Exploration in Norway

For Easter holiday we wanted to explore around and we chose to go to Norway.

In the ferry ...

So during 5 days we were there in car with Claire, Mehdi, Laura (a Lithuanian girl), Pedro (a Portuguese) and me.

So we left the Wednesday the 27^th of March on the morning to take the ferry in Hirtshals (DK) until Larvik (NW).The ferry took around 4 hours to go to Larvik. So we spend our time to play card, enjoyed the sunny view from the bridge, it was very delightful.

Arrived in Larvik

When we arrived, already the landscapes were beautiful. And more we drove to Oslo, more they were huge and breathtaking. The snow was everywhere.

After maybe 2 hours we arrived in Oslo. Not easy to find ourselves in the city because there were constructions and many many tunnels with deviation and thing to know it is that the GPS doesn’t work on it. So we turned and turned before to find our road.

But we finally arrived on the young hostel. Phew !

The next day, we got up early in order to have time to enjoy the city. We toke a map very well explained with all that we have to do in Oslo.

So, we first went to the Opera next to the sea via the central station square where we saw the Tiger. 

After that we went to the Castle where we had a beautiful view on the harbor and the city.

The Opera

Oslo Castel

The Nobel peace center

We also go back to the city center via the Nobel peace center and the McDonald to take a lunch on the sun in front of the harbor. 

Guards

The Royal Palace

Moreover we went to the royal palace where we saw the change of the guards. It was very impressive to see just how serious they are throughout the change.

From this point we also walked to the Vigeland Park. This park is very popular, it is very big and you can find playground, music bands, clowns…

Statues in the Vigeland park

This park has the name of the man who made the architectural plans of it. And also drawn and made the many statues which are there: more than 120 statues. The style is very special. Indeed all the statues are people naked in all situations: baby crying, group of children’s, man who is carrying many babies even if with his foot …

Oslo Parliament

After that we went back to the city center throughout the nice neighborhoods with big houses and villas. We saw also the Parliament and walked on the pedestrian streets. It was very nice because there was the first sunlight and many people were taking a drink outside and strolled.

That is it for our first day in Norway.

The Holmenkollen

The second day we decided to go to see the Holmenkollen in the periphery of Oslo before to sink into the mountains. The Holmenkollen is the oldest ski jump in the world; the first jump was in 1892. And now, there is the World Cup Nordic skiing events every winter and in 2011 there was also the FIS Nordic World Championship. In there, there is also the oldest ski museum in the world which retraces the ski history during the last 4000 years.

View from the road

After enjoyed this place we toke the car back and drove during less than 3 hours. When we left the main road after 1 hour we started to see more and more beautiful landscapes. The more we advanced, the more we left civilizations for wild nature.  Frozen lakes, mountains, snowed forests … It was breathtaking.

For the rest of our stay in Norway we would enjoy the nature as much it is possible, so we chose to take different cottages in very small cities in the middle of forest, or in the edge of a frozen lake …

Gaustatoppen

And has we wanted we spent our days walking in the snowed mountains (Gaustatoppen mount), enjoy the sun, tranquility, and the nature in gross state. It was revitalizing. 

And we learned also how to fish in a iced lake ! It was a great experience that we wanted to share with you. So we made a little video with the different steps !!!

And it is with this video that I will finish this article to let you enjoy a bit of our experience in Norway !!! =)

See you !

                                                                                               Camille

The City of Colour

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, so of course we planned to visit it from the beginning. Good for us, the I-life association, which we have already spoken about earlier, has organized a three days trip to Copenhagen. We had booked for it at the beginning of March and since that time we were waiting impatiently to do it!

Christianhavn

Last weekend, time had finally come and so we left Aalborg on Friday at 6 o’clock in the morning!!! Thankfully, with a 6 hours travel we had time to sleep and to gain strength for this weekend because, with only three days in Copenhagen, no time for daydream, we had a lot to do! It was a fully organized weekend with visit time and free time around the city and two nights with breakfast included in a Hostel in Copenhagen city center.

Generator Hostel Copenhagen

Finally arrived, we went straight to the hostel to drop our luggage and eat something before going to our first visit. And what hostel… usually we are used to youth hostel with only basic supplies for young people but this one was really amazing, clean ans well decorated with a modern bar and dancing space.

