Halfway Through Copenhagen and Iceland!

By heb83 on June 30, 2024

I am a little past the halfway point of my study abroad trip to Copenhagen and Iceland! It has gone by so so fast. I have spent one week in Copenhagen and one week in Iceland so far and the experiences I have gained I will never forget.

For the first week in Copenhagen I had class everyday from 9 am to 12 pm. After class my friends and I would explore the city. Public transportation is strongly emphasized and bikes are everywhere. Many bike riders are quite aggressive. I have taken the metro a few times and it is an easy process. One big difference here is that it is light outside until around 10:30 pm and then the sun comes back up at about 4 am. This can make it quite hard to fall asleep and stay asleep in the morning. Their is also no air conditioning inside of most buildings leaving the windows to be open much of the time. Night life is extremely popular and it is crazy how it does not start till around 12 am and many people go home around 5 am. We can hear people outside of our building all throughout the night. Soccer is a popular sport here as well and I have participated in watching a game in a Denmark shirt to get into the spirit. Lastly, the cuisine here is fantastic! I have fallen in love with Danish hot dogs. They are the most affordable college meal and are so tasty! The coffee, pastries', and gelato are top tier as well.

This past week I spent on a study tour in Iceland to learn about climate change and glaciers firsthand. This has been the highlight of my trip so far. The landscapes were breathtaking. We got to hike on top of and inside of two different glaciers and see glacial lagoons, moraines, and crevasses. We even got to walk behind a waterfall and swim in one of the lagoons. Staying at different locations every night was additionally so much fun. Unfortunately I did not see any puffins, but we saw so many sheep. Iceland varied from Copenhagen as well. The bars there would close at so night life was not as enthusiastic. It also only got dark outside for two hours out of the day. One of my favorite odd facts that I learned was that in Iceland there is a name list and you can only name your child one of the names from the list. This is to ensure that icelandic names and their spelling is not lost through time. I thought this was so interesting.