Cities I've Visited

Thoughts on Going Home

N.B. I am currently at Heathrow Airport, in London, enjoying my last few hours on European soil. I hope to be home by Sunday evening, however I may be delayed by fresh ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

As my final post from Europe, I have decided that instead of writing about how much I am going to miss Denmark, or how much I have learned since coming here, it would be interesting to list some of the things I am going to have to re-adjust to as I move back home. Some of them are things I am looking forward to, other I am more nervous about. If nothing else, it will be a great way to highlight some of the differences between living in Denmark and the US. However, I hope it will also help me to mediate some of the adjustments I have to go through. I need to decide what I will bring back from Denmark, and what I will leave behind, what I will change about myself, and what old habits I will readopt. I am hopeful that my time in Denmark will have changed something, even if I am not conscious of what exactly it is. So, without further ado, here is my list:

1. Cheep Food. I won’t lie; this is one of the things I am looking forward to most. Scandinavia is known world wide as one of the most expensive places to live, especially for foreigners. Everything is more expensive in Denmark, especially food. A reasonable pastry is about $2, a latte perhaps $6, a cheap piece of pizza might be $2.80, and a bottle of water $5. These are cheap food in Denmark. Going to a fast food restaurant will easily set you back $10 to $15, and a cheap night out will be at least $25, plus drinks. Although I hate how much it costs in Denmark, I have to admit that it really makes me appreciate eating-out so much more, because it is a special-occasion for everyone.

2. Altitude. I have spent the last nine months living at sea level. Denver, the mile high city, is more than 2 km higher than Denmark. The highest I have been on this entire trip was the top of Untersberg, near Salzburg, Austria, and that was just about as high as Denver is. Although I am looking forward to the mountains again, I am going to have to take a little time to the general lack of oxygen in Colorado, especially in the mountains which can be more than 4 km above sea level.

3. The English Language. Although I conversed with my professors, friends, and host-family primarily in English, I was living in a country where the dominant language was Danish. Even though most Danes are fluent in English, I was at times more or less immersed in the Danish Language, which I was attempting to learn. Although I am no where near fluent, few foreigners ever are, I made more progress than most Americans, and felt comfortable in situations where I heard nothing but Danish for hours. Although I complained about the difficulty of pronouncing the guttural consonants and absurd vowels of the Danish Language, they eventually started to grow on me, and I will certainly miss hearing them. I will have to rely on my small collection of Danish Pop-music and movie, plus the wonder that is YouTube, to get my weekly fill of the Danish Language, if only to remind me how ridiculous it really sounds.

4. Cloths Dryers. For some reasons, one of the biggest shocks when I first got to Denmark was the lack of a dryer. Most Danish families don’t have one, as they are extremely expensive and use up a lot of energy. Danes prefer to dry their cloths the old-fashioned way, outside…and in the hallway during the winter. I became accustomed to the routine of doing my laundry and waiting a day for my cloths to dry. It is going to be strange to imagine that now it will take three hours for cloths to go from hamper to drawer. I just can’t fathom it.

5. The Movies. Another insanely expensive commodity in Denmark is the price of a movie ticket, often between $16 and $20. As such, I have only seen five movies in theaters while I was here; Abrazos Rotos, New Moon, Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, and Valentine’s Day. In America, I would easily see that many movies in a month. I love going to the movies. It is such a relaxing-yet-enlightening experience, and generally doesn’t cost that much. I am very much looking forward to getting back to my favorite independent theaters, where I can see a great foreign film, with English subtitles, for only $7.

6. Big Cars. Denmark is known for being relatively progressive when it comes to environmental issues, and as such, most Danes drive small, climate-friendly, cars. Most Danish families only have one car, and many don’t have any at all, preferring to bike or take the train. One of my professors was proud to explain to us that he has been able to live for sixty years, raise three children, and maintain a summerhouse in North Zealand, all without ever having owned a car…although he does have five bikes. He takes the bus to work, he bikes to the grocery store (every day), and if he needs to get to his summer home, he just has to hop on a train, and is there within an hour. I have grown accustomed to the streets of Denmark being dominated by bike, and very small cars. The largest personal car I have seen on the road here is a Jeep Cherokee, and it looked huge to me. I am a little apprehensive about coming back to a country where SUVs dominate, let alone having to drive one again.

