We didn't see Ribe in the daylight until the final day of the study tour

This past weekend I went on a short study tour to Ribe with a group of 24 other ECH (European Culture & History) students. Little did we know that there would be no studying, and Ribe was only one of the places we would be visiting.

Our journey began with a bus ride across Zealand which amounted to the entire bus falling asleep. On reaching the Great Belt Bridge, we were awakened by our tour leader so that she could explain how very monumental this bridge's construction had been. The bridge links Zealand (where CPH is located) and the island of Funen which until its building meant people needed to take an infrequent ferry to move across Denmark. On Funen we visited Egeskov Castle and Park which has a lot of cool museums and a bird's eye sky walk! Castles in Denmark seem to be smaller than the castles I've been to in France but they are still really amazing to visit.

For those of us who didn't have giant ice creams at the castle, we went to Fåborg, which is an old merchant town, to get some lunch. After this excursion, we to Snoghøj Højskole in Fredericia which is right on the eastern edge of Jutland near Funen. A højskole, or folk high school, is a place where students can continue their education but in a non-formal fashion. There are no tests, no real requirements and you live in a community learning environment. The goal of these schools is to give students and young people an opportunity to sort themselves out and what they want to do with their lives before going to university or making a final decision. It seems like a really great idea to have this chance for reflection and to try out what you think you may want to do before committing completely. This school had a focus on drama, music and film which meant much of their time was spent on perfecting music or editing movie clips. After dinner which we ate in a community cafeteria type fashion, two of the students performed for everyone. We all were really reluctant to go but we needed to get to our hostel in Ribe before check in closed!

The "hostel" in Ribe was amazing and put hotels I've stayed in to shame. The four of us had our own kitchen, living room, bathroom, balcony and there were 2 bedrooms. After checking out our rooms/houses, some of us ventured into Ribe to have a look around. It was a pretty small town but very cute and of course historic.

The next day we went to the island Mandø. This involved taking a tractor bus across the water. It was cold. It was windy. It involved us all huddling together for warmth. We bonded, lets just say. Here we were able to rent bikes-- via putting some money in woman's mailbox. In case you weren't aware, the Danes tend to work on an honor system. We biked around the island and visited the church and the beach. Even though the weather was dreary it was a lot of fun and my biking skills are improving! We had lunch at the Inn and were able to try pickled herring. I'm not really a fan of it but I've had worse things in my life....

At this point the group started to get a bit tired but we had two more places to visit. First was Møgeltønder which involves a single main street and the crown prince's palace (which we couldn't go in) and second was Tønder which is famous for lace. After wandering these two places a bit we were taken back to Ribe for dinner on our own and then to meet up again for the Night Watchman tour. My friends and I went to Pinocchio's, an Italian restaurant, because it seemed to be fate as this was also the name of our bus driver. Quick back story on him-- he was formally a carnival worker (which is where he picked up the name Pinocchio), he tried to get our tour leader to tell us jokes during the ride but she claimed they were too rude, and he's married to a women who is 28. He is over 60 and his oldest daughter (of 5 children) is older then his current wife. Go figure. But anyway he was tons of fun and gave us a free beer/soda later. Once we finished eating, it was clearly time to take advantage of the legal drinking age and bought some drinks. After the Night Watchmen tour we ended up at the bar Peppers for some drinks with our tour leader (first round's on DIS!) and hung out with a few local Danes, who don't really come out until after midnight by the way.

The third and final day we finally saw Ribe in the daylight! Here we were given a historical tour of the town which is actually the oldest town in Denmark and was founded in the Viking age. It's still really bizarre to me to hear how old things really are and that we are standing on a road or in a building that's been around longer then the USA has even existed. We ended out tour by climbing up the cathedral tower and doing a shot of Gammel Dansk (note: i suggest avoiding this).

Overall the tour was SO much fun and it was really great to see a different side of Denmark. While I still can't distinguish a Copenhagen accent from a Jutland accent, it's obvious how different the country can be and that there are a lot of things to see and do that exist outside the capital. It's too bad we can't have study tours every weekend!