My accommodation in Copenhagen

The introduction

The Housing Foundation rooms were pretty much available in July, because the study period was kind of over and there were only students from other parts of the world mostly, who needed to study for their exams or have a summer school in some subjects or just attend a summer school in Copenhagen, or had some jobs in summer or whatever. It was a nice place to be in the city of Copenhagen because the environment was so lovely and cozy and everything seemed to be pretty much interesting, even the walkings in the evenings.

Gartnerboligen building

As I knew, the building of Gartnerboligen was a two-story building with five rooms and one common room and one bathroom for students and the other one for the science department staff members, and one kitchen and there were some other rooms, too, where the science faculty staff members were sitting and typing and working and stuff like that. And that was all on the second floor of the building, while on the first floor, there were staff rooms and some research rooms and things like that and we didn't have access to those rooms, if you want to know the truth. And you couldn't get them open if you wanted to. When getting inside the building I would just turn left and go upstairs, where my dorm floor was and I would just open that dorm room and then go to my room or wherever I wanted there on the second floor.

Starting from the beginning, it was a Gronegardsvej street, where my accommodation was located and it was just nearby the beginning of the street from the Thorvaldsvej street and that was mainly where I came from when returning from the city center or somewhere from the north side of the city.

From there you would have to walk on a sideway through some very well cut bushes and then you would notice an entrance through the bushes again on your right side and that was where it began. I mean, first of all, you would have to go through the garden full of flowers and then you would "meet" the building!

I knew what the building looked like from the outside, because I had seen the pictures of it and it was really beautiful, however, when I first got there I was still in a shock, because there were so many flowers inside in the yard and they were so lovely and they were all blooming and stuff like that and you would just want to stand there and enjoy the view. And, besides, it was kind of drizzling when I got there for the first time and the colors were very vivid and it looked like a saturated picture.

Anyways, getting closer to the building, you would notice this thick door, which was kind of dark green and it was pretty heavy. And it had this locking system just on the right upper side and there was this fluttering red light in that locker. You had to put your card on that machine and then enter the 4-digit number on your card's ending and then the light would turn green and there would be some kind of a click heard of the opening of the locker and you could open the door.

Getting inside, you would be on the first floor, where there were some postcards on your right sideand you could take them, as they were free of charge and there were two kinds of them and they had some pictures of the garden and the building on one side. Then there were three doors, on the right side, one on the left side and one in front of the entrance door. I don't know what there was inside them, because We couldn't enter those rooms and they were for the Science department members.

Then, on your left, there were these narrow stairs going upstairs, on the second floor, where there were the sleeping rooms and the kitchen and bathrooms and the common room and some other rooms for the science department staff members.

There was this strange thing just beside the dorm door, which made me wonder, what it was needed for, however, I still couldn't get what it was. There was this large wardrobe on the right side and there was a large pot full of sand or something like that.

When entering the dorm room, there was my dormmate's room just in front of it, and there was a kitchen next to it.

The kitchen was really lovely and there were all those necessary facilities, that anyone would need in the kitchen. And it was decorated, too, with some beautiful things and souvenirs, which made the room look great. There were many plates and frying pans and saucepans and forks, and knives and spoons and glasses, etc. There was even a mocca machine for those coffee loversand I don't know whether it was someones own or was it a common one. We also had an electric kettle, which I used pretty often, mostly on mornings, though.

There was a really good stove with flat heaters and there was a really large refrigerator on the right side so that everyone could store their food in there.

There were also many drawers and places, where you could store your things, you had to just tell everyone, that the place was for your things there.

We had two bathrooms on the second floor and as I was told, one was for us _ the students and the other one was for the faculty members and working staff. Our bathroom seemed a little larger and it had this small showering place with a curtain on it and it had a wooden mat or something like that there, which I didn't pretty much like, however, it was nice to stand on a wooden matinstead of standing on a cold bathroom floor. The other bathroom, however, was much fancier and it had a toilet in a separate place and the shower was with the cabin and not with just a curtain, which made it really desirable, I mean, I would prefer showering there instead of our bathroom, however, I didn't really shower there, because I was told, that it was for the faculty members, though we could still use it when they were not there, and, I guess, they finished their work at 4 p. m. or something like that, so that when I went home, almost no faculty member was there.

Then there was our common room, which was pretty much decorated and, I guess, it was mainly designed by the students living there. There were some posters and decorations on the walls and in the whole room. There were three large couches with a small table between them. There were many comfortable chairs and a large table, too. And there were some other things, including the clothes' dryer and iron and vacuum cleaner.

There were also many books about science and stuff like that and there were also some brochures and books about Copenhagen and Denmark and things like that. The students there pretty much-appreciated wine and some beer and there were many empty bottles of them, where they had put some candles and had them lit during their gatherings there, I guess, and they were very artistically beautiful if you looked at them _ with that melted stuff on the bottles. It was comfortable to be in the common room and hang out there on your own or with other students. There were so many other things, that you couldn't use and they were just put there for some reason. For example, there was this last century radio or something like that, which was not operating, I guess, however, it was there and it was kind of making the room look more like a common room if you ask me. There were also some pillows and pleads and mats and things like that and I even took some of them for my room, because there was not a pillow in my room as it was not included and no one was using that pillow and I took it for me and had it on my bed until my departure from there.

Anyways, now I will tell you about my room. It had a pretty good locker and if you didn't have a key with you, you could get locked out of your room! That's why we usually had our keys in the lockers in a case like that.

Well, entering the room, you could see a large desk in front of you, where there were two desk lamps and one was larger and the other one was pretty small compared to that one. However, I didn't use that larger one, if you want to know the truth.

Then, there was a bed on the right side and the bed was good and the mattress was of good quality, too, however, there was not included any pillows or things like that and I had to have them on my own. There was a wardrobe on the left side, which lacked one door, however, I guess, it was good, that it lacked one door because there were some shelves there and I used them very well without any door. There were some things on the wall just beside the door on the left for hanging clothes and stuff like that. and there was a large mirror and a drawer just beside the wardrobe so that I had this pretty lovely mirror for myself. And I had a really great view of the garden of the building from my window, which was not very large and it looked like an old window from the last century or something like that, but when looking out of it you could enjoy that amazing view of those flowers in the garden. And then even took one chair from the common room, which was not in use and was standing alone in the corner and took it and put it in my room beside the door and now I could put some stuff on it and I really needed that, because I got wet many times and I had those wet clothes, which needed to be dried and I had them put on that chair and get them dried like that.

Well, the building had the second door, too, to get out into the street and you just had to use another door of the dorm to get to that door. However, I just used that door twice, because usually, I used the main entrance to leave and enter the building.

The building also had this bell, which was on the left side of the main entrance and you could just push the button and the ringing was so loud, that everyone would hear the bell. That's what helped me on my first day to get inside my room, because if there was not that belly button, then I don't know, how I would get inside my room then and I would probably have to wait for someone to magically get downstairs or I would just sleep that night on those stairs in the entrance in that cold day in Copenhagen.

---

Photo gallery