Hey Guys and Gals,
Let's be honest, I have been very bad at this update thing since I've been away. But, after almost two months, I have come around to writing about my adventures.
Everything feels like a blur since I arrived in Copenhagen on August 21st (I can't believe it’s already been a month and a half). For my first few weeks, I didn't go very far. I spent most of the time getting oriented with the Denmark and the school, meeting all sorts of people (mostly other exchange students from Europe), and exploring the city. It's certainly a beautiful city with a great vibe to it; the people are friendly, it’s very clean, and the culture is great. However, I am happy that this is only a temporary residence for me as it is too flat for my liking (permanently) and super expensive (I've never seen anything like it). Plus, in some ways I feel like I have regressed in life as I am living in a dorm for these 4 and a half months, having to abide by some strict rules set by the building inspector, who conveniently lives on the first floor. I don't think I've ever had a building manager send me an email about keeping my windows shut on a beautiful, sunny day. That's what I've walked into.
Thankfully, as time has moved on, I have explored out of the city. My first two trips were day trips...one to Malmo, Sweden (just across the bridge) and the other to Mons Klint (down south a few hours). Malmo was a beautiful quaint city that felt like a smaller, less expensive version of Copenhagen. While I can now say I've been to Sweden, I want to go to Stockholm to get a better sense of the real Swedish culture. Mons Klint was really beautiful and something I needed after being in Copenhagen for about a month. It is a outdoors area right on the Baltic Sea with chalk cliffs. Luckily we went there on the sunniest day in a week. The trip was great as 11 of us rented two cars to see more of the landscape of Denmark. Then, in the evening time, as we headed back towards Copenhagen, half of us decided to get our full worth out of the cars by making a trip up north an hour to Helsingor. Stupidly, though, we forgot that it was Sunday night and everything would be closed (as it always is in Denmark on a Sunday). We did get a glimpse of Hamlet's castle. It was cool to see in the night time, although I imagine it’s even better during the day and from a closer vantage point.
My next trip came a week later with some fellow University of Washington students. The other two scholarship recipients (one engineering student, Paul, and one architecture student, Roman), our "Danish mother," Marianne, and I went off to the island of Bornholm. Bornholm is part of Denmark, but you have to cross over southern Sweden and take a ferry from there to get to it. Marianne organized this trip, telling us it would be a pleasant time casually riding our bikes around, eating smoked herring, and seeing some sights. Well, she was honest about two of the three. We ate some delicious smoked herring and saw some breathtaking sights, but I wouldn't really consider it a "casual bike ride" at any point. Within a two and a half day period, we rode around the entire islands (approximately 75 miles around). But I guess it was casual for 68 year old Marianne, who kicked my butt on the bicycles, then ran a marathon in Berlin the following weekend. Paul and Roman were fun guys to hang out with. I especially enjoyed Roman's acrobatic move of taking a picture while riding his bike on a curving rode, veering off the rode into a ditch, and landing face first into a pile of fertilizer. Lucky for him (depending on how you look at it), the fertilizer was fresh, so the landing was soft.
A few days after I arrived back in Copenhagen, it was time to prepare for the next trip, Greece and Italy. I went on this adventure alone and, to be honest, had to skip a couple weeks of class in the process. Fortunately all of my homework revolves around reading, which is easy to catch up on.
I landed in Athens on Wed, Sept. 24th around noon, immediately found a hostel, and explored the ancient sites the city has to offer. The Acropolis and some surrounding areas were amazing to see in person, but the city of Athens itself was not that pretty. My impression is that it is an overcrowded city with lots of small crime. I got that impression when, in one day, a Belgian guy staying in my hostel got his backpack stolen, a Japanese guy got his wallet pick-pocketed, and I have some small object thrown past my head when I refused to buy drugs. But, at least I could take refuge in the dorm room I shared with by far the smelliest person I have ever been in close quarters with. I don't believe this Scottish guy has taken a shower in 2 weeks. Without going into too many details, I was physically choking on his stink most of the night.
Though I didn't get the best impression of Athens, I did enjoy my short time there. That first night I hung out with two Japanese guys that were blown away by my height. In fact, they were so in awe that they made me arm wrestle them. Don't worry guys...I won! (I’m no Ben Mahdavi, but I’m tough!)
The next morning at dawn I left Athens for the islands. I set out on a 7:30a ferry ride to Ios that I figured would last approximately 3 hours. By hour 4 I asked how much longer. The crew told me it was a 7 hour trip in total. We arrived at 5:30p. For all of you who did poorly on the math portion of the GMAT, that’s a 10 hour trip...long, but worth it.
Traditionally, in the situation I was in, 8 days to spend on the islands, I would normally venture around a bit more. This time, I found Ios to be so relaxing and peaceful that I stayed there for 5 days. During my days I would explore the island a bit, relax on the beach, or hang out by the pool and read. One day I wandered off to a rather large cove that I had entirely to myself; no one was within a couple of miles. There I ventured across a few cliffs before stumbling over to the beach area of the cove. On the beach, I found a hammock to pass out in for a while. Passing out on a hammock on the beach may be one of the most relaxing things you can do. At night time, I hung out with people in my hostel, kicking back a few beers...okay, a couple nights it was more than a few. It was going into the last week of the season, so things were calm but not dead. My time on Ios was almost perfect.
