Vikings

On Saturday I went with my Nordic Mythology class on a tour of western Zeland, which is the island that Copenhagen is on. We went here because there is a lot of viking history around. Our first stop was at a viking museum right next to a fjord. The museum featured five viking ships that were pulled out of the bottom of the fjord and preserved. There was a battle ship, a cargo ship and a few exploration ships. Each were different and it was really cool to see the actual size of them. There was also a few set up as if they would be if they were sailing. You could dress up in viking clothes and my friend Angela and I took advantage of the opportunity to take some funny pictures dressed in furs and tunics. Our next stop was to an ancient burial mound (my professor says that it dates back to the pyramids!) where they buried dead kings. We had to crawl into this mound because the opening was so small and then it opened up into a sort of cave. The mound was what my female professor called "the womb of the earth" and the tunnel into it she called the birthcanal. She said this because it was so old that Danish bloodlines could be traced back to here, so in essence, this is the birthplace of the people. It was an interesting way of looking at it. Our next stop was at the place where Beowolf was supposed to have taken place, specifically where the great hall should be. My other professor, the male, read us some exerpts of the poem while we were there, pointing out where different aspects of it should be. I feel like I must read the rest now when I get back. Our final stop on our trip was to the grounds of an old viking fortress. It was sort of like the Roman ruins where nothing is really still standing but you can still see where things should have been. My professors brought mead with them (a liquor made from honey that was very popular during the viking age) and we stood where a living room or gathering room in a house should be, toasted to the class (SKOL!) and drank. It was cool because, as my professors pointed out, this same ritual had probably been done in the same spot hundreds of years previously. All in all, it was a great day and I saw a lot of things I would not have seen otherwise by myself and things that you definitely cannot do in the US.

Last night my family and I went to Tivoli, the big amusement park/botanical gardens I told you about previously. Although the park is much smaller than a typical amusement park in the US is, we still had a very good time. There are some really fun rides and rollercoasters with cool names such as the Odin Expressway. We ate at a very nice restaurant and enjoyed carnival snacks like their soft ice (or their version of soft serve icecream that is much thicker than ours) that they dip in powdered chocolate. It was a really fun night with my whole host family, including Rikke and her boyfriend. Now, I have to go back during the fall season, as the park reopens (it closes in a week because summer is over) and is decorated for Halloween (which they do not really celebrate here?) and then once again for Christmas. I am looking forward to seeing the differences in the park!