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.
Rose Drops 