The City of Lights

After our final exam for our Human Health & Disease class, a vacation was needed. We decided to go abroad while studying abroad; a trip to Paris and Amsterdam fit the criteria. Our travel group consisted of about 10 people, most of which were in my session 1 class. We had a short flight to Paris on Wednesday evening, followed by a small commute by bus and metro to our hostel. From what I've seen so far, the hostels are fairly nice, considering we would only be there for a few nights. Half of our group was at one hostel, and the other half was staying in another.
















For our first day in the city of lights, the plan was to go see the Notre Dame, talk a walking tour of the city center, check out the Louvre, and take a walking tour of the Montmartre District. So thats what we did. But along the way, we found numerous bridges that were covered in padlocks of different shapes and sizes. And they all had writing on them, usually the names of a couple. The story is that you and your loved one writes your names on a lock, latches it to the fence, locks it, and throws the key into the canal. This then symbolizes that their loves will always remain. So we all pitched in and bought a lock, wrote something on it, and put it on the bridge.














While on our walking tour, we got to see the glass pyramids that are inside the Louvre, which is always a cool sight. Also, it was raining during most of the tour, which is the reason for the lack of pictures from that timeframe. Later that afternoon, we headed to the Montmartre District. In the tour, we learned a lot about the history of the area as well as memorable landmarks, such as the apartment where Vincent van Gogh lived.

The next morning, we enjoyed  a nice European continental breakfast at our hostel before heading to our Versailles tour.  Our tour wasn't taking us inside the palace, but rather through the gardens, which were still incredible. The gardens have a very symmetrical feel to them, surrounding the scattered marblestone sculptures and ponds. Overall, the tour was a great experience and it was cool to see how the previous loyalty lived in Paris. 

The palace from the outside was very extravagant, with the large entranceway and detailed architecture. This was one of my favorite places that we visited while in Paris.

Towards the afternoon, we had one more place to visit: the Eiffel Tower. We had thought prior to arriving in France that we would have enough time to take the elevator to the top, but the line ended up being several hours long; this didn't stop me from getting partially up to the top. I decided to take the stairs to the first platform instead of the elevator to save some time. The climb wasn't that difficult, but it was definitely windy when I made it to the first deck. I told the rest of my group to go find a place to relax in front of the tower so that I could take a picture of them from a birds' eye view. I could see the line to go up the escalator as well, which looked like a bunch of ants lined up.

Later that evening, we had a nice italian dinner and talked about our plans for the train ride to Amsterdam the following morning.








Paris was definitely a treat to see and a great place to learn about. I'm sure that I will be back there eventually, so that I can finally get to the top of the Eiffel tower.

Conquering Berlin in 36 Hours

 

This past weekend's trip to Berlin was a real adventure, literally. We took an overnight bus from Copenhagen at 10:30pm to Berlin, arriving at 6am Saturday morning. In most cases, when you arrive in a foreign place early in the morning with 10 sleepy American students, it becomes a real challenge to get places. Our hostel that we stayed at, Wombat City hostel, was roughly 6 miles from the central bus station; and yes, we walked to it. On the way there, we had mapped out a few sights to see, such as the Charlottenborg Palace and Museum Island. 

The long walk to our hostel 

 We started off walking through a large suburban area with lots of greenery everywhere you looked. Our first stop on the way was the Charlottenborg Palace, so when we saw it, we knew that we were headed in the right direction. Our trek to the hostel was definitely taxing on our feet, but it was logical because of the sights along the way.

The next landmark that was crossed was the entrance to Mitte, the middle section of Berlin. Of course we had to stop to take some pictures. I was always glad when we stopped for photo opportunities so that I could give my feet a break. The architecture in Berlin is very modern with that historical feel, very similar to designs in Copenhagen. In Berlin, they actually have real street signs, as opposed to the name of street written on the side of a building.



Our next location to visit was Museum Island, which was very cool to see. But first, a break was needed to rest for a little while. We decided to relax in front of the Berliner Dom, Berlin's main cathedral, located near the city center.

Exhausted travelers

Berliner Dom

After a short break, we headed over the Pergamon Museum.

This museum is the home of special Classical European antiquities. Afterwards, we walked through the Memorial to the Murdered European Jews. Under the memorial, was an actual exhibit to go through as well. Throughout the afternoon, we soaked in a lot of history visiting the different landmarks or sights in the Berlin area. After seeing everything on Saturday, I didn't regret walking the 6 miles to our hostel; it was worth it.

By the time we arrive at the Wombat City Hostel, our group needed a well-deserved nap. Surprisingly, our hostel was a lot nicer than I anticipated, considering it was relatively inexpensive to stay there. A few hours later, after recharging our feet, we headed out to explore/find a place to eat dinner. We ended up at a cafe called Marcus Brau, which had really good food. Many people in our group were determined to find a place that had some sort of schnitzel, which is a boneless meat , thinned with a hammer, coated with flour, beaten egg, bread crumbs, and then fried. It is a popular food made from veal, chicken, beef, turkey or pork. This place had really good schnitzel.

The next morning, our goal was to go see the Berlin Wall. We used the train system rather than walking to save some time. 

We walked along most of the wall, and I really enjoyed it. Before catching our bus back to Copenhagen, we enjoyed a nice late lunch at a restaurant called Alex. Then our group met up back at the central station to head back home after an exhausting weekend.

