Week 15- Cultural Development

Week 15 3rd-10^th May 2012

With time flying in until our ERASMUS experience is over, and due to the fact that we have no classes for this whole month, Ali and I decided to treat ourselves to a few trips away, and take the opportunity to explore a bit more of Europe.

This week we headed to Madrid for a short break, and we head to Milan on Thursday for four days. I was excited for both these holidays, not only because they were two cities I had never visited before, but because I was finally looking forward to getting away from the changeable Danish weather and enjoy some proper sunshine! As we had such a short time in Madrid, we knew that we needed to decide exactly what all we wanted to see and do before we went. This city was not what I expected at all when we arrived, as we discovered it was actually not that big and we were able to walk to see all the different sites, even though they seemed to be spread over our whole map! We visited the palace, the cathedral and the theatre in the morning as well as visited the Temple of Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple which was rebuilt in Madrid. These were all really interesting and gave us a bit of an insight into the history and culture of the city. We managed to spend all morning exploring these different buildings before moving to a park at the opposite side of the city where we enjoyed the sun that had finally come out as we tried to “row” on the lake in its centre!

Ali at the Temple of Debod.

One of the main differences that stood out for me between the culture in Madrid and the culture both at home and here in Denmark is the police presence in the city. There were a lot of beggars, prostitutes, and homeless people about which is perhaps one the reasons for this enhanced presence, and although at first it seemed a bit unnerving, it actually meant that we felt safe as we explored and constantly could find someone to ask for directions when we needed!

Before going, our Spanish friends from ERASMUS here had warned us that people in Spain tend not to have good English and would find us difficult to understand, however apart from a few difficulties when ordering food we seemed to manage to communicate fairly well, perhaps due to being used to slowing down when we talk and using a more simple language and hand gestures from being out in school and meeting people in Copenhagen.

These four months in Denmark have provided me with so many opportunities to explore other cities and places in Europe that I would have otherwise not have had the opportunity to, and I am loving learning more about all these different places and gaining a better understanding of the culture and how people there live. Madrid? Done, now bring on the next few days in Milan!

Enjoying some Spanish food!