Peter's Site - Copenhagen

Midnatsløbet Frederiksberg 2009

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:05:29 +0200

On Friday the first Frederiksberg night run took place and Rahul and myself participated in the 5km distance. The race track was really nice, leading the runners through the Copenhagen zoo - the first time for me to see it from the inside, although I hadn't much time to look around. But now I think, I will come back there and see it during daylight. Unfortunately the weather was bad and it was raining the whole time, but it was still a fun event. Also my legs slowly stop hurting now ...
The plot shows the distribution of the Men's 5 km results. The red line indicates my time of 30m28s, 10 seconds less than the mean time of the 478 runners.

Update:

Looking at the age vs time scatter plot including the fitted Lowess nonlinear regression line (some outliers removed), my result (red dot) in my age group doesn't look that good anymore.. but still I am happy with it

Night time at the slaughterhouse

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:39:01 +0200

Geht man nichtsahnend zu später Stunde ins Schlachthaus nebenan und siehe da.. hier ist also das Rhino gelandet, das letztes Jahr im Zoo gestorben ist.. hat nen bissel Gewicht verloren

Oh wait.. something is inside..

Holi

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:14:43 +0100

These days the Holi festival is taking place in India and obviously it's really funny... So the Indian guys here couldn't resist to paint our faces with some red colors imported from India. Looks very bloody.. Funny thing: Walking defaced like that alone on the street, people here in CPH will gracefully ignore you -- probably like in the rest of Europe.

Night time at the institute

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:00:00 +0100

What could three PhD students do during night time when they are bored? Right, visit the local collection of formalin-conserved animals. I really think, one of the creatures moved while we didn't look at it..

Erdbeben reißt Blogger aus dem Schlaf

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:48:28 +0100

Heute ~~Nacht~~ am frühen Morgen gab es ein Erdbeben der Stärke 4.7 mit Epizentrum in Südschweden. Auch in Dänemark war es deutlich zu vernehmen und ich wurde aus meinem wohlverdienten Schlaf gerissen. Der Schaden bleibt zumindest in Kopenhagen im überschaubaren Rahmen, ein paar Säcke Reis dürften aber dennoch umgefallen sein.

Danish language collapsed into meaningless guttural sounds

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:10:24 +0100

I am still unsure about learning Danish.

Last post from Copenhagen (this year)

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:58:00 +0200

Today I left rainy Copenhagen to Germany and it's time to write some last words about my time in Denmark. I have been living the last month directly on the KVL campus and had a wonderful time with my two roommates Lizzie (thanx for the cookies) and Rahul (thanx for spicy dishes) and of course Stefan (thanx for playing frisbee). Since a new term at the university started, the one-and-only student bar A-vej opened again and we went there partying every Friday. It's always crowded there, since the beer prices are the lowest in Copenhagen (15DKK a 0,4l beer which is damn cheap).

KVL is a tiny, small, old and lovely ~~university~~ faculty with very friendly and nice people. Students seem to come from everywhere, probably because KVL is a some kind of famous for plant and animal sciences. The picture shows a typical brick building on the campus..

At the last weekend in August Rahul, Lizzie and me made a day-trip to Malmö, Copenhagen's twin on the other side of the Öresund. After a delicious lunch we took a boat tour around the canals of Malmö. Then we visited the castle and eventually the beach. Unfortunately it was quiet chilly, so we didn't spent to much time there. But still Malmö is a very nice city and it's worth a visit, if you need a rest from busy Copenhagen.

Also at the end of August was the day of our department's team building event. Most people from the department went to Roskilde and we boarded two wooden sailing boats and sailed around the Roskilde fjord.

Now I am looking forward to a nice winter in L.E. and plan to return to Copenhagen in spring. Let's see if my X-Blast skills are all gone..

Update 01/10
Skills are not gone, just won the first game since I am back

Non-news

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:59:30 +0200

Just something what I just found in the big pile of cans behind the kitchen door. Apparently whoever drank the last can did not even bother to remove the plastic yoke. He/She must have been in a real hurry.. (-:

Some pics

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:29:01 +0200

Just some pics I took in the last weeks.

