Saying goodbye to Copenhagen

This has been my last week at Britta's. It's a very strange to think that I'm probably not going to set foot in this house again. It's strange to think about living in the states again. I've become so used to Denmark...to the point where when a stranger smiles at me or says hi, I think it's weird and wonder why on earth they're doing that. After getting used to not making eye contact with anyone, going back to Minnesota will be interesting. We'll see how it goes. Though I am excited to go back to that friendly atmosphere. Even so, I'm definitely going to miss Denmark. Especially hygge. Of all the things I learned here, hygge is something I'm definitely going to take with me for the rest of my life. It really is a way of life here. 

I haven't really done a ton this week other than some last minute Christmas shopping and a lot of packing. I've been stuffing toys and other various things into bags since I could walk (I was a strange child) and it's a good thing because without all those years of experience, I don't know how I could have managed to pack a semester's worth of clothing and souvenirs into two suitcases. I guess my two-year old self knew I needed to prepare. So two stuffed suitcases later, I'm ready to head to the airport, not to leave, but to pick up my parents at the airport. Then we'll spend a few days in Copenhagen and then we're off to Paris for the rest of the week! And after that, it's home for the holidays!

The Wonderful World of Tivoli

Last Wednesday I went with my Danish class to the Tivoli Gardens. We were given tickets to enter the gardens and then had to meet up with the class for Danish Christmas dessert at a restaurant and then a show. And the best part was that we didn't have to pay for any of it. I was a happy camper. So, in order to make use of this, a couple of classmates and I decided to go to Tivoli early and walk around. The place is absolutely beautiful! It's the most winter wonderland-y place I've ever been.  Lights, ornaments, giant kick-knacks, figurines and elves cover every inch of the gardens. Oh and live peacocks just chilling and walking around among all the guests. This year, the theme at Tivoli was a combination of Danish and Russian Christmas...Which I think is a common theme but I'm not entirely sure.
So I went early with some classmates and we pretty much just wandered around for a couple of hours going through the abundance of Christmas shops. Pretty much every shop there was geared solely for Christmas. They were all selling either Christmas decorations, chocolates,  warm wintery things or similar Christmas-y gifts. See, Tivoli closes after Halloween and doesn't re-open until the end of November. Clearly every second of that time is devoted to decorating. I used to think it was closed for a ridiculously long time but now I completely understand.

 

Entrance! 

 

Beautiful restaurant with a live peacock in front (he's towards the bottom left corner)

 

Me in a strange network of connected huts. I thought they were really exciting and just had to go sit in them. 

After having walked around for a while (and me spazzing out with excitement on numerous occasions), we meet up with our class for some of Denmark's traditional, Christmas desserts: æbleskiver and glögg (which originally comes from Sweden). Basically, æbleskiver are like round, poofy pancakes and are the best things ever. I'm obsessed with them. You dip them in jam and powdered sugar and they're probably one of the only things Danes eat without dining utensils. Glögg is a warm wine with lots of spices mixed in as well as raisins and chopped nuts (the rest of the world calls it mulled wine). Basically my taste buds have never been so happy as they were when I was eating æbleskiver and drinking glögg. I'm determined to find and æbleskiver pan so I can make them when I get back to the states.

 

æbleskiver!!!!