The cool thing about heading back to Copenhagen was that our bus had to board a ferry for about an hour-long ride to Denmark. We all took this time to grab a bite to eat and reminisce about the weekend. We made it back to Copenhagen around midnight, and then walked back to our building. We all looked forward to sleeping in our own beds again, instead of small bunk beds at the hostel. Tomorrow afternoon, I take my final exam for my class and then I'm hopping on a flight to Paris, and then a train to Amsterdam on Saturday! I'm super excited to hang out with new friends and to see what else Europe has to offer!

From Denver to Denmark

With the 2 week mark slowly approaching, I'm finally becoming fully adjusted to the different time zone, as well as the drastically different culture. Copenhagen is 8 hours ahead of Colorado Springs, so you can imagine that adjusting would take some time. Whenever I check my facebook, its funny to see statuses talking about plans for the day or what someone had for lunch, when I'm in the process of making dinner or getting ready for bed. 

On Monday, we had our last "supplementary" class, in which we learned/reviewed CPR and learned about urinary catheterization (I won't post a picture for obvious reasons). 

A pizza "flap" - a sandwich, but pizza instead of bread

Lagkagehuset - One of our favorite bakeries

Homemade Danish "poptart"

The food here has been one of my favorite parts of the trip. The bakeries are amazing, each with new varieties of breads and treats. The picture below the pop-tart is the glass market, also known as Torvehallerne. It is a culinary hot spot in near the city center, and the food is amazing. The market consists of 2 massive "glass" tents, each with numerous food stands inside. It's always fun to stop by on the way to class for free samples, especially since its very close to the Norreport train station.

Fiolstraede

This is a picture I took walking along Fiolstraede, headed back to our apartment from the train station. Most of the streets in the city center are fairly narrow and covered in cobblestone. You can imagine that we do a lot of walking here, but everything is close to where we live.




All of my roommates and I are really looking forward to our trip to Berlin this weekend. We are taking a charter bus that leaves Copenhagen at 10:30pm on Friday, arriving in Berlin around 6am Saturday morning. This will give us all of Saturday to see the sights and experience a new country.

Also, I will be traveling to Paris and Amsterdam next weekend with a bunch of friends from class. We call it our "long weekend,"because it's the weekend between Session 1 and 2. So we have from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday night to travel across Europe. I might even take a day trip up to Sweden in a few weeks. Six countries in 6 weeks?! Talk about an awesome adventure!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

With my first week in Copenhagen behind me, I can definitely say it's been a good one. The weather didn't always cooperate, but that didn't stop us from exploring the city and seeing what Denmark has to offer. My floor mates and I have officially booked our trip to Berlin for next weekend, so that's something to look forward to over the next few days of classes. Speaking of which, I had my first exam  yesterday (and yes, I did well on it). It was 2 patient cases with several questions for each case. In preparing for the test, the class and I all agree that "chest pain" is a very vague symptom, and tricky to diagnose.

Group photo in Nyhavn

About 2 weeks ago, when I was packing for my trip, I was expecting the temperature to be somewhat cool most of the time. Copenhagen's weather is very similar to that of my home university, it can have all four seasons in the same day.

Nyhavn ("New Harbor")

When it rains here, it doesn't rain for too long, which is a good thing. And the sun goes down around 10pm, and rises around 4:30am. It's a weird feeling when you wake up, thinking it's 9am, but in reality it's only 5am.

Last night, a few friends and I went to this thing called Distorion, which is a 4 day music festival that takes place in a different location every night. Distortion is a yearly celebration of Copenhagen night-life, but the free portion goes on from about 4pm-11pm, and it's still somewhat light outside. We plan on going again tonight, because its the final day for it, and because most Danes don't go out until the weekends. 

Today, believe it or not, we went to the beach! Crazy right?! We just hopped on the metro to Amager Beach, which is on the east side of Copenhagen fairly close to the airport.

Amagar Beach and Park

Many have us have been on the hunt for a Danish Danish. Actually, Danes call them weinerbrod, and they taste ten times better than back home. It has 4 different "fillings" on it, and they are delicious!

Every day for class, we have to make a 30 minute commute by train to get to the hospital in Roskilde. Our class is from 3:30pm-5:30pm on weekdays, which means we have to leave our dorm building around 2:15pm to walk to the train station. On the plus side, we get to sleep in a little bit! And we have more time to do stuff outside of class!

Kobenhavn Central Station

We have to walk to Norreport Station, which then stops in Central Station, and then continues on to Roskilde.

A few things I have noticed while in Copenhagen:
Danes are very stylish, all Danes are skinny or athletic, the street signs are on the buildings, EVERYONE rides a bike EVERYWHERE (you don't see very many cars in the city center), and all Danes enjoy sunny days (because they dont happen very often). If you accidentally walk into the bike lane along the street, many Danes on bikes will start aggressively clicking their bike bells at you (we know from experience lol). Also, we have learned that grocery stores don't have "sackers" that bag your groceries for you. You have to do it yourself, and you have to bring your own grocery bags. Otherwise, you purchase a bag from the store OR you carry your groceries in your arms and look like an idiot on the trek back to your dorm (also known from experience).


Time flies when you're having fun; I know this firsthand. My first week as a DIS student has surely been a memorable and interesting one to say the least.
I can't wait to see what the next five have in store.