Welcome to theprincessmaryeffect

Welcome to theprincessmaryeffect, the blog that follows the adventures of two Austrayaan girls, princess_party and princess_dogme, two law students from Sydney on exchange in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, Denmark. We have decided to call our page theprincessmaryeffect as a tribute to all the Australian exchange students here who on a daily basis have to contend with a barage of almost contemptuous statements such as, "Why are there so many Australians here?!?!" and "Not another Australian!". One explanation for this influx of us from DownUnder has been dubbed "the princess mary effect" by the Danes.

Did we come here because of Princess Mary? Did we come here to "find our Frederik"? Hrmm well yes perhaps a Danish boy, but it could also be an euphanism for the search of our inner selves and the meaning of life & human existence during this exchange experience. Deep huh? Hrmm well no, not really, since in reality most of our daily searches are those for the cheapest yet consumable food and alcohol (answer is Netto and 7-11), our contemplations are over whether to jump on public transport without buying a ticket to save 11Dkk and risk getting a 600Dkk fine and our constant internal battles are of whether to skip class today since there is no compulsory class attendance.

Following the travel theme of "its a small world after all" it would of course turn out that we have been placed as roomates here, but back home we live only three streets away from each other in the exciting suburb of West Penno! A longer introduction to the authors and our insights into the people, culture and the way of life here will be coming soon but for the moment here are some pictures of our adventures so far..

Tivoli Gardens

"Welcome to Denmark, the land of fairytales",

is a common line we have heard since arriving and there is no place better that encompases this and everything else Danish than at Tivoli, a quaint amusement park in the heart of the city. Open since 1843, the park is today the number 1 attraction in Copenhagen, complete with the obligatory roller-coasters, rides, carousels and games arcades in addition to the beautiful lush gardens, swing/big-band concerts and unique entertainment revolving around Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales.

Girls day out: Sashi, Sarah, Daniela, Claire, Theresa and Claudia

Cynthia and Theresa, another Sydney sider!

Sashi, Claire and Daniela indulging in some "good" Chinese food. In Copenhagen you have to take what you can get when it comes to "exotic" foods (ie chicken korma, sweet and sour pork)

Scenery like this is only too common here in Copehagen (hence the frequent "omg its like we're in a fairytale!" exclamations)

Taking us back to childhood days..Who remembers the stories of the Pied Piper and the Emperor's New Clothes?!

A gorgeous, humourous pantomime of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales

The girls were inspired by the beautiful ballet and dancing on stage and started to put on their own side-show...

but ballet is too difficult..so why not try the can-can!

No day out at Tivoli would be complete without ice-cream..

Princess dogme with the guts of steel..

..whilst those of us more faint hearted, ie princess party, opted for the kiddies ride in a "flying trunk" which took a tour of the different HC Andersen fairytales. You can see the scenes depicting "The Princess and the Pea" and "The Emperors New Clothes", very adorable!

L: A larger than life replica of HC Andersen´s hand written manuscripts. R: Fun and games at the arcade

The night finished off perfectly with a dance/lights/giant-puppet/fireworks show of HC Andersen's fairytales. The piece de resistance The Ugly Duckling and the stars of the show, Hansel and Gretel.

Paper..scissors..rock! (Everyone say awwww!)

The famous Tivoli buildlings up in lights =)

Lots more pictures and stories on the way so stay tuned! xxx