København!

Easter weekend I was in Copenhagen! It was so so so much fun. We left Thursday, March 28th while my mom and Aunt were still in Sweden. Here's my day by day breakdown of Copenhagen!

Thursday 3/28
We boarded the train in Uppsala just past 11am. I should tell you who we is! It was me, my two Dutch friends Silke and Dieuwertje, and my two Aussie friends Ben and Lana. We got in just past 5pm and met our Dutch friend Esther at the train station. It was so great to see her again! She was studying at Uppsala but some of her classes overlapped so she went back to Holland in February. We enjoyed dinner at an awesome British pub. Steaks and Bearnaise sauce. YUM. Our hostel was FANTASTIC. Really close to the train station and right next to the water but also within walking distance of the main shopping strip.

So delicious.

The view from our hostel!

Friday 3/29 (Good Friday)

We took ages to get ready in the morning but we finally made our way out just before noon after a breakfast with lots of Nutella and boiled eggs.

The most important meal of the day! Lana (left), me, and Esther (right)

Copenhagen has a different feel to it than Sweden so it was interesting to see the buildings and such. The first thing we say was the Royal Library. Weird and modern. But Dieuwertje played tour guide for us with her tour book and told us the fun fact that there are over 21 million books in that library. HOLY COW. The Political Science major in me thought it was so awesome to see Folktinget, Danish Parliament.

Royal Library

Folktinget

 The Danish Royal Palace in Copenhagen is called Amalienborg and is the winter home of the royal family. It was very strange. Four separate buildings with a courtyard containing the classic majestic monument of a man riding a horse in the middle. The most bizarre thing was that cars are allowed to drive through the courtyard. There's a roundabout around the monument.

One of the buildings of the palace

Fantastic hot chocolate from the nicest Danish man

We finally made it to our primary goal for the day: Nyhavn! IT WAS SO COOL. Whoever decided that buildings should be bright colors and lining a canal was a genius. Nyhavn is definitely one of my favorite places that I've seen here in Europe. It's unlike anything at home. Just off Nyhavn, we found this cute little American bar that had hot chocolate and would let us sit without buying a meal. At most restaurants and places along the canal, at least half of the party has to order food in order for you to be in the establishment. They require that because everywhere is tiny and they don't want to lose money to people just sitting down for drinks. 

Nyhavn!

We found the Danish Museum of Art and Design. It's definitely not my type of museum but we enjoyed it. After the museum we split into two groups. Didg, Ben, and I wanted to find the Little Mermaid statue while the other three went back to the hostel to rest. It was snowing!

Dieuwertje and me 

We found the Little Mermaid statue! And it was everything I expected it to be. There were heaps of tourists there and it was rather cold walking there along the water. It's really nothing special. But the reason there's a statue of a mermaid in the middle of Copenhagen is because the story of the Little Mermaid was written by a Dane, Hans Christian Andersen. He wrote tons of other children's stories such as the Princess and the Pea, the Ugly Duckling, and Thumbelina.

The Little Mermaid

One our journey to the mermaid we walked through some army barracks that would've been more interesting had it been less snowy. 

The windmill

For dinner we made a classic poor college kid dinner of pasta bolognese. Good stuff. We then got ready to hit the Copenhagen club scene! Now one ongoing joke of the weekend and has since continued in Uppsala was "Escalation Bird." It's a Dutch thing, I guess. The Escalation Bird calls and you have to decide whether you want to "answer" or "decline." What is escalating? Generally, escalating means having a good time. So declining the Escalation Bird means you want to take it easy and relax. Escalation Bird called on Friday night and all six of us answered yes. It was a very late night ending with Dieuwertje, Esther, and myself returning to the hostel at 6am. That was another difference from Sweden. The club was open until 5 so that's normal. Here, the nations typically close at 1am, 2am if it's a special event. The sun was rising. We discovered some very fun Somersby bottles. If you don't know what Somersby is, I am so sorry. It is a hard, Danish cider that actually tastes like juice. It is so good. 

Answer the call! 

Fun Somersby bottles!

Saturday 3/30

Since we had a crazy late night on Friday, Saturday was a very low key day. It was also the only day that shops were open. Since it was Easter weekend, nearly all the stores were closed Friday and Sunday so we embraced the chance to get some shopping in on Saturday. Lana, Didg, and I called it quits a little early and went back to the British pub for a late lunch of steaks and burgers. The three of us then decided that it would be best to go back to the hostel and nap. It was a gloomy day so I'm not sad that we weren't outside all day. We had a relaxing night at the hostel with tacos for dinner and just lounging. Ben, Silke, and Didg answered the Escalation Bird call but Esther, Lana, and I were too happy to stay in that night. 

Sunday 3/31 (Easter!)

Simply the best. 

