Submitted by Zachary Shulman on the 2019 fall semester DIS program in Copenhagen, Denmark…
This past week, I had the pleasure of taking a drive with my host father and housemate around the entire nation of Denmark. Being a small state in the north of Europe, Denmark can more or less be traversed within 24 hours, sticking mainly to the highways. We left from our town of Køge shortly before 6:00am, crossed over Denmark’s 3rd largest island separating Jylannd (the large peninsula connected to Germany) and Zealand (the 2nd largest island closest to Sweden, where Copenhagen is located). We stopped along the way to meet members of my host father’s extended family including his sisters, mother, and middle son. While he had dinner with his family, his middle son drove us to Skagen, the northern point of Denmark where the North Sea meets the Baltic Sea. The wind and hail whipped our faces and made the journey to the tip rigorous, but it was worth it to know that we stepped foot at the northernmost point of the entire country.
After joining my host father once again, we parted from the family and prepared for a long drive south. Three hours later, passports in hand, we crossed the Danish-German border and entered Germany. This trip constituted my third trip to Germany this semester, three times more than I anticipated. We stopped at a grocery store to buy some food and drinks tax-free and made our way back to Køge. We arrived a mere seven minutes before midnight, meaning we had squeezed our traversal of Denmark into a single calendar day. Not only that, but we had an ample amount of time to continue bonding with our host father and saw parts of Denmark most tourists will never get to see.
As I write this, I realize that I have less than five weeks left in this semester. This road trip made me so much more intimate with the country, and I anticipate it will only make the eventual departure even more difficult. I have made a few excursions outside of Denmark so far, and they have been truly wonderful experiences. I felt, however, that calming feeling of restoration and comfort when I finally returned from those trips. Denmark has left a major impression on my development as a person, and as I prepare for my last four blog posts, I will try to highlight all of the ways that the country as influenced my identity and ideas.
