Trip to Skagen
My week of exploring Denmark continued on Wednesday. Our plan was to go to Skagen, the northernmost point of Denmark, and then to Ålborg on the way back. The journey lasted five hours and we had to change train twice. The last train is operated by a private company, so our InterRail tickets were useless for that.
We planned to arrive to Skagen, take a bus to the mentioned point of interest and then go back. Unfortunately, there was a typical Danish surprise – the buses are going only in summer time (no comment). So instead of sparing time by taking a bus, we walked over four kilometres to get there.
The northernmost point of Denmark
On the way we stopped at the old lighthouse and climbed all its stairs up. The view was beautiful, you can see a lot of pictures in the gallery.
I found Skagen very interesting and could recommend a visit. It was a pity, that we did not have time to see anything from Ålborg (except the train station), maybe some day else…
Den Fynske Landsby
I reserved this week to explore interesting places in Denmark. The next destination was Fynske Landsby. It is a skanzen (open-air museum) situated not far from the Odense centre. I had two free tickets from the Odense municipality, so we decided to go there.
The museum is full of preserved historical buildings, most of them farms. Many buildings are nicely furnished to get you the idea, how the people lived. There are also many texts supplementing the decorations. The most interesting thing for me was the contrast between the houses of relatively wealthy farmer families and the houses, where servants lived. You can get the idea from the pictures in the gallery. It is easy to recognize, to which category the house belongs.
Legoland
I could not be in Denmark without visiting the Legoland at least once. And I also liked to play with lego very much, when I was a child. On Tuesday me and Alina got up early morning and took a train to Vejle and then bus to Billund get there. The weather was quite good in the beginning and we were glad for that.
Model of Frederikshavn
After seeing many models, some of them amazing and magnificent, we started to
enjoy the rides. In the park there are small and big roller coasters and many
other smaller attractions like boat cruises, small trains, 4d cinema (that was
really cool 
) and water splash attractions. We left the latter
for the end, because we did not want to walk around the park in wet clothes.
Since we were in Denmark, it had to rain at least once per day like in a rain
forest. After a while of walking in the rain we were wet anyway, so we did not
mind at all being splashed. But before the water attractions we tried the
attraction „Power Builder“, from which you can see the picture here. It
worked really simple: you come, select „difficulty“ from wild to wildest,
select some moves that a robotic arm should do with you and go to sit there and
enjoy. We chose the wildest difficulty and selected the moves that seemed quite
normal. After sitting we quickly realized that it maybe seemed normal on the
screen, but in the real it was more crazy that we had imagined, so instead of
screaming we laughed the whole time because of that surprise 
. If there had not been such long queue, we would
have gone again for sure.
Me & Alina on the „Power Builder“
We visited and tried everything and we went home. At first we were freezing at the bus stop, so it was really pleasing to sit inside the warm bus. We were very lucky with the train, fortunately we came to the platform in the same minute it arrived.
Except the weather, I enjoyed the trip very much, it was worth seeing so many lego bricks and try the attractions.
Visit to Helsingør
Last Friday I wanted to use one day of my InterRail ticket for Denmark. After some considerations I picked Helsingør like a target. I got up early morning and took the train to Copenhagen, where I needed to change to a regional train doing all the way to Helsingør and stopping everywhere. Fortunately, the whole journey took me less than three hours.
After I got off the train, I went to see the city centre and buy something
to eat. Since it was holiday, it was almost impossible to find some open shop
there. The only shops open were the ones with wine and liquor because of the
Swedish people taking the ferry and buying cheaper alcohol. They even accepted
Swedish crowns . Anyway, in a while I found an open bakery and
bought some sweet stuff.
Kronborg castle
My next stop was the Kronborg castle. I bought the ticket and took two guided tours in English, one in the casemates (dungeon) and one in the castle chambers. I also went to see the chapel and fortifications around the castle.
On the way back I stopped in Roskilde to visit my friends. I did not stay long, because I had a train to catch. It was a nice relaxing trip.
Barcelona
The holiday in the Czech Republic were short, I wanted it to be longer. But I did not have to wait for long. In one week after I returned to Denmark, me and my friends headed together to Barcelona. We took a Ryanair flight from Århus to Girona. Everything went well, just the price 90 kr. for the airport bus was, like always in Denmark, very disappointing.
