Vacation with Mom in Denmark!

A couple of days after my last (and only) final exam, my mom showed up at the Copenhagen airport. She was dressed all in pink with a bright pink suitcase; she was easy to find among the other arrivals. I was so happy to see her for three reasons (other than of course I’d missed her). One, we had planned for a small vacation in Denmark, and a small one in Stockholm as well, and I was looking forward to traveling with her. Two, I was happy that I didn’t have to completely take care of myself anymore – my mom could do a little of that for me! And three, it meant that there were only ten more days until I finally went home!

Over the next couple of days mom and I explored the area a little more. I’d gotten a couple free tickets for a boat cruise in Lyngby. I wasn’t sure where it was, because I didn’t realize that there was a series of large lakes right in Lyngby, the town DTU is in. Whenever I walked downtown I turned left into the town. If I had turned right, I would have walked right up to the end of one. They were beautiful, surrounded by large houses, and because it was spring, there were green trees, flowers, and ducks everywhere. The cruise was very pleasant. It stopped at many points around the lakes, but we just took it as a round trip. There was a stop where there were kayaks and canoes for rent, a stop with what looked like a small art museum on the water, and a stop that looked like one of those huge manor house hotels with a big lawn.

Mommy and me lake cruise 🙂

I feel like in Denmark, maybe because it is so small, the neighborhoods change so quickly; I could never get a grasp of the mood, or the character, of a place. I think that’s why it felt so foreign; I never understood quite where I was. I could walk ten minutes one way from campus and be in a poor(ish) area, but if I walked ten minutes a different way, I’d be in the middle of an old-fashioned village! I was always surprised by what I discovered when I went for walks (or on a lake boat cruise).

Our big hurrah of Denmark was going to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. This was my third time there; I blogged about it briefly in Spring Break, Part 1. We were going not for the art museum, but for a small piano performance by my mother’s friend. But, since we were going to be at the museum anyway, we figured we’d go early and visit the museum itself first.

The Louisiana

I mapped out the trip on the useful trip planner website (for those of you studying abroad in the future, this website is invaluable!), and found that we had to take a bus from campus to a train. I took the bus often, back and forth from Copenhagen, so it was a breeze to get to the bus stop on time and board. However, after we went a couple stops, I realized we were going the wrong way! We were supposed to take this bus to the last stop – in the opposite direction of the city! As we were arriving at a stop, we saw the bus going the other direction approaching across the street. We got off and ran across the street, where we just managed to catch it. Crisis averted, we took the bus all the way to the last stop, and then transferred to a train which took us to Humlebæk- the town the Louisiana is in. From the train station it was a short walk through a residential neighborhood to the beautiful, shore-side, museum.

I find it strange that this gem of a museum is nestled in such an unassuming neighborhood. Imagine how many tourists come through these streets, and yet we passed maybe one shop, and one restaurant. If this place were in the States, I’d suspect that there’d be far more commercial establishments set up near the museum to take advantage of the high traffic this town receives.

Sunbathers in the beautiful backyard of the Lousiana

We spent a couple hours at the museum. It’s a really beautiful museum, overlooking the Sound that divides Denmark and Sweden. If you’re ever in Denmark, especially in the Spring or Summer, make sure you take some time to get out the Lousiana.

There was an exhibit by Yoko Ono, which I found generally uninteresting. Most of her art was absurd and it seemed that she expected people to find value in it by writing on or about it that she was married to John Lennon. “My husband John Lennon this”, “John Lennon that”, “John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon.” While I am happy that she is fond of her late husband, I hope that she has some self worth without him; it didn’t seem like it based on her incessant references to him. What was interesting was that she was actually in the building to give a talk of some sort at the same time we were there. We didn’t, however, see her, so I guess it really wasn’t all that interesting.

There was a large temporary exhibit of Pop Art as well. I love Pop Art. It’s so fun to look at; I could spend all day in the exhibit! The most exciting part of the exhibit was a piece by Yayoi Kusama: Gleaming Lights of the Souls. It was a room made of mirrors, with water on the floor, and a platform to walk on. When you walked in, you closed the door behind you, which was also covered in a mirror. The room was filled with lights hanging from the ceiling that slowly changed color. Because of the mirrors, it seemed that you were in an infinite space. It was very meditative. It also reminded me of the portrayal of internet that is often made when characters in TV shows or movies are able to somehow enter cyberspace.

Gleaming Lights of the Souls – Yayoi Kusama

The piano recital was an bizarre but lovely affair. It was held in a renovated boathouse behind the museum. Before the show we were welcomed in by a grandfatherly fellow. Soon, there was champagne on the patio outside overlooking the Sound. My mother and I got the distinct impression that everybody there already knew each other, and we were somehow outsiders in a country-club-type setting. A couple came up to us and introduced themselves as the pianist’s (my mother’s friend) friends. They spoke very highly about him; they sounded like they were very close friends, but when asked how they met him, they replied that they met last night at this very same performance! They explained to us that this was an avant garde performance of both traditional and modern pieces, at which all the guests were supposed to act as hosts: welcoming everyone else and becoming friendly with the other guests. It turns out that the man who ushered us in, who we both thought was an employee, was in fact just another guest! We weren’t sure how we missed the memo.

The performance was absolutely incredible. There were only about 40 guests, and we were all sitting very close to the performers. It was captivating to be so near to them when the played, to see all the emotion in their faces and the small movements that you wouldn’t see in a bigger performance. I think there were only five rows total, and we were in the second.

This is a terrible photo showing the piano and the windows overlooking the waterfront patio

After the show there was wine and a small buffet dinner including plenty of the delicious rugbrød (Danish rye bread) that I miss so much. We sat at two long tables and chatted with the other guests about studying abroad, engineering, and how good rugbrød is. When we finally left, it was getting dark and I wasn’t looking forward to the long trip back to my room.