The show we saw was performed by a London theater company. This company has been coming to Tivoli for Christmas for the past thirty years. They're called The Crazy Christmas Cabaret and the show they did this year was called Hitchcock-up.  And yes, it is just as sexual as it sounds. It's not overly sexual but there's definitely a prevalent theme of highly sexual jokes through the play. The show was three hours long and I honestly don't think I've ever laughed as much in three hours as I did last Wednesday. The show was hysterical. The humor ranged from very clever and witty jokes to some very slap-stick stuff and then of course all the sexual jokes (some of which were just bad and some were actually very good). And there wasn't really a plot. I'm not entirely sure what happened in the play. Essentially it was centered around a lost Hitchcock that was found in the lingerie section of a department store. I was really apprehensive about going because the promotional "trailer" wasn't very funny and didn't make much sense but the whole thing was absolutely brilliant (especially because it was so self-aware. It wouldn't have been nearly as funny if it wasn't so self-aware)! And because they've been coming to Denmark for so long, they are able to write these plays for a Danish audience. Even though it's all in English and only one of the seven-ish actors was Danish, they actually use a fair bit of Danish. So many of the jokes only make sense because I've been living here for so long and have gained an understanding of the culture. For example, the way the actors make fun of Swedish accents just isn't as funny if you don't understand exactly how ridiculous the Danes thing the Swedish sound. It was definitely a cultural experience.

To top it all off, it's been snowing lately. I'm stoked about this. I wasn't expecting to get any snow here but we've gotten some surprisingly fluffy snow. It started on Friday night and looked like this:

 

Our "yard"

Not totally legit but still snow. But then, when I woke up on Saturday it looked like this:

 

Even though it's freezing outside, I've been going for long walks everyday in the park right next to my house. And there's snow everywhere! Oh how I love snow. I'm going to be really, really, really, really, really sad if there's no snow when I go back to the states.

 

Before snow it looks like a scene from a Miyazaki movie...

 

 

After snow it looks like a scene from Narnia. Also of note, these pictures were taken at about 3:15-3:30 in the afternoon. Yes, the sun is already that low on the horizon. Oh how I love Denmark!

 

 

 

 

Part of my neighborhood. 

There's definitely a prevalent Christmas theme in all the decorations here. It's very different from the states. But they don't have the same cultural diversity here in Denmark so they don't have to worry about offending people when the put up Christmas (or at least they don't have to worry as much). See, immigration has been a big topic of discussion here in Denmark. The number of immigrants has been increasing dramatically in the past decades. This is because of Denmark's remarkable healthcare system. So the Danes don't really know how to handle this situation. Some people are opposed to it and some people are for it and very supportive. But no matter what someone's opinion is, pretty much ever Dane struggles with the idea of accepting new cultures but still keeping their own Danish traditions. Then there's the problem of whether it's the responsibility of the immigrants to immerse themselves in Danish culture (which many don't) or if the Danes should accept these new cultures into their traditions. Many Danes who are supportive of immigration still want to keep their own Danish traditions. Basically, it's a really big issue that no one really knows how to deal with yet. So, because of this, there are Christmas themed decorations and events everywhere. They don't even try to make it not Christmas specific. 

 

An example of Christmas decorations would be the GIANT Christmas tree in our town center. (There are similar giant trees in the city center and in the central train station)

 

 

Christmas trees and trains in an eye glass shop in the center by my house.

Thanksgiving in Denmark

Naturally, Danes do not celebrate Thanksgiving... unless you are friends with a Dane who is hosting American exchange students. Basically Izabel and I wanted to do something for Thanksgiving while we were here and Britta was all for that idea. So she invited a bunch of friends and family over to eat delicious Thanksgiving food. Izabel made all the food, including the Turkey. She really enjoys cooking so I didn't complain and attempted to help where I could. And in exchange, I got to make dessert. Delicious apple pie. The food we had wasn't what I think of as traditional Thanksgiving food because Izabel made food that fit all of her dietary restraints. It was really good food and I probably ate more than I usually do on Thanksgiving. They were mostly dishes like kale with roasted squash and rice with roasted grapes. It was really good and every one enjoyed it. They also enjoyed the pie which was nice.

 

Unbaked pie! Yum!

 

I asked Izabel to stick her head by the oven to illustrate just how small it is. We only had an 11 pound turkey and it could barely fit. 

 

Plucking out feathers from the turkey....no joke, it was covered in them.

 

Izabel doing her thing.

 

While Izabel was cutting onions, she said she needed ski goggle. I suggested sunglasses. It didn't work as well as we hoped. 

