us, we went back to being a kid for a day and had a hilarious time

 

After being out under the sun and walking around LegoLand, most of us slept on the bus and train to Århus where we were to stay the night. We had a nice dinner prepared by the wonderful AIESECers of Århus before we went into town for some drinks and dancing. The next day was some quick sightseeing for Vinny and Marjan as they have not been to Århus before. So Anne, the girl we were staying with, showed us around before we all caught the train back to Copenhagen.

 

That was a pretty quick update but I can't think of much else to say apart from the fact that I had sooo much fun!! I've uploaded some of my pictures but you should cruise around Facebook as there are a lot more photos there!

Over Easter, two of my good friends and I went to Roskilde for a couple of hours. Roskilde is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is famous for its music festival held in summer.  It's west of Copenhagen and takes about 20min by train.  So Sebastian, Kreta and I wanted to see the place, but the main draw card for us was the Viking Ship Musuem.  Anyways... we met up at the central station and talked about our childhood pets, swimming pools and other random stuff on the way there.

 

Once we arrived, our first stop was to find the Roskilde Cathedral. It was the only cathedral in Zealand until the 20th century and was built in the 12th and 13th centuries, it was the first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick and its construction encouraged the spread of this style throughout northern Europe. The cathedral is the burial site for Danish kings and queens and since 1995 the cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But we didn't go in... heheh why? we found out that you had to pay to get in and as Seb said "I've seen 100+ churches".

 

So we then headed for the Viking Ship Museum by taking a stoll through a really nice park.. see the pictures. The permanent exhibition of the museum shows 5 Vikingships from the 11th century. The ships were excavated and preserved during the period 1962-1969. The exhibition also tells about the Viking period, shipbuilding, underwater archaeology etc. One part was where you could dress up as a Viking which Seb really loved, unfortunately I looked like his maid since he had the more "manly" stuff.  Anyways, there was also a Cinema showing a film about the Viking times and the excavation of the ships, we didn't want to wait for the English version so we just watched the pictures in the Danish version hehehe

 

We grabbed a quick bite to eat, then caught the bus back to the station to head home.  It was quite a nice day exploring a little town of Denmark.

 

Being part of AIESEC Denmark's NST (National Support Team), I get to do trainings at the local offices.  So I was called up to do a recruitment training in Aalborg.  Since its the last big city of Denmark that I have yet to visit, I went there a bit earlier and spent a couple of hours walking around.  Aalborg, the fourth-largest city in Denmark - after Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense - has an urban population of 122,794. The earliest settlements date back to around 700 AD but its location by the Limfjord made it an important harbour during the Middle Ages and an industrial centre later. Today the city is in a transition from a working-class, industrial city to a knowledge-based one. One of the driving forces in the transition is the University of Aalborg, founded in 1974.

 

So I walked around for a bit and took some photos.. not much to say apart from its a nice town, I probably should come back when its sunny but it was a really nice break from my hectic life.

At the end of their terms, the AIESEC Denmark MC (national team) have a transition party to celebrate the end of their year and also the start of the new team's year.  This year, it was held with AIESEC UNIC (Uni of Copenhagen) ILA.

 

So we started on Friday night with some drinks and a street musician before heading to a Turkish restaurant with a Danish/Blonde belly dancer.  After a great meal we started the pub crawl!!!  Something I've missed since last time I went to an AIESEC Australia conference.  The dinner was right next to Waterloo, a strip club, and all the guys were hoping we would start.. and probably end there  but alas it wasn't to be   But it was cool to walk the streets with 30 odd tipsy people, brought back many memories!!

 

Saturday morning, we all met to take the train to the Danish Open Air Museum which is a collection of buidlings and farms from different periods of Denmark's history.  So you can see what it was like back in the days.  Included in this was not only a great lunch, but Folk Dancing! hehehehhe it sounds crappy but trust me we all had a blast and what a work out!!  Everyone didn't need to go to the gym this week!

