Tag: tivoli

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Christmas in Christiania and Tivoli

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And with that I’m done with all of my finals.  This was my last week of classes with DIS, and my last full week in Denmark.  It’s hard to believe, but this time next week I’m going to be back in Colorado.  It’s been a whirlwind week, with essay writing, classes, and trying to spend every spare moment with the wonderful people I’ve met in Copenhagen.  After the past four months, it’s sad that I may never see some of my friends here again.  I’ve had amazing adventures with them, and they’ve helped to make my study abroad experience wonderful.

Friday, Paige and I celebrated the end of classes by going to Christmas season at Tivoli!  It was a little cold and rainy, but we still had fun.  Christmas is my favorite holiday, and Tivoli decorates with fake snow and trees and lights everywhere.  They also have an adorable Nordic themed market where I found some decorations to bring home so that I can bring a little bit of Copenhagen back with me.

Christmas continued when Emmy and I went to the Christiania market today.  It’s in a giant room where all of these stalls are set up and people are selling handmade scarves and artwork and jewelry and other fun things.  I also ended up having a conversation with a Danish man, who was telling me how Christiania has its own Christmas celebration for people who are hard on their luck.  He said it’s a really cool experience.

Tomorrow, I’m leaving for Berlin.  It’ll be my last trip during this amazing semester, although unfortunately it isn’t going to be exactly as planned.  For now, though, I’m going to make the most of the short amount of time I have left!

Vi ses!

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Tivoli at Halloween and the Crown Jewels

This weekend Kelcy came to Copenhagen!

Her flight got in pretty late on Thursday night, but the next day we still got up early because I had to go to class.  After some pastries, I dropped Kelcy off at the museum and we met up again after criminology to go to Tivoli!  It just reopened for Halloween season, so everything was decorated with pumpkins.  We went a bunch of rides, including one that went upside down super slowly (and I don’t think either of us recommend that one because it made us pretty dizzy).  We also got shouted at in Danish at the upside down ride because we were supposed to empty our pockets.  Seeing as that is not a phrase I had encountered before, I was unable to translate this time.  In general though now I’m at the point where when people speak to me in Danish I usually can tell what they want me to do, so that was a pretty exciting realization.

Saturday was basically an informal walking tour covering most of Copenhagen.  We went inside Rosenborg Castle (which used to be the summer castle for the royals) and got to see the crown jewels and some other gorgeous artifacts.  Then we stopped by the Little Mermaid, Nyhavn, the sidewalk trampolines, Amalienborg, Christianborg, the old stock exchange (which, fun fact, the Danes tried to put crocodile statues on but no one knew what a crocodile looked like and so they look pretty weird and everyone just calls them dragons) and walked down Strøget.  As the day progressed I realized that I’ve learned quite a bit of history about Copenhagen, so it was exciting to put that to use and tell someone else about my favorite sites.

Kelcy, I know you read this, so thanks for coming to visit me!  It was great to see you again.  And we’ll be reunited in a month in Paris 🙂

Hej hej!

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Walt Disney’s Inspiration

On Saturday, Sarah and I spent the afternoon/evening in Tivoli!  It was a perfect day for it, because it was likely one of the last warm and sunny days we’ll have in Copenhagen.

This time, we bought the fancy tickets so that we could ride all the rides, which was completely worth it.  We went on the roller coasters, the spinning rides, and a ride that told us a selection of Hans Christian Andersen tales.  Some of the rides seemed very similar to the rides still seen at Disneyland, although obviously with different themes… The one I remember as being Dumbo is an octopus here.

We had dinner at an Italian place, where we got mac and cheese (the first I’ve seen here, actually), and then we went to go see Alvin Ailey.  They were, as expected, awesome.  I always love going to see dance performances, and Alvin Ailey has great musicality and power in all of their movements.  The theater was in an aquarium, so at least it was interesting waiting for the doors to open.

Afterwards we went back and tried out some more rides.  This was my first experience in Tivoli at night, and it’s cool to see how they light it up.  All the pictures from the evening are from Sarah’s camera, because the ones on mine were all really blurry.  My camera doesn’t do well in the dark, apparently.

Overall, it was a lovely day!  Tivoli is possibly my favorite place in Copenhagen.  Just walking around, every area of the park is absolutely gorgeous, and it’s designed for everyone to be able to come and enjoy it.  I can’t wait to see how they decorate it for Halloween and Christmas!

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Nyhavn, Tivoli, Sidewalk Trampolines, and Getting Lost

This morning began with my first experience of getting incredibly lost here.  I was going to go to a bakery before class, but my friend and I got the bus stop wrong and ended up getting off 12 stops after we were supposed to.  We took the bus back, but then I still couldn’t find the building where I was supposed to go and wandered around the area peering into shops.  Eventually, I realized that I needed breakfast more than I needed to go to the last 20 minutes of orientation, so I found that bakery we had been looking for and had an amazing cinnamon roll.  They definitely know how to make pastries here.

After another orientation session, I met up with my friend Sarah, from Northwestern, to go see Tivoli for the first time.  I totally understand why Walt Disney felt inspired there.  It’s absolutely gorgeous!  We wandered around the park for a while and even tried a few rides, which were cool.  It’s interesting to see what aspects were brought to theme parks in America, like the themed sections of the park.  I’m definitely planning to go back and try some more of the rides!

After that, we headed up to Nyhavn.  On the way, we found the sidewalk trampolines, which are super cool.  Nyhavn, which appears to be the most photographed place in all of Copenhagen and will come up in approximately 85% of the search results when you google the city, was very picturesque.  I’m glad I’ve seen (and photographed) it, but there doesn’t seem like there’s a lot to do there.

Overall, even after the rough start, it was a good day (albeit an exhausting one).  Seeing as I start classes tomorrow, though, I should probably make sure my reading is done so I can go to sleep on the earlier side.  It’s so weird to think that I’m starting school already, but I think my classes are going to be pretty awesome.