Leaving Norge

6/29
We toured our last sustainable company today. It was a company that deals with water in Bergen; the city is known as the rain capital of Europe. Mick got a 2nd degree burn on his palm when he touched a radiator in the lobby. I feel bad for him but it looks like he will be okay. We got Mick all fixed up and went to the fish market where whale meat. It was more of a cow taste than a fish taste which was surprising. We hung out in Bergen until our flight back to Copenhagen. norway was an awesome trip but I was just so exhausted from all the activities and travel we did over the past few days. When we arrived in Denmark I purchased my Duty Free alcohol and got on the metro to go home. I got Chinese food for dinner and took a bus to Tossingade. It is another apartment building with DIS students from my class. We drank some Martinis.

Best day Ever

6/28
So Voss is beautiful. We went for an 11 mile hike into the mountains today. Absolutely insane. I never want to leave. It is too nice here. I can't emphasize enough how awesome today was. On the hike we trekked through snow and had the most beautiful views. After the hike I was exhausted and slept the bus ride back into town. We immediately left for Bergen on the train. I was definitely sad to leave but happy to see that Bergen is pretty as well. We went on Funicular where we saw the city from above. We hiked our way down which was surprisingly long but we played in a troll forest on the way down. A few of the guys and I ate in the city centre at the fish market and I had the best Salmon Burger. 10 out of 10. We pregammed, went to a bunch of NATTKLUBSSS and danced the night away. Best way to look at the pics is to click on the first one to make it bigger and then scroll to the right.

 Glacier water

Train ride

6/27

Train

 Voss

Hotel room view

In the early am we walked to the next business on the schedule, Framtiden. It was a smaller business that works with carbon offsetting. The company reminded me of the company I interned for during my Winter Quarter at school. It is a small nonprofit trying to make a small difference. After the visit, my class went to a park where we discussed the business; it seemed to be controversial as some thought carbon offsetting was a bad program and does not help the environment and others thought it was disappointing because the company does not try to eliminate all carbon emissions from the companies that join their program. Personally, I believe carbon offsetting is just a small help to the big picture in the fight against carbon emissions. Also, compared to most carbon emission reduction programs this has been way more successful. We ate some omeletes for lunch and got on the train toward Voss. The train ride was so pretty. The scenery in Norway is unbelievable. We got to Voss pretty late and watched the soccer game and went to a Extreme Sports Convention on the beach. My hotel room is incredible with a great view of the lake and mountains. I never want to leave here.

Peace be the journey

6/26
Today we toured CICERO, Center for International Climate Research-Oslo. Again, a really cool company with a very nice building. The Director had a lot of information to tell us and had an awesome presentation. Afterwards we got some TGIF, which happens to be number 6 on the list of best restaurants in Oslo according to my hotel. I went to the viking museum during my free time. They were crazy people with revolutionary naval tactics and boats. We went straight to the Nobel Peace center where a surprisingly feminist tour guide took us around the center. It was quite funny, she made a comment about men each time we stopped. Afterwords we ate an amazing dinner at a pretty classy place. DIS bought everyone 12 dollar beers. Everything in Oslo is so expensive. Cheapest beer is 12 dollars at any bar!! At night me and a few of the guys in my class walked around Oslo and bar hopped. We ended up at a hipster bar with live music, it was pretty cool.

viking ship

 the class

Mickelsof Andretti the yeti disturbing the peace

Welcome to Oslo

6/25
 Ate an early morning buffet on the boat as we pulled into Oslo and saw the fjords along the way.. We got off and went to the Opera House which was super pretty and massive. I wish I could have seen an opera while I was here. After wards we ate some food and went to Statcraft, a leader in Hydroelectric power and wind power in Scandanavia. It was an awesome building and a great presentation. I would love to work at this place. The building was incredible, the work seemed very interesting,  and the people were super nice. Oslo is very different from Copenhagen- more cars, bigger buildings, less people walking and biking, more immigrants, and seemed more like and American city. A lot of construction is happening here and the buildings here are nice as hell. I watched some local TV shows and went to dinner at pub. I ended up going to bed at 11 while the sun was just about to go down.

