Study Abroad/Aarhus TIPS

Well I have officially moved out and left Aarhus and I’m back in Copenhagen for a layover on my way to meet up with my family in Germany. This semester flew by and I cannot believe I’m already leaving. Aarhus has been my home for the past 6 months and I’m sad to leave it, including leaving all the people I have met on exchange. I met some of my best friends and it’s a bitter sweet moment to leave. But now that I’ve left Aarhus, I figured it would be a good time to give some advice on what to expect in Aarhus and in more general on study abroad.

1. Krones

Denmark’s currency is called the Danish Krone. I had no idea what the value of the Krones were before I arrived in Aarhus. I would spend them like Monopoly money, 50 Krones for a beer, sure! Regretfully finding out later that I paid $7 for that beer.. After the first week in Aarhus, I realized that I had a long ways to go and needed to spend my money a lot more wisely. 5 months is a very long time to be away and saving money is key to get through it. So download a converter to know for sure how much you are spending in each country you go to. I use “Convert” which converts just about anything and it is very helpful. 

2. STUDY

I guess a big part of studying abroad is the actual studying part. Keeping up with your readings is key for the Aarhus business school. Classes and grading here are completely different from Arkansas. Your whole grade depends on one exam you take at the end of the semester. It’s a lot of pressure for your whole grade to be dependent on one examination. The exams are not multiple choice like at home. You get a case to read and then you answer 3-5 questions open response. You also usually get usually 3 hours to take the exam. So you have to type really fast to answer the whole question. I wrote 6 pages in one exam, it was the fastest 3 hours of my life. This all may seem super intimidating but there is an added bonus for these exams. You get to use your notes, the book, and for some exams even the Internet. I was very overwhelmed with it all at first but my exams turned out well (Well I hope they did.. I still haven’t received my grades back)

3. TRAVEL

You are in EUROPE!!! You have to travel as much as you can to see as much as you can! I stayed in Aarhus for most of the first and last months of exchange, but all the months in between I was usually traveling all over the place. There are so many places to visit and experience. Some of my favorite places I visited were: Greece, Dublin, Venice, Barcelona and Budapest. I traveled to a lot more but those are a few of my favorites. 

4. Transportation

With this traveling comes planning and booking everything on your own. I used skyscanner most of the time to book my flights around europe. It compares prices of multiple airlines and shows you the cheapest available. Plan ahead because flights are usually cheaper the earlier you book. Also, from Aarhus you usually have to fly out of Copenhagen for the cheapest flights. So the cheapest way to get to Copenhagen is by bus. Rute1000 is just $7 for the trip but usually only has 1-3 busses running a day. It also doesn’t go straight to the airport so you have to take the metro in Copenhagen to get to the airport which is another $5. I also used Line888, which is usually around $15 and takes you from the Aarhus bus station straight to the Copenhagen airport. So it is a lot less hassle than the Rute1000. You have to plan ahead for line888 tho because the discount tickets sell out and then becomes more expensive. Each of the busses take about 4 hours to get from Aarhus to Copenhagen. A train is also available to get from Aarhus to Copenhagen and you use dsb.dk to search those. The train is usually more expensive but sometimes you get lucky with a cheap DSB orange ticket. 

5. Accommodation 

For accommodation in the places I visited, I usually used Airbnb or hostels for the cheapest places to stay. Airbnb are people’s apartments that they rent out, they are usually pretty cheap, especially when traveling with a group and you can split the costs. A mistake we made with Airbnb a couple times was not paying attention to if the Airbnb was an entire apartment or just a private room in the apartment. With the private room, the people that live in the apartment also stay there while you are staying there just in another room. It was a pretty interesting concept to share an apartment with a stranger. We didn’t mind the people we shared apartments with, we were just surprised when we got there that they were just staying one room over. But if you don’t mind, it’s a way to save some money on accommodation. I also stayed in some hostels along the way. I used hostelworld.com to search hostels. Pay attention to the reviews to make sure you get a safe and clean hostel.

