Important News Bulletin:
I am in Holland for the weekend seeing Counting Crows!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Halloween on Crack
I spent last weeked in Aalborg, Denmark, the fourth largest city in the country with about 250,000 people.
However, it would be an injustice to place the population at that number for the weekend I was there. That's because I was attending the Aalborg Carnival, the largest carnival in Northern Europe, or as I like to refer to it as: "Halloween on crack."
The amount of people in the small town that weekend was staggering; not only Danish, but from what I encountered several other countries as well.
For those uneducated in my recent Halloween attire, I have been wearing a cow costume for the last 3 holidays. To bask in the fullness of the costume, see pictures + Harry.
So it's only natural that I have the costume with me here in Denmark and likewise a perfect fit for this carnival atmosphere. There happened to be several other people with great taste like me who were also decked out in the black and white, see pictures as well.
Everything went down on Saturday and that called for a 6:30 am wake up call. Just enough time to make the bus at 7:30 and get to the pre-parade party for its 8:00 am start. Now Danes don't fool around with alcohol with it's early in the morning. A typical early morning drink in Denmark is a shot of a hard alcohol called 'Bitter.' Take a guess what it tastes like because I'd rather not relate its vileness. Imagine that at 8:00 am. Fortunately, someone concocted a homemade version of the popular schnapps 'Aalborg,' namesake of the carnival town. Honey, sugar and Aalborg combined to produce something that necessary wasn't tasty but at least was bearable. The party was a nice group of people who all brought things to contribute, including the typical breakfast bread of Danes, bread with some kind of seed on top. In addition to the typical butter or jam that tops this bread, the Danes also like to put thin slices of chocolate on top. This form of breakfast chocolate kills Cocopuffs. I'm quite proud to say I got pretty Danish as this party.
After all the general revalry at the party, we started walking to our starting point for the 10:30 am parade kick-off time. This isn't your grandmother's carnival parade though. Building off of the year's theme of 'Magic in the Air', students, starting from 3 different points in town, merged into a huge conglomeration of animals, space people, fairies, santa clauses and any other costume imaginable. As I said "Halloween on crack." It was me that people hung out their windows and fought for spots on the street to see. It's cool being the one to entertain the people and the people in this parade were entertaining to say the least. Entertaining as well as extremely clever. It really was a case of sensory overload. So many bright colors, so many different sounds combined for a tour de force on the downtown streets of Aalborg. The approx. 2 mile walk took about 2 hours. The parade spilled out into a couple parks downtown where we chilled for a while talking to other cows and fairies. There was a music festival in the park next to us but we chose not to attend because of money and time constraints. I felt no less a part of the experience though.
Regardless of the carnival it's a very nice city. I spent all of Friday just wandering around checking out the entire place. A very cozy place.
However, it would be an injustice to place the population at that number for the weekend I was there. That's because I was attending the Aalborg Carnival, the largest carnival in Northern Europe, or as I like to refer to it as: "Halloween on crack."
The amount of people in the small town that weekend was staggering; not only Danish, but from what I encountered several other countries as well.
For those uneducated in my recent Halloween attire, I have been wearing a cow costume for the last 3 holidays. To bask in the fullness of the costume, see pictures + Harry.
So it's only natural that I have the costume with me here in Denmark and likewise a perfect fit for this carnival atmosphere. There happened to be several other people with great taste like me who were also decked out in the black and white, see pictures as well.
Everything went down on Saturday and that called for a 6:30 am wake up call. Just enough time to make the bus at 7:30 and get to the pre-parade party for its 8:00 am start. Now Danes don't fool around with alcohol with it's early in the morning. A typical early morning drink in Denmark is a shot of a hard alcohol called 'Bitter.' Take a guess what it tastes like because I'd rather not relate its vileness. Imagine that at 8:00 am. Fortunately, someone concocted a homemade version of the popular schnapps 'Aalborg,' namesake of the carnival town. Honey, sugar and Aalborg combined to produce something that necessary wasn't tasty but at least was bearable. The party was a nice group of people who all brought things to contribute, including the typical breakfast bread of Danes, bread with some kind of seed on top. In addition to the typical butter or jam that tops this bread, the Danes also like to put thin slices of chocolate on top. This form of breakfast chocolate kills Cocopuffs. I'm quite proud to say I got pretty Danish as this party.
