Trip to Copenhagen, Denmark (with photos)

For a few reasons, the trip to Copenhagen was quite fun. First, the origin was a lunchtime discussion about how one of my colleagues had a few days left on a ScanRail card (rail travel through Scandinavia). After talking about it for a few days, three of us booked the trip and before we departed, three others joined. It was also my first experience with rail transit and I was amazed at how picturesque the Swedish countryside is. And finally, it was a quick trip, which kept things moving. We were on the first train out of Stockholm on Saturday morning and took the last train back on Sunday evening. We were able to experience quite a bit for having only 30 hours in Cophenhagen.


The architecture near city center was quite impressive.









One of the first places we went was Freetown Christiana. From Wiki: "The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the wellbeing of the entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and physical destitution can be averted." The rest of the article is quite good and definitely worth reading.

Graffiti was everywhere, but it makes for an excellent backdrop for a group photo:




Once we traveled further into Christiana, no photography was allowed. The last photo I took was at the end of "Pusher Street" or the main street for drug dealing.



After leaving Christiana, we headed for Strøget, which is the longest pedestrian-only shopping street in Europe. Look at all those bicycles!



We grabbed a bite to eat in Nyhavn.







Misc nice sunset shot.



The Carlsberg brewery was quite impressive (the entire "complex" was quite nice).



I'm the old not cleanshaven dude on the right.

















The final shots are of Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park in the center of Copenhagen. At most times, it was easy to forget that you were within a city of about 1.2mil people.

Trip to København (Copenhagen, Denmark) with colleagues...

Here's a teaser photo from a trip with my colleagues to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Here's two shots outside the Carlsberg Brewery.




The rest of the photos can be found here.

I'll update later this week with the rest of the photos and a short commentary.

How to find a balance between work and play?

For those who knew me during my tenure at UMaine, I'm sure you remember how I admired a few characters from the "The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for The Perfect Drug." I thought it was admirable that some of the researchers were finding warm spots of the lab floor to sleep on because they didn't want to leave. I was, and still am, drawn to an intense level of competition.

Some who know me believe that I catch every bit of luck possible. I ended up with a great job, in a different country, and have the opportunity to live one of the nicest parts of the city (SoFo or South of Folkungagatan for those who know the boroughs of Stockholm). .

I work within arguably the best research group on the planet for what we specialize in. I have almost limitless resources, infrastructure, and access to some of the best personnel I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with.

It's a great problem to have, but how does one balance these opportunities?

Since I've been here, I've been heavily biased toward working as much as possible, but today it really hit me that I haven't taken any time to enjoy my surroundings. Therefore, today my plan was to wake up and take photos of the city and write a new blog entry. Unfortunately, it was raining:



so I ducked in to a trendy shopping area (Gallerian) near T-centralen because I needed a new watchband ($140 for a titanium band!).



Inside, I found it interesting that revenue-generating floorspace was being sacrificed for an excellent photo exhibition:



After seeing this, I started thinking about what I pass by every day that I haven't given any attention to. Soon after, I realized that I always seemingly run through various subway stations without much regard for their aesthetics.

It then became very obvious that I should provide a few photos of the phenomenally-designed Universitetet subway station that I pass through every day on my way to the university:

The station has both southbound and northbound platforms; each about 100 meters long:



The entire UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights (with each individual tile representing a single character) is presented along the walls lining the station. It's quite sad, when one considers the amount of work this took to accomplish and how no one, including me, seemingly pays attention.



In addition, the center of the platforms are covered with diagrams that depict such world phenomena as depletion of the ozone layer (the first two images) and an interesting map which seemingly depicts the migration of people from Sweden (final image):

UPDATE: As one astute colleague noted below, the first two photos really depict the effects of global warming AND depletion of the ozone layer. He also noted that the final picture illustrates the travels of the students of Carlous Linnaeus.

Courtesy of Wikipedia: Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of scientific nomenclature. Carolus imbued his students with his own thoroughness in an atmosphere of enthusiasm, trained them to close and accurate observation, and then sent them to various parts of the globe. Some of the notable students and expeditions include Pehr Kalm's visit to North America 1748–1751; Daniel Solander, traveling first with James Cook's expedition to the Pacific in 1768, then in 1771 to Iceland, the Faroes and Orkney; Fredric Hasselquist, who visited Palestine and parts of Asia Minor; and Carl Peter Thunberg, journeying to Japan, South Africa, Java, and Sri Lanka.

I guess the convoluted moral of the post is to maintain a good balance between work and play. Once in a while it's important to stop and smell the roses. Oh, and to my esteemed colleague, all I can say is "fan ta dig!"

Why dont we get this Ford in the US?

Taken with my phone in the Medborgarplatsen Tunnelbana station.

Swedish version of American Idol

From the same subway station as above.

Midnattsloppet (Midnight Race)

This weekend the Midnattsloppet (Midnight Race) was run around my borough in Stockholm. The race usually has about 15,000 participants and about 200k people spectate. It was quite interesting to watch because at the start it seemed like a combination between a serious race and a rave. I'll definitely need to run this next year!

DJs were playing loud music and the starting lights looked straight out of a club. They flashed pink, purple, and blue ... all they needed were some green lasers. Confetti also dropped from the starting overhang onto the participants:





Here is the MC booth, "LYCKA TILL!" translates as "Good luck!"







On edges of the street, beside the runners at the start, women were dancing on elevated platforms.





Here's a shot of the lead runners coming through the center of Sodermalm (Medborgarplasten). There was another stage set up with a DJ playing music for the runners. In the background, you can see that Globen can be illuminated in different colors dependent on the event.





As you can see, the square stays quite busy on weekend evenings:

Mosebacke Torg on a nice sunny day...

In addition to the nice weather, the ships entered in The Tall Ships' Races were in town.

While taking these photos, I walked from my apartment in Medborgarplatsen to Moseback Torg (5 minutes). You may notice Slussen and Gamla Stan in the background in some of the later shots.

As always, comments and visitors are always welcome.

Drop me an email if you're even semi-serious about visiting before the sun goes down for the winter.





I stumbled upon a very serene graveyard. It was the kind of experience that you have once in a great while where you question your mortality.

Interestingly, Stockholm has a serious problem with rabbit overpopulation. However, this one found a great (and safe) place to enjoy the sunny weather...











I find it very neat (literally because it decreases the numbers of sign posts) that the street signs are placed on the corners of the buildings (not sure how practical it is for drivers) ...

















This is a shot of Patrica which is a nightclub on a ship. Interesting concept with constant green lasers, confetti falling from ceiling, and a bonus stayed open until 5am (we went early at about midnight).



Here's one of an entrant in the Tall Ships' Races. At least 30 or 40 ships were in town for the event.



Here's a shot of Gröna Lund, the largest amusement park in Stockholm. The Beasty Boys recently played a free show on the largest stage.