FCK Football game, afternoon in Kongens Have and PRAGUE!

This blog entry unfortunately has to be short and sweet because I am jetting off to Russia in the morning, but I wanted to document a few goings on of the past few weeks before I head off and have a bunch more new adventures.

A few Sundays ago, I got to go to my first Danish football (what we call soccer in the states) game! The Danes are big football fans.  There are several teams throughout Denmark but the Copenhagen team, which was formed in 1992 as a merger of two other former teams, is FCK, which stands for the football club of Kobenhavn.  The stadium is in Osterbro, an easy 10 minute walk from the train station.  Any DIS student in a Danish class was entitled to a ticket, this being one of our field studies into Danish culture, so there was an entire section filled with DIS students.  Our professor had taught us the FCK fight song in our class before the match and we were ready with the lyrics when it was time to sing! Although I don’t remember the whole thing, there is something about leaving one’s girlfriend on Sunday to instead go to the game, and it ends in a catchy chorus of “jeg elsker FCK”, which means I love FCK.  At first Bronby, the rival team, was winning, but in the second half FCK came back to triumph 3-1! It was really fun eating our hotdogs and cheering around with the Danes.  There are even blue and white streamers put on every chair before the game which are thrown right before the game is about to start. Go FCK!

Two fellow FCK fans cheering at the stadium

 

The week after the football match marked the first week of really nice weather in Copenhagen and we were all itching to get outside.  After Danish Politics one Tuesday a few friends and I were to Kongens Have, the King’s Gardens that surround Rosenborg Slot.  We just sat and talked, drunk beer and enjoyed the weather but it was so beautiful out and it felt so Danish to relaxedly sit and soak in Copenhagen.

Spending an afternoon in Kongens Have

 

The weekend of March 25^th DIS had a long weekend with no classes on Friday, so Emma, Emilia and I took a trip to Prague! Unfortunately I had been sick with a really bad cold in the weeks leading up to our trip, and I continued to be a bit under the weather throughout.  Nonetheless, Prague is an absolutely beautiful city and I really enjoyed our time there.  We flew in Friday morning and made our way to our hostel.  Except for near death encounter with a tram (turns out when they’re cruising down those little tracks they can’t really stop for you if you are in the middle of the road), the public transportation to the hostel was really easy.  We started out our time with a walking tour of the city, which took us through the old town square, the Jewish quarter and the Wensalas square.  The old town square is really something to take in, as you look in every direction and there is another beautifully designed, intricately detailed building.  The famous astronomical clock is also located in the old town square.  The Jewish quarter is also really interesting, Prague having been home to quite a large Jewish population before the holocaust.  Walking all around Prague you are bombarded with souvenir shops and other businesses trying to attract tourists.  Although it is hard to tell who is from where in a big city, we heard Italian, Spanish, English, even some Danish, and many other languages we couldn’t identify.  It was hard to get a sense of Czech culture because everything was so touristy, but we did try a plate of beef goulash with bread dumplings and potatoes prepared to quite strange texture, which seems to be quite a staple of Czech cuisine, at least the beef goulash part.

The Old Town Square in Prague

 

Our second day in Prague we saw the newer part of the city, including the famous Prague Cathedral and Castle.  Many stairs up but it is quite a large complex when you get up there.  The whole complex is so large we were joking that it was hard to decide whether we had actually seen the Prague Castle because there were many beautiful buildings and spires but not one thing we were sure was it.  We finally concluded that the whole grounds must be the castle.  We also walked across the Charles bridge to get to the castle. The bridge is full of merchants and artists selling their crafts and we each bought ourselves a pair of earrings.  I would write more about Prague if I had time, but my favorite thing was Prague’s natural beautiful and the sheer number of beautiful buildings, winding streets and vast squares.  The beautiful old medieval city that one associates with Europe – the entire thing looked like that.  I was lucky to have incredible travel companions, and the three of us had a great time, Prague is definitely a city with a visit.

Prague Castle