The Final Countdown

It's true, in one week from yesterday I will be on an SAS flight back to the good ole' USA. My feelings about this will be addressed in the next post but in the spirit of my rapidly approaching departure I've been thinking about two things:

1. What will I miss about Copenhagen?

2. What am I ready for in the USA?

And these are the things that I have come up with...

I will miss... Danish pastries.

But I'm ready for... Starbucks.

I will miss... All of the bikes.

But I'm ready for... My car.

I will miss... Traveling. 

But I'm ready for... English.

I will miss... My roommates and new friends.

But I'm ready for... My family.

And of course my sweet friends. I've missed you all a lot. Like a whole lot.

What will I not miss about Copenhagen? 

I will not miss... Getting elbowed while boarding the bus, the kroner (hellooooo dollar!), 3:30 PM darkness, crowded streets, and my European Nokia phone.

So for everyone in the States that I haven't seen in way too long, I can't wait to see you!!! I've missed you all more than you know and am so excited to catch up and hear about your lives :)

Turkey for Turkey Day

This has been a Thanksgiving that I will never forget. Ever. On Wednesday night my roommates and I made a Thanksgiving dinner with our four other guy roommates, RA, and a couple other friends. Our program gave us 1000 kroner (about $200) to make a feast and, believe me, we did. It was so fun to combine old traditions with new friends. To go around and give thanks for this incredible semester and everything we have been given was truly amazing. A special memory, for sure.

At 5:00 PM the next day Ali, Jamie, Parker, and I boarded a plane for Istanbul, Turkey! Side note: Turkish Airlines is officially the best airline I've flown since being in Europe. Three course meals, free drinks, and movies. Sheer bliss. Every abroad student's dream. At the airport we met up with three of Ali and Parker's friends from the University of Denver, were picked up by a shuttle, and driven to our apartment! We got two apartments for the seven of us and it was such a great deal. After a long day of traveling we were all tired and went to bed pretty early. The next morning we headed out around 9:30 and went to breakfast at this cute restaurant right by our apartment. And this is when I realized how cheap Turkey is. My oh my. 

Next stop: Hagia Sophia Museum. This museum was first a basilica dedicated in 360 A.D.,  became a mosque in 1453, and in 1935 it was opened as a museum. 360 A.D. is almost 1700 years ago and this structure is not only huge but also still standing. Unreal. I was more awestruck at the Hagia Sophia than any other place I've been this semester. No exaggeration. It's absolutely massive and just incredible to think about how it was built and is still structurally sound. Needless to say, I couldn't stop snapping pictures!

After the Hagia Sophia, we went to the Blue Mosque. Since it is still a mosque that holds services we had to take off our shoes and put our scarves around our heads. This definitely gave us some great pictures. Where else did we get good pictures you ask? After our Turkish bath that night. I won't put too many details on here but, needless to say, we definitely experienced a traditional Turkish bath. Emphasis on the word traditional. Here are some of these special pictures.

Both Friday and Saturday we experienced another abroad student's dream come true: The Grand Bazaar. Hello 50 cent bracelets and Tory Burch knockoff wallets. But don't worry Mom and Dad, I restrained myself. I may have even restrained too much, but that's in the past. We also went to the Spice Bazaar, home of our most favorite nickname we've heard in our four months abroad: Spice Girls. I can't even complain about it, my 90s dream of being Sporty Spice might have just come true for a couple days in Turkey. The Spice Bazaar was absolutely packed with people so we bought tea and spices and left as quickly as possible! On Saturday we also went to Asia for lunch because half of the city is in Europe and half in Asia. So now I can say I've been to Asia! Here are a couple pictures from the Spice Bazaar:

We did so much this weekend and I'm sure I'll be telling stories for months but I hope you all had a great holiday weekend (even if it wasn't in Turkey)! 

A Two Week European Exploration

It's taken me a couple days to get this post written because I have been trying to sort through everything that I've seen and done the past two weeks! I just got back from a pretty incredible/crazy/packed two week European excursion that I will never forget. Words can't even begin to describe how amazing these past two weeks were and I am beyond lucky to be in a program that allowed me to do it. I'm going to try and keep this post manageable but here goes nothing...


