Copenhagen University, Denmark

Hej from Copenhagen! It has now been 4 weeks since I packed up life in Sydney and got on the plane to Denmark to begin my semester abroad at the University of Copenhagen. I have absolutely fallen in love with the city – it is the most beautiful city I have ever been to and it has so much to offer. Although only a month has passed I have made so many memories and met so many wonderful friends!

I decided to enrol in the Danish language course which began in the three weeks before semester started. I highly recommend enrolling in this course as not only did it give me ample time to settle in before actual classes started but it also provided me with a great avenue to meet many new international students like me!

For my exchange, I have chosen to live at Basecamp Solvgade. This is an old military barracks converted into a hall of residence for students with arguably the best location as it is so close to city centre. There are many international students who live here and it has several communal areas making it a very social place to live. I would recommend staying at Basecamp or another hall of residence/dorm as they make it easy for you to make friends.

I was surprised by how easy it was to get around the city. Copenhagen is a very bike friendly city and riding a bike around town is the way to go – it is by far the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to get anywhere you need to go. Once you get on your bike you’ll never want to commute around the city in any other way! I would recommend looking up the road rules before you get on the bike, but don’t worry Danes are quite patient and you’ll pick it up it in no time!

Although I have only been here for a month, Copenhagen is beginning to feel like home. It’s crazy how quickly you can settle into a new city and fall in love with everything about it.  Copenhagen offers you all the benefits of a large city, yet somehow has that hygge charm to it (hygge being cozy). From the architecture, the cobblestone streets and the stunning canals to its food, cafes, bars, markets and fashion there isn’t much Copenhagen doesn’t offer. I would recommend checking out Reffen for an awesome food market, the meatpacking district if you’re looking for a boogie, Francis Pony for cheap drinks (especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and Sankt Peders Bageri for onsdagssnegle (delicious sticky cinnamon rolls only made on Wednesdays).

On top of what Copenhagen has to offer, it is also really easy to travel from with the airport being a 20-minute metro ride away. So far I have been able to travel to the UK and Portugal and am planning many more trips for the coming months to places including Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden!

To give fair warning, Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. Despite this, groceries are reasonably priced so if you cook at home most of the time (this means lots of communal dinners with friends), have picnics in the park, find the cheap eats and bars it is easy to remain under budget.

So far, exchange has been amazing. Every day there is something exciting to do or a new place to explore. Knowing that this is only just the beginning of my exchange makes me so excited for what the future holds in the next 4 months. Going on exchange is an amazing experience and I would strongly recommend to anyone that they should DEFINITELY take the opportunity to study abroad if they can during their degree at UTS.

Katherine Shliapnikoff
Bachelor of Business / Bachelor of Laws
Copenhagen University
Denmark

For more information about the UTS Global Exchange program please visit: www.global-exchange.uts.edu.au