School is Starting? Time to Party

Finally, after all the travel, we came back to Copenhagen last Thursday. We moved into our dorm, which is about a 20 min walk to campus. The first night in town we just had some dinner with Nicolai, one of the Vikings in town, and watched the Spain vs. Russia game. The following day we went to the Copenhagen Business School orientation and that was followed by a barbecue and a party at Club Mambo. In no way was the barbecue a "barbecue" since it was catered with really nice food and everyone was inside. They simply used a grill outside to cook the food. We went on to Club Mambo where there were some salsa dance lessons. One of the Danish Vikings in Copenhagen, Thomas, had invited us to a private party at his dorm and had bought tickets for us and other people if we met some. So from Club Mambo we bused it out to the party with 6 others, who all seemed very skeptical of the party and if we could even make it there. Turns out the "dorm" used to be a hotel and about 500 people live there, so it was a good time. DJs, multiple dance floors, cheap drinks, see the pictures. We partied and danced until about 6 in the morning. Tyler and I got back around 6:30 and checked his email to find that Lars, the man in charge of our scholarship here wanted to meet with us that same day so we slept for 3 hours and then woke up to leave on about an hour train ride to Helsingor, the town he lives in. We didn't have the right tickets and were swiftly kicked off the train to buy new ones, but we ended up making it. Lars took us out to lunch and told us some amazing stories, he was actually one of the first Vikings to come over to Madison in the 50s. He showed us around and we were able to see a bit of the town. We got back in time to get a few things done and then headed over to Nicolai's pad, getting a crate of beer on the way. We went out again that night and made it back around the same time. It's funny because the trains and buses stop from about 12 to 5 in the morning, so it kind of forces you to come home early or really early, in the morning. Now it was Sunday and while with Lars we had picked up the tickets he bought for us to go to the Roskilde music festival, which is a massive 4 day festival (July 3-6, around 100,000 people). We woke up and headed on a 20 min train to the festival to set up our tent early and get a good spot, what everyone does. It was absolutely insane, so many people, very diverse crowd.

I just had my first class today (Intro to Marketing) and really enjoyed it, something very practical for later in life. I met some Scandinavians in class who were not part of the international summer university, so they have been living here a while. Overall, I've met a ton of cool people. Unfortunately most of the people in my dorm are Americans, but hopefully we'll keep meeting more and more internationals in random places.

Germany vs. Turkey

Hey all, we just made it to our dorm in Copenhagen after getting off the bus from Hamburg. You may or may not know that the Euro Cup 2008 soccer tournament is going on and is a very big deal. Both Turkey and Germany made it to the semi-finals round and that game was played last night, while we were in Hamburg, Germany. Needless to say, it was quite the experience. Not only did we get to watch it in Germany, but the Turkish population in Hamburg is pretty large. Yesterday, we walked around checking out Hamburg and then started scouting a good place to watch the game. We found a few little bars that might be cool. Then, while walking through a large park, we came across a huge fenced off area with hundreds of people going in. There was also a massive stage with a massive screen for watching the game. We went to get food and beer and planned on coming back in after that. Once we got back we found out that the game started an hour earlier than we thought and was about to start. The problem was that they closed the gates after a certain amount of people came in so we were out of luck. We scrambled to the next best thing which was a large flat screen TV in a little courtyard area, outside a bar. The game turned out to be a great one with Germany winning. At this point the city went crazy, hundreds of police were already mobilized in riot gear and people were pouring into the streets. We followed the crowd and the police sirens to Hamburg's red light district where people seemed to be massing. It seemed like we were following the mass of people and chanting for hours. At times the crowd would stop and kneel to do certain cheers with random people leading them. There were huge flags, fireworks going off, and crazy things happening everywhere. This seemed like the perfect way to end the pretrip for my summer travels.

Here one of the many videos I took:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLfww_nSp_g

Hamburg

We made it to Hamburg yesterday and all is well. Our last night in Amsterdam was pretty entertaining. We went out for some absinthe at a pretty chill place, which ended up not even having normal absinthe (apparently they were out of stock on the thing they base their bar off of). We ended up getting some strawberry absinthe that was alright, but overpriced. We wandered around to some other places and ended up at a small little place where we had this interesting beer called Kwak and comes in a cool glass with a wooden handle. We ran out of money buying drinks and had enough, collectively, for one more round. Somehow Tyler went in to buy the cheaper beer we could afford and some girl ended up ordering us more Kwak, which we couldn't afford, so she picked up our tab. The 7 hour bus ride to Hamburg went well and we got into town at about 11 and took a 30 min bus ride to this guys place. We just had his name and address from finding him on couchsurfing.com. His name is Malte and he's a teacher/student/computer engineer, cool guy. So we just came into his place talked a bit, and then slept on his couch, so basically a free hostel. I recommend checking couchsurfing.com out for cheap travel. He had to get up early for work so we headed out at around 9ish and toured around town. After finding our hostel we got pretty lost on the way back to Malte's to pick up our stuff. Now we're about to check out this museum and then some hip-hop show tonight we got a flier for. Yes, yes y'all.

The Plans

So the plan right now is to leave Amsterdam for Hamburg on a 7 hour bus ride and find this guys apartment to stay at. Should be an interesting part of the trip. The worst coffee shop in Amsterdam is the Internet Coffee Shop C@fe, I think it's a front for a drug shipping place. Also, I just added this picture cause it's cool.

Steez

At the Strowis hostel in Utrecht, we met these interesting Italians, very stylish. They invited us to smoke this unique pipe they had said was very special, and expensive. Basically a long tapered tube with an equally long stone “stopper” that was removed to clean the pipe after every smoke. You were supposed to hold the pipe somewhat vertical and then use a small cloth as a filter. Only one of the four knew enough English to talk with us, but the others kept feeding him words or the proper conjugations of words when he was stuck.