After arriving to Girona we rented a car for one day. It took quite some time to overcome all the paperwork, but in the end we got the keys. Our destination for the first day was Montserrat mountain and the monastery there. After some misunderstandings and swearing because of the dumb GPS, we found our way to the lower station of the train going uphill. The ride by the train was spectacular, very nice views along the whole way. On the top it was even more beautiful (just see the pictures), I don't understand how they could build something so big so high. We walked around the place for almost two hours. Unfortunately, we did not visit the museum, because it was closing when we arrived.
Montserrat
When we had enough of great views, we took the train back down and went to
Barcelona. The timing was the „best“ we could choose. We arrived to the city
15 minutes before a start of a Barcelona home football match. I have never
seen so big traffic jam before. The funny thing was, that after the match
started, the streets were totally empty, no cars, no people . Everybody was watching the match in the pub or at
home. We found our hostel quite easily, put our things there and went to visit
closest Burger King for a dinner .
On the next day after waking up and having a big breakfast at the hostel we hit the streets. Our first destination was Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona stadium. I am not so big fan of football, but seeing the stadium for 100 000 people (more than half of Odense), was amazing. From the stadium we went to the Montjuïc hill to see a lot of parks, Olympic stadium and a castle. In order to see everything, we climbed the hill up and down like three times. I was quite exhausted after that. In the evening we moved to another hostel in the city centre. It was not so nice as the first one, but everything was in the walking distance from it.
Overview of Barcelona
We reserved the third day to see the Gaudi's buildings. We saw lot of them and also visited La Pedrera (with its strange roof) and of course the famous Sagrada Familia. From there we moved to the Park Güell, the park that contains lot of Gaudi's buildings. Everything was really nice, including the weather, that was very warm.
Desination for the last day was Arc de Triomf and the Old Town. We were quite tired of walking after previous days, so we just saw the most famous places (according to the guide) and went to the marina and beach. The temperature of the sea was not exactly for swimming, but we stayed on the beach for a while. When the weather started to be windy and cold, we went back to the centre and sat down to the pub.
Arc de Triomf
The rest of the time in Barcelona was just a long waiting for a bus to the airport. We did not have a hostel for that night, because the bus departed at 3.15. The journey back was full of waiting for something. Since midnight we were waiting at the bus station, but at quarter past one the security closed the lobby and we had to wait another two hours outside. Then we waited another two hours for the flight and then half an hour for the train to Odense. I arrived to my dormitory at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
Despite the complicated journey back, I liked the trip very much. Barcelona is a great living city. For sure it was not my last visit there.
Holiday in the Czech Republic
As it was in the last semester, we had again one week long holiday in the
middle of the semester. I used the time to go home to the Czech Republic to
enjoy real food and beer . The journey home was quite ok, I went by car with
my Polish friends. I was at home after approximately 12 and half hours. It was
a big surprise for everybody, because I had not told anybody before.
Miniuni – miniatures of famous buildings
In the middle of the week Alina came after exhausting journey by trains
through the whole Poland. In the next days, we explored my home city. We started
at the Black meadows fair grounds in the Fairy tale ghost cellar. It
was nice and prepared in a very scary way, as you can see from the pictures. If
I had gone there as a small kid, I would probably have trouble sleeping at
night . Our next stop was the aquarium with lot of fish and
some other animals like monkeys or a crocodile. After that we went to see
Miniuni. It is a place with many miniatures of the famous buildings in
the world. Our last stop that day was the recently repaired Silesian-Ostrava
castle. The „exploration“ was very interesting for me, because I had
no idea that some of the places exist .
Flamingos near the entrance to the Ostrava ZOO
Next day we spent in the Ostrava ZOO. It was expanded and rebuilt significantly since my last visit (I think three years ago). The places around the ZOO area were made into botanical gardens with several themed footpaths. On our was back home we stopped at the new town hall that also serves as a watchtower. The weather was good, so we can see a big part of the city.
Mining museum was our main stop on the following day. We saw a lot of interesting stuff there, like exposition of the rescue devices. We also attended the guided tour in the mine.
Ostrava city centre
After this wonderful time Alina had to leave. But it would not be „the genuine“ Czech Railways, if the train had not have one and half hour delay. One and half hour was too much to change train to bus in Warszawa, it was very upsetting (politely said). The only, but small, satisfaction was that I was able to get the money for the train ticket back. So Alina stayed for two days longer and then left by the direct bus Frydek-Mistek – Vilnius. I travelled back to Denmark by Polish buses just one day after her. It was over 18 hours long journey with two changes in Opole and Hamburg. I am glad it was without problems, just long.
