1. How to cook…sort of…lots of messups along the way including pasta floating in warm milk instead of pasta alfredo.

2. How to get around Europe on trains

3. To pack everything I need into a hiking backpack

4. Keeping kosher in Denmark…just as hard as it sounds.

5. How to speak Danish! (“Hej! Jeg hedder Jess! Jeg kommer fra USA! Jeg laeser englesk og psykologi! Hvad med dig??”)

6.  That my body is not cut out for cold weather…(3 toenails fell off in 1 week in Denmark’s winter…gross…I know)

7.  That garlic goes well in prettyyyyy much everything

8.  Computers are annoying to shlepp around in a bag for 2 weeks, especially if you forget your charger

9.  To check the safety of living arrangements before you go somewhere….(think: Amsterdam Hostel in red light district…whoopsy)

10.  to buy train tickets and book hostels ahead of time or you will end up having to get an expensive cab to a hotel on top of a mountain far, far from where your actual hike is  (see: Cinque Terre blog)

11.  how to open a beer using a soda bottle  (party trick!)

12.  if things seem to be going our way in terms of travel, that is sure to change soon thereafter (especially with train schedules)

13. How to give directions in Copenhagen! (The other day, two nice asian women approached me asking for directions to the metro station, and I gave it to them not only because they were nice and reminded me of my grandma Shirley, but because I actually knew where the metro was!)

What I’ll Miss

1. Holly!!!!!(she finally learned the best way to wake me up is not softly knocking on my door, but pounding on it, bursting in, and waving coffee in front of my face…works every time!)

2. Tivoli theme park!!!! (amazing!!!!!!!!!!!)

3. Getting lost on nearly every trip I’ve been on

4. the metro….America needs to step it up with public transportation

metro!

5. MY BIKE!! especially when Holly rides on the back of it…haha (I plan on buying one when I return home)

In Denmark, they do EVERYTHING on a bike…I’ve seen people on phones, eating, holding hands, and much much more

6. Free health care (I walked into a hospital in Italy, was treated within the hour, and given meds, and walked out with the same amount of $ in my pocket)

two thumbs up for free health care! (sorry Grandpa, that's one thing commy-pinkos do well)

7. Not having to tip.

8. The incredible museums with weird art all around Europe

modern art in Prague

9. my Hans Christian Andersen class about fairytales! and having the final test be writing my own fairytale

hans christian andersen statue...back when it was freezing!

10. communal kitchen (+ kollegium parties)

11. my Kollegium hallmates…funny bunch- O- Danes and non Danes

arni and christoffer, from my hall

Arni and Jonas

12. babies in snowsuits

13.  The green rooftops and beautiful multicolored buildings and canals

Nyhavn Canal

sunny day, at long last

14. traveling around Europe in general…just so much fun

15. bakeries opening at 3 am…perfect timing for when we get home

16. Not having class on Wednesdays ever, because it’s Field Trip day!!!!

17. Not having class tuesday, friday, sat, or sunday either.

18. “Hygge”! (“coziness”…huge concept here)

19.  Copenhagen parks (even though it’s still cold, they are so pretty and fun)

20.  hot waffles with soft ice next to the dock on Nyhavn

21. the cute statues around Copenhagen, especially my favorite of the bronze old couple sitting next to each other on a bench in the middle of town people watching

22. passing by castles as I take a stroll through the city

castle! one of a few in CPH

23.  having a 100 reasons to update my blog (I can’t imagine how boring it would be if I blogged about going to class everyday at Vandy)

Things I Won’t Miss

1. paying $15 for a box of American cereal (I ate weird Danish cereal all semester instead…they eat raw oats in milk…what we call oatmeal…but without it being heated)

2. Taxes (25% on EVERYTHING you buy in Denmark)

3. the weather

4. having to fix my bike chain every time it falls off and getting my hands oily (if I pedal too fast or try and stand up and pedal, it falls off every time)

5. herring: smoked, slimy, in mayonnaise, pickled….I just don’t like it.

6.  my brick of a phone…(which I lost at 7am while biking home after a [long] night out)

7. the smelly, tiny fridge we share with a guy in our hall who failed to tell us that the mysterious foiled bowl in the fridge that was there since the beginning of the semester was not actually his like we thought it was, but was from the DIS students before us, and is therefore now a foiled bowl of MOLD. we threw the entire bowl down the trash chute…which brings me to…

8. the smelly trash chute and it’s handle that always falls off…AND…

9. fruit flies in our kitchen

10.  when you turn your water on to brush your teeth in the morning, the shower turns on and drips all over you

11. the flies stuck to our bathroom ceiling and the constantly wet floor because we have no squeegie…only a handle bar.

12.  tap water that costs $5 in every restaurant

All in all, this has been the most incredible semester I could have asked for, and I am so thankful I got to experience Copenhagen not just as a tourist but as a Dane…other than the blonde, flowing hair and being 6 feet tall.

Thank you to everyone who allowed me to get here in the first place and also to everyone who made this semester so special for me.  I look forward to traveling in the future, but for now, I am happy to come home to Atlanta/Nashville and see all my family and friends.  See you all soon, or as they say here:

HEJ HEJ! VI SES! TAK FOR HYGGE!

Holly and me on the airplane ride at Tivoli

more Tivoli

Sweden (Canoe) Trip

Why the parentheticals?  Well…I didn’t end up canoeing.  No, it wasn’t due to rain or thunder or drought or broken down bus or anything like that.  I set my alarm for 6:15 am to give myself plenty of time to get to the bus at 7:30am.  I ended up waking up at 7:32 am. Whoops.  I ran around my room like an ostrich with it’s feathers plucked off before coming to my senses and calling a DIS supervisor (my program). She told me if I could get there really soon they would wait.  Unfortunately I was not dressed, had not packed, and looked like a crazy person.  She called me back a few minutes later and said they were leaving and if I wanted to come that I could meet them in Sweden.  Oh, no big deal. WHAT?!?!?!