The old harbor

After the hotel, we were ready to start visiting the city. We went to a canal tour in a fly boat around the city, then we went to visit Christianborg Palace which is where the Queen hosts her reception. We discovered that she loves art so, the Palace is a mix of ancient and contemporary art decoration. After those first visits, we ate at the hostel and got ready to enjoy our first evening in Copenhagen. 

Christianborg Palace

The next morning, we woke up hardly to be on time for the "All you can eat" breakfast and after having really eaten all what we could, we left for a visit of Rosenborg Castle and the Crown Jewels. After that in the afternoon we went in Christiania the famous free city in the middle of Copenhagen. There, we couldn't take any pictures. We were with a guide who learnt us a lot about the creation and the way of life of people living here. We could feel by walking in the street that we weren't really welcomed there. After that we had free time for the evening and we met with other international students to have a drink in a bar.

Only photos allowed in Chrstiania

Nyhavn

On Sunday  we had free time for all the day, so we left for a walk around the city going from the famous little mermaid, passing by the great old harbor Nyhavn and finishing by the tower of the Church of Our Saviour where we climbed 398 stairs to reach the top and discover a great view of the city !

The Little Mermaid

   Church of Our Saviour

We left Copenhagen at 17 for an other six hours trip. the bus quickly became very quite as everybody was exhausted by this full weekend ! It was a great trip, we met a lot of people as we were more than 50 international students together and finally we all loved Copenhagen, it's a beautiful city with a lot to do and to discover. I would love to go back there if I can and I recommend it to everyone!

Claire

An expected day

One month ago, we bought our ticket for an Ice Hockey match in our city. We were very exciting to be at this match because it was between the Russian team and the Danish one.

So we invited our French friends from Horsens. And we waited forward for this day.

Friday 12^th finally arrived!

Our friends were here and we went to the match. As we didn’t know if our places where on the Russian side or Danish side we didn’t take Danish flag or something to show in which side we were. We didn’t want to upset the Russian …

But when we arrived, we had Danish flag and we showed that there was not a lot of Russian so we were glad to support the Danish team. 

The atmosphere was so cool. All the Danish supporters had flags and were dressed with the Danish colors: red and white. There also was a little orchestra who sang all the match.

Left: Russian Team, Right: Danish Team

So the match began with the different national anthems. Everyone was getup and quiet. And just after they put some music and the supporters were rampaging.

Danmark! Danmark! Danmark!

With our group of 20 French’s we were so happy to be here. With a beer and salted pop-corn we supported the Pirates (Danish team) theentire match but even with that, the Russian wan the game 3-0.

It was still a good game. In fact, we learned after that the Russian team was first in the national ranking and the Danish team was only twelfth. So it was not really a surprise that The Russian wan this game.

But we stay Danish supporter. =)

Camille

One day in Aarhus...

Last Sunday we decided to go to visit Aarhus which is the third city of Denmark. We left in the morning, it was a sunny day, good to visit a new city ! Unfortunately, the weather in Aarhus wasn't as pleasant... it was cold... very cold ! As we are now well acclimatized to the Danish weather, we braved the cold to discover the city... but not for long. After walking half an hour our bodies were already frozen, so we decided to visit Aarhus museum.

ARoS Aarhus museum

ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum is the main museum in Aarhus and one of the biggest art museum in Nothern Europe. It opened in 2004 and since 2011 it is recognizable by the circular skywalk "Your rainbow panorama" created by Olafur Eliasson, situated on the top of the museum.
It is a ten floor museum where we can see permanents expositions as golden age art, contemporary art, danish modernism and the famous "Boy" and we can see some exhibitions.

At the moment the exhibition is "Klein Byars Kapoor". Yves Klein (French), James Byars (American) and Anish Kapoor (British) are three famous artists from different period and different media known for their work with colour and material.

Your Rainbow Panorama
(Source : aros.dk)

Yves Klein's work is about the special and intense colour of blue. His different works are about using this blue with different materials.

James Byars is focus on the white colour. He was using noble material such as marble from Thassos in his work.