7. The Media. I have to admit; I really didn’t miss American news while I was away. It was very refreshing to get away from the partisanship and polemics that is the American media. I loved getting my news from the Danes, or from BBC, as they offer such a unique, albeit biased, perspective. When Obama passed health-care reform Europeans rejoiced that America had finally joined the civilized world. Experiencing the European media has given me the opportunity to really take a step back from American politics, and attempt to understand what is really going on. I learned a lot, though not much that can be described in writing, though I will try to write more once I am back in the states. That being said, I am also somewhat nervous about what I missed in American media while I was away. What Music and TV-Shows, not to mention books, don’t I know about? What new words have entered the American dialect of which I will be woefully unaware? I am really nervous that at some point, someone will make a veiled reference to pop-culture, which will go right over my head. Maybe I worry for no reason, as Denmark is fairly current on American pop-culture…I just like to feel like I am always aware of what has been going on in the world, and that I may have missed out on something important.

8. Weather. During my fist two months in Denmark, the weather was perfect. It was sunny almost every day, moderate temperatures, with very little rain. Then November hit, it began to get cooler, and significantly darker, and by the end of December, it was dark by 4:30 PM and snowing. After the New Year, and what turned out to be one of the coldest Danish winters in 20 years, we were all expecting spring to arrive. The sun began to come back, but spring never really arrived in full. It got warmer, it rained instead of snowed, and some of the plants began to grow again. However, we never had more than a week of really great sunny weather, even when the sun was out for 16 hours a day. I know that it hasn’t been much better in Denver, but I feel like I am ready for some genuinely warm weather, instead of the undecided chilly climate that I have learned to love in Denmark.

My Final Weeks in Denmark

I have been pretty busy with school these last few weeks, but have also been trying to experience as much as Copenhagen as possible. I went into tourist mode again, trying to see the last few sights I hadn’t seen yet, and I am proud to say, I believe I succeeded. On top of final papers and examinations, I was able to visit all the museums, churches, and castles I had been putting off in the hope of better weather. Alas, summer-weather never arrived, so I just went out and saw them anyway.

In terms of museums, I have visited the National Museum, the New Carlsberg Glyptotek, The National Galleries of Art, The Thorvaldsen Museum, and the Open Air Museum. I also visited Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød, Kronborg Palace in Helsingør, and Rosenborg and Christiansborg Palaces in Copenhagen. I also revisited some of my favorite places. It has been a great few weeks, and I only wish I had more time to write about it. Instead, I will upload just a few of my photos, with descriptions, in the hopes of demonstrating just how beautiful Denmark can be, even in bad weather.

The National Cathedral

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Thorvaldsen Museum

Gundestrup Cauldren at National Gallery

Open-Air Museum

Rosenborg Slot

Crown Jewels at Rosenborg

Frederiksborg Slot in Hillerød

Kronborg Slot in Helsingør, Hamlet's Castle

Frederiksberg Slot

Church of Our Savior

View of Copenhagen from the top of Church of Our Savior

Beowulf Revisited

Perhaps the one thing I will never forget about my high school freshman World History course is our final assignment. We were told to read a book written in the middle ages, or about, the Middle Ages. As I was already obsessed with the works of JRR Tolkien as a fifteen year-old, I naturally decided to read Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon legend of a Geatish hero who liberates the Danish King Hroðgar from the monster Grendel. Hroðgar is a semi-legendary king of the Danes, also known as Roar, who is believed to have lived sometime in the 6th century. Little is known about him from the sources, except that his lived in a great hall called Heorot, said to be so spectacular that it was called the Byzantium of the north. Several early Danish historians, most notably Saxo Grammaticus, wrote that Heorot was located in the town of Hleiðra, known in modern Danish as Lejre. Lejre is situated on the Island of Zealand, a mere 40 kilometers southwest of Copenhagen. In 1986 a Danish archeologist discovered a Viking age (c. 900) hall there, and then nearby a hall from the mid-6th century, the exact time Roar is said to have lived. This hall, some fifty meters long, is now believed to be the very same Heorot from the Beowulf legend. It is a stone-throw away from several ship-setting burials, which could even be the burial place of Roar himself. Last weekend, I was giddily surprised to discover that my Nordic Mythology class would be visiting Lejre as a field-study. We were actually able to stand on the spot where Heorot stood, and where Roar is buried. Although all one can see are a few stones or a sod-mound, it was an incredible experience to be able to see the places I had read about so many years ago. It was certainly one of the most amazing experiences of my trip to Denmark so far, even if there wasn’t that much to actually see. The idea of being in places where great things are said to have happened is very satisfying for me, especially when they took place so long ago, and have captivated the imagination of the northern peoples for generations.

