The Pest Side is the Best Side

Alright the Flying Danish continues on his preview of Budapest. Now class let us go over the highlights we are going to see in Pest, which lies on the east side of the Danube. Pest seems to be the more modern side of Budapest, and trust me it has a lot more to offer than just a proliferation of accent marks and z's. First off my hostel (Kalvin House) is located here, close to the Szabadság Hig (that's a bridge people), if hostel is even the right word (see photo). Speaking of bridges, the Megyeri Bridge that was almost named after Stephen Colbert (or Chuck Norris) is located about five miles down the Danube from here in case you were wondering.

Belváros (Inner Town) is the part of Pest that is next to the Danube. One of the most awesome sights in here has to be the Hungarian Parliament building, also known as the Eclectic Parliament. Besides being an amazing building inside and out, it also houses a number of artifacts including the Crown of Saint Stephen, which apparently is recognized as one of Hungary's national icons. Speaking of Saint Stephen, the Basillica of Saint Stephen is also located in Belváros. At 96m, it is tied with the Parliament building for being the tallest in Budapest. Besides offering great views of the city, you can apparently also find the mummified right hand of Saint Stephen here as well. Also in Belváros are several statues and monuments, including one called Shoes on the Danube commemorating Jews killed by the Arrow Cross Party in 1944.

Erzsébetváros is a district east of Inner Town, and is home to the Dohány Street Synagogue, also known as the Great Synagogue, the second largest synagogue in the world besides the Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Józsefváros and Ferencváros are districts south and southwest of Inner Town, and house a number of museums.

The best known street in Hungary is perhaps Andrássy Út, which stretches two and a half kilometers from near the Danube to Hősök tere* (Heroes Square) in City Park. Along with Castle Hill, Andrássy Út is listed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is chockablock full of famous buildings, restaurants, monuments, and shops. In the center of Heroes Square lies the Millinery Monument. Heading north you can find many great places to visit including the House of Terror** which has many exhibits related to the Fascist and Communist regimes of last century. There is also the Hungarian State Opera House and the Museum of Fine Arts.

The street ends at Városliget, or City Park. City Park has everything you could want, castles (Vajdahunyad), thermal baths (Széchenyi, the largest in Europe), more museums, a zoo, an amusement park, restaurants, ponds, and let's not forget the Timewheel, the world's largest hourglass.

Despite Mindy's recommendation I am not entirely sold on the thermal bath idea. Then again, after India I might as well continue on my tour of cultural uncomfortable massages.

*Seriously dudes, double accent marks plus umlauts? It's a five letter word
**Not to be confused with Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

Want A Piece of That Buda

Well, I will be landing in Budapest almost three days to the dot since I started this post (Monday at 2 p.m.). As many of the people here have noticed I tend to plan things out a lot before I travel and Budapest is no exception. Fortunately I have five and a half days or so, so I don't think I will be rushed. I've looked into the weather some more it looks like it will be pretty hot on Thursday (87 degrees) but living in a state normally mired in humidity I must say that it appears to be a 'dry heat.' The humidity today in Minneapolis is 71% while in Budapest it is 22%, which is phenomenally low; hopefully, this turns out to be the norm.

Anyway... back to Budapest. The city can be traced back roughly 1,000 years when Magyars settled in the area. Buda and Pest were originally two different cities, which were unified in 1873. Budapest has seen a lot of trouble in its days, from a Mongol invasion in 1241, a Turkish invasion in 1541, controlled by the Austrian Empire, being attacked during World War II, as well as several decades of communist rule. Despite enforcement of Nazi policies by the Arrow Cross during World War II, Budapest has the highest per capita number of Jewish residents of any major European city. It is also believed to be the "gayest" city in Europe, although I'm not sure how one would measure that.

There are a number of districts and attractions in Budapest that are worth noting. One of the obvious ones on the Buda side is Castle Hill, an area that contains Buda Castle complete with labyrinth, the Hungarian National Gallery, National Széchényi Library, Matthias Church, the Holy Trinity Column, and the Fisherman's Bastion among other things.