 

I went on a cleaning rampage. Normally every surface is covered with piles and piles of papers and other things. 

 

Food is served!

 

 

Baked pie! Even yummier!!!

It was really cool to be able to share this tradition with other people and teach them about it and how we celebrate. Everyone who came really liked both the food and learning about Thanksgiving. We all just sat around and talked for hours. It was very Hyggeligt.

What's interesting is that people are trying to bring Thanksgiving to Denmark. Weird right. They want to make American football a bigger deal here (it's slowly been growing in popularity). SO basically their attempts to have Danes celebrate Thanksgiving is really just a way to sell food and alcohol and make more money.

Yesterday Britta took me and Izabel to Helsingør and Helsingborg. And for those of you who don't know your Scandinavian geography, Helsingør is about an hours car ride north of Copenhagen and is the home of Hamlet's castle. It was really cool to see Hamlet's castle. Though the interior was not nearly as decorated as everything else I've seen here in Europe. It felt like all skin and bones with white walls and very few ornate pieces of furniture. Though that could be because they just don't have much of the original furniture left.

 

Castle chapel

 

Ballroom

 

 Helsingborg was just a twenty minute ferry ride away from the castle and was also very cool. We weren't there fore very long and we just walked around a little bit so it was hard to get a solid feel for what Sweden is like. Though I did like what I saw. We primarily walked along a shopping street that reminded me a lot of the one in Copenhagen. Only, I definitely liked this one more because it was was a bit more quaint. The buildings on the walking street in Copenhagen are taller and the street itself is wider. And, since this was just a small city I really don't think it's a good representation of the entire country. Guess that just means I'll have to go back another time.

 

Street in Helsingborg (not the quaint walking street)

Trekking the Czech Republic

These past few days were spent, you guessed it, trekking through the Czech Republic. Probably the best four days I've had in a long time. It was freezing, but so much fun and so worth all the coldness. I went with a DIS group which was nice because it meant that I didn't have to worry about making sure I was on time for everything or knew where I was going because that was all up to the group leaders.
I left early Friday evening for a two to three hour bus ride to somewhere along the Danish coast. From here, we caught a two hour ferry to Germany and then our bus continued through the night to the Czech Republic. Nine hours to sleep on a bus probably only adds up to three hours of sleep. It was awful. It may have been a greyhound bus but when the bus is packed and you can't lay down,  it really doesn't make it all that comfortable. But all the discomfort and lack of sleep was totally worth it when we arrived at our hotel at eight in the morning. We had about thirty minutes to unpack and change before heading to breakfast. From there we divided into two groups of about twenty students each for the rest of the day's activities. Everyone did the same activities just in different orders. My group started the day with a three hour trek through the Czech forests. It was absolutely spectacular. One of those things that you just can't describe in words. Rolling hills, bubbling brooks, trees that look like their bursting into flames. And mud. Lots and lots of mud. Actually though, there was mud everywhere. We had to walk to lakes of mud a few times. But the scenery made it all entirely worth it.

 

Hotel room!

 

 

Czech village

 

Awesome castle!

 

I just thought this was pretty

When we arrived back at the hotel, we had a delicious lunch of duck and these strange potato/bread/dumpling things that are super popular in the Czech Republic (they were surprisingly good but I'm still not quite sure what exactly they were). After lunch we went and played a bunch of icebreaker games. They weren't the stupid and annoying kind either. Most icebreaker games are all about getting to know each others names and interesting things about everyone but these were just all about doing ridiculous things together. So we played soccer, which turned into blob soccer, which turned into a game where one partner in each blob was blindfolded and the partner had to direct them around in an attempt to make them kick the ball. Then we made four trains where we held onto the shoulders of the person in front of us and walked around the field. Only catch was that everyone but the person in back was blindfolded. The one in back was the conductor and had to navigate us around bushes and boulders only by tapping us on the shoulders. Lets just say that the person in front came out of this with a few bruises. Thankfully, I was the last person to get a turn in the front so, due to time constraints, my bruises were very minimal.
Then after a wonderful dinner and some yummy apple strudel, I spent the next few hours attempting to keep myself awake until a reasonable hour. It was a struggle because I was ready to pass out at eight. But waking up at four in the morning from going to bed so early didn't seem like all that fun. 

