Copenhagen

 Kronborg Castle

 The Viking - Denmark's version of King Arthur

 Eating dinner in Kronborg Castle

 View from my hotel room

 Walking around the pedestrian area of Copenhagen

BUSINESS TRIP TO COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

A few months ago, my manager nominated me to be one of two US representatives to go to a training near our global headquarters in Copenhagen.    I found out in August that I was chosen to go along with one of my colleagues in our US headquarters in Princeton, NJ.   I was both nervous and excited about the trip, especially since my stomach issues have not completely gone away.   I have no doubt that the anxiety leading up to the trip was causing some of the issues to linger and so I was just ready for the trip to be over...kind of sad since it was a good opportunity for me.  

Last Monday, I made the long trip to Copenhagen via a stop at Washington Dulles airport.   I had some stomach issues on the way there so I was not feeling the greatest upon arrival.   Add that to the 7 hour time difference and it took me a little while to adjust.    All I can say is thank goodness I have medication now to get me through it!   I flew alone and then met my colleague at the Copenhagen airport.   The meeting was in a small area an hour north of Copenhagen on the coast--you can look across and see the shores of Sweden.   We stayed in a small hotel that is similar to an older bed and breakfast in the US---as a result, the bathrooms were not what we are accustomed to here in the US.   I wish I would have taken a picture of how small they were and how the shower was basically just a shower head in the middle of the room.   There were about 20 of us total there.    Two of us from the US and then one person each from Turkey, Spain, France, Japan, Italy, China, South Korea, South Africa, and Russia were all there along with about 4 people from our Denmark headquarters.    We were in meetings all day to learn the training we had been sent to learn...and it will be our job to distribute the training learned to all of our respective departments.  

The first night there, I was too tired to do anything after dinner so I basically went straight to sleep.   The second night, they had set up an excursion to Kronborg Castle, which is the castle that Shakespeare based Hamlet upon.   It was pretty cool to see something that was built in the 1500's and that carried so much history.   We had dinner in one of the rooms and really got to talk to each other.  I enjoyed getting to know everyone from the different countries and was just in amazement how well they all spoke English considering all of the other languages they knew.   We had fun talking about the differences between our countries and I think we all learned a lot from each other.   I can't say that I enjoyed the food while I was there....I basically ate bread the whole time.   The Danes eat a lot of really fishy fish, beets, weird cheeses, pickled stuff, and things I had never heard of before.   I am a picky eater anyway and I certainly didn't want to risk getting sick so I stuck to something safe.  

On Thursday afternoon, our meeting was over so my colleague and I went to Copenhagen to stay the night at the Marriott before leaving to go back to the US on Friday.   My manager was there with another US colleague attending a different meeting so the four of us went for a two hour walk around the city.   It gets dark there around 4:30PM so most of my pictures were taken after dark unfortunately.   We all wanted to find a restaurant with some non-Danish food and we came upon a "steak" place that was pretty decent.   It was amazing to see how many people sit outside to eat even though it is 40 degrees outside.   Most of the restaurants have a blanket folded over each chair so that you can use it if you choose to sit outside.   I was so cold the whole time but we were told that highs in the low 40s was actually very warm for November in Denmark.   Everyone there rides a bicycle even when it is snowing outside...they are very much believers in getting exercise and being very efficient.    I appreciate the efficiency of everything there but I was so ready to get back to the US!  

I got back on Friday night and of course I picked up a cold on my way home.   I have spent the weekend trying to get back adjusted to the US time and resting to get over this cold.    I am so happy to be home but I did appreciate the opportunity I was given to learn from all of my fellow meeting attendees.    It's pretty cool how different the world is.   :)