I will warn you, this is going to be a long post. I'll be talking about my trip to Copenhagen, Vienna, my final trip to Reykjavik and finally discuss my feelings when I was getting ready to leave Finland.
Copenhagen
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| The iconic Nyhavn in Copenhagen |
As with all my posts, I want to start off by giving some general history about Copenhagen and Denmark itself. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and is considered to be Denmark's largest city. Originally founded as a small fishing village back in the 10th century, it became the seat of power for a Catholic bishop known as Bishop Absalon. Under his rule, he was able to make Copenhagen a major trading power in the region, which incurred the ire of the Hanseatic League. During a war between Denmark and some of its enemies (including Sweden and the Hansa), Absalon's castle was torn down. This may seem irrelevant, but it is important because it marked the first castle in a series of four or five that were built on top of each other.
Following the destruction of Absalon's Castle, the Copenhagen Castle was built and became the seat of power in the city. It was also at this time that the Kalmar Union was established, which linked the thrones of Norway, Sweden and Denmark together. This union last formally from 1397 until 1523. While all three nations remained in existence, the nobility of the three would elect one of the kings to act as the King of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. There were interruptions and conflicts, but it was during this time in the 1413 when Eric of Pomerania made Copenhagen his capital. Due to feelings of unfair treatment and anti Danish sentiment (the Danish wars near Denmark's southern border continually interrupted trade), Sweden rose up to revolt against the Union. Sweden became independent in 1523, which dissolved the Kalmar Union, but Denmark and Norway remained together.
Because of the Union, Copenhagen had begun to flourish and become more like other European capitals like London or Paris. It remained the capital of the Danish-Norwegian Union, but it saw its share of hardships during the Reformation. Denmark had remained Catholic, but the Lutheran states in the German region wanted otherwise. The Lutheran forces attacked Denmark and it became a Protestant state. The 18th century was probably the most difficult for the city. The city lost almost 1/3rd of its population the Plague. Later in 1728, the city suffered the first great fire and saw nearly half of the city burn to the ground. By this time, the Copenhagen Castle had been replaced by Christianborg Palace. The 1730's and 40's saw a great deal of the cities resources go towards rebuilding the city. They began to switch to stone construction due to the close quarters causing the old wooden buildings to burn quicker. Christiansborg mysteriously caught fire in 1794 and burned down along with half of Copenhagen, which had again been burned down. The Danes rebuilt Christiansborg and unfortunately this one also burned down. The current oe that stands in Copenhagen was completed in the early 1900's. During this time, the royal family began using Amielianborg as
During the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark tried to keep its neutrality, but the English forces decided that this was not a wise move. The British laid siege to Copenhagen and managed to steal every boat that was in the harbor. The rest of the 19th century was peaceful for Denmark and during World War One Denmark was able to maintain neutrality. During the Second World War however, Danish forces surrendered to the Nazis in a matter of hours. The Nazis used Denmark to show that the Nazis were capable of treating a country fairly, which led to Denmark maintaining some autonomy. Denmark and Copenhagen were finally liberated in 1945 and today is considered one of the safest, most modern capitals in all of Europe.
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| One of the older streets in Copenhagen |
After we ended in the Nyhavn district, we began to explore a little more on our own and decided to visit the second oldest amusement park in the world, Tivoli Gardens. I have read about how Disney World Paris was a massive failure, so I was curious to see what a European theme park would look. The park itself uses a lot of Asian and Indian influences and is comparable to Busch Gardens, but cheaper.
During the second day of the trip, we decided to visit some of the castles in Copenhagen. We started with the one that was the farthest away, which was Rosenborg Castle (No, this one did not burn down). Rosenborg was built on the 17th century and was used by Danish king Christian IV. Today the castle is open as a museum with the Danish treasures and imperial regalia being housed in the basement.
The second castle we visited was the current Christiansborg Palace, which houses the parliament. Here we decided to climb the tower and get an overview of the city. We also payed a visit to a unique area in the basement, a museum dedicated to the old castles that used to be there. You can even see remnants of Absalon's Castle and the Copenhagen Castle built around it. The museum provides information about how each castle was built and how they were destroyed.
After visiting the castles, we decided to pay a visit to the Stroget (pronounced strew-yet), which is the main shopping street in the city. It is credited with being the first pedestrian only street in Europe and has stores for anyone's tastes.
On the final day of the trip, we decided to head to the Danish National Museum and see some of the ancient and viking artifacts they had on display. The museum is enormous and requires more than two hours to actually see everything. We spent a little too much tome here and barely got to the airport on time. Unlike any of the other airports I visited, Copenhagen's is actually quite busy and you should allow more than 90 minutes to get there.
