All Fixed!

Well, after about a month of my computer being in the shop, I FINALLY have it back and everything is working again. I just uploaded the Russia blog entry, which is dated November 4th (you'll find it below). I will work on getting my Berlin, Prague, Vienna Trip uploaded as well as my trips to Interlaken, Switzerland and Paris as soon as possible!

Hard Drive Crash!!

Yesterday (Saturday November 8th) my hard drive on my computer crashed, therefore blog updates will be on hold for the time being until I can get my computer up and running again. I was on the phone with Apple all day yesterday trying to bring my computer back from the dead, but had no luck. I'm crossing my fingers that I will somehow beable to recover my files, especially my photos!

So, check back in about a week and hopefully I'll be up and running again from wonderful Kæipperhågen!

The Motherland!

So, I arrived back from Brussels on Saturday October 18, 2008 at 10am, which gave me less than 24 hours before I had to be at the airport for my trip to RUSSIA! I first took a much deserved nap, then did some laundry, packed, ate dinner and got some sleep before waking up at 6am!

Blue Point: Copenhagen Red Line: Plane

Red Point: St. Petersberg Yellow Line: Bus

Green Point: Novorgord Blue Line: Overnight Train

Light Blue Point: Moscow

Sunday October 19, 2008:

07:30 - I met my Russia group at the airport for our 09:35 SAS flight to St. Petersberg. We had to fill out some intense immigration forms on the flight in order to get in and out of the country. Oh and did I mention that we had to apply for Russian Tour Visa's one month prior to leaving in order to go to Russia! They are very strict on who can enter their country.

13:40 - We arrived in St. Petersberg (it was slightly raining) and made our way to our hotel.

View from the hotel

Street next to hotel

Soviet era bomb shelter

18:30 - We went out to dinner at a restaurant called Cafe Jam with our tour leader and about 10 Russian students studying in St. Petersberg. At dinner our tour leader taught us the proper way to drink vodka, which was quite interesting/entertaining. After dinner we wandered the streets of St. Petersberg with the local Russian students.

Dinner

Chris and I pounding shots with Jon (the tour leader)

Monday October 20, 2008:

10:00 - After breakfast, we headed on a bus for the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is the original citadel of St. Petersberg, founded in 1703 by Peter the Great and completed in 1740. The fortress includes the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where the remains of the Russian tsars rest, six bastions and other buildings. From the roof of the bastions we got an amazing view of the Neva River and some of the city's most important landmarks, including the Winter Palace.

The Bronze Horseman commemorating Peter the Great

Inside the Peter & Paul Cathedral

View from the bastions

View from bastions showing the Peter & Paul Cathedral

After visiting the Peter & Paul fortress, we ate lunch as a group and then we were given free time to explore St. Petersberg and do some shopping.

We came across this man swimming in a canal

On the way to the open-air shopping market, we stopped at the Church of Spilled Blood, which had the most amazing murals I have ever seen.

Church of Spilled Blood

Tuesday October 21, 2008:

10:00 - We began the day with a guided walking tour, "St. Petersberg behind the Fascade," which gave us a unique view of St. Petersberg because we got to experience the city from its poorer, everyday or perhaps darker side! We were split up into groups of 5 or 6 and a local Russian guided us through the streets, showing us courtyards, underground art exhibits, people's apartments etc... This tour gave us a peek into what Soviet rule was like and how the buildings were constructed during the communist rule. We ate lunch with our local guide at a crepes restaurant and then met up with the rest of our group at the Hermitage Museum for a another guided tour. The Hermitage Museum is located in the center of St. Petersberg by the banks of the Neva River. The main building is the Winter Palace, the residence of the Russian tsars. Founded by Catherine the Great -- the Hermitage collection has continued to grow ever since, and now contains more than 3,000,000 items and works of art from the the Stone Age to the 20th century! A truly amazing collection.

