The End

Well, four months later and I'm all set (well, kind of) to return to the States tomorrow. It's crazy to think how long it's been since I've been in the United States! This post will probably be pretty long and sappy but it is really the only way I can even begin to describe this past semester. I'll try not to get too mushy! First, I can't believe it is over already. It flew by! Once we started traveling almost every weekend, the days just seemed to pass at twice the speed. I remember saying during long study tour, "that's it, it's over. Study abroad is over," because I knew how quickly the weeks were going to go by from there and I was right.

I wrote this entry sitting at DIS with my friends (they are studying; I am simply distracting them and providing amusement on their study breaks). Writing this post is turning out to be a lot harder than I anticipated. While I am excited to go home, it has really hit me these past few weeks what an amazing experience I have had here.

Before solidifying my decision to study abroad, I talked to a lot of my friends who went to Denmark to hear their take on it. They all said, "you have to go! It's amazing! It will change your life." My one friend told me that she couldn't even describe it; it was just awesome. Now I know exactly what they meant.

Last semester at school wasn't exactly the highlight of my Gettysburg career. I was in some pretty tough classes, injured throughout the cross country season, and missing all of my classmates who were abroad in the fall or had graduated last spring. Thinking back upon it now, I definitely was not the brightest ray of sunshine on campus. Let's just say, I needed to get away, so going abroad couldn't have come at a better time.

It didn't take me very long to love studying abroad. I'll admit, the first week or two was a little tough, trying to feel comfortable in a stranger's home. I remember going to the opening ceremony the first day and seeing my friends -the first thing we all said to each other was how hungry we were because we were too embarrassed to take a second serving at dinner or more than one slice of toast at breakfast! We got over that soon enough though.

So, what exactly was my favorite part about studying abroad? It's way too difficult to pinpoint one thing. I came to Europe with my best friend, and I couldn't be happier about that (obviously), but one of my favorite parts was meeting new people, both from other schools and Gettysburg. We all had a blast traveling together, exploring Copenhagen and sharing the funny and awkward encounters we had with our host families or other Danes. Whether we were doing something stupid in Spain or attempting to study for an exam, I can honestly say I think I spent half of my time here peeing my pants from laughing so hard.

I also loved learning about the Danish culture and trying my best not to look like a “stupid American” all the time. It was so interesting to learn about all of the traditions and the way of life in general here because it is actually a lot more different than you would expect. I can proudly say that I did not get hit by any cyclists (although I had a very close encounter...while on my bike). I also bought a few groceries yesterday and managed to trick the cashier into thinking I was Danish and checked out without using any English (only two phrases were necessary: Hej and Nej, tak!) Speaking of groceries, I bought a package of this thin chocolate to bring home that the Danes like to put on toast for breakfast. It's delicious. I've memorized the list of train stops (Peter Bangs Vej is still my all time favorite) and I have my bike commute down to a science. I also got to experience another Danish birthday celebration –mine. It is a Danish tradition to wake the person up while singing a birthday song and waving Danish flags. My birthday also happens to be a national holiday, so my host parents had off from work. I woke up pretty early on my own though and since I didn't know for sure if I would be woken up, I figured I should get up instead of awkwardly lying there, already awake and waiting if they came in. So, I went for a run. Turns out they came to get me and I was gone! When I came back they were waiting for me with a nice breakfast and a birthday song, but I was totally embarrassed!

The more I think about it, the more I think my favorite part of being abroad was traveling all over Europe. I got to see so much of the world and I think I really took advantage of it. It was a blast being all on our own, having no idea where we were and just relying on our developing street smarts to get by. I've learned that transportation systems are not as mind-boggling as I once thought. Once you learn how to navigate one, you can figure out all of them. We didn't speak the language most of the time, which made traveling even funnier. I also never realized how much work actually is involved in planning a trip -from finding a flight, booking a place to stay, planning what to do, gathering directions and transportation information...it's a lot! I don't think I ever gave my parents enough credit. I've picked up on so many little tips this semester, that I think I could write a, "How to Travel Europe on a Budget" (for instance: share beds in a hostel for a cheaper room) or "Europe for Dummies" book. So, what exactly was my favorite city? It is way too hard to pick one. They are all so different, which makes traveling Europe so exciting...nothing is ever the same! So, I decided that I would just give out some city superlatives instead, so no one is excluded. Here it goes:

Prettiest city: Vienna

City that was much prettier than expected: Amsterdam

City with the best history: Berlin

Wildest city: Madrid

Most unique: Barcelona

Cheapest city: Poznan

Most expensive city: Copenhagen (of course!)

City with the sketchiest “sketch” area: Poznan…we nicknamed one area Iran.

Best crepes: see previous blog post

Best food in general: Paris

Greenest city: Amsterdam (based solely on the number of bikes)

Best "Africa" (just ask me if you're interested): Madrid

Most likely to get lost in: Copenhagen (It may be small, but half of the streets are not labeled and the maps are impossible to read!)

Best transportation system: Copenhagen
Worst transportation system: Ryan Air

Worst transportation system (aesthetically speaking....all were very efficient): Paris, Berlin, and Poznan’s trams…They are so crowded and hot, and Europeans kind of smell bad and.. you get the point. Gross.  

Best outdoor market for cheap stuff: Madrid (El Rastro)

Best outdoor food market: Vienna (Nasch market)

Best tour: Berlin

Best hotdogs: Copenhagen. No contest.

City I liked more than I thought I would: Vienna

City I felt most like currywurst in: Berlin

Best bowling alley/boringest city: Ebeltoft, DK

Windiest: Smorum

Coolest architecture: Barcelona

Best sightseeing: Barcelona, followed closely by Paris and Vienna

Most chic: Copenhagen

Biggest flirt: Madrid

Prettiest palace: Vienna (Schonbrunn and Hofburg)

Most likely to get your wallet stolen: Madrid

Most adventurous: Sweden

Best city to take artsy pictures in: Amsterdam

Also- an interesting note: I have officially been to the two largest red light districts in Europe: Amsterdam and Hamburg. New fun fact?

