ALEX PRIEST / THE EAGLE The perfect, cheap bike for Copenhagen.

COPENHAGEN—Greetings from the most bike-friendly city in the world. I’m studying abroad this semester in Copenhagen, Denmark and (so far) having an absolutely incredible time. I’ll be studying marketing and communications here (as I am at AU) and, in my free time, writing for The Eagle. Although I’ve been here for over two weeks already. Feel free to check out some of my previous entries on my personal blog and my photos on my Flickr account. Instead, I’ll just jump right in and I hope you’ll join me.

This week, I bought a bike and I’m really, really excited about it. In case you didn’t know, it’s outrageously difficult to find an affordable bike here in Copenhagen. It simply doesn’t make sense—you’d think the most bike-friendly city in the world would have relatively cheap bikes somewhere. Nope. Instead, I bought this beauty from an American intern. He had recently bought a new one and was selling this one. It’s in fantastic shape, has seven gears (which is quite a lot in this city, evidently—since it’s so flat most bikes only have 1-3 gears) and runs perfectly. He even gave me a lock. And I got it for a better price than I’ve seen anywhere else (I’ve seen completely busted bikes being sold for more).

It’s an exciting experience, biking in this city. Of course I bike in DC, but here it’s a different experience—it’s a cultural thing. It really makes you feel Danish. It’s a great feeling.

Sunday I returned from Sweden. Magical, fairytale-inspiring Sweden. To put it simply: it. was. amazing. And somewhat surprising. I had expected a pretty relaxing trip, some nice and easy canoeing, nature hikes and a pretty chill—but certainly not luxurious—stay at a local hostel. It was so much more.

To start, we drove to a small town called Angelholm and although we’d hardly woken up, we were handed canoes and told to start paddling until we got to the other side of the city—about a three hour ride downstream. It would’ve been perfect, had it not been for the insane storm that drenched us halfway through (the weather just before and after was beautiful, of course). But we persevered. After the canoeing we headed straight for our hostel, which was just out of this world. It was a beautiful building, very luxurious, and there even was hot soup ready for us as soon as we arrived (which was much needed, as we were all still dripping and freezing).

But we only had a couple hours to relax before we were off to Nimis, and the independent country of Ladonia. It was mind-blowing.

The city/country/whatever you want to call it was started 29 years ago by a crazy man who decided to make some “art” out of basically nothing but driftwood. After two years the Swedish government discovered his “art” and declared it unsafe and threatened to remove it. Instead of complying or protesting in the usual way, the artist declared Ladonia a free state with Nimis as its city and claimed independence from Sweden. Since then Sweden has basically just tried to forget about it, preferring to pretend like it doesn’t exist. Now the city of Nimis has no inhabitants (although supposedly Ladonia is one of the fastest growing “micro-nations” on the planet) and gets about 30,000 visitors a year to its remote location. I can’t recommend the trip enough. Not only is it bizarre and fascinating but it’s in an absolutely beautiful location on the Swedish coast and you simply can’t beat the view.

Or so I thought. That was until we traveled to the nearby Kullaberg park along the same Scandinavian peninsula—and rappelled off a rock wall overlooking the ocean. The pictures really say all there is to say about that second day of the trip, but it was an incredible experience that I’ll really never, ever forget.

And now on to bigger and, perhaps better, things! Tomorrow morning bright and early I leave for Western Denmark on my first study tour with my communications program at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. We’ll be traveling to Århus and Odense. To be honest I don’t exactly know what we’ll be doing, but you can guarantee it’ll be interesting and I’ll have plenty of pictures to show when I get back! I’ll keep you updated. Until then, check out the rest of my pictures from my trip to Sweden, embedded below.

Alex Priest is a junior and is pursuing a dual-degree in marketing and public communications. He’s studying international advertising, among other things, in Copenhagen for the semester. Look out for his updates!