Kulturnatten 2012 & the day after

This week I had been busy in the labs. most doing milling of my microchips and bonding the layers together. And on tuesday I had to attend a session that DTU organises for new employees. Initially i was a little reluctant attending this session.... coz its a full day of talks. It turn out to be a good opportunity for me to know more new people in DTU, who are foreigners like me.... I had the opportunity to made a few friends here.... I guess now my life in DTU hopefully will be more interesting.

Yup! my new friends whom I got to know at the New Employee session conducted by DTU, shared with me about this event 'Kulturnatten' -  which in English means 'Cultural Night'. Apparently this event only takes place once a year... and its the friday that the autumn break starts. And this year, this takes place on 12th Oct. the 'Kulturnatten' only starts at 6pm and stretches to like mid-night or 1,2am. duing these short 6hrs, there are many many happenings in CPH! yeah like free entry to museums, free music performances, exhibitions etc. Its like experiencing the city of Copenhagen at night! I must say seeing the city at night is totally different from seeing the city in the daytime. coz the lightings and masses of people shows you what a bustling city copenhagen is. its like CPH is full of life! hahaha.... which is like totally different from what I experience each evening in Lyngby. coz in Lyngby, once the time is like 6.30pm, the streets are pretty quiet. and when its 7pm, you hardly see cars on the roads. and on sundays, you hardly see cars or people in the town. when i just came here, i always wonder where do all the Danes go on sundays... coz i heard that even in CPH city, majority of the shops are close. but that's how life is over here in Denmark.

Kulturnatten 2012 kit

Anyway back to 'Kulturnatten', Melody was the one who shared this information of this event to us. so we decided to meet 6pm at Lyngby station, get our Kulturnatten kit from the 7-11 shop, and head straight to CPH city. the Kulturnatten kit cost 90 DKK and all train rides, metro and bus rides to CPH city and with CPH city are free including the various sights, tours, performances indicated in the brouchers! its amazingly cheap!!!! Melody wanted to see the DSB train, so we headed to Dybbølsbro, which is 1 stop after Københvan central station. However, the tour only starts at 8pm and we reached there like 6.55pm. So we decided to head to Københvan central station and walk around to see things before heading to Dybbølsbro at a later time. In Købehvan central, there were so many people. We walked to Christianborg slot (which has now been converted to a government building). Along the way we passed by Tivoli! Wow I must say Tivoli has been decorated to welcome and celebrate Halloween! coz we saw pumkins lining the main pavement in Tivoli and witch mascot at its entrance.

Entrance of Tivoli. Its been decorated to the Halloween theme

 From left Ritika, Melody & me in front of Tivoli entrance

the witch guarding the entrance of Tivoli

My friends told me that we gotta pay 100DKK to enter, no point paying, hence we continue making our way to Christianborg slot. When we reached there, we saw people at that clock tower, we really wanted to get up to the top so as to have a bird's eye view of the city. Unfortunately, the tickets for that night were all sold out. So we can't get up to the clock tower. However, we got to see the inside of the palace, i mean besides the exhibitions that were taking place, we got to get up to the balconies surrounding the main hall of the palace.

 Christianborg slot at night

Taking our picture in front of a mirror inside christianborg palace. (Haseena, me, Melody, Rikita)

The next place we headed to was Støget. Its the longest walking street in Denmark. All the shops were opened, however we couldn't really find like free tours, music etc.

Real life models in a shop

hence we decided to fill our stomaches 1st. we saw a restaurant (we thought it was halal) that was offering buffet for 89DKK. (coz 2 of my new friends are muslims, so its better to be halal or arabic food) the food was ok, but they were western and a little of chinese rather than mediterrean. furthermore, the owners were chinese not arabs. hahaha... so my friends and i were a little fooled by it. During dinner, our conversation was pretty interesting i must say. Coz we realised that we've got common interests! hahaha.... so that's really a good start. We headed to a church and sat down. Coz there was some sort of performance taking place in the church.

Choir performance in the church

I must say the songs they sang were really really good... but after the 1st song, it was like sermon + hymns. I was getting bored. I looked at my friends if they would like to move on to another place. so we left and headed to the metro to take the train to Nørreport where we would take the S-train to Københvan central station. Coz my friends wanted to watch the flash dance that was to take place at 10pm in Copenhagen museum.

inside the metro

We tried to walk quickly to the museum, however when we reached, the museum was quiet. When we asked the museum personels, they told us the dancers just left and headed to another place. yeah tat's sadening.... so we just walked through the museum. it was having exhibition of rock and roll music. after the museum tour, we decided to head home. coz Haseena needed to catch the 11pm train coz she stays very north of Zealand. Me and Melody took S-train B to head back to Lyngby, whilst Ritika waited for A train to head to her house.

