Rainy Day in Copenhagen

It’s been quite a while since I last posted! I’ve been keeping busy with the last weeks of classes and final things going on. Fortunately, I had some time for a little adventure, and I’d love to share it with you guys!

This past Sunday I went with a friend of mine into Copenhagen to support a couple of guys in our kitchen who were running the marathon! We were planning to go in early, explore the city for a bit, and then cheer them on at the finish line. The race started at 9:30, and that’s when we decided to leave Kampsax. We walked to the bus stop and read that the next bus wasn’t coming for 35 minutes. It was a bummer, but instead we walked down into Lyngby and took a train from there to Norreport in Copenhagen. At this point it was a bit foggy, but we didn’t mind. The past couple of days had been really sunny, and we’d spent hours sunbathing. (I don’t normally spend much time in the sun, but it’s a rare occurrence here in Denmark so I wanted to soak it in while I could!) We walked to the Botanical Gardens, which are right next to Norreport Station.

The Botanical Gardens in Copenhagen house Denmark’s largest collection of living plants. They are a museum run by the University of Copenhagen. It is very beautiful, especially right now in the spring. I visited it in the winter, when I first got to Copenhagen, and it was actually beautiful then too.

Bridge over pond in garden

We walked through the garden and found that we could get into the greenhouses.

Beautiful greenhouses

When we walked in, we were surprised by the thick scent of the tropics. It was balmy, and the place was full of palm trees, vines snaking around our heads. There were a couple of spiral staircases that led up to an iron walkway which circumnavigated the room. It was magical, reminiscent of the Secret Garden to me.

“Up” Staircase

View from the walkway

Staircase from the terrace

There were four smaller greenhouses that we explored after. They contained all sorts of different plants from different climates. There were even frogs and tadpoles in one! There were lots of different fruit trees, including avocados, lemons, peppers, and berries.

Peppers!

When we emerged from the greenhouses, it was pouring. Buckets, cats and dogs, you name it. We were soaked within minutes. We continued to explore the garden. There were many different types of beautiful rhododendron bushes, all in bloom.

Rhododendrons

There were also these little guys all over. Like worms that come out in New York when it rains, the snails come out when it rains in Denmark.

Snails!

When we left the botanical garden, we found our way to the Strøget, avoiding the marathon, which wove all over through Copenhagen. We went a different route than I’d taken before, but we made it. By the time we found somewhere to eat, we were completely soaked through. I am very surprised my camera still works after Sunday, but here’s a picture of us, looking like wet dogs.

Selfies and Shawarma

After lunch we shopped a bit, and I got a pair of really cool pants. I don’t have a picture, so you’ll just have to wait and see me wear them. It was getting close to 3 hours after the marathon started, so we headed to Amager, where the race started and ends. Except I read the map wrong and we ended up in the middle of nowhere near a Chinese market. Eventually we found our way to Amager, but we were really worried we already missed our friends.

Copenhagen Marathon

Amager is across the canal from the center of Copenhagen, and it took us far longer than we wanted to find a bridge to cross. We found it, and walked alongside the route until we got near the end, hoping we hadn’t missed the guys. About a minute after we took our spots, one of them ran by! We almost missed him. We yelled and cheered, but he didn’t notice. He was in the zone. We were relieved, because we had a feeling the other guy was behind the friend who had already passed, so we hadn’t missed either of them.

As we waited for our other friend to pass, the Sirius Sledge Patrol passed, pulling a sleigh. The Sirius Patrol are a group of extremely healthy, fit military men who police the arctic regions of Greenland (which is part of Denmark!… kind of). I read their Wikipedia page, and they seem really intense. Apparently there are only twelve of them, and patrol the arctic by dogsled in pairs for time spans of up to 4 months with limited human contact. If they do the winter shift, they spend many months in darkness because the sun sets in November and doesn’t rise again until late January. Because a regular marathon isn’t enough of a challenge for them, the run the marathon pulling a sled. I didn’t get a picture (I became scared to take my camera out because it was raining so hard) but I found this one on Flickr if you’re curious what it looked like. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nakedcomms_cph/4659456704/

After about 40 minutes of waiting, we saw our friend run past. We almost missed him, but we cheered for him and he saw us and smiled. I have never really been interested in running, but since coming to Denmark, I’ve done a little to try to stay in shape. Seeing people, young and old, running for over 3 hours straight, persevering, was inspiring. Standing near the finish line, I saw so many different emotions of those who ran past. There were those who were ecstatic. Some were very focused on making it the final 40 meters to their goal. Some people looked like they were in extreme pain. The most heartbreaking were those who fell right before the finish line, and had to be helped to finish. I saw people who were soaking wet, bleeding, but they just kept going. And I struggle to finish 5 kilometers! I was very impressed with everyone, it was an amazing feat.