6. Aarhus Specific tips: 

– get a monthly bus pass or get a bike to get around the city or walk (when the weather good)

– Bring a rain jacket

– Pubs/Restaurants/Bars: Waxies, Tir A Nog, Piccolina, Kuhstall, Vinstuen, Gludhorne

– Eat in for most all of your meals, it is the cheapest way to eat

– Go to international nights at student house, lots of fun & great way to meet people (student house is the on campus bar)

– Things to see in the city: Aros museum (has a 360 view of the city), Old Town, Deer park (bring some carrots to feed them), Risskov Beach

7. say YES to everything!!!

There are so many opportunities that came along on my exchange and I’m so happy for everything I did and don’t have any regrets. You have to put yourself out there and try new things to get the most out of the exchange. There are a lot of new things to come on the exchange, new city, new home, new friends, new university, new foods. It’s a big change but it’s all definitely worth it! Take advantage of every opportunity you have! 

8. Take in every moment

The semester goes by in a blink. I’m so thankful for every moment I had on this exchange. I loved it all. I loved Aarhus, the friends I met, the traveling I did, everything. I wouldn’t change anything I did. This experience has definitely been the best time of my life and I want so many other people to experience the same thing I did for themselves!!

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HELLO SUMMER!!!!

I am officially done with my junior year of college. Cannot believe how fast this semester in Denmark and this past year have gone. I finished all my exams at Aarhus and won’t hear back on my grades for another couple of weeks. So with the exams behind me it is time to start my summer vacation!!! 

My best friend from home, Alison, came to visit me in Aarhus and travel to Copenhagen and Amsterdam with me! I got to show her around the city I’ve been living in. We visited the Old Town, Aros Museum and the deer park. It was nice exploring Aarhus even more before leaving for good. Our next stop was Copenhagen. I’ve been to Copenhagen multiple times throughout the semester just to go to the airport, since the Aarhus airport is too small to fly anywhere. I have only properly visited Copenhagen once, so it was fun to explore more. We took a canal cruise around the whole city, which was only 40 Krones ($6). I was expecting the canal cruise to be expensive like everything else in Denmark so it was a nice surprise when it was so cheap. 

top of the Aros museum in Aarhus

Nyhavn- Copenhagen

Next stop was Amsterdam!! Amsterdam has always been on the list of must sees for me and I’m glad I got to fit it in before the end of the exchange. Amsterdam is absolutely gorgeous. Every street has a new canal and new buildings to look at. The first day we went to the Anne Frank House. After seeing Auschwitz in Poland and Hitler’s bunker in Germany, it was really cool to see another big piece of history from that era. The next day we went the Heineken Brewery for the Heineken experience. The tour was very interactive, which made it fun and we got 2 beers at the end of the tour, even better! After the Heineken tour we took a canal cruise through the city. It was raining the whole day, which was a let down. I spent most of the cruise in the back in the rain because we couldn’t see out the foggy windows of the boat. But we made the best of it and still had a nice experience. That night we went to the ice bar, which who knew was FREEZING. We got coats but they were nowhere near warm enough to make it possible to stay in the bar for long. After we drank our drinks that were in a cup also made of ice we had to leave before our toes and fingers fell off. 

We also went to the I AMsterdam signs to get the typical tourist picture with them. The sign in front of the museums was so crowded and all of our pics had other people in them, which was expected but kinda ruined the picture. But the same sign is by the Eye, which you take a free ferry to get to. I actually got a picture with the sign with no people in it at all because it was raining again. Also, two restaurants I went to that I highly recommend are Bakers & Roasters and Teds. Both are really delicious brunch places for a decent price. 

After Amsterdam it was time for Norway! Our first stop in Norway was Oslo, which we were only there for a day. We went to the folk museum and the Viking Fram museum, both were a lot of fun with lots of history. We also took a free walking tour. Anything in Norway that is free, you have to take advantage of. Norway is VERY expensive, and that is coming from someone who has lived in Denmark the past 5 months. For a single bus ride across the city it was 50 Norwegian krones, which is USD $6. For a comparison between Denmark and Norway, in Aarhus for a single bus ride it is $3 and in Copenhagen around $4. Anyway, the free walking tour was very informative and worth while. We got to see the major buildings of the city and learn all about the history of Oslo. 

top of the opera house in Oslo

After our short time in Oslo, we took an early morning train and bus to Stavanger. The whole journey was around 8 hours from Oslo to Stavanger, but the scenery along the trip was gorgeous and made the long day go by quite quicker and more entertaining. Honestly I would much rather have an 8 hour train ride with a view over a short flight any day. Flights usually turn into a whole day event anyway, so I would rather see some scenery along the way. 