Anyways, I could ramble on for awhile about my past four months, but I will try not to. I certainly had the time of my life, and it really was too amazing to put into words. As far as changing my life, I guess I could say it did, but I probably won't realize in what ways until I get back to the United States. I'd like to think I'm the same person -I don't think I have changed that much! If anything, I have learned a lot about myself and maybe am just a more improved version of myself. I've definitely become more independent these past few months and I feel a lot more comfortable and confident in new situations.  As cliché as this sounds, I really do feel a lot more cultured, just by going out and seeing all of these things, interacting with different types of people and immersing myself in a new way of life. I think being at a school as small as Gettysburg can easily put you into bubble. There have been weeks at school where I have no idea what is going on outside of the vicinity of our campus, let alone the country or the world. I’m hoping that I will no longer fall victim to bubble syndrome when I return to school next fall. I also think going abroad helped to give me a new perspective on things. I didn't realize how "American" my views on the world were (if that makes any sense?) and it has been so interesting to learn about things from a Danish or European point of view. Finally, I think I've realized that there is a lot more to life than getting good grades, which was pointed out by my Holocaust & Genocide teacher. I obviously worked really hard to make sure I maintained my grades while studying abroad, but I was definitely less stressed. The classes were not as hard, so that clearly was a large part of it, but this was also the first time that I actually just let myself skip a reading if I didn't have time and not worry about it. It's not to say grades aren't important, but sometimes I think we can forget to have fun and enjoy it. Hey, I'm not going to be this young forever! Danish society is a lot more easygoing and laid back -they like to take their time with things (they don't even jaywalk when the street is clear!) and are just so much more relaxed. I think just the right amount of that has rubbed off on me.

Before I finish up with this post, for your enjoyment, I decided I would make a list of some of the highlights of the many random/silly/ridiculous/stupid things that may or may not have taken place in Copenhagen or on another trip, some of which I “forgot” to include in previous posts.  I’ll keep it short!

February: Napped outside of Copenhagen Central Station (huddled in a pile with friends) because we missed our last train and it closes down from midnight to 5 am on weekdays. A kind homeless man woke us up to inform us that the station was open and we could catch our train home. How nice of him.

Biked into a car because the wind was so strong it blew me over.

Went dumpster diving in the middle of the night to find the leftover pastries that the bakeries get rid of every night (no, this is not something that I made up myself and yes, we hit the jackpot!)

Slept in the same clothes that I ran in for a week straight over travel break because we insisted on packing in backpacks (no judgments, please).

Sang karaoke with a stranger to a song I have never heard of before in my life. Thank goodness this is not on video.

Used a free sample market as my lunch.

Late night bike riding.

Tagged along on a Danish student only pub crawl. We were technically invited.

Missed my train that I was 15 minutes early for because I was standing on the wrong side of the track. The train was parked in front of me the entire time.

Wore so many clothes on the airplane to get through the gate-check that I thought I was going to pass out.

It's been an awesome four months here, and I can't believe I considered not coming at one point. I am definitely going to miss it, but I am so excited to be back in my own home, see my family and friends and go back to everything and everyone at Gettysburg for senior year (how am I a senior already!?). I also am really looking forward to the weather back home. I'm still wearing the same thing I was wearing in February (I never actually wore the shorts I packed...what a waste of luggage space!) and I can't say I will miss the wind too much. I'm looking forward to being able to actually hear my music when I go running. Regardless, I will remember this experience for a lifetime and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to study abroad with. Hey, maybe I'll even start biking to work! I guess the only thing left to say is...well, vacation is over!



P.S. I hope everyone enjoyed following along... Thanks for reading!

5000 Crepes in Paris

Bonjour! Guess who is finished her finals and free to enjoy the last few days in Copenhagen without any work, what-so-ever (except for updating this blog…)? This girl! I’m so glad to be done, even though my finals week was probably only a quarter as stressful as a typical finals week back home!

Two weekends ago, my friends and I took our final weekend trip (we tried to ignore this fact)…to Paris! I had been looking forward to this trip for almost the whole semester, considering it was the first thing we booked in February! Friday was a Danish holiday, so we flew out early in the morning to have three full days in the city. The trains don’t run at four in the morning, so Lexi’s host sister kindly volunteered to drive us to the airport, so we didn’t have to sleep in the airport like homeless people like we had originally planned!

After finding our hotel (yes, I said hotel. We decided to go classy for our last trip and squeeze five girls into a four person hotel room. Did I mention that we also got a “Congratulations, you have booked the cheapest room this hotel has to offer!” message after booking the room?), I split off from my friends and met up with two good friends from home, Ali and Amanda who have been studying abroad in Paris for the past year! It was totally crazy to casually meet up in Paris…but so awesome! My first thought when I was navigating the metros to get to our meeting spot was how big Paris is. There are so many lines and the metro ride itself took a good half hour. Copenhagen has one line that branches off at one stop, and most of the time you can just walk to wherever you want to go. It really put it the size of Copenhagen into perspective for me. Anyways, my friends know me too well and took me to a really cute crepe place, where we got ham and cheese crepes for lunch and chocolate ones for dessert, which were amazing! I wish I had the chance to spend more time with them, but it was so nice to see a face from back home.

We decided to be typical tourists and headed right to the major tourist destinations. After a quick visit to see Napoleon’s tomb on our way, we first stopped at the Eiffel Tower. To be honest, I expected it to be a lot more impressive. It’s actually pretty ugly the closer you get to it, and it’s not nearly as tall as I thought it was. I still liked it though and the park surrounding it was a great place to hang out. The view from behind is also pretty incredible as well. If you have seen my pictures already, you probably couldn’t help but notice the gigantic rain cloud lingering above us in every picture taken at the tower. (I tried to do some fancy photo editing to make it look sunny, but it was to no avail). Unlike our spring break packing fiasco, we decided to actually pack according to the weather forecast this time, which was rainy and cool, all weekend. We figured a 90% chance of rain every day would probably make the trip a pretty miserable experience if we followed our Spain philosophy. In case you are wondering, that rain cloud exploded just as we were about to get in line to climb up the tower.

