“Being in Europe means you have to travel everywhere! Make the most of your experience abroad!”… I heard many of my friends and family express this sentiment before leaving to study abroad in Copenhagen.
Yes, being in Copenhagen means having access to an endless amount of European cities at a significantly more affordable price. I remember feeling excited about this, but for the larger part, anxious. How was I going to plan all these trips? How would I choose which cities to travel to? How was I going to find people to go with?
Even more, I realized that many potential trips were not as cheap as I had expected (was it unrealistic to expect $20 round trips?)… Oktoberfest, for instance, became the first on the list of unsuccessfully proposed trips, as we realized the transportation, hostels, and many other expenses it would cost.
As many DIS students do, I was lucky enough to be able to visit several cities on my European bucket list (Prague and Lake Como have been my favorites so far). As fun as these trips were, they were quite stressful at times – it’s pretty much impossible to fit in everything you want to do in a weekend trip!
Despite being able to visit many incredible places, I still found myself feeling anxious that I wasn’t doing enough… some I knew had a trip to another country planned practically every other weekend. I felt like the weekends I spent in Copenhagen could perhaps be weekends “wasted”, since they could go towards traveling a country I may not have the opportunity to otherwise.
The fear of missing out (FOMO) was very real.
However, almost three months and four weekend trips in, I feel like my mindset has completely changed. Now that I have ~1 month left in Copenhagen, a huge part of me wishes that I had spent more days here. One large goal of mine in coming here was immersing myself as much as possible in Denmark’s people and culture. With study tour week and frequent weekend trips, that can be quite hard to do outside of classes. Now, my FOMO has been re-directed towards my host city of Copenhagen.
Ironically, I write this from my hotel room in Rome, which is where I’ve chosen to spend my travel week. However, after much over-pondering, I’ve decided to head back home to Copenhagen a few days earlier than the end of travel week, rather than taking on a different country.
Copenhagen, and Denmark in general has many hidden gems – if you have a free day, I recommend taking a day to Dragør, a small fishing village just 20 minutes outside of Copenhagen. You’d get a break from the noisier city life, and walk through some very quant streets and shops.
Dragør, Denmark
For incoming or prospective students, my advice would be to not let the feeling of fomo prevent you from doing what you want. If your goal in studying abroad is to just travel Europe, go for it! If it’s not, or you may not have the means to do so, that’s also completely fine! There are so many amazing options for slow travel, many of which I wish I considered more heavily at the start of the semester too.
While I’m thankful for all I’ve been able to see around Europe, I’m most looking forward to making the most out of the time I have left in Copenhagen.
Talk to you soon,
— Nat
nat's passport 
Leave a comment