I really enjoyed the holiday. But now I have to be in Denmark and get used
to bad food again .
Going to school
Today I forced myself to go to see the lecture 
. The weather in the morning was really exceptional,
the Sun was shining very intensively and by looking outside one can tell that
the spring finally came. I decided to take my camera to school with me, because
so far I did not take almost any picture there .
But the nice weather had a catch, it was Danish weather. So immediately I got out of the dormitory, the strong cold wind surprised me (later I checked, the temperature was +2, with wind –4). While cycling to school I verified the saying that when you are cycling in Denmark, the wind is always blowing to your face.
Engineering faculty at SDU
I arrived to school, took some pictures and went to the classroom. Just
after the lecture started, I looked out of the window. What I saw, shocked me.
The nice „hawai“ weather changed into the crazy snowstorm :D. But when the
lecture ended, it was sunny exactly like before. The Danish weather is simply
„incredible“ .
Beautiful sunset
Sunset viewed from the Teknisk dormitory
You can also download the larger version.
Funny evening at Teknisk
Last saturday evening and night was quite crazy, even for Teknisk dormitory
. I fell asleep in the evening and woke up at
midnight. I went to the corridor and heard loud music, so I decided to check
it out. What I saw left me completely speechless.
But first the story. My floormate Martynas left for a trip to Geneva and gave his room keys to Robert to take care of them. And yesterday, Robert, Paulius and Vilius covered the entire room, including furniture, with newspaper, I mean completely.
Paulius, Vilius and Robert
After that we made a „photo session“, I think we took over three hundred
pictures in total + some video :). When we had enough, we went to the Larmer
(our dormitory bar) for a while. Then we cleaned up the entire room, so it
looked exactly how it had looked before. I think Martynas won't notice anything
(except the pictures) .
Birmingham and Coventry
Quite some time ago I told myself, that I should go somewhere. I checked the Ryanair site and saw very cheap flights to Great Britain. I chose the city of Birmingham and bought the tickets (about 170 kr in total). I also booked a bed in a shared room of Birmingham Central Backpackers hostel in the city centre.
Last weekend it was the time of my flight. It was not flying from Copenhagen,
but from Billund, which is a small airport right next to the Legoland. The
drawback is that no trains are going there, I had to change to bus in Vejle. It
meant no discount and ticket at full price. I paid for the way to the airport
almost more than for the flight .
I did not know almost anything about Birmingham, maybe just that it is an industrial city in the middle of England. I was really surprised when I came there the city centre was very nice and shining with all colours. I was tired because of the journey, so I decided to explore the centre on the next day and go immediately to the hostel.
The hostel was very cosy. I was surprised again when I got a single room
instead of the bed in the shared room for the same price. I also came in time
for Wii competition. I have
never played it before, so I did not succeed so much, but anyway, we had a lot
of fun .
In the morning I got up early and ate breakfast. Then I headed to the city
centre. I walked about the main pedestrian zone for a while and at 10 o'clock
I went to the National Sea Life Centre (I found a brochure about it in the
hostel). The entrance fee was not exactly small (16 pounds), but definitely
worth paying. I was fascinated by all the fish (and other stuff), mostly by
„Finding Nemo“ part and by rays (hi all RAYNET people ).
The Chamberlain Memorial in Birmingham
After having some lunch, I got an impulsive idea to go somewhere by train.
After looking at the map I decided to go to Coventry. I bought a ticket and
after approx. 40 minutes i was there. Since the train station is not in the
city centre, I took a bus there. Close the the bus station there is Coventry
Transport Museum with hundreds of cars and free entry, I found it by accident
. After I finished looking at the cars, I strolled
in the city centre. I also climbed the church spire (191 stairs, ufff) to get
a nice view of the whole city of Coventry.
When I got back to Birmingham, it was time for dinner. I ate the at the urban pie. They had a nice menu of pies. I chose the one with minced meat, it was delicious.
Next day in the morning I was not feeling well. After the breakfast I stayed in the hostel „lobby“ and just played some Wii. I also checked the internet for the bus connections from Billund. And another surprise, nothing is working on Saturday night in Denmark. The last bus was scheduled to depart 10 minutes after my arrival (and next in the morning). I was lucky to convince my friend Martynas to come for me to the airport (thanks again!).
From the hostel I slowly went to the airport, where i took my flight to Denmark. I enjoyed the trip, maybe I will go there again some other day.