We headed to the Louve as our next stop, partially because we were so excited to look at and interpret thousands of pieces of artwork, but mostly because we didn’t feel like being in the rain. If you’re not very art-saavy like any of us, there is a simple trick to mastering the Louve in ten minutes while still being able to boast about going to the Louve.  The key is to follow the crowds. They’ll take you right to the two most important pieces in the museum: the Venus de Milo sculpture and the Mona Lisa. As far as the Mona Lisa goes, I’m really not sure what the craze is about. It’s probably because I’m not really into artwork yet, but it is surrounded by so many huge, beautiful paintings with really vibrant colors, and this little tiny painting is what everyone wants to take a picture with (myself included). She’s not even pretty (no offense) and she’s a little bit of an attention-hog if you ask me! I think the outside of the Louvre is the most impressive. Not only is this place huge, but the architecture is amazing. It’s beautiful and the pyramids in the center are really neat, especially when you go inside of it. When you’re standing at the Louvre, and look straight ahead, you can see a whole stretch of Paris, all the way down to the famous Arch de Triumph. That was my favorite view of the whole city. It’s such a pretty area, and when I ran to it the next morning, I loved it even more!

The next day we took a trip to Versaille, to see the palace and gardens that King Louis XIV built. I was really excited to go because I remember spending so much time learning about it during European History in high school. Of course, getting there turned out to be an adventure in itself! We were waiting for our train and didn’t notice that they switched the track it would be arriving on. By the time we realized it, it was too late and we watched the train speed away. Luckily, the next train coming also had a stop with “Versaille” on it. Even though it wasn’t exactly the same name, we figured it had to be close enough! Once we got there, we thought that we would have to make one transfer at that station. We were about to get on a train that took us in the complete opposite direction of where we were headed (which was actually just a few blocks away) when a nice man kindly informed us that we were completely wrong. We literally jumped off the train before it closed its doors, skipping all steps and coming dangerously close to landing in the gap between the train and the platform. We weren’t about to get off that easy though. On our way out, one of the train workers stopped us to check our tickets. I don’t understand much French besides “Merci” and “Bonjour” but it wasn’t too hard to figure out that we were busted. Apparently, our “three day pass that will allow you to travel all over Paris” did not cover the zone we traveled to. Luckily, the guy was feeling nice and gave us a group rate on the fine, but after that, it was a grocery store lunch for us!

Besides our minor mishap, Versaille was awesome! The palace that was built is incredible! If the King was trying to show off (which I’m pretty sure he was), then he certainly succeeded in it. The entire façade seemed to be made of gold, as well as the whole interior. Every room was lavishly decorated and the hall of mirrors is pretty awesome. It bothered me that I couldn’t remember everything I had learned a couple of years ago about Louis XIV and Marie Antionette. I meant to look up some information after we got back, but not surprisingly, Paris managed to sidetrack me a bit. We went around back to the gardens after we toured the inside. We didn’t even see all of them, but they were beautiful as well. I love how all of the palaces always have these incredible backyards (I’m not sure backyard is the right word…park is probably more fitting), and we even managed to catch some of the fountain shows!

On our way back from Versaille, we followed through with our plan and paid a trip to the grocery store for our next meal, to try to make up for the ticket we had to pay. Maybe everything does happen for a reason, because this “grocery store lunch” was the best lunch I had in Paris! Kelly, Caroline and I bought some French baguettes, a carton of grape tomatoes, and ball of mozzarella each and made our own sandwiches. They could have come from the best restaurant in France and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. Maybe it’s because I am addicted bread and French bread is amazing, so I was in heaven. We probably looked ridiculous because we didn’t have any utensils so we had to drain the cheese on the street and rip it apart with our fingers, but it was well worth it!

When we got back into the main city, the weather was still nice enough (somehow we really lucked out with the weather!) to climb the Eiffel Tower. Considering that one flight of stairs somehow always manages to make me feel completely out of shape, I thought that we were going to have to take a lot of breaks. Once we got into a rhythm though, we climbed right on up, no problem! Unfortunately, you can only take an overpriced elevator all the way up to the top, so we stopped at the highest platform you could go to walking. Either way, it was a really pretty view of the city. I forgot to mention, but Paris actually looked a lot different than I thought it would. From that height, it looked a lot more industrial and “city like.” My favorite parts are the stereotypical “Paris-in-the-movies, cobblestone streets” areas. Each quarter of the city seemed to have its very own feel though, which is pretty cool since the city is so large.  

After dinner (and my second consecutive night of ordering French onion soup…delicious!), we headed back to the Eiffel Tower area to see it lit up at night. It is lit up the entire night but sparkles on the hour. It is so pretty and looks ten times better at night…Paris in general is just a totally different city at night! Most of the pictures came out blurry, but I’m sure you get the point.

Later on that night, we wandered the streets to explore more of the city at night. The most memorable event though was the discovery of the greatest food I have ever tasted in my entire life (no exaggeration): banana nutella crepes. I thought the banana nutella crepes in Denmark were good –I was wrong. Denmark’s crepes are like comparing a box of Barilla rigatoni to Grandma’s ravioli. These crepes were a little on the thicker side (but not thick or fluffy enough to be pancake) so they aren’t overwhelmed and toppled over by the added ingredients and you can experience all three delicacies together at once, instead of having just crepe or just the banana (which is a full banana in France!) and nutella. Pure bliss. This is kind of disgusting, but I finished mine so quickly and bought a second one five minutes later because I couldn’t stop thinking about how delicious it was! I have to stop writing about it, because it is making me very jealous that I can’t get one right now!

On our final day in Paris, we hit a few more touristy destinations. First, we stopped at the Notre Dame Church. Like all European churches, this one was beautiful as well. I wish it had been better weather so I could have really seen the stained glass, but I guess I’ll just have to Google it to see what it looks like during prime conditions. We also went to the Sacre Coeur church, which is on a little hilltop and gives you another view of the city. Then we walked down Champs-Elysees, which is a really famous and beautiful street that starts at the Arch de Triumph (like everything else, this Arch is huge!) with lots of high end shops that you can only let yourself window-shop in. We had some free time at the end of the day and all bought a few things at some cute little boutiques in Bastille, another section of Paris. I bought myself my first non-running watch, which I think will make my sister and Mom very happy! When I took off my Ironman to put my new watch on, the shopkeeper told me to tell it goodbye! I guess she didn’t think it was too stylish. Oh well. We also tried the Paris version of a hotdog, which are hotdogs on baguettes that are covered in cheese. I’m sure your mouth is watering just reading that. Fun fact: the hotdogs in Copenhagen are way better!