 

After a some naptime, we headed to Islands Brygge where on the top of a crappy old building, an event management company has converted it to a summer disco.  On the rooftop, we had a BBQ overlooking København and then headed inside to hit the dance floor.  In the case of Juan Jo, he competed against some gay guy over who could dance on the pole better LOL

 

Sunday morning we had a guided literature-walk through the city. Where the guide pointed out interesting little facts about København that i had no idea about but passedby everytime.  She highlighted some of the sights related to famous Danish writers.  After that, we joined the Wicked Weekend people (that was the only time we did something seperate) in Kongens Have (Kings Park) for some Jazz.  The Copenhage Jazz Festival is quite a big thing here and I will go see Jamie Cullum at Tivoli on Friday night.  If you've never heard him before, go to www.pandora.com to find out what he sounds like

 

Then a couple of people came over to my place to watch the World Cup Final.  Was quite a good game in the first half.  Cheers to Zidane, but what a bad way to end your career.  Was rooting for Italy but felt that France were the better team.  I am living with the new Italian intern for a month, he has already asked to be called "World Champion" instead of Andrea *sigh*

 

I didn't take any photos, but you can find some on MaLou's space:

http://maloueskling.spaces.msn.com/

Burn the witch!!!  On Friday, it was Skt. Hans day, Midsummer’s day.  Celebrating the longest day of the year, communities light bonfires and place a small witch doll on top.  So if you don’t like your girlfriend, label her a witch and you can get a hassle free separation.

 

So Friday, Sebastian and I went to Lina’s dorm to have a BBQ.  From there, we joined the other AIESECers in Fælledparken where they had their grill.  After a drink at a cafe in trendy Nørrebro went home to pack and get ready for the ILA in Odense.  Yup, a big weekend planned!

 

After taking an early train with most of the Interns in København we arrived in Odense.  Most of us took a bus to Egeskov, 30min away, which is where we met everyone else.  Since most of the KBH interns missed the first night to go to the grill in Fælledparken.

 

Roll Call:

 

København:

Juan David (Colombia), Juan Jose (Mexico), SeeWei (Malaysia), Rafael (Brazil), Laurence (Belgium) and ….  all the way from the West-side of India, mixing it up on the decks, get him India (into ya)….. MC TUUUUUUUUUSHAR!!!!

 

Daniela (German, Odense)

Sorina (Romanian, Aalborg)

 

As you can see, there were three new Interns.  So it was great to get to know them better and for them to see beautiful Denmark.  So we arrived at Egeskov Slot (Castle) which is basically a place where the Count shows off all his rich toys but charges us to see them!!!  Hehehehe but it was a really nice place.  The castle is quite nice and the gardens are really really beautiful.  We had a lot of fun in the store with the Knights, Kings and Queen toys/clothes (see pictures), as well as in the Maze and Kids playground.  I think we reconnected with our inner child going on most of the rides in the playground!

 

After that, we went to a place called Assens (60min from Odense) on the west coast of Funen.  That’s where we pitched out tents in the garden of one of the members from AIESEC SDU.  Had a really nice and yummy BBQ outdoors.  We went for a walk to the beach and afterwards ended the evening listening to some piano and guitar by SeeWei, Morten and Henrick.

 

Sunday, packed all our things after breakfast then took the bus to Odense where we went on a boat ride down the river to a nice garden where we had our lunch.  Then we had ice-creams!!! Mmmmm I had smarties and Lion (chocolate bar flavoured). Was really good.  Then took the boat back and started a city tour to see some of the H.C. Andersen sights.  As he was born in Odense.

 

Then it was naptime on the train back to København.  A great end to a really nice, relaxing and fun weekend!!!!!  But check out the pictures, a lot of funny ones!

Hello readers!

 

Last weekend was the ILA held in København.  The great thing about the ILA was that it wasn't in Aarhus (since we were there for the last two times) and because it was in my "home town"!!  heheh So didn't have to worry about packing and getting lost!

 

Roll call....

København: myself, Seb, Raf, Michael and MC Tushar!!

Odense: Daniela and Mario

Århus: Tetyana

Aalborg: Sorina

 

So a few of the old faces as well as some new.  Tushar is from India and arrived a month or so ago.  Tetyana is from Ukraine and had only arrived a week earlier!  So a great chance for her to meet up with all of us.  The four non-København people were staying at place.  So after dropping off our bags we headed to Ankara for a Turkish Buffet dinner.  Which was fantastic and great to eat out.

 

After dinner, most of us headed to Nyhavn to where Lina works (Skipper Kroen?).  Seb, Rar, Rasa and myself have been going to this place a few times now because though the drinks are expensive, there are two guys from Bulgaria there singing and playing guitars.  So they were playing famous songs and we all had a great time singing along and having a few drinks.  Mario even go up to sing!!  Which comes to another point, Mario is leaving us soon .  Heading back to Guatemala after a brief visit to Germany. Vi ses Mario!!