To the south of Castle Hill are Gellért Hill and area called the Tabán. In the former is one of Budapest's famous thermal baths, the aptly named Gellért Baths. The hill itself is said to be one of the best views in Budapest, looking over Castle Hill and the Danube, and is also home to the Citadella, a castle that now also doubles as a restaurant, hostel, and disco. Gellért Hill is also home to a number of famous caves and statues, mostly prominently the Szabadság-sabor or Liberty Statue.

The part of Buda right north of Castle Hill is called Víziváros which is home to Millennium Park, the Lukács Baths, and the Tomb of Gül Baba among other things. Further north is Óbuda or 'Old Buda.' Here lies the Aquincum museum among the ruins of the ancient Roman settlement, along with a variety of other reconstructed Roman buildings and a smattering of museums. Other areas around here are the Buda Hills and Margaret Island, which actually lies on the Danube between the Buda and Pest.

Alright this post appears to be going on and on so I will cut it off at the Buda side of Budapest. Plus I think it may break the spell checker. I may add some more stuff here later as I peruse my Budapest book and the Internet.

Sziasztok!

You Got Your Buda in My Pest!

Hello true believers, it's yet another rainy Monday and I have some quick updating to do. I've got two projects for my International Investments class that we have to finish up by Monday and Wednesday respectively. I will probably blog about my return trip through Malmö soon and my ramblings around town and to Odense, once I get those things done.

In the meantime it is my proud duty to inform you that I will be headed to Budapest for a relaxing five night, six day stay starting on Thursday. I have a take home final I will receive and complete on Wednesday night and then Thursday morning I am off to the airport. My final exam is on Thursday afternoon so it works out quite nicely for me.

I was getting a little worried since Budapest is currently going through quite a heatwave. Yesterday it topped out at 100 degrees, with temps of 98, 89, and 96 today, tomorrow, and Tuesday expected. Oof-da! However, the expected temperature on Wednesday is a near perfect 78 degrees, which will hopefully stick around after a while. At least Budapest seems to cool off greatly at night. If the last couple days are any indication it looks like it drops anywhere between 20 and 40 degrees at night. Either way I'll pack for both.

More posts coming soon I promise!

Stockholm Weekend (Day 2)

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Day number two started out fairly early. Somehow I didn't get woken up once during the night, despite being in a room with twelve other people most dudes who got back after I went to bed and right next to a loud road (not to mention the four o'clock sunrise). We set out to walk around Gamla Stan before the tourists showed up. None of the shops were open when we started, so there was little activity other than a couple of people milling around or getting their store ready.

Gamla Stan looks more cosy when it's not full of tourist groups, and besides the retracing some of the steps we took yesterday, we found some cool nook and crannies such as a statue of Saint George slaying the dragon, and Mårten Trotzigs Gränd - the narrowest street in Gamla Stan. We ended up near Kungliga Slottet again and checked out the Royal Guard. Let's just say if you wanted to attack Stockholm now might be a good time to do it. I know Buckingham Palace is a high standard to live up to but come on guys. These dudes were chatting and taking photos with tourists and looking around, all the stuff everybody knows the palace guards are not supposed to do. We even saw one guy go back to his car because he apparently left the plume to his hat in the trunk.

On another note, we were greeted by the Crown Princess Victoria as she was driven back to her residence. Unfortunately I was just putting my camera away when she turned the corner but that's her in the black car, I promise. She waved at me. One odd thing Laura and I noticed was that on all the postcards we found of the royal family they all looked very plastic and well, less than attractive. But I can vouch for Princess Victoria and say she is quite the looker.

Brunch was at another great little cafe, this time Chokladkoppen ("the chocolate cup"). I had a large chocolate muffin that was very good. I would also give this cafe the thumbs up. Once we had our snack we hurried off to get on a short boat tour around Stockholm. We got there just before it took off and unfortunately got stuck in the middle of the aisle which wouldn't have been a problem but the top windows were really scuffed and hard to see out of. Like most boat tours seem to be this one was a little weird, but we got to see a few neat things and pick up some strange facts about housing regulations in Stockholm.

Our next stop was the Stadshusset (City Hall), which besides being kind of a cool building has a tall tower that gives you a great view of the picture, and is definitely the source of many postcard views of Gamla Stan (the picture at the top of the post was taken from there). They only allow 30 people at a time to be in the tower so it took quite a while but if this is your kind of thing it is definitely worth it.

