Studytrip Scandinavia 2023
Dit is de Blog van de studiereis van 2023 naar Scandinavië. Elk dag schrijft een van de deelnemers een stukje dat je hier dan kan lezen.
Blog 6 May - Wouter
This day was our last day in Stockholm and together with a few others I spent it well. Rather than taking the tourist boat around the city of which we have seen quite a lot already, we chose to take the bus boat to an island called Vaxholm outside of the city. Along the way, we had the most beautiful view of all the islands, boats and enormous villas.
On Vaxholm we walked to a former lighthouse that turned out to be someone's home and to the playground where we couldn't resist taking the slide. We planned to visit a café to experience the famous Swedish Fika. Once there, we turned out to have landed in heaven as we encountered a display of many delicious cakes. Of course we couldn't choose, so we shared our cakes, of which we bought too many. We already planned to eat ice cream on the island, so on our way back to the harbour we just had to do so, despite the sweet cake bombs we just had.
Back in Stockholm we visited a few souvenir shops and meanwhile some people visited the ABBA museum. Just south of Stockholm another group went hiking in the Tyresta National Park, while a few others visited Drottningholm, the private residence of the royal family. Last but not least, a few people did not leave the IKEA unvisited. All in all, we have had an amazing day! 
The rest of the evening is filled with partying and packing bags as tomorrow we will be traveling to our next destination: Gothenburg! Blog 5 May - Dominique
Today we visited the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA). Starting from our hostel we walked to the institute and saw this church. When we arrived at NORDITA where Odilia, Björk and Bart gave a brief summary about what we will hear that afternoon.
Gerben started with his talk "Spacetime and gravity between Newton and Einstein". After this, Florian Niedermann talked about "Tales of empty space: the quest for the origin of dark energy". He mentioned the vacuum energy as a candidate for dark energy but this is the "worst prediction ever". Besides the physics he also gave a realistic view of being a scientist and to get a grant for research. 
After a short break, we get a talk from Nikki Arendse about "The discovery story of gravitationally lensed supernova Zwicky". She drew the graphics in the slides herself. In the talk she gave us an explanation about lensed supernavae and how they found supernova Zwicky. Then Sofia Qvarfort talked about "How large can we go? Pushing the limits of quantum and classical physics".
Afterwards we visited the Scientific Fika. Here we got a talk by Joe Roussos about "Expert disagreement in advising and research". Then we drunk some coffee or tea and there were some sweets. There were a lot of blackboards, so one is now decorated with horses (I can imagine you don't see a horse in every drawing). 
We walked back to the hostel and people started cooking.
Tomorrow is a day with nothing mandatory on the schedule, so the perfect day to explore the city or its surroundings!
Blog 4 May - Ilsa
Today was the day to indulge ourselves with Stockholm's culture and beauty! I started my day doing what I've been doing a lot on this trip already: holding the door :)
In the morning, we visited the Nobel Prize Museum, where we (of course) took special interest in Marie Curie.
After our visit to the museum, everybody had the chance to explore the city by themselves or in small groups. I decided to go to ABBA The Museum together with Ida, Tycho and Fabian. On the way there we happened to walk by the changing of the guards at the palace! 
We got a little bit cold on the way to the ABBA museum, so we got coffee/chai latte at a tiny coffee cart by the water.
Once at the museum, we had loads of fun, and decided to recreate some iconic pictures!
After we got 'Voulez-vous' stuck in our heads for the rest of the afternoon, it was time to return to the hostel, where we cooked delicious risotto. After that, I had a lazy evening and watched some Netflix.
Tomorrow we'll be going to another institute, so it will be a full but interesting day!
Blog 3 May - Bart
Today marks the first full day in Stockholm, but it's also Wicher's birthday! So when everyone gathered in the morning, we first sang a happy birthday song for him. After that we walked to the department of Engineering Mechanics, which is part of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. We visited several laboraties of the department and got a closer look at the research performed there.We started at the Biophysics group, where we visited a motion capture lab. Secondly we were shown cellulose filament, one of the worlds strongest biobased materials. Thereafter we saw some windtunnels at the Fluid Physics Laboratory (FPL). Each windtunnel is used for different experiments and has a different way of measuring the speed of the wind. Lastly we saw a model of a sailboat designed to transport cars. This model is used to study if the carbon footprint of the transport sector can be reduced by making use of the wind.
After our visit most of our group went out for a walk around Brunnsviken, a lake in Stockholm. It was really fun untill it started to rain. Then, most of us took the bus back to the hostel after having walked 13 km. In the end, only one person managed to complete the full hike (congrats Willie ?).
In the evening everyone cooked and ate in the hostel, which was also really fun.
Blog 2 May - Pim
The day began early (at least in my opinion) for the last time in Copenhagen. We enjoyed the free breakfast one last time before packing our backs and heading to the train station.
Here we took the train to Malmö to leave Copenhagen and Denmark for Sweden! In Malmö we changed for a 4 and a half hour train to our next stop, Stockholm.
To kill the time, off course some pulled out their Nintendos again for a game of Mario kart and others were busy playing card games. Some people (including myself) thought it was a good time to take a nap however a crying baby prevented that at first. After the baby was removed, peace was restored and i got my well-deserved nap.