We had 4 nights and 3 days in Stavanger. The first day, we spent the day walking around the city, seeing the old town, cathedral, and the harbor. It was pouring down rain the whole day and I just had my rain jacket so I was completely drenched by the end of the day. An umbrella would have been very useful this trip. There was also a beach volleyball tournament going on with many European countries competing. We got to watch a game for a little bit, which was cool to see. We also visited this statue on the other side of town called Swords in Rock, which was literally three large swords in the rock. I was quite fascinated by the swords and we got some cool pictures by them. 

just loving the rain

The next day was actually sunny and there wasn’t a chance for any rain so we decided to take advantage and hike up to Pulpit Rock. The hike was about 4 km, wow I’m using kilometers now… That’s about 2 and half miles so overall 5 miles there and back. The hike was gorgeous and at the top at pulpit rock we got an incredible view of the fjords below. It was breathtaking. It seemed unreal because of how beautiful it was. 3 hours and 400 photos later, we headed back down to catch the last bus and ferry back to Stavanger. 

Our final day in Stavanger, we went on a fjord cruise. It was a 3 hour cruise and we got to cruise through the Lysefjord, seeing some waterfalls, feeding goats, and tasting the pure Norwegian water from the waterfalls. It was also breathtaking and I again took about 300 photos. Below are a few of my favorite pictures I took. 

Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Norway made the last trip before I meet up with my family perfect. Now I’m heading back to Aarhus on my last 4 hour bus ride to finish packing and cleaning my room. I just have one night and then I’m off again to go to Stuttgart to meet my family! Again I don’t know where the past 5 months have gone, but I’m so thankful for the experience of a lifetime. 

Berlin + Greece + lots of studying

This is probably going to be a long blog post, updating on what I’ve been doing during the past month of my exchange.  A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to Berlin, Germany, Athens, Greece, and Santorini, Greece. All of these places held something different and each were great destinations to explore.

Berlin was the first stop, which was a very large city, immense with history.  Berlin is very spread out, but the metros make it easy to get around. The first day we visited the East Side Gallery, which was part of the Berlin Wall that had been moved and turned into a gallery of many different artist’s paintings. We also found a beer garden to go to. Since we were in Germany we thought it was a necessity to go to a beer garden even if it was 4o degrees outside. The beer garden was very empty and it only included us and a couple other brave souls to bear the cold weather to enjoy some German beer.

East Side Gallery

the very empty beer garden

The next day we took a free walking tour around the city and saw many of the big sights, learning about the history of each.  I highly recommended a free walking tour when traveling on a budget. You can get a great deal of information about the city you are touring and all you pay is a tip of what you thought the tour was worth to the tour guide at the end. The Berlin tour consisted of stops at the Brandenburg Gate, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Hitler’s bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, and of course the Berlin Wall. In the first couple of stops, our guide took us to a parking lot where we were all very confused as to what the significance of this sight was. She then explained that under this parking lot was where Hitler had his bunker during the war. It was this very bunker where Hitler and his wife committed suicide. It was crazy to be standing on top of something that was an important turning point in history. The only representation of this bunker is a sign in the parking lot explaining it. The German people did not want to preserve this bunker and use it as a tourist destination because of the horrible thing it stands for, so they filled it in with concrete.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Hitler’s Bunker was under the parking lot behind this sign

Another huge piece of history that occurred in Berlin was the Berlin Wall. Our guide did an incredible job explaining the story behind the Berlin Wall.  The Berlin Wall was put up over night to separate East Berlin from West Berlin. No one had any knowledge that the wall was going to be put up the night it did and they were all surprised by it in the morning.  A sad story our guide told us was how parents from West Berlin brought their son over to East Berlin for a sleepover at his Grandparents.  The next morning when the parents got up to go get their son, they soon found out it was impossible to go back to East Berlin to get him. It was another 28 years until the parents were able to reunite with their son when the wall was brought down.  Something I didn’t know about the Berlin Wall was that it was actually in a shape of circle, not just a line between East and West. West Berlin was the free city and it was actually inside the circle of the Berlin Wall, with East Berlin, the communist city, surrounding them. Berlin is full of so much history and I just got to learn about some of it. I am sure there is so much more to explore and learn, but I am glad I got to experience what I did of this historic city.

