Copenhagen - the Perfect Weekend Trip

Well, last night my time I returned form what was an amazing trip to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. It is such a beautiful city and I hope I can convey as much of my incredible trip as I can through this blog entry.

It all started when we finished school on Friday afternoon (at 12:45pm!), and took the bus to Middelfart Train Station. Yes, that's right, Jakob and I took the train from Middelfart to Copenhagen! We met briefly with Inger so that Jakob could drop off his backpack, and then we went to the platform to wait for the next train. Once we got on, it was very quick! The setup in the train was similar to that of a small plane, with a bit more legroom and comfier seats. Fortunately, we had allocated the seats we wanted before taking the train as it would have been hard to find a seat otherwise. As part of the train journey, we could see the surrouding countryside which as it has been for the whole trip, rather beautiful. The best thing about the train ride was that it took just over 2 hours to get from Middelfart to Copenhagen, which is around the same amount of time it takes to drive the same distance. Denmark certainly has a better train system than Adelaide and Australia, and to think that there are plans for Denmark to get high-speed trains which will cut travel time even further! If only...

Anyhow, we arrived in Copenhagen just before 4:00pm (around the time it was starting to get dark) and headed straight across the road to Tivoli. For those that don't know, Tivoli is an amusement park in Copenhagen that Walt Disney used as inspiration for Disneyland in LA. However, it is so much more than just a theme park; it also has restaurants and a large concert hall which kind of looks like a giant megaphone from the air. Because it is less than 1 month until Christmas now, the park was also decked out in lots of lights and decorations which looked absolutely amazing! It really is the prettiest amusement park I've been to. The best thing though about Tivoli for me was the rides and attractions (typical, I know), though the decorations were equally as impressive. One ride in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed was this one where you felt as if you were flying in a plane. The best part was that you went round and round really, really fast and then you did 360 degree turns and wicked stuff like that. I've been on a fair few rides in my time but none as WOW as this ride! There were of course, other rides that were amazing. Two of them gave me the chance to look across the Copenhagen skyline, though one was just seeing it briefly before dropping down to Earth, and the other whilst flying through the air with cold wind in my face. There was also two really cool roller coasters at the park, one with a lot of loop-de-loop things and the other was one of the oldest roller coasters in the world! But perhaps one of the most awesome attractions at the park is the funhouse! Seriously, I could've spent an hour in the place, it was so much fun with the moving floors and random spinny things, not to mention the slides! Overall though, the rides at Tivoli were quite awesome. Also, I'll just mention here a couple of things I had to eat and drink that were lovely. One thing was three lovely balls of dough-like stuff that you had with icing sugar, delicious with the heart-warming hot chocolate I had with a touch of cognac (don't worry, it just added to the flavour and warmth and didn't make it too alcoholic). I also had a toffee apple while in Tivoli, though this one was also covered in coconut! It was nice, but I could barely finish it as it was so filling. Poor Jakob however, broke part of his braces while having a toffee apple. Below is a few photos of Tivoli, showing the place's magical atmosphere.


After having such a wonderful time in Tivoli, we (Rene and Inger joined us in Tivoli) headed to our hotel for the night. The hotel we stayed in was a Scandic hotel near the centre of the city, owned by a hotel chain which Rene is a VIP member of. This meant free wireless internet access, which was nice to have, plus it allowed us to stay in a suite. Jakob and I shared one room Rene and Inger had another room. The beds were very nice and they had BBC World News (news in English in other words), all of which made the room rather lovely. The free buffet breakfast the next morning was also a lovely aspect of the hotel, with beautiful bacon the highlight for me! It certainly helped to kickstart what was to be an epic day.

Saturday was dedicated to sightseeing around Copenhagen, and boy did I see some awesome stuff! After finding a park close to the centre of town, we walked to a nice canal, where there were a number of stalls selling a wide variety of goods. We eventually walked around to the Ameileborg (apologies if I have spelt it wrong), which is a kind of square where there are a number of palaces surrounding a large plaza. From here, we walked to a little 'garden' area where we could look across the harbour to Copenhagen's new opera house. It was also at the Ameileborg that we saw the changing of the guard at midday, which was very pompous to say the least, but very enjoyable. After watching the event, we meet up with Jake, a fellow exchangee from Adelaide, and his host family and went to the Marble Dome which is similar to the dome on top of the US Capitol Building, but much bigger and fancier. The interior was equally as brilliant with a wonderful painted ceiling. We then walked to the main square in Copenhagen where Care International had set up a number of photos relating to the upcoming climate conference, so we had fun trying to find photos from Australia. We eventually found two, one of the Great Barrier Reef and one of Perth (a bit upsetting that Adelaide didn't get a photo, but oh well). We then went to the main shopping mall in Copenhagen in a quest to find a good spot for lunch. And my gosh, there were a lot of people shopping that day! Luckily, I knew the back of the heads of all the people in our group, so we were not seperated thankfully. We then went into a department store where there was a restaurant type thing on the top floor. Unfortuanely, there was not enough space for 8 people, so we instead went downstairs to a cafe type area where we got some sandwiches. I also was able to get a cafe latte which was very well done I must say.

