There's something rotten in the state of Denmark!

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Wow, can't believe that it is December 12th and I have finished all of my traveling within Europe during this fall semester. It has been quite a semester and quite a time in my life. And this last adventure had some key excitements to it that made it totally worth the lack of sleep, going solo to one city, and just getting away from Bodo. Well first off, I should point out kind of a strange coincidence that happened here the night before I left.

For most of us international students, we had our Norwegian Language final on Wednesday, December 2nd and just relaxed afterward, talking about the results and left wondering how we did on translating our paragraphs on the Nobel Peace Prize winners. I was going to return to my little room and take a nap but sleep would not come. So later that afternoon, I went with a big group of girls to go see New Moon. But before the movie, we went over to a cafe to talk and drink coffee until showtime rolled around. And as we sat in the small coffee shop near the SAS Radisson, a familiar song came across the radio...it was "Georgia" by Carolyn Dawn Johnson, a mildly popular country singer that I had seen open for Martina McBride and Alan Jackson during a concert at the Gorge in my early teen years. And I instantly noticed it because CDJ is the only star I've ever met and spoken to. When my Mom and I were at that concert for my birthday, we just happen to be in the right spot and CDJ came over, shook hands with people, and signed autographs. And I remember not knowing exactly who she was, but she was really sweet and even commented that she liked my shirt which, on that day, I happened to be wearing my favorite shirt with gray sleeves, a white base, and a cool tan swirl/flower design. That was a day I will never forget and hearing the "Georgia" song in the cafe just took me back to that. Ah, sweet memories!

Anyways, to the real point of this blog. After a quick shower and some last minute packing on Thursday morning, December 3rd, my travel buddy and I took off for the bus stop and ended up down by the train station around 11:30am. It was to be my last train ride and I was pretty excited and also pretty exhausted. We hadn't returned to our rooms until 3a.m. the "night before" so I was pretty sleepy. After about an hour on the train, I was out and slept on and off for about three hours. And when I woke up, I just leaned back in my chair and watched the scenery around me. I thought of my first train ride back in September and how much things had changed since then. On that particular trip, I was really anxious and agitated and so unsure of my future. I'm still not sure of some things, but I'm actually sleeping, breathing normal again, and just not as worried. I think Norway has kind of taught me to chill, relax and don't worry about the bigger picture. I'm still a total worrier but I can actually sit in a room and not have to have noise around me to distract me from my thoughts. So as I sat there in my seat, I smiled at the dark blue sky against the black shadows of the mountains. Norway is such a beautiful country -- some times I forget...

The entire final 18-hour train ride went by faster than I thought it would, but sleeping on that second train was, as usual, impossible. We got off the train on Friday morning at 6:06a.m. and hurried through security to get to our 7am flight. We were a little delayed but got into Copenhagen (Kobenhavn) around 8:45a.m. and met up with D's friend, Zach who is also from Missouri and has been studying in the city for the fall semester. And after the Metro ride, we went to the Danish Institute for Study Abroad and chilled while Zach was in class.

After his class, we headed over to Rosenborg Have, a giant and beautiful park as Zach told us about life, the locals, and the plans for the weekend. We toured the Rosenborg Slot, the small palace on the grounds and saw some of the most beautiful old clocks, some amazing paintings, the cutlery, the crown jewels, and saw the Royal Danish guards! Then we headed over to the Rundetårn (Round Tower), a giant well...Round Tower from the 17th century built by Christian IV as an astronomical observatory. We made the 210m, 7.5 turns up the stone ramp (designed that way so a horse and carriage could carry books up to its library) to the top to get gorgeous views of the city. And it was gorgeous. It was a beautiful view and I was glad that we had made the climb. Copenhagen, like every other city I've visited this fall, looked different than I thought, but not in a bad way. Every city surprised me in their own way.