A ship-setting burrial

The outline of Heorot

Our field trip also featured a trip to the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

(which I had already seen, and wrote about here) as well as to Trelleborg Ring-Fortress. Throughout Denmark there are five ring-fortresses, built all virtually at the same time, and seemingly as military facilities. It is believed that they were built in the late 900’s by the Danish King Harald Bluetooth (who also erected the Jelling Stones described here). Harald is said to have made the Danes Christian, and likely did so using forces housed in these ring-fortresses. They are impressive structures, even today. Surrounded by as massive earthen mound, and symmetrically arranged, they certainly would have looked intimidating in their day, when nothing of their kind had ever been seen in the north. The Trelleborg museums has also reconstructed what one of those halls might of looked like, so our class was able to sit inside for a while, around the fire pit, and quite fittingly, drink a little mead.

Trelleborg Ring-Fortress

A Reconstructed Mead-Hall

The Alp Mountains and the Nature of Travel, Spring Break 10 of 10

If I were perfectly honest with myself, I would admit that the prime motivator for my recent vacation to the Alps was an irresistible desire to see mountains again. I have lived a majority of my life in the shadow of the Colorado Rockies, and have become accustomed to, and perhaps even dependant on, their persistent reminder of the vast majesty of nature in the face mankind’s seemingly impressive achievements. One of my favorite memories from childhood is driving south on Colorado’s I-25 highway on a July 4^th evening. We passed by several small towns and cities who were all celebrating their independence by releasing fireworks high into the sky. Although close-up the fireworks often appear to reach into the heavens, I could see from the road that they hardly seemed to approach the base of the mountains, let alone their summit. Good mountains dwarf everything in the vicinity, and remind us that we truly are miniscule when it comes to the absolute immensity of our planet, let alone the universe. This is why I love mountains, apart from their obvious and often overwhelming natural beauty. During my stent in Europe, I have seen many countries, and even a few small hills. But nothing had come close to what I had at home, and I therefore set out to conquered Europe’s largest mountain range, the Alps. The Alps are a result of the ongoing collision of two continental plates, and are therefore, like the Rockies, relatively young. The peaks of young mountains haven’t had time to erode into the gentle and elegant peaks known to the Appalachians. Rather they are rough, jagged, and oftentimes aggressive looking. This makes them all the more striking, more in contrast to the clouds into which they cut, and perhaps even more beautiful. I was continually awed by what I saw during my time in the Alps, and I simply cannot wait to return as an adult, when I have more time and more resources to spend exploring these wonderful mountains that felt so strangely familiar.

I also spent a lot of time while I was traveling the Alps reflecting on my entire travel experience, and what it really means to travel. Up until that trip, I had traveled to many different cities, in order to see churches and museums, to learn about history, people, and their customs. It struck me that the best of these trips, both by my standards and by general tourist standards, were the cities with the most beautiful churches or the best museums, both obstinately human creations. Even those with wonderful city parks were not truly natural, as most of those parks are carefully planned and maintained. I wondered why I would want to travel at all, why I needed to see the old-yet-beautiful buildings, and why it all mattered in the end. Parts of my Alp-trip were completely different, spent more or less enjoying nature’s creations of mountains and valleys, lakes and trees. I don’t know how I should compare these disparate experiences, or even if I should. I love churches and museums, but I also love mountains and lakes. The former represent the highest form of western consciousness regarding the importance, and indeed relationship between, truth and beauty. However, the latter, the mountains and lakes, are physical and genuine manifestations of this relationship. I have spent a lot of time looking at beautiful things in beautiful places, and although I enjoy them profoundly, I still don’t understand why I should, or even why they seem so imperative to me.

Perhaps they are special, at least in the European context, because we have recorded histories of events that have occurred, both in cities and the mountains, often hundreds of years ago. Maybe this is where the two come together. Both are beautiful, but in different ways, and both fill the pages of history, and are even, oftentimes, visual reminders of those histories. Perhaps that is why I have enjoyed traveling Europe so much, because I have devoted at least part of my life to learning about what happened here, and now that I am here, I get to see it all. It somehow makes me feel more connected to that past, something I feel is lacking, especially in the Western US. Our history is shorter, our cities less grand, our mountains less historical (though just as beautiful). Hannibal crossed the Alps, not the Rockies. Napoleon dined in Berlin, not Denver, and Queen Elizabeth I is entombed in Westminster, not Colorado. That doesn’t mean less important people lived or live in the territory now known as the United States, just that we can only read about the last 100 years there, and not the last 10,000. I look forward to traveling more, both in Europe and in the US, though I am interested to know how this experience will change the way I travel. I want to see as much of the world as possible, both its churches and its mountains, however I feel Europe is somewhat unique, to me anyway, in that it is connected to a past I identify with. America is culturally a product of Europe, it is a continuation of European history, and returning to Europe is in a sense returning to a long-estranged cousin, one that has moved on from its past, but which hasn’t forgotten it.

