First Impressions of Denmark

Thanks to Scandinavian Airlines I was given a free tour of the entire Copenhagen airport. My plane arrived in Copenhagen at one end of the airport and my connecting flight to Arhus was at the complete opposite end. It's a very nice airport, although it seemed miles long. There are a lot of nice shops and cool architecture throughout. For the connecting flight to Arhus, SAS offered free water that was in little plastic containers, similar to the ones that apple sauce comes in. So I grabbed a few of those and boarded the flight from the tarmac. When we landed in Arhus I was very surprised at how small the airport was. It was in the middle of nowhere (a 45 minute bus ride to downtown Arhus) and probably had about 3 gates. It looked the airport in the show "Wings."

If is wasn't for Uncle Charles I may not have made it downtown. The kroner he gave me before the trip turned out to be just enough to cover the bus trip downtown.

On my walk downtown tonight I noticed that a majority of the street lights they have in the city are suspended above the streets on wires, it was certainly interesting.

The kroner (Denmark's currency) has certainly been something to get used to. Everyone deals in such large amounts, so it's very common to walk around with several 100 kroner bills. I get taken back by some of the prices but then I remember to divide everything by 5 to get the dollar equivalent.

It is illegal here to keep your store open 24 hours a day. Apparently it's a measure to keep the small businesses alive. Also, almost all stores are closed on Sundays, I'm not really sure of the reason though.

Not only is school free here but you actually get paid to go to school. No matter your intelligence or your financial means, you get about 4000 kroner a month just to go to school, crazy!

Also, it's very strange here for someone to consistently fly the Danish flag. You usually only bring it out on birthdays, holidays, or other special days.

Milan and the trip to Paris

My stay in Milan was brief, but I certainly did see a lot or at least a lot of different people. It took me forever to find a subway map, because the only place that had them available was the tourist office in the station which shortly before I got there decided to take a “about a 15 minute break.” In actuality I waited probably over 30 min before the lady came back. Had a really analyzed the subway lines I may or may not have avoided getting on the wrong train twice. It’s a really long story to explain but lets just suffice to say that I helped two other people later that night who almost feel into the same situation I was in. Let me also mention that nowhere on the map does it indicate the switch that occurs, but I figured things out in the end and was able to use the subway successfully the rest of the time. My first stop in Milan was the Duomo, the third largest Cathedral in the world. In three days time I visited two of the top three largest in the world (St. Peter’s). The Duomo, however, was completely unlike St. Peter’s. It was built in the Gothic and Baroque styles and they built one heck of a place. It was a very dark place, but I really liked the feel of it. The columns were massive, as well as the stain glass windows and an organ taking up two different walls. For my money it ranks right up there with St. Peter’s. The outside of the place is a whirlwind of different things. Statues, flying buttresses, and a gold plated Mary which stands at the peak (apparently the symbol of Milan) highlight the church. It is vastly different from the relatively symbol exterior of St. Peter’s. On this one I am going to go with St. Peter’s but the Duomo was certainly beautiful on the outside. The impression I first got was something that looked like a Lego set. It looked like an intricate Lego set that is popular today, not the square blocks from back in the day. Following the church tour I took a four-hour stroll around the area. I had heard before arriving that Milan was a major fashion city and that was certainly evident. A perfect people watching place. Granted I live in the Midwest, but there are only a few people at home that dress like these people. Some of the stuff just seemed completely over the top, but I have no idea what exactly is fashionable these days. I wandered around the beautiful outdoor mall next to the Duomo. It’s in a cross shape and full of stores that I could never think about shipping in. In between Louis Vuitton and Guici was the nicest McDonalds I’ve ever seen. You have to be nice to fit in with the area. The McDonalds also had a McCafe where they served pastries and coffee. I remember hearing about that in the news a long time ago but I had never seen one. I stopped into the mall connected to the outdoor mall and just walked around a bit. This mall was much different than the typical American mall. The individual floors were much smaller, but there were six of them. Basically this was just another chance to people watch and quickly walk buy the things that are completely out of my price range. On the top floor was a restaurant (I’m hesitant to call in a restaurant) called My Sushi, it was a really awesome idea for a sushi place. Those eating would sit around a long oval with two conveyer belts in front of them and individual sushi plates would be put on the conveyer by the chefs in the middle and circle around the table. When you see something you like you just take if off the conveyer and eat it. After enjoying some really good tiramisu gelato (“when am I gonna need to know how to cook tiramisu”) I continued my wandering around the town just taking in the scenery. I ended up back at the square in front of the Duomo, where I watched one of the cooler things I’ve ever seen. A guy on the street was making flowers, birds, fish and dragons out of carrots and what looked like radishes. I watched him make four different things in the approx. 20 min I stayed there (it was probably much longer because it was just so interesting). Everything was so intricate and life like. I took a video of him making a flower and so I’ll post it when I get a chance. After watching the vegetable guy I moved on to a guy drawing portraits.

The trip from Milan to Paris was very beautiful. Italy was full of mountains and snow and streams running alongside the tracks, where as France was rolling green hill. The mountains around Torino and Olux were especially nice with some mountains completely full of snow. The architectural difference between Italy and France are already noticeable and from the houses I’ve seen so far close to the tracks I’d have to say I like Italy’s better. I ended up moving three times on the train, finally ending up in the seat assigned on my ticket. Leaving Milan the train was practically empty and so I just chose the biggest seat in my car. Out of nowhere at one of the stops I had never heard of tons of people get on it gets crazy, which lead to me switching seats. I had a packet of Lux buttered crackers on the train and they were pretty good. They rival the kind that Tito gets at school. At least on a plane you get a “free” bag of peanuts and a Coke, but they offered nothing for “free” on the 7 hr trip.