Københvan central station at night

Today, it rained the whole morning.... and i wanted to check out the asian shops in CPH city. so the whole morning i was doing some random stuffs.

the wet road and fallen leaves just outside my window

finally around noon, the rain stopped! yay! it was time to head out to the city. and that's what i did. I took the train to Købnhvan central station and explored the asian shops just behind the train station. I'm really amazed coz the groceries that i'm so familiar with in s'pore can be found here! and I managed to find tofu!!! yup! finally i can cook some tofu to eat either tonight or tomorrow. I also bought the Japanese vinegar. which means i can cook some japanese sushi rice! i'm so happy.... finally i can eat something asian from my cooking and not the usual stir fry.... not to say that my cooking is bad.. but eating too much of the same thing day after day can be a little boring.....

then I met Haseena at around 2.15pm. she wanted to get a winter jacket.... and i wanted to get asian groceries and check out a shoe shop we passed by yesterday. yup! i got my pair of boots today! hope they can last me through the winter. i heard from lots of people that the winter in Denmark is horrible. its really important to keep your feet warm so that you will not feel so cold and its better for health... i mean this is what the chinese believe. After purchasing my boots, we headed to Nørreport, where Haseena wanted to go to Abercombie and Fitch and Zara. You gotta queue to get into Abercombie and Fitch.... coz there are models in there... and most of the customers go there to take pictures with the models and not so much about buying the products. But to me, the interior was too dark and it was a little tough to see and choose the items you want. After that we headed to Zara. I saw some skinnies... tried them and I mean they are ok, but they were just too long for me. So in the end i did not get anything.

 The pair of boots i purchased

 We took a picture with the horses and riders

a mime artist along Støget

After Haseena got her items, we headed to Nørrebro, which is in another part of CPH city. this part of the city i've never been. I must say... its different. Coz this part of the city can be termed as 'Arabiantown'. coz the entire region you find rolls and rolls of Arabian shops. even the people here, you see more Arabs than u can see in other parts of CPH. I must say that I'm really surprised that there is an Arabiantown, but there is no Chinatown in CPH! i really cannot believe it. coz in most big cities around the world, you basically can find 'Chinatown' in the city... but apparently this is not so in CPH.   

We had our dinner here in one of the Kebab restaurant. I must say the food is quite good. i chose the fusion of arabian/western food. the price was resonable. After that, we called it a day.

my dinner: lamb Shawarma, fries & lemon fizzy drink

Køge & school

Have not been writing the past few weeks. Coz mainly I did not travel around much. Coz often the saturdays are always raining. Don't know why and sundays are usually sunny. Its not really good to go out on sundays as all the shops are close.... its better to go out on saturdays. But the problem is the rain! Urgh.

For the few weeks I had quite a bit of stuffs going on in school. attending the saftey courses, getting training to use the milling machines, attending introductory seminars etc. and the weather here is getting colder each day. especially in the mornings, when u step out of the house, the cold air hits you, and you can shiver.... the breathe that you breath out always have steam. so walking to sch each morning is a cold torture for me. but after the 1st 300m or so, my body will accustom to the coldness. the leaves on the trees are also turning into yellow, orange and red. I've taken a couple of photos of the area of the school that I visit daily. 

 Red Ivy leaves clinging on the walls of the building. The building behind is where my office is

 Cleanroom building. Its the largest Cleanroon in the whole of Scandinevia region. U can find all sorts of the most expensive cleanroom equipment here... not just 1 set but there are usually 2-3 sets. Its also the most colourful building in DTU. not the usual yellow bricks and black-lined windows. 

My desk in my office

Last week, I told myself I've got enough of staying in on saturdays. So i decided to head to Køge, its a sea-side town south of Københvan city. There were some problems with the train, but finally I reach Køge after about 1.5hrs. when the usual duration should take about 55min or so. 

I must say Køge is a rather nice town. This town is famous for the old and historical houses there.... Hmmm... I was lucky & yet unluck on that day. Lucky because it happens to be the 1st weekend of the month. So there was a huge village market that day. U can get all sorts of stuffs, exotic orchids (btw, Danes really love the orchids which I've got a a few pots of them at home in S'pore) and they are not too expensive. I mean u can get 1 pot for about 25 DKK - 50DKK. That's almost equilvalent to the price in SGD 5-10 in s'pore. I did not buy any coz its autumn here... and I don't know how good they will grow in my room. I don't want to be a plant murderer. hahaha.... =P 

One of the mumerous old houses in Køge

A round tower i saw in Køge

Streets of Køge

There were also numerous booths selling fresh produce (potatoes, apples etc.) and handicrafts. As i walked to the end of the market square. I saw something that was really interesting to me... but maybe not to the Danes. I saw a clothes line string across 2 posts and on it hanged pink ladies underwear! hahaha.... I've no idea what was happening... and it seems like i was the only foreigner in that square and I did not ask people what was happening. But I guess is was some sort of charity or creating awareness of something. 

Pink underwear day in Køge

Rows of yellow houses near to the wharf

 Boats docking in the stream

Dark clouds streaming in

There is another interesting sight in Køge. This is a mini-town museum here. In the museum, there are miniaturised old buildings and I wanted to see it. Its a short walk from the town center. As I stroll to the mini-town museum, the thing that i dread the most happen. Yeah it rained. I thought it would be just passing rain (coz passing rain is very common in Denmark), but the further i walk, the heavier the rain. I was fustrated.... coz it was cold and wet.... and knowing that its going to be difficult to balance the camera in 1 hand to take pictures and the brolly in the other hand to keep dry (but its impossible to be dry) i decided to call it a day. I only spent like close to 2hrs in Køge. Urgh, the rain! I boarded the train heading to Hillerød (which will pass by Københvan and Lyngby) In the train i was thinking if its not raining in Københvan, I get off here and walk around, if it is raining, then I'll head back to Lyngby and do my Danish Language homework and surf the net. But the worse scenario took place. It was raining in Københvan! Urgh! So i headed back to Lyngby to do my homework! 

And I tried my hand in cooking Cabonara from scratch for the 1st time! Think it was a success.... and I even watched youtube videos to get it right! =D

my 1st try at cooking carbonara