Copenhagen

When we arrived in Copenhagen on Monday morning, we were all pretty excited that we were going to be staying in a hotel. It was a one-star hotel. What exactly is a one-star hotel, you might ask. Well, the light in Annie and my room didn't work, and they weren't so pressed on fixing it, there were only three bathrooms and two showers on the whole floor, and the whole thing looked as if it came from East Germany...

On Tuesday, we got up early for a tour of Copenhagen's harbor and canals, on a short and wide boat that could go under all the bridges. The tour started in Nyhaven, or the new harbor, which is actually a cute little canal with lots of old boats and houses.


[Nyhaven]

The tour passed by the new Shakespeare theater, the new opera house, the stock exchange, Christiania, and the little Mermaid statue among other things. The tour was so well done and the city so beautiful that I took lots and lots of pictures.


[Annie, Jessica, and I on the tour]


[Beautiful Copenhagen]

After the tour was done, we went over to the royal palaces to watch the changing of the guard, which happens daily at noon. On our way, we stopped at the Marmorkirche (Marble Church), which had a wonderfully decorated interior and bizarre organ music playing. The Church, Castle and new National Opera House line up perfectly, supposedly reflecting the belief of God, state, and culture.


[Outside of the Church]


[Inside the Church]

After having seen guard changes in various different countries, I expected something at least a little bit exciting. However the Danish guard does a process that is very simple, simply to change the men guarding the palace. Although it was very precise, we couldn't watch the whole thing, and decided to leave and go to the Carlsberg Brewery instead.


[Changing of the guard]

The Carlsberg Brewery is a place that I visited once with my family when we came to Copenhagen. I was so young, I don't remember much, except huge copper containers, horses, and getting soda at the end of the tour. Since then, the tour and visitor center have changed a lot. It is not a self guided tour through a museum about the history of Carlsberg, as well as a comparison between the process they used to make beer and how they do it now. Unfortunately, there is no longer a place where you can see them actually brewing the beer. But, at the end of the tour, they have a really cool section, where you can smell different smells associated with beer. You then cross off which smells you liked, and they tell you which beers contain those smells. Then, you can go to the bar and get two free beers of your choice. When I first went to Carlsberg, my favorite part were the horses. Today, the end of the tour was a lot more interesting, but the horses were still fun.


[By the elephants at the brewery]


[Recreating an old photo...]


[Getting slobbered on by horses]


[Taking advantage of all the tour offered]

On Wednesday, we had a tour of the "Free Town of Christiania." Founded in the 70s, the state claims to be separate from Denmark and follow its own laws. Basically, a bunch of students and left-wingers squatted old military barracks and the Danish government let them stay there because they were afraid of radical groups forming, like the Red Army Faction in West Germany. About 600 people live in Christiania, and our tour gave an overview of the history, an explanation of how things are set up, and a general look around.


[View of rooftops in Christiania]

One of the biggest controversies surrounding Christiania is the legality of marijuana. One of their laws is that marijuana is legal, so many people who don't live there come to "Pusher Street" to sell. With a change to a more conservative government, this has been causing problems lately for the Christianias. Even as we were there, a bunch of police came in and tried to hold a raid. But, they can't really arrest anyone without hard evidence, which the dealers usually hide before the police can find it. It seemed like a raid more to threaten the dealers than really try to arrest anyone. Although the Christianias are mostly hippies who probably do smoke marijuana, my personal belief is that they are upset with the government because the government is showing a blatant lack of respect for the laws of Christiania by doing these raids. More concretely, they are trying to prevent more people from moving in and trying to tear down houses of those who move out.


[Christiania]

After that, Sean and I went to the Danish National Museum. Free everyday, it has not only artifacts from Denmark but also collections from all over the world. Like some other museums that I have been to in Berlin, there is one half that is new and very well presented, and another half that is somewhat drier. But since the museum is free, you really can't complain!


