Budapest!

Soo, where to begin here. well i think i should fist explain that my long study tour started with a 23 hour bus ride from copenhagen to budapest (thats in Hungary for all of you non-geography majors). Surprisingly the bus ride wasnt that bad, in fact if was a pretty good bonding time for all of the highschool-esque clicks that formed on the trip. It was also a very informational time where i learned a lot, and i might even be so bold as to say too much, about some of the people i was traveling with. The major downside to the whole bus ride was the impossibility of finding a comfortable way of sleeping even if you had two seats to yourself. If it wasnt a belt buckle keeping you awake it was and arm rest and if it wasnt an arm rest it was your neighbors foot which somehow worked its way onto your second seat from across the isle. In one daring attempt i had actually swung my feet at odd angles up against the bus window while my head hung off the end of the other seat right in the middle of the isle (i was desperate). All was going well until someone walking back from the bathroom walked straight into my head, but let me tell you those 15 minutes of sleep i got were glorious and worth the injury.
Ok but enough about the bus ride lets get to Budapest, oh but before i do i should say that the amount of pictures i have from the first two days of my trip is, well, zero. I accidentally deleted my memory card on the second night in a misguided attempt and determining how much space i had left on my camera. If i remember correctly there were some of a cathederal...quite picturesque actually (kind of lord of the rings looking), and then some of the parliament building and maybe a palace or two...oh right and there were actually a lot from when me and some kids went walking across the city and climbed a hill and got all these great pictures right as the sun was setting of the city and of these monuments we had climbed to see...yeah those would have been amazing. I really think you guys would have enjoyed some of those...but what can you do, lets just focus on the amazing pictures i DO have.
Where my pictures start off is when we went on a tour of the old castle caves under the old castle hill in Budapest, which sounded pretty interesting i thought. But, it was amazing how wrong i could be. It turns out the tour we took actually had very little to do with the historical aspects of the caves and instead focused on the symbolic meaning of different rooms in the caves and how they related to the History of Hungary. To give you an example, at one point we were actually told to walk down a pitch-black dead end tunnel to give us a feeling of what it felt like when when the Hapsburgs took over Hungary. I did feel a sense of despair at this point in the tour but it was less because my connection to the symbolic history of Hungary and more due to the fact that that was when i realized how bull shit this tour was and that we still had another half an hour of it left to go.
There was one redeming part of the tour and that was when we entered a room that traps a lot of moister and so the walls and ceilings were covered with some kind of sliming mold or fungus. I noticed that some people had stuck coins onto the ceiling in this mold stuff so me and this other girl began to smoosh coins into it as well, which was surprisingly entertaining. The small gold circle near the top of this picture is one of the many coins we stuck into the cave mold. Id say all together we stuck maybe 100 florence worth on that ceiling, but we weren't sweating it since the exchange rate is something like 150 florence to the dollar. A fun little fact about my stay in Budapest is that the first night i was there i pulled out 10,000 florence (about 57 dollars) which i was given in a single bill from the atm and which lasted me the 3 days i was in Budapest. In situations like that is it any wonder that sometimes foreign currencies feel like monopoly money?. Drinks at a bar were around 1.50-2 dollars and so even a night out on the town ended up being absurdly cheap. This is where it would have been wise to do my gift shopping but instead all i bought was a Budapest t-shirt for myself...but just think of it like this, if i do get you a gift now it will be of much higher quality.
Ok i realize this has been heavy on the words and light on pictures so far. So lets get some pictures in here. This ones of the hill i mentioned climbing earlier which has a gigantic statue on top which, if i remember correctly, had something to do with liberty. Sorry thats all i got...it was very beautiful though, and from the top of the hill you could get some very impressive pictures of the city...which i of course deleted not long after taking them.











This is just a picture of three of the kids i hung out with the most on my trips to Budapest and Vienna. From left to right we have: Meg (she goes to to an all girls school and really hates it when you call it that), Debbie and Sam (who is from Portland and goes to school at RIT, strange coincidences huh?). One night in Budapest though me and Sam ended up going out with a different group of girls and we thought it would be fairly easy to find a bar so we just started wandering through the city. After about an hour we found our selves in the sketchier part of town where homeless people, prostitutes and all night liquor stores became quite common. We actually got to see a 'lady of the night' doing that classic leaning into a car window pose at a red stop light...i was really upset that i didnt have my camera at that point, although in retrospect that probably would have only caused trouble. The last thing i needed after an hour and a half of wandering in a strange city in the freezing cold was to be slapped araund by a Budapestian pimp. (Budapestian might not be a real word but a google search didn't provide me with an answer so i figured i'd just make one up)
This last picture is just one that i like. i took it from the window in our Budapest hostel. I dont really have any interesting stories relating to our hostel, although it was very strange how in Hungary they have lots of American TV shows and movies on TV but they are all dubbed in Hungarian unlike in Denmark where they usually just use subtitles. One night when me and Sam were waiting for someone to ask us to do something we just laid around and watched 2 Fast 2 Furious in Hungarian. It was strange how after about 15 minutes i completely forgot that it was in a different language because it was so easy to follow what was happening even though i had never seen the movie before...i guess Paul Walkers amazing acting abilities transcend human language, kind of like Cirque de Soliel...

