The Fourth of July in the US is a government holiday filled with parades, fireworks, and patriotic parties to celebrate America's independence. The Fourth of July I spent studying abroad this year was quite a bit different!
Around 8 am on Friday morning, I departed CBS for the ISUP Tour of Denmark. We took a double-decker bus to Jutland (mainland Denmark) for the weekend, exploring other large cities and parts of the country outside of Copenhagen.
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| Poor photo quality from my seat on the bus, I know, but the bridge to the mainland from Copenhagen reminded me of Michigan's Mackinac. Well, if not for the windmills. |
Our first destination was Hans Christian Andersen's house in Odense, the third largest city in Denmark. HC Andersen was a famous fairy tale writer whose works have been translated into many languages. Looks-wise, I learned that he also was a very tall man considered peculiar and "ugly," something which shaped his life. Thankfully, those opinions didn't impede him from later having great success as an author. Walking around the museum, we were able to see multiple displays about his literary and artistic works (he also is known for
paper cuts) as well as the yellow home where he was born. Afterwards, I enjoyed watching part of a performance of the fairy tales before wandering a bit through the city of Odense.
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| First American flag I saw on the Fourth of July.. one of the only! |
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| Walking through the HC Andersen house |
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| Hans Christian Andersen, 1805-1875 |
Performance just outside the museum of one of HC Andersen's fairy tales. Although I couldn't understand the Danish story, seeing the Chinese outfits made me think back to studying abroad last summer!
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| Following the footprints [of HC Andersen, presumably] through Odense |
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| Actually the first picture I've had taken of me in Denmark, standing next to the Hans Christian Andersen house. |
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| Statue of a buff man in Odense that I found amusing |
Next, our group toured the "old town" of Den Gamle By. Founded in 1909, Den Gamle By is the first open-air museum. There, one can see many historic buildings and scenes from old-fashioned Denmark.
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| Part of Den Gamle By is the Danish Poster Museum, where I noted this poster in particular. Notice how the woman is wearing stars and stripes and standing in front of the Statue of Liberty. Maybe I was being particularly sensitive due to the 4th of July, but I wouldn't consider this to be one of the "Images of Asia"... |
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| Row, row, rowing a boat in the middle of Den Gamle By and loving the sunny weather! |
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| Am I in Denmark or China? Either way, I thought back to my trip to Beijing multiple times during the day (as I boarded my flight to PEK on July 4, 2013). |
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| I tried one of the vanilla ring cookies, apparently a must-do in Den Gamle By. |
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| My favorite part of Den Gamle By was definitely the boat ride. |
At the end of the day, we ventured to our hotel in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark. Though our accommodations were not as exciting as expected, we did get a great location near a bit of water in the middle of the city. Rather than stay in my quaint hotel room, though, I ventured out with some friends to get some dinner and explore the city.
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| Smallest hotel room I have ever seen! |
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Pitas, fries, and chocolate milk for dinner. The menu was all in Danish, but conveniently, the workers had an English copy for us. Despite feeling a bit out of my comfort zone at first (then again when my credit card wouldn't work there), I'm glad we tried something different! Yum!
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| Ben & Jerry's for dessert.. waffle cones are definitely popular in Denmark! |
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| Spent a lot of time that night just sitting by the water, appreciating the environment while chatting with friends. |
All in all, I had a fun night out on the town, celebrating my second Fourth of July in a foreign country.
