This week I celebrated
my 21st birthday in Denmark which was a very different experience. I wasn’t sure how I would feel as at home it
is very much your day and in my family anyway, you are made of fuss of. However, I was touched by the thoughtfulness
and the generosity of the Erasmus students.
They got me a cake, cards, Berlin guidebook (for our visit at Easter)
and best of all, some Ribena and a Topshop voucher to cure my cravings! They made it a lot easier for me to be away
from home on such an important birthday and I really appreciated their
efforts. We also had a great night out
dressed as ‘Where’s Wally’s’.
I now feel I have
made many good friends here which was something I was worried about before
arriving as making new friends and stepping out of your comfort zone
is daunting. After five weeks I feel
settled and happy with my new way of life.
I think I have adapted extremely well for someone who has never really
lived away from home and I have realised that many of my fears and pre-conceptions
about coming to Denmark have changed; teaching me that there isn’t any point in
getting worried about something new as you will just adapt and it will become
normal.
Jemma and I along with
a German and Irish student decided to make good use of our day off this week to
see some more of the sights of Copenhagen as the cold weather has previously
put us off. Thankfully the weather is
now starting to warm up and we can enjoy exploring the city. We visited ‘Den Lille Havfrue' (The Little
Mermaid) statue which was remarkable bigger than everyone described it. I actually liked it but have noticed that a
lot of Danish people don’t like the statue and I have been told many times that
it isn’t worth seeing. Perhaps we feel
this way in Northern Ireland about some of our landmarks; you tend to take them
for granted when they are in your own country.
Living in Denmark has definitely encouraged me to see more of Northern
Ireland and Ireland when I get home. We
finished the day by visiting Christiania, a self-regulated, Freetown within
Copenhagen. It was founded in 1971 by
hippies and the hash trade is very popular (there is even a street called ‘Pusher
Street’) within the borough. It was larger than I expected with a total
of 850 residents. It was a very surreal
experience as at home you would never see people just walking around smoking
illegal substances and the smell of these immediately hit you whilst walking
around Christiania. The architecture is
amazing as it was all built by the inhabitants so it is very
artistic. During the visit we thought of
numerous questions which we weren’t able to answer but we noticed a sign
stating that there are weekend tours so we think we will return and see the
area with a local guide who can hopefully answer some of our questions. It was definitely an interesting experience
and something you don’t see every day.  |
| Some of the architecture |
Now that March has begun I am excited for our
plans to start to take shape with further sight-seeing, a visit from home and also for our class trip to
Aarhus next weekend. It’s going to be a very busy month!
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| Outside the entrance to Christiania. |
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