Saturday, January 23, 2010

I could see Sweden today!



Just as a forewarning this will be a long post since I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday.

So, classes yesterday were good! My Biology of Marine Mammals teacher is not here yet, she is doing research on whales in Greenland (so amazing...) so we only had about 20 minutes of class while and intern went over our syllabus and then we were let out. Then I went back to my room to nap for a little while and eat lunch before my Nordic Mythology class, which was soooo cool. Then I went to the grocery store and market with my friend Mattie which was an interesting experience. We ended up buying a lot of groceries but then we realized we had to carry them all back to our dorm. That was interesting, a few grape tomatoes were lost in the process :(

After making a delicious supper all the Keops girls and I went to our welcome party for DIS. They rented out a night club for us. It was really really fun. We had a great time dancing, I really love all the girls in my group of friends. After our welcome party we tried to walk around the city a little bit more, but it was so cold we went home early. We also had to get up early so we could go see Kronborg!

For those who are not familiar Kronborg is the castle where Hamlet is set and it is located in this adorable town called Elsinore about an hours bus ride north of Copenhagen. Unfortunately today was bitter cold, but we walked through the streets of the town for a little while before we stopped to get lunch before our tour. We found the oldest bakery in Denmark and a really cool cheese store that I know my dad would have loved. I tried to find a Danish cheese to try but they were sold in huge chunks I couldn't really understand the signs they had.


Finally we went to Hamlets Castle. It was incredible!!! The king of Denmark decided to build a strong hold there so he could charge a tax on the boats that were going through the sound. I could seriously see Sweden! But back when the castle was built, in the 1400s, Denmark owned both sides of the sound. We started in the Church which was the only part remaining unharmed after a fire burnt most of the castle down in the 1630s. It was beautiful and very well preserved, apparently they still host weddings there. Then we went down under the castle where the prisons were. This was a very scary place for sure. For the worst offenders they had a triangular cell and depending on the severity of the crime they would be pushed back to the very apex of the triangle and given hardly enough room to stand. Finally we toured the castle, which was missing much of its original furniture and tapestries because the Swedes took them when the had control of the castle for a short period of time. But nevertheless the castle was still interesting and still had some tapestries. There were over 48, but only 7 remained in the castle, they were used for both decoration and for insulation so originally they had covered the walls. Thats all for now I think. I am exhausted and am going to nap before dinner.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Em,

    Sounds like you are acclimating nicely to Denmark. Happy to see you had a sunny day! We really are enjoying reading your blog and seeing all your photos. Keep up the great work. Enjoy... We can't wait to hear more!!!

    xo
    lisa

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