samsø: energy island

Last night, I returned from an unexpectedly awesome weekend with the DIS adventure bike trip to Samsø. Here's a little background information on this incredible island:

I think this explains the island much better than I could. If you ask Danes about the island, they only know Samsø as the potato island; many don't realize the incredible feat the island has accomplished in the last 14 years. Over the weekend, our group visited most of the places highlighted in the video. It's so incredible that one man, Soren Hermansen, was able to spearhead such a colossal movement in making the island completely sustainable and carbon-neutral.

Soren Hermansen was actually named one of the Time Magazine "Heroes of the Environment" in 2008. Here's the article for those of y'all interested in sustainability:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_1841782_1841789,00.html

Bright and early Saturday morning, we began our 20 mile bike ride through the island.

Our first stop was the Samsø Energy Academy. This is where all the research accomplished during the project was accumulated. Researchers from Denmark and beyond come here to conduct research in specific energy projects in the academy. It also serves as a showroom for energy stakeholders and tourists like us to demonstrate how Samsø transformed into a 100% self-sufficient island in just 10 years.

a picture from the energy academy

Our next stop was a dairy farm! I realized that either I love cows much more than I thought I did or I'm seriously missing Rusk (my eating house back at Davidson).

Ru$k love

a hairy bull! It looks like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book. 

This is where we ate lunch! The straw burnt here provides energy to heat many of the houses in Samsø.

This picture is my precarious attempt to capture the bike ride from the bicycle itself.

Not only did we get to walk up super close to this wind turbine, but we had the opportunity to go inside and climb to the top!

from the top of the windmill.

the rest of the group down below.

Back at the hostel, we found a huge

Back at the hostel, about 15 of us played on that huge colorful trampoline. It was pure lykkelig. 

There were three pieces missing from the chess set (one of which happened to be a knight) so we could have a legitimate game of wizard's chess. We were unbelievably excited.

side note: Pottermore officially placed me in Hufflepuff! For some reason, when I tried bragging about my placement in the most loyal house of them all, everyone this weekend made fun of me.. whatevs. I'm proud to be in the house with the most compassionate, friendly people of all. We're also particularly good finders, if that counts for anything. 

That night, we roasted dough over a fire and made some excellent bread. 

The next morning, we went on a hike around the beachy area of Samsø.

Next, we went to Labyrinten, the world's largest permanent tree maze according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

This is Amy! She's in my core class, but because our class is pretty huge we've never had the opportunity to really talk.

After we found our way out of the maze, we went to a quaint little town that seriously belonged in a fairy tale. We all thought we had either gone about 150 years back in time or we had found ourselves in Disney World.

I think most of us decided we wanted to move there. As if this town weren't cool enough, we also went to a brewery where they serve locally produced food and beer, both of which were excellent.

the first of three plates. fantastic organic food.

me, Mac (Blake's (new friend from France!) friend studying in Copenhagen!), and Amy on the ferry back home to Sjælland. 

bouncing around europe, part 2

Well, I was waiting on Ian to upload his pictures of Greece since I'm pretty sure his will be far superior to mine, but he doesn't seem to be uploading them anytime soon.. plus, I have a 7 page research paper and a presentation due on Friday morning (neither of which I've begun) and I'm itching to procrastinate.

Getting to Greece turned out to be much more stressful than I had anticipated. The original plan was to leave Prague, then have an hour layover in Paris, then arrive in Athens around 8pm Thursday night (the 6th of April). Due to some really stupid booking errors on my part, I discovered that I didn't actually have a ticket. I was told that my only option to get to Greece was to purchase a new ticket worth approximately $3,000.

This is when I began to freak out.

I ignored the fact that it wasn't even 6 in the morning back home and called my mom, crying pretty hysterically. Props to my mom who, even in an early morning haze, figured out the solution within 3 minutes of my call. I made my flight to Paris only to find that the Air France people didn't like the solution they came up with in Prague to get me on the flight. They again told me I had to purchase a new ticket and were much less willing to help me out than the nice Czech people were. Commence the second freak out.

After spending an hour speaking with Delta in the US (not excited to see that phone bill) I finally booked a new flight... departing 16 hours later. fun fact: the Charles de Gaulle does not have very comfortable floors. sleeping on them is not recommended. avoid if possible. They do, however, have a Starbucks. Incidentally, I set up camp right next door. Guess who was the first person in line when it opened at 5 am.