I didn’t want to leave Paris because there is so much you could do there that three days is not nearly enough. I also didn’t want to leave because I knew that it was our last trip together and that meant the semester would be coming to a close before we knew it. We were all pretty exhausted by the end though. I think the past few weeks of non-stop traveling really caught up with us…actually, I think it all caught up to me in class the next morning (we left Monday morning pretty early so that we were back in Copenhagen in time for our first class). Anyways, that basically wraps it up for my whirl-wind tour of Europe. We had one more week of classes and this week is finals week. I’ll save all the goodbyes and end of the semester shenanigans for my final post though, which you can expect within the next few days since I have a good amount of free time before my flight home! Au revoir !

Sweden Canoe & Hike Trip

Last weekend, I went on a DIS adventure trip to Sweden! It was probably one of my favorite trips this semester. It was so much fun. You can get to Sweden pretty quickly from Copenhagen with the ferry. Since I had seen so many cities over the past few weeks, this weekend was a nice break from that and definitely brought out everybody’s inner nature-freak.

We got to Sweden by 10:00 am, and immediately hopped into some canoes for our first adventure. I have been canoeing one other time, and was not very successful (Mikaela can vouch for me…she was lucky enough to witness it). However, I was convinced that my problems my first time around were the fault of my fellow shipmate and were not an accurate reflection of my abilities. Turns out I was very wrong. I was in a boat with Kelly and Lexi. We figured we’d be pretty decent considering all of us are athletic and Kelly spends her summers sailing, so that’s close enough. Wrong again. We were one of the first groups out onto the water, but within ten minutes were in last place among all of the DIS canoes. I managed to steer us directly into the bank on several occasions, the worst of which almost ended up with us flipping the canoe because we were laughing too hard to get the boat and ourselves under control. I’m pretty sure a blind person could have rowed the boat more successfully than the three of us –we looked like we were skiing down the river because the only way we could get anywhere was to zig-zag our way down. We probably ended up rowing double the distance from all of the turning we did! Forty-five minutes in, our arms started to get pretty tired. That’s when we realized we still had another two hours to go! Fortunately, the owners of the canoes were handing out really good Swedish ice-cream at the half-way point, so we picked up a little bit of a second wind, but it was tough! We maybe improved from a D (if we had actually fallen in, then I would have said it was a complete failure) to a C, but still finished a good five minutes after everyone else. Needless to say, I don’t think that canoeing is our forte.

After lunch, we went on a hike which took us to Nimis. Nimis is a village made by a man completely from driftwood! He calls it a “micronation” and wanted it to be independent of Sweden, but not surprisingly, the Swedish government wasn’t too thrilled with this idea. It still exists, but the government does not recognize it. Regardless, it’s still really cool! The hike there was beautiful and even a little challenging at parts. It was really steep and rocky, and pretty slippery from all of the rain. Once you got to the entrance to Nimis, it was completely driftwood. There were tunnels and bridges and high towers to climb, all made of just driftwood and nails. For any future parents out there, this place would have been the perfect tree house growing up…build one for your kid, and they will be the happiest child in the world.  I was amazed that the creator did this all by himself, and it’s pretty sturdy considering what it’s made of…although one of the structures was a little wobbly at the top, so we climbed it and headed back down pretty quickly. Our leaders also had us participate in a meditation session on the rocks by the sea. I was laughing at first (immature, I know), but it was really relaxing once I was able to suppress my giggles. I mean, how often do you get to meditate on the Swedish coast!?

The hostel experience for this trip was just as enjoyable as the adventure portion. The place we stayed at was more like a bed and breakfast. It was located in the country side, in the middle of nowhere. There was literally nothing around. But it was beautiful! There was no wi-fi in the hostel either, which was nice because it really added to the “one with nature” experience for the weekend. Instead of being on our iPods at night, we found much better ways to entertain ourselves. When you walked in, you had to take your sneakers off and wear slippers! Somehow, I ended up with the smallest pair, so half of my foot was hanging out of each. It was like a big communal home. We could use the kitchen as we pleased, played card games in the dining room, and could hang out in the backyard as well. That night, our leader’s barbequed an awesome dinner for us, which we completely devoured. The only way I can describe our behavior: we were like animals! Afterwards, there were smores and icecream by the bonfire. It was a little too cold for me to stay outside, so most of us snuggled up around the fireplace inside and got to know some of the other kinds on our trip. Even though we were all exhausted, it was such a fun night and very relaxing!

 

The next day, we went to Kullaberg, which was a short drive from the hostel. It is a big nature reserve, with lots of trails and coastlines to hike. We split up into two groups. My group went orienteering first. We had a map and a compass to guide us to particular destinations in the area. At each place, we had a challenge to complete. Our first stop was to hike down to the water, where we had to build a tower of rocks as high as we could…which ended up not being very high at all. Laura took tumble number two (or three?...we lost count by the end) of the trip and fell off of a huge rock right into the freezing water. Luckily she brought lots of clothes because she was completely soaked, and it is not warm in Sweden in April! Some of the other challenges included a life-size tanagram puzzle, which our group could not figure even though all of us had solved one before! They are much easier when they are normal sized! This kind of crushed all of our dreams of ever winning Survivor. We also had to tie a couple of knots with the rope (thanks Mr. Cole and Wilderness-X class in high school for preparing me for that one!) and guess the distances of certain ropes tied up to the trees. The best part of the challenges though was trying to find the destinations and the actual hike there. There were a lot of cliffs to scale up and down and it was real rock-climbing. Some of them were so steep they had ropes set up to hold on to so you could get down. It was right up my alley!

After lunch, we switched groups and my group got to go repelling! It was such a different experience than it would have been at home. In the United States, they would have made me sign a billion waivers and make me sit through long, boring tutorials that I wouldn’t have paid attention to anyways. There was none of that in Sweden! We geared up, and headed right to the cliff! The instructor barely went over what to do before he had us rappelling! The first cliff was a practice one. It was a lot smaller and pretty flat, so you could walk down it fairly easily. The second one we rappelled off of was a lot harder though and a little scary when you first stepped off because you have to really lean back in the harness and just let yourself go. Even though you are mainly stepping down, it gets really tricky when the rocks are jutting out in a thousand directions. At one point, I lost my step and was swinging like Tarzan until I could find a better foothold. It started raining in the middle of it too, but we kept going, which is another thing I doubt we’d ever be able to do at home!