Berlin Wall, where it stood years ago

After Berlin, my next stop was Athens. I was only in Athens for an evening, but I still got to experience some of the city. After checking into the Airbnb, we headed straight to the Acropolis. We were too late to hike up to it and see it up close, but the view we had of it was plenty for me. It is an absolutely gorgeous monument. The next morning we took a ferry from Athens to Santorini.  It was an 8 hour ferry, but much better than any short flight. We got to stop at so many islands along the way and see so many beautiful views.

Acropolis

View from the ferry ride

Santorini was the last stop of the journey and it was by far my FAVORITE. It was absolutely gorgeous with so many different things to do. The island is quite small, so we walked most days, besides the last one when we rented a 4 wheeler to drive around the island. We took a donkey ride down 588 stairs to the Old Port one day.  From the Old Port, we took a boat to the Santorini Volcano and the Hot Springs. We hiked up the volcano and saw the crater at the top. When then went to the “hot” springs, our guides told us the springs were going to be warm but when we jumped in it was a cruel surprise to find out they were freezing cold. One night while in Santorini we went to Oia, which is a beautiful greek village.  We watched one of the most gorgeous sunsets I had ever seen and then had a delicious Greek dinner. On this trip I was all about trying traditional Greek food and so for every meal I tried something new.  I was pleasantly surprised with every meal I ate, each being so delicious. Of course to go along with the new meals, we had to order a greek salad because I have an obsession with FETA. On another day in Santorini, we took the 4 wheeler to the beautiful Red Beach, where we spent the day taking in the sun as much as we could before our flight back to sunless Aarhus.  We then took the 4 wheeler to the western most part of the island, where there is a lighthouse and view of the ocean. Driving the 4 wheeler was a fun way to get around the island, even if we couldn’t go very fast and busses were passing us.

Red Beach

Sunset in Oia

yummy greek salad

The timing we had in Greece was just right because they were celebrating Greek Easter. One of the special events we got to take part in was in this village on the island. They lit candles all over the village on all the homes, churches, and other buildings. It lit up the entire village and it was a breathtaking view. It was pure luck that we planned our trip on this date, we really didn’t even know it was Greek Easter until the manager at our hotel told us. This celebration was something I had never experienced before and was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

After the amazing couple of days in Santorini, it was time to head back to Aarhus. To get from Santorini to Aarhus in the least expensive way, it consisted of us going from Santorini to Athens to London then finally to Aarhus.  The journey would not have been as terrible if it was at normal times of the day, but instead we left Santorini at midnight, arrived in Athens at 1 am, then had a nice long layover until 6:30 am when our flight left for London.  We arrived in London and finally got to Aarhus at 3 pm.  Got to LOVE cheap travel…. For anyone needing to travel cheaply like this, I HIGHLY recommend you get a neck pillow. May sound strange, but my neck pillow has made this traveling ten times better. It makes it so much easier to fall asleep on an airplane if you have a pillow to lean on.  And for those of you who know me, I LOVE my sleep, it is really the only thing to help me get through the day, so a neck pillow is a necessity for me.  Here are a few funny pics my friends like to take of me when I am passed out on airplanes… Hope you enjoy…

Once back in Aarhus, it was time to hit the books HARD.  This whole month of May has consisted of studying, studying, and more studying.  My exams start May 30th and end June 13th. The hard thing about grades and exams here is that your whole grade depends solely on the one final exam I take at the end of the semester. I am used to have multiple exams and assignments make up my grade, but here you only get one shot to prove that you know the information.  It is a very intimidating concept.  And to make it even harder the exams are totally different than the exams back at Arkansas.  The exams at Arkansas are usually the typical multiple choice test, while here at Aarhus University our exams are case studies with open ended questions.  The exams are open book, which is a benefit, but the amount of information that can be used to answer these questions is overwhelming.  I have been trying to prepare the best I can, but this concept is just so new to me.  I cannot even believe that it is already time for exams, crazy to think that I have been here for 4 months already. Well I think my study break is over now, so time to get back to my notes.  Looking forward to getting my exams out of the way, so then I can do some more traveling around Europe later in June!

