Danish Easter Lunch!

Yesterday my family and I did an Easter lunch. Basically, Easter is another excuse in Denmark to drink and eat a lot of good food. Love this country. We were sitting at the table for over three hours and had lots of different foods, so, I'm going to list the courses for you all at home who are wondering what a traditional-ish (My family does not do the exact traditional Danish Easter lunch, they do mostly what they like and what they know will be eaten, makes sense to me, but the foods are all still very traditional) lunch is like!

Start off- cold, fish dishes:
pickled herring
breads
curry salad
onions
hard boiled eggs
shrimps
mayo
lemons
Most people take a piece of bread and put a few pieces of herring on it, then put onions and curry salad on top of the fish. Another option is the shrimp on the bread with some mayo and lemon. The curry salad also goes very well with the eggs.

Next, warm dishes:
I forget exactly what they are called, but we started off with these little tart pastries that are basically mini chicken pot pies and are delicious.
Quiche
Frikadeller
Pork roast
warm liver pâté with bacon

As you can imagine, the meal is extremely filling. Top all the food off with tons of beer and snaps, and consider yourself happy, full, and drunk.

Is this real life?

I'm wearing SHORTS and a TANK TOP and we had breakfast OUTSIDE this morning?!

Hellooooooo Springtime in Copenhagen!!

Shopping and Table making

So, this morning my host mom wakes me up at the crack of 10:30 and asks if I want to go shopping with her and my host father. I roll out of bed and get ready and we head off. We end up going to this mall- City 2, which my family claims is the biggest mall in Denmark. I wouldn't be surprised. The place is pretty massive. So we shop around, they get some shoes, it is always creepily comforting to be in a mall. Thanks, America.

Next we go to Ikea because they need a new table to put their BBQ on. We have lunch there and walk around and they tease each other about who will buy more things that they do not really need. Steen won.

We head home and immediately Steen hands me the box with the table inside and tells me to make it. Well, I'm not doing anything else, so he and I get to it. No fighting. No missing screws. And I was awesome. It was so much fun. Hold of on the lesbian jokes everyone. I think it derives from my love for Legos as a child!

SPRING BREAK! (Budapest)

And now to tell about the longest leg of the journey. Where to even begin. I think I'll do a post of highlights.

• Spent a wonderful afternoon with Bobby and Kristina in our apartment playing Kings and Asshole drinking and having a blast
• First night going out, went to a HUGE club with a million differently themed rooms. Had a Hungarian producer buy us shots but then Bobby told him I was a lesbian. LOLZ.
  
• Saw Parliament, walked across the bridge to Buda and climbed up to the Palace.
• 
• Spent an afternoon at the baths- absolutely incredible. Massive, beautiful buildings with endless warm pools and saunas.
  
• Had goulash. Yum.
• Went to Margaret Island and to another club and danced after going to a Gypsy party???
  
• All in all, Budapest is GORGEOUS. I would love to go back. It's also extremely CHEAP. Which was nice nice nice.
  

SPRING BREAK! (Dresden)

On Tuesday we took a train to Dresden. It was a beautiful day and the train ride was very nice for a nap and to see just how beautiful Germany is.

Once we get to Dresden, we have some trouble finding our hostel. However, just like any good Americans, we had a McDonald's moment to save us. I'm only telling you all this because it was such a good advertisement for McDonald's: Two young Americans show up in a new European city and get lost. But, there in the distance, they see the Golden Arches. "Ah Ha!" One exclaims, "McDonald's usually has free wireless internet! We can find out where we are!" So, the two go in and are immediately more hungry than they realized. After grabbing a delicious snack and figuring out where they are, the two are ready to go! Thanks, McDonald's for always being there! Huge eye roll.

In Dresden, we saw some sights and walked around for a long time. My mind was once again blown by how beautiful the city is. Each of the cities I visit just surprise me. Dresden is especially amazing because of how new everything is, rebuilt etc, even though the city has so much history. It's a very interesting contrast to experience.

SPRING BREAK! (Berlin)

I returned last night from Spring Breaking in Berlin, Dresden, and Budapest! What a trip...

