A hygge time.
Trip Start
Jan 24, 2010
1
15
16
Trip End
Jun 16, 2010
Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
There's so much to say about what I did over break, so I'll start from the beginning: Copenhagen.
At 2:30am two Fridays ago I hopped in a cab to catch my 5am (Jordanian time) flight to Copenhagen. The flights were nice and quick (though, not quiet quick enough for my taste) and I was in Copenhagen at 9:15am (Danish time). I practically ran through the airport--it is ridiculously huge--and didn't even have to go through customs and get my passport stamped, which was lucky considering I had hummus and fruit in my bag that I technically shouldn't have taken across borders, though no one stopped me when my bag went through the cameras.
Anyway, I burst through the doors to find John Bly, clad in pink plaid and donning an extra hairy face. We then made our way to "Shit Island" which is basically a little beach town that's really pretty and has a lovely view of a bunch of wind mills in the ocean. It was beautiful and the weather was even warm enough to go without a jacket. It was also nice to be in a country where there are even side walks, bikes, recycling, excellent public transportation, and bakeries with delicious danishes and cakes!
After Shit Island John showed me around Copenhagen and we sat and ate danish caramel cake on a street corner. Then, we went to his house to nap and meet his host family. His host parents are hilarious, incredibly sweet, and amazing cooks. His host brothers are also hilarious, shy, and wear too much hair gel, but are great none-the-less. His brothers had parties to go to, so John and I spent the nigh with his parents eating tacos, salad, ice cream with cookies and kaluah, and drinking wine. This was my first taste of alcohol since Foofoo's birthday party, so needless to say I got giggly pretty quickly. It was embarrassing, but I survived...thankfully.
The next day after eating an array of danish pastries for breakfast John and I went to the art museum, the botanical gardens, and visited Christiania, which is an area in Copenhagen the seceded from Denmark....though they still get free healthcare from the Danish government. It seemed like a really lovely area, but it was kind of ruined by the swarms of people who were there only for the hashish.
After Christiania, John and I went to the canals...to snag a bike. At the bottom of the canals (like in Amsterdam) there are tons of bikes just rotting away because someone stole a bike and then discarded it in the water. Since John's bike was recently stolen as well he concocted the idea to fish a new bike out of the water and fix it up instead of buying an entirely new bike. After a few throws we caught a red bike that was covered in seaweed and sea creatures, but still had air in the tires and overall was in decent condition. After cleaning off our catch we went back to the house for dinner with the family. We had falafel, smoked salmon, potato wedges, fresh homemade bread, chocolate cake, and some more ice cream.
Normally, I wouldn't go into so much detail about what i ate, because seriously, who cares? No one reading this I'm sure....but after living off of only middle eastern food for the past 2 months (which, don't get me wrong, is usually really good) the food I had over break (especially in Copenhagen) is beyond exciting, for me at least and I'm sorry it makes for a boring blog post.
Anyway, after dinner we all sat around and watched X-Factor, which is the Danish version of American Idol. It was the finale, so it was a BIG deal. A 30-something year old teacher named Thomas beat out a 16 year old girl and a 13 year old boy. The 13 year old was very angst-y so it made the show enjoyable it a non-intentional way.
The next day John and I said our goodbyes to his family (after receiving some delicious Easter candy from his host grandmother) and hopped on a flight to Bulgaria, where we would stay for the next 5 days...but I'll leave this for another entry.