We then went back to the main square and said our goodbyes to Jake and his host family, before heading to a boat tour around the canals. This was truly amazing for me! On the tour, we saw a number of Copenhagen's finest buildings, along with the famous Little Mermaid sculpture. The sculpture had been made out as very small by a couple of people, so I found out much bigger than I thought it would be. The best thing about the tour though was the boat barely fitting under the bridges. I found this really exciting, especially when the gap in the bridge was the size of the cross-section of the boats! After the tour, it was time to leave Copenhagen, the amazing city that it is, and make our way back to Norre Aaby. On the way, we had dinner at Inger's sister's place, which was a very nice pork dish along with a wonderful dessert like a pavlova but with whipped cream and vanilla instead of sugar. To sum this rather long entry up, Copenhagen was awesome!

Settling into the Way of the Danes

Today is my fourth day in Denmark and I have now gotten over the best part of my jet lag. Already I have had a number of amazing experiences and oppourtunities, so I feel it best to talk to you today about some of these new experiences.

Firstly, let me talk about the house I am staying in. As you well know, I am staying with Jakob and his family in Norre Aaby, in a lovely single storey house. The house is really well heated thanks to a series of heaters, and a lot of the house is made of wood like the floors, the ceilings, some of the walls, etc. A big difference between my house and Jakob's house is a dog callled Maggie. To be honest, when I arrived this was the most nerve-wracking thing as I am not used to dogs being around me 24/7. However, I have grown to really love her prescense around the house. Below is a couple of photos of the house, including the kitchen area, my bedroom and Maggie.

The house (this was taken at 7:30am, note the darkness)

The kitchen area

My room

Maggie

The food I have had so far has been absolutely delicious! For breakfast, I have generally had bread with Danish butter and these thin slices of chocolate called Guld Barre. I am going to bring home many packets of the stuff, it is so tasty! For lunch, I have had very nice sandwiches made by Inger. The dinners that I have had were particularly nice. On Tuesday night (because I slept through dinnertime on Monday night), we had a vegetable soup which was very warming and last night (Wednesday night) we had homemade hamburgers consisting of patties handmade from beef mince, lettuce, red onion and a couple of wonderful condiments (everyone loves a good condiment). I have also had a very nice cake thing that I can probably best describe as a Danish version of a cannolini, with a chocolate filling surrounded by a thick sugary coating (next time I have one I will take a photo of it). It was also very delicious. All I can further say about food is that I am looking forward to eating more of it!

Now I will answer the question that I think is on many people's lips (well certainly Dad's). What is school like? Yes, I am currently in my thrid day at Jakob's school, EUC Lillebaelt (there is a website in Danish if you are intrigued, just type it into Google), and I am really enjoying it. I have found that the school system in Denmark is very different to that of South Australia. Jakob is currently in his first year of gymnasium, which is the equivalent of high school. This is quite strange for me as I have been in high school since I was 12, whereas Jakob has only been in 'high school' since he was 16 (his current age). Also, every class has the same people in it, like primary school, which is quite good in a way as it means that everyone gets to know each other really well. Also, everyone has to do a set of subjects which means that they have no choice about what subjects they want to do. The subjects that Jakob along with his class does are Danish, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Social Studies, English, Communications & IT plus a subject called Technology that they spend a whole day doing (I have been in the lesson and to be honest, it still does not make much sense). There are generally no free lessons as well. Another unusual thing is that most of the lessons all take place in the one room. Another thing that I find realy cool and different is that the rooms still have blackboards! I know, how awesome, bet you're jealous now. Plus the school times are also very different to that of school times in SA. The general rule is that school starts at 8:20am and finishes at 1:30pm, though on Wednesday school finishes at 3pm. Also, Jakob's friends are really, really nice and are great to be around at lunchtime in the refectory, which I have to say is better than the one at Pembroke. So overall, the school is awesome, and below is a picture of the school's exterior.
The other thing that has been really different about Denmark is that it gets light quite late and it gets dark really early. The sun begins to set at around 3:30pm and by 5:00pm it's full on night time! The best thing about this though is that I am able to see the sunrise every morning and the sunset every night without having to wake up early (this is for the sunrise). Yesterday, I was treated to a special sunset with glorious rays (I really do love my sunrises and sunsets), and below is as good a picture as I could get of it.