Arhus and Kolding continued!

Well, its a rainy depressing day here in denmark so i figure ill just keep going on these posts and at least finish up my short study tour stuff for now, arent you guys lucky.
Heres a picture of a field we came across on our way to Arhus, i thought it seemed very classically danish. This was on our way to try and get to a beach...after about half an hour of walking we ended up coming across a small little village which appeared to be in the middle of no where. then after another 45 minutes of walking and getting lost we actually ended up right back here in this same field at which point our tour leader finally admitted she had no idea where we were. but it was nice to get some walking at least and it was helping all of us get over our hangovers.


At this point our tour leader also decided that we might as well break out the bottle of liqueur which she had got for us to all take small shots of once we reached the beach. But since that was clearly not going to happen we ended up just taking them in this field... as you can see the sheep got quite friendly after we hung around for a little bit. For some reason the Danes love licorice flavor in everything and this liqueur was no exception, we all agreed it was terrible but who is gonna look a gift horse in the mouth?








We also visited a museum while we were in Arhus, and this picture is for my family specifically. In the modern art section of the museum i found this picture and luckily read the plaque next to it and noticed that this is actually a photo of some store fronts in Butte, Montana. pretty exciting eh?






This was one of the main attractions of the museum. Its entitle 'boy' (no surprise there) and this thing is gigantic and incredibly life like. I took a few close-up shots of his feet to show how detailed it was, there was even dirt under his toenails...i actually was looking through my photos when i was picking out ones to post and i was really confused because i didnt remember taking pictures of my feet and it took me a little while to realize that it was actually a picture of this sculpture. I dont know how tall this kid would be if he was standing up but if i remember correctly he's about 15-20 feet tall just in that crouched position.











We also stopped by one of those old time villages where everyone dresses up like theyre from the 1800s and pretends to be real town members. This is a picture of my scavenger hunt team (Ben, me, Gus and Leah). I dont know why, but i decided that we should really be into the scavenger hunt and so i forced them to participate as well. But my excitement was contagious evidently because by the end we were all pretty into it and finished in record time...or well not really record time, but we were the first ones done. AND our hard work paid off because we won, placing 1st out of the three teams that actually competed (and thats still impressive, i dont care what you say). Unfortunately our prize was just a bag full of candy which was half full of, you guessed it, licorice flavored candies...the victory was still pretty sweet though, no pun intended. (actually now that i think about it, i do intend that pun...)
Well there you have it, that was my short study tour to western denmark in a nutshell. Im sure theres a lot of stuff that i left out but hey, i gotta save something tell all of you when i actually see you in person right? anyway that gives you a little flavor at least. Sorry that last post was a little lame, i feel like im getting back into the groove though. Plus, we can only get better right? and ive still got a ton of photos cos we havent even hit my LONG study tour yet...

Arhus and Kolding

So, right after i started this blog and did the first brief post we had to go leave for our travel break, hence the extremely long time in between posts (oh and the week before i left we had exams which meant i had 5 tests and a presentation all in one week)...but im back! so lets get things started eh?
to start here is some pictures from my short study tour which i realized i never posted before.
Our study tour went to western denmark to the towns of Arhus and Kolding. it was pretty fun when we went to the first town Kolding, we went to meet some kids who were seniors in "highschool" but who were actually just a year younger than most people in our program (other than me of course haha) and we all got invited to go to a house party that first night of our trip. So of course we all though "whens the next time we'll get to go to a danish house part?" so we all went. It turned out however, that the term "house" party had been applied rather loosely, and it was actually taking place in a small 2 room apartment...so the night began with 30 americans, 10 danes, and a little bit of alcohol and one small apartment, how could that not lead to good times?
my night was fairly tame, got a little tipsy, danced to some JT (get a little alcohol in me and evidently i become a big JT fan), played some game where the whole point was just to not get shocked (which is suprisingly fun) and then went to a "strip club"...thats how it was described but that was not what it was. Me and Gus got a little pressured into that last option but we thought everyone who was left at the party was going so we figured, what the hell...but when we got in there only 5 or so other kids had went in. At any rate, when 3am rolled around me and Gus figured we should probably get some sleep since we still had a 45 minute walk back to our hostel and had to be up and ready at 8:30.
Ben, another friend who was rooming with us, had a bit more interesting of a night. although originally he was quite shy at the party, he ended up hooking up with the girl whose apartment it was...this happened out in the bushes next to the building...then when they came back she had forgotten her keys and everyone had already left to go to the "strip club"/to sleep so they were locked out and she had to call her parents to come let her in. Ben said her parents where surprisingly cool about the 2am call, having a random american boy hanging out alone with her, and the tower of beer cans her friends had created on her kitchen table...so that was good for him. plus he ended up sleeping there for a while and she actually walked him back at 6:30, which was actually very nice of her although a bit weird for a girl to do.
There is one other kid who had the craziest night out of all of us, but it would take forever to describe everything that happened that night and the next day so i'll save that for when i see you guys in person. To give you an idea though, this is a picture of him after not sleeping that night, and drinking three more beers on the bus ride to the tallest hill in denmark...









