Denmark Diaries: Hello Copenhagen!

It took more than half a year from the time I applied to study abroad until I arrived in Copenhagen - but yesterday I finally did.

After a ten-hour train journey, I stepped onto Danish soil shortly before 9pm last night and was very happy to be there. The journey started off quite well, but from Hamburg it was a bit more strenuous than expected: the ICE to Denmark had only four or five carriages and was mercilessly overcrowded. A leisurely journey through northern Germany followed by a ferry transfer to Denmark turned into a delayed departure because the train was too heavy, which meant we missed our planned ferry from Fehmarn to Rødby and had to wait half an hour for the next one.

However, the ferry trip from Fehmarn to Denmark was a welcome change as I was able to swap my floor seat for a standing position on the upper deck and enjoy the fresh breeze and good views.

My Danish mentor picked me up at the train station in Copenhagen and gave me the keys to my flat. After a short train ride we were there and I walked into my accommodation for the next six months - a pretty nice room with a nice view of the neighbourhood in Østerbro. The area is pretty much the German Copenhagen cliché: lots of beautiful old houses and lots of bicycles. When I did my first errands this morning, I immediately felt at home.

Before my Danish course starts next week, I wanted to explore the city a little. I managed this quite well on my first day in Denmark when S., a friend from Mannheim who is currently in Århus for a summer school, came to visit me relatively spontaneously and we explored the main tourist highlights together and enjoyed the mostly sunny weather.