The Week with my Family

Original Post Date: June 15, 2019

Original Post Location: VED MØNTEN, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

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I am writing this week’s blog from our balcony in order to soak up as much sun as possible before I jet off to the Faroe Islands for five days where it will be cold and rainy the majority of the time. My professor described the weather there as very intense and, in your face, similar to being on boat in the middle of the ocean.

Most of this week was spent hanging out with my family and showing them around Copenhagen! I really enjoyed taking them to all my favorite places as well as finding new things to experience with them. I am happy to say that they quickly got the hang of biking here and were able to get around on their own by their last day!

6.10.19

This was to be the first full day of activities with my family, but due to the Danish Holiday that I forgot about, it got off to a rocky start. We had plans to rent bikes for my parents first thing in the morning. Thankfully our Airbnb had a bike that we could borrow so we did not need to worry about getting one for Sidney. Although in order to use the bike from the Airbnb, we needed to get it to the city center, and you can’t take a bike on the bus. So, I volunteered to ride the bike 30 minutes to the city while my family rode the bus. This turned out to be a bit of a stressful situation because they were still not sure of the bus stop names and if they were to get lost I would not be able to contact them because their phone plan did not work over here. After taking a screen shot of the bus route and sending it to Sidney, I headed off on my bike to meet them at their bus stop. I arrived at the stop a few minutes before they did and nervously waited for the bus in hopes that they made it. When the bus finally pulled up, they got off and we walked to my apartment to grab my bike and head to the bike rental store. Once we arrived, we found out that they were closed for the Holiday. These threw our plans off for the day because we had originally wanted to bike to a couple castles, and they were not very close to each other. Instead we decided to stick to things within the city center and close walking distance. We chose to start at the Round Tower, and even though I had already climbed up this tower it was still cool because I was able to see things that I hadn’t before. After we came down from the tower we walked to the King’s garden for lunch. Once we finished lunch, we went to the Rosenborg Castle since it is located right next to the gardens. This castle tour was very interesting because the majority of the architecture and items inside the castle go back past the 1600’s. On our way to the next stop we decided to treat ourselves with cheesecake from Bertel’s Salon. It worked out that we were close to where we left the two bikes so we decided we would grab them on our way to Tivoli so we could head home right after. Although when we got to where the bikes were supposed to be, mine wasn’t there. Thankfully the bike from the Airbnb was still there, but mine was not. I contacted the rental company to let them know what had happened and ended up waiting 7 hours for them to get back to me. (It turned out that since I had parked my bike near their shop, they thought it was a return, so they had taken it inside.) Tivoli was the last item on the list for the day. It is the oldest amusement park in Europe. It was a cool park, but we went at a bad time when there were no concerts or other events to watch so we ended up just walking around since none of us like rollercoaster rides. Once we decided that there wasn’t much else to see in Tivoli we headed home. Me on the lone bike and my family on the bus. When we got home, we ate dinner and played four handed solitaire.

6.11.19

We wanted to try to rent bikes again, so I rode the Airbnb bike back to the city and my family rode the bus. After meeting them at the bus stop, we walked to Emmery’s to have pastries for breakfast. We then went back to the bike rental shop to pick up my bike and bikes for my parents. Thankfully it was easy to get everything worked out with the bikes and then we rode to the Amalienborg palaces. This is a cluster of four palaces built to form a circle. One of the palaces is currently occupied by the Queen. We were able to tour one of the palaces and watch the changing of the guards. After exploring the palaces, we rode to the square by DIS to eat lunch at my favorite hot dog cart so my family could eat a Copenhagen Street Dog. We then went to the Nørreport Station to board the train and go to the Louisiana Museum. The main reason that I wanted to go to the museum was to see the pixel light display, which was an amazing immersive exhibit that was created to allow you to walk through a video. Each little light was one pixel and together they created a video that could only be seen if you were 600 feet away. Once we were back in the city, we headed to a sports store so I could buy hiking boots for my trip to the Faroe Islands. After this we all rode our bikes back to the Airbnb. We grilled hamburgers for dinner and afterwards rode our bikes to the beach to walk on a pier and watch the sunset.

6.12.19

This was the first day of class for Session 2, but I didn’t have class until 1 PM so we started the day with a bike ride back to the city center for a tour of the Christiansborg Palace. This castle is huge and still used daily by the Danish Government, so we were only able to tour parts of it. Before I went to class, we were able to tour the Royal Kitchen and Reception Rooms. At noon we at lunch along the canal before I had to go to class. My class was from 1-3 PM and since it is a Nordic Culinary Culture class, we got to sample a Danish snack. We also got out early because it was the first day and we were just going over the syllabus. I then met back up with my family, while I was in class the climbed to the top of the Church of Our Savior, and we rode our bikes to the Central Station to get on an S-Tog train toward Albertslund to go giant hunting. We were able to find two of the giants “Thomas on the Mountain” and “Lille Tilde.” These two giants are located on opposite sides of a small lake, which made it easy to do both of them in one stop. Thankfully this was a quicker adventure than the last time I want giant hunting, we were on our way home by 5 PM. After getting off the train at the Central Station we rode our bikes back to the Airbnb. Sadly, after dinner I packed my bag and headed back to my apartment in order to be closer to my classroom for my 9 AM class.