Tour Guide

One of the many canals

The Hermitage

Winter Palace

19:30 - After the tour of the Hermitage, we ate some dinner and then headed back to the Hermitage theater for the ballet! We saw the famous Russian play "Swan Lake," by the famous Russian composer Tchaikovksy. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed the ballet, it was very entertaining and definitely showed me some Russian culture.

The Hermitage Theatre

Swan Lake

Wednesday October 22, 2008:

08:30 - We check out of the hotel in St. Petersberg and loaded all of our luggage on the bus. We then departed for Novgorod, Russia - which was a 3.5 hour bus ride south-east of St. Petersberg. Novgorod is Russia's most ancient city. It was founded by the Viking prince Rurik in the 9th century. Today the city is a large provincial town with 217,000 inhabitants. The city's ensemble of ancient churches, its Kremlin walls and monasteries are included in the UNESCO world heritage list.

The Kremlin wall in Novgorod

Sofia Cathedral = Russian Orthodox Church

St. George's Monastery

The bald man is a monk who lives in isolation

14:00 - After a day long visit to Novgorod (a much different Russian city when comparing it to St. Petersberg and Moscow) we loaded back on the bus and drove back to St. Petersberg. Unfortunately we hit major traffic on our way back into the city and it took us about 5.5 hours to get back to St. Petersberg.

00:40 - Departure to Moscow by night train no. 55 --> This was quite the experience! I felt like I was on the Orient Express, we were separated into cabins of 4 people, which were pretty cramped and hot - we could not get the air conditioning to work or crack a window! Our tour leader suggested drinking some vodka or some Russian beer before going to bed in order to fall asleep. We took his advice and it actually worked, we slept like babies and woke up at 09:53 when we arrived in Moscow! The rhythm of the train reminded me of the rocking of a cruise ship at night, which rocked us to sleep!

Me and Chris in our sleeper car to Moscow!

Thursday October 23, 2008:

09:53 - Arrival in Moscow!

Moscow Train Station

10:30- We ate breakfast at a cafe and then headed for Red Square and Lenin's Mausoleum. Red Square was magnificent, it was much larger than I anticipated and the Kremlin walls were quite tall as well. Luckily we were also able to see Lenin's Mausoleum, which is Lenin's Tomb! His embalmed body has been on display here since 1924 when he died. In order to get into the Mausoleum, we could not bring in any cameras and we had to walk through metal detectors. Inside the Mausoleum, there were guards situated every three feet, making sure nobody disturbed Lenin's body.

Kremlin walls behind me

Red Square

Lenin's Masoleum

13:00- After spending the morning at Red Square we got on a bus and headed to our hotel: Hotel Cosmos, which was a very nice hotel located in the city.


17:30- We met up with local Moscow students who took us to their homes to cook dinner and talk about life in Moscow. The students I was put with did not cook us anything authentic to Russia, but rather cooked us pasta! It was fun talking with the students and hearing their viewpoints on topics such as: the Georgia conflict, Vladamir Putin, and State Censorship. Also, we asked them if they remembered the fall of Communism, but they all said they were too young to remember. Overall, it was a great opportunity to learn about Russian culture and the day-to-day lives of Russians.

Dinner! Ummhh

Tim (Russian) Playing the flute for us

Friday, October 24, 2008:

11:00- Tour of the Kremlin. The Kremlin is massive! It consists of 4 palaces, 4 churches, an armory chamber and the Kremlin towers, all surrounded by the fortress walls. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide, which made the tour very interesting.

Tour guide in the Kremlin

Government Buildings in Kremlin

Church inside Kremlin

14:00- We had a farewell lunch in Moscow and then had the rest of the time on our own to further explore Moscow. Chris and I went to the Olympic stadium and an open-air market. The interesting thing about the Olympic stadium was that there were not any Olympic rings present, instead there was a giant statue of Lenin.