At the end of the day, DIS arranged a surprise stop for us on our way home –coffee and pastries! It was the perfect way to end, especially after being out in the cold for so long. We were wet and shivering, so something warm and yummy hit the spot. Overall, it was a great weekend, and the perfect trip to take after a non-stop spring break. I wish I had a couple of more free weekends (or even weeks) because I would go back in an instant and explore some more!

Travel Break Part 2: Amsterdam and Brugge!

I think it’s about time that I update this thing! Sorry for the major cliff-hanger after part 1 of travel break. When I got back I had a 15 page history research paper due (not an easy task when the only 15 page paper I’ve ever written has been a lab report!), another paper due and a test all in the same week!  Plus, the internet has been down in my host family’s home for the past two weeks, so my online time is pretty much limited to when I’m at school. Anyways, enough excuses. Just a warning, this post might lack detail and be boring to read for a few reasons:

1. My family was with me, and since they are the primary readers of this blog, I feel entitled to slack a little bit since they could experience Europe themselves.
2. I got home two weeks ago, so the days are a bit of a blur now.
3. It’s the end of the semester. Like my homework, anything that requires concentration for more than 15 minutes just seems way too difficult of a task and I’m getting lazy. Plus, I think being abroad is an automatic diagnosis for ADD.

Anyways, back to travel break. I got back into Copenhagen around 9:00 pm on Saturday night and basically ran towards the Palace Hotel, dragging my suitcase with me through the city because I was so excited to see my family! My parents barely recognized me when I walked through the door, because I’ve changed so much since being abroad. Ha. Just kidding, I look exactly the same (except I’m in dire need of a haircut –which my mom felt the need to remind me of every day). My parents, sister, aunt and uncle all came to visit and it was so nice to just relax and have dinner with my family, something that I’ve missed a lot!

On Easter Sunday, my family was invited to Smorum to have lunch with my host family. To be honest, I was a little nervous about this. All I could think about was how awkward it was going to be if for some reason either family ended up not liking the other and we just sat in silence! It was also a strange feeling to be the common ground between two sets of total strangers from different parts of the world! I knew my worrying was for no reason though. We had a great lunch and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. Plus, it gave my real parents a little ease of mind knowing that I was staying with a good family.  It was really fun listening to my family ask my host family all different questions about Danish culture and society and comparing it to the United States. I felt so cultured knowing about both sides, for once! The food was delicious as well and I could have eaten the entire dessert bowl (I will definitely need to get the recipe before I leave) myself if such a thing as manners didn’t exist.  I also think my parents were impressed (and surprised) at the ease at which I use the public transportation system every day. It was a total role reversal, being the one telling my parents what to do for once!  

Unfortunately, the few days my family stayed in Copenhagen were fairly similar to the weather conditions in Spain the past week, so I think they got a little jipped and didn’t get to experience Copenhagen for how nice it really is. I also noticed that my sense of cold, wind, and rain has totally changed –it is not cold unless it is below freezing, the wind is only a breeze if it’s less than 20 mph and rain should not stop any tourist activities, or be an excuse to use the metro. We took a tour through the Rosenborg Castle and saw the crown jewels (London’s are way better. Steph was not impressed), and also climbed to the top of the round tower for a pretty neat view of the city that probably would have been cooler had it not been raining and cloudy. I have to admit –it was so nice to eat real meals again too, instead of “grocery store lunches.” And although the Lenin Hostel was great, it was nice to sleep in a bed that didn’t feel like it was made of newspaper.  

On Tuesday, we headed to Amsterdam! Amsterdam is gorgeous, which I was not expecting at all because of its reputation (yes, we took a family stroll through the red-light district after dinner). There are so many canals running through the whole city and the buildings have a very distinct design to them. A lot of them are slanted in all different directions too and some even look like they could fall over any minute! It is also a haven for bicyclists. I thought Copenhagen was pretty big into the bike craze, but Amsterdam is insane! Everyone bikes. There are barely any cars on the streets and there are huge parking garages completely dedicated to housing bikes. It’s awesome…and also really scary if you don’t watch out! There were a few close calls, but all present members of the Esposito-Franeta clan survived Amsterdam without any collisions.

We did a lot of walking in Amsterdam and just took in all of the awesome sites, but my favorite was definitely the Anne Frank house. You wouldn’t believe how long the line is for it, every day of the week. It’s pretty mind boggling if you think about it. I doubt Anne Frank ever thought there would be hundreds of people waiting to just walk through the apartment she lived in just from reading her diary. Anyways, it was pretty sad but so interesting, especially after learning so much about it in my class.

A quick fun fact about Amsterdam: they are known for their cheeses, apparently. There are cheese shops all over (with so many free samples….it’s a study abroad students heaven) with all these interesting flavors and varieties of cheeses. My mom bought a pesto cheese that I hope is still unopened when I get home (hint, hint). They are also known for Stroop Waffles, which are basically just wafers coated in maple syrup and sugar that would put Aunt Jemima to shame. We also wandered across a few outdoor flea markets in the city, which are my favorite and a lot of fun to browse through, even though most of the stuff there is pretty much just going to build up dust in your closet. We also took a tour through the Gassan Diamond company headquarters in the city (apparently Amsterdam is also known for Gassan diamonds). Some of these diamonds were incredible, and it was really interesting to hear how they are made and learn about all of the different cuts and styles.

We also took a trip to the flower fields in Keukenhoff, Holland which is just a short drive outside of Amsterdam. We rented bikes for a few hours to take us on a route through the fields and along the coast. I realized where I get my horrific map reading skills (which have drastically improved though) from because no one in my family could interpret the map they gave us and after taking multiple wrong turns, we decided to just create our own route. We still saw the majority of the flowers though, which were so pretty! They had tulips in so many different colors and they had just bloomed, so they looked gorgeous…and smelled really good too. It was so fun riding our bikes around too. I know my Dad was totally embarrassed to be seen on that contraption (they looked like the bikes the Wicked Witch rides in the Wizard of Oz) riding at our slow pace every time we got passed by the intense road bikers that my Dad usually is one of. There was also this random old couple that was riding around that kept yelling at us in Dutch (they speak Dutch in the Netherlands!) that also provided some entertainment. After the bike ride, we walked through the gardens which were also beautiful. We probably took enough family pictures there to provide us with a lifetime’s supply of Christmas cards.