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was fantastic. Esther and I got up and did the grocery shopping for the day. The sun was shining! We walked to Rundetårn, the Round Tower, and went to the top! On our walk there we walked past people doing marketing for Magnum ice cream and they were handing out FREE ICE CREAM TREATS. I HAD A PINK ICE CREAM. The outer shell was chocolate but it was sparkly pink and the ice cream was vanilla but it was pink! 

View from the tower!

At the top! Ben, Dieuwertje, me, Lana, Esther, and Silke

We then went back to Nyhavn! It was busy and bustling but we found a good spot to sit along the canal to enjoy some coffees. We also played I spy! It was so relaxing to soak up the sun!

Hanging out on the edge of the canal!

Sunday night was once again uneventful. Our Easter dinner was nothing special. Just potatoes and chicken with some mushrooms and a salad. Definitely not Mom's ham with mashed potatoes but not bad. I was definitely a little sad that I was missing Easter at home and I think the hardest part was knowing what I was missing. The egg hunt. Mom's delicious meal. Easter baskets. Church with the fam. But I'm so glad I got to spend it with my new good friends in a new place! It was an adventure. We had plans that night to hit up happy hour at our favorite British pub but we somehow decided to watch a movie so the six of us cuddled up on two twin beds pushed together and watched Crazy, Stupid Love on my iPad. It was a little lame but Esther had an early flight and the rest of us didn't feel like going all the way to the bar. It was nice and low key.

Sunday 4/1 (Easter Monday and April Fool's Day!)
We caught our train back to Sweden! Uneventful until we got to Stockholm. Our train was slow so we had to run to catch our connection train to Uppsala. Didg and Silke thought it would be fun to pull a joke on Ben, Lana, and me and tell us that they missed the train since we were separated at the Stockholm train station. Then they just strolled up to us on the platform in Uppsala yelling "April Fools!" Silly silly silly!

So that was Copenhagen. Keep an eye out for Paris, Scotland, and Birthday Celebrations!

Cheers!

Julie and Jann journey to Sweden!

For all my avid followers, my apologies for taking so long to update. The past month has been crazy! But I will do my best to do each adventure justice in my posts starting with the visit from my mom and Aunt Julie from 3/21-3/29. Now I will warn you that I did a terrible job taking pictures during that week but hopefully my mom can get some pictures to me and I can add them! (Hint hint, Mom)

Thursday 3/21
Jann and Julie arrived at Stockholm Arlanda and I went to collect them! We dropped off their luggage and I brought them to my place so they could see where I live and so we could enjoy an awkward late lunch/early dinner. they were obviously exhausted from travelling and jet lagged but I did my very best to keep them up.

Friday 3/22
Friday was a fairly uneventful day. We picked up the car from the rental place, visited IKEA (Aunt Julie had NEVER been to one before!), I had class, did some light grocery shopping, and hit the road for Mariestad. We made one stop so I could show them the glorious magic that is Max. It was a hugely successful day.

Saturday 3/23
Saturday got really exciting! We met up with my super distant relatives Karl-Erik and Johan Brink. They showed us my family tree and where my Great Great Grandma Alma was born and baptized before she immigrated to the US. They live just outside Göteborg, or Gothenburg, which is Sweden's second largest city behind Stockholm. I think my mom took the copy of my family tree that Karl-Erik made for me but it was really interesting. It went back about 200-ish years. Karl-Erik worked a lot with his Uncle Nils, who was Alma's nephew, on genealogy and family history. Wow, that would be a lot easier if I to understand if I had that family tree. Nils passed away in 2010 but Karl-Erik has been continuing work on family history. He literally had binders on binders on binders full of tables of family genealogy things. It was so interesting! You could tell that a lot of time and effort was put into compiling each of the binders. 

Karl-Erik and his wife Ann-Marie invited us to dinner at their house that night for a feast with their two children and their families. The dinner was simply fantastic. There was salmon and shrimp for a starter. Chicken, pork, and potatoes for the main course. And a raspberry dessert. Oh my goodness. It was heavenly. It was so great to have a home cooked meal that I didn't have to prepare! I also got the chance to use my limited Swedish skills. Karl-Erik and Ann-Marie have three grandkids, oldest age 8. Theodor was 8 and just started learning English in school. I seized the opportunity to speak two languages with him. In English, I asked him his name and how old he was. Then in Swedish I told him that my name is Siana and I come from the US. For some reason that I have since forgotten we were looking at an atlas so I pointed out the great state of Minnesota to him, ALL IN SWEDISH. It was slightly nerve-racking but super awesome. I was scared to talk to an 8 year old. My life. I didn't even try and communicate with the smaller two kids. Talking with Theodor was hard enough. All in all, a good dinner party. We stayed in a Scandic hotel in Mondal that is accommodating when you leave forget things in your room. But more on that later. 

