Hey y’all- its me, Erika, writing from the kitchen table of my home stay. I promised a post about Travel Week 1 (my class travels during Travel Week 2 so I got to come up with my travel plans for this week myself. With some help from my mom (thanks!)) so here it is.
Zurich
I started out this adventure with a Friday afternoon flight to Zurich, Switzerland. The hardest part of the travel was just carrying my backpack through the hallways of DIS (sorry to anyone I may have hit with my bag, but there were a good number of us carrying our travel bags with us that day so I was not the only one). Getting to the airport, checking my bag, and going through security were super simple and easy. A bonus was that a classmate and her sister (also a twin!) were on the same flight to Zurich and ended up being only a few rows ahead of me on the plane. It was nice to travel with others to Zurich Central Station—also, if you are reading this, thanks for waiting at the station with me until Elizabeth showed up to meet me. Elizabeth came to meet me at the station (so nice of her!) as I spent the first few days of this break in Sulgen, Germany (a small southern town near where my grandmother grew up) where she has had an internship for the past month or so. The following morning/early afternoon we spent in Zurich before catching the train to Rottweil and heading to Elizabeth’s Airbnb.
Places and things:
- Swiss National Museum
- walked around Altstadt
- Fraumünster Church
- boat ride
Rebecca and Molly 
Old maps! 
A cool stove 
Fashion 
Sunny day and I left my sunglass in Copenhagen 
Water fountain (on your birthday you can pay for a restaurant nearby to have wine come from a smaller fountain so that’s fun) 
More fountains 
Some really big swans came by after this… 
Boat ride!
Germany
For the first part of the break I went to hang out with Elizabeth in Southern Germany where she had been staying for a few weeks. The timing worked out so that I got to experience Fastnacht. The main event was Da-Bach-na-Fahrt in Schramberg with homemade floats going down the river. We also explored the Hohenschramberg ruins, saw Sulgan’s town parade and visited Rottweil.
Schramberg from above 
Gotta love castle ruins 
I mean look at the plants and crumbling stone 
looking at where we have to hike back down to 
The traditional barrel float 
From a far I thought they were dressed as vampires… 
there’s a chant for when people fall in the water 
oops… 
run after your float! 
we were not fans of stick shift 
playing their instruments while falling into the water 
Stockholm, Sweden
Next stop was Stockholm! This was the start of my solo travel portion of the trip. Stockholm was super cool- luckily I was there on a Wednesday when a lot of museums are open until 8pm so I could go to a bunch. Kind of similar to Copenhagen but different, Stockholm was really fun to explore.
Places and things:
- Gamla Stan
- The Royal Palace
- Medieval Museum
- Fotografiska Museum
- Nordiska Museum
- Abba Museum
- Swedish History Museum
Medieval streets 
Fun colors 
From the palace to the water 
Ally ways 
Again, fashion. 
photo museum set up 
taking a break 
best subway stations so far have been in Stockholm 
Look at this ceiling 
Always love a Greek/Roman style statue 
It was cold. 
I learned a lot about ABBA the band 
Meryl 
Medieval cat! 
Stockholm to Helsinki: aboard the Gabriella
Instead of flying I took the over night boat from Stockholm to Helsinki. I got to experience all types of transportation this trip—train, plane, boat! It was an interesting experience to be alone on a cruise ship—eating meals—but I got to read a lot of my book which was nice. It was also a nice break during travel because I could just chill until we docked in Helsinki the next morning.
Helsinki
I was in Helsinki for a very short time (about 24hrs) but visited some cool places. Again, pretty cold, but sunny so okay weather to walk around in. By the end of this trip I had the public transportation apps for 4 cities on my phone, and only got on the wrong tram once! I knew almost nothing about Finland so going to the history museum was very informative and the Helsinki Art Museum was one of my favorite museums I’ve visited in a while.
Places and things:
- The National Museum of Finland
- HAM Helsinki Art Museum
- Helsinki Cathedral
- Senate Square
- Old Market Hall
Senate Square 
Tove Jansson mural
Genderfuck 1900 
Old post cards!
Tallinn
The last stop on my trip was Tallinn, and it is such a cool city. I stayed mostly in the old medieval city—and it snowed/rained so it was kind of gross weather—but I still had a great time. Tallinn is totally a place I want to return to and explore more.
places and things:
- Estonian History Museum- Great Guild Hall
- Town Hall Square
- Monet2Klimt / Helios Hall a multi-sensory Art Exhibition
- Kehrwieder Saiakang Chocolaterie
- Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
- Toompea Castle
- Tall Hermann
- Fotografiska Tallinn
And then my trip was over, well after arriving back in Copenhagen at 7:00 Monday morning though I did have enough time to make it back to my homestay and arrive to class on time. I think that’s all for now. Until my next post!
Erika Leaves America 