When awake we could enjoy the beautiful landscape of Sweden with forests, lakes and wild life like deer.
Arrived in Stockholm, after checking in our new hostel, we went to dinner alltogether in a nice restaurant where we had a buffet with all vegan food and an amazing view over the city.
Hereafter some people went back to the hostel, where others already explored the city a bit, which concludes the first day of our stay in Stockholm! 
Blog 1 May - Thom
For the part of our group who went to the Valborg celebration the day started in the metro still on our way back to the hostel. When it turned 12 o'clock, it felt most appropriate to sing our Birthday boy Tycho a song!The morning after we travelled back to Lund to see Lund's observatory. We first got an interesting lecture about exoplanets, after which we were able to see the observatories that are still operable.
Then we went for a walk over the campus. Apparently the physics department partially exploded some time ago, and they left an art piece on the wall as a reminder!
The walk on the campus ended at the plantarium, here we also made a group picture.
After this we splitted up in smaller groups to explore Lund a bit more, or to already go back to Copenhagen. I went to Lund's botanical gardens to see some famous Dutch tulips with Simon!
We continued our journey back to Copenhagen to have food at the food market called Reffen, since we heard they had a lot of nice food! Here we also managed to see (a part of) the rainbow!
Then we went back to the hostel to already pack our stuff, because tomorrow we will go to a new city, namely Stockholm!
Blog 30 April - Jeltje
Today was a free day and what fun we've had! A large part of our group went to Lund to take part in a student celebration of Valborg (or 'sister April'), which officially celebrates the beginning of spring. However, the students mostly celebrate that the end of the school year is near and this is done with a lot of adult beverages and fun. There were about 25.000 people, so it was a good chance to socialize with the locals. In the evening a large bonfire was lighted and this sight was enjoyed from almost comfy lawn chairs.
Those of us that did not go to Lund split into a few smaller groups. Whilst enjoying many rays of sunshine, some of us went to the botanical gardens to see the huge hothouse and pretty plants, some of us went to a food market called Reffen to enjoy the deliciousness that is prepared there and some went for a beautiful hike outside of the city.
Meanwhile, I visited a palace called Rosenberg filled with treasures such as paintings, interesting clocks, a mechanical cabinet that can produce many different types of symphonies and the royal crown jewels.
Afterwards we went to 'the round tower', which is an observatory of the university. The fun thing there is that it has no stairs but instead has a spiraling ramp all the way to the top. 
Tomorrow we're going to Lund again to visit the Lund observatory, so stay tuned for the blog of Tomorrow! Blog 29 April - Blörk
For some of us, this day started with recovering from our night out before. After sleeping in quite late I went out to the local bouldering hall to work out. It was very small, but also quite cheap (50dk) and for 1 day it was perfect. Other groups of people went to the art museum, took a 6.5km run, see the royal palace and/or took a walk in the city.
At 15.30 we met up in the harbour for a 1hour guided boat tour. We saw palaces, military buildings, the little mermaid, parliament, churches and many bridges. The sun also came out regularly to give us some warmth.
After the tour we walked to the restaurant were we enjoyed a buffet with the whole group. There was so much food to eat since it was unlimited. The chocolate mousse was particularly good. 
Then we caught the last moments of daylight on a bench in the park before getting back to the hostel for a night in with a drink or a book (for me it's the book).
Blog 28 april - Simon
Today began with the most beautiful singing Denmark has ever heard on the stage of Studenterhuset. On our way home by metro we had a quick stop at Max (a Swedish fastfood chain) and when we arrived, we slept like roses.
Most of us got up fresh and fruity and, after a much needed, nourishing breakfast, we took off to the centre for Ice and Climate. We listened to a very interesting talk about the research they do with the ice they get from Greenland and how this says something about the climate of ancient times.
After the visit we explored the city and climbed the round tower with a breathtaking view of the city and a telescope as a reward. We had some after-dinner drinks and ended up clubbing!
This concluded another beautiful day in Copenhagen. Ending with a fun fact: I found some (kinda) frikandellen broodjes.
Blog 27 April - Tycho
After a well deserved night of sleep, it was already time to wake up early to visit our first institutes of the study trip.After a short breakfast and a quick walk around 8 o'clock we arrived at the Niels Bohr Institute. Probably because of some sleep deprivation, Simon thought we were in Paris and was eager to point out the Eiffel tower and had to take an iconic picture with the leaning stone of Pisa.
At the Niels Bohr Institute we got an interesting talk from a archivist at the Niels Bohr Institute archive about the life of famous physicist Niels Bohr.
After getting a quick tour around the office of Niels Bohr we were treated with another lecture around astroparticle physics at the Niels Bohr Institute.
Having already been listening to two lectures in the morning we took a short break during which a few people decided to play in a children's playground and be childish while playing a game of tag while others were harassed by a seagull.
After our lunch adventures we walked to the Centre of Quantum Devices where we were given a short recap on semiconductors and were given a tour through their facilities.
After this long day me and a few others decided to enjoy the local cuisine of the Lidl by making ourselves some delicious wraps in the reception the hostel.
With a loaded belly we prepare ourselves for tomorrow and are excited for the experiences and institutes that are coming up next!