On Friday, we headed to Brugge, Belgium for the day. We left really early in the morning, but due to a train accident on the track we needed to take, we had to make three transfers and it ended up taking four hours to get to Brugge. Lucky for us, we didn’t realize that we were sitting in the first class car (they are only labeled with little numbers outside of the car: 1 or 2…very easy to miss!) and when the train worker came around to check tickets, he let us stay. Somehow, we managed to sit first class on the way home too. My Dad asked one of the train workers a question about which stop to get off of and they suggested we just sit in the first class cabin since all of the second class seats were full and it was dangerous to stand. It’s all about connections, clearly.

Anyways, Brugge is a quaint little town in Belgium. It is probably one of the prettiest towns I have ever been to. The architecture is amazing and it was a really nice place to just walk through. There isn’t really a whole lot to see or do though –we hit all of the “tourist spots” in about a half an hour. However, the trip was made worthwhile in the lone fact that Brugge is located in Belgium, and who hasn’t heard of Belgian chocolate (I really think my Mom planned this trip just for the chocolate…she was on a mission!)? There are “chocolatiers” all over the place –I counted at least nine on one street! This was honestly the best chocolate I have ever tasted in my whole life, and like the cheese shops in Amsterdam, all of the chocolate shops gave out free samples. I literally ate myself sick in chocolate, but it was totally worth it –being in Europe, I have become totally addicted to it. Sadly, (or maybe to some it might be impressive) my sugar binge did not end there. I figured I would never be in Belgium again, or at least not for a very long time, so I felt required to indulge in a Belgian waffle. It was a little crispier than expected, but delicious none the less…and even cured my stomach-ache, for the time being. Since Brugge is a pretty small place, and we (okay, I) had eaten to our heart’s delight, we headed back a little early and broke the cardinal Esposito family trip rule: you must stay in a place for longer than it takes to travel there and back combined.

On our last day in Amsterdam, we took a boat tour of the city, which was so nice…although a little rough for me because my stomach was still experiencing the post-Brugge effects. Afterwards, we spent the day walking around the city, window shopping and enjoying (finally) the nice weather. For our last dinner, we asked the hotel concierge for a place he recommended. I was really excited to hear that it was Italian, and my whole family had pretty high expectations –every other place they had recommended was awesome! This place though, ended up being one of the most bizarre dining experiences. First, they didn’t give us a menu until about 20 minutes after we sat down, so we weren’t sure if we were even going to get to order anything or just be served! Then, when the waitress finally came over to tell us about the menu and the specials, she only talked to my dad. She was literally kneeling down next to him, with her face about 6 inches away from his and didn’t look at anyone else at the table. It was so odd and I had to actively try to stop myself from laughing in the middle of it. Talk about an invasion of personal space! Our food came out about 2 hours later (they like to take their time in Europe, I realized). My dad and aunt both ordered lobster risotto, which we determined from looking at the table next to us, looked pretty darn good! When it came out though, there was a pile of risotto on the plate that was about the circumference of a tennis ball –I don’t even think it would fill a baby up. The waitress told us that there was a “problem in the kitchen,” but I think they just ran out of risotto, forgot to tell us and decided to split the dish into two! Then my pasta came out. It was close to 11:00 pm now, so my stomach was grumbling and ready to eat. My dish? Six tortellini. I think even the lady at Servo gives me a bigger scoop of pasta than that! Don’t get me wrong, this was excellent tortellini, but six was just not going to cut it! By this point though we were all just laughing and completely confused by the peculiarity of this restaurant and ready to get back to the hotel. So although our, “concluding dinner” did not go as expected, it was a pretty funny night and seemed to be fitting for the end to my travel break. Also, I realize that I spent probably 75% of this entry talking about food (what else is new?), but as my aunt even said herself, it is such a huge part of the European experience!

It’s almost May, which means that I have only three weeks left in my semester abroad. I can’t believe how quickly that came! I’ll try to update this in a few days so I don’t get too far behind before I leave for my final trip next weekend. I’m super excited, but I’m not going to tell you where I’m going because that will spoil the surprise and then you might not read! I will say though, that if I spent 75% of this blog talking about food, I’ll probably have to dedicate 99% for that entry…or so I’ve heard. Stay tuned! See everyone somewhat soon!

A Warm, Tropical Paradise: Travel break part 1.5 (BARCELONA!)

We set out Tuesday night for the next part of our Euro-trip: Barcelona. It's a good thing that we had an awesome time in Barcelona, because it sure was quite an experience getting there! Being penny pinchers, throughout the trip (and semester) we have been booking the most inexpensive flights and hostels we could find, which is how we ended up flying on RyanAir.  They might be cheap and my sense of security was questionable on board, but they should not be underestimated –they are a clever little airline and manage to compensate for money lost in airfare by gate-checking a majority of the passengers trying to carry on their luggage. Passengers are only allowed to carry on one thing (no extra handbag this time) and the bag must be a certain size and weigh no more than 10 kg. Most of the time, you can bypass these restrictions, but not on RyanAir. They will catch you. We knew it was going to be a tight squeeze for all of us. I ended up checking mine due to the large handle on my suitcase that would prevent it from fitting into the box they use to measure. Ryan Air: 1, Christine: 0. When we got to the check in counter, my friends put their bags on the scale for their fate to be determined. After seeing the weight, everyone frantically ripped open their suitcases in the middle of the airport, and started putting every article of clothing they could on themselves. Emily even bought the ultimate Madrid tourist bag in an airport shop that I ended up using as a carry on to hold any excess items. After several unsuccessful weigh in’s, we were all set! By this point, Caroline looked like she was about 9 months pregnant, with twins and Lexi, like she enjoyed those Danish pastries a little too much. She was wearing two belts, multiple shirts and a dress and had an umbrella hanging from her waist. I wore my purse on my back, underneath two jackets so that I could carry on the Madrid bag. Oh, and everybody had their jacket sleeves completely stuffed with clothes, which made walking difficult –and this was before security! It’s a good thing that RyanAir is a pretty unreliable airline and was delayed a good two hours, so we had plenty of time to make it to the gate at the other end of the airport. Our efforts paid off though, and we made it onto the plane (drenched in sweat) without anybody having to pay the dreadful 60 euros at the gate. When we immediately started stripping off the excess layers when we found our seats, we got a few funny looks from people and some applause from others. Well played, girls.

