Copenhagen the capital

Today i did quite a bit of sight-seeing. In fact I woke up pretty early this morning. Think the rain and thunder woke me up.
Anyway after taking my breakfast and cooking my lunch (fried rice without eggs. Weird that I cannot find eggs at the supermarket. Not too sure if its becoz Danish do not take eggs) I headed to school. Coz I had to meet the Post-doc whom I'll be working closely with for the next 3 years.
Our meet-up was really short.... only about 30min, then I was free... hahaha..... so headed back to my room, took my lunch, check out what are the sights in the capital and i headed out at 11.30am. So i've got about 6 hours to spare before I meet a Soka leader later tonight at 7pm.

It was a 1st for me to purchase the tickets. hahaha... i had some difficulty understanding how the system is like... luckily, its pretty similar to the ticket machine in S'pore and Japan. Just a matter of the pricing though.... hmmm... the train ticket is really not cheap. Coz from Lyngby to København H (that's the danish spelling for the capital) the price is 48 DKK (this is equivalent to SGD 10.40!!!) Really expensive! so which means that for 2 ways, it will cost me SGD 20.80!!!! scary!

My train tickets

The number of stops from Lyngby to København H

Becoz the transportation is expensive i decided to walk from 1 sight to another. So I got off at København H and started walking to Strøget, which is a little similar to the shopping district of Luzern in Switzerland. Along my walk to Strøget, I walked pass Tivoli, the most famous amusement park in Denmark. I've read that there is a huge and fantastic garden there.... hmmm... becoz I need to pay to get in, I just took a couple of pictures of Tivoli outside.

Carlsberg musem (Carlsberg is from Denmark!)

The streets

 Gardens inside Tivoli

Entrance of Tivoli

In Strøget, there are lots of shops and ancient buildings. It gives me a nice feeling. lots of tourists there too! I did not purchase anything... just walk through the streets. 

 City Hall

 1 hotel opposite City Hall

 Inside City Hall

 The Danish Ingina

Streets of Strøget

Finally I reach Nyhavn. Hmmm... Don't ask me how to pronounce it, coz i simply do not know... hahaha.... just like i thought i pronounce the town where I'm staying in (Lyngby) correctly, but apparently the Danish pronounce of the town is 'long-bu' hahaha.... anyway back to Nyhavn. U must be thinking what so great about this place... this is the icon of Copenhagen! When u flip a guide book or look up on Copenhagen, this sight of Nyhavn will greet u! 

Nyhavn

By the way, the red house below is Han Christian Andresen's house! not too sure if u know who he is, if u've read 'the snow white', 'ugly duckling' etc. u'll know who he is. Yup! Denmark is the birth place of Hans Christian Andresen!

Han Christian Andresen's house

The next place i visited was Rosenborg Castle. To visit it, I had to walked through the King's Garden. hahaha.... nothing much... just that the castle was built by the royal family in 1606. To enter the castle premises gotta pay. As i did not want to spend unnecessary money, I just walked around the castle and left. 

 Rosenborg Castle

One of the entrances to Rosenborg Castle

Moat surrounding the castle

Seeing that I still got time, I decided to walk to the Langelinie to pay a visit the the famous Little Mermaid! hahaha.... as I walked there, I passed by some very interesting houses that were painted yellow. Hmmm.... they are interesting to me... but not so sure about u. I think people live in those houses....and the houses even have chimneys on the roofs. 

 Rows of yellow houses

Close up shot of the yellow houses. can u see the chimneys on the roof??

Finally I reached the Little Mermaid! hahaha... nothing much, just a bronze statue. hmmm... maybe because i cannot appreciate it. But looking her up on wiki, its mentioned that Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, had it commissioned in 1906. and the mermaid was sculpt using 2 models - 1 a ballerina the other the sculptor's wife. The bronze statue was only revealed in 1913. 

The Little mermaid

 Close up view of her

Another angle of her

After snapping a few pictures of the mermaid, i headed back to Lyngby (long-bu). gotta cook my dinner + tomorrow's lunch then after that will be heading out to attend the monthly Danish Zadankai! hahaha... can't wait for it! =D

Hmm... maybe the next entry will not be so soon.. as I'll be shifting to my real apartment on sat. till then! =D

a student again!

I've pretty busy since the start of 2012. So i've not been actively posting my 'adventures' here.... since the start of the year till now I've traveled to not not too many countries. Sometime in mid april, i went to Bintan with some of the Soka Youth for a youth exchange meeting. And we got to meet and have discussion with the Bintan Youth members and leaders. It was a pretty enriching trip!
The about 3 wks ago, I went to Ho Chi Minh city with one of my very good friend, Hilda. hahaha... it was sort of a last trip together before I head off for my studies. My 2nd time to HCM city, but the 1st for Hilda. It was interesting for me... and to be frank, this was more like a shopping trip for me... coz i got numerous things... items which are necessary for me to bring to Denmark for my studies.

Anyway after talking so much.... most will be wondering what's up with me and furthermore with the title of 'A student again'... hahhaa... yeah I'm really a student again. This time a PhD student. I was offered a PhD position in Denmark Technical University (DTU) starting from this 1st sept. And my course is supposedly to last 3 years. What will happen after 3 years wait to be seen. =D

So i reached Denmark yesterday morning.... after being 'squeezed' dry by my colleagues & boss on the previous project that I was involved in back in the company. Coz my project was not completed yet... but its really close to completion. Anyway, this is my 1st time to Denmark and it will be a long stay. and 1st time for me to be away from home for so long and by myself. But still life is pretty ok here.... My Prof met me at the airport yesterday and we had a bit of time getting acquainted. I got to the house that I've rented a room for the upcoming 4 nights. I must say that I'm pretty please with the room (although that is a sort of smell but i try to air it opening the windows) and its big enough for me (12m2)

My bed (sofa converted to a bed)

My messy desk.... hahaha.. amazing that I just shifted in and the desk is already messy

I was eager to use the internet to let my family members back home know that I've reached here safe and sound, but i got no internet access. Coz the wifi network requires the DTU userid and password. So I headed to the admin building... but horrors of horrors, the person who is supose to give me this was not in tat building but another. walking over to the building (it started raining) I was not able to open the doors, seems to me tat the doors require the card to be scanned and I dun have these yet. hmmm... so headed to the university supermarket to get some basic supplies and headed back to my room and bonged out. Coz I was still suffering from jet lag. By the time i woke up, its time to cook dinner. Because the supplies i got were so little (rice, bread, chicken) I can only think of using up my chicken rice paste to cook chicken rice. hahaha... 1st attempt at it and it was ok, coz I got my secret equipment..... the Rice Cooker! hahaha... i even had sufficient for my lunch the next day.

That's the scenery outside my window

And today is quite an eventful day. Coz in the morning, I met my prof and he brought me around introducing me to his group members and vice versa. We also had about 30min of discussion on the project. I must say that the project is rather interesting and its doable. hmmm... guess i will officially start everything on 3rd sept... and its pretty exciting. =D hmmm the science is exciting.

and afternoon i went to the Bogerservice to get my CPR no. hmmm... u must be wondering what's a CPR no. it the identification no. of a person. I can only get my no. on 3rd of Sept, coz that's when my proper lease will start. Without this CPR no. i cannot sign up for a telco line, i cannot set up a bank account. so everything has to wait until then. hiaz.
Just now i tried cooking a very simple dish of green veggie with chicken. seasoning? just soya sauce. hahaha... very simple but it tasted pretty gd.

Daddy's fav drink: yogurt drink