Once we got our fill of the view we meandered back to Gamla Stan and passed by the Royal Palace to witness yet another bizarre Royal Guard ceremony. It might have made more sense if I spoke Swedish but it involved cleaning the muzzle of their rifles in a pair of tubes that was being dragged around in something that looked like a Radio Flyer wagon. We took a tour of the Royal Apartments but didn't run into my girlfriend, Queen Victoria. The Royal Apartments were a little boring but I thought the Hall of State was pretty cool. We made a short stop at the Nobel Museum although I almost fell asleep watching some short videos about life at Cambridge and I think the Bern Institute of Immunology or something similar.

After picking up tickets for the bullet train (120+ mph) back to the airport we stopped in to the Absolut Icebar. Their reservation system is kind of strange so if you want to go I would either plan ahead and be prepared to get there early and start the line at least by 9:15. The Icebar itself was kind of cool, both literally and figuratively although -5 degrees Celsius isn't all that cold if there's no breeze. Like most things in the bar though the glasses are made of ice so the gloves come in handy though. Not much too it but if you don't have plans the novelty of it is worth a trip.

After spending a chilly forty five minutes or so we heady back to Gamla Stan for a little cheaper fare, and after being rained on again we stumbled into a cellar bar that served mead and had a number of servers who were dressed in medieval costumes. We met up with some locals (pictured here) and chatted them up for a while before retiring for the evening.

Stockholm Weekend (Day 1)

I was off to Stockholm this weekend for a well deserved vacation, after working hard to get all of my school work down before Friday. Of course, I only had two and a half days to enjoy Stockholm and Malmö. After a near miss Friday morning, Laura and I made it to Malmö airport Friday morning and landed at Arlanda airport outside of Stockholm around noon. For those of you that don't know, I'm about a quarter Swedish.

It would be a couple of hours before we could check into our hostel on Gamla Stan ("The Old City"), right in the heart of Copenhagen. Stockholm is apparently known as the "Venice of the North," although so are a about five other cities so I guess it's kind of an empty title. Either way you can see how someone would come up with that, especially on Gamla Stan. Much more so than Copenhagen, you always feel like you are surrounded by water when you are in the center of Stockholm, since the city is basically bisected by the water that flows between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. Between the canals, the narrow streets, the cafes, and the Renaissance architecture, Gamla Stan in particular feels very Venetian. Not that I've ever been to Italy but I'm just saying.

Our initial journey mainly would through the area north of Gamla Stan called Norrmalm, through some shopping areas, Sergels Torg, past some well-known statues, buildings, and churches to one of the Stockholm tourism offices where we purchased a Stockholm card which for around $60 gives you free or discounted access to a number of tours and museums as well a unlimited public transportation for 48 hours (for any of you traveling to Stockholm or probably any major city for that matter you can get them for 24 or 72 hours as well). Then it was down to Gamla Stan for lunch at the Martha-recommended (and now Peter-recommended) Cafe Cronan which has a ton of delicious menu items. Then we checked into our hostel, the "cozy" 2Kroner Hostel which by cozy I mean cramped but it was pretty clean, cheap (about $35 a night in the dorm), and had a prime location.

After dumping most of our stuff off at the hostel we set out again. We roamed around Gamla Stan and checked out the Riddarholmskyrkan, one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm dating back to the 13th century. A number of Swedish monarchs are buried here, most notably Karl Knutson Bonde, and if you're a heraldry buff it will probably be on your "must see" list (but no photos allowed). We also roamed around the Storkrykan (St. Nicolaus Church), Riksdaghuset (Parliament), the Riddarhuset (Swedish House of Lords), and the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace).

We were running out of time before the museums and such closed, so we trucked over to the Vasamuseet, a maritime museum that houses a remarkably maintained 17th-century Swedish warship, the Vasa. As Mindy can and has repeatedly attested to, it is quite difficult to take a photo of the Vasa because the museum is dark and the Vasa is both dark and pretty huge (I took the photo on the right off the web). We happened on the last tour of the day and got to hear the history of the Vasa, which was quite short because the boat sank a couple hundred meters into its maiden voyage. The Vasa might have been easier to photograph if it still had its original paint which from the samples I saw would have been some horrible combination that would have made it look like some kind of hideous floating gingerbread house.

