Hej Danmark!

So now after 30-something hours of travelling, I am in Denmark!
As the plane taxied down the runway at Brisbane International, the whole thing felt dream-like; and to this moment it still feels like I am in a dream and could wake up back in my room in Australia in the heat at any moment.

After a 9 hour flight I arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, with a group of 6 exchange students that would be continuing on to Denmark. It took a little while and a fair bit of walking to find where we had to go for our connecting flight, as the airport is huge and none of us could read the signs which are mostly in Thai. Purchasing water from a shop in the airport was interesting; it sat in the fridge next to cans of Heineken beer which cost the same price, and I received my change in Thai money, so who knows how much I actually paid for my bottle of water.

It was the middle of the night when we flew out of Thailand, from my window seat on the plane I could see the city lights of Bangkok stretching as far as the horizon. The lights looked beautiful, arranged in a maze of rows of streets and houses, and it made me wonder what was happening down there below the plane; were there monkeys on the streets, was someone having a Hangover 2 style adventure?

The next flight was 13 hours long, and as I discovered there are only so many ways you can sleep in an airplane chair, none of them being very comfortable. As we flew across Asia and Europe, the lights of towns and cities broke up the vast expanses of darkness below, from cities in countries such as India, Kazakhstan, Russia and Sweden. As a blanket of clouds covered the Earth and any visibility, the glows from the cities underneath created bright golden circles on the clouds, it was an incredible sight.

As we descended into Copenhagen in the dark, the lights from the airport lit it up, allowing us to see that snow lined either side of the runway. The Danish people on the plane laughed as all of us Australian exchange students that were excited at the sight of the snow. From the International airport we had to go outside and catch a bus to the domestic airport for our connecting flights. This was our first experience of the Danish cold. We walked out of the doors into the darkness of a Copenhagen winter morning, and were immediately hit by the freezing cold air and the sight of snow on the edges of the roads and paths, nothing like we had experienced before. As we waited at the traffic lights to cross the road, small soft white flecks began to flutter and dance in the air, catching the surrounding light. This was the first time I had ever seen snow fall, I could not have asked for a more perfect welcome to Denmark!

The domestic flight from Copenhagen to Aalborg, let me see a snow-covered Denmark from above, and the ocean that is frozen in parts and covered in ice. I was greeted in the airport by my first host family and counsellor who excitedly waved Australian and Danish flags, holding up a sign with my name on it. Any nerves that I felt about this soon disappeared as I got to meet them all over a hot chocolate and conversation.

On the drive to the town that will be my home for the next year, Viborg, we passed field after field covered in snow, passed cars on the road that had snow and ice stuck to them, and even drove as snow fluttered down around us. I received a very warm welcome to my counsellors house with a traditional Danish lunch, and even tried Salmon which to my surprise I liked.

In the afternoon we went for a walk, where we walked on a frozen lake and got to play in the soft powdery snow that covers everything here! It all looks so beautiful covered in a blanket of white; the houses, paths, trees, cars, everything!