God aften (Good evening). 


I hope all of you had a weekend as thrilling and splendid as I did. I am feeling more cultured and well-traveled than ever before - even more so than when I drove through the back woods of Arkansas en route to Bonnaroo two summers back. 


On Friday, Amanda and I went to Rosenborg Castle, which was the old summer home for Christian IV. It was not too shabby for a summer home. In fact, it rivals the state-of-the-art Executive Keys condo my family stayed in while vacationing in Port Aransas, Texas this summer. The castle was erected in 1606 in Dutch Renaissance style and it is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, it is currently under construction so there was a bit of scaffolding, but the grounds were so incredible that the heavy metal surrounding most of the building was pretty easily overlooked. 

Yeah, baby. 

After exploring the interior of the castle and deciding that we much prefer out own china patterns to those of the queen, we headed down to the treasury where an assortment of royal items are tucked away, most notably the crown jewels and the crown wine, the oldest barrel of which dates back to 1518 (and yes, this particular vino is still being consumed to this day ... totally vintage). 

Now for the crown jewels. First off, you should know that the Order of the Elephant is the highest honor one can receive in the land of the Danes (I wanted to clear this up for you prior to adding the photos so as to prevent any confusion as to whether or not I am in Europe or on an African safari). Rarely anyone outside the royal family is ever bestowed this honor. In fact, the only common-man who currently holds the title of His Excellency is Mærsk McKinney-Møller, the former chairman and CEO of  the Danish business conglomerate A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, whose foundation donated the Copenhagen Opera House. Anywho, the jewels were quite lovely. In fact, as much as I hate to admit this, they may even be more lovely than the gold ball earring from Claire's that is currently residing in my ear. 

As we were leaving the castle, we could not help but wander towards the large group of Vikings that were frolicking about on the other side of the lawn. While our curiosity slowly lead us towards them, suddenly, as if out of thin air, a strapping young Viking began running full speed on an unknown trajectory. Unknown was his destination for only a fleeting moment, as before we knew it, he had Amanda swung over his shoulder and was taking her back to his leader. Only moments later, I met the same fate and was captured by a lovely young Viking named Erik, who later asked me if I was a dwarf (This is a true story. Traumatizing? Yes. Insulting? Absolutely. Comical? No, not really. But nonetheless, I let it slide, as I may be dwarf-like, but Erik was a 30 year old man dressed as a Viking...). 

We chatted with our new friends for a while before making our way to a new food market that opened near Norreport Station. IT WAS AMAZING. The building is all glass and there are vendors selling every type of fare you can imagine from fresh fish to sushi to chicken to produce to a wide range of unidentifiable sauces. 

After this, I had a wild Friday evening. So wild, in fact, that I was tired enough to go to bed at 11:30. And that's about all I have to say about that. 

Saturday was a fairly uneventful day. I did my first load of Danish laundry which was interesting to say the least, seeing as our laundry room is located in the back of the non-profit coffee shop in our basement. With a new, clean wardrobe, I felt ready to take on the world and decided to go sit by the lake and read. I first made a stop at my favorite coffee shop, 7/11 (which I have mentioned in previous posts) to get some hot water to make tea. Word to the wise: DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ever walk out of a 7/11 with hot water without telling the clerk that you are doing so. Despite the fact that the water is free, as water should be, one absolutely must inform aforementioned clerk that one is taking said water or otherwise run the risk of having him ask in a tone that could be called screaming, "Do you walk into stores and just take whatever you want and leave?" Yes, this actually happened and yes, I was quite upset by the encounter but being the little warrior that I am, I moved on with my day, determined to not let him ruin my nature-filled afternoon. 

On my way to the lake, I came across a Danish marching band playing "YMCA." Fortunately, I was able to capture some of the performance on film. After witnessing this spectacle, I came to the conclusion that seemingly random outdoor musical performances are quite the commonality in Copenhagen, as I have stumbled across four such spectacles this week alone: 

1. A woman on a bench by DIS playing guitar while singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (Her personal rendition was called "I Heard it Through the Grape WINE," a rather creative touch I thought).

2. A ban on a bench by DIS playing "Let it Be" on his guitar

3. A rapper by DIS performing his personal interpretation of "To the Left" by Beyonce [see photo below]

4. Previously mentioned marching band

NOTE: I attempted to upload videos of performances 1, 2, and 4, but the warning "Vi beklager, men der opstod en fejl under upload af din video" keeps popping up and I have been unable to do so. I will keep working on it. 

On Saturday evening, I went into town with some new friends before ultimately stopping with them at McDonald's, which yes, appears just as delectable in Denmark as it does in the U.S. 

Today, I went on a canal tour with more new friends, which was WONDERFUL. The tour was given by a precious young lad in three languages: English, Danish, and Italian. Unfortunately, distinguishing which of the three languages he was using at a given time was no easy feat, so rather than verbalizing the details of the tour, I am simply going to provide you with some visuals. I hope you enjoy! 

'
 
 
 

So that was my Danish weekend in a nutshell! I am off to get ready for bed. 8:30 AM classes are quite the joy. Good thing I have Violet to get me there in a hurry - she's a little firecracker if I've ever seen one. More rousing tales and thrilling anecdotes to come!

Farvel! 

ord af dagen: "ydeevne" = "performance"