Before I go, I'll fill you in on other things that have happened. Yesterday I got my bus and train pass allowing me to travel between Norre Aaby and Fredricia, near to where my school is. As part of it, I had to go get my photo taken which I must say, looks quite nice. Afterwards, Inger gave me a tour of Middelfart (where we got the pass) and it is a lovely city. This afternoon after school, I will be having a look around Norre Aaby and tomorrow, we are taking the train to Copenhagen for the weekend! I will fill you in on what I do there, but in the meantime stay safe.

The Ultimate Commute - Adelaide to Norre Aaby, Denmark

Well, as you may be able to tell, I have made in to Denmark in one piece. Even though I know the real experience began once I had got off the plane in Copenhagen, the journey to get there is worthy of mention.

The day that I left Adelaide, Sunday 22 November, began well with pavlova for breakfast (made the day before by me). On the way to the airport, we made a couple of stops: one to pick up a small tin of Milo for Morten and another to help set up Dad's classroom for the next day (such a lovely family bonding moment it was). We arrived at the airport at around 9:20am, making us the first ones there by half an hour. After everyone had arrived at the airport, it was time to check in our bags. Out of the five exchangees from SA, the guys (Jake and I) had overweight bags while the girls (Rachel, Louisa and Sian) all had underweight bags, meaning that we did not have to pay for excess luggage. Once we were all checked in, we were able to have our final moments in Adelaide for a while, where I had a Farmer's Union Iced Coffee and a green frogcake. We also had a group shot of the SA exchangees before our epic journey, which is below.

It was then time to board our flight to Sydney, meaning that we had to say goodbye to our family and friends staying behind, which was inevitably sad. Before long, we were in the Boeing 737 and flying to Sydney. The flight was pleasant with a funny episode of Thank God Youu're Here along with a delightful lunch. I was sitting next to Rachel in a window seat, with Louisa and Jake directly behind us and Sian unfortnately sitting further away. Once we arrived in a 41 degree and smokey Sydney, we transferred across to the International Terminal with ease. We then met Claire, the NSW coordinator for SISEP, along with the two exchangees from NSW, Sophie and Kassie. Not long after we had arrived, we were joined by the Queenslanders going on the exchange, Brearne and Michael. We then headed towards security as the Victorians were delayed by an hour. After making our way through immigration and security, we heading for the gate and sat down though some of us went back to the duty free area to have a look around. In this time, I got to know the exchangees from other states and checked my email and Facebook. We then met up with the Victorian exchangees, Georgia, Jess and Meghann, and before long we were all boarding the Qantas plane (an Airbus A380 or in other words, a *big* plane).

From here, the journey became very 'interesting'. For some reason or another, we were delayed in Sydney from taking off for an hour because of some issue with the plane. After waiting this time, we then took off and started gtracking towards Singapore. In this time, I watched a lot of Family Guy episodes, the movie Up plus a number of other TV shows. In terms of food, we had a lovely dinner and an equally wonderful supper, with a sumptuous hot chocolate filling the void in between. We were pretty much sitting near one another except for Sophie who was sitting a fair way away from us unfortunately. After almost 7 hours, we landed in Singapore, but because we were an hour late we were nervous about making our next flight which was scheduled to leave in only 10 minutes. Once we had exited the plane, an assistant was there to take us to the sales counter to get tickets for the next plane to London which happened to be on the same plane that took us from Sydney to London. Once we had organised our new tickets, which had spread the group all throughout the plane, we hurried down to the gate where we boarded the plane with plenty of time to spare. After this event, we were all relieved.

