True Vikings

Today, I was a Viking.

For my Nordic Mythology course, DIS sponsored a trip to the VIking Ship Museum (which we have already been to), but this time it was to sail across the bay in a reconstruction of an excavated viking ship! When we got to the museum, we waited for our guides and set forth on our sailing adventure.

We all got into the boat and they needed a volunteer to be the lead rower. Considering the fact that I was the only one who has ever rowed a boat before, they put me in the front. We all rowed in unison (mostly...) out of the dock and into the bay. Once there, we all needed to lift the oars out of the water, and find our places and jobs for the actual sailing. The guides put me at the rudder so I could steer the ship, two people in front of me to pull ropes, and the rest to sit around and enjoy the view.

It was a pretty easy job because I had someone telling me what to do. By the end of the trip, I was just getting the hang of steering the ship to catch some wind in the sails. We were sailing for about 2 hours, then rode the wind back into the dock. It was beautiful being on the water. Cold, but beautiful.

Also, vikings.

When we got back onto shore, we walked back to the train station and passed the Rosklide Cathedral, a UNESCO heritage site. It was very underwhelming. To put it into perspective, my professor said that "if a meteor were to plummet down through Earth's atmosphere, fall down into Roskilde, crush into the Cathedral and burn it to the ground, I would not be too upset. It is one of the less impressive UNESCO sites."

Oh yeah. The tractor. Soooo Denmark is officially a Lutheran country, but the Danes are largely non-religious. Confirmation used to be a very large religious coming of age ceremony, but now it is mainly a celebration for young people that have gone to church, "in which they recieve money and gifts." Says my professor. Anyway, it has become a tradition for the parents to pick up the confirmed in the most ridiculous vehicles that they can imagine after the ceremony, taking them home to the money and gifts. Hence, the tractor.