Across the Pond: The City of Bikes, Buffets, and a Brewery

Hey everyone! Between this post and the last I’ve been to Copenhagen and back, along with my sister arriving for a visit yesterday! It’s been a full week, so here’s an overview with today coming last as opposed to the usual first:

Tuesday: A full day in Oslo before my trip with HECUA. I started out at Queer Youth in the morning but had to leave early due to an unfortunate headache. I took a nap to make sure I was going to feel a bit better in the evening for my shift at Uglebo’s swing night. The bar closed around one and as always there’s the claiming of the beer after party. I had to be at central station at 7:20am on Wednesday so I just stayed up through the night socializing at the bar and at home, and was up and out the door half past six. No sleep for me, first all-nighter here!

Wednesday: With the sun just coming up, I headed to meet up with HECUA at Oslo S for our flight at 9:20am. I was surprising fine sleep wise, took a nap on the short hour long flight, and was still at a good level of awake when we landed. We checked into our hotel very close to the Copenhagen central station. I plopped my bags down to room with the lovely Lauren for the next few days and after settling in we went across to street to eat at a Turkish buffet restaurant. Copenhagen is filled with buffets, it’s awesome. I’ve never seen one offered in Oslo, in fact I’ve never had a sit down meal out in Oslo because of the prices so eating out in Copenhagen was pure luxury. After lunch we went to the National Museum of Denmark, the met with two girls from Avalak (A Greenlandic student organization) and then spend our free night at the student bar downtown and went up the Round Tower, the oldest observatory in the world. Then I got some very nice Z’s.

Thursday: I’m resorting to bullet points for the remaining days!

Started off the morning with a visit to SFU, the Socialist People’s Party’s youth branch
Ate Asian take out for the first time in forever! Thank you walk up Chinese place, three dishes for like six bucks in a to go box, mmmm
Hit up Nordatlantes Brygge (the Artic Art and Cultural Museum for Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands
Took a stroll through self-governing Christiania
Got two pairs of boots for 200 Danish kroner, love the prices!!! That’s less than $40
Then we all went out with the Greenlanders from the day before for a night of beers and pool ( and I actually won a game, woot woot!)

Friday: A packed day!

Met with the other side of the youth political spectrum with the Danish People’s Party (the growing, most right party in Denmark) and got a tour of Parliament
Wandered around a bunch of Copenhagen’s thrift stores
Had a meeting with Modkraft (a leftist online news outlet)
Grabbed food for a microwave dinner from the grocery store, which was by a supposed American brand (chicken tenders from the Netherlands as it turned out)
Finished off the night going to Larsen’s Plaz again (the same bar as the night before) and Barbar Bar (Bar times three lol)

Saturday: Free day to explore!

Found a great bike rental shop to go biking around this city of cyclists. There are bike lanes on almost all streets and more people pedal than drive
Sped over to Carlsberg Brewery for a great time and two beers included in the ticket price
Returned the bike and then headed over to the Turkish buffet to end the trip full circle
Flew back to Oslo and landed in the evening

Sunday:

Picked up my sister from the airport! (That place and I couldn’t stay apart for more than 14 or so hours ha)
She was barely feeling jet lagged so we dropped her stuff of and then made our way to Vigeland’s Park, Oslo’s collection of outdoor sculptures that I hadn’t been to before
Went back to my flat for an early dinner, a ping pong tournament hosted by my roommate and a good night sleep for both my sister and me.

Today (Monday):

My sister and I were planning on having today be a museum day… BUT BARELY ANY WERE OPEN. I didn’t think Monday would be an issue for hours, but yep, the majority were closed. I felt so bad, not looking up any very closely before since I thought Monday was a safe assumptions since I’m used to Sunday being the days places are closed. Anyways, we were able to hit up the Norwegian Resistance Museum, thank God. It was a good one too at that, dedicated to the five years of German occupation in Norway during WWII
Mini cruise around the Oslo fjord!
And then, since no other museums close to downtown were open, we shopped the rest of the day along with a stop by the beautiful Oslo Opera House.

Wow, that sums up my week; Denmark and a familiar face from home. Next up is Berlin! My sister and I are leaving Wednesday and then when I return to Oslo on Saturday. I’ll be picking my friend Katherine (the one from London who also goes to USF) about an hour after I land, ha. This week I have a bunch of pictures to share as well! Stay tuned for next week!