Finish Line!

We struggled through the crowd and congratulated our friend. Both of the runners both could barely walk that evening.

We walked through a part of Copenhagen I had never seen and took the train from the last stop back to Lyngby.

Copenhagen

I was sure it was around 6PM, but it was only like 2:45 when we got on the train! We were exhausted from walking all over the city in the chilly rain. On our walk back from the train station we stopped at Lagkagehuset (a bakery) and got ourselves a flødebolle (don’t try to say it, it’s not pronounced that way.) It means cream ball, and it’s like a fancy Mallomar. To be honest, I prefer Mallomars; the flødebolle didn’t have enough of a cookie on the bottom. But it’s always nice to try pastries! Then I snuggled in bed with some hot tea. If I was this tired after a day walking around in the rain, I can’t imagine how the runners felt!

At this point, I have finished the final presentation/papers for three out of four of my classes. I have a final exam on June 3rd, and until then, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Study obviously, but I have about 10 days to study for one exam. Hopefully I can have one last adventure before a friend comes and we go to Sweden together. Then I’m coming home soon after! Although I am finally enjoying my time here, I am very excited to go home and see my family, cats, and friends! Of course, I won’t be home for long, because I’m moving again for the next six months. It’s a busy year for me. 🙂

Spring in Denmark!

Hi everyone! I’ve been super busy lately, which is awesome. The weather is finally beautiful here, and everything that was grey and ugly has sprung to life in green. There are patches of flowers all over, and the trees, while still bare, are starting to bud. I’ve been spending a lot more time outside, and I even have some tan lines! It’s great. Unfortunately, the good weather comes along with cram time. Classes end in two weeks, and all of a sudden I actually have work to do. It has been a very weird semester. For most of the time I felt like I was on this extended, lonely, vacation, where classes didn’t really mean much. I went to them, but very little work was required of me. Now those final projects and papers are looming closer, and I have been spending hours every day at my computer researching, typing, and procrastinating (unfortunately!).

I’ll give you guys a little review of what I’ve been up to in the past 3 weeks. On April 20th, some of the RPI exchange students and I went back to Christiania. I have been there a couple times before, but never past the initial touristy “green-light district.” We walked through that and kept going. We passed a playground, a couple of young women leading ponies around, and many interesting run down homes. There was one that was painted to look like a circus tent and looked like it was made up of leftover wood from some other project. There were many that looked like half a nice house, with the other half shabbily built to extend the space, or fill a gap. The architecture was creative, crazy, and awe-inspiring. I wished to take many pictures, but photography is frowned upon in Christiania, due to their illegal activities. I took only one, but there were some far more curious houses.

The back of house in Christiania

After a walk around a lake in the town, we emerged from the commune and went in search of lunch. Passing a sushi joint, I noticed they advertised something called a sushi dog. My interest was piqued, and the others love sushi, so we went in. I ordered the tempura sushi dog. It was delicious. These should be a thing in the United States. Sushi on the go!

Sushi Dog (with a bite taken out)

After lunch, a couple of us got dessert at a delicious bakery called Lagkagehuset. It’s a chain in Denmark. I remember going to this specific one with my mother a few years ago when we visited Copenhagen together. That time I got some honey marzipan tart. This time I got a piece of chocolate cake. It had a marzipan icing, hidden beneath a layer of chocolate. It appears to me that marzipan is very popular in Danish baking. Either that or I am somehow drawn to it whenever I pick out my treats.

Chocolate Yum

The next weekend, we tried to have a barbecue. Kampsax has a few grills that people have been using as soon as the first whispers of spring came to Denmark. My friend bought some quick start mini-grills because he couldn’t find charcoal by itself, and we just used them to grill instead. We had cheeseburgers and hot dogs. It was a relief to have something social to do, and especially that it was outside. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cloudy and windy, so we moved inside after the meat was cooked and ate inside someone’s kitchen.