6.13.19

Thankfully the weather decided to cooperate for my families last day in Copenhagen, and it was sunny and warm all day. I started my day with class from 9-1 where we discussed the origin of Nordic food as well as what the Study Tour will be like. We also got to try Danish candy, which is mainly black licorice. After class I met my family at my apartment, and we went down to the canal for another boat ride. We also walked around the Stroget, the main shopping street, and they bought the last of their souvenirs. After the boat ride we returned their bikes, which left us to walk everywhere again. For a snack we stopped at Lagkagehuset, a popular bakery, and had a strawberry tart and a chocolate tart. Then we rode the harbor bus to Reffen for dinner. We all ordered something different from the various food stands and chatted about the week while we ate. After we finished eating and looking around we rode the bus back to my apartment where we said our goodbyes. I then began working on the massive amount of homework that I had. We were tasked with reading articles about pilot whaling that we would then be debating about in class the next day.

6.14.19

I had class the majority of the day while my family flew back to the United States. In class we discussed what we will be doing in the Faroe Islands and we also had a Faroese guest speaker come talk to us who explained what life is like on the Islands. She shared with us a meal that they eat regularly for lunch which consisted of dried fish, cooked baby potatoes, and butter. The dried fish is similar in texture to beef jerky, but it had a very intense smell. I tried it but couldn’t get over the smell in order to enjoy it. After class I had an hour break before a meeting with the Marketing and Communications team, so I rode around the city and stumbled upon a flea market close to the Christiansborg Palace. This was one of the fanciest flea markets I’d seen with beautiful jewelry, silver dishes and serve ware, and hand painted china. Its safe to say that everything was out of my price range. I then headed back for my meeting, which was about doing an Instagram Takeover for DIS while I am in the Faroe Islands. I will be doing the takeover this coming Wednesday on the Instagram account @summeratdis. Once I got home, I headed to the little canal near my apartment to relax and wait for it to be time for community dinner. While waiting I was able to call one of my friends from home and catch up as well as start to figure our travel plans after she arrives in Europe for her study abroad. When we finished up our conversation, I went back home for community dinner. After everyone started to go back to their respective apartments, Natalie and I came back to our apartment with Raechel to watch some of the films that Natalie has created while in school.

6.15.19

It thunder stormed all day, which made for a good day to relax and get things in order before the Study Tour. Later in the afternoon we went to the mall to pick up supplies for our trips. Although we did not time this very well with the rain because on our way back, we ended up standing in the pouring rain for 10 minutes while we waited on the bus. Since I am trying not to buy much food before I leave, and I already ate all the leftovers from when my family was here, I went to the grocery store across the street to get a couple of microwave meals for the next couple of days.

6.16.19

By the time I woke up for church the clouds from the day before had cleared, and it was nice and sunny outside. I met Maura at our usual spot for breakfast and our Bible study before church. This Sunday our church was having their Summer Street Party. They blocked off the two streets next to church and had rides, games, a sand pit, food vendors, and a stage for performances. Maura and I ate lunch and hung out here for a little while. Afterwards I went to one of the local secondhand stores to look for a raincoat to use on the Islands, and I was able to find one of the traditional bright yellow ones! I then went home to work on some homework and pack. I decided to call it an early night because I need to be at the airport at 4 AM.

Weekly Overview – Copenhagen Week 4:

1. Places Visited

• The Round Tower

• The King’s Garden

• Rosenborg Castle

• Bertel’s Salon

• Tivoli

• Amalienborg palaces

• Louisiana Museum

• Amager Beach

• Christiansborg Castle

• Thomas on the Mountain (Giant 3 of 6)

• Lille Tilde (Giant 4 of 6)

2. Favorite Moment

Riding along the beach with my family watching people wind surf while the sun was going down.

3. The Best Food I Ate

A jordbærtæte from Lagkagehuset. (The Strawberry Tart).

4. A Helpful Tip

I would recommend visiting Tivoli at night or in the evening so you can see the park lit up with all the lights. It would be even better if you could go on a Saturday night because they do a firework show every Saturday.

5. The Best View

The view of the ocean from the lawn at the Louisiana Museum.