Saturday, May 14, 2011

The end is near...

Things are drawing to a close. I've been spending every minute I can soaking up the city this past week, even though I was writing a paper, and now I only have a few days left here. As of this afternoon I'm officially done with finals and papers (hooray!) and that means I'm a senior, which is insane. I spent quite a bit of time in the King's Gardens, caught up with friends, and just kept denying the fact that in a little over a week, I'll be back in the states. My family is on their way to Copenhagen now (they're literally in the air right now) and I'm going to the airport in the morning to meet them!!! I get to show off my city one last time before it's over. I'm trying to look at it positively because there's no avoiding the fact that I've leaving, but I'm still really, really going to miss it here. If I don't get the chance to post again while I'm here, since I'll be busy doing things with my family, I'll make sure to do a wrap-up post when I get home. I just can't believe how fast this semester flew!

Vi ses!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Last weeks

We're finally back to the present with this blog!

I only have 16 days left here, and one of those weeks my family and Amy will be here! We're spending some time in Copenhagen and then going to Sweden and Bornholm, which I'm really looking forward to. Time is going far too fast and I don't want it to end. Today is a great day because it was my last day of classes, I got an A on the paper I cared most about, the weather is sunny and beautiful, I just ate a pastry (I'm going to miss them so much), and I rode my bike to class again!

Last weekend I went on the DIS Tall Sailing trip, which was so much fun! It was great to see more parts of Denmark and the sailboat was from 1901--so cool! I helped make lunch both of the days and it felt like a big accomplishment to prepare food for 20 people in such a tiny kitchen. My new life goal is to become a sailor if nothing else works out. Fun times!


New friends!

This week I did a lot of things on my own that I've wanted to do all semester but have been putting off until the weather was nicer. On Wednesday I biked to Frederiksberg Gardens, since they're so close to where I live, and had a nice leisurely walk around the park. There were very cute goslings everywhere and I was tempted to steal one (but the mother goose looked rather protective). I wanted to go to the zoo there too, but I didn't have enough money (story of my life) so I just tried to peek in from a distance.

Cute!!

Yesterday, I went up the spire of the church in Christianshavn and got a great view of the city, and then I went to see a Titanic exhibition at Tivoli. (In case you don't know, I used to be a huge Titanic buff and have been to multiple exhibits already.) I was rather disappointed by this one, actually. The audio guide was mediocre (it kept telling me I was supposed to feel emotional) and they didn't actually have that many items from the Titanic...most of them were from her sister ship, the Olympic. Which would be fine, but the audio guide kept not acknowledging the fact that they weren't from the Titanic, even though the little sign clearly said they were from the Olympic. Also, I didn't completely agree with all their facts sometimes--sometimes they seemed slightly skewed for dramatic effect. Ah well, that's what I get for knowing too much about the Titanic. Although it was interesting to hear how Denmark and Sweden were involved with the Titanic. If you're in Copenhagen--don't waste your money on the Titanic exhibit! Just go to Tivoli.

Tomorrow there's a big DIS picnic, and also my church group is having a picnic in the same area. Two picnics for me! Hopefully the weather holds up. I'm planning on making the most of my final full week in Copenhagen (and writing one more paper, unfortunately). So bittersweet!

A vacation in Bath

Yes, getting from Salzburg to Bath took about 13 hours. I have discovered that most "travel" does not involve travel. Mostly, it's just waiting around. For instance, I sat in the airport in Cologne for 4 hours. During the course of the day, I read an entire 420 page book because there was literally nothing else to do. I didn't get to Bath until about 2 in the morning! Fortunately, Liza was there to greet me with a delicious cookie so it was all worth it.

Bath is a beautiful little town and it was SO nice to just relax and catch up with Liza. The weather was perfect while I was there so we spent a lot of time having picnics in various parks and soaking up vitamin D. Also, I was successfully English by having a Cornish pasty, treacle tart, tea, and cider & black, among other things. One night, we went to a cute little old movie theater and watched a French film while sipping wine. It felt very classy. (Also, the French film was called "Little White Lie" and it was good, but very sad. I should have expected this from a French film, though...)