eastern europe experiences

Well it feels like I’ve been non stop traveling for the past 2 months. I was late posting that last blog because I had like 3 days in Aarhus (which consisted of class, unpacking, laundry, and repacking) then left on another trip with some friends to Budapest, Hungary & Kraków, Poland. And now as I’m writing this post I’m on the bus heading back to Copenhagen to fly to Berlin. My roommates in Aarhus cannot believe the amount of traveling I have been doing, but they are mostly all from Europe so they don’t understand this is one of my only chances to travel all around Europe like this. Also, most of my classes are ending now so by only having a couple classes a week and some all in one day, it is easy to be gone traveling for multiple days at a time.
We were in Budapest for 3 nights and Kraków for 3 nights, so it was a good length trip. I never really thought I would go to Hungary or Poland, they just aren’t really countries you hear much about. But I would definitely now recommend everyone to go to both places. Budapest was absolutely amazing!! It was so gorgeous and had a great atmosphere. Something I first learned while I was there was that Budapest was split up into two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by Danube river. Buda is the older city, with my history and is also more hilly. On the Buda side we saw Buda Castle, Matthias Church, and the Parliament Building. There were many lookouts at the tops of the hills to look down at Buda, Danube river, and Pest. It was absolutely gorgeous. The Pest side of the city is younger and more modern. On the Pest side we saw St. Stephen’s Basilica, the Great Market Hall, where we ate multiple Hungarian dishes and lastly my favorite the Szechenyi thermal baths. Theses baths are the largest medicinal baths in Europe and have so many indoor and outdoor pools. We spent a whole day there and it was so relaxing and enjoyable.

 

Overlooking Buda

 

Matthias Church

 

Great Market Hall where we ate Goulash & Langos

 

Danube River between Buda & Pest

 

St. Stephen’s Basilica

 

sweet langos, a traditional hungarian dessert

We stayed on the Pest side in Carpe Noctem Vitae Hostel, which was such a fun hostel. There were always different events at night that you could sign up for at the hostel so there was always something to do and many different people to meet. One night we went on a boat river cruise down the Danube. We got to see the same sights we saw during the day lit up in the night. It was beautiful. One of the nights we went on a pub crawl all together to old ruin bars. Each bar was different and each had a lot of character.

 

Parliament Building lit up

From Budapest we took a seven hour bus to Kraków, Poland. We had to drive through Slovakia to get to Poland from Hungary. Slovakia sounds like a scary country that you really wouldn’t want to be in, but it was the total opposite. It was absolutely gorgeous, with green hills, mountains in the distance, rivers and cute little towns. Kraków, Poland was also a city I didn’t know what to expect to see. But Kraków was a very well developed and pretty city. There was an Jewish Quarter and Old town, which is where we stayed in Greg & tom’s hostel. We paid $15 each a night for this hostel and we definitely got our money worth plus more. The hostel was very nice and clean and our room was for 6 people and for 2 of the 3 nights it was just us 4 in the room. They also offered SO much free food. And what college student can pass up free food?? We got free dinner, free breakfast, and free snacks. It was such a great deal for so cheap. In Kraków we explored the old town, Jewish quarter, seeing many synagogues, and saw Wawel Castle. Kraków was a very walkable city and we were able to see everything we wanted to in about a day and half, could have even seen it all in a day.

On a serious note, the main reason we went to Poland was to go to Auschwitz. Nothing can prepare you for what you see behind the gates of Auschwitz. We saw two concentration camps, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau. We took a guided tour around the camps for about 3 hours. Everything was very heavy on my heart and very emotional. This experience really made me fully understand the statement “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It is very important that we do not repeat this terrible event that occurred in our history. My friends and I didn’t really speak until the end of the tour. After the tour we were very emotionally drained so we stayed in for the night.

The next day we had an afternoon to see more of Kraków then we headed to airport to go back to Denmark. We had a 10 pm flight back to Copenhagen then had a 2:50 am train back to Aarhus because we had a presentation for one of our classes at noon in Aarhus that day. We did not have the best of luck with transportation this trip. We started out with our bus from Aarhus to Copenhagen breaking down on the side of the highway and having to switch busses and then we ended the trip with our train having a problem in Copenhagen. So we didn’t end up leaving Copenhagen for Aarhus until 3:30 am… It was definitely a late night but we made it to our presentation and received great feedback from our professor. Overall it was an amazing trip and now I’m ready for my next adventure in Berlin!