Vienna:
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| St. Steven's Cathedral |
Vienna is the capital of Austria and was the capital of the Habsburg family, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since we do have a blogger writing from Austria, I'll leave the historical perspective to her (If you want to check out her blog, click the link at the end of the post). This was the only country I visited where I could actually speak the language, and I avoided speaking English as much as possible.
I started first day in Vienna by exploring the city in general. Whenever I visit a new city, I like to spend the first day exploring the city so I get an idea of what I want to do and when I should do it. My hostel was by the Nachsmarkt, which is a farmer's market and shopping area about 10 minutes from the city center. One of the main things I initially noticed about the city is that it was the most architecturally detailed city I have seen. Almost 90% of the buildings have some kind of sculpture or detail on them. I then made my way to St. Stevens Cathedral and climbed the south tower. After taking a few panorama shots I went back to exploring the city and spent my evening wandering the Nachsmarkt a little more.
The next day, I then decided to visit the Hofburg treasury and the natural history museum. Hofburg was the administrative seat of the Habsburg family. Unlike Denmark, who still has a monarch, following the First World War, Austria became a republic. The treasury contains some of the most important Austrian and Christian artifacts in Europe. In the photo on the right, you can see three relics given to the Holy Roman Emperor. The most important is the last one on the right. Supposedly, this is supposed to be a piece of the First Cross. The also had both the crowns of the empires ruled by the Habsburg family.
I started my next day by visiting the Nachsmarket once again. Every Saturday the market is re purposed to become a sort of flea market, where you ca find anything from antiques to clothes to food. I ended up purchasing an example of Austria's currency from before the Euro, which was called the Schilling. After this, I boarded the metro and rode for about 10 minutes before arriving at Schloss Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn was used as a summer residence for the Habsburgs and was used by the royal family until Emperor Franz Joseph passed away in this palace in 1916. One of the biggest draws to the palace is not only the spectacular interior, but also the beautiful gardens.
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| The exterior of the palace |
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| The iconic long hall |
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| One of the tunnels in the garden area |
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| The "Venus of Willendorf" |
The next day was spent over in Slovakia exploring their capital of Bratislava. Bratislava was originally known as Pressburg and was once a temporary capital for the Kingdom of Hungary. There are several ways to reach Bratislava from Vienna, seeing that the two are only about two hours apart. You can choose to use the bus or a train or if you are feeling adventurous, you could possibly rent a car for a day. I chose the train and it only cost about 20 euros for the trip. Once I arrived in Bratislava, I had to walk from the train station to the old town, but like a lot of other times during my trips, I got lost. It took an extra 20 minutes to find the old town because the street signs were confusing.
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| A view of the main square |
While Bratislava was not my favorite city I visited, I found it to be very charming and scenic. I spent most of my time there exploring the old town and Pressburg Castle. I found the old town to be very small, but unlike many cities, it still had a good part of the original city wall intact. After spending a few hours exploring this area, I decided to head up to the castle and see what it was like.
The oldest part of the castle dates back to the 13th century and houses the Crown of St. Stephen. which was used to coronate the Hungarian kings. The rest of the castle dates back to many other periods, but most of what you see today is the result of the restoration projects undertaken in recent decades. Within the castle, there are many museums including the National Slovak museum. I paid a visit to most of the museums, and learned a lot about the Slovaks involvement in the World Wars. There were also exhibits portraying the history of the castle and how the restoration projects were completed. At the time of my visit, there was still some projects being completed.
I journeyed back to the old town to get dinner and went back to the train station to catch my train back to Vienna. The next day was spent in the airport and travelling back to Finland to prepare for my final exams and my departure back to the United States.
Leaving Finland:
After I was done with my exams, it was time to pack everything and say my goodbyes to the friends I had made during the five months I was there. I'll admit that I was feeling down about leaving; I met so many different people from different countries, I had seen and learned so much during those five short months that part of me was not ready to leave yet. Even as I boarded the plane to leave Helsinki, I was still feeling down that my time in Finland was over, but even though my study abroad adventure was over, I still had one more trip to take before I would get back home, Iceland.
Reykjavik
Before I left for Finland back in January, I booked my flight with Icelandic Air and as one of their promotions to boost tourism within the country, they offer a layover deal where you can stay in Iceland for up to five days without any extra charges. I arrived at Keflavik airport and took a few buses to my hostel. Keflavik was one of the nicer airports I visited, but the downside was that I was about an hour away from Reykjavik itself and there are not many options for getting into town.
