Contrary to popular belief, I was not abducted by a group of angry Vikings nor did I join a traveling ABBA tribute band. Rather, I have been out and about, "taking Denmark," if you will, which is why I have neglected my blogging duties as of late. Hopefully this post will make up for my absence. I am going to begin by discussing my recent adventure to Stockholm, Sweden before moving onto my lovely visit from two fellow sisters of Chi Omega, and will wrap up with a few fun facts about my day as well as details of my pending travel break. So here we go. 


Last weekend, Amanda, Dan, Daniel (dorm friends), two of their friends (Court and Michael), Brooke, Sarah, and Mary from CMM, and Sophie (Brooke's roommie who happens to go to Trinity ... i.e., every time I see her I get the incredible urge to scream out, "Remember the Alamo!!!," "Viva Fiesta!", so on and so forth). Amanda, Michael and I were the first to arrive in Stockholm and therefore decided to explore the city a bit before heading to the lovely Hotel Satra. As it turns out, Satra was a bit different than we had imagined. I had a feeling things were going to get interesting when we discovered that the hotel occupied only one floor of a building and was situated on top of a hospital of some sort on the same premises as the Satra train station. And I had a feeling thins were going to get interesting when the reception desk was closed upon our arrival (i.e., no one was there to give us our key). And I knew for certain that something was not quite right when another hotel resident got our key for us from a clearly very high security "lock box." In hindsight, I realize I probably did not show due thankfulness to our fellow hotel-dweller for taking the time to find us our key, seeing as the day of our arrival, he was actually busy moving into Hotel Satra permanently at the recommendation of his social worker.


Needless to say, we were somewhat eager to venture beyond the just-missed-clean beige walls of Satra, so Sara, Mary, Sophie, Brooke, and I went to the Photography Museum where we had a lovely dinner and attended  the opening of an exhibit by "portrait" artist Nick Brandt. I put "portrait" in quotations because that is a self-proclaimed title in response to his audience's tendency to label him as a landscape artist. Brandt takes incredible photographs of African jungle animals that seem to have been shot from an impossibly close proximity. Brandt says that what makes him a portrait artist is the fact that he captures his subjects' spirits the same way he would were he photographing humans. A portion of his artist statement can be read below: 


"Aside from using certain absurdly impractical techniques, I do one thing that I believe makes a big difference : I get very, very close to the animals. I don’t use telephoto lenses, as I want to see as much of the sky and landscape as possible – to see the animals within the context of their environment. That way, the photos become about the atmosphere of the place as well as the animals."

After dinner, we went to the Ice Bar, which was rather interesting and only caused me mild physical discomfort. It will, however, be good preparation should I ever decide to move to Antarctica. After this, we stumbled upon a rather swanky looking Swedish club and somehow managed to weasel our way in (NOTE: by "somehow," I mean we stupidly paid over 200 Swedish Kroner to be allowed entrance). However, it was quite an experience and we danced the night away with a plethora of ridiculously well-dressed young Swedes. It was a somewhat surreal experience, made all the more interesting by a pair of silver sequin stilettos, a lot of black leather, and what appeared to be a back piercing. But to each his (her) own. 


After a lovely night out, we needed a good night's sleep in order to be ready for more adventures. The next day, the same group of girls and I went to the old town for breakfast before going to the Nobel Museum, the Royal Palace, and some other historically significant sites. The Nobel Museum was my favorite and solidified my hope to one day be granted the Nobel Peace Prize in either Economics or Science. In the afternoon, Michael met us for a canal tour, which was a terrible idea seeing as said tours only run March - September. So we spent the rest of the day meandering about, going to the Vasa Museum where we saw a really old ship that had been excavated after 300 years under the sea (fascinating, I know)  and ultimately met up with the rest of the group at the Modern Museum where there was a special exhibit on Monet, Turner, and Twombly, a quite interesting combination in my opinion. Despite the fact that I am (at least for the time being) an Art History minor (NOTE: if I hope to earn my college diploma in less than 12 years, I will have to reconsider said minor...) I had never heard of Twombly but I really enjoyed his work. Here is a sample ...

That evening, we went to dinner before the boys and I attempted unsuccessfully to get into the one and only casino in the city of Stockholm. But that is another story entirely. Sunday, we went to the Globe (a location uncannily similar to the London Eye) before heading back to Old Town for a bit and ultimately making our way to the airport where I enjoyed a lovely pre-packaged Greek meal. 

On Monday, Kate and Gillis came to visit from Aix en Provence by way of Istanbul, Turkey. It was lovely to have them!!!! I was volunteering at Mellemrummet Cafe (the cafe below our building that is part of Actionaid Denmark, i.e., the nonprofit behind our building) for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Tuesday evening we were treated to a lovely homemade meal by some Vandy boys before Kate and Gillis were able to indulge in the remarkable experience that is Kulor Bar. Wednesday evening, we had dinner and did a bit of shopping and spent a significant amount of time sampling dried fruit at the market. 

Nothing incredibly significant happened at school today so despite the fact that I said that I would share with you the details of my day, it seems that I do not really have anything to share. My bike basket was stolen approximately 2.5 days ago, but that does not really have a whole lot to do with anything and is actually quite irrelevant to the rest of this post. Therefore, I will not discuss the matter any further. 

An exciting weekend is looming, though, that includes but is not limited to the following: Halloween, Sensation White, and TRAVEL BREAK. I leave Monday for Dublin, then will be heading to Paris, Aix en Provence, and finally Edinburgh. Then Fay and Alan will arrive in the Cope on the following Monday. So, all in all, I have quite a bit to look forward to and I hope that you will enjoy the details of my upcoming endeavors. 

Farvel!


Ord af dagen: tåge = fog (As in, "There was so much tåge this morning that I thought I had somehow descended into Hell.")