After all the general revalry at the party, we started walking to our starting point for the 10:30 am parade kick-off time. This isn't your grandmother's carnival parade though. Building off of the year's theme of 'Magic in the Air', students, starting from 3 different points in town, merged into a huge conglomeration of animals, space people, fairies, santa clauses and any other costume imaginable. As I said "Halloween on crack." It was me that people hung out their windows and fought for spots on the street to see. It's cool being the one to entertain the people and the people in this parade were entertaining to say the least. Entertaining as well as extremely clever. It really was a case of sensory overload. So many bright colors, so many different sounds combined for a tour de force on the downtown streets of Aalborg. The approx. 2 mile walk took about 2 hours. The parade spilled out into a couple parks downtown where we chilled for a while talking to other cows and fairies. There was a music festival in the park next to us but we chose not to attend because of money and time constraints. I felt no less a part of the experience though.
Regardless of the carnival it's a very nice city. I spent all of Friday just wandering around checking out the entire place. A very cozy place.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Getting Lost in the Forest
Yesterday afternoon I took a couple hour walk in the forest which runs along the coast. It's only a couple minutes away from my dorm and it's a beautiful place to hang out in.
Towards the end of my walk I took a seat at one of the benches that lines the edge of the forest overlooking the water. I just chilled listening to the waves wash up on the rocks below.
I kept thinking how thankful I am to have chosen Arhus. Yes, it's not the big cities of Paris or London, and it's not the sunny beaches of southern Spain, but it's a great place!
They call Arhus the "City of Smiles" and Denmark the "Happiest Country in the World." That's a pretty good combination.
Towards the end of my walk I took a seat at one of the benches that lines the edge of the forest overlooking the water. I just chilled listening to the waves wash up on the rocks below.
I kept thinking how thankful I am to have chosen Arhus. Yes, it's not the big cities of Paris or London, and it's not the sunny beaches of southern Spain, but it's a great place!
They call Arhus the "City of Smiles" and Denmark the "Happiest Country in the World." That's a pretty good combination.
Monday, May 19, 2008
American in Brussels
After some time, Eric Abroad returns to bring you exciting tales from the exotic and unknown land of Brussels, Belgium.
I'm currently taking the Reporting Inside the EU course and part of that course was a week trip to Brussels. Since Jimmy (Holland) brought his car to school, four of us decided to drive down in order to save money. We departed Arhus at 12:00am on Monday morning, only to arrive at the hotel door at 12:00pm Monday. The time in between was filled with attempts at sleep, pit stops and the almighty food stop at McDonalds in Holland to partake in the gloriousness that is the McKroket. I'm assuming known of you know what a McKroket is and I'll leave it at that, because it is something beyond words.
Brussels, by the way, is a great city. We arrived at the hotel and had a mini-tour of the EU area that afternoon. For dinner I had what were touted as the Best Pommes Frites (fries to the lay person) in the World, and I have to admit that were pretty darn good. You all know Brussels in known for their beer, so we ended the night with a boot of beer (see picture) at the bar Delirium, which boasts a Guinness World Record 2,000 beers available. They actually have a huge folder to give to customers so they could flip around and find something interesting.
Considering I've never really been exposed to many things EU, I was excited about all the things to see and people to meet. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was filled 9-3 with meetings, press conferences and lectures. A couple were boring I'll have to admit, but the vast majority of the stuff was quite fascinating. On Spring Break several years ago, me and Dad went to the UN in NYC, which in a way is comparable to the EU, although with more power. We went to the European Commission and the Parliament and listened to many high ranking people speak about their respective areas. I think the most interesting talk was given by Jean-Christophe Filori, the Directorate General for Enlargement. He talked all about Turkey's possible admittance in the EU and the whole fiasco that surrounds that, intriguing stuff. On Tuesday we attended the daily press briefing in the Commission. The EU translates into the 23 languages, the most of any press service in the world. While they were speaking French I put on the earphones at my seat and followed along with the translator, who I could see sitting in the booth next to our chairs. You really become immersed in things when they start speaking another language because it seems to heighten the situation. On Wednesday, we were provided a buffet lunch in the Parliament which was amazing. Huge tables of food, dessert, wine, coffee and EU engraved silverware highlighted the lunch. Me in the European Parliament, plus the outside (great architecture):
Outside of our time spent in the EU, I traversed the great city of Brussels. And I don't say that with a sarcastic tone, it really was a cool place. The architecture, food, beer, EU, metro system and green space all combined to make it great. I was very surprised by the large amount of green space within the city. It made the whole place a lot more cozy. After the EU one day we grabbed some snacks and chilled at one of the parks for a while enjoying the beautiful weather (which also contributed to the nice time).