City #1: Paris
I had been to Paris before with my family but I was thirteen years old and was nothing shy of a middle schooler that had newly turned into a teenager. Admittedly, it was really hard for me to appreciate Europe completely, so I was really excited to give Paris a second chance and see it through a new lens. Kelsey, Jamie, and I landed on October 31st at night and met up with two of our other roommates, Halley and Roxana, at our hostel. It was called Oops! Hostel. Unfortunate name, great hostel. After a quick morning run, we set out full of energy and ready to sightsee. Within the five days that we were in Paris we saw SO much. Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, Champs Elysees, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Versailles, and the Louvre. Needless to say, my second time to Paris I fell in love with the city and am so glad I gave it a second chance. Here are a couple snapshots of our time there!

City #2: Barcelona

After having five days packed with sightseeing I was excited to take a break and see some familiar faces. Laura picked us up from the airport and we dropped our bags off at their apartment, and then we went to lunch at this place called Bo di B. SO good. In Barcelona we didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing which was a nice break from our time in Paris. Our time in Spain was nothing short of entertaining, and I found that my conversational Spanish speaking abilities are still pretty good. I really found this helpful when I met these three Spanish girls who quickly became my apparent best friends. Note: The one with the chin ring and crimped hair may or may not have hand-fed me a french fry...

  

We also saw La Sagrada Familia, which is even more intricate and interesting in real life. I seriously think I could have stared at that church all day and still not seen everything. Another night we saw this incredible fountain show that they put on every couple weeks. One of my favorite parts of my time in Barcelona! And, of course, we had to have tapas and sangria. So good. Spain was filled with fun friends and great memories!

 City #3: Florence

Florence is another city that I had already been to but was very excited to go back. I have fond memories of great food and fun from our family trip to Italy and couldn't wait to go back! From the apartment in Barcelona to our hostel in Florence the travel time was about eight hours. Long day to say the least. BUT what kept us going throughout the day was our small light at the end of the tunnel: pear asparagus ravioli at a restaurant called Cuatro Leoni in Florence. Both Jamie and I had heard from numerous people that this entree was life changing and, believe me, it was. If you are ever in Florence you have to go to this restaurant and have this ravioli. I promise you won't regret it. After having a couple late nights in Barcelona, Florence had a much more quaint feeling to it, which was fun. We got to see so many Vandy friends, a very special treat! We all went to dinner the second night that we were there and it was so great to catch up with friends!

The third day we went to Tuscany, which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Seriously. If you have the chance to go, it's incredible. We went on a tour of Chianti and then we had a wine tasting. The colors were so pretty because it's the fall and we could not stop taking pictures. Kelsey, Jamie, and I absolutely loved Florence not only for its charm and food, but also for the beautiful weather we had the entire time we were there!

City #4: Budapest

Knowing that we were all pretty exhausted and that Budapest was the last city on our trip, I didn't have too many expectations. I had heard really good things from people who had been there but really didn't know any details past the recommendations that I had gotten. Needless to say, the positive comments were affirmed and I absolutely loved the city! We walked everywhere, got to stay in a hotel, and just explored without real plans. Even though it was freezing it was sunny, bringing out what I personally treasure about Colorado: sunshine regardless of the temperature. Budapest has such beautiful churches and some really rich history, making me wish that we had a tour guide to just walk us around everywhere. We made it work with our tourist books and maps though :) 

Whew. And next week: Istanbul. No time to rest with only four weeks left!

Welcome to Denmark, Mom and Dad!

This past weekend was super special because Sue and Walt visited! I had just seen them in Amsterdam but I was with all my roommates so I didn't get to spend that much quality time with them. But it was so good to get to be with them for a weekend and show them where I've been living. I'm not complaining about the nice dinners we had and the fact that I got to stay in a hotel, either :). They arrived on Friday and I took them to Nyhavn (the famous harbor with all the colorful buildings) and then we went on a canal tour. From the canal tour, we walked back towards my apartment and their hotel and Walt had a conference call while I showed Sue where I've been living. We did a lot of walking to say the least. When it came time for dinner we all agreed we needed to take a cab. No more walking for the day. That night we went to dinner with Halley (one of my roommates) and her mom at this really nice Italian restaurant. So fun to get to finally go out to dinner in Copenhagen. First nice dinner in the city: Check.