My daddy came to visit me!!!!

I met my dad down in Munich, Germany for us to go to the alps to go skiing!! It has always been a dream of mine to go skiing in the infamous Alps and my dad had a free reward flight he had to use by July so it was perfect timing for him to come join me in Europe. We met in Munich then drove 3 hours to St. Anton in Austria. We were staying in a real HOTEL.. not a hostel or an Airbnb, a hotel so this was a real treat for me. We even got a buffet breakfast in the mornings so it was the whole deal.    (View from our hotel balcony)

We started skiing the first day we were there. The views at the top of the mountains were absolutely breathtaking with the alps surrounding us. The snow was not the absolute best for skiing since it was late in the season. There was a lot of slush, which made the skiing difficult but the views definitely made it all worth it. We did find some good snow at the top of one of the mountains, so we spent a whole morning up there skiing those slopes multiple times to take advantage of the good snow. We had originally planned to ski the full 5 days we were there, but because of the snow we just skied 3 days and spent the other 2 days in other towns in Austria.

  

 
 On one of the days we drove to Innsbruck. I think Innsbruck is now one of my favorite towns I have visited. It is such a cute town that is surrounded by the beautiful Alps. Innsbruck held the Winter Olympics in past years so we started out the day walking up to the ski jump that was still in the town from the olympics. While up there, there was an amazing lookout of the entire town. After seeing the ski jump we walked down into town for lunch. My dad and I wanted to try a traditional Austrian dish so I ordered Wiener schnitzel and my dad got some sort of boiled beef. Both dishes ended up being very good and led me to have the schnitzel again when we were in Munich later in the trip. Later in the day we took the gondola up to the top of the ski slopes to get another gorgeous lookout of the town.

   
   
 On another day that we weren’t skiing we went to Bregenz, Austria, which is a town on the Lake Constance. We rented bikes there for the day and ended up biking to Germany. It’s so funny to say that we biked from Austria to Germany, but since Bregenz is close to the border it was quite easy to do. There were even signs showing when the border of Austria and Germany changed. In Germany we went to a town called Lindau. This was an island town on Lake Constance and another beautiful town. 

   (Crossing into the Germany border by bike)

  (Lindau, Germany)  (Biking through Austria)

(Lindau, Germany)

The week in Austria went by way too fast and all of a sudden it was time to head back to Munich. We left in the morning so we would have the afternoon and evening to explore Munich a little bit before we left the next day. Munich is a very busy and crowded city, but there are also some beautiful sights we got to see.  

  (Had to represent in Munich! WOO PIG!!!!!)

 
It was so nice to see my dad and spend time with him for a week, since it had been 3 months since I’d seen him last. I guess we have gone 3 months without seeing each other before whenever I go to Fayetteville, but being in Europe with such a big time difference, it just feels like it’s been so much longer since I’d seen him. It was such a refreshing and fun week in Austria and Germany. I’m so lucky to have been able for my dad to come visit me. 

Spring Break in Italy, Spain, & England

The past couple of weeks have been busy with traveling to many different places around Europe. We had our spring break last week so we covered some ground and went to Milan, Venice, Barcelona, Ibiza, and London. Most of these cities have been on my bucket list and were so amazing to see in person. We started our journey in Milan, Italy. I have been to Italy before and it is one of my favorite countries, so I was so happy to be back. The Duomo was my favorite part of Milan. I wasn’t expecting to see it and so it was a nice surprise to see a beautifully detailed church. 
  
Next stop: VENICE. Venice has been a city that has always been on my bucket list to go to. I was absolutely blown away when I first saw the beauty of the city. The city is unreal with amazing views at every bridge and canal. Pretty sure I took about 500 photos in the day and half we were there. If I could post all 500 photos on this blog I would, but that isn’t possible so I will put in some of my favorites.  