 

Saturday, had breakfast and then Treasure Hunt!  Those that have participated in my Brother Huy's events before will know what i am talking about.  But simply we were split into two teams and given a clue.  The answer to the clue told us where we had to go next where we would receive the next clue and so on until we reached the end.  So it was a chance for us to see the sights in a fun and interesting way.  Then we went on a Canal Boat tour.. wasn't as interesting as my previous canal boat tour (read one of the previous posts to find out why).  Saturday afternoon was nap time where every availble space at my place was taken up with tired Interns.  Then we went to the dinner and party.  After the party, we went to a club to dance a bit and admire the talent

 

Sunday morning, Mejken from the MC led a discussion on Diversity management after breakfast.  So we talked about how companies could make better use of their interns and diverse workforce.  After that we got our palms read by Tushar!  Was quite interesting because he was sometimes quite blunt... "You have a stong health line.  So you will have a good life but there are complications towards the end.  You will die a miserable death" or "Looking at your education line... have you finished your bachelors? Yes? Well that's it, you won't go any further"  So it was a lot of fun and quite interesting.  I will try to learn from Tushar because its quite good to attract the ladies

 

 

So thanks to Therese, Peer, Lina, Wicki, David, Malou and everyone else that helped organise the great weekend!!

Go to my friend Mario's blog to read up about Danish Culture

 

[You can also go to this website http://www.xmel.com/denmark_directory.html]

 

Sent by fellow Intern Michael/TinTin/MJ

 

Hej all!!

 

You can find some more great photos of the first night and going clubbing at these places:

Mario: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/reichertfuentes/album?.dir=/5197&.src=ph

Bram: http://spaces.msn.com/brampauwels123/

Rafael: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_melkor/

 

Cheers,

 

Vivi

Hey all!!!

 

The Interns went on another ILA (Intern Learning Activity, formally Trainee Learning Activity) over the past weekend.  Even though it was in the same city Aarhus (Århus), we all still had heaps of fun.  So a huge thanks must go out to the AIESEC girls and two guys from Aarhus School of Business (ASB)!!!

 

Pretty much all of the interns went except for a few. So we were:

 

From Aalborg:

Bram (Belgium)

Sorina (Romania)

 

From Odense:

Mario (Guatemala)

Daniela (Germany)

 

From Copenhagen:

Sebastian (Germany)

Rafael (Brazil) + Girlfriend Vera (Russia, studying in Germany)

Michael (Belgium)

me

 

We also had some non-interns like Anna's friend Agnieszka plus the AIESECers Mette, Christine, Alice and Anna and a few others.

 

Friday night all of us arrived except for Sorina who came on Sat morning.  After dumping our bags in the van we went to an all you can eat buffet which was great because we got to eat more 'expensive' food then the usual student food of pasta and rice .  Then we went to a really really cool Jazz club/bar where Sebastian got to practice his Danish with a random guy and some 'talented' individuals.

 

Saturday morning we joined another student club for a traditional Danish breakfast.  You can see the picture but there was some slices of ham, cheese, strawberry jam, soft boiled egg with some bread and Danish brown bread with some coffee.  Then while waiting for the bus to Randers, we took a walk through Aarhus University.  It was "nap time" on the bus to Randers where there was the Artificial rain-forest/tropical Zoo.

 

 

But despite our doubts that such a thing could exist in the cold weather of Denmark, we arrived in Randers and had a lot of fun looking at the different rain-forests of the world. Some of the animals freaked us out but it was good to see animals from places that I haven't been to... like South America.

 

 

Nap time again at Anna's while we were supposed to get ready for the dinner.... but we're guys (mostly guys staying at Anna's) so just wore what we were wearing all day while Anna got ready.

 

 

The Dinner was great.  Had a lot of fun playing Foosball with country teams playing against each other... like Germany vs Belgium... or Germany vs Austramala

 

One of the great things were that drinks were cheap (a rarity in Denmark) and Daniela brought this sugary powder you can mix with Vodka.  So you pour the sugar powder (Aussies: think wizz fizz) onto your toungue, then take a shot of vodka in your mouth, shake your head around and drink it.  It was soooo good.