The next day we "slept in" until 8:30, had breakfast at the hotel, and set out for the day. We went to the Rosenborg Castle, which I shockingly hadn't been to and it's right by school. It was absolutely beautiful outside!

After the castle, we walked to the Round Tower which has beautiful views of the city. From there, we walked to have tea at A.C. Perch's Tearoom. They make the yummiest tea for the royal family and it was such a fun thing to do after walking so much!

That night we had dinner with a couple friends and went to bed early after such a packed weekend. It was SO nice to see my parents but we definitely missed Matthew. Shout out to my little brother who has been the only family member in the States the past month. Glad he made it without any emergencies :) Well, I'm off to pack for my two week travel break that I leave for tomorrow. On the itinerary: Paris, Barcelona, Italy, and Budapest! Blog post to come when I get back!

Quick Trip to Holland

This weekend, most of my roommates and a couple other friends ventured on a quick weekend trip to Amsterdam! We had a sightseeing-packed weekend and I had an especially great time due to a very special added bonus: my parents are living there for the month. (My friends thought this was a bonus as well. Parents living in an apartment in the city = no hostel or hotel payments) Some of my roommates landed in Amsterdam on Thursday night while the rest of us got in on Friday in the late afternoon. My dad picked four of my friends and me up at the airport, we went to the apartment, and quickly headed out one of my parents' favorite Italian restaurants. We met up with three of my friends from Vandy that are studying abroad in Barcelona and their roommate, which made the night even more special!

Walt and 14 ladies...Lookin' good

The next morning we got up early and ready to pack most of our Amsterdam sightseeing into one day. We somehow all made it out the door at 8 AM (impressive, right?) and headed to one place that we have all missed an unhealthily large amount: Starbucks. (The only Starbucks is in the Copenhagen airport...Not helpful at all.)

 

Fifteen drinks and a whole lot of happy girls later, we started our day. First stop: Anne Frank House. I didn't take any pictures here because it's not the picture-taking kind of museum, but it truly was incredible to see. We got there early because the line gets longer during the rest of the day and we were there the minute it opened. Waited in line for a total of ten minutes. Success. Next stop: Our Lord in the Attic. When Catholicism was prohibited in Amsterdam this church was built in an attic of a canal house. Truly incredible! There were so many levels, twists, and turns it was so cool to see.

After having lunch at THE most amazing lunch place with all the fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, soup, smoothies, etc. that you could ever imagine we headed for the Van Gogh museum. We made a short stop at the "I AMsterdam" sign and took a million pictures. Typical tourists. We were in the museum for twenty minutes and got bored... The sun outside was just too tempting. So naturally, being the vitamin D deficient Copenhagen students we are, we went and laid (not sure if this is the right word) in the grass. After this we went on a canal tour and got to see the entire city, which was great! 

On Saturday night, I had dinner with just my parents. SO nice to have time with just the two of them and get to catch up on the past two months. The girls that got to Amsterdam on Thursday left Sunday morning and the rest of us went on a biking tour of the city because we didn't leave until Sunday night. Amsterdam, much like Copenhagen, is full of bikers so it was fun to see the city from a biker's perspective. After lunch at the same place as the day before (we loved it that much), we said our goodbyes to my parents and headed for the airport. Quick trip, but so worth it. Amsterdam is beautiful and I had so much fun exploring with both my new and old friends!  

Breakfast Baking

This update is way past due, but Parker and my baking skills are back: breakfast style. There's nothing like a little french toast to give you a taste of home. And I must say, we succeeded. Not to brag, but these were good. SO good. It started my Sunday off perfectly and was super easy to make! We dipped the french toast in a not measured mixture of eggs, milk, cinnamon, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Toppings included blueberries, strawberry jam, cream cheese, and, of course, syrup.

YUM :) Don't worry, a longer post about my trip to Amsterdam this past weekend is comin' at ya in the next day or so!

The Land of Whiskey, Kilts, and Castles

In case you couldn't guess from my title this past week I was in SCOTLAND! This trip was similar to my trip to Western Denmark because I went with the same class and the trip was planned by DIS (my study abroad program). However, for obvious reasons, this trip was also vastly different from our exploration of Denmark. There was so much that I saw and did that I couldn't possibly cover on this blog, but I'm going to give you a shortened version of our schedule just to give you a snapshot of my week.

