Setting the Stage: 2 Weeks Out

Greetings,

In two weeks time, I will be boarding a plane in America, and landing in Copenhagen, Denmark. This will mark the beginning of a 4 week immersion in Scandinavian culture. Armed with a small budget, a backpack of supplies, and a Danish phrase-book, I will be traversing three foreign countries trying to experience everything I can. What will make this trip fairly unique, however, is that there is no itinerary, no reservations, and no backup plan. I will literally be making up the entire trip as I go, and documenting every bit of it!





Through the course of this blog, I will be addressing several different topics. The most obvious of these will be a journal of my travels through Scandinavia - what I will see, do, and otherwise experience on the trip. This will establish the context for the topics to follow.

The second topic I will address is my perception of the cultures I encounter. Each of the experiences I discuss is a snapshot of the greater culture within which the experience resides. By analyzing my experiences both within and prior to the trip, I should gain an improved understanding of the overarching natures of the Scandinavian cultures, both separately and as a whole.

The third topic I will discuss relates to the second, but is less broad in scope. Scandinavia is well known for having an extremely well-built communications infrastructure, and for housing definitive examples of social democracy. I will be attempting to discern if there is a causal relationship between the two attributes. Does greater inter-connectivity lead toward a more progressive socio-political model? Do nations with progressive socio-political models naturally value and thus support the inter-connectivity that strong communications infrastructures enable? Are the two related by a third, undetermined characteristic? Or is it merely a coincidence? I don't expect to have anything more than an initial survey on the topic, but hopefully it will spur further inquiry.

Finally, as I will be traveling through Scandinavia on a budget, I will also be keeping close track of how much I spend and on what. In researching for the trip, I noticed that information on the subject was spotty and took a fair bit of research to dig up and compile into a plan of action. Aside from the plane tickets to and from Copenhagen, I will be tracking all costs on an average per-day basis. My initial, tentative budget is 600 Danish kroner(DKK) (or about $120 USD) per day. To your right you will see a sidebar with breakdowns of costs, budgets, and spending categories. This will be updated regularly, and may lead to re-evaluation of expenses and itinerary as the trip progresses.



Currently, I have purchased lodging for the first night off the plane, as well as breakfast the next morning, and a Hostel International card to allow me to get discount rates on various hostels. These expenses are already populating the Finances Breakdown, but here they are in more detail (in DKK):

1 hostel bed (10-bed room) - 135 kr
1 HI card - 160 kr
1 breakfast - 74 kr
Total: 369 kr

So far, I seem poised to save some money, but that's no problem - I suspect transportation costs may be higher than anticipated.

In addition to these regular updates, I will also be responding to any and all comments. So, if you are reading and find yourself wondering about something, feel free to ask me for clarification, request that I find out more about something or try something new, inquire about the culture, or most anything at all. I'll do my best to get back to you with the information you want. Additionally, I will be posting further entries about the preparation stage, so if there's a topic of preparation you'd like me to document, feel free to mention it.

Here we go!