All the "oldies" have gone home now, leaving just us fresh newbies. I'm in no way ready to say that I am halfway through this exchange, but it appears to be that way. However, if the next 6 months are crammed with as many brilliant times as the last 6 months, things will be very very good.
A farewell party with my local "oldies":
I played a recent performance, accompanying a lady singing, for a very large Rotary function (several hundred people) in Ry, and it made it in to the newspaper!
If you look pretty closely, you can spy me playing the piano behind her singing. Front page in the newspaper!
Copenhagen, eller "København" på Dansk, was a brilliant trip. A little trivia for you - the name København comes from the Danish words for purchase (købe) and "havn" means port, as this is what Copenhagen was originally. It is a beautiful, and I would call it "cute", city. Very, very "hyggeligt", as the Danes say.
We took a boat cruise around the city first, through the canals and in the harbour of the city.
The little mermaid:
The Danish opera house:
And picturesque Danish harbour:
After that, we toured the city.
Jeanette (hostmum), Rebecca (3year old host sister) and myself:
Up the Rundetarnet, a great tower in the middle of Copenhagen that was used as an observatory, and actually doesn't have any stairs so the king could be pulled up by his horses:
The next day, we went to Tivoli, the amusement park/Danish institution in the middle of Copenhagen. It is located directly across the road from the central train station of Copenhagen, and soooo much money has been spent on maintaining the gardens, the palace, the grounds and of course the rides. It's been in existence since 1843, making the oldest amusement park in the world. I was with my host family and host-Aunt and Uncle, as well as two cousins.
Tivoli palace:
On a ride with my little sister:
On The Demon, with host cousins in the two seats next to me:
Relaxing with my host cousins after an awesome day:
After two brilliant days in Copenhagen, we picked up Aja, my 18 year old host sister, from the airport in Copenhagen after her exchange year in Chile.
Host family at the airport: (left to right) Jeanette, Kim, Rebecca and Aja.
From the airport, we drove directly to Roskilde, where my host family left me so I could visit an old friend from Denmark, Marie. Marie is a penpal I've had since I was 13, and we've written regularly (and irregularly) over the past 5 years over email. She played a major part in my choosing of Denmark as my exchange country, as after hearing about this place for 6 years, receiving emails from the strange country on the other side of the globe, one becomes rather curious. This was the nervous first face-to-face meeting, and it went brilliantly. I stayed at her house for three nights, and we explored Roskilde, a little more in Copenhagen and took a day trip to Sweden.
Picking tasty Danish strawberries:
The awesome organ in Roskilde Domkirke:
Christiania, a free hippy state in the centre of Copenhagen:
In Malmø, Sweden:
On an actual castle moat!:
After three very nice days with her family, I took the train back to Ry.
I took a 60 kilometre, two day biking trip with my friend, Tina, from my school class, around the beautiful Danish forest. We camped in open log cabins, riding from Silkeborg to Ry and then back to Silkeborg. It rained a huge amount, and we were without raincoats and got very wet. But that just added to the adventure really.
Tina with out campsite:
Standing on top of a 2500 year old Viking grave:
Angry at the rain:
But excited about Vegemite:
Since then, my host sister has gone on a trip to Italy for 3 weeks with a friend, and my host mum and two little sisters have gone away for a week for a kind of holiday workshop. I'm home with my host dad, Kim. Yesterday we went to see the 2000 year old preserved remains of an ancient Dane in Silkeborg museum. He was found preserved in a bog about 50 years ago, and the body was so well preserved that the man who found it thought it had been a recent murder. The following investigation soon revealed that the man was indeed murdered, but over 2000 years beforehand.
Tollund Man:
My host brother, Leon, has just today returned from a 3 month vacation to India where he went on exchange 4 years ago. It seems the members of this household are unable to be in the same place at the same time! We will have all home bar Aja from next week, but then I'll be in Belgium from the 16th. It won't be until the 1st of August that we all live in the same house.
Hoping all is well back downunder!
Knus, Daniel