Even with the fancy features of the Qantas Airbus A380, the flight from Sydney to London was a long one. Once the plane had taken off, Jake and I (we were sitting next to one another) fell asleep and were only woke up 2 hours later when the food was coming around, or at least that was what happened with me. For the rest of the flight, I watched a considerable amount of 30 Rock along with other TV shows, slept a little, had a wonderful breakfast and another hot chocolate plus a few snacks avaliable at the self-serve snack bar. Before long, we were approaching Heathrow Airport and landed only a few moments later. From here, we said goodbye to Sian, Kassie and Meghann who are having there exchange in the UK, and started our transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5, an epic journey in itself.

After navigating many corridors, some of which were sloped, we arrived at the spot where we got the bus to Terminal 5. The ride between terminals was interesting, with long tunnels under runways and lots of planes everywhere. I also got a chance to have a photo with my animals, the cow being Boris as a gift from my Venturer Unit and the wombat being (someone suggested a name which I liked, but I've forgotten it so I'll let you know what it is when I remember) as a gift from the SA Branch. It is below.

After arriving at Terminal 5, we walked along more corridors before lining up in the immigration line. We then waited in another line which was to get to the line for security. After passing through these various queues, we made our way to the gate where some of us went to a cafe thing for some food and drinks. I got a strawberry and banana smoothie along with a pain au chocolat, which was very nice. We then boarded our final flight for the trip (except for Michael and Louisa), a British Airways flight to Copenhagen. The flight went very quickly with a strong tail wind, though the breakfast we were given was not as nice as the food given by Qantas. Apart from Georgia and Jess who were sitting further back in the plane, we were all sitting near each other which lead to many amusing moments like the stirrers. Before long, we had landed in a cloudy Copenhagen and after heading through immigration, we went to collect our bags. Unfortunately for Brearne, her bag was left in London so we had to sort something out about that before we went through customs. I realised at the customs point just how much more stricter Australian quarantine is; most of us had nuts in our bag but we did not have to show them. After going through customs, we met our host families. For me, this was a simple reunion with Jakob while for some, this was meeting them for the first time. From here, I said my goodbyes to the other exchangees who went off with their families and headed outside to the car. Bracing for absolutely freezing conditions, I was pleasantly suprised as the temperature was around that of the colder days in Stirling, which I could handle. We then got into the car and started our 2 hour journey from the airport in Copenhagen to Norre Aaby, where Jakob and his family live. On the way, I saw many wind turbines and lovely countryside, along with travelling across the bridge connecting Zealand and Funen which was very, very big. We then got to Norre Aaby (on the other side of Denmark) and I settled in with a hot shower. Then at around 4:30pm, I went to have a bit of a lie down and then woke up 14 hours later this morning at 6:30am.

I am currently enjoying my first day at school, but that is for another blog entry.

Preface to the Journey

Hello there,

For those that do not know me, my name is David Giles, I am 16 and I live in Stirling in South Australia. I am actively involved in Scouting at Mount Lofty Scout Group in the Twin Peaks Venturer Unit, and through the wonderful organisation of Scouts I have been given the opportunity to participate in a student exchange program known as SISEP and represent Australia and Scouts overseas, beginning this Sunday.

SISEP is an exchange program for Venturers (teenager Scouts). The basic idea of the exchange is to live with another Scouting family in another country and experience the culture of the country, along with discovering how universal the Scouting community is in the world. There are three countries to choose from for the exchange: Denmark, Japan and the UK. I have decided to go to Denmark for my exchange for two main reasons; one, to experience a culture truly different from our own in Australia in terms of language and two, to also have a week in London after the exchange that is only available for exchangees who go to Denmark and the UK.

As part of the exchange program I have had the privilege to host a Danish exchange student, Jakob Kristoffersen, in July of this year. While he was staying with our family, we took him on a holiday to show him the size and beauty of Australia. As part of the trip we drove from Adelaide to Dubbo in one day, saw the animals at the Western Plains Zoo, swam in a thermal pool in Moree, visited most of the Worlds in the solar system known as the Gold Coast, drove down the Pacific Highway to Sydney and had a look around Canberra. Jakob certainly saw a large part of the country! Fortunately for my exchange, Jakob and his family will be my hosts which makes settling into a family in a foreign country less daunting for me. During my exchange, I will be attending school with Jakob, participating with his Scout Group and experiencing life in Denmark. Luckily for me, I will be in Denmark for Christmas and New Year!

As I said above, this Sunday sees the beginning of my exchange when I along with the other South Australia exchangees meet at Adelaide Airport at 10am. From there we fly to Sydney to meet up with exchangees from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. We then fly to Copenhagen via Singapore and London, where the real experience begins!