Cruisin'

6/24

Slept in once again.. Mick and I got breakfast, made some PB&Js and left for the ferry via the metro. We were taking an overnight Ferry ride to Norway, where I will be for the next 5 days looking at renewable energy companies.We got the tiniest rooms on the boat where we were sleeping 3 to a room. We immediately went to the Tax and Duty free shop where we bought essential supplies for Oslo. Most of the people were getting trashed while Mick and I relaxed and watched the scenery. When Mick and I got back to our floor everyone in my class was beyond drunk and wanted to check out the night club on the ship.  We went and were the only ones there. Later on a few of the guys in my class and I went to the wine bar where we listened to live music. I went to bed early and got ready for tomorrow. 

Burning the Witch

6/23

Finally got to sleep in , it is nice not having class in the morning. Mick, Alice, her roommates, and I went for a stroll around the botanical gardens and went to Rosenburg castle. It was a nice day with perfect weather. Robin our SRA showed us the funniest movie I have seen in awhile, The Inbetweeners. It kind of reminds me of Superbad and other movies where awkward guys party but its British. Afterwards we went to the Burning Witch festival. Danes have a bonfire where at the top of the pile of wood is a witch. They use fireworks to make it sound like the witch is screaming. You can kind of hear it in the video below.. It is pretty weird but everyone in Copenhagen seemed to be there and celebrating. Their were bands and they even sang a national song while the witch burned. We regrouped at the apartments and went to a Bar called Kant. It was a great night, I didn't drink much but ended up watching the sunrise at 3 once again.

Francis Poni

6/22
Today was a pretty slow day. Had class and relaxed most of the day. Watched the soccer game, Eurotrip, and went with the people in my apartment building to the Francis Poni, Crazy Pig, and Sam's Bar.

Hyldespjaeldet

6/21

Today in class we went to a Danish neighborhood that is very eco-friendly. Hyldespjaeldet, a  low income neighborhood, has green roofs, chicken coops, sheep, a recycling center, and other really cool environmentally friendly projects. It had the coolest playground that looked like it was straight out of Harry Potter. Next to Tivoli Gardens we got some beer flavored ice cream and I came back to the apartment and Robin, my SRA, made us pasta. We watched the Czech Republic play Portugal and went to Kuhlerbar.

6/20

I was not born party. nope. A typical hunchback morning of course for Mick and I as we stumbled to class. Everyone looked so hungover in my class today as I remember seeing all of them at the bar the night before. One kid ended up coming in an hour late with no backpack and a Guinness, he seemed to be the only one functioning. After class I slept until I had an interview with a member of DONG. I learned a bunch of cool stuff about off shore wind turbines. It was definitely interesting to learn about as their are way more difficulties than you can imagine, but the overcomes them. I typed up my essay and ate at a McDonalds which was surprisingly very different than at home. I decided that it was best to go out again and we went to bars that local Danes go to. Billy Booze and some crazy Danish word. I had some interesting convos with the Danish and lost some games of table football.

Kuhlerbar

6/19

Class consisted of most of my day, my teacher is hilarious. He speaks English kind of well but has the most interesting expressions. His most famous " Remember to not talk loudly to dwarfs". He repeated this phrase many times but I think he meant Don't talk down to dwarfs. The class is pretty interesting and is all about the Wind Power industry and how companies in that sector work together. For my paper I will be writing about DONG energy, a leading company in off shore wind energy based in Denmark and the UK. After class, Alice and Mick joined me in a trip to Christiana. It is a great people watching area, art scene, and has a beautiful lake. Alice and I got a bacon wrapped Frankfooter for Dinner and we pregammed with everyone in our apartment building (Skindergade). We went to the Kuhlerbar for the night where things got crazy once again as we danced the night away. Only 60 Kroner to get in and free beer all night long............

Summer school begins

6/18

Very early start today as we went to the opening ceremony for our DIS classes. The speakers were interesting but it  took a little long. I learned about Copenhagen's history through its growth patterns as a city. After the ceremony we were sent on a expedition in groups of six to explore the city... but I had already seen these sites before. At 2 we had our first class and it made me pretty excited. The class is going to Norway for 5 days and we are taking an overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo. We are going on hikes and touring clean tech companies. After class I did my readings and went food shopping. The grocery store was real fun because we couldn't read most of the labels. We cooked pasta, drank beer, and watched the Spain v Croatia Soccer game and called it a night.