oh right and so on a completely different note, that picture up top is of the tallest "mountain" in denmark, they built that tower to make it more impressive than it is i think, because if you look at this picture to the left you'll see the view...which is about as good as it could be (even if there was no fog) from a hill that is probably less than a 1000 feet tall. but this gives you a good idea of how flat denmark is. Oh and its important that i said this was the tallest "mountain" in denmark, because this is actually not the highest point in denmark, but evidently when you are at the highest point in denmark you are in the middle of a sloping field or something...so denmark is definitely not known for its rugged terrain. When we were told we were going to be hiking tallest hill in denmark we were all prepared for at least a 30 minute hike...it actually took us more like 3 minutes, it was disappointing yet so hilarious at the same time, id say i was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing.

Riots!!

ok, so as i've learned in multiple classes the danish are not known for rioting, or prone to violence in general. prime example, you'd think a transition from absolute monarchy to democracy would have to be at least a little blood, right? (remember france?) well not in denmark, the nobles asked nicely and the king said 'yeah ok i guess that does sound good' it probably did help that the king was a little slow in the head, as in he had the mental capacity of an 8 year old...either way the point remains. So as you might expect people are pretty surprised when riots break out, since they basically never do. buuut, when the government kicked out some punk and goth kids who were living in a house that the government owned over a decade ago before selling it to a church, well theres a chance for some riots. turns out a few months ago the church decided it wanted to finally use the proporty but those young punks and hooligans that lived there werent prepared to give it up. and so they let the malotov cocktails fly, and things got a little crazy...so on the 6 month anniversary which was a little bit ago they started getting rowdy again because they didnt like the deal the government proposed which was giving them roughly 3 million dollars to buy a new building. So they decided to have protests every thursday and this was the second one. I was hoping to be dodging tear gas and police on horses...well everything started out good, this picture shows the crowed running toward the main square in Copenhagen. at this point music was blasting, guys on megaphones were screaming, and the punks were running. All the good makings for a riot right?? how could things go wrong? well lets look at the rest of the pictures i have.....
ooo, they're getting closer...and still lookin' pretty into it. oh also at this point police were driving all around blocking off streets, things were looking pretty good...










...was anyone else disappointed with that finish?
everyone just stopped and started smoking and drinking...i even saw a baby carriage...my hopes of seeing a real riot were dashed, and i couldnt have been more disappointed. the danes are just too well off to have much to complain about for very long.

So i finally have pictures to post

so heres what you see if you step out of the front of the building i live in in my "kollegium", we call individual buildings "blocks". that might be an old folks home, and that willow tree you see half of is actually on a small island in the canal. Also that building complex over there (you cant see it in this picture though) houses the local "kommune" where you go to register as a resident of the community. I order to make you feel more at ease with this slightly Orwellian way of doing things you get a "CPR card" which gets you free medical care, thats right even for me. So lets hope any major illnesses i will get for the rest of my life occur in the next 3 months so i can get them taken care of for free...

now if you turn right this is what you'll see, this is our canal that runs in front of our buildings, pretty sweet eh? also you cant tell from this picture but the visibility of that water is probably about 4 inches yet somehow fish survive and if you're out there for a few minutes your bound to hear at least one jump...perhaps gasping for air. one day i actually saw and not just heard a fish and it was surprisingly large, i didnt have my tape measure out but i'd guess about 7-8 inches.




and then if you are at the opposite end of my block and you can see all the rows of buildings...some people have likened it to a concentration camp, but i think that might be a little extreme. I mean we do have a sauna, which i use quite regularly. oh also evidently we live in the "slums" of copenhagen, but really there arent any real slums in denmark because everyone gets payed nearly the same, i should do some fact checking but someone told me that although there is no official minimum wage because unions are still really strong here there is essentially a 19US$ equivalent minimum wage for most jobs...so there are some pics of where i live...i would take some of my room but they're less impressive than UofR dorms so really whats the point.