In Copenhagen, the whole city was very geared up for the U.N. Climate Conference that was to be held that following week. It sucks we missed it by a week because I would've loved to have been there! Of course, I am a science geek so a climate conference would be right up my alley. But despite all of the CO2 campaigns and clean up slogans, the city itself was also very "bike-friendly." We saw a LOT of bikes, one row I even snapped a picture of. And it had a beautiful history and modern life with its 1.8 million people all spread out. After visiting the Round Tower, we took our luggage and headed out to Zach's flat about an hour away from the city centre. With broken trains, we ended up taking three different ones which took about an hour and a half to get out to his place in Hillerod. And we walked over to his housing complex, met his friends, showered, took a nap, then headed down for a good dinner in his dining area. After a good dinner, we went to the store and bought some Julglogg, this amazingly delicious red mulled wine that is actually a Scandinavian traditional Christmas drink. It...was...amazing. And we drank some while we played cards and chatted with his friends. Around 10 or so, we headed back out and made our way downtown to his friends house. And after meeting her and chatting for a few hours, I passed out, but had to get up as we made our way back to Zach's around 3a.m. And with a lot of delays and getting stuck out in the rain, we finally made it back around 4:30 and slept until 10:30a.m.

It was pretty hard to pull myself out of the warm bed, but the threat of missing breakfast if we didn't get up inspired both D and I to get going. I threw on my I Love London sweatshirt and headed downstairs and we enjoyed some crepes (European pancakes), fruit, eggs, bacon (yes...bacon...amazing, haven't had it since I've been here), and some OJ before going back to get dressed and ready to go downtown. We started our second day of sight-seeing with a stop at Christiania, an old Christianhavn Fortress that has been rebuilt into this sort of what I like to call -- "Reefer City." Here, there is an open market where you can purchase "happy brownies" and a joint on the corner while the Woodstock Cafe lures you to its doors and the fish tank above the bathrooms in the bar keep you in wonder. We couldn't take pictures in this part, but it was definitely a hippy paradise and a place where you don't discriminate. No, we didn't sample the local merchandise, but instead just took a walk through, amazed at the smell that was passing by us. And I thought of my friends (and quite possibly my sister) who would love to see this and totally fit in at this hippy paradise. 😊

Next, we took a train then hopped off to go see Den Lille Havfrue, the Little Mermaid. But we ended up heading towards Mamorkirken, this old church near the Royal Grounds. And after a nice walk through the Amallenborg Palace where the queen and the rest of her royal family now reside. It was gorgeous and we saw more Danish Royal Guards as we made our way to the waterfront. We even saw a HUGE battleship in the harbor and the Opera House across the channel before continuing our walk up the waterfront to the statue. Along the way, we saw the building where Michelle Obama had recently stayed, a remake of Michelangelo's David statue and the Old Fortress. And then we got to it -- the statue I had been so excited to see.

You see my stepdaddy was stationed over in Europe during Vietnam and during that time, he had traveled to Copenhagen. One night when I was much younger, he pulled out his old slides and a projector and we saw all of them including this Little Mermaid statue. So it was a big thing for me when I finally got to see it in person on December 5th. Before the Disney version, the Little Mermaid was known as a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. And it was first published in this city where Hans lived for awhile. I read a little bit about his history and he was quite a writer, always in and out of love with the wrong people, but a great writer of children's tales in his time. The statue is just one thing in the city dedicated to him and its very cute, but a little sad. Even though there were tourists around it, I felt as though she was humble and solemn, looking out over the seawater, constantly watching for something more. Is that not what I've been doing too? It's very beautiful, but made me a little sad also.

After seeing the statue, it was pretty chilly by the waterfront so we headed back into town and did some souvenir shopping and grabbed a varm sjokolade (hot chocolate) at a small cafe. Then we headed over to Zach's friend's place to meet the three Irish girls and there other two Irish friends that showed up later. They were awesome and so funny. I think their accent made the night a lot of fun and all three of them were very friendly and energetic. One, I think her name was Carla, made a Christmas tree out of green plastic bags and made her Christmas hat out of a magazine and celebrated her recycling ability with all of us. And we ate a great meal of meat, potatoes, and veggies and drank a lot more glogg. And we just talked about where we were from, some recent things, etc. And of course when I mentioned Alaska the typically response -- you mean where Sarah Palin's from? Ah I'm going to miss that European response! 😊 It was such a fun night and we just enjoyed each other's company for a few hours before Zach got a call and we headed back towards his place.

We got back around 11:30pm or so, packed, played some cards, and then called it a night after we realized we had to get up and catch the 5a.m. train to get Destinee to the airport in time. The next morning came WAY too early and I think I was just glaring and staring the entire way. And after a goodbye at the airport, I grabbed a quick breakfast, a Danish, banana, and tea then headed to a chair and passed out for three hours before my 11:30a.m. flight to Stockholm...

P.S. There's something rotten in the state of Denmark...total Hamlet line, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays! 😊 Just reminded me of that as I headed to Denmark during the trip.

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