Nyhavn and the Museum of Danish Resistance

Yesterday I had some time after class to walk around Nyhavn, the canal and entertainment district of Copenhagen.  It's only a 10 minute walk from DIS and is a great place to hang out during breaks in between classes.  We're planning on taking a canal tour soon while the weather is still nice, you can see the canal boats in the background.

Today was my first field study with my Holocaust and Genocide class.  We walked around the army barracks and went to the Museum of Danish Resistance to learn about the occupation of Denmark in 1940 to 1945.  At the museum, there were uniforms, photos, weapons, ID cards and much more on display that helped us to understand the German occupation.

The entrance to the barracks and a memorial for the Danish soldiers.

Day with Jørgen

Today, Jørgen took Mallory and I to Dragør, a town about 20 minutes away on the eastern coast of Denmark.  We walked around the old part of the town full of yellow-painted houses, red roofs, and narrow cobblestone streets that are arranged in a maze-like pattern between the houses.  Many of the houses and bulidings are hundreds of years old. 

We also walked around the harbor and took some pictures overlooking the water.  It's an old fishing village so there were a lot of boats and fishmarkets all around the area.  In the background you can see the bridge to Sweden, only 20 minutes away!

Kronborg Castle, Helsingør

Yesterday, I went on a group tour of the Kronborg Castle with some other DIS students.  After an hour bus ride through the countryside and on the coast of Denmark, we arrived in Helsingor and were given a few hours to walk around and to explore the town.  Collin, Liz and I decided to buy our first danish pastries.  True to their name, there are danishes all over Denmark, although Danes find it very strange that we call pastries 'danishes'.

After we enjoyed our pastries, we took at tour of Kronborg Castle.  It was built around 1420 and is one of the top tourist attractions in Denmark.  It's most known for the yearly performance of Hamlet in the courtyard.  Unfortunately, it was raining the whole day but I still managed to get some good pictures.  Here's one of us in front of the castle.

At the end of the tour, we went down into the dungeons of the castle and encountered a statue of "Holger the Dane", a soldier for Denmark who never lost a battle in his lifetime.  They say that once he arrived at Kronborg, he sat down and immediately fell asleep.  According to the legend, if Denmark is ever in trouble, Holger will wake up from the dungeon and battle for his country.

Holger the Dane

Greetings from Copenhagen

Finally all settled in over here!  After a few days of orientation and touring the city, I'm beginning to know my way around Copenhagen.  It's definitely not the easiest of cities to navigate but I'm slowly figuring it out and becoming familiar with the area.  Everything here is beginning to fall into place and I know with each day I'll fall in love with the city even more.

Here are a few pictures from the first couple days!

 

This is our house and the cute little back yard where we had a BBQ with the family the first night.

Here is the square where all of the DIS buildings are around.  So many bikes!

And the beautiful harbor!