We arrived at our hostel at around 2:00 am, exhausted. All we could think about was falling asleep, even if in a crappy hostel. We were staying in the Lenin hostel (yes, as in Soviet Union, communist Lenin) and were welcomed by a nice picture of him immediately upon entering. Nothing gives off homey vibes like a big picture of Lenin in the foyer. The receptionist, who we nicknamed Strega Nona, did not speak English. We may have been half asleep, yet we somehow managed to check in completely in Spanish.  I guess we must have gotten good practice in Madrid. 

Unfortunately, the weather in Barcelona wasn’t ideal for spring break- cold and rainy until the day we left. All of us packed about one pair of jeans, and the rest of our wardrobe consisted of shorts, sundresses, and all of our cute spring outfits that hadn’t gotten any use in Denmark yet. We had been checking the weather daily for the week leading up to the trip, and even though all sites said 100% chance of showers, we were still convinced that it “never rains in Spain.” So, we were forced to tough it out. The first day, we did a bike tour through the city in the pouring rain. We were soaked from head to toe, and subsequently stunk up the hostel room with our damp clothes and wet Sperry’s. We also had the pleasure to take some refreshing cold showers at the Lenin hostel that turned off in the middle of shampooing (I literally showered with a dripping handheld faucet). Later that afternoon, we checked out Las Ramblas, which is a famous street in the city with lots of street vendors and a big outdoor market that sells great fruits and veggies, meat, fish, and chocolates –and cow tongues, hearts, and stomachs (how appetizing!). It wasn’t until a few days later (when the sun finally came out) that we realized the actual Las Ramblas was a lot bigger once all of the stands were set up! That night, we headed to one of the pubs in the city to watch some soccer matches  (Barcelona wasn’t playing, so we watched Madrid –huge rivalry!) and enjoy some Spanish sangria, which is delicious!

The second day in Barcelona was not any drier and we had to dodge in and out of shelter to hide from the rain showers. We were hoping to enjoy our lunch and have a picnic in the park, but the weather ruined this plan. The alternative? We ended up eating in the parking garage of an apartment complex. Later, we headed to Parque Guell, which is an amazing park designed by Antonio Guadi, who was a famous architect in Barcelona. Fun fact: Gaudi died by getting hit by a tram in Barcelona. I told you those things were dangerous! He also designed the church, Segrada Familia, Barcelona’s most visited tourist attraction, which we saw on the bike tour. Personally, I thought the park was way cooler. Most of his structures are wavy, and since you can’t put tile on a curved surface, he uses a lot of mosaic in his designs. Even though it was raining, we had a blast trekking to the top of the mountain and exploring the park.

As usual, this blog post would not be complete if I didn’t talk about the food for a little bit. Heading into our trip to Spain, I think it’s safe to say that all of us had the wrong idea about Spanish cuisine. Deep down, I think we all knew that Spanish and Mexican food are quite different from each other, but the only thing on our minds were tacos, burritos, and nachos. So, we found tacos, burritos, and nachos (I think they have a lot of Mexican restaurants there to cater to all of the Americans who come to Spain thinking that they will be eating Mexican food). We figured trying paella was pretty Spanish of us and I also got a few ham sandwiches for lunch, which is pretty popular in Spain apparently. I have to admit though, they made some pretty darn good burritos!

On our final day in Barcelona, the weather started to clear up a bit and we took advantage of the random periods of sunshine. We started the day with a tour of Gaudi’s Casa Batló, which was just a few blocks away from our hostel. It is such a cool building, and was totally worth the splurge! A family used to live there, and I think it would be a little strange for that to be your house but pretty neat too because it has the very typical Guadi-like designs throughout the house. I thought the coolest part of it was the stairwell. The house was a few stories high, and you could look all the way down as you were climbing. He also designed it so that when natural light hits the tiles, they appear different shades of blue as you climb towards the top. It’s pretty genius if you ask me!

We also took a walk along the water and checked out the port area of the city. It is absolutely beautiful – “a tropical paradise” as Kelly would say (although, it’s not exactly tropical…but close enough compared to Copenhagen!). It was so nice to see everyone outside eating ice cream and enjoying the weather. A few degrees warmer, and I would have put on my bathing suit and went for a swim! (The bathing suit never got used on the trip unfortunately…what a waste of luggage space!).

  We ended the day by hiking up to the top of Mount Montijuic. It is a beautiful area, and has a really pretty view of the city. I think Barcelona is such a cool city because you have all different types of terrain there. The city itself is so unique, and is surrounded by mountains on either side, but it also has a beautiful beach area down by the water. What more could you ask for? It’s also pretty interesting to me that no matter what city you travel to in Europe, they all have their own feel and are completely different. At the top of the mountain, we went on a mission to find the Olympic Stadium that was used in the 1992 Barcelona Games. We found a random track early on in our hike, and our first instinct was, “that’s it!” After looking a little closer though, I decided that it looked like an abandoned high school track and that it must have been a huge disappointment to make it all the way to the Olympics and have to run on track that even Neshaminy could trump. A little while later on our walk, we found the real Olympic arena. The area was huge and the decorations and fountains leading up to it are awesome. The stadium is still used today for a lot of concerts and sports events. We even came across a group of crazy tweens who were celebrating the one year anniversary of Justin Beiber performing in Barcelona. Wow. That night, we had a “grocery store” dinner, and ate it while watching the Magic Fountain of Montijuic. The Magic Fountain is an enormous fountain in front of the palace.

Every few nights, they have a water show complete with background music. . It wasn’t dark yet, so we didn’t get to see the water change colors, but it was still pretty cool…plus, it was free! We got a lot of funny looks from people as we ate and a group of girls was even laughing at us. We thought picnicking as we watched the show was totally normal, but I guess not in Spain! It was a great end to an amazing trip. Later, we even got a chance to meet up with some other Gettysburg friends who had just arrived in Barcelona that evening as a stop on their travel break.

I wish I could have stayed a little longer in Barcelona and explored the surrounding areas. I think it is my favorite city that I have been to so far. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend you go. My friends left early in the morning on Saturday to head to their next destination. I had a flight much later in the day back to Copenhagen to meet up with my family for the second week of travel break. I went for a run to kill some time before I had to get to the airport, and of course the weather was absolutely gorgeous!  As for now, I think I need to get back to writing my paper that I’ve been procrastinating on for the past month. I’ll update with the second week as soon as I can! Hope all is well in the States. I miss everyone!