On Sunday, my group went into the Czech mountains and basically spent the day army crawling through caves and scaling up and down mountain gorges. It was awesome. We started out by exploring a cave where the people leading our trip had left us little notes. Once we collected all of them and a hand-drawn map and then  we followed them through the mountains. It lead us down mini cliffs (where they had to secure ropes for us to lower ourselves down),  over gorges that they had covered in netting, and through a few caves. One of the caves was more like a tunnel. It started out okay and then got smaller and smaller until we were literally on our stomachs army crawling through it because it was so narrow. Then there was a cliff right in front of the exit so you basically had to try to swing your legs around and do a back-bend to get out of the narrow crevice. There's a reason it was named broke-back cave. The whole thing was like hiking equivalent of mountain biking...so basically the best thing ever.

 

View from the top of a mountain

 

 

Climbing down a mountain

 

That blue dot in the center is a person attempting to get out of the broke-back cave

 

climbing down and gorge

 

People from my group climbing out of a cave

After that we went to a traditional Czech pub for lunch where they served us pork with those strange bread/potato things and then gave us a huge dessert (a blueberry stuffed dumpling) and hot chocolate. Even thought I had been starving when we started eating, by the time I was done, I felt like I was going to explode. So worth it though. Afterwards, my group went rock climbing out in the mountains. They had a few routes set up for us so we didn't get to go many times but it was really fun. I spent a majority of the time running in place and such in an effort to stay warm.

 

Totally legit and awesome

 

Later that night, we were randomly divided into groups of about six and sent out on a giant scavenger hunt. We were given a map with ten stop-points and flashlights and had to bring back a piece of paper from each stop. Running around through small towns and giant fields in the mud and pitch darkness is actually a ton of fun. I would highly recommend it.  There was one point where instead of following the road to the next stop, my group decided to cut through a large field. Not entirely sure if we were supposed to but, despite some very wet shoes, it was a success.

The next day my group went canoeing down a river for three hours. Sounds like fun right? Wrong. Not in the Czech Republic in November while wearing only a swimsuit and a wetsuit with not sleeves. It wasn't very fun. Well that's not true. The first half hour was great because we were going down mini rapids (hence the wetsuits) and my canoeing partner and I didn't fall into the river like some unfortunate groups did. Even so, by the end of the three hours my hands were bright red and I was shaking because I was so cold. Let's just say that getting onto the warm bus that took us back to the hotel was the best thing in the world at that moment.

The rest of the day was much, much better because we did archery. And it was amazing because I love archery. It's wonderful and I haven't done it for such a long time so I was quite happy for the rest of the day. We also had an archery competition and I placed second which isn't that exciting or anything except that the instructors were really, really impressed because I was the only girl to place. I just thought that was interesting.

On Tuesday morning, we were all bused to Prague where we spent the day. Me and a couple of other people went to this really cool castle (one of the oldest and largest in Europe according to our guides). After that a few girls and I wandered around and did a bunch of shopping. None of us felt up to doing anything super touristy- we didn't really have the time for it anyway. So we just walked around, explored and ate lots of really good food. Again, I would highly recommend it.

 

Prague!!!

 

Square somewhere in Prague

 

Really awesome clock tower

 

 

Castle!!!

 

Amazing tree not far from the castle. It reminds me of Narnia...but that could just be because I'm watching a Narnia movie with Britta and Iza right now. Also, Britta has a large cabinet in her house with an old key to open it and I always say it leads to Narnia. So far I haven't had any luck though. 

 

Dinner in Prague

Basically, the Czech Republic is an awesome and beautiful place and everyone should get over there sometime. A definite must see.