Then we trekked to the Kaknästornet, a large TV tower that is rumored to have some of the best views of the city. You could see for quite some distance from the top deck, although the tower is kind of far away so most things are pretty hard to see and glare from the sun on the (dirty) windows made it pretty hard to take photos. After we got our share of the view we took a walk through the forest on Djurgården where we unsuccessfully looked for a monument to Gustav something or other and a cool old tower (Bredablick Tower), we did manage to find Rosendals Slott before making our way to Stockholm's Tivoli. The Gröna Lund Tivoli lacked the ambiance and character of Copenhagen's Tivoli and seemed a lot more directed towards kids. Still it was free to get in with the Stockholm Card and we took a look around. Laura went on some ride called the Fritt Fall, which I'm assuming means Free Fall, which basically takes you really high and then you just drop. After eating way too much popcorn we were off to the hostel to get some well deserved rest.

Copenhagen Jazz Festival

Last Tuesday we took a little jaunt to see some of the music of Copenhagen Jazz Festival (yes, I'm still a week behind leave me alone). Not too much to say about it. We saw a jazz band play near the big anchor at the tip of Nyhavn for a couple hours. I don't do a lot of jazz back in the Twin Cities, but apparently it attracts a lot of old people and backpackers.

Anyway, the music was fine and I got to get in touch with a few students I hadn't seen in a while. I don't know what other jazz festivals are like, but this one goes on for several weeks I think and involves small concerts scattered about town. Once the band stopped, we wandered about the city looking for the other venues but it turned out that they were all in bars and restaurants and you had to pay 40 or 50 kroner just to get in. Since I was traveling with the undergrads that was kind of a deal breaker. Anyway we moseyed around for a while and headed home, time to get ready for another day of classes.

Ich Ben Ein Berliner (Day 3)

We got up early to leave Berlin and head out to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, which is located in northern Berlin or just north of Berlin depending on how you look at it. As you might guess, it wasn't exactly party time but it was a good trip in terms of experience. Most of the barracks and prisoner buildings were no longer there, but the large stone buildings were mostly still fully intact.

There are several exhibits around the camp, mostly centering around either daily life in the camp or the history of the camp, with numerous smaller exhibits focusing on smaller details. We didn't have a lot of time, but I wandered about the camp looking at some of the old guard towers and buildings, including several memorials.

Finally we loaded back up on the bus and started our trip back to Copenhagen. Unlike the trip to Berlin, this time I actually got a bunch of reading done. When drove back to Rostock where everybody stocked up on cheap German beer and chocolate and we took the ferry back to Denmark.

Ich Ben Ein Berliner (Day 2) - Part II

Alright, it's time to get to the second half of our second day in Berlin before the memory of if completely escapes me. Now where was I... oh yeah, we had just finished our guided tour of the former East Berlin.

After a little fuddling around we decided to walk towards the Reichstag and stop at any cool shops we saw along the way. Our first stop was the aforementioned Ampleman store and then browsed a long flea market where I think I picked up an "You Are Now Leaving the American Sector" fridge magnet. Unfortunately when the got to the Reichstag the line to go up to the glass dome on top was hundreds of feet outside and not moving noticeably. So we did the next best thing we could think of which is to take a million pictures of it.

Then we headed back to Pariser Platz to buy a new umbrella and get some more trashy souveniers. My crappy (but free) American Express umbrella had finally eaten it on account of the strong winds that decided to accompany the many, many rain showers. I choose a small, sturdy dark blue umbrella that had the word Berlinerin writen on it. I didn't find out until I got back to Copenhagen that Berlinerin means a woman from Berlin. Awesome. Either way it was good timing because a few minutes after we left the store with more fridge magnets and golf balls in hand it started to downpour.

Once the rain slowed down to a more manageable level, the four of us (a.k.a. Melanie, Yaron, Talma, and myself) headed down the Straße des 17. Juni towards the Siegessäule a.k.a. the Berlin Victory Column, which is pretty much another kick-ass Prussian monument. We would have liked to venture over to West Berlin but we were starting to run out of time, so we jumped in a taxi to Al Hamra, the dinner spot of the night. On the way over we passed a couple establishments of note. The first was the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (not my photo), which is most notably for the ruined belfry of the old church which was bombed during World War II. After the war a new church was built right next to it, but the belfry was kept as is. The other strange siting was what appeared to be a Chinese restaurant called White Trash Fast Food. It actually turned out to some sort of hipster tattoo parlor-barber-club-restaurant deal, which was kind of disappointing to be honest.