Let's go Danmark!

6/17

After a very late night I woke up early to check out of Danhostel. It was a fun stay, but it was time to go to get my life back together. Mick and I walked to DIS to register for my class. I arrived and immediately spotted Alice. We went to orientation and went on a tour of the area. Mick and I moved into our room and took a fat nap. After napping and dinner we pregamed for the Denmark v Germany game. My whole apartment building went to the King's Garden to watch the game on a huge screen. It was a crazy game and Denmark lost it late in the second half.

No photo, no running

6/16

Woke up at a normal time today. Enjoyed the hostel buffet and set to find deodorant and body wash. By 1230 I had went to around 7 stores and was unsuccessful in finding deodorant. It is really hard to come by in Europe I guess. I finally found some that is really different as they don't really carry stick deodorant around here.
 I walked around on the longest pedestrian street in the world and saw the craziest street performers. I have never seen such unique and well done performances on the street, very high budget haha. At 1 I went on a 4 hour bike tour that was free with the hostel. I tried to talk to everyone in the group because our group was so diverse. Our first stop was Christiana. It is such crazy place. The area has about 1000 citizens and it is known for the green light district where people can buy weed freely. Inside this walled area, their was the coolest artwork, housing, and craziest people. It is pretty much is a hippie village. The restaurant's on the inside look so good, yet dirty at the same time. No photos and no running is allowed but I would love to take pictures in there. I guess you can't run because everyone is paranoid and will think the cops are coming. We later saw the Lil' mermaid, queen's castle, and some other good architecture. At each stop we would take a shot of some shitty jager-like liquor. When we got back our group watched the poland v czech republic game with some polish guys. The night spiraled out of control and we stayed up till 7 am... Forgot to add that Mick came at night and he ended up almost getting arrested when he walked to his hostel late night.

Lags of a Jet

6/15

As usual, I woke up at 5 am. It is weird having 7 other roommates. Especially only knowing 2 of their names to start off the day.I think I woke all of them up because I was going in and out of my room. We got Gaby the canadian, the chinese/english lesbian (who likes to sleep completely naked), her partner Alex, the spaniard, and 3 others who I have only seen sleeping.  I went for a run around 6; I saw Tivoli, City Hall, and the canal. When I got back I ate breakfast with Gaby and we went exploring around the city. By 11 I had seen pretty much the entire city. We ended up finding the sandcastle competition which was pretty cool. The people here are so well put together, they are all skinny, beautiful and well dressed hipsters. I also don't know why I had this idea that the food here would suck. It is so good. I had a crepe sandwich and  a panaynay that was delicious. What's really cool is that everyone here rides a bike. The street is packed with bikers. I read somewhere that 36% of people commute by bike to work in Copenhagen. At night I went to happy hour in the hostel, it was packed all night. Their was a dance-off competition but I was clearly not ready to compete with the Russians who entered, they were on a whole new level. I went to bed pretty early, but my room is right above the bar and it didn't get quiet till 5 am.

6/13

After getting off the airplane from JFK, I found myself in the shit show they call Heathrow airport. Tired from not sleeping much, I read signs and decided it was best to go to Terminal 3 to get to my next flight. It was absolutely packed. No seats were available anywhere. In Heathrow they do not release what gate your flight will be leaving out of until an hour before departure. I had a 5 hour layover so I decided to sleep on the ground for 4 of those hours. When the gate was released, I took my time getting to the gate and by the time I got there people were boarding and I found out that I was in the wrong terminal. I looked at my ticket and saw that my flight started boarding 10 minutes ago and I had 20 minutes to take a bus to terminal 5, go through security, and run to my gate. I made it just as they were closing the doors. Once I arrived to Copenhagen I was surprised to find out that everything was not in English... and Danish is hard to interpret. I ended up getting on the correct train and got off at the right stop. I wandered around trying to find my hostel for 2 hours. Pretty much circling it. I found it and after checking in I wandered around the square and got a bofsandwich.