Hej (hello)!
The first week in Denmark was amazing! Everything is going so well. My classes seem really interesting, and it's so exciting to be learning about different ideas and then seeing them come to life in front of me. What a great experience!
After a long week of orientation, I decided to relax a little. Haha just kidding. On Saturday, I visited Fredericksborg Castle in Hillerod. It was a little rainy, but it didn't matter because the trip was incredible. I don't even know where to begin in describing the castle. The architecture and craftsmanship are just ridiculously impressive. I'm hoping to upload some photos so you get an idea of what I'm talking about. But my favorite part of this tour was the gardens behind the castle. I learned that the size of your garden represents how powerful and how rich you are. Well, you can believe these nobility were pretty darn rich when you see the gardens! Simply gorgeous.
Then on Sunday, my host family took another study abroad student and me on a trip to Roskilde, which is known for the Viking Museum and cathedral. Roskilde is a town surrounding a fjord and beautiful harbor. The museum was pretty cool. It has remnants of ships that were sunk at the opening of the fjord by the Vikings in order to stop their enemy from coming into the harbor. After admiring the preserved boats, we dressed up like Vikings and took pictures in model Viking ships. Then, we learned how to write our names in the Viking language. It was a pretty elaborate alphabet so needless to say, I do not remember any of it. The cathedral was beautiful. The detail in cathedrals is just amazing to me. You could see the changes in architectural structure as you moved through the cathedral. I guess each noble wanted a unique style to be remembered by... My host dad knows a lot about the history of religion and monarchy in Denmark so we got a personal tour from him. It may not be a huge country, but it sure has some stories. In order to continue with the Viking theme, we traveled to a model Viking village. The houses seem pretty simple, but tedious at the same time. The walls were very thick, and the roof had layer upon layer of straw and such.
Anyway, that's my update from last week. I will be going on a tour of the Carlsberg Breweries tomorrow for my Danish Politics and Society class so I hope to have some interesting details about that soon!