Monday, April 13th

4:15am was the time my phone read when it began ringing. 4:15am is way too early for any human being to be up at, so I was not very happy when I rolled out of bed. I took a quick shower, which woke me up a bit, got dressed and gathered all my things. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe I was leaving. The time had flown by. I looked at the room I had stayed in all week, and felt like I had only just arrived, like I had only just set my suitcase down. I then went out and ate my usual breakfast, but there was a very sad, unhappy aura in the kitchen. I wasn't ready to leave, and Mathias didn't want me to either. We then headed to the car, and left for the train station. The car ride was also sad, as the duration of the ride was spent reliving the trip, talking about all of the awesome memories we made. When we got to the station, I said my farewells to Mathias's parents. I thanked them for everything, and we headed up the platform. Even though it was 5:00am, everyone was somewhat energetic, hugging each other and sadly saying their goodbyes. Mathias and I grew pretty close over the trip, so it was pretty sad to say goodbye to him. I also found it difficult to say goodbye to other people I had grown close to on the trip, like Paul and his brother Christian, Ellen and Louise. After everyone said their goodbyes, we boarded the train and began our journey to Copenhagen. The short, 2 and a half hour train ride was easy, and very beautiful. Parts of the ride overlooked beautiful seas and rural areas, and the weather was nice. I decided not to sleep, and ended up talking to my OHS peers the whole time. When we got to Copenhagen, we walked to our hotel from the station, a walk much shorter than I had prepared myself for based on what Mr. Chordas had said. After setting our luggage down at the hotel, we walked to the famous Round Tower, one of the oldest observatories in Europe. After this, we had a bit of time to eat and relax, so Adam, Ryan and I went to get some sandwiches and coffee. We then boarded our little boat, and relaxed for our canal tour of Copenhagen. It was a beautiful day, so it was very nice and relaxing to be on the boat tour. I had a very good time, aside from hitting my head on the top of the boat a few times. After this was over, we had free time to walk around and shop. I went off with Adam, Nandor and Ryan. First, I bought some shorts and socks from the Danish athletic brand Hummel. I then bought some clothes from a store called Solid. I am very happy with the purchases I made in Denmark, as like and wear everything I bought. Once we were done shopping, we had to use the restrooms, and found the most elegant, spacious bathroom we had ever been in. We then bought some small souvenirs for our relatives. By this time, we were hungry, and decided to grab some Nutella crepes. They were delicious, but we still had about 30 mins to kill. We then discovered a small store that looked intriguing, so we headed in, and saw Cornell, Olivia, Ben and Liz. It was a fish spa, where small fish eat the dead skin off of your feet. It is banned in the US, so of course we had to do it. It was a very unique experience, certainly worth it if you're given the opportunity. We then regrouped with the OHS squad, and headed back to our hotel for some down time before Tivoli. Tivoli was next, and we were all very excited to go. It's not very often we go to amusement parks, and we basically had it to ourselves, as it was a bit chilly. We got to go on every ride as much as we wanted to, and no line was more than a ten minute wait, including a ride called Vertigo, which we were told is an hour wait in the summer. One ride, called the "golden tower", was very fun to go on, as it was a beautiful day and at the top, before you fell straight down hundreds of feet, you had a clear view of Copenhagen. It's truly a remarkable city. For dinner, I had a quick hamburger. I had no idea what I was getting into, as the burger would soon come back to haunt me, but that's a story for my next entry. After Tivoli, it was very late, so Ryan and I went to bed pretty quickly after getting back to the hotel and packing up. It was on to another day of waking up at 4:00am.