Now we're back in Amsterdam at the same hostel, about to check out the Rijksmuseum. Last night turned out to be very interesting. We were invited, by a friend of Tyler, to stay at their place for a Midsummer Party that was medieval themed. We had each bought toy battle axes at thrift shop and didn't have much else. It occurred to me that we might be making a mockery of their event, but we stuck with the plan. Everyone else had unique, probably expensive, outfits you would see at the renaissance fair. We hung out and drank some great beer and ate grilled
chicken, fish, homemade salads, and what not. The best part of the evening took place when they busted out the homemade metal throwing axes and a wooden target. Quite entertaining and also quite dangerous once everyone's drunk.
Later in the evening our hosts also brought out the Mead (honey wine) and Absinthe. We slept on the floor, but not after checking the Brewers score while they were winning at 3:00 in the morning here.

The Beginning

What’s up? I plan on using this blog to relay all the good times I am having here in Europe to you. I thought I might start off with a little overview of what I’m doing here. Back in the fall I applied and was accepted to the Brittingham Viking Organization (BVO) Scholarship Program, which sends students from Scandinavia to the U.S. and vice versa in order to study, but more importantly, be part of a close organization with a lot of history. I was accepted to study at the Copenhagen Business School in Copenhagen, Denmark for the summer. I’m taking two classes, Intro to Marketing and Cross-Culture Negotiation. My original goal was to have these classes be helpful later in life, which I hope they will. Another note, I’m not doing this all alone. The other Denmark BVO scholarship winner/travel partner/partner in crime is Tyler Falish. Before classes start on the 29th of June, we planned a trip through some of northern Europe. The trip includes The Netherlands (Amsterdam and Utrecht) and Germany (Hamburg). We departed the 15th of June and come back to Denmark by bus on the 26th. We then start studying and once school is done on the 9th of August, we travel again. This time it’s all around Scandinavia and is planned by an official travel coordinator of the BVO in order to visit all the local Vikings. Then we fly home only to stop in Iceland for two nights for some hot spring action.

I have sparatic internet access during this whole first travel phase (mostly from jacking other wireless signal) and I’ll try to update this thing as much as possible. I’ve been keeping a written journal, so I can jot down random thoughts and then organize everything in this blog for everyone to read. Since its a few days into the journey, I’ll update you on everything that’s happened so far.
I checked out of Madison Saturday the 14th and then hopped a flight out of Milwaukee the next day. Due to the flooding in west Wisconsin, my gracious mother purchased a quick flight from Milwaukee to Minneapolis off of frequent flyer miles. After going through the first security checkpoint I was already searched and given a nice massage by the security. Tyler met up in Minneapolis and we jumped on the IcelandAir plane to Reykjavik, Iceland and on to Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the flights offered interactive TV screens in each seat, pretty cool except I think mine was the only on to freeze and not work, not cool. The biggest difference on this plane ride was probably the hotness factor of the stewardesses. Just like in “Catch Me if you can.”

Once in Copenhagen we took the train into town to find our host for the night Nicolai Ellehus, one of the Vikings in charge of us having a good time. He was still at work so we hung outside his place for 3 hours listening to a bit of young weezey and just trying to stay awake, since we got no sleep on the flight. Nicolai cooked us a great dinner (pasta with some bacon) and we crashed hard, sleeping on a pull out futon and bed. The next morning we made some travel arrangements and then toured a bit of Copenhagen, checking out the main shopping area and then the little mermaid statue, where we were told that in order to top the last 4 summer Vikings, we’d have to get a picture hanging on to her while naked, in the middle of the day since the others did it at night. We made our way back and were able to make it to our next flight to Amsterdam.

We came in late (around 9:00pm) and we were worried about not finding a hostel with rooms still available. We walked into Bob’s Youth Hostel while the Netherlands was playing in the Euro Cup. They had two beds left and they gave us a beer, so we waited until after the game was over until we checked in. The last two beds were also the best, being right next to the window and not bunk beds like the others. We went out on the town after that and had a crazy evening, ending with seeing a man taken out of the 4th floor of a building by a fire ladder.

We toured Amsterdam the next day and ended up finding a traveling exhibition on the World Press photojournalist competition. Basically the best photos from world events in this really old church, amazing stuff. We hung around town and eventually met up with two cool Canadian girls who took us out to places they had been and were apparently now regulars, getting us free drinks after a meal and what not. We ended up in “Sally’s Saloon,” which just seemed like a country/northern Wisconsin bar. Although I didn’t find much, I rocked some tunes on the jukebox.

The next day we left Amsterdam for Utrecht, which is a smaller town south of Amsterdam about an hour on a train. Tyler had studied here and had loved it. Here we’re staying at the Strowis hostel, which has a great closed in backyard garden area, which is where I’m chilling now, typing this. The first day in Utrecht we hung out around town and then made some pasta in the hostel kitchen for dinner. We went out to this place, Café Belgie, which had over 100 different types of beer and then to this other bar where we saw some live. The music was a really bad cross of funk and 90’s pop hits, it was enjoyable though. We stumbled back to our place only to meet some hostel folk drinking out in the garden. One was from Virginia and the other was from Bulgaria (Tony). He told us hilarious stories about his views on self-importance and drinking. He kept pouring more and more Jack Daniels into our glasses, which ended our evening. The day after we went on a huge bike ride seeing a castle, windmills, hookers on boats, and what not all day.

The garden area at Strowis -->