[The Danish National Opera House by day]

That night, Dirk managed to get us tickets to the opera at the National Danish Opera House. The architect is the same one who designed the famous Sydney Opera House, and Copenhagen hopes it will be noticed by the world community as well. For such a large building, the actual hall is rather small, with seats going up very steeply so that even the seats highest up (where we were sitting) still have a good view. Even though we had nosebleed seats and were a group of seventy, the tickets still cost about 70 Euros each! But it was definitely worth it. The opera, being all in Danish, couldn't really be understood even with my knowledge of Swedish, but the costumes and scenery were amazing and it was just fun to be in such a place.


[Sean and I on our way to the Opera]


[Annie, me and Casey]


[Inside]


[FU Friends at the opera!]


[Copenhagen by night]

On Thursday, we learned that there had been a riot in Christiania the night before. During the raid that we had experienced, apparently a police officer shot a dog as a show of power. Of course, with all the debate that is going on about Christiania, this was the perfect opportunity for them to react. When we arrived the next day, there were huge burn marks in the street where bonfires had been, debris and rubble still smoking in others, furniture stores that had been broken into, and street lights that had been chopped in half.


[A little part of the aftermath of the riot]

From there we headed to the Little Mermaid statue. The mermaid symbol of Copenhagen taken from Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale that we all had to take a picture with.


[With the little Mermaid]

From there we met the whole group for an excursion. We had a tour scheduled at Kronborg Slot in Helsingor. This might not mean a lot of everyone, but Elsinore might be more familiar. In any case, it is the castle that Shakespeare based Hamlet on. Although this is what the castle is famous for, our tour guide wanted us to be aware of the fact that Hamlet is a work of fiction, and didn't actually happen in this castle. But it is based on events that happened in this castle. The best part of the tour was how the tour guide kept taking about how much the Swedes had stolen from the castle. Since it is the closest part to Sweden, apparently the Swedes marauded it a couple of times and are still selling things back to the Danes. Maybe I should have told him that he should be careful since even in a group of Americans he could be offending Swedes...


[Reenacting Hamlet... feel free to guess who is who]


[The castle]

Hamburg: Art, Opera, Harbors, Beaches, and Spices

On Saturday, we had basically the whole day free, so we decided to go to the Kunsthalle, or Museum or Art. Like the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the museum had both old and modern art. Modern art is always more interesting to me, and they had a very large section devoted to it.


[Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe]

My favorite pieces were the video installations; a particularly interesting piece was a State of the Union address given by George Bush, where all the words were cut up and alphabetized. It was quite amazing how many times he said "Merica" and how simple his vocabulary was. The museum was quite extensive, and we ended up spending most of the day there.


[Me, Annie, Jessica and Casey before the Opera]

On Saturday night, we had tickets to the opera as a group. At the Hamburg Kammeroper, we saw a very modern rendition of Orpheus and Eurydice. The story is about a man who is so depressed after the death of his wife that he tries to go to Hades to rescue her. Along with other challenges, he is allowed to, as long as he does not look at her before they are out of hell. Of course, he cannot do this and ends up looking at her.


[The Kammeroper]

In the opera we saw, Orpheus does not go to hell, but rather gets high and has some sort of trip where he imagines seeing Eurydice. It would have been alright to see such a modern rendition, but it was also poorly staged. Almost all the action happened on the floor, and due to the seating, we could not see what was happening in the small theater from our seats.


[Group on the boat]

On Sunday, we got up early for a tour of Hamburg's harbor with the whole group. After a late start, our boat tour began. Although Hamburg has very pretty canals, they are somewhat hard to navigate because of the difference in the tide. So instead, our tour was of the large Harbor that Hamburg is known for.


[Chinese shipping boat]

For two hours, we heard about Hamburg's harbor. This meant we got details about how many ships come in, what they deliver, how they are transported, etc. There was very little about Hamburg as a historic harbor and more about it's modern day functions. This was of course, not what we expected and not what most people would have enjoyed.


[Part of the old harbor that is left, cranes that used to haul up goods. Hamburg was once a big port with spices and goods coming in from all over the world. The commercial sale is now mainly oriental carpets.]