Statue of Lenin in front of Olympic Stadium

Inside Moscow Olympic Stadium

DIS gave us a booklet of things to do on our own in Moscow. One of the places was a nightclub in Moscow called the Hungry Duck, which according to DIS is the "craziest club in all of Europe and Russia." So, we decided to go... Let's just say that it was an interesting night. For starters, I got thrown against the wall by a bouncer for taking pictures of friends from the study tour, needless to say, I talked my way out of it and was ok. There were also a few more instances of people running into problems, but the good news is that we all made it out of the Hungry Duck and will probably never go back!!

Saturday October 25, 2008:

12:00- We departed the hotel Cosmos for the Moscow airport. Our flight back to Copenhagen departed at 15:50 and arrived in Copenhagen at 16:20(local time). Luckily no one got stopped going through passport control!

Monument to Space Travel, right outside our hotel

When I arrived at the airport, Matt (my brother) was waiting for me in the lobby of the Hilton! And our week long European Adventure begun!

Mind The Gap! - London & Brussels Long Study Tour

Wow! Where to begin?? I arrived home today (Sunday November 2nd) from my 3-week study break! I have never traveled to sooooo many different places in such a short period of time! I think the best way to update my blog will be to create different posts for each of the 3 weeks of break. So, I will begin with week one (October 12 - 18) which was my International Business & Economics Long Study Tour to London and Brussels with my European Business Strategy Core Class:

Blue Point: Copenhagen Red Line: Plane

Green Point: London Yellow Line: Bus

Yellow Point: Brussels Purple Line: Train

Sunday October 12, 2008:

14:45 - We took off from Copenhagen International en route to Nottingham (East Midlands) by Sterling Air flight NB583. About one hour into the flight the plane suddenly rolled to the left and lost about 200 feet in altitude within a few seconds! My friend Joe, looked out the window at this moment and saw another commercial airliner within 100 yards of our plane! The captain came onto the PA and apologized, but this little incident made me very nervous for the remainder of the flight -- lets just say I was glad when we landed in the UK! (Also, just a few days ago Sterling Air went bankrupt!) After going through customs, we took a 2.5 hour bus ride into the city and checked into our hotel (the Royal National Hotel). We then went out for a group dinner at a local Italian restaurant and the rest of the evening was spent exploring the SOHO district of London with a friend from home, Emily.

Some first impressions of London: (1) They drive on the wrong side of the road! (I almost got hit by 3 or 4 cars before I finally figured this out), (2) the city has many of the major chains from the US - Starbucks, Subway, McDonalds etc... (3) The Tube is so easy to use and maneuver the city! If only Los Angeles had a Tube...

Monday October 13, 2008:

9:45 - Our first business visit of the trip was to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or EBRD. This bank uses tools of investment to help build market economies and democracies in 27 different countries currently, from central Europe to central Asia. This was a very interesting visit as their head economist spoke to us about the strategic direction of the bank and future challenges. The presentation was in the main conference room, which was on the 15th floor and overlooked much of downtown London. It was cool sitting where the representatives of the 27 countries get to sit!

The EBRD

The Main Conference Room!

Flags

12:00 - We walked from the EBRD to Brick Lane, where we were given money to eat lunch at one of the many curry restaurants that line the street. I choose to eat at the Aladin Curry restaurant, which ended up being very tasty!

Brick Lane

14:00 - After lunch we were given a guided tour of London's East End, which has seen tremendous change over time. It used to be the poorest district in London, however today this area is becoming very trendy as artists, designers and city folk are snatching up the traditional 17C and 18C houses.

Historical Building in London's East End

A bar that "Jack the Ripper" frequented often

15:30 - After the walking tour, we were given free time to explore the city on our own. We first stopped at the egg-shaped building called the Gherkin. The building is 40 stories tall and has a restaurant on the top floor. The building was designed to be environmentally friendly and the shape of the building is used to facilitate ventilation.

The Gherkin

The next stop was BIG BEN. 

Big Ben

Then we crossed the Thames and went to the London Eye. The views were absolutely spectacular from the capsules on the Eye. From start to finish, one revolution takes approximately 30 minutes, which gave us plenty of time to take in the sights on London. On a clear day they say you can see for 25 miles in any direction! Unfortunately for us it was slightly overcast, but the views were truly breathtaking!