   
  After Venice, we took a train back to Milan then flew out of Milan to Barcelona! Barcelona or just Spain in general has always been on the list to go to too. The first day we were there we ventured up to Park Güell for an incredible lookout of the entire city. It was completely breathtaking. We next saw the Sagrada Familia, which was a gorgeous church. The next two days we spent on the Barcelona beach. It was so nice just to tan in the WARM SUN. It was such a nice change from Denmark to actually see the sun and actually feel warm and not cold all the time. We didn’t even need a jacket, which was the first time in months that I didn’t need to be wearing one. We also went to a small island in Spain called Ibiza, which had beautiful beaches and gorgeous lookouts of the water and city. Spain is definitely a must go to country. 

   (Barcelona lookout from Park Güell)

  (Lookout from cliffs in Ibiza)(Got to see an incredible sunset on the beach in Ibiza after an intense beach soccer game)

Our final stop of our long journey was London! I have been to London before, but I was not upset at all to go again. London is a city I can actually see myself living in. We really only had a day in London so we took a hop on/hop off bus so we could cover the whole city. Our Airbnb was only a 15 minute walk to the Tower Bridge, so that’s where we started the day. The next place we got off the bus was at the Big Ben. After Big Ben, we walked over to Westminster Abbey. We had absolute perfect timing to go to Westminster Abbey at this time because an Easter service was just starting and it was open to the public. We got in line and got to go into the amazing Westminster Abbey. The service and worship was beautiful with hymns and a wonderful Easter sermon. We even got to receive communion from the priest. It was definitely a once in a lifetime moment that I was so glad to experience. After the service, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Buckingham Palace. As we were just beginning to take pictures at the Palace, it started to hail on us. The weather in London is so unpredictable. It was sunny with a blue sky in the morning then turned to rain and clouds then turned to hail. But even through all the weather changes we enjoyed our day seeing the sights of London. 

  
  (Inside the beautiful Westminster Abbey, sneaking photos) 

 This spring break was definitely my all time favorite. We got to see so many different cities and experience so many different things. Traveling from one big city to the next felt unreal and felt like I was living a dream. I will forever remember this amazing spring break experience. 

happy (early) st. patty’s day

Well I haven’t posted in awhile, but that’s because there hasn’t been too much to update on. I’ve just been going to class and enjoying Aarhus. I have been in Aarhus up until this past weekend when we went to Dublin. I never really thought I would be able to make it to Ireland while I was over here, but my friends and I found a roundtrip flight to Dublin for $35, so we couldn’t resist. We left last Wednesday for Dublin and came back to Denmark on Saturday. It was a short, but great trip. We started out just sight seeing in Dublin. We saw the Spire, Dublin castle, Christ’s Church Cathedral, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The cathedral was so beautiful with amazing, colorful stain glass windows. That day we also went on a Guinness brewery tour. We got to explore the seven level brewery and then had a pint of Guinness in the gravity bar at the top of the brewery that had a 360 view of Dublin. It was a great view to enjoy a Guinness. 

  (The Spire)

  (Guinness at the top of the Gunniess brewery looking over Dublin)

  (The beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral) (Christ’s Church Cathedral)

That night we went out to a pub called O’Niells, which I highly recommend. They had delicious home cook like food. I got Irish chicken with mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes (I really like potatoes & I’ve missed them, so I had to double up). This was probably one of my favorite meals of my whole exchange.

The next day we took an early morning three hour bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs were absolutely GORGEOUS. If you are ever in Ireland, you definitely have to go see the Cliffs of Moher.

   (I could never get tired of this view) 

  

  (It was just a little windy)

The final day in Dublin we only had the morning and early afternoon since our flight back to Copenhagen was at 4 pm. We woke up and went to a restaurant called Queen of Tarts for breakfast, which I also recommend. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, a potato cake, and toast. It was an amazing breakfast that kept us full the entire day. 

   (Such a delicious breakfast)

   

 We got back to Aarhus Sunday afternoon, went to class on Monday and Tuesday and as I’m writing this I’m heading back to Copenhagen to start our spring break in Milan. And now there will be many more updates to come with our trip including Milan, Venice, Barcelona, Ibiza, and London. 

First Stop: Belgium

Class started about 2 weeks ago and I have still only been to 3 classes, so everyday feels like the weekend for me here.  Makes it difficult to get in a routine, but loving all the freedom.  My friends and I decided to take advantage of this freedom before classes pick up and take our first trip of the semester to Belgium.  Airplane tickets are super cheap here relative to America, so traveling is nice and inexpensive.  But there are not many flights out of the Aarhus airport, so we have to travel to Copenhagen first to fly out of there.  So for our trip to Belgium we took an afternoon train and spent the night in Copenhagen then took a flight to Brussels the next morning.  