Let's start out with my first stop: Berlin. I traveled there with my friend Bobby because he was dying to go to Berghain- one, if not THE, most famous club in the world. Bobby would kill me if he knew I was listening to Britney Spears right now while writing about Berghain. Anyway, we hop on a plane on Saturday and fly off to Germany. I'll say right now, we did absolutely NOTHING traditionally touristy in Berlin, so, I'll probably have to go back someday. We saw lots of tourist looking famous buildings on the bus to our hostel, but that was about it. Oops.

The weather in Berlin was INCREDIBLE. Sunny, warm, amazing. We spent many afternoons just relaxing by the river in the sun. We also went to the same hookah bar every night. Don't worry, we got free shots one night for being so loyal. It was just so nice to be in a new city, enjoy perfect weather, and relax with beers, fruity drinks, and hookah.



Oh, but back to Berghain! We show up around 2 after checking out some other pretty chill bars. The line is HUGE. Basically, the club is located in an old warehouse so like, it doesn't seem like you are waiting to get into a huge famous club at all. It seems like you are a moron standing with a bunch of other morons in the middle of a field. So, we wait in line for about an hour, watching groups of people getting turned away at the door. Basically, Berghain keeps its cool by creating a consistently fresh feeling group of people they let in. There is no rhyme or logic to who they turn away, so Bobby and I were pretty nervous. Finally, we get to the front. The group of boys in front of us gets turned away but we keep our composure. Then, just like that, we are waved in. YUP. So we go in. We are ushered along through security and then enter the first room. Let me just say, no other club has anything on this place, not even at all. Sorry, Divas. Berghain is amazing. The sound was incredible. The setting...indescribable. Passageways everywhere to other hidden away rooms, amazing light shows in their main clubbing areas, a room where they serve ice cream, a massive swing, just incredible. I won't really try to describe it, you should all try to go for yourselves.

So yeah, as I said, the rest of Berlin was spent mostly just chilling out and walking around awesome areas and finding nice parks to relax in. There was, however, that one night of karaoke...
Our last night in Berlin, we went to this karaoke bar. The night we happened to go on was gay themed, and the entire place was filled with punk style gay men. We were in the main karaoke room and the guys singing were doing songs that Bobby and I had never heard before ever. So, obviously, to fit in, I get up there and do BABY GOT BACK. I'm pretty sure they loved it by the end, but at first it was clear they were just so confused as to what a lady was doing up on their stage rapping to a song about liking big butts. Life. Win.

Head start

You know those mornings where you wake up accidentally at like, 4:30 am and you can't get back to sleep so you wander around town or get a head start on your chores for the day, or something? Sometimes that's what it feels like here in Denmark. Knowing that I'm 6 hours ahead of the US and everyone in it. Even being so far away, sometimes it still feels like I'm so attached to my life at home and the people in it. So when I know I'm awake and everything there is dark and asleep, it's an odd feeling. It's a weird feeling. Like to be the only one awake and going with the day. Just some thoughts!

AMSTERDAM

I know I'm super behind on updating you all on my life, so here we go!

A few weekends ago I took off to Amsterdam with Sam and two guys from DIS. First of all, Amsterdam is BEAUTIFUL. Our hotel was in a great location, a close walk to touristy things and also Vondelpark where we spent lots of time walking around the green grass, near ponds, and over bridges. A very nice break from the gray, cold, stone surroundings of Copenhagen.

On Friday, we woke up early and headed out for a canal tour! The tour was beautiful and we saw many sites of the city. It's really interesting how the harbors weave through the entire city. In the evening, we went to Anne Frank's house. This was pretty intense. Seeing her actual diary, the bookcase, everything. Very non-vacation feeling, but still glad we went. After Anne Frank, we did another Amsterdam must and headed to the Red Light District. This was... yeah. I could only take so much. What a job that is.

Saturday we started the day off by visiting my favorite brewery/museum tour as of yet: THE HEINEKEN EXPERIENCE. We got to see the old factory equipment, go on a ride, get sprayed by beer, go through a taste testing, and of course we got some free beer. Brainwashed for sure. After getting a little drunk on the tour, we headed off to the Diamond Museum. Still not positive why we did this. Oh yeah, it was free and Sam likes shiny things. Then we went to the Van Gogh museum which was actually incredible. We spent the night club hopping. There may have been a poll involved at some point or another. Maybe.

And yeah! There's the PG version of my trip to Amsterdam!