Hamlet's Castle and Western Denmark!

So after 2 days of classes, I had my first cultural trip. I signed up for a Saturday morning in Elsinore and Kronborg Castle, both of which were beautiful. What I remember most about this trip was that it was extremely cold that Saturday morning, in no small part due to the fact that we were right on the coast. We spent a little over an hour exploring Elsinore on our own, where I got a lovely meal that was much more affordable than nearly anything in Copenhagen.

The castle was beautiful, and, like most things in Copenhagen, had been burnt down and rebuilt several times over the last several hundred years. I believe this was the 3rd model. 

                                                    

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me about this trip was because we were so close to the northern tip of Denmark, Sweden was visible several miles across the water. Although living in New York had not left me a stranger to bordering another country, I still marveled at how connected and close everything is in Europe--it made me all the more excited for making travel plans this semester.

                                                                           (Hi Sweden!)
After 2 weeks of classes, my Bio-Medicine class went away for our short study tour--3 days touring Biotech companies and getting some culture in western Denmark. We spent the first evening in Odense, after going to the Medical Biotechnology Center at Syddansk University and seeing their research facilities. Afternoon we saw the Hans Christian Andersen Museum and toured his home town, and that night we went bowling and then went to a jazz club, then had a night to ourselves in Odense.

                                           
On day two we traveled to Aarhus, where we visited two more companies in the biotech industry. First, we went to Østjysk Innovation, which is a company that is essentially made of state-funded venture capitalists. They review bio-tech research ideas, and several teams in the organization are allowed to fund a certain amount of money per year to ideas they think will be successful. Østjysk gets a percentage, usually 25%, of the profits that the idea makes--and the more successful the ideas they fund are, the more money the state gives them to invest. All around, very interesting concept and a look into a side of biotech one doesn't usually consider.

To conclude the academic portion of our short study tour, we headed to The Department of Medical Biochemistry at Aarhus University, where we heard from yet another side of biomedicine--a man who has worked on developing two drugs, one of which failed and one of which succeeded in getting funding and proceeding through clinical trials. He discussed what he did wrong the first time in terms of patenting and sources of funding, as well as what he did right the second time. It was not only interesting to hear both the biology of what he was working on (drugs to end brain death and potentially pain), but also to learn more about the business end of bio-research.

That afternoon we also went to the Aarhus Museum, which was both beautiful and surprising in its contemporary displays. By far, everyone's favorite exhibit was "The Smoke Room," an enormous room filled with smoke and colored lights that only allowed one to see a couple of feet in any direction. Crazy experience.

That night we stayed in cabins in Skanderborg and roasted hot dogs wrapped in dough, which is apparently a Danish thing. Not the easiest to tell when the dough was cooked all the way through, but I guess that's part of the fun of it! The next morning we headed to a castle which was inexplicably full of really high-tech lanterns. Not complaining, just seemed a little anachronistic (that one's for you, Danny). After the castle, we had a great lunch, and headed home from what was an exhausting, informative, and altogether wonderful trip!