After the harbor tour, we went to the "Spicy's Spice Museum." The only spice museum in the world, it talks about where spices come from, how they are extracted from plants, how the spice trade was run, why spices were important, and most importantly, has a whole section where you can taste and smell the spices.


[All different kinds of spices.]


[Everyone smelling the spices.]

It wasn't a very large museum, but it was really interesting to learn about the spices and where they come from. But best of all was really getting to experience all the spices.


[On the boat, which are part of public transportation, on the way to the beaches]

After the Spice Museum, the sun started poking out and we rushed over to Hamburg's "beaches" that lie along the river in hopes of enjoying the sun. However, by the time we got to the beaches, it was already cloudy again. We did have a good time watching the Germans on their Sunday walks though.


[Annie and I on the beach]

After the beach we headed to the infamous St. Pauli and Reeperbahn, since we had been told it was one of the sights to see in Hamburg. St. Pauli is the biggest red-light district in Europe. Even though the rest of the city claims to be classy, the Reeperbahn really brings it down a notch. Even during the day it was seedy and uncomfortable... almost scary. In general, not a good place to hang out, yet way too much emphasis is put on it as a tourist attraction in Hamburg, and even a place where regular bars and clubs are. I would advise to see it only as a sight, but not to expect to find anything of real interest there.

Hamburg: A Tour and a Carnival

As part of the tuition that we pay for the FU BEST Program, we get a 9-day excursion/ trip with the whole group. This semester's trip is to Hamburg and Copenhagen. We left last Friday and get back on Saturday, so I am updating my blog before we are done here in Copenhagen.

On Friday morning, we left for Hamburg from the Hauptbahnhof with an Intercity Express (ICE) train. Although we are 75 people, which makes it very hard to move around as a group, only one person missed the train. Once at the station in Hamburg, we got our transportation passes and moved on to the youth hostel that we were staying at. Dirk, our program director, had booked rooms for us at the Hosteling International Hostel (like the one that we stayed at in Binz, except nicer). The hostel was right on the waterfront, with breakfast and dinner included.

Since we couldn't check in until 1 and we had a walking tour that started at 3, so some friends and I decided to just walk around until then. Hamburg is a port city, which obviously means a large port and industrial area, but also a tendency for commerce and capitalism. As such, it is a pretty rich city. In fact, it has the most number of millionaires of many German city and a very high cost of living. Walking around the city, there are tons of expensive shops, almost no cars that arn't BMWs, Mercedes, Porches, VWs, MGs, etc, and houses that have ridiculously high rents.



[group exploring Hamburg]


[Nikolaikirche, bombed and now a memorial.]

At 3, we got a walking tour of Hamburg, where are tour guide just emphasized how rich and high class of a city Hamburg is. It has always been a port, with commerce being the most important trade and a center of the old Hanseatic League (which it still prides itself on). However, our tour guide also made the dichotomy of the city very apparent. On the one side is the commerce, while on the other is the Reeperbahn and St. Pauli, the largest red light district in Europe.


[Town Hall in Hamburg]


[Annie and me in front of the fountain that sits in the courtyard between the stock exchange and the town hall]


[Hamburg is sometimes called Venice of the north because of it's canals]


[Haborcity, the largest construction site in Europe. Basically a really rich area of the city where expensive apartments are being built that just have hideous views of the industrial area of Hamburg. I wouldn't pay money to live there]


[The car elevator in Hamburg; a tunnel that has two elevators on both sides for the cars. It is also closed on the weekends, and can be rented out for parties]

After a nap and dinner, we headed to the DOM carnival that happens in Hamburg three times a year. It was really fun to be at a carnival [the lights, excitement, rides, etc], but it was also really fun to see cultural differences in the kinds of rides and stands that they have [for example, a lot of beer and beer gardens, as well as fish sandwiches].


[DOM!]


[Girls on the Ferris Wheel]


[The Carnival from the Ferris Wheel]


The night at the Carnival was topped off with fireworks!