When we first arrived in Brussels we really didn’t know what to expect.  Our first impression was that it was just a dirty city with not much to see.  We later found out that our hostel was located in not the best part of town and there was much more to see in the nicer part of Brussels.  

We stayed in this hostel in Brussels for 3 nights.  Hostels are definitely going to be a new thing for me to get used to. There were six of us total and we all stayed in one room and slept in homemade bunk beds.  I got to look up at a screw coming out of the ply wood every night I went to bed.  We did have a kitchen, which made us be able to save some money and cook in every night.  

 
 
While in Brussels, the first day and half we just wandered around the town exploring all it had to offer.  Our first stop of course was getting a Belgian waffle, which was DELICIOUS.  We got to see Grand Place, the Royal Palace, many gorgeous churches, and Manneken Piss, which is something I don’t see why people make a huge deal out of since it’s just a fountain of a tiny boy statue peeing. 

        
The final day in Belgium we decided to take a train to Brugge, which was a cool old medieval town.  We finally got our Belgian chocolate there that we have always talked about getting and it was definitely well worth it.

      
From Brussels, we had to fly back to Copenhagen before we could take a train back to Aarhus. We ended up having a 12 hour layover between our flight and our train, so we got to spend the day in Copenhagen.  Copenhagen is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  We got to the famous little mermaid statue and the well known canal, which was my absolute favorite. The sun was actually out for the first time in awhile, so we got to get some amazing pictures.  We will definitely be back in Copenhagen for other layovers between trips and I cannot wait to see it again. 

   
   

First Week in AARHUS

I’ve been in Aarhus for almost a week now & I LOVE IT. The city and campus are absolutely gorgeous. There is still so much in the city to see, but from what we have explored it’s been amazing. The city is very dense so it is easy to walk anywhere we need to go. Most Danes use bikes or the bus here. We have been using the bus to go places as well, which has taken some time to get used to since we don’t use public transportation as much in Texas.  I’ve only gotten lost once.. My roommates and I wanted to go to Ikea to get some stuff for our rooms and we went to the right bus stop, but took the wrong bus. We drove about 20 minutes and realized we weren’t going the right way. We ended up at the last stop of the bus and had to get off in the middle of nowhere since the bus driver was going home. The bus driver said the next bus would be there in about 20 minutes, but we ended up waiting in the freezing cold for an hour. Once we got back home we decided to leave ikea for tomorrow and try again. 
   

  I live in a house with 12 other people, who are all from different parts of the world like France, Italy, Australia, Norway, Hong Kong, and Canada. It’s a full house, but we have all gotten along with each other well so far.  We still don’t have wifi in the house tho so that makes everything a bit difficult (which is why I haven’t been able to upload this earlier). We are hoping to get wifi here in the next few days tho. 

  
We are having intro week this week where we are learning more about Aarhus and meeting more people.  We’ve had different events that we go to together like getting a beer at the on campus bar (yes on campus, I will always think this is strange) or going to an international party, which was also on campus (again strange).  I’ve been having a ton of fun tho and enjoying not having to worry about school until Monday. 

  

Denmark bound

(I would have posted this earlier, but I just got wifi)

Well I am officially on my way to Denmark to start my journey. I have left the United States and am now writing this in the London airport while waiting for my connecting flight to Oslo, Norway then following that with my final flight to Aarhus, Denmark. The goodbyes in DFW were hard that’s for sure, but I am ready for all the new experiences that will be coming my way. 

I ended up with two suitcases (that barely made the weight limit of 50 pounds both at 50.5 pounds), a carry on suitcase, and a backpack. May seem like a lot, but I still don’t know if I have everything to last me the whole 6 months. Thankfully, I know I will be able to buy pretty much anything I forgot or need there.

   

Traveling has been going pretty well so far. My first flight arrived an hour later than it was supposed to, but thankfully we had a three hour layover to begin with so we made it just in time for the start of boarding for Oslo after going through security again. Traveling wears me out that’s for sure and the 7 hour time difference from Dallas doesn’t help. So I’m looking forward to getting to Aarhus and going to my new house for a good nights sleep.