Yves Klein's exhibition

James Byars's exhibtion

Anish Kapoor's work was probably the most impressive. He makes very big sculpture using wax as material. The strong red colour in his work is very captivating. 

His work Shooting into the corner is a moving work, it emerges gradually during the exposition. This work consists of a canon, which every 30 minutes, fires a large canister of red wax into the corner. We were looking at some other works when we first heard the canon... it was surprising. After having found where this sound came from we waited for the next fire to watch it. It's actually a qualified person who come to operate the canon and he is not allowed to speak with any visitor. This work left us really wondering. And made us startled more than once a day !

Past, Present, Future by Anish Kapoor

Shooting into the corner by Anish Kapoor

The other really impressive work which is as well the symbol of the ARoS Aarhus Museum is the sculpture "Boy". It's a five meters tall and 500 kilograms heavy sculpture of a crouching boy made in silicon and glassfibre. This boy is really really realistic. Ron Mueck, the artist, created it in 1999 and spent eight months to make it in its real size.

Boy by Ron Mueck

After going all over the rest of the museum, we finished our visit by walking in the skywalk "Your rainbow panorama". It gives a great view of all the city. And whatever if the sky is grey outside, this work makes you see life in color !

Claire

Aalborg by night

Many many things to do in Aalborg by night.

Whatever your expectations, you can find THE place to go.

If you just want to have a beer in a nice atmosphere, you can go to one of the Irish Pubs in Aalborg. If it is the good day there will have football or rugby match released on big screen.

If you want to meet people and also enjoy a concert, there is the Studenterhuset (Student house) in the city center. In this place there are two rooms: in the first you can find many tables and sofa to have a drink and speak with other people. Also there are a foosball for free and a billiard. And in the second place, there is usually something organize like concert with different bands or karaoke or international night or swing night or games night ... They have a lot of imagination to find the way to make a party.

By the way we participated to the last karaoke. It was very funny. And because we were with other international students we chose to sing not a French song but a Spanish one: “la Bamba”. It was a good experience. I prefer to show you just a picture of that and not a video … It is better for you, for sure.

Also if you are undecided about the place to go, I recommend you to go on the most famous street in Aalborg and also in Denmark. It is the street called “Jomfru Ane Gade”. This street is full of restaurants, pubs and clubs. There is a mix of local people and tourist that made it very rich. All the pubs or clubs have his type of atmosphere. So you can choose your favorite.

 If I have an advice, it will be to go in the pubs before midnight because the drinks are very cheaper.

So now, see you there ! =) 

Camille

Our first visit in Denmark

During this first month we had got the time to enjoy Denmark and made some visits.

As we have a car it’s easier to move. So we try to discover as much it is possible.

So we went to the Lindholm Hoje in the north of Aalborg. It is a Vikings sanctuary. When we went there, there was a lot of snow so we didn’t see very well the different form draw by the stones. But the place was very nice. There is a museum on there but we were afraid that all the explanations will be in Danish so we didn’t go on it. 

Also when our French friends come from Horsens for one week-end, we decided to go on the most Northeast point in Denmark, in Skagen. 

Skagen is the place where the North Sea on the left join the Baltic sea on the right. When you arrive there, you park your car and after you have to walk on the beach around 30 minutes in order to enjoy the view. It was nice even if the sun was missing. But I think that we will go again in April perhaps.

Oh and when we were walking next to the sea we saw something moving on it.  It was a curious seal. He just stayed to look at what we were doing here and dived and came back… So amazing to see a real seal other than in a zoo.

To continue to explore the coast, on a sunny day we decided to discover Hals, a small city in the East coast just above the Fjord. 

So we had a walk along the sea. It was beautiful because with the high freezing wind the seaside was frozen. It is rare to see salted water frozen and very beautiful to see seashell stranded on ice. After that we went on the harbor to enjoy the sun again. And we took some rest on the only pub of the city. On there, the time seemed to be stop. It was decorated with old stuff, and everybody inside was smoking. And when we ordered a coffee, the bartender brought us a coffee thermos bottle. It was a very familiar atmosphere. And the people seemed very surprise to meet tourist during this season, and we began to talk with them. It was very nice.

And to conclude the day we sat in front of the sea to admire the beautiful sunset.

That's it ... for the moment !

Camille