 

 

After dinner we first went to the Chocolate Factory and then on to Social Club.  Social Club was better because the music was easier to dance to and we all had fun.  Michael got really really drunk but was wearing his "magic" jacket that attracts all the girls   Mario got a random kiss from some girl... so it was a really good night !!!  After the club, Sebastian got to practice his Danish again on one of the McDonald's girls.

 

Sunday morning after a late brunch we had an external speaker from Australia facilitating a session on Culture Shock.

 

 

Then we all hopped onto our trains for some more "nap time".

 

 

So thanks to AIESEC ASB!!!!  We all had an awesomeish time.

I travelled to Holbæk for my traditional and culturual Danish Christmas experience!

 

Peter's mum invited me to their family dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had a light lunch of bread with different choice of toppings like herring, herring in curry sauce etc.  I went to church (yes mum i went to church!!) in an old Danish church complete with one of those fancy pulpits.  Apparanlty all churches in Denmark face east.  The tower is always on the western side and the alter faces east.  Or something like that.

 

For dinner we had an entree of Salmon on toasted bread with a cream sauce.  For main course we had two roasted ducks, ham with crispy skin, red cabbage, potatoes, bread and some other stuff that I can't seem to remember.  There were 10 people at the dinner.  Which is quite a small number compared to what I'm used to since i'm one of 23-25 cousins on both sides of the family!

 

Because we were sooo full we held off dessert till after dancing around the tree and opening presents.  Thats right!! In Danish culture, we held hands and danced/walked around the tree singing Christmas carols.  It was quite funny since not all of us can sing and I can't sing in Danish!  There are pictures of this which will be posted up!  The Christmas Tree!!! wow it was a real tree decorated with really nice ornaments and .. real candles!!  So they don't use plastic trees and there is a chance of burning the tree, but it looked great!! Not sure how they turned out on the camera.

 

Under the tree were a huge number of presents where we went two at a time giving presents.  So someone would pick a present and give it to ther person who's name is on it.  That person would open the present, thank the person that gave it and then randomly pick another present to give to someone else.  And so it goes.  It was pretty similar to what i'm used to except one of my uncles dresses up as santa and distributes the presents.  And in my family, you can't open the presents till eveyone has gotten theirs.  So its a huge unwrapping at the same time, quite exciting!!  So i both gave presents to the family members that I had met previously and got some in return

 

Then it time for another tradition... well more of a game.  Not sure if I mentioned this in my Christmas Lunch in Århus but in this game there is a pile of random presents.  You roll the dice and if you get 6, you pick one.  The dice keeps going around the cirlce until all presents have been chosen.  So some people can end up with 3 or 1 or 0 presents.  Then the games begin.  Under an unknown time limit, you roll the dice again and if you get 6... you steal a present from someone else!!!  So everyone rushes through rolling the dice to try to steal the bigger presents before the time is up.  Then when the timer goes off, you open your present (I ended up with one) to find ..... door stoppers!!! Not just one.. but THREE DOOR STOPPERS!!! hahahahaha Which is quite freaky since I have exactly three doors in my room.  One to the hallway, one to the lounge room and one directly to Christine's (roommate) room .

 

So that game is something I will definately try to bring back!  Then we did the whole almond hidden in the rice pudding thing which I have talked about before.

 

Christmas day we woke up to a full english brunch.  Then went for a walk to the "Mountain of Holbæk" which is around 150m high.  The tallest point in Denmark is around 176m... so as you can tell Denmark is quite flat!  It was great since I got to see some country side and the view was quite spectacular, despite its low height! hehehehe.

 

I spent the rest of the weekend infront of the TV watching WPT  and movies.  So it was great to relax and just chillout before heading back to work on Tuesday.  So that was Christmas in Holbæk... thanks heaps to Peter and his family for adopting me termporairly and make sure that I wasn't alone on Christmas.. but more than that, thanks for letting me experience a Danish Christmas!!

ello ello ello!!!

 

I haven't written in ages so I decided that its about time I should.  I've been flat out at work with three Prize Ceremonies this week.  Tuesday was Southern Denmark region in Odense, Wednesday night was Mid/Northern Jutland region in Århus and Thursday is Greater Copenhagen region in Copenhagen.