The rest of our night was relatively mundane but it was still a good time for all. We had dinner at Al Hamra, some sort of Middle Eastern joint that served ala carte which always seemed to be ala half empty whenever we got to the front of the line (we never did get any chicken, grrrr). The four amigos decided to skip the pub crawl and head out on our own, following the suggestions of a few locals. We walked up and down a few streets where I learned the joy of Original Berliner Weisse Red, a somewhat weak beer which is flavored with raspberry syrup to cover up its sour taste (there is also a "green" which is flavored with herbs and is described as woodruff-flavored, whatever the hell woodruff is supposed to taste like). After that is was off for some ice cream, and then back to the hostel for bed.

Blog Update

Wowsers! It's been three and a half weeks since I arrived here in Copenhagen and it feels like yesterday. Hard to believe that I'll be back at work three weeks from today. I finally have a little free time to catch up on my blogging. I still haven't finished my Berlin trip and now I have to write about my trip to Stockholm and Malmö this weekend, plus a few smaller events here in Copenhagen. It will be nice to stay off my feet for a couple days... my poor feet are really ripped up and blistered at this point. Yesterday I had two group presentations which went well, so I'm also glad to have those out of the way.

I will probably spend this upcoming weekend in town, although there is a day trip to Odense on Saturday which I will go on. That will give me some time to finish up some work and explore other parts of Copenhagen that I haven't really gotten to yet. I will be planning some other trips including a possible five day Helsinki-Tallinn trip and possibly an extended layover in Iceland on the way back if I can get my flight changed.

I Need to Start Bringing My Camera to the Grocery Store

On my walk to Fakta this morning I saw two thing that, well, you don't see every day:

A man carrying his groceries home in a wheelbarrow, apparently without realizing that I would find this hilarious (you usually have to pay for bags in Copenhagen so people generally reuse them, but I don't think you could get 24 bottles of soda into a medium sized plastic bag without running into trouble).

The city maintenance crew getting weeds out of the sidewalk by blowtorching them. From what I could make of it, the guy was wheeling around a large garbage can apparently filled with flammable liquid burning the weeds out from between the stones, using a device that looked like a combo weed whacker/blowtorch.

Going to Stockholm This Weekend

As previously mentioned, I'm going to Stockholm, Sweden, this weekend. We have a trip planned to go to Malmo on Sunday, hopefully on the way back (the actual flight is from Malmo to Stockholm) I can meet up with the group on the way back. As some of you know I'm about a quarter Swedish so I should fit right in. This post will be updated throughout the day as I think of cool places to go in Stockholm.

Ich Ben Ein Berliner (Day 2) - Part I

Ugh, it's actually Thursday now and I'm trying to finish this post. My sinuses are kind of stuffed at the moment, but The Flying Danish perseveres. It's kind of a mess around here because I'm trying to do three projects at once as well as book a trip to Stockholm this weekend and coordinate that with the trip to Malmö that CBS has planned.

Anyway... Saturday morning we set off for a walking tour around the former East Berlin. There is a company called New Berlin that is somehow related to our hostel which gives guided tours around Berlin. Our tour guide was named Melanie, who actually turned out to be from Georgia or something but was an excellent guide.

We started at Pariser Pladz, one of Berlin's most famous city squares. The most famous structure in Pariser Platz is the Branderburger Tor a.k.a. the Brandenburg Gate. Completed in 1791, it was actually commissioned as a sign of peace by Friedrich Wilhelm II. On top of the gate is the Quadriga (a chariot) which was originally driven by the goddess of peace. Napoleon took the Quadriga back to Paris after he conquered Berlin in 1806, and when it was returned in 1814 the olive wreath was changed to an Iron Cross and the statue now became the goddess of victory. Later the Iron Cross was removed by the East Germans as a sign of Prussian militarism, but was put back in 1990 after German reunification. According to Melanie, the statue now keeps watch over the French embassy which is also located in Pariser Platz. Seriously people, this lady has been through a lot.