Vaduz, Liechtenstein, Spring Break 9 of 10

When I realized that I would be visiting the Alps, and that I would be only a few hours away from Liechtenstein, I knew that I would have to go. The Principality of Liechtenstein is a small nation tucked in the Rhine Valley between Switzerland and Austria. It covers an area of about 160 square kilometers (or 60 square miles) and is home to about 36,000 citizens. It has a long and confusing history as an assortment of medieval counties and principalities, which were eventually formed into the independent nation of Liechtenstein in 1866, as a constitutional monarchy ruled over by the Princely house of Liechtenstein. Today, their head of state is Prince Hans-Adam II, whose grandfather Prince Aloys was the first Prince of Liechtenstein to actually live there. Most of the family used to live in Vienna, and participated in the courtly-life of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That being said, it seems the people of Liechtenstein are a patriotic people who are proud of their history, and of their monarch. The Liechtensteinische Landesmuseum (National Museum) tells the story of the country from its first inhabitants in the Neolithic up until the present in a seemingly honest way, but stops just short of criticizing past monarchs for their mishandling of the country. Besides the Landesmuseum, there is also a very impressing art collection in Vaduz, as well as several administrative buildings, and a church or two. On a hill overlooking Vaduz is the castle, which is the current residence of the royal family. Although tourists are free to climb up to the castle, it is not actually open to the public, which is a rare thing among European castles in general. Nevertheless, it offers a great view of the city, the mountains above, and the Rhine valley. It was great to spend a few hours in one of the world’s smallest countries (the 206^th by population, and 211^th by area). Although it is very expensive, using the Swiss Franc, it is also very beautiful and somewhat quaint. If you can afford it, there are some wonderful shops and restaurants, as well as banks. However, most importantly, it will give you the good fortune of having the right to say: “Believe it or not, have indeed been to Liechtenstein, have you?”

Southern Liechtenstein

Vaduz

Vaduz Castle

Views from Above

Zürich and Sargans, Two Faces of Switzerland, Spring Break 8 of 10.

During the two days I spent in Switzerland, I visited two different cities, and they couldn’t have been more disparate. Zürich is largest city in Switzerland, and is situated on the spot where the River Limmat flows out of Lake Zurich, which is fed by the Linth River flowing from the Alps. It was first established in 15 BCE as Turicum, a Roman tax-collecting outpost, but has now grown into a city of almost 400,000 inhabitants, 30% of whom are foreign citizens. About 22% of Switzerland’s residents are foreign nationals, choosing to live here for a variety of reasons, most notably for its low taxation policies, but also for other political and economic reasons. The city therefore has developed into an international business center, as well as a popular shopping destination. The city is incredibly clean and well-managed, its streets are lined with glittering shop windows, and both cars and bicycles stop to let pedestrians cross at the crosswalks. The city also had some historic buildings, mostly churches, as well as a wonderful national museum, but the city as a whole is not a tourist’s paradise.

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Fifty miles south-east of Zurich is the small town of Sargans, Switzerland. It is located in the Rhine river valley, not far from Liechtenstein, and indeed I initially only intended to transfer to a Liechtenstein-bound bus when I first took a train to Sargans. However, once I saw the town, I knew I had to spend a couple of hours exploring. Although the town sits quite low in the valley (only 1,500 feet above sea-level), it is surrounded by incredibly high alpine peaks. On the north end of town is a 13^th century fortress built on a hill overlooking the city. Climbing up to the castle, one encounters a small church built after the plague in the 16^th century, countless vineyards, and eventually Schloß Sargans. From the castle, you can see down into the Rhine valley, an abundantly fertile area due in part to over 50 inches of precipitation per year. While in Zurich one grew accustomed to the sounds of cars and busses, all one can hear in Sargans are the birds, and occasionally a train passing through. It was a wonderful place.