 

The best things about each was that I got lunch and dinner taken care of!!  That and its cool to give out to the winning teams for Phase 1 huge checks!!!  I've always wanted to hold one and get one... but all i got to do was give them away. oh well The weird thing about the prize ceremony in Århus is that I was there the previous weekend.  So I recognised everything and knew my way around.

 

I was in Århus over a weekend for the Trainne Learning Activity (TLA) that AIESEC at Århus University (AIESEC UNI) organised.  Transportation was covered by my LC (AIESEC CBS) so of course all the trainees went because it was a free chance to see another city in Denmark. So Mario (Guatememalan, in Odense), Laurence (Belgian, in CPH), Nok (Thai in CPH) and myself went to the TLA where Suz (Aussie in Århus) calls home.

 

Friday night it was all of us minus Laurence and Mario (who arrived Sat morning).  Wei came as well (NZ guy, AIESEC Alumnus) so went to Ana's house for some traditional Danish Christmas treats XXX (which is warm red wine with almonds, raisens and some spices) and YYY which you have with some jam or icing sugar.  Ana was quite clever because she got us to help her make some Chrstmas decorations for the Christmas Lunch sat night.  So we joked that she was using us trainees in a sweat shop.  Tom and Frieda were there as well (both AIESEC members) and Tom showed us some pretty cool decorations that you can make with some paper

and scissors.. which i naturually sucked at... i don't know how I passed the first grade. But Suz and I wanted to have a drink so Wei, Suz, Nok and myself went to a favourite hangout of Suz's had a drink then went home to sleep.  Its Suz's favourite place because its the only pub that shows the rugby, she's from Brisbane.  Nok stayed with Suz while Wei and I slept at Morten's place (LCP/President of AIESEC UNI).

 

In the morning, Morten talked about the Children's Christmas calendar.  In Denmark they have these Christmas calendars which counts down from the 1st to the 25th of December.  Where behind each door/window there is a piece of chocolate that you eat on the day.  My roommate Rasa bought me one and sometimes i forget to open the doors so I have to eat a couple of days worth of chocolate in one go! mmmmm heheheh anyways they also sell these as a charity fundraiser.  Each year, this group chooses a worthy cause to support.  This year all proceeds went to the Burmese refugees.

 

After that we walked to Den Gamle By which is just an "old town" museum where you can walk around and see what it was like in the old days.  You can take a vitual tour or watch a movie from their website (http://www.dengamleby.dk/english.htm) or you can have a look at some of the pictures I took.  It was interested to see the old day stuff but the hightlight for me was when they shot off the canon!!  It was sooo loud!  So there were bakerys, brewery, post office, bike shop, the mayor's house etc where you can actually walk into the buildings and have a look around!

 

But because we were walking around sooo much we were all tired by the time we decided to leave.  I think we spent 3 hours in there.  We were just chatting back at Morten's place where the girls decided to go to Aros (a famous museum in Århus) while the 'guys' decided to go Christmas shopping!!  Now you would obviously think that is weird since the 'guys' went shopping... but what we really did (hehehehe) was go to Netto and buy drinks for the Christmas Lunch (Dinner) later that night.  Then we went back and watched Snatch!! Very

cultual of us! 

 

That night we had the Christmas Lunch which was around 17 of the AIESEC members in the city of Århus (From both LCs).  You can read my previous post about Christmas Lunch so the only thing that I will add here is that since there were less people, there was more food to eat and a better chance to mingle with the members more.  After that a few of us went to a local club and danced the night away.  So that Sunday morning was a bit of a struggle to get up.  But we met up at the univeristy for a session on goal setting (personal vision setting) and clarifying what our goals were and what we needed to achieve to do that.  Though I have either attended or run tons of these types of sessions I always find it great to reflect on where i've come and achieved to what I want to do with my life and what I need to do to get there.

 

Then we rushed to the train station to catch our train.  So it was Nok, Mario (who got off at Odense), Laurence and myself on the train.  The first half we played card games and the second half we slept!!!  We were sooo tired but i'm 100% certain that we all had a blast.  It was great not only because we got to see and experience more of the Danish culture but also because we got to hang out as just the "interns" to vent out any frustrations that we may of had and to get to know each other better.

 

But being tired after such a weekend and then the long week at work meant that I spent most of this weekend chilling out... except for Friday night when some of the interns and AIESEC people met up for a taskforce to

improve the integration of trainees... which concluded with teaching each other drinking games!! "Quick game's a good game. Chair calls time in! Ball's in the court of...."