Sunday 3/24
We drove to Småland which a region in southern Sweden known for blown glass. We visited the oldest blown glass museum in the province. It was only mediocre. It was less enjoyable because all the signs were in Swedish therefore mostly pointless to me and completely meaningless to my mom and aunt. We worked our way through the museum quickly. Then the two middle aged women went a little crazy with the glass shops. My goodness, they purchased so many fragile things. If you would like to have fancy water from a Swedish glass carafe, stop by the Adrian household anytime. Heaven knows it won't get use more than Christmas and Thanksgiving. So feel free to stop by for a refreshing beverage so my mom can justify her purchase to my ridiculously judgmental brother who does not believe in buying more things for our house. 

After closing down the stores, we returned to the car to make our way back toward Uppsala buuuuuut I realized that I forgot my computer at the hotel in Mölndal. Luckily we could cancel our reservations at the prison hostel and return to our hotel to get my computer. Looking back, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Maybe the description as a "ex-prison hostel" should've been warning to not stay there. We did A LOT of driving that day. Like I said, the hotel was great about it and had kept my computer for me. I was extremely careful with it for the rest of the trip.

Monday 3/25
Wake up at the crack of dawn. Check. Drive five hours back to Uppsala. Check. Go to class. Check. Not the most awesome Monday morning I've ever had but I got to spend good QT (quality time) with Aunt Julie and Mom so it's all good. That night we did stop at the most awesome roadside diner. It was a little sketchy when you walk in but the cashier was extremely helpful since I struggled to read the menu and it had a lot of variety. I did not have high expectations but my kebab was fantastic. And it was SO MUCH FOOD. I loved it. Aunt Julie got schnitzel which was tempting but I just couldn't resist the kebab. We drove to Mora to get us closer to our destinations for Tuesday. The guy who owned the house/apartment thing we stayed at that was the chattiest Cathy. He could not take a hint that we were exhausted and wanted to go to bed. But I had a double bed all to myself! It was magical.

Tuesday 3/26
Now Mora is super close to Nusnäs which is where the Dala horse shop is! This is a Dala horse:

Still don't know what a Dala horse is? Educate yourself: Wikipedia: Dalecarlian Horse

Now this place is cool. We visited Nils Olsson Hemslöjd AB. We saw where they cut the horses. Then they're sent out to people who whittle the horse. It comes back to the shop, is cleaned up, and is dipped to coat the horse in the base color. They're then sanded and sent over to the painting room. Finally they're dipped in a coating to make it shiny and are ready to be sold. SO MUCH WORK. And they literally have rows of rows on shelves and shelves of horses. They've even expanded to making Dala roosters and pigs. 

We then traveled to Falun which is apparently super well known for copper mines, or something. We did go on a tour of the copper mine. However, it was completely in Swedish. I picked up a few things here and there on the tour such as dates and random words but my poor mom and Aunt. Just tagging along. We did get a paper of the tour in English but reading a tour just isn't the same especially when you're in a poorly lit mine. I did learn that the copper byproducts from Falun are used to produce Falu Red. Don't know the color? It's really Swedish. Basically every wooden house here is this particular red. 

The tour would've been cool but the whole language thing made it hard to enjoy it. Next time we'll get it right and go on a day that they'll have the tour in English. Finally after a long day of two really Swedish things, home to Uppsala!

Wednesday 3/27
Now we did something in the morning but I can't seem to remember what. Maybe it will come to me. But I did have class; I started my third subject! Swedish Art and Music. Not really my thing but it fills my Art general education credit so I'm taking it. After class, I met up with my mom and Aunt again and brought them to William's Pub which is a fantastic little British pub in town that does burger nights every Wednesday with beer and cider specials. It's a little more than the nations but worth it because it's a buffet! I also showed them our University building which is somewhat old and cool. It was built in the 1800's and as with most projects, took much longer to complete than planned. The interior is really similar to the MN Capitol, so naturally, I love it. After the sunset, Aunt Julie relaxed at the hotel while my mom and I went down to the river to see the lights on the trees and I gave her a little mini tour of the student life i.e. the nations around town. 

Thursday 3/28 
Literally the fastest week of my life. I collected them in the morning and gave them a hand with luggage to catch the bus down to their airport hotel. Even though their flight wasn't until the next day, it was a very early flight so we said goodbye. 

They scooted down to Stockholm for the day while I frantically ran around trying to pay rent and prepare for my trip to Copenhagen. Note to self: never leave rent until the last day, especially if you have other plans and such. Too stressful.

Anyway, there is a brief-ish, mostly pictureless run down of my week during the visit of my mom and aunt. If you don't want to read all that, here's a quick summary. Lots of driving. Lots of Swedish things. Brink family visit. Delicious food. Lots of shopping. I paid for nothing. It was marvelous!

Love you Mamma and Aunt Julie! Thank you so much for visiting; I had a really great time! See you stateside soon.

Coming soon: Copenhagen and Paris blogposts!
I'm off to Scotland tomorrow and my birthday is on Monday. WHY IS THIS SEMESTER GOING SO FAST? 

I'm almost 21! Later, gators!