First one is the name of a barbershop at Nørrebrogade.

The next is a warning sign at the Føtex supermarket.

And finally we have a speed limit sign also at Nørrebrogade. Cyclists should not exceed 20 km/h during working hours.

Früh übt sich.. / Toys for sysadmin's kids

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:24:16 +0200

Found this today at the Magasin warehouse in Copenhagen. The idea of the game is to help the E-Mail Officer (EMO) fight viruses in the computer network. Note that it is for children from the age of 3! It clearly requires a special kind of parents.. (-:

Too much discount?

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:54:30 +0200

I my first post about Cph, i wrote about the discount you get at the Føtex supermarket for buying two ore more pieces of a kind. Today at the bakery inside Føtex I wanted to buy 4 bread rolls, but the salesgirl told me it would be more expensive than buying six, because if you buy six, you get a discount. It took me not long to accept her offer.. Someone encoutered such things in Germany?

Update 23/06:
Today, the discount mania reached new heights: 1 piece of ice cream for 15,00 DKK and 3 pieces together for just 10,00 DKK! I took three. (-:

First post from Copenhagen

nospam@example.com (Peter) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:21:39 +0200

Since I am in Copenhagen some days now, it's obviously time to write something.

After some ten hour trip from Leipzig (the train got broken in Lübeck) I finally arrived at my room at the student residence hall. My room isn't that big (considering the price), but it's enough for my decent demands. I have my own small kitchen including a fridge and a small bathroom. Not to forget free internet and access to laundry. Pictures will come later, I managed to mess my room up pretty fast (-:.

Of course, the first thing for me to do was buying some food. After a quick walk around, I encountered both Aldi and Netto, but I finally went to the Føtex supermarket. It compares well to a standard supermarket in Germany, except of the higher prices especially for beer. One of the things I haven't seen for a long time: beer cans. Yes, that's right. ~~And you don't have to return them.~~ A closer look at the cans revealed that they indeed have a deposit of 1 DKK. Another nice thing about Føtex are the built in discounts when buying two pieces of a product instead of one.

The place where I work is the Faculty of Live Sciences of Kopenhagen's University. Until 1st Jan. 2007 it was an independent university named Den Kongelige Veterinær- og Landbohøjskole (KVL). It has a very nice campus with an own botanic garden, a paddock and slaughterhouses. Right. Slaugtherhouses. A lot of animals, especially dogs and pigs, are dissected by the students.

The picture shows the main building of the faculty:

A view from inside the campus:

Getting around

One of the things that surprised me with Cph is the big amount of cyclists. And Cph provides a very good infrastructure to them, nearly every road has an bicycle lane and there are even some smaller streets for cyclists only. Thus my decision to get a bike felt already on the first day. Since there are so many bikes in the streets, a considerable amount regularly gets lost or is abandoned. These bikes are collected by the police and are sold at auctions nearly every week. That's where I got my bike from.

And here it is. Not the newest model, but it does its job quite well. The hammer felt at 350 DKK.

Sightseeing

Of course, Copenhagen is one of the tourist's favorites while visiting Denmark. First of all, it's a really big city although it hasn't that much residents. I still miss some pictures, e.g. of the little mermaid, Copenhagen's landmark.

This is the main entrance to the Tivoli, one of the oldest theme parks in the world. Indeed it looks a little bit battered inside, but when it's dark and all the thousands of lights turn on, it looks pretty nice.

The next picture shows a view of the Radhusplads (city hall square). The building shown is not the city hall.

And finally, we have the Amalienborg, where the queen of Denmark resides. The place consists of four palaces surrounding a square.

Some demonstrations

During the last days, I even encountered some small Anti-G8 demonstrations. Most of the protestors are pretty young and probably most of them come from Christiania, which is an partly self-governing neighbourhood in Christianshavn.