 

Next posting... London!!!!

Heya Everybody!!!

 

You might have noticed photos from Christmas Lunch last friday night.  Yup... i thought it was odd that Christmas 'Lunch' started at 6pm... I asked Lina about it and she just laughed at me.  The tradition is that families would meet for Lunch and eat and drink into the night.  But obviously companies won't allow that so some people have it starting later.  So its the usual end of the year Christmas work function where everyone gets drunk etc.

 

What was served:

 

Flæskesteg - Roast Pork
Frikadeller - Danish meat balls
Leverpostej med bacon og champignon - Liver pate with bacon and mushrooms
Forskellige slags sild - Herring in different sauces
Rejer - Shrimps

Tærte - Tarts
Pastasalat - Pasta Salad
Snaps - Strong alcoholic drink.. schnapps?

 

So it was great to meet up with everyone again as I haven't really had a chance to meet some of them since National Conference.

 

Traditions

- Snaps :: There's a bottle and everyone takes shots till its finished.  Usually people yell out Skål (skoll?) and we all raise our shot and take it.  Some of the girls cheated in that they just had half a shot and saved the rest for later.

- Rice pudding and almonds :: Thats what is served for dessert and the tradition is that there is a whole almond hidden in the rice pudding and if you find it, you have to keep it in your mouth till everyone has finished their desserts and then you tell people that you got it.  If you have it you win a gift.  So that was pretty cool.

 

So a great night where I spent the next day sleeping!!

Hi all!!!

 

I thought that it was about time that I went on another tour of the city.  I've been here for what... a couple of months and have only spent 3 hours doing some sightseeing (see All things Danish for my previous tour).  Another reason that I wanted to go was because the weather was sooo good and that wouldn't last.  So it was pretty much my last chance to go sightseeing.  Ann (HK girl studing in Scotland on study exchange at CBS) came with me.

 

We started at Nyhavn (New Harbour) which was orginally built to attract trade and leads up to the Kongens Nytorv (New Royal Market).  The area was transformed into a narrow canal lined with brightly painted town houses (H.C Anderson lived in a few of them) shops, restaurants and bars.  Its a great place to enjoy a meal and a beer during the summer months.  Apparantly when you go to Lego Land there are exact replicas of Nyhavn.  So i will take photos to compare.

 

From there we walked to Amalienborg (Amalia's Castle) which consists of four Rococo buildings arranged symmetrically around a large cobbled square with the imposing equestrian statue of Frederik V.  The buildings house some of the Royal family since 1784.  The Queen wasn't home (I knocked on her door and she didn't answer) so the Changing of the Guards (nooon daily) was a small ceremony with only a few soldiers.  The odd thing about the changing of the guards is that there are Police present to guard the guards who guard the royal family from the people?!?!?  From there we saw Marmorkirken, a white marble church which has one of Eurpope's largest domes, inspired by St. Peter's.  Directly opposite this is the Queen's garden and across the harbour is the Opera House.  The Opera House reminds me of a ninja... don't ask me why... you can look at the pictures to see for yourself.

 

Walked along the harbour and saw some interesting sights: submarine, cool wooden building, Mærsk HQ, cool lampost, a Medieval church and a cool statue.  The story behind the statue is that the Danish/Viking Gods told the guy that what he could plough in a day, all of that land he would own.  So he got four bulls and ploughed all day which turned into the island of Funen.  Walked inbetween the harbour and Kastellet & Frihedsmuseet to find the Little Mermaid.  The subject of many postcards, the Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) sits on a stone by the promenade at Langelinie and looks out over the Øresund.  She looks smaller than i expected and she was sculpted by Edvard Erichsen in 1913.  The mermaid has suffered over the years at the hands of mischievous pranksters!!!! She lost her head and arm!!  You can see one of the tourists taking some "liberties" with her =)

 

We then entered the grassy grounds of the fortress built by Christian IV in the 16th century, Kastellet and Frihedsmuseet.  The place is awesome for strolling around or a picnic, I took a lovely autumn picture of the moat that surrounds the fortress.  The Danish army still uses the buildings and were were lucky enough to stumpble into some sort of veterans day with the Army displaying some of their weapons, recuiting and applying camoflauge to kids' faces!! hehehe.  Kastellet houses the museum of the Danish Resistance Movement (Frihedsmuseet) which charts the German occupation of Denmark in WW2 and the growth of the organisation that helped save more than 7,000 Jews from the Nazis.

