Sustainable Samsø

Welcome to Samsø

Last weekend I joined a group of DIS students for the Sustainable Samsø study tour. It involved two days and two nights of biking, hiking and learning about sustainability on the island.


Samsø Island is a small island in Denmark. It used to be an island of purely farmers but in the last decade younger generations had started to leave the island and as the farming industry became more consolidated, these small island farms started to go out of business. There were few employment opportunities for people and the island was left with two options: either it would die out and no longer be inhabited or find a way to maintain jobs on the island and incentives for people to stay. In the late nineties the Danish government issued a proposal: A competition between all of Denmark’s islands to come up with a plan revolving around sustainability. Whichever island had the best plan would be granted a large sum of government money to see the plan through.

Soren Hermansen, a Samsø native, drew up the plan, which ultimately won the government grant. Since then the island has carried out his vision. He brought solar and wind power as well as centralized heating plants to the island, which now produces 10% more clean electricity than it consumes. The island is now an international showcase demonstrating the possibilities of sustainable living. The island is also a very popular summer vacation destination, acting much like Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket, with beautiful landscapes and charming sea towns.

The Energy Academy

After an hour and a half long train ride followed by a two-hour ferry ride we made it to the island and walked to our hostel that Friday night. We woke on Saturday to a misty and very foggy morning. We nonetheless hopped on our bikes at 8 AM and were off on our morning tour. We rode our bikes through the winding dirt roads and passed the most adorable houses I have ever seen, stopping occasionally to learn a bit about the places we were passing. Our first main stop was the Energy Academy, where we heard a presentation about the history of the island and how it functions now. We then biked to Brundy-Ballen Straw District Heating Plant, which uses wheat and rye straw from the island. It consumes 1,200 tons of straw each year and has an output of 1.6 MW. 

Lunch in the Brundy-Ballen Straw District Heating Plant

Next we visited our professor’s friend, Jørgen, a local dairy farmer. We got to pet his cows and see all the cute baby ones as well.

Can we get one, Daddy, pretty please?? 

Everyone on the island has at least a small share in the windmills on it and this farmer had his very own. He took us out to the middle of his fields where the windmill was. At this point the weather had improved to a beautiful sunny day. We approached the turbine awed by the enormous size of it and surprised by the noise that it made. We were all very excited to see it, when to our greatest delight the farmer asked us to join him up to the top! We climbed up in groups and got to enjoy the view from the top of the wind turbine – INCREDIBLE!

We biked back to the hostel, all pretty tired, but not tired enough to resist jumping on the huge bouncy trampoline thing the hostel had. Jumping was followed by dinner and a campfire. Instead of roasting marshmallows and S’mores in Denmark, though, they make “snøbrod”. A snøbrod is basically just a baked roll. What you do is take a long stick and wrap uncooked dough around the tip of it. You then bake the roll over the fire (which takes much longer than a marshmallow), and top it off with some ketchup. I have to say, we were all much bigger fans of the traditional American S’more. 

The next morning we were up early and loaded our backpacks onto the bus, which drove us to a woodchip heating plant and solar panel field. We learned how both of these power generators worked and then were back on the bus to get to our hiking destination in the Nordby Hills. The hike was only an hour and was hardly very difficult (I was hoping for something a little more physically demanding), but offered some gorgeous views of the towns and the ocean.

Afterwards we got to experience the largest labyrinth in the world. It was an old abandoned Christmas tree farm and is now a maze covering six hectares of land with 5.5 km of paths. We went off in groups answering the maze’s questions and eventually found our way out after a solid hour. We then drove to the island’s most popular town, walked around and ate lunch at the local brewery, the Samsø Bryghus, where everything is made with only local ingredients from the island. The town was incredibly adorable. It was like Martha’s Vineyard but less industrialized and with thatched roofs.

We then boarded the ferry and said farewell to Samsø Island. 

Edinburgh

Shooting from Edinburgh Castle at One o'clock

Scotland was beautiful! I definitely could have studied abroad here and been very happy. I stayed right in downtown Edinburgh. Since getting there so early in the morning I was able to explore the quaint city for a bit before heading to Edinburgh Castle. Every other shop was selling kilts, cashmere, lambs wool and rugby shirts; I was in my element. I almost bought everything I saw. And with the reduced prices in the off-season, it was hard to resist. 