Sunday

My day started way too early. I got up at 4:45 AM, got myself together, and started my trek to the airport. For those of you who don't know, I live one street over from the Red Light District. Literally the only weird part of Copenhagen. It's been an experience to say the least, but details about that will be addressed in another post. So picture this: complete darkness, American girl, large bag on wheels, purse, walking down what is quite possibly the sketchiest street in all of Copenhagen. Not a winning combination. On the plus side I made it! Our flight took off around 8:30 and we connected through Stockholm to get to Edinburgh. From Edinburgh we took a bus to Glasgow, which is only about an hour away. The first day we had an academic visit and went to a museum, nothing too exciting.

Monday - Wednesday

We were in Glasgow for Monday to Wednesday going on academic visits and exploring the city when we had a couple hours of free time. Glasgow is a pretty industrial city, especially when you compare it to Edinburgh. As one of the Scottish men we interviewed for a project told us, "Glasgow is Scotland's New York City and Edinburgh is our DC". Overall, Glasgow was a neat city to see but not necessarily a tourist destination. Outside Glasgow in the country is beautiful though. Full of rolling hills, super green grass, and quaint towns.  Highlights: Willow Tea Room and Glengoyne Distillery. Things I learned: I hate whiskey. But I love scones.

Wednesday - Saturday

On Wednesday morning, after one of my friends set off the smoke alarm in our hotel from trying to put cheese on bread in the toaster (minor detail), we got on the bus and drove an hour to Edinburgh. Right when we got to Edinburgh we dropped our bags off in our hotel and ventured out on a walking tour. SO fun and beautiful!

We also had lunch at the cafe where some of the first Harry Potter books were written. It was a cute little restaurant with a gorgeous view of the Edinburgh castle, which was part of the inspiration for Hogwarts.

On Friday early morning, four of my friends and I got up bright and early to hike up Arthur's Seat, which has the most beautiful view of Edinburgh. If you ever make it over to Scotland, this hike is a must. It's incredible.

Things I learned in Edinburgh: It's possible for it to rain and be sunny four or five times a day. Because of this, I've learned that rain boots are a great invention. And the best part of my trip: Look what sweet friend I found!!! Missed her so much. So glad I got to see you and can't wait to see you again so soon! :)

OktoBEERfest

Once again my apologies for not blogging recently, but once again I've been really busy! And I'm sure you've guessed from the title of this post (and maybe even from my millions of Facebook pictures) that yes, I went to Oktoberfest this past weekend. And yes, it was insane. On Friday morning Halley (one of my roommates) and I woke up at the crack of dawn to head to the Copenhagen airport. We flew from CPH to Zurich, Switzerland and had a twenty minute layover. Sidenote: sorry Mom and Dad, I'm sure that layover time is making you cringe right about now. Anyways, we hopped on another plane and took a quick 35 minute plane flight to Munich, Germany. We navigated the public transportation situation pretty well, besides the fact that we took a pretty roundabout way to our hotel. After a little language barrier issue with the receptionist at the hotel involving the fact that eight people were going to sleep in a room for two, we dropped our bags off and headed to Oktoberfest. And just like any study abroad college student should, we immediately started enjoying the beers and HUGE pretzels. That night we also went on some rides like the swings which were pretty awesome. Wasn't expecting Oktoberfest to also have an amusement park? Pleasant surprise. 

The next day we woke up at 4:45 am so that we could reserve a table in one of the "tents". These aren't actually tents, they're buildings with tons of tables. They let us in around 8:30 am and we ordered beers promptly at 9:00. Possibly the earliest I've ever drank in my life. So early but yet so worth it. About an hour into it things started getting pretty rowdy, apparently it was the weekend when all the Italians go to Oktoberfest and they were singing some sort of anthem alllllll day. Needless to say, we had a ton of fun.