BBQ’ing

At this gathering, we all kind of realized that we found this exchange to be disappointing. None of us are miserable and homesick anymore. But we came into this experience expecting “the time of our lives” as so many exchange students before us had claimed the experience was for them. But for most of us, we’re lonely and bored most of the time. Not for lack of trying. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by the social life and great friendships we have back at RPI. At least the change in weather means we can emerge from our rooms more often than we had during the long winter.

On Saturday night, my kitchen held its TDC. TDC stands for Tour De Chambres or tour of the rooms. I’m not sure why it has a French name. It’s a party that every kitchen in Kampsax holds once a semester. It starts with a big dinner. Then we go on a “tour of the rooms” stopping in each room for twenty to forty minutes. Each person serves a drink and has music and activities planned. Our TDC was ocean themed. Danish people love to dress up. They don’t really celebrate Halloween, but they use every other excuse to wear costumes. I can’t count how many times I’ve walked though campus or Kampsax and seen people in fully body costumes. It’s intense.

Our dinner consisted of twelve pizzas, cooked by the new Italian exchange student and another guy who recently moved in. Even with fifteen at dinner, we didn’t come close to finishing them. The first six were devoured pretty quickly though. They really like meat pizzas here apparently, because all of the pizzas were covered with mixtures of chicken sausage, bacon, ham, and beef. I wish there was at least one veggie pizza, because that’s my favorite.

Three of the pizzas

They also have a pizza style here where you put salad on top of the pizza. I was skeptical, but it was actually really good. The fresh, crunchy, lettuce and carrots were refreshing in juxtaposition to the gooey cheese and the cooked meats.

Salad  on my meatball pizza slice

I was dressed slightly tropically, with some leis and a flower in my hair (I guess I forgot to pack my mermaid costume). There was a turtle, a couple pirates, some fish, a sailor, and one guy dressed as David Hasselhoff from Baywatch. About half the guests did not dress up at all.

Me and my neighbor Kristian

Turtle

The TDC was really fun. My room was fourth. I signed up to be towards the beginning because I didn’t know how late I would be able to stay up. I made some yummy drinks by mixing Malibu coconut rum with Mild Morgen Juice – a juice mixture of apple, orange, and pineapple juices.

My drinks

One of my neighbors had us all play limbo in the hallway. It was very entertaining. When you fell, they all started singing a song in Danish and you had to chug your drink.

The Hoff does limbo

There were many shenanigans. One of my neighbors had his leg shaved in one of the girl’s bathrooms. Another one of my neighbors had a fog machine, and filled the hallway up so much that you could barely see four feet in front of you. Still another had his bed spiced with paprika. I kept my door locked all night to guard from such practical jokes.

This weekend some friends of mine and I went into Copenhagen to a bar called Farfar, which means grandpa in Danish. It was a pretty cool bar. Very cozy, with good music. In the basement there was a dance floor. Unfortunately the music down there was terrible. At about 1AM we left and headed to the Drunken Flamingo. I tried to get in, but it was 21+. After that we decided to head back to the bus stop. Some people got shwarma from a little shop next to the stop. It was a good time until we got off the bus. At that point some guys started yelling and us and I was so frightened I didn’t get a chance to check out on my travel card.

The next day I held a Cinco de Mayo party! The weather was beautiful. We made pina coladas and margaritas, and ate chips, salsa and guacamole. One girl brought some delicious lime sugar cookies. We sat in the sun for about three hours, listening to someone’s music playlist from his high school Spanish club playlist, dancing, talking, laughing, and playing cards. (My super cool 3D cat cards!)

The Fiesta

Trying to “twerk” – the new dance style

After the fiesta, the girls went to the DTU sauna. It was really nice and relaxing. This day was one of the best I’ve had since I’ve come to DTU. The next day I even woke up with tan lines! It was a day spent with friends, music, good drinks, and sun. Perfect.

Now I have two weeks left of classes. Within the next three weeks I have six papers due and two presentations. It’s crunch time. Too bad this is also the time when I finally want to just lay outside in the sun and get all that vitamin D I missed out on the past three months! Wish me luck.