My last week in Denmark was amazing. On Sunday, we had a birthday dinner for my friend Josh, who was on my trip to Rome. It was a nice way to see each other and say an early goodbye. It was also a nice celebration for him, since it was his 21st birthday. The next day, Monday, I had my one and only final from 3-5. After my final, I went to Bente's house for dinner. She lives about 20 minutes outside the city in a lovely suburban area. She cooked traditional Danish food for me, it was magnificent! I'm not quite sure what they were called in Danish, so I'll try and describe them in English. There were pickled cucumbers, and these hamburger type things, but without buns. Over the pseudo-hamburgers was sauteed onions, which was SO good. As a side dish, there were potatoes, with this delicious, special Danish sauce. The whole meal was absolutely fantastic and so filling. Bente even made dessert! We had Ris a la Mande, which is the rice pudding type thing, with almonds in it, &a warm cherry sauce over it. It was to die for good. Everything was absolutely delicious, so hopefully I'll be able to get the recipes. She also gave me the prettiest ornament from Georg Jensen. It's a beautiful gold heart that hangs on a red string, I love it! Hopefully I'll be able to come back to Denmark one day to visit her, or hopefully she'll come to New York!
The next day, Tuesday, I went with some of my close friends, Alex, Aubrey and Laura to the largest mall in Scandinavia. Funny how you go to a completely different continent, different culture &you still end up in a mall. It was only a 10 minute metro ride away, and we got to pass the Bella Center along the way which is where all of the Climate Conferences are happening. I've never seen so many people standing in such a long line in such freezing weather. But the mall was a great experience: I finally bought myself a pair of boots! A little late, since I couldn't send them home, but it's all good. After the mall, we decided that we would go to Christiania's Christmas market. Christiania is a part of Copenhagen that is very special...essentially, people are living there illegally. It's state owned property and people that live there don't pay house taxes or anything. However, it's more commonly known as the drug center...you can easily go there to get weed, or anything harder that you might want. Because of this, I hadn't yet been to Christiania, but every Dane I spoke to said that I must go. So after the mall, the 4 of us took the Metro to Christiania for their annual Christmas market. Walking into Christiania was a little sketchy, but then once you were in, it was like you were no longer in Denmark. It was honestly kind of like walking into a tent city on the lower east side of New York City. People were sitting around fires that were started in garbage cans to keep warm, and there were just booths around the edges of people selling things. They don't want people taking pictures, so I can't show you, but it was definitely different than any other part of Denmark I've seen thus far. The market itself was inside luckily, because at this point it had started to snow. We wandered around, but most of the things were kind of hippie-ish. I did buy a gorgeous pair of earrings though, that were handmade by the woman selling them, similar to the Made by Mara booth in the Union Square Markets. After shopping, I headed out to dinner with my group of friends from my core class. There are 7 of us, and it was so nice to just catch up and talk with friends. After dinner, we headed to karaoke, which always proves to be a fun time.
Wednesday was another jam packed day. Alex and I woke up early to catch a train to Malmö, Sweden. It's amazing that we can just take a train across the water to Sweden, don't need a passport and it didn't take more than an hour. Malmö is sort of just a much smaller version of Copenhagen, which makes sense, due to the fact that Denmark ruled Sweden for a long time, and they are close in proximity. It was lovely just walking around Malmö, and it even started snowing! Many people from Copenhagen head to Malmö to go shopping because it's not outrageously expensive to get there and the prices are exactly the same, but when compared to the US dollar, something that is 250 SEK versus 250 DKK is much cheaper. With the Swedish kroner you divide by 7, versus the Danish kroner you divide by 5. After walking around Malmö, we came back to Copenhagen to go to a "dinner bop," Christmas themed! We all went to Brittany's room, and it was a nice small gathering, with Brittany, Laura, Aubrey, Alex and myself. We tried to have everything red &green themed, and then have some latkes, but alas, that did not work out too well. The latkes ended up being a no-go, but we did have red &green peppers, as well as snap peas in our stirfry, so it was good. As a salad, we had spinach leaves, with dried cranberries &goat cheese: very green &red and very delicious! We also attempted to make the Ris a la Mande for dessert...it actually turned out pretty well! During dinner, it had begun to snow, so by the time we headed outside, Copenhagen was covered, and it stuck!! Both Brittany and Aubrey are from California, so they LOVED the snow. Ironically, we were headed to the Ice Bar, on the one night it decided to snow in Copenhagen. The Ice Bar is part of the Ice Hotel, but it is literally a bar that is all ice. All of the walls are ice, all the cups are ice, all the tables are ice, etc. You get these huge blue parkas to wear to keep you warm. We all went there, and had an amazing time, though it did get a tad chilly. After the Ice Bar, we headed to Mojo's Blues Bar to listen to some quality live music before heading home for the night in the snow.
Alex, Me, Aubrey &Laura at our Christmas dinner bop!
All 5 of us in our huge, warm blue parkas in the ice bar! As you can see, all the walls around us are completely made of ice, as are our cups.
Thursday we decided to sleep in a bit, and then Laura, Alex and I went to the Planetarium. I always forget how much I love Planetariums, Aquariums, Zoos, etc. But it was loads of fun, plus we got to see an IMAX movie, about the sea, and how global warming was affecting everything. It was cool to see how even the Planetarium related things to COP15, the environmental conference going on in Copenhagen my last 2 weeks here. After the Planetarium, Alex and I met up with our friends from our housing to go to a last final dinner at Hard Rock. It was nice to get everyone together for the last time.
Friday was really the last full day that most people had in Copenhagen, and was the day that DIS had their closing ceremony. I went to say goodbye to many of my friends, and my teachers, which was really sad. I got to say goodbye to all of my friends from my core class, which was so nice. Then, after the ceremony, Alex, Laura, Brittany and I all went out to our favorite restaurant, The Laundromat Cafe for dinner. Because Friday was most peoples last nights, my whole hall went out together Friday night. There's a night club across the street from my apartment, and it just so happened that one of our favorite singers, Medina, who is very popular in Sweden and Denmark was going to be there that night. So naturally, we all decided to go to the night club, La Hacienda, to see Medina. It was completely packed with people, both DIS students and Danes. After seeing Medina, we stayed for a bit more, but then headed back. At 5:30 AM, all 3 of my roommates left, which was sad, and also meant I was living in a huge, empty, quad by myself. But it was sad to say goodbye.
my group of friends from my core class at the DIS closing ceremony.
Yesterday, Saturday, was just spent packing and cleaning as was today. It's so surreal, that the whole semester is over. It flew by. I feel as though I just got to Copenhagen. I've never been good at goodbyes, and these were harder than usual, because it's not like you're just going to see them when you go back to school next semester. We're all spread out all over the country and you never really know when you'll see them again. Hopefully, though, we will all get to see each other again soon.
Now, I'm leaving tonight to meet Kelsey in Salzburg Austria, then Venice Italy, then Brussels, Belgium &finally London before heading home. I'm sure it'll be a great two weeks, with tons of new experiences! But for now, it's not hej hej Danmark, it's vi ses: it's not good-bye Denmark, it's see you later.
No comments:
Post a Comment