It's pronounced Copen-hay-gen ...

It appears that we Aussies say it all wrong! I spent the weekend in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, which is 3 hours away from Aarhus by bus - like Sydney to Canberra! However, the bus to Copenhagen goes on a ferry for half the trip, which is much more exciting!

This was an activity organised by the Aarhus Studenterhus, which is the organisation run by students, for Danish and international students. They organise things quite a lot, however the word 'organise' should be used loosely, as frequently the 'guides' know less than we do, and always seem confused and disorganised - such as when we meet on the bus, it is always hard to know who is actually organising us, and what will happen!

That was the case with Copenhagen, where our poor leader Tomas had been thrown in at the last minute, and actually knew very little about Copenhagen - he had to ask locals for directions from the train station to our accomodation, from there to the restaurant, to the bus ... He also knew very little about our accomodation, such as breakfast times, what to do with luggage etc - what was advertised as a 'hotel' was actually a hostel, with three-storey bunk beds! With no ladders, so the boys had to vault up!

But it's all part of the fun of travelling, really, as was our spending both nights wandering the streets of Copenhagen, trying to find a nightclub without exhorbitant entry fees! We spent much time walking in the wrong direction, a small amount of time being converted in the Scientology building, some time with kebabs - a usual night out, really! On the Saturday night we went and saw a Scottish band, Mogwai, perform - very cool, wall of sound type music!



During the day, we saw the Rosenberg palace, Nyhavn (a former fishing village, on a canal - lovely!), the Parliament building (Folketing), the main shopping street (Stroget) and Christiania, which is a little hippie community out of the city centre, self-contained on a lovely bit of riverfront. We also did a little shopping and general wandering around, near the National Theatre and the Town Hall - so all in all, a lot achieved in 2 days, as we arrived Friday night and left Sunday afternoon!



Rosenberg Palace



Nyhavn



Christiania


Last night some of my lovely German friends cooked a traditional German meal, which name I can't spell - meatballs with potatoes, peas and a nice sauce - very yummy!

After a couple of busy days at home here, with uni and socialising and the usual, we are off to Amsterdam this weekend - 11 of us, Canadians, Australians, English and Austrians - it should be lots of fun!