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle was very cool and I learned a lot of Scotland’s history through the many military museums and exhibitions I walked through. Their history involved a lot more compliance with the English. There were a couple of rebellions here and there but for the most part, almost all the exhibits I saw were about the Scottish fighting for the Brits and the Scottish pride they felt for their contributions to the English’s wars. It was very interesting and so different from the attitudes towards the Brits I felt from the Irish. Anyways, there has been a royal castle here since the 12^th century has always been an important fortress for the Kingdom of Scotland. I walked through the room where King James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots, was born in 1566.

I was told that I also had to visit the Elephant House Café, where J.K. Rowling wrote most of the Harry Potter books. I enjoyed an Elephant House shortbread and fresh tea there before moving on to Calton Hill, where I saw the National Monument, the Nelson Monument (climbed all 170 steps up the tower!) and the Dugald Stewart Monument. On the way I passed the Scottish Parliament as well as the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the Queen of England occasionally resides.  I can’t put into words the beauty of Edinburgh and all the views I saw. I took a billion pictures and I wish I could share them all with you here …but I will when I get home, so get ready!!

Waverly Station with Edinburgh Castle in the background from Calton Hill

Today I took a much needed sleep in. I felt I hadn’t slept in weeks – probably because I hadn’t. I was, however, hiking up King Arthur’s Seat by eleven and experienced the spectacular views it had to offer the whole way up. Daddy, you would be dying in Scotland with your camera. I don’t think you would ever move your eye from the viewfinder. The way the sun played on the cliffs and the city below with the ocean and more islands in the background… ah I can’t put it into words, other than I want to go back and go hiking throughout all of Scotland. There also happened to be a half marathon going on today, where racers were running outside my hotel door and the finish was just below the hike’s starting point. It was fun to experience that as well but it made me a little nostalgic missing racing and all.

The Palace of Holyrood, where the Queen resides on her visits 

King Arthur's Seat from Calton Hill

...but Copenhagen welcomes me back
with a beautiful sunset

I love Edinburgh and this is how I left it,

I’m now in the Edinburgh Airport, without wireless, so I will have to post all of these when I get back to Copenhagen tonight. Then back to classes at 8:30 tomorrow morning! Whoof…. It’s been a long and tiring two weeks, but absolutely amazing and totally worth it. Talk to you back in the Cope! 

Dublin

The real Trinity College... tell Lexi

Dublin: I stayed in the airport hotel since the hostel booking was messed up, but I was able to meet up with my friends Friday morning for our four hour walking tour… again completely free (plus tip of course) – but these tours are great! We learned pretty much the entire history of Ireland: the Irish rebel against the British, and the British defeat them, the Irish rebel, the British defeat them, the Irish rebel, and the British defeat them. Are you starting to get the picture? The Irish officially gained their independence from Britain in 1922 (well basically) and are now (pretty much) a free country. We also caught on, however, that the Irish are not very good at ruling themselves and like to drink lots of beer. Nor are they good at handling money, so the country is usually in a state of poverty and has been for most of its history. Our tour guide then took us to a great pub for lunch. I got the classic fish ‘n’ chips. We then walked to the Guinness Storehouse, took a tour of the brewery and enjoyed our free beers. I coincidently ran into another friend of mine from DIS there as well! DIS kids were all over Europe these past two weeks.

As we walked out of the Storehouse we saw a bunch of horse drawn buggies lined up across the street. We thought to ourselves, “perfect!” So we all jumped in the buggy and took it back to my friends’ hostel. We waved to everyone and got some good laughs.

 

We were exhausted so decided to rest for an hour or two and then headed to dinner at the Porterhouse Pub at Temple Bar – the famous street in Dublin. We arrived around 8:45 and found it was packed with lots of already drunk people. Coming from Barcelona, we were not used to this. In Barcelona the usual evening schedule goes like this: Sit down for dinner around 9:30 - 10and enjoy a drink or two with your meal, go back to your place around 11-12 for more drinks, then go to the clubs around 1:30 – 2, get home around 6. I have to say I couldn’t handle the second half of this, but I was getting used to eating around 9 or 10, so when we showed up at the pub and they almost denied us dinner because we got there at 8:45 I was not pleased. We did find a table, however, and had some great pub food and beer samples. I then headed back to my hotel around 11 to get some sleep before my 8 AM flight to Scotland. 