I liked Ios so much that I could have spent my entire time there, but I realized I should at least check out one more island. So, I headed to Santorini. Now, in getting there, I could have taken a half hour speed boat for 18 euro, but being the budget traveler that I am, I chose to take a 4 hour ferry for 7 euro. You can call me cheap...I'd prefer to say that I wanted to take in the scenery. For those of you who haven't been, Santorini is a fascinating island. It is one big volcano that has seen a vast amount around the center sink underneath the water. The most inhabited part of the volcano island is on an outer rim.
I made it to the island with two Australian guys from my previous hostel on Ios and subsequently spent the next two days hanging out with them. During those two days, we rented quads to explore the island, while taking it easy at night time. These quads may have been the slowest ones ever created but they were still good fun. I certainly enjoyed racing uphill at 16 kph against Patty, one of the Australian guys.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. On Thursday, Oct. 2, I took a ferry boat ride back to Athens in order to catch my flight the next day. The only ferry heading back that day left at 3:30p and was supposed to get in at 12:30p...key phrase, "supposed to." The ferry ride was enjoyable as when I stood up for a moment from the bench I was sleeping on, a Greek woman tried to steal it from me. When I explained to her that I was still using it, she decided to sit down in the closest seat to me and blow cigarette smoke in my direction for the remaining 6 hours. I guess she felt more comfortable at my table than at one of the other 6 empty tables on the sundeck. I decided to hold my ground as the other tables didn't have a bench to lie on.
We arrived in Athens at 2:30a (remember I said "supposed to"). At this point, I couldn't justify (being a budget traveler) paying for a hostel bed for a few hours of use. However, the port we were docking at is "the most dangerous place in all of Greece," especially at night time...or so claims the Lonely Planet. Despite my thrill seeking style, I decided to obey the book and move away from the port towards a nice area in Athens city center; I needed to find a place to hang out for a few hours. What I found was a 24 hour McDonalds. I know it is wrong for an American to get McDonalds while traveling abroad (some of you might claim it is wrong in general), but I needed to do so in order to keep from being kicked out by the rent-a-cop. So, I sat down at this McDonalds with my food, book, and bag at 3:30a. For the next 6 hours, I focused almost entirely on my book, Life of Pi (kind of a weird book). Of course there were distractions from time to time, like when an obese homeless woman sat down next to me, put her sunglasses on, kicked her head back, and let the sound of her snoring fill the room. I only know of two people in the world that snore louder than her (neither of them being me).
Later in the morning, I headed off to the airport for the next part of my trip...Milan, Italy. But before I go on to that part of the story, I must mention the absolute best part of Greece (at least from my perspective). GYROS!!! If you ever make it Ios, go get a gyro at Porky's and tell them I sent you. There are many amazing sites to see in each continent, tons of beautiful beaches that fill the world, and numerous adventures that you can go on, but there is only one Porky's and they make the best gyros in the world (can I get paid for this endorsement?). And if you make it to Santorini, take advantage of the 24 hour bakeries! As you can imagine, my diet during those ten days consisted mostly of a gyros and pastries.
I arrived in Milan in the early evening on Friday, Oct 3. I headed there to visit Mr. Nick Casaril…all of you first years, you’ll know him soon enough! Nick welcomed me and a Swiss girl that I met on the plane. This Swiss girl, Milica, is the 9th ranked Swiss female tennis player and 800th in the world. She promised to include me in her speech when she wins her first Wimbledon. I'm holding my breath. Milica, due to ferry problems in Greece, missed her flight home and had to take an asinine route to get back to Zurich. In fact, she got stuck in Milan that night, hence got to hang out with us. However, that night she had a fever and I had flu-like symptoms, so I doubt we were all that much fun for Nick...sorry, buddy.
The next day Milica left, and Nick and I explored the city. I felt sick as a dog, but fought through it. Nick gave me a great tour of city, stopping at all of the impressive attractions. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in to see The Last Supper as you need to make a reservation two weeks in advance, but I'm certain that the posters we saw of it were just as good. During the rest of the weekend, we did more exploring and hung out with his friends at night time. Overall, I enjoyed my time there. I'll admit, it would have been even better and we would have seen a bit more had I not been so sick.
Last Monday, after a couple weeks away, I arrived back in Copenhagen and have been here ever since. During this past week, I have done very little beyond classes, homework, and such. But don't worry, I have already planned out the next trip. Being that this week is Fall Break at CBS, my friends Rocco (from Italy), Justin (from Lithuania), and I are going to head to Barcelona for 6 days, leaving Wednesday. It should be a great time!
As for the school, it’s a different type of setup here. Where we are getting a much more practical education at UW, applying our new knowledge and skills all the time, CBS teaches in a much more philosophical sense. I feel like we are always discussing topics and issues from a very high level hypothetical perspective and never going deep into the subject matter. One thing that is the same, however, is that we discuss the US economy, Microsoft, and Bill Gates very often.
On the career side, in early September I was fortunate enough to volunteer and attend a conference called COPENMIND, which is highly focused on the future of sustainability. There I made a number of renewable energy contacts from around the globe and met the US Ambassador for Denmark. Those of you that know me well enough should realize that I am working hard to get an informational interview with him. In addition, a fellow MBA from Victoria and I are working on organizing a trip to Vestas headquarters on the other side of the country. For anyone serious about, you should look at their website. They seem to have a very impressive graduate management program.
So, that is it for now. More stories to come. Hopefully I'll be a bit better at send them out in a timely manner!
Cheers,
Aaron
P.S. I am currently planning out some trips for November and December. If anyone wants to come out for an adventure with me or even visit me in Copenhagen before I leave at the end of December, please let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment