Tsang's RISE Trip

Aug 11-12 - Copenhagen Round 2

Not much has been happening since I had return from Copenhagen the weekend before. Work was back to usual with the looming realization that my time here was coming quickly to an end and I was still short on results. My project has become more of a troubleshooting one than an optimization. However I feel that I am achieving both goals in playing around with the parameters to get my model working. Each iteration leads to a new discovery or implementation of an idea to speed up the process and "optimize" the simulation. With the rain and significant cooling of the weather, the once sunny Ruhrland area has settled now into a cool, perma-overcast sky with constant rain showers which made me really look forward to my return to Copenhagen.

This time around, I invited Reed Martin, a student of Georgia Tech from Georgia to come along for the ride because it was his last free weekend and he had yet to leave the country. We arrived in Copenhagen early Sat morning after a rough overnight train ride from Dortmund and proceeded to head directly to Roskilde to see the Viking museum and area. Unfortunately, the rain had followed us and proceeded to miserably drizzle the entire time there. Also apparently, there is a fee to enter the grounds (which we bypassed by walking into the dock from another entrance) but we did not find this out until we were leaving and found some signs indicating this to us.

Returning to Copenhagen Central, we decided to put our bags into a locker (which we'll later regret) and head to our next destination: Helsingor, where Kronborg castle situated. As previously mentioned in my last post, Kronborg was where Shakespeare based Hamlet. This time around, the castle was open for Reed and I to wander about. Traveling on a tight budget, we did not pay the admission to tour the castle. Inside we were told there was a large statue of a giant Dane, Ogier the Dane, where legend has it, he is slumbering only to arise when Denmark is in a time of grave danger in time to save the nation. In the courtyard which we were allowed to wander free of charge, they were set up for a production of Hamlet which appears to be a regular summer event.

Receiving a call from my friend Carina, she instructed us to head to Gilleleje (pronounced Gilly-Lie) for a pick-up. We caught the next train there on what appeared to be a city tram and arrived in the city. After a 2 hr wait, Carina finally pulled into roundabout for pickups and we promptly went into town for dinner shopping down by the pier.

A couple pounds of fresh white fish and potatoes later, we returned to her summer house in Vejby and helped peel and wash potatoes enjoying Czech beer and the warmer weather. Three bottles of red wine later, it was time for bed. We passed out watching the Beach and after getting kicked out out of sleeping area to the guestroom for snoring (which is why I wish I had my stuff, not to mention my clean clothes) we called it a night.

The next day, we headed back to Copenhagen after a nice breakfast of cheese and crackers and met up with Therese. She took us to other parts of the city (it was still kind of wet, but the sun came out every so often) and to a wicked little burger joint where the inside was an actual railway tram. The atmosphere was cosy and it was very cool. The prices were reasonable too! I had a huge burger topped with caviar and egg and hollandaise sauce for about 54 Krons (8 euros) which is about average for a sit down lunch.

We made our way back towards the train station and were taken around the red light district of Denmark. The area has recently in the past 5-6 years become quite trendy and now was quite cleaned up. By the time we were finished, it was time to head home and we bid our goodbyes and caught our train back to Dortmund.

We arrived Monday morning, 2.5 hrs late which meant a 8:20 arrival as opposed to a 5:20 arrival so that was nice. I just felt bad for the people who were waiting for the 5:20 train to Prague and Munich.

posted by ktsang @ 11:13 AM