A park near Liza's residence, with Bath Abbey in the background.

We went to the Roman Baths (yes, that's what Bath is named after) and it was really fascinating to see such old ruins. I'm still not entirely sure why the Romans thought it was a good idea to come all the way up to England, but they sure had some nice bathing facilities! Things dating back to the 1st century just boggle my mind. Also, it was amusing to see the workers cleaning out the main bath (you can see them in the background of the picture) because they kept knocking scum at each other. A fun job?

Liza and I at the Roman Baths

Another day, we went up on a tower tour of the abbey and got to see how the bells work (it made me jump when they rang right next to us). I love walking down the little spiral staircases in these big cathedrals--the steps are worn down from so many feet, and the middle post is so smooth from so many hands using it as support. You can just feel the oldness and can almost picture a bellringer or a priest walking up the stairs 400 years ago. History!!!


The Royal Crescent, one of the more famous locations in Bath.

I stayed in Bath for three wonderful days, and it felt like a real vacation because it was so relaxing after all the busy-ness of the previous week! But it went way too fast, and it was time to go back to Copenhagen. (Although I was definitely ready to stop living out of a suitcase!) I made a pit stop in London, though, because my flight didn't leave until (far too early) Saturday morning. I stayed with some wonderful family friends on Friday night, and I had the opportunity to wander London for 2 hours on Friday afternoon (that was as long as the station would hold my luggage without the price rate going up). Since I've been to London before, I didn't feel particularly compelled to rush around seeing everything, so I just had a leisurely walk while trying to avoid stepping on the heels of tourists. It was interesting to see all the things being set up for the royal wedding (which was exactly a week after I was there). There were already stands and barricades set up near Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. In fact, I realized later that I actually walked the exact route that the wedding procession went from Buckingham Palace to Westminster! (Well, it probably is the most direct route). That's my only claim-to-fame with the royal wedding...I was kind of there? Just a week too early. Somehow, I managed to get pictures of most of the touristy things anyway...Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, the ferris wheel, a red phone booth, Big Ben and Parliament, the Thames, Westminster Abbey...pretty good for two hours, eh?

Stands set up for the wedding by Westminster Abbey.

And so, I returned to my beloved Copenhagen, relieved to see that there were finally flowers and good weather! Thus marks the end of my travel break. (Hooray, I finally finished writing it down!)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Salzburg and the beautiful, beautiful Alps

The Austrian (and German) Alps are one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

View of Salzburg from Nonnberg Abbey

We got to Salzburg on Friday (with some slight travel confusion on the way) and spent a lot of our time just exploring the city on our own--I love the old part of the city, it has so much character! We opted out of the touristy Sound of Music tour because 1) it was 37 euros and we're frugal, 2) Nikki isn't a big SoM enthusiast anyway, and 3) the tour looked too touristy for even me to handle. I just looked up all the major places online and found them on the map myself! That way it was free and Nikki didn't have to listen to the soundtrack being played over and over (I just kept that in my head). Although I have to say, it was a bit anti-climactic. "Well, there's the gazebo. It's...a gazebo." We couldn't even go inside to jump from bench to bench--it was locked. Lame.

Me (distantly) and the gazebo

On Sunday the 17th (which also happened to be my 21st birthday!!), we took a day trip back into Germany to Königsee. There was a bit of bus frustration (that's an under-exaggeration) because we kept missing things, but we eventually got there! Even if we hadn't found Königsee, the bus ride itself would have been worth it because it went right through the Alps. It was so breathtakingly beautiful for me that I can't put words to it. In fact, it was so beautiful that it made me want to cry (and that doesn't happen very often). Pictures truly don't do justice. I've always preferred mountains over beaches anyway, so this was such a treat for me. Königsee is a cute little town nestled in the mountains on a lake--and not just any lake. Lake Königsee is the cleanest, deepest lake in Germany. Apparently, the lake water is so pure that you could just drink it. Only electric boats are allowed on the lake in order not to get it polluted with motor oil. We went on the boat tour (although it was in German and we didn't understand any of it) and saw things like this:

It was almost unreal! Not bad for a birthday view, if I do say so myself. For the rest of the day, we continued to explore and kept riding the bus on an unplanned side trip to another town in the Alps (called Bad Reichenhall, I think), where we discovered a tour of a salt mine (of which there are many, apparently). It was really fun to see all the towns nestled in the Alps and the bus rides themselves were gorgeous. I could've just stayed on the bus all day!

