December 2012
Graduation in Newcastle
An amazing year in Newcastle is over and, to my satisfaction, it ended as I had planned - Completing my degree at Northumbria University. After a few months back home in Copenhagen I returned to Newcastle to receive my diploma and see some of the old study-buddies again. It was truly brilliant to be back and see everyone again. The diploma was awarded at a fancy congregation full of people wearing old traditional costumes. As shown below all the important senior university staff were each dressed according to their status and title such as 'Chancellor', 'Chair of the board of governors', 'Deputy vice-chancellor' and so on. Most of the them looked bored and to be fair it wasn't really exciting. Besides some trumpets playing the congregation consisted of a few long speeches and a caravan of 300 students all receiving a piece of paper and shaking hands with the Chancellor. The names of the students were announced and shown on a big screen. I don't remember much from the ceremony (as we had a tough night prior to the ceremony), but I remember the two students with the last names 'Michael Jackson' and 'Thankgod'. After the ceremony we had the mandatory 'throwing-the-squared-hat-in-the-air-pictures' and some quality time with fellow students.

I will recommend Newcastle and Northumbria University to anyone considering doing a master abroad. I had the time of my life and met some fantastic human beings.
Finally a merry Christmas and happy New Year!

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July 2012
A day at St. James Park
In May I went to St. James Park to see the might Toon Army play Manchester City. As a bit of an experiment I did a time lapse during the game. The video below shows what 3000 pictures taken in 2 hours and played in 2 minutes looks like. Notice the relevant and good song...

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June 2012
Attacked by an Indian elbow during footy



.., oh and I got stung by a bee a while ago as well...

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June 2012
Toon bridges by night

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June 2012
A flying boy scout
Just returned to Toon after three great weeks in Denmark catching up with family and friends - Lovely.
As I arrived in Newcastle so did the Olympic Circus along with the torch, which is currently traveling around England. Newcastle will host several Olympic sport events during the games and the city is currently getting a makeover to make it all look good. Thousands of people were gathered to see the torch arrive and entertainment by the quayside. Highlight of the event was the Discovery host Bear Grylls on a zip wire, so pretty lame event...















The famous pee-drinking survival expert and boy scout Bear Grylls had the honour of carrying the torch while 'flying' from the The Tyne Bridge to The Millennium Bridge on the Quay side of Newcastle.

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May 2012
End of the Premier League
Sunday the 13th of May I went to see Sunderland - Manchester United in the last round of the Premier League. A nice and windy day at the stadium ended with a Man U victory of 1-0, while Manchester City won the league.
£200m well spent...

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March 2012
St. Patrick, St. James & Northumberland National Park
On a lovely warm Saint Patrick's day, a few weeks ago, my university threw a huge drikning-all-day-and-dress-up-in-green-party. During the day the great chef Mads Aaris created a spectacular tapas feast for 30+ people. Fantastic day with great company! To cure the hangovers the following day I went to St. James Park with some mates to see the mighty 'Black and White' army beat Norwich.












Spring has arrived in the north east of England and to celebrate I went to Northumberland National Park located one hour drive from Newcastle. On a truly beautiful day (20 degrees!) some mates and I went around the park, which is well worth a visit!













Javi looking down the biggest toilet in the world!






Like previously Javi was modeling for some picture-experiments as the following three pictures show :-)

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March 2012
Walt & Hardis in Newcastle
Early march my good mates Hardis and Walt travelled to the UK and had a stopover Newcastle for a few days. The main purpose of the trip was seeing the local derby Newcastle - Sunderland, which is quite a big thing here in northern England.
The atmosphere was brilliant and noisy as the two teams' supporters really hate each other. Besides going to the match we went to the coast, Lake District National Park, played indoor football and enjoyed a ton of Guinness. Thanks for good company guys!



















A day at 'Stadium of Shite'

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March 2012
Around the world
My good friend Jannik D. Pedersen is currently onboard Edith Maersk, one of the largest cargo ships in the world. Carrying well over 10.000 containers, a TV-saloon, fitness area, swimming pool and several employee apartments - she's a proper lady!
The ship carries cargo between Europe and Asia as shown on the map below. Jannik has sent a few awesome pictures, which I wanted to share.













Edith Maersk going through the Suez Canal

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February 2012
"Skiing" in Nevis Range & "trekking" in Lake District
A few months ago I agreed with a bunch of mates on going to Scotland for a few days of skiing and exploring. We quickly located Nevis Range as the best and closest area, only located 5 hours drive from Newcastle.
Getting closer to our departure date we were all delighted with the amount of snow in the area and the excitement were obvious in all of us. Finally the 19th of February we left 12 people in three cars and headed towards Scotland, and a few days of brilliant skiing. Or so we thought... After a beautiful drive up there with loads of sun and low temperatures the weather changed completely and heavy rain started pouring down Monday morning. Despite the rubbish weather and no skiing, we had an awesome trip with great company. We didn't see the sun till crossing the English border again on the way home.









Back home in Newcastle we had another day off, which we spend in Lake District. Its truly amazing! Not only because of the mountains and lakes, but because of the number of sheeps! The day was spend photographing & eating delicious local lamb.







My good Spanish mate Javier sacrificed himself for the sake of this picture.

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January 2012
So ehhh, 2011 is over
.., and what a year! The 'Arab Spring', the Fukushima disaster in Japan and the Mighty Newcastle United back in the top of the English Premier League as the three most spectacular news!
Another less exiting news, yet still very important, in 2011 was the 40th anniversary of the Danish Queen (ok, who cares really) and the female with the most yellow teeth IN THE WORLD! On a freezing cold day I found myself waiting for several hours to see the queen being honored by the people of Copenhagen and get some pictures (Note to self: Don't do that again!).
Along with not becoming an underwater photographer for BBC Nature, this really was one of the worst decisions of my life. Anyway, got the pictures I wanted and that's pretty much what there is to say about that. Check out the teeth below.









My visit in Denmark during christmas was also a chance to meet friends, family and eat some WONDERFUL food at home. Food doesn't get much better than the dishes served christmas eve at my parents, really! After eating unimaginable amounts of food we quickly get up, while people can barely move, and start "dancing" (walking actually) around a tree while singing songs about praising Jesus (damn, do I really do that every year!?!). When the praising is over the kids in the family attack the presents located below the tree. So that's pretty much a traditional Danish christmas.





Another great feast during my holiday in my hometown was the calorie-bomb-burger made by Bulle and Redman (yes, that's their actual names). By following the recipe on The Cheese and Burger Society, which you must start worshipping, the most amazing burgers were created and consumed!
I'm now back in Newcastle and loving it! Stay tuned :-)

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