Week 12 ( Mon 16th April – Sun 22nd April)

Personal blog

My friends visited Copenhagen this week and we stayed in a hostel that was situated in a different area in Copenhagen that I’d never seen before so I was able to compare and see Copenhagen from a new perspective.  I also didn’t feel like a tourist this week as the girls depended on me to be their tour guide and I became more aware of the surroundings and was able to direct us through the city quite easily. 

My friends and I in Tivoli gardens.

The weather was sunny and allowed for us to take a canal tour and see Copenhagen from the water.  I also got to see new sights I’d never visited before with the girls, including; Tivoli gardens and theme park, Christiania and Copenhagen Ice Bar.  The girls really enjoyed it and said they would visit Copenhagen again.  Having the girls over to question Danish culture and traits such as laid back living, cycling bikes everywhere, drinking tea/coffee from a glass, sarcastic sense of humour and using Danish kroner, made me realise how much I have became accustomed to Danish culture and forget how different it can be to Northern Irish culture.  It will be interesting to see if I pursue such traits when I return to Northern Ireland.

The girls commented that they thought I’d really settled in Denmark and that I was coping with being away from home better than they expected.  This made me reflect on how long I’d been away from home and family (over 3 months) and realise that I exceeded my own expectations for staying in the one place for a whole semester.  I have been able to recognise that I am quite an easy-going person and tend to take each day as it comes, however I do like to have some plans each week to look forward to, for example, meeting up with other ERASMUS students.  Since we have moved to the ‘White house’ it has been much easier to casually meet up and socialise with other students as we cross paths everyday.  It will be strange leaving the other students when we all go home as these are people we have lived with for so long and have became so familiar with.  I would like to think that we will maintain our friendships and arrange visits to each other’s countries in the future.