Besides those buildings Pariser Platz has a few other buildings of significance. The Hotel Adlon is located there, which is mostly famous as being the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of. The Academy of Fine Arts is located there, as well as a building whose inside is supposed to be shaped like a whale.

After that we headed south to visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe. I'm not one to get terribly emotional around monuments but this one was quite moving. The design is kind of simple and complex at the same time, being made up of concrete slabs of various sizes. It's a little hard to explain but it's definitely worth seeing if you are in the area.

Next we were off to find the spot of Hitler's bunker which turned out to be a parking lot. The only indication you would have that something is out of the ordinary is a sign. It sounds a little funny, but is kind of appropriate if you think about it. After that we walked a couple more blocks to the former Reich Air Ministry and learned about its history mainly under the GDR. Then we moved on to check out other remaining sections of the Berlin Wall and revisited Checkpoint Charlie which, like much of Berlin apparently, has been rebuilt after it was destroyed or dismantled.

After we strolled passed Fassbender & Rausch, world famous chocolatiers, we moved on to the Gendarmenmarkt, another famous square in Berlin. The square has by three famous buildings, the Duetscher Dom (German Cathedral), the Französischer Dom (French Cathedral), and the Konzerthaus. A lot of the buildings we ran into were designed by Karl Schinkel, who was described by Melanie as Germany's most famous architects. He certainly did have a thing for columns.

Then it was off to yet another public square, this time Bebelplatz, which is best known for being the site of a Nazi book burning in 1933. Famous buildings here include the Staatsoper (State Opera House), the Alte Bibliotek, a big statue of Frederick the Great, Humboldt University across the way, and St. Hedwig's Cathedral, the latter of which we couldn't really see due to construction. Crossing the street we ran into the Neue Wache, originally a Prussian guard house it is now a famous war memorial. Next to that is the Zuegheus, the German Historical Museum and the Schlossbrucke (Palace Bridge). Seriously you couldn't swing a bat around here without hitting some kind of historical building.

We also learned about Ampelmännchen (more commonly referred to as Ampelmann), the character used as the "don't walk" character on East German pedestrian traffic lights. After German reunification the old stoplights were going to be replaced, which apparently created somewhat of an uproar as Ampelmann had become somewhat of a cult figure while teaching children the rules of traffic safety. Fortunately for us Ampelmann was saved and now lives on in East German traffic lights as well as the ice cube tray that makes Ampelmann-shaped ice cubes that I bought from the Ampelmann gift shop. How Ampelmann did not make it onto the They Might Be Giant's song Particle Man we will never know...

The last leg of the walking tour was Museum Island, as you may have guessed named after the many museums that reside here, including the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode Museum, and the Pergamon Museum. Quite convenient if you are really into museums. Finally we stopped at the Berliner Dom, a huge cathedral, and learned heard stories about the Fernsehturm Berlin (the hideous television tower built by the East Germans) and how the Berlin Wall was actually came down.

Wow! The day is only half done and this post is getting really long, so I better split the day in two. I'll be slapping on a post about Stockholm today so things will be a little out of order but you're smart people, you'll figure it out.

Ich Ben Ein Berliner (Day 1)

Well, I'm back from Berlin and now you have to read about the trip. And in case you were wondering, yes, it did rain the entire time we were in Berlin. Awesome I know. Someone also told me that they had heard that this June was the rainiest June in something like 130 years. Still, we persevered and ended up having a great time.

Anyway, we hopped on a bus and drove down to Gedser where we got on the ferry Pris Joachim that took us to Rostock, Germany. Then we continued our drive down to Berlin. We unloaded at the Hotel Generator, our hostel for the weekend. Despite complaints from Danish (the guy, not the language), I thought the accomodations were decent for a hostel. We got there at 3:30 so after dumping off stuff in our rooms a group of about a dozen of us set forth into the former East Berlin.

The first thing I noticed about Berlin was how much graffiti there was compared to Copenhagen. Extensive graffiti was everywhere, and it was a much more artistic than the amateur graffiti in Denmark. Danish graffiti is 1) almost always in english and 2) usually pretty weak. Typically graffiti in Denmark will be something like "wish me fortune" or "go to hell please" or something like that. The second most noticable thing was that there were a lot more cars, although traffic is still nowhere near what you would see in Minneapolis.