Anyway, I finally made it to Greece, although my luggage did not. A lot of people commented during the Czech Trek that they were impressed that I was traveling for 2 weeks with only a smallish backpack, but I ended up living out of a purse for 8 days instead.

Athens is a pretty beautiful city... and SO WARM!

photo cred for the last two pictures goes to...

Ashley Parker! That's right- I found Ashley, Quincy, and Keith hanging out on the Acropolis! whadda coincidence!

^the group for the day, minus Ashley. We explored Athens for a while, then went back to their hostel to cook a delicious dinner which somehow included about 3 courses. Needless to say, it was an excellent meal. After some more lykkelig times, Ian and I eventually had to head on our way. 

The next day, at QAK's suggestion, we decided to take a ferry to a small island called Paros in the Cyclades. We were informed that it would be approximately 4.5 hours. After only 3.5 hours, we were docking; I thought we had made excellent time. more on this later.

We get off the ferry and immediately begin our search for a hostel. The way in which you acquire shelter on a Greek island is an undoubtedly sketchy process. An old Greek man began waving to us  soon after we had disembarked, asking if we needed a place to stay. He then led us away from the dock and to his car, where we climbed instead and allowed him to drive us to his hostel. It was sketch for sure, but apparently this is how it works on the islands. 

As beautiful as the island was, we noticed something odd.. the maps at the hostel weren't of Paros! We had gotten off a stop too early and ended up on an even tinier island called Syros. 

Even though we weren't on the island we had intended to go to, it's tough to be too upset about anything when you're on a Greek island.

fun fact- cats are EVERYWHERE in Greece. Ian and I happened to become friends with this one, and he followed us around for a while. 

 My first ever gryos. It was pretty fantastic! 

Bright and early the next morning, we hopped on a ferry to get to Paros, our first intended destination. another fun fact: Greece isn't always bright and shiny. It rains. It's windy. and when you don't have a jacket, it can get cold. 

Ian and I stayed in Francisco's, the hostel that Quincy, Ashley, and Keith also stayed in! I loved the man who ran the hostel- he took pity on my sad, jacketless self and actually lent me his jacket for the two days we were in Paros! Honestly, I don't think I would've enjoyed Paros half as much as I did had I not had that jacket. I mean, it was no Copenhagen (where it actually snowed last week...), but it was far colder than I had expected.

Again though, it's hard to be too upset about anything, when you're surrounded by the unparalleled beauty of a Greek island.

The next day was considerably more beautiful.. and warmer! We each did quite a bit of exploring in the morning and in the afternoon set off to find a cave because a map of the island told us that there was one that wasn't too far away. 

I made this picture extra large because if you look super closely towards the top right, you can see a bright blue figure descending down the rock.. that's Ian. just to provide a bit of perspective. He was attempting to reach that cave on the left side of the picture, but unfortunately there was no existing path. He found a less perilous route somewhere else and explored down there for a while. 

Because the weather wasn't exactly suitable for the beach (even on the nicer day, it was still chilly), we had several climbing adventures instead, as the above picture illustrates. I think I actually had more fun scaling cliffs than I would have had sitting on a beach.  

We left Paros the next day and headed back to Athens, where I finally picked up my backpack! lesson I learned: clean clothes really are the best. 

view of the acropolis from the roof of the hostel. 

sunset from the hostel.

The next day, we packed up (I was super excited for this because it meant I had something to pack up), and headed to Venice, Italy for a whole 26 hours! 

My touristy picture of a calzone.. it was excellent.

#awkwardsoloshot... 

Italian lasagna.. nothing compares.

The gelato wasn't too bad either.

Venetian masks are truly incredible. They're all hand-crafted, so each one is totally unique. 

Our hostel in Venice was a bit sketchy, but I guess it was what I signed up for.. this hostel was the last thing I booked for the break and I was overwhelmed by how much I had already spent. I decided to book the absolute cheapest place I could find, which happened to be a campsite about 25 minutes by bus outside of the city. We had beds (a total splurge- another five dollars), and three super heavy blankets, but it was still one of the coldest nights of my life. Ian made fun of me because I had wrapped myself up like a cocoon and looked pretty silly, but I ended up sick the next (and final) day. I had about half a loaf of focaccia bread, a quarter of a plate of tortellini, and about 6 bottles of water for the whole day (although drinking that much really isn't that out of the ordinary for me). 

So Saturday night, we made finally made it back to Copenhagen! It was a pretty excellent two weeks, to say the least. I guess now that I'm finished with this post I have to start my project and 7 page research paper due tomorrow... wish me luck. 

hej hej!