For my birthday dinner, we found a little Indian place near our hostel that was delicious and cute and decently priced (!) and had the best radler we've had so far! A good birthday, indeed. We spent the last sunny morning just soaking in the views one last time and realizing that this is the calm before the storm of senior year. I wish we could just stay forever!

Oh, and I also found a beer that I REALLY like called Edelweiss, in a random little Irish pub in Salzburg. Unfortunately, it's only made near Salzburg. Figures.

Next: 13 hours of travel and finally Bath, England.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Next stop: München

Unfortunately, the weather stopped being amazing when we got to Munich. The moment Nikki and I got to our hostel from the train station, it started pouring rain and it was significantly colder. However, we didn't let that stop us! We had umbrellas!

Highlights of Munich:

-Wombats Hostel: It was very clean, had private bathrooms, and was especially helpful for young people like us. The map they gave us had lots of recommendations of where to go (although all the bars we tried to find on there were epic fails). We shared our room with 4 other Americans, coincidentally--two girls were from Columbus, OH, going to grad school at OSU, and and two guys were from Wisconsin--small world! There was a bar at the hostel which was great for making friends, and we usually ended up there because of our failed attempts to find other places to go.

Lounge to hang out in the hostel

-Kaufingerstraße: The main shopping street leading to Marienplatz was fun to walk along and we kept getting distracted by stores that were far too expensive for us. (Although I did find a pair of boots for €15 that I succumbed to buying.) Also, I think we went into Crabtree & Evelyn about 4 times just to put on lotion. And we got disoriented in the largest department store I have ever seen. (We suspect that it was a time portal of some sort because we came out of it in an entirely different location.)

The beginning of Kaufingerstraße

-Dachau concentration camp: Originally, we weren't planning on going here but I'm glad so we did. We paid a little extra to have an actual tour guide instead of just an audio guide, which was definitely worth it. Dachau was the first Nazi camp established, in 1933. It was especially interesting to go to in the context of the Holocaust and Genocide class that I'm taking. It was a very thoughtful and moving experience. The original gas chamber and crematorium are still standing--it was really hard to walk through them, and my heart just felt so heavy. The contrast of the camp and all that it held compared to the beautiful spring trees was very jarring. Just as Neuengamme did, it made me realized how blessed I am to have amazing family and friends, out of harm's way. Seriously, don't ever under-appreciate what you have.

Memorial at Dachau

-Bike tour: We held out until Thursday to go on the bike tour, hoping that the weather would improve--and it did! The afternoon cleared up and it was actually sunny! There was a hunt for gloves in the fear that our hands would be too cold, but it ended up being fine and we didn't need gloves (which was a relief--the cheapest pair we could find was €20!). We ended up getting a private tour because no one else showed up--which would normally be way more expensive! The tour guide was from Australia and he was very cool, although sometimes he was a bit hard to understand with his accent. It was SO nice to get on a bike because my feet were so tired of walking. And it let us see so much more of the city, so much faster! We got to learn about all the history I had been dying to know about (of course) and we had a beer in a cute little place in the Englischer Garten. I loved biking through the park--by far my favorite place in Munich! If you ever go to Munich, I would definitely recommend Mike's Bike Tours.

Nikki in the Englischer Garten

-Beer halls/beer gardens: Such a fun atmosphere! We went to Hofbrauhaus, which is one of the most famous beer halls, and also found some other ones. Unfortunately, a lot of the outdoor beer gardens weren't open because it was cold and rainy the majority of the time, but it was still fun to see them. Also, they have delicious (and very large) pretzels everywhere. Munich is as good a place as any to start appreciating beer (which I did)! And radler, of course.

Beer hall staples

All in all, it was a great three days in Munich and, even with some mishaps, it made me fall in love with Germany even more. Add that to places I would like to live!

Next post: Salzburg and the Alps