I'm writing to you from the comfort of Aarhus, Denmark, in my friend Heather's apartment! It's been a supremely packed time so far here, full of both touristy stuff and hanging out with my long-distance friend! :) I spent my first two days in Aarhus with Heather and her husband Thomas, then Heather and I rode the train to Copenhagen for a girl's weekend! It's been amazing so far, and it's hard to believe I only have two days left in Denmark!
Since I have to type this out on my phone, the entries are going to be a little shorter than normal and mostly picture-heavy, but I'll try to give a decent explanation as to what's going on and what I get up to :)
Heather initially picked me up after almost 20 hours of travel in Aalborg, where we took the train back to Aarhus. I was really loopy and really tired, but determined to stay awake to get my body quickly adjusted to Denmark time. It worked!
My first couple days in Aarhus was a mixture of both sightseeing and hanging out with Thomas and Heather and getting a taste of Danish life!
Inside the Aarhus Domkirken- or the city cathedral. One defining factor of Danish cathedrals is the white-wash walls; when the Danes converted from Catholicism to Lutheran, all the catholic frescoes were white-washed over!
Hanging out with some French dudes.
Heather and Thomas have been awesome at making me traditional Danish cuisine- especially desserts!
Checking out Aarhus University, where Thomas teaches!
Dinner on the canal is quite fantastic! And notice what we're dipping our fries in? That's a mix of mayo and sweet and sour sauce. Awkward, but actually kind of good.
Gorgeous views along canals wherever you walk!
We also did some shopping and a Vikings museum, getting a little history lesson in!
On Saturday we jumped on an early train to Copenhagen for some great lady tourist-time!
Hanging out with Hans Christian Anderson, one of Denmark's well-known figures!
Heather and I: "We know him!"
The enormous Danish city center!
"Why hello, dashing sir"
The entrance to Tivoli Amusement Park, which is a big attraction in Copenhagen. It's a super cute old-school amusement park, lighting up at night!
Heather and I got stuck in a doorway during a brief 20-minute downpour. The weather in Denmark is schizophrenic...
The changing of the Danish guard!
Gotta have mini donuts in Tivoli!
All of their rides were old-school: Ferris wheel, Merry-go-round, bumper cars, and the like.
Lights were everywhere, though it was a little hard to see since the sun doesn't go down until like 10-10:30 pm since we're so close to the arctic circle. Still incredibly pretty!
We rounded out our evening listening to a big band performance in the Tivoli band shell. All the explanations were in Danish, but it was a great concert nonetheless!
Sunday began with a trip to the Assistens Kirkegard, or local cemetery where some of Denmark's more famous locals were buried, including HC Anderson, Soren Kierkegaard, and Niels Bohr.
It was the opposite of an American cemetery- we joined runners, people hanging out and drinking coffee, and ladies pushing prams with babies around!
It was gorgeous and cheerful, with well-groomed paths and well-tended graves. Quite a different vibe seeing people hanging out there. Apparently Americans associate cemeteries with ghost stories too much...
We then walked all over kingdom come to hit up the castles and big tourist sights:
Christiansborg Royal Palace (Can you see how menacing ol' King Christian is sitting on his horse? Creeper!)
And the Nyhavn Canal! It was crazy hot out there and packed with tourists, so we walked the Canal and got out of there. We headed to the Rundetaarn, which is the oldest working observatory in Europe!
It was cool cause it was a big steep walkway to the top so astronomy equipment could be wheeled up- lots of circles around to emerge:
At the top and above Copenhagen!
The observatory telescope was set up, and I got to take a look at the sun throwing off some flares- SUPER cool!
We ended the day at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a big museum that housed lots of Danish painters and sculptors, as well as some works by the greats!
A really pretty Monet...
Vincent Van Gogh...
And one of my favorites- Degas!! I was super excited to see in person my favorite sculpture:
"The Little Dancer", which was really big and really cool!
We dragged our sore feet back to the train and got in last night back to Aarhus.
Some showers to get clean and some cake for dinner helped with being quite tired after so much tourist-stuff!
Today is a little more relaxed- I did some laundry this morning, and we'll be shooting off soon to bike and get some coffee, mail postcards, etc. The weather is cool and threatening rain, so it's a perfect day to regroup and just hang out. Tomorrow we'll do the big Aarhus art museum, a Danish dinner out, and then I'll be packing to head to Italy on Wednesday to meet up with my parents! My next post may be from Italy :) I'll try to post a little more frequently so it's not so many pics all at once, but we'll see how that goes. ;)
Oh- and here's a glimpse of how the cardigan is doing, for those who are wondering:
Plane, train, and bus time means I'm already past the arm holes- Woowooo!!
Time for lunch- maybe an open-faced Danish sandwich? ;)
Cheers!!