 

From there walked to Rosenborg Slot which was orginally built by Christian IV as a summer residence in 1606-7.  Which is really really weird because summer houses are usually some distance from your normal home right?  And Rosenborg Slot is 10min walk to Nørreport Station which is 15min to the old Palace (Christiansborg Palace, which now houses the Danish Parliament).  Anyways... Rosenborg Slot is inspired by Renaissance architecture of the Netherlands, its discribed as a "playful version of a fortress".  Rosenborg Slot houses porcelain created by the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain factory as well as some of the Crown Jewels (hence the guards.. although there were only two there... hmmm $$$$ hahahahaha

 

After that we walked to the station and caught the train back to my place and just crashed.... sooo tired after sooo much walking!!!

 

Enjoy the pictures!!!

 

 

 

 

I first saw Copenhagen (CPH) when I first arrived in Denmark… but I didn’t take the time to see some of the sights as Peter and I were looking for the right bus to take me to my place.  So last Sunday, I decided to actually see the city for the first time.  When I’m talking any of the sites and I’m quoting something intelligent, its from the book my best friends gave me Its DK’s (Dorling Kindersley) “Eyewitness Travel Guides Europe”.

 

Brief History: Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest city, with a population of around 1.4million (2004).  It was founded in 1167 by Bishop Absalon, who built a fortress on the island of Slotsholmen, the town grew quickly, prospering from trade in the Baltic.  In 1461 it was declared the capital of Denmark.  During the reign of Christian IV (1588-1648), the city was endowed with many fine Renaissance buildings, some of which still stand today.

 

Okay… Caught the 6A bus from my place to Central Station (you can follow my ‘expedition’ through the pictures I posted up as they are roughly in order).  Central Station is like Flinders St Station and Spencer St Station put together.  That is, there are regional and international train arrivals and departures as well as the normal city trains.  The building looks really old and I was probably the only person inside who spent most of their time looking up at the ceiling

 

From there I went outside and unfortunately the station was under renovation… so the huge clock tower was under scaffolding and canvas I saw one of the many entrances to Tivoli Gardens.  One of Denmark’s most famous tourist attractions, the Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843.  It’s a entertainment park combining rides, fireworks (Wed & Sat), concerts, restaurants and fast food outlets.  Think Luna Park, but with a nice garden where there are music concerts and more people.  I didn’t go in, as I need to watch my spending, though my boss hinted that I might get a year long pass from Venture Cup hehhehe.  Apparently, its quite beautiful at night with all tiny lights illuminating the park.  At Christmas, its transformed into bustling Christmas fair (I think I saw it on The Great Outdoors).  Later you’ll see pictures of their rollercoaster and ‘free fall’ tower.

 

From there went to the tourist information centre on the corner of Vesterbrogade and Bernstorffsgade (for those playing at home with a map).  From there walked to Rådhuset (though its Rådhus in my map from the tourist centre…???) which is the Baroque-style City Hall.  There’s a tower there which takes 300-steps to get to (hmmm might have to train up for that) and houses the first World Clock (a super accurate, multi-dialed timepiece, with a 570,000-year calendar which was designed by Jens Olsen and took 27 years to complete.  The clock was started in 1955)… hmmm maybe I should make the effort to mount 300-steps as you get a great view of the city.

 

In front of Rådhus is Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) where there are some nice cafes and statures.  Something of interest is what Huy, Asjad and I found at Federation Square: the Square to Square thing is a video link from Rådhuspladsen and Fed Square.  So if we can arrange it, I can talk and see you guys from Fed Square!!!  The photo of “CPH – Arena” is probably titled wrong… I think its an arena-theatre type thing as there is a circus there at the moment… so I just called it ‘Arena’…. When it says ‘Musik’ on the building….