Barcelona

I had an amazing birthday. Definitely the best twenty-first birthday I could have asked for. The hotel I stayed in that first night in Barcelona was perfect. I had a great morning birthday workout in their gym followed by the biggest and most delicious buffet breakfast. I had eggs, roasted veggies, waffles, fruit, yogurt, toast, fresh OJ, coffee and more. I took the free hotel shuttle into the city of Barcelona around five and walked about a half mile to my hostel, the Sant Jordi Mambo Tango Hostel. We were all a little skeptical of whether a place with that name actually existed. It did! I checked into our mixed gender eight-person room and met a few of the other people Kat and I were to share bunks with. There was a Finnish man, a Portuguese grad student, an older Asian, and a couple of others, all men, which was weird but they were nice and quiet at least. We were lucky enough to have one other girl in the room, a recent graduate who was travelling through Europe for six weeks.

My 21st birthday!

Christopher Columbus

Kat arrived shortly after and we met up with my friend, Ryan, from DIS and a couple of his friends from home, one of whom is living and studying in Barcelona. We all went out to dinner and had lobster paella. We then went to the friend’s apartment and then to a club downtown for my big twenty-first. It was a lot of fun and couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. Thanks for making it so special everyone!

My favorite park in Barcelona

The next day Kat and I were up early. We hit the beach, running into our friend Nikita from DIS along the way. She joined us for the rest of the day. The beach was great but the solicitors were awful! Every five seconds someone would be in your face trying to sell you beer, mojitos, towels, sunglasses, massages, henna tattoos and more. The palm trees and Mediterranean were beautiful but I hated being constantly attacked by those people. Restaurants were like that too. Maitre d' would wait outside and practically grab you off the street to eat at their restaurant. That’s one reason I was very happy to leave Barcelona.

Triumphal Arch

After the beach, we walked to this gorgeous park. It was one of my favorite places in the city. From there we walked to the Triumphal Arch before meandering back to our hostel. That night Nikita, Kat and I went to dinner on the waterfront. It was the worst food, though, and the waiter wouldn’t let me order what I wanted and he was super pushy and tried to serve us more expensive things that we didn’t want. He was awful. I found that most restaurants in Barcelona have no concept of service.

We attended mass on Easter Sunday

On Monday, Kat and I enjoyed a free two and half hour walking tour of the Gothic District. We learned so much and took some great photos. Our tour was followed by a delicious tapas lunch. Tapas are huge in Barcelona and are basically lots of little plates of appetizers that you share. Afterwards, we hiked up to the 1992 Olympic sight. We saw the torch, the stadiums and all the venues. We then continued walking through beautiful gardens and up this huge mountain. At the top was an old fort from the seventeenth century, Montjuic Castle. It was used as a defense mechanism and was in use through a lot of the 20^th century too. It played a big part in the Spanish Civil War and many Fascist rebels were murdered here.  It is on a cliff overlooking the water so we had some gorgeous views of the water and city. Hannah and Stephanie arrived from Copenhagen that night and we all went out to eat with our friend, Nicole, from the hostel, Nikita and her friends from U Maryland.

 

Hannah, Stephanie, Kat and I went on the Gaudi walking tour on Tuesday. What a crazy architect! His designs were amazing. The first two pictures are of his houses, the next two are of the church, Sagrada Familia, and the last two are in Park Guell. I want to live in one of those houses in the park.

 

Stephanie, Kat, Hannah and I

I want to live in one of these houses - It's like Disney World's Blizzard Beach! 

Kat left Wednesday morning for Madrid and the rest of us moved to our new hostel in the nicer parts of Barcelona. Not only were we surrounded by Valentino, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, but the hostel looked like a palace. It was newly renovated and absolutely gorgeous. We had an entire room to ourselves and I even got to sleep in a double size bed! Hannah and I spent the rest of the day at the beach and for my last night in Barcelona, we had an amazing dinner of tapas, followed by my favorite… McDonalds McFlurry.


Thursday night I met up with Nikita and her friends from Maryland and the five of us flew to Dublin, Ireland. We landed at 12:15 AM. The rest will come in the next post!