Our trip was super short, we had to get up at 3:30 am to start our journey back to Copenhagen. Despite being in Munich for less than 48 hours, our whirlwind of a three days was totally worth it. Way too many beers, pretzels, and bratwursts later, I have fully recovered and have gone to the gym every day since. This week I've just been going to class and leave for SCOTLAND on Sunday!!! So excited. I'll be sure to update once I'm back :)

A small world leads to a baking adventure

Along with the many cultural things I've learned while abroad, there is also another very important thing I've learned: the world is small. Very small. Long story short, it took me traveling all the way to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet my new sweet friend Parker. We live just minutes away from each other in Denver and have never met. What is even crazier is that my Dad knows her Dad through work. We met each other only days into our time here, while at the same time my dad and her dad were emailing about how both their daughters are in Copenhagen, studying abroad, and should meet. So crazy! Anyway, Parker has become one of my closest friends here. We share a mutual love for #twitterhashtags and Colorado, which obviously made us fast friends. (Does it sound like we're dating now? Sorry 'bout it.)

So Parker and I have decided to set a goal: bake/cook something yummy and new every week and document them. It's something to force me to blog often and a great excuse to eat and hang out. This past week we made one of my personal faves--oreos baked inside chocolate chip cookies. Pure bliss. If you haven't made these, try them. All you do is make chocolate chip cookie dough, wrap an oreo in the dough, and bake them like you would normally bake cookies. So easy and so yummy! Shockingly my apartment's small oven baked the cookies and pulled through when it needed to. So proud.

Using my new Picnik talent. Loving it.

Hope these photos have made you hungry :) Tune in next week for our next creation!

A Trip Around Western Denmark

Hello! Sorry I haven't blogged in quite some time, this past week has truly been a whirlwind. This past Thursday I left for a three day trip around Western Denmark with one of my classes and am just now recovering from the exhaustion! I'm actually a little sick right now and I think it's just from traveling and touring, but I really can't complain because seeing Western Denmark was incredible. It's beautiful and I'm so glad I got to see other parts of the country I'm living in. During our trip we drove from Copenhagen (which is in Eastern Denmark) all the way to the opposite side of the country and everywhere in between. Denmark itself is pretty small; to drive from one side of it to the other is a mere four hours. Just to please my map-loving father (love you!) and hopefully help some of you see where I went here's a visual...

If you look on this map Copenhagen is on the far right, close to Sweden. On Thursday our class drove from Copenhagen to Esbjerg (on the western coast by where it says North Sea on the map), then to Ribe where we stayed for the night. Ribe is the most precious little town and we had a great time exploring. Unfortunately the town shuts down at 9 PM (not even a joke), so we had a difficult time finding things to do that night. However, our night did consist of climbing through a 12-year-old Dane's window since we were locked out of our hostel. We apparently didn't listen to the owner of the hostel when he explained how to get back into the hostel past 11 PM. Oops. Needless to say we found our own entertainment. Here are a couple pictures from Ribe


  

On Friday morning we woke up bright and early, got back on our bus, and drove to Arhus, which is right above the "k" in the word Denmark on the map. Later that afternoon, we drove from Arhus to Kolding for the night. On Saturday we saw a castle in Kolding called Koldinghus, which was really pretty. And after touring the castle we were given a "surprise", which of course was a pastry and coffee. This is something about Europe that I'm going to miss. America needs to start having more mid-day coffee breaks.

After the castle we went to a modern art museum, which was interesting to say the least. Apparently a bunch of chairs are considered art? I think my non-creative side kicked in because I was bored about three minutes into the tour. Naturally I started taking embarrassing pictures with friends in my class that felt the same way about the "modern art" as I did. By 7 PM we were back to Copenhagen and my roommates and I were exhausted to say the least. Since then, I haven't done anything really special and have not been doing homework because I can. There are elections tomorrow in Copenhagen, so things are a little crazy here. A lot of people have been walking up to me, trying to hand me roses in honor of the candidate they're supporting, and then we have the always awkward moment where I say, "Um, English?" (or in some sort of way that is much more polite). It's always a really interesting couple seconds after that. Do I smile and walk away? Do I speak to them in English? There really is no good way to make this situation less awkward. Other than that, I've managed to have a week with very few awkward Danish/English encounters, which I consider a success. I'll be sure to let you know when more arise, as I'm sure they will. Anyways, I need to wrap up this post because I actually have my first assignment due tomorrow. Weird. I'll update soon! Until then, farvel! (Goodbye in Danish. I'm learning.)