Hopefully in the future I can return, because I def. didn't get to see everything there. Also, to make a couple side trips to Antwerp and Bruges.
I'm currently taking the Reporting Inside the EU course and part of that course was a week trip to Brussels. Since Jimmy (Holland) brought his car to school, four of us decided to drive down in order to save money. We departed Arhus at 12:00am on Monday morning, only to arrive at the hotel door at 12:00pm Monday. The time in between was filled with attempts at sleep, pit stops and the almighty food stop at McDonalds in Holland to partake in the gloriousness that is the McKroket. I'm assuming known of you know what a McKroket is and I'll leave it at that, because it is something beyond words.
Brussels, by the way, is a great city. We arrived at the hotel and had a mini-tour of the EU area that afternoon. For dinner I had what were touted as the Best Pommes Frites (fries to the lay person) in the World, and I have to admit that were pretty darn good. You all know Brussels in known for their beer, so we ended the night with a boot of beer (see picture) at the bar Delirium, which boasts a Guinness World Record 2,000 beers available. They actually have a huge folder to give to customers so they could flip around and find something interesting.
Considering I've never really been exposed to many things EU, I was excited about all the things to see and people to meet. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was filled 9-3 with meetings, press conferences and lectures. A couple were boring I'll have to admit, but the vast majority of the stuff was quite fascinating. On Spring Break several years ago, me and Dad went to the UN in NYC, which in a way is comparable to the EU, although with more power. We went to the European Commission and the Parliament and listened to many high ranking people speak about their respective areas. I think the most interesting talk was given by Jean-Christophe Filori, the Directorate General for Enlargement. He talked all about Turkey's possible admittance in the EU and the whole fiasco that surrounds that, intriguing stuff. On Tuesday we attended the daily press briefing in the Commission. The EU translates into the 23 languages, the most of any press service in the world. While they were speaking French I put on the earphones at my seat and followed along with the translator, who I could see sitting in the booth next to our chairs. You really become immersed in things when they start speaking another language because it seems to heighten the situation. On Wednesday, we were provided a buffet lunch in the Parliament which was amazing. Huge tables of food, dessert, wine, coffee and EU engraved silverware highlighted the lunch. Me in the European Parliament, plus the outside (great architecture):
Outside of our time spent in the EU, I traversed the great city of Brussels. And I don't say that with a sarcastic tone, it really was a cool place. The architecture, food, beer, EU, metro system and green space all combined to make it great. I was very surprised by the large amount of green space within the city. It made the whole place a lot more cozy. After the EU one day we grabbed some snacks and chilled at one of the parks for a while enjoying the beautiful weather (which also contributed to the nice time).
Hopefully in the future I can return, because I def. didn't get to see everything there. Also, to make a couple side trips to Antwerp and Bruges.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Back from Berlin
Hey Guys,
I got back from Berlin very late last night and I apologize for not blogging about it today, but I'm off to Thyholm, Denmark for a long weekend with Rasmus, a guy who lives on my floor. We're going to his hometown, which is located in northwestern Jutland. It should be a great time experiencing more Danish culture. When I return on Sunday I will be sure to blog about Berlin and Thyholm.
Vi ses!
I got back from Berlin very late last night and I apologize for not blogging about it today, but I'm off to Thyholm, Denmark for a long weekend with Rasmus, a guy who lives on my floor. We're going to his hometown, which is located in northwestern Jutland. It should be a great time experiencing more Danish culture. When I return on Sunday I will be sure to blog about Berlin and Thyholm.
Vi ses!
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