We had to walk back to the train station, where we just missed the train. It was kind of a drag, because the trains were only running every half an hour, but it wasn’t terrible. We met an older woman who sang the praises of Yoko Ono. She had yellow hair, bright blue eyes, and skin that looked like it spent too much time in the sun. It was covered in blue tinged tattoos, and when she spoke, it was gravelly, as if she smoked a lot. She was quite a character. For the first time in my whole time abroad, the train was delayed, first for five minutes, then ten, then fifteen, and on and on. Eventually she got impatient and was able to take a bus to her destination, but we couldn’t. It got to the point where I was very worried that we would miss the last bus that could take us home. We waited for almost two hours! but finally the train came and we caught the second to last bus back. We left early the next day for Sweden!

I’ll be writing soon about the trip to Sweden, which marked my last, but favorite, week abroad.

Distortion

I recently realized I never posted about my last weeks abroad. It’s been pretty crazy since I last posted. My mom came to visit, I came home and immediately went camping in beautiful Maine, and then I got up and moved again to start my new job! I’ve been so busy enjoying being home that I never got around to writing about my last weeks in Scandinavia. I’ve actually been working on this post for a couple months!

After I last posted, things got kind of slow. People were holed up in their rooms, studying for finals or perfecting projects. Also, many other international students started going home. It was so weird to say goodbye to these people who I had spent the last 5 months getting to know. Even though we have Facebook and people travel often, it’s very likely that I may never see these people again. How do you say goodbye knowing that?

One thrill of finals week was going to Distortion. Kind of…

Distortion is yearly street music festival held in Copenhagen. I’d heard about it from Danes and other students at RPI who had studied abroad in the past and had been planning to go ever since I knew I’d be in town (country, continent?) for it. As it got closer, many of my friends backed out of going, saying that they had finals to study for, bags to pack, etc. Finally, we decided to only go to the final of the three days, a Friday. We were ready to go in the afternoon, and headed to building 101 (the student union type building) to meet up with others. We hung out outside, waiting for more people, for what ended up being a couple hours, until it started raining! It had been such a nice day, so that was a bummer. Finally everyone showed up, and we rambled out to the bus.

Pre-Distortion fun!

We took the bus to Norreport, and then people decided they were hungry and we got shawarma, which was very popular there, and cheap compared to everything else (25 crowns). Then we took a train to Christianshavn and proceeded to get lost. Not really, but we didn’t really know where we were going. The city was busy and we tried to kind of follow the general direction of the crowds. It didn’t work at first, but eventually we got headed in the right direction.

Our path led us past Christiania, which I wrote a little bit about in my previous post “Spring in Denmark!” Basically it’s a hippie anarchist commune in the middle of Copenhagen on an old army base. The girls and I decided to make a pit stop here (Bad Decision #1) because I wanted to get a t-shirt for my boyfriend. We ended up walking around a bit after, and met an interesting chap who went by the name Ion the Lion. He followed us to the pond, and sat down near us, playing his guitar. Just a little creepy, but mostly curious and delightful.

Ion the Lion and us

He  was carrying around a notebook that he said contained a movie script. He told me I should be the movie star, because I was a queen! He was too strange for me to be honestly flattered, so I told him that I was a princess, thank you very much! I sat down with some of our male friends who’d just found us. The girls left to get beers because they were thirsty  and I stayed with Ion the Lion and the gentlemen.

The girls returned with a beer for me, and I guzzled it down (Bad Decision #2). I really should not have, considering that I had already had some alcoholic beverages earlier, but I was really thirsty as well. After drinking our beer and talking to Ion a little more (he told me to find him on Facebook, but I never did), we continued on our journey to Distortion. We walked out of the commune and turned right, following the throng of people. Luckily, by this point, the skies had cleared to once again reveal a beautiful, warm day.

Headed to Distortion!

Christiania was the furthest I’d ever been in this direction, so it was all new territory to me. We kept walking down the road, past the end of Christiania, passing fewer and fewer buildings, going over bridges, until we ended up near some grassy knolls. It was really beautiful and interesting to explore a new part of the city. The crowd of people had consolidated into a line, waiting to get through a gate and pass over the hills to where I expected Distortion to be. I was confused at this point, because I heard music, but couldn’t see where it came from. The path seemed to wind around back onto itself and not go anywhere. When we got to a point where we were almost back where we first came through the gate, almost everyone decided to go home, except me and one other girl (Bad Decision #3).

We passed over many bridges.

Finally we found the end of the line. I don’t have any idea how we got there, because, like I said, it didn’t look like the path went anywhere. Were I to go back, I don’t think I would know how to get where we did. We were in the middle of a warehouse district. The music had stopped There were cups and other trash all over the ground, and people were walking the other way.

We made it…

After that whole adventure, we had missed Distortion! At that point, it was probably a stroke of luck that our night ended early, because it was getting dark, and we were two girls alone with some drinks in us. As you may have noticed, the best decisions were not made that night. My friend and I were now terrified because we had no idea how we had gotten to where we were. But we both put a strong face on and made our way back. Once we got out of the gated area, it was one long road back to the train station, so it wasn’t difficult. Somehow, it was still daunting. We talked ourselves through the night with constant affirmations: each time we noticed things we recognized from earlier in the night, coaxing ourselves through the fear of being along in a foreign city.

Where are we?

We made the long trek back, took the right train, caught the right bus, and made it back to our rooms. Our beautiful and terrifying adventure was over…

I’m hoping to start this blog up again, for myself. I’d had so many adventures this summer, and took few pictures. I hardly remember them already! My next post will be about my mother;s and my trip to Sweden! And then maybe a couple about my summer back in the states. 🙂