 

Anyways… from there I went to Strøget (pronounced ‘Stroyet’) which is the world’s longest pedestrian street.  It ruins from Rådhuspladsen to Kongens Nytorv (marketplace).  I started on the part of the street called Frederiksberggade and walked to the corner of Amagertorv (same as Frederiksberggade) and Købmagergade (another pedestrian street).  So when I labelled some of the pictures with ‘Nytorv’… yeah I think that’s wrong ehehhehe.  Anyways, Strøget is like Chapel St type stores, very upmarket and trendy stores (hence Royal Copenhagen and Georg Jensen)… though there were stores like ‘Accesorize’ and ‘Espirit’.  I had my first Pølser (hotdog) along this street.  Hotdogs are pretty much the same except they like their Mayo… and sometimes they eat the sausage and the bread separate on a paper plate with two sauces.  Along one of the smaller streets off the pedestrian walkway I found a nice church… though I’m pretty sure that its Catholic as its about ‘Out Lady’.

 

From the corner that I mentioned, I walked to some of the canals and then realised that I had stumbled onto Christiansborg Palace.  Its now seats the Parliament and houses the Royal Reception Rooms, the Queen’s Library, the Supreme Court and the PM’s office.  It was built on the site of a fortress that Bishop Absalon built, the palace has twice been burnt down, rebuilt, altered and extended.  Most of the work was completed by Christian VI.  You can visit the reception rooms etc for a fee.  Along the northside of the palace you can find the Thorvaldesen’s Museum which houses the work of the country’s most celebrated sculptor (Bertel Thorvaldsen).  I spent most of my time in the courtyard and as you can see from my photos, it’s spectacular!!!  I don’t know which is the front or the back of the palace… but the places just looks awesome.  Close by the ‘front entrance’ is Børsen.  Built in 1619-40 by King Christian IV is Denmark’s old stock exchange building.  The spire represents four intertwined dragon’s tails.

 

From there I walked to the National Museum, which is free to the public on Wed… so have to arrange some time off work.  Then I walked to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.  Which is Copenhagen’s most elegant art gallery and opened in 1897 by Carl Jacobsen (son of the founder of Carlsberg Brewery which was named after him).  That’s where I also took pictures of Tivoli’s rides.  Walked back to Rådhuspladsen where along the way I found an entrance to a garden within Rådhus and a statue of Hans Christian Anderson (he’s Danish if you didn’t know.  And you can actually follow these white footsteps around the city to see 50+ sites that are related to H. C. Anderson).

 

From there I found “The Old English Pub” so I had a beer and watched the cricket!!  And that pretty much ended my first expedition of CPH.

 

Next on the list is Kongens Nytorv, Nyhavn, Amalienborg, Kastellet and Frihedsmuseet, statue of the Little Mermaid, Rosenborg Slot and Statens Museum for Kunst.

 

 

 

Hey all!!

 

I thought that I should actually talk a bit about the country that I'm going to and why...

 

Well i don't know too much about Denmark, apart from what Huy has told me about his year in Copenhagen.  I'll be working for Venture Cup Denmark (http://www.venturecup.dk/) which is a company that runs a business plan competition where at least one member of the team is a uni student. 

 

The winner of the comptition wins DKK $250,000.  My role is the "Education Programme Coordinator"  So that that means is that i'll be liasing with the facilitators and coordinating the seminars that Venture Cup runs to educate the teams on what they need to consider and include in their business plans.  I think most of the teams go on to start up their own businesses based on the business concept/product that they outlined in their plan.

 

Most people ask me why I would accept a position in Denmark given that my brother lived there for a year.  I wondered that myself until i remembered that my goal was to obtain a position anywhere in Europe.  I've always wanted to travel around Europe and here's my chance.  Plus, the fact that i'm working as well gives me the opportunity to save up for my trips and see more places compared to a month's trekking.

 

I'm planning to move to London afterwards for the same reason.  To find work that can fund my European expeditions.  Also, when I return to Australia I want to have relevant professional international experience under my belt.

 

So how did I get this opportunity?  For those that don't know, I was part of AIESEC during my four years at Uni.  AIESEC (http://www.aiesec.org/; http://www.aiesec.org/australia) is a student run global organisation that facilitates an International Exchange/Internship Program.  It does this (in my opinion) for two reasons, (1) to give those that run the program and those that go on exchange the opportunity to develop both professionally and personally and (2) by going on exchange, gaining the experiences and skills necessary to address local or global issues in a positive way.

 

So after deciding that I needed a change and something that would help start my career, my brother suggested that I go on exchange.  So here I am, waiting to embark on my exchange experience.

 

I'll post up more on Denmark as I read or experience more.

 

Vivi