Anyway after hoping a couple of trains we ended up a couple blocks from a remaining strip of the Berlin Wall along Mühlerstaße (if you want a pretty good map of the traces of the Berlin Wall here is one). We walked across the Spree river and passed some cool buildings including Schlesisches Tor and the Church of Saint Thomas before hitting up some Japanese food in Oranienstrasse. After that we just cruised around for a while and managed to find a couple of interesting things, including Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt (home of the Konzerthaus, the Deutsch Dom, and the Französiche Dom), the Rotes Rathaus, and the infamous television tower Fernsehturm (a.k.a. Telespargel or "tele-asparagus"). With a big day ahead of us, we called it a night and went back home on the train.

I'll post more tomorrow about our trip!

Off to Berlin Tomorrow

Early tomorrow morning we are off to Berlin, so unless something crazy and exciting happens you probably won't see another post until at least Monday night. Berlin is roughly 225 miles as the crow flies, but since traveling by road would first take us due west and then straight south, it sounds like we are first hopping on a ferry to Rostok or something and then getting on a bus to Berlin.

We should arrive in Berlin around 5 o'clock at night and have free run of the city at that point. We have a walking tour of the city that takes roughly five hours and finishes in the mid afternoon. From what I can tell we are going to visit the Reichstag (Germany's Parliament Building), the Führerbunker (Hitler's bunker), the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and what I'm guessing is the SS-Hauptamt (the former S.S. Headquarters). After we are done with the places-where-horrible-things-have-happened-in-Berlin's-history tour, it's off to dinner at Al Hamra, an Arabic restaurant in Berlin. And after that, it's off for a Berlin pub crawl because if there's one thing I need before a ten hour bus/ferry ride is a hangover.

We're off Sunday morning, but on the way back we continue our Tour Tuetonic by visiting the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, located just outside of Berlin. Then we get to eat at McDonald's, another traditional German restaurant, before heading home. I'm sure I'll have a lot to post when I get back.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Canals and Karaoke

After spending all day studying, it was off to Nyhavn for a canal tour. While Copenhagen does not have canals of, say, Amsterdam or Venice they are nevertheless quite extensive. In fact, Christianshavn was actually modelled after Amsterdam when it was added by Christian IV. After a rainy morning, the sun was shining brightly by 6:30 so there was a big turnout for the tour. Of course, this made it hard to take photos in the direction of the sun but nobody was complaining.

Nobody was really sure where we went, in large part since sot the most part the only thing you could hear from the tour guide through the lousy speakers were reminders to sit down and/or keep your limbs inside the boat (that means you Meghann!). I think we started out by going through the Trangraven Kanal. After some briefing on the local real estate market, I believe we then passed through Københavns Havn, which I believe is the funniest sounding havn in all of København. Then it was back out into the Inderhavnen and headed north along the east bank past the new opera house.

After a while we turned around and made the requisite photo stop at the Little Mermaid statue and then headed back down the west bank passing such buildings as what appeared to be the A.P. Møller-Maersk headquarters and some old warehouses. Then it appears that we went back into the Trangraven Kanal but this time turned south into the Christianshavn Kanal. This stretch was the part that really felt like you were going through a postcard canal. The shores were filled with brightly colored buildings and friendly people. After passing under a bunch of bridges we crossed the Inderhavnen again and circled the Frederiksholms Kanal which goes around Slotsholmen, the island with Christiansborg, Det Kongelige Bibliotek (The Royal Library), the Børsen (stock exchange), and a number of other important buildings.

I have attempted to recreate our journey on Google maps (in red here), although my accuracy may be less than 100 percent.

Finally we landed back at Nyhavn and went our seperate ways. My little group went around and ended up at a karaoke bar called Sam's Bar, somewhere in the Strøget. After a Martha-Jeff duet of A Whole New World and an inspired Martha-Meghann rendition of Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun, (and some impromptu travel planning) we called it a night.

New Facebook Account

Hello, everyone. After being harassed endlessly I have finally joined Facebook. The ISUP program is using it as the main platform for sharing photos so a lot of people around here are on it. Right now I am uploading my photos so far but it takes a looooong time. You can access my profile (and hence my photos) by clicking on the links below. This post will be updated over time as I add more photo albums. BTW if anyone knows how to create a public link to all of your photo albums please let me know.