Vamos a la Playa...Travel Break (Week One, Part One): MADRID

Hola amigos! Me llamo Cristina y soy de Espana! I spent last week in Spain and it was so much fun! I can’t believe week one of travel break is officially over. Which means that there is only a few weeks left of the semester (!!!) Traveling throughout Europe with my friends really was a memorable experience and will probably remain one of the highlights of this semester. Since I’ve been using my blog as basically my own public journal to remember this trip, I’m going to split travel break up into a few different posts for your own good. I am going to try my best to be concise though, because I'm still traveling right now and when I get home, I'll be buried in homework! We (myself, Mikaela, Kelly, Laura, Caroline, Lexi and Emily) left for Madrid on Saturday afternoon after spending the morning twiddling our thumbs in excitement. All of us packed in a carry on (props to Laura who fit it all in just a backpack) so we knew the trip was sure to be interesting just by the sheer fact that we could only take about a quarter of the things we actually wanted to take.

After taking multiple wrong turns, we finally found our hostel once we arrived in Madrid. The staircase leading up to the hostel looked like an abandoned construction site, but Hostel Barbiara turned out to not be too bad.  Madrid lived up to its reputation immediately –there was a party on the street every night, and we could hear every bit of it from our room directly above. Nevertheless, we got to an early start the next morning. We started our tour of the city at El Rastro, which is the largest outdoor market in Europe. It is also infamous for pick-pocketing. A few of us wore money bags under our shirts for extra security, which is why I look a few months pregnant in every picture. We figured not having our money stolen was worth the nerd alert. We all found some great deals at the market. I managed to barter a little bit with one vendor and got a new scarf for only 1.50 euros! I also bought a pair of earrings, but when I took them out a few days later, I realized they were actually the ugliest things I have ever seen. I had heard that they sell a lot of turquoise in Spain, so I guess the excitement of the day made me buy the first blue piece of jewelry I saw. Don’t ask to see them because I am too embarrassed to show them to you. Good thing they were cheap! We also explored a lot of other places throughout the city. It is a really cool city and is kind of reminiscent of New York City. We spent the afternoon in El Retiro Park, which is beautiful! There is a nice lake in the middle of it with people renting row boats and so many green spaces to just chill out and spend the day. We took advantage of the sun and tried to get some color on our translucent skin as we enjoyed a bottle of wine that cost less than a bottle of water.

Before dinner (they don’t eat until about 10 pm in Spain!), we went to a bull fight in the Plaza Toros de las Ventas. We were all really excited for it, and it was interesting to see what other cultures think of as entertainment. The first time the fighter killed the bull we were a little taken aback. It was gruesome, but everyone around us was cheering and acting like it was totally casual. Six bulls later, it was still a little disturbing to us, so we ended up guessing what time the bull would collapse because the show seemed to be on a pretty predictable schedule (about 20 minutes per bull).

The next day, we decided to take one of the free walking tours of Madrid offered by the hostel (somehow we got lucky and literally stumbled upon the group in the middle of the city). Our tour guide Harriet was pretty awesome (we oddly enough, saw her at the metro station in Barcelona a few days later and called out to her from across the platform…I highly doubt she remembered us, so we probably just seemed crazy), and we got to see all of the important sides of the city including the Plaza Mayor, Madrid Cathedral, Plaza de Cibeles, and the Palacio Real. My lucky streak ended soon after that though when a bird pooped on me in the middle of the tour.

The tour lasted about three hours, so we were pretty tired of walking afterwards, but were determined to see as much as we could in a limited amount of time. Our next stop was to ride the Teleferico cable car, which is basically a gondola ride that takes you to the top of a hill and supposedly gives you a really awesome view of the city. Being on a pretty tight budget, we decided to not buy the roundtrip ticket to the top. We figured that since a one-way option was provided, there had to be a way to walk back down. After we paid, we were handed a piece of receipt paper, so Laura, Lexi and I immediately walked to the trashcan and threw it away. Turns out our “receipt” was actually our ticket. We tried explaining this to the ticket collector, but our Spanish wasn’t sophisticated enough to get our point across. Again, being cheap college kids we marched right back to the trashcan, took off the lid, and literally started digging through it without even thinking about how ridiculous we must have appeared. When we finally looked up (with only 2 tickets found), both the rest of our group and the workers were all staring at us hysterically laughing. This went on for a good five minutes before the ticket guy just let us through. I think he just felt bad for how pathetic the situation was. Anyways, once we got on the cable car, we quickly realized that hiking down might not be such an easy task considering the lift took us over not only a river, but a highway as well. Apparently, this wasn’t a big enough obstacle for us though because once we reached the top (the view was a little disappointing) we figured the only way to make the trip worth it was to find our own way back down. It was only about 2 kilometers back to the start, but it took us a good two hours to get back down. We did a bit of off-roading and traversed through the woods for awhile, stopping every couple of minutes to take a funny picture or climb some of the trees. My unlucky streak continued when I tripped up a rise (it couldn’t even be called a hill), completely ate it and then proceeded to break out in hives from the hay. Somehow we managed to find a path over the river and highway, follow directions completely in Spanish and find a metro station to get us back into the main city. Now that is three euros wisely spent!

We were all completely spent and could barely walk another step by the time we got to a familiar place again. I’m pretty sure we had traversed a good 15 miles (seriously, though) by this point. We forced ourselves to take advantage of free admission into the Reina Sophia museum to get our cultural experience in for the day. I think we all tried our best to act interested, but I’m pretty sure our facial expressions made it pretty obvious that we were faking it. We dropped out one by one, and I think the longest survivors only lasted about 15 minutes. The night ended indulging in some traditional Spanish Paella (can’t say I’m a huge fan…I’ll stick with the potato omelets!).

The next day, we only had a few hours left in Madrid before heading to our next stop. We did some browsing through the shops along the Gran Via (the main street of Madrid) and had a nice picnic in El Retiro Park, where I was pooped on a second time by a bird. Of all the places he could have picked…what are the chances!? The weather began to turn for the worse at this point. We got stuck in the first of many rainstorms, so we took cover in the Prado museum (free entrance for students!) and even managed to last a little longer in this one!