Classes on Fridays and real research homework makes it difficult to travel this semester, plus everything's more expensive going out of Paris, but for spring break I'm off to Scandinavia! And since these posts take me forever and a day to write I will try to be quick about it. I start with Copenhagen, Denmark, the world's oldest monarchy (Kingship from 904 still exists today). Honestly, I was not a huge fan of Copenhagen, except for two parts: Nyhavn and Tivoli. But in chronological order, I got there early one day, found my hostel, and started by leaving the city to take the train to Helsingor up north and see Elsinore castle, the setting of Hamlet! Built in the 1500s its a classic example of Renaissance architecture. Having seen vaux le vicomte the day before I was not very very impressed, but I will say that the setting is superb-it sits right on the coast with waves splashing up to the breakers, fishermen trying their luck and a great view across to Sweden with all of the boats and ferries churning up the water in front. In the casemates of the castle is a statue of this guy whose name escapes me, but legend has it that he will rise up and defend Denmark should her sovereignty ever be threatened. The castle has lots of land around it- amoat and then these grassy banks that put it in the hole so its shielded by these manmade hills-like most fortresses I suppose, but nowadays they even have a picnic area and there's lots of families that come to sit on the rocks and watch the waves go by or show their kids around. From there I passed up Copenhagen and went southeast to Mälmo, Sweden, just 35 minutes from Copenhagen by train and over a giant bridge. They advertise Malmo as a must see when visiting Copenhagen but I really didn't see anything amazing there- they have a fairly ugle red castle/fortress in a not well laid out park, a city center with cafés in the likes of parisian cafés, and this new industrial area that's supposedly known for its architecture but it seemed like a lot of construciton to me. Anyways, then back to Copenhagen. Walking tour of this "chic hip" area that did not live up to its name. Next day: walking tour of the sites of Copenhagen: saw city hall, Stroget the main shopping street, the courthouse, the old medieval city limits and the "museum district", the royal library, amalienborg palace the palace of the queen and the changing of the guards (which took forever and involved a lot of standing around), Kongens Nytorv square with the theatre and lots of mansions around it, the royal playhouse built right on the pier, this old fortress/park in the north with the Little Mermaid statue (whose sister is in Warsaw and who I saw there!) , the King's Garden with the King's palace, the Round Tower-oldest astronomical center in Europe dating from the 1600s, the university district and Latin Quarter. Around the train station there's this big movie theater that's bright pink and stands out a lot it's very retro-ey cool, art deco but at the same time it looks like it could be in Florida, and there are 7-11's everywhere!! They've taken over Scandinavia it seems. But there were also a lot of swans and ducks in all the lakes that were just floating around, and a fair amount of bikers, and it was beautiful and sunny all the time. Prices in Scandinavia in general are outrageous, everything's super expensive, and I can't really tell you what Danish food is because I didn't see any places that advertised selling danish food that weren't fivestar suit and tie sitdown restaurants, which is not on my itinerary. A lot of the museums are free and I visited the National Museum which was nice, it had an interesting exhibit on Egyptian amulets and Danish history from 1660 in which I learned that Denmark's king used to be elected by its parliament but after the wars with Sweden in which Denmark lost Scania (the lower portion of Sweden) and lost Norway as a territory, the government voted to reform and make the king hereditary and give him all the power and he wrote up the new constitution-talk about a step in the wrong direction? But it worked for them I guess. I also visited Christiania Free Town, this hippie commune with graffiti everywhere, weed, Tibetan prayer flags hung everywhere, and general chaos. It just looked like a rundown area/shantytown a lot of it, with unfinished huts and sheet metal for roofs, overgrowth, generally not well laid out property, stray animals running around. When you left the main entrance the sign said "Now entering the EU". But my favorite parts of Copenhagen and why I would return were: 1. Nyhavn, this main canal with lots of old wooden boats stationed there and their masteres cleaning them up and just shooting the breeze with each other, and these colorful rowhouses with little bars and outdoor eateries (expensive, but fresh seafood and candles and little colorful lights to enchant the visitors) which generally made it a nice, upbeat atmosphere, and 2. TIVOLI! Tivoli is this really old amusement park and gardens that opened in 1843 I want to say, the entrance was built in 1890 and it inspired Walt Disney and it's the third most visited amusement park in Europe (I guess thats not saying much, but anyways) and it just opened April 8th so by luck I got to go and it was amazing! First off, most everyone there was native Danish, so it was cool to see the little kids run about and the elderly women being pushed in wheelchairs, I could imagine them reminiscing over the rides they went on there when they were kids. It's right in the center of the city and jam packed with things to do-and it's not commercialized like Disney but it reminds me of old time classic amusement parks-it had a pirate boat restaurant and Chinatown and Egyptian hieroglyphic trash cans and this Arabic/Middle Eastern land and then the gardens and a lake right in the middle of it all with boats and fish and ducks and flowers everywhere, this giant white palace like the Taj Mahal in the center and a Chinese theater stage and all of the games were really unique and colorful and super cute, it was really just one of a kind and lovely. I think the rides were generally aimed towards a younger crowd than the likes of those who frequent our six flags for example, but still I'd go at any age just to marvel at everything there and sit in the gardens with ice cream (oh yeah, everyone here likes ice cream a lot). So that was Copenhagen. One more thing, everyone says Scandinavia is really clean, I guess its supposed to be related to it being a modern day socialist based country and having the state take care of everything. My view: yes, its clean, but not so clean that its miles above other countries. First off it was not nearly as crowded as a city like Paris or Chicago say, second off there were "dirty" parts just like anywhere else, basically, I wouldn't say one of its feature characteristics is cleanliness. Next stop: Norway.
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