ISUP Barbecue (2 photos)
Midummer's Bonfire (3 photos)
Long Ass Walk Through Copenhagen Part I (64 photos)
Long Ass Walk Through Copenhagen Part II (45 photos)
The Amazing Race (25 photos)
Folk Dancing 101 (7 photos)
Tivoli (37 photos)
Frederiksborg Slot (51 photos)
Kronborg Slot (33 photos)
Canal Tour Part I (60 photos)
Canal Tour Part II (21 photos)
Ich Ben Ein Berliner I (55 photos)
Ich Ben Ein Berliner II (62 photos)
Ich Ben Ein Berliner III (5 photos)
Sachenhausen Concentration Camp (42 photos)
Trip to Stockholm Part I (57 photos)
Trip to Stockholm Part II (57 photos)
Trip to Stockholm Part III (38 photos)
Trip to Malmö (22 photos)
Random Photos from Copenhagen (15 photos)
Christiania (5 photos)
Cruising Around Copenhagen Day (25 photos)
Day Trip to Odense (21 photos)
Budapest - Day 1 - Part I - Géllert Hill (60 photos)
Budapest - Day 1 - Part II - Danube Night Cruise (22 photos)
Budapest - Day 2 - Part I - Buda Castle I (59 photos)
Budapest - Day 2 - Part II - Buda Castle II (59 photos)
Budapest - Day 2 - Part III - North to Aquincum (56 photos)
Budapest - Day 3 - Part I - Basilica of St Stephen (38 photos)
Budapest - Day 3 - Part II - Andrássy Ut & Hősök Tere (41 photos)
Budapest - Day 3 - Part III - City Park (22 photos)
Budapest - Day 4 - Part I - Margaret Island (31 photos)
Budapest - Day 4 - Part II - Obuda (46 photos)
Budapest - Day 5 - Parliament Tour & Sechenyi Baths (31 photos)
Budapest - Day 6 - Hungarian National Museum (22 photos)

Baby Royalty

Today the second child of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark was christened and publicly named today, and is now to be refered to as Her Royal Highness Princess Isabella of Denmark. Denmark has been abuzz with news about the royal couple and their children for some time now, but I suppose that is better than gossiping about Paris Hilton so I won't say anything. Besides, these two seem pretty respectible and their kids are pretty cute.

The couple also have an son, the year-and-a-half old Prince Christian. Apparently most Danish princes are named either Christian or Frederik, and Prince Frederik made the wise decision to not give his son his name. After all, that might create a lot of "do you mean His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik or His Royal Highness Prince Frederik?" types of situations. And yes Mindy, I got a couple of royal fridge magnets and you can have one of them.

For today's bonus, here is a picture of a painting of Princess Mary we saw in Frederiksborg Slot yesterday. Frankly, I think she looks like the spitting image of Posh Spice in this painting but you be the judge.

Club Vega

After some running around last night, Minnesota Greg and I ventured off to find Club Vega, a nightclub that seems to make it into most of the guidebooks as a Copenhagen hot spot. It was pretty easy to get there from Katherine Kollegiet, just had to hop on the S-Train and it dropped us off about four blocks away. I don't think we say the entire place, but rather just the nightclub - there were two rooms on the second floor and another two on the third floor. There must be other places to go because Vega hosts concerts both large and small, with acts such as Modest Mouse, Rufus Wainwright, Dropkick Murphys, The Game, and Blondie coming up in the next month, among others.

I would say that Club Vega lives up to its reputation. There was a distinct lack of pretension relative to similar clubs in the States, and you didn't have to worry about a dress code. The music was good, and if you didn't like the music in one room you could just move to another. The price of a Tuborg (39 kroners or about $7) was not much more than you would pay at a downtown nightclub in Minneapolis, and water was free. We got there a little before 12:30 so we didn't have to pay any cover charge either. No lines for the bathroom either. Really the only problem was the smoke, but even that was tolerable since the ceilings were high and not that many people were smoking.

Getting back on the other hand was another story. I forgot that the S-Train closes at 1:00 or so, so I ended up walking back home which took about an hour or so. On the plus side, I know what the Carlsberg brewery looks like at night.