Me in from the of the London Eye

Overlooking London

Buckingham Palace!

Harrods!

20:00 - After a long day of sightseeing and being tourists, we all met at the Palace Theater for the play Spamalot -- which is a play ripped off from the hit movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The play was very funny and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Outside the Theater

Tuesday October 14, 2008:

09:30 - We were supposed to have an academic visit to Actics.com in combination with Clownfish Marketing, however the previous day, the company went bankrupt due to the financial crisis! Apparently one of their major financial supporters backed out at the last minute, so the company had to fold (an example of how the financial crisis is happening outside of the US as well!).

So, we had the morning free to explore the city and do more sightseeing. A group of us decided to visit the Tower of London. The coolest part of the tower of London, was seeing the Crown Jewels!

The Tower of London

The Armory

Inside the Armory

1 of the many Ravens

We saw this sign in the Tube:

what is the other 28%??

14:30 - We all meet at the St. James Park Tube stop for our academic meeting with Transport for London -- which is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England (i.e. the Tube, London Rail, Buses, street traffic, congestion charge, light rail etc...) The meeting was great, one of the major topics addressed at the Transport for London was the Oyster Card, which is their form of electronic ticketing that uses RFID technology instead of the traditional paper ticket.

After the meeting we went out to a great restaurant called Brown's Restaurant and Bar and on the way I got my photo taken in a red phone booth -- call it cliche, but I had to do it!

Phone Booth

Wednesday October 15, 2008:

09:00 - We did not have any business visits, instead we visited the Tate Modern Gallery in London, which is the the national gallery of international modern art, it is one of the family of four Tate galleries. The gallery was very cool, my only complaint was that we did not have enough time to fully explore the gallery.

Outside of the Tate Modern

The entrance to the gallery

Famous spider exhibit

14:34 - Our time in London was over and we all boarded the Eurostar train #9138 and headed under the English Channel (the Chunnel) on our way to Brussels, Belgium.

Eurostar Train: London - Brussels

17:33 - Arrival in Brussels. It was raining when we arrived, so I got a bad first impression of the city right off the bat, but that soon disappeared when we explored the city and had a great French dinner.

Main Square

Thursday October 16, 2008:

10:00 - Our first academic visit in Brussels was to Belgacom -- a telecommunications company with internet, tv, mobile and fixed telephone networks. This presentation was very interesting, we learned about the convergence of the telecommunications industry in Europe.

Belgacom Building

15:00 - We walked to EU Parliament and got a behind the scenes tour of Parliment! This building was very cool and we had a great tour guide who knew just about everyone in Parliament. The highlight of the tour was when we ran into the EU President Hans-Gert Pottering (the equivalent of Nancy Pelosi in the United States) who is from Germany 

and spoke to us for 10-15 minutes. 

Outside Parliament

Inside -- Where decisions are made

Yours Truly pretending to give a speech

The man himself: Hans-Gert Pottering

Friday October 17, 2008:

09:30 - Our final academic visit of the study tour was to the Brewers of Europe -- the voice of the European brewing sector to the European institutions and international organizations - essentially a special interest lobbyist group. They gave us a great presentation, followed by sampling of Belgium Beer!

Brewers of Europe

We then had our final group lunch and wrap-up session followed by a visit to Planet Chocolate, where they showed us how chocolate is made and treated us to free samples!

Planete Chocolate

Being shown how Chocolate is made

Favorite 3 Things about Belgium:

* Belgium Chocolate

* Belgium Beer

* Belgium Waffles

21:00 - Our bus departed Brussels for a 12-HOUR long bus ride back to Copenhagen. Needless to say I did not get as much sleep as I had hoped for on the bus. We arrived back in Copenhagen around 9 am on Saturday October 18th. That gave me about 24 hours to rest, do laundry, pack, and eat before leaving for Russia on SUNDAY!