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| A view down from the main street |
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| Mountains that can be seen from the city |
I almost got on the wrong bus when transferring outside the city, but thankfully most of the Icelandic people speak English. I spent my first day in Reykjavik, a name that translates to "Smoky Cove" or "Smoky Harbor", exploring and familiarizing myself with the city itself. Reykjavik is different from the other cities that I visited. The architecture is very different, with most of the buildings being very short and compact (maybe one or two stories at the most) and most of them made out of stone. Being the northernmost capital in Europe, it was also very different temperature wise from the others, with it being between about 50-60 while I was there in early June.
Iceland itself was originally settled by a Norwegian and Swedish vikings during the late 9th century, however the people that did live in Iceland were not the typical viking (pillaging, sailing, etc), most were farmers ad even set up one of the earliest forms of democracy since Athens. People would gather at the Althingi (Alþingi in Icelandic) to decided matters of law and settle disputes. Eventually Iceland was tied to the Norwegian Crown and later the Danish Crown under the Kalmar Union. During the mid 1800's, Iceland went through a national awareness movement and began to demand more Independence from the Danish. They finally gained their independence in 1918.
One of the most interesting things I noticed about Iceland's culture was the language. You can see an example above, but when you compare the Scandinavian languages (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland), its very different. The main reason for this is because the Icelandic language is much closer to the original language of the vikings. I had several Icelanders say that they could travel to Norway or Sweden and read the old historic texts almost perfectly. That would be the equivalent of an english speaking country using Shakespearean English instead of modern English. The main reason is that Icelanders were isolated for most of their history so there was not a huge opportunity for the culture to evolve.
After spending my first day exploring, I spent my second day simply relaxing at the hostel and talking with the other guests, so not much to talk about there. Now the third day was when I took one of the two tours I took while in Iceland. If you remember, when I went to Dubrovnik in Croatia, There were a lot of Game of Thrones filming sites. If you are a fan of the show, then you'll be pleased to know that the area Beyond-the-Wall and certain parts of the Vale were filmed in Iceland. During the tour we visited a few of these sites and visited a mock example of an early viking longhouse. This was my introduction to Icelandic nature and the best way to describe it was that it was ruggedly beautiful. The first area we visited was Thingvellir National Park and explored the are where the Bloody Gate resides. We then visited the mock viking site where Olly (a character in the Night's Watch) escaped a raid on his village by the Wildlings.
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| The road leading to the Bloody Gate |
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| A small viking church used to film part of the show |
The entire tour lasted about six hours and since I was a fan of the show, it was a great experience for me. The next day I spent wandering around the city again and visited the National Museum where I learned many of the facts provided earlier. I tried to find the very small old town, but after walking around for two hours, I was unable to find any sign of the area. I also spent part of my day preparing for my second tour, and learned about Iceland's prices.
In Iceland, they use the Krona, which is similar to the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian currencies, but due to a not so well off economy, the Krona is worth less than its other Scandinavian counterparts. One euro equals roughly 140 Krona. That does not mean that things in Iceland are cheap. According to a few articles I read, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland are three of the most expensive countries in Europe and the world. It is easy to avoid high prices at stores, since you can choose cheaper alternatives, but with restaurants, most will run you about 20 dollars for the cheapest meals.
Onto my second to last day in Europe. This day was spent taking a hike through Thorsmork National Park. This was by far one of the hardest things I have ever done. The hike lasted about 10 hours and we climbed almost a full kilometer. It was a beautiful hike and was well worth it, but I learned really quick that I was more out of shape than I had thought (I'll have the photos of the hike at the end). I knew that the hike was going to be difficult, but I felt like it would be a good way to end my time in Europe since it perfectly summed up my experience. It was easy at times, difficult at times, but at the end of it, you could look back and feel proud that you did it and know that you saw some incredible things.
As for the hike itself, we would usually take a break once an hour, with a longer one for our lunch. Most of the beginning of the hike was actually fairly easy, where the difficulty came was when we had to trek through the snow. Trying to hike a few miles in shin deep snow is not easy. I also nearly fell off one of the mountains because the snow was not completely frozen in one area. Thankfully my guide, Palmi, caught me by the belt and gave me a moment to get to a safer foothold. We ended our hike by walking on a snowy plain between two volcanoes with glaciers on top of them. One of the volcanoes was the one responsible for the 2010 eruption that disrupted air travel around the Atlantic (in Icelandic the name is Eyjafjallajökull). The other volcano was called Tindfjallajökull, but this one has not erupted since the Holocene period (roughly 12,000 years ago). Unfortunately we were not able to finish the last mile of the hike due to a high amount of ice on the next ridge. After that hike, I was so sore that I just went back to the hostel and went to sleep. After that, I simply went back to Keflavik airport and flew back to the U.S.
If you want to read more about Vienna, take a look at another one of our IB bloggers: http://michellespostcards.blogspot.com/
See you all next time!