Meet you in Sweden?!?!!?

Okay, Morse, it’s go time (said I to myself).

All I knew was that the bus I missed (and had already paid for) was going North, catching a ferry to Sweden, then going somewhere called Angelholm.  I rushed to throw my stuff together, and ran to the metro station to head towards Norreport (main train station in Copenhagen), where I asked the nice man in the calmest voice I could muster: “ANGELHOLM SWEDEN?! NOW! PLEASE! HELP!!!!!” I saw him type in “Aengleholm” , so I said, “No, it doesn’t have an E after the A.  But he ignored me.

Him: Two minutes till it leaves!

Me: Does it go North?!

Him: No! South!

Me: But…I need to go North. Angelholm!

Him: Yes! Aengelholm! One minute!!

I do not know if Angelholm is the same thing as Aengelholm, but I figured I’d end up somewhere and make the most of it, and I swiped the credit card and ran down 3 flights of stairs to the train.

But of course, my luck, two trains were leaving going opposite directions.  I turn to a lady and said “Sweden!?!?”  She shook her head, so I tried to jump on the other by sticking my hand in the door as it shut, but the train worker inside gave me a death stare and shook his head. So, I missed my train.

Eventually, I just hopped on a train, it ended up going sort of in the right direction.  I crossed the Malmo bridge going into Sweden, then switched trains to head up the coast towards Angelholm.  (Thank goodness it is the same city, because in Sweden an A with 2 dots on dot is an Ae in Denmark.)

After I arrived in Angelholm, I called the DIS person again who informed me they were already on the canoes and asked if I needed help finding my way to the canoe place.  “No, thank you, I will fair on my own!” It was a challenge at this point.  (Since I haven’t played a real game of basketball all semester, I crave competition, even if it’s with myself.)

I walk outside of the train station, find a map, look for the word canoe (“kanot”), and headed in the general direction. Miracle of miracles, I find the place. WHEW!!!

After that, it was all uphill. The trip was fantastic, and to be honest, I was more looking forward to the rapelling and hiking than the canoeing.  (I was the only one not complaining about butt and arm aches.)

that's me in the red!

notice the helmet, dear mother

We did “abseiling”, which is pretty much rock climbing without the climbing up part. You start on the top and just repel down.  Really scary at first, but fun.  The second day, we were given a compass and a map with different circled locations, and we had to find our way from one to the next and complete a task at each one.  I couldn’t read the compass at first, at which point a friend flipped it upside down…or should I say right side up. (Whoopsie.)

Our first task was to climb down a steep decline to the beach and build a tower as high as possible with the rocks on the shore.

Team Awesome

The other activities involved making some weird knots with rope, guesstimating distances from a lighthouse, making shapes with your body, and guessing how long a rope is that was tied to a bunch of trees.  We sort of didn’t do the rest of the tasks, but enjoyed the hike around the area instead.

Part of the weekend was also going on a hike to a place called Nimis.

Created by artist Lars Vilks, Nimis (Latin for “too much”) is a maze-like wooden artwork made of 70 tons of driftwood and nails and culminating in a teetering, nine-story wooden tower. Arx (Latin for “fortress”) is a stone and concrete sculpture resembling a melting sand castle. Nimis, the first of the two sculptures was begun in 1980 and went unnoticed by authorities for 2 years until 1982, when they declared it would have to be destroyed.

As a means of outmaneuvering the Swedish authorities, even while Nimis was scheduled for destruction, Lars sold it to the artist Cristo. The legal document of the sale is a piece of driftwood, once a piece of the artwork itself, on display at the Swedish Museum of Sketches.

Another means of avoiding government interference (or perhaps tauntingly inviting it) was for Vilks to declare the area an independent nation. The nation of Ladonia, occupying essentially only the area around the sculptures, was declared in 1996 and has already had its share of national incidents. War was declared on Ladonia by the satirical “Armed Coalition Forces of the Internets.” Ladonia also claims a “population” of over 15,000, though no one resides on the site as “all of its citizens are nomads.”

It was AWESOME! Crazy huge wooden forts that you have to slowly inch your way through because nails tended to stick out. It’s like Lord of the Rings combined with Where the Wild Things Are.

Part of the downsides of being late for the bus was that I forgot tons of stuff, including but not limited to my camera. All these pics are stolen and don’t really do Nimis justice, so I’m inserting some from another person’s blog.

I didn’t miss the bus/ferry back with the group, which meant I ended the weekend on a high note.

Biking in Bornholm

This past weekend, I traveled with  bus-fulls of DIS kids to a Danish island south east of Copenhagen called Bornholm. Bornholm is known for smoked herring, organic chocolate, and its beautiful scenery.  Thank goodness the bus left at night instead of the morning. We bussed to a ferry, boarded at midnight, and miserably slept in chairs and on the hard floor for 6 hours, transferred to a bus at 6am, and made it to our destination by 7am.

Bornholm map

Day 1! (75 km)

My little biking group started at about 10 and dwindled to 5 as the day went on.  It may or may not have something to do with the name of the path we took: “THE KILLER TOUR!” We biked around 70 km that first day.  The whole island is mountains and hills.  I have also never experienced so much wind in my entire life.  Try biking downhill…and having to pedal really hard to move. That kind of wind.

windblown

high five after first big hill

roomie picture! Holly and Me

me...about to collapse...only an hour into day 1

feelin' strong

It turns out it was a holiday on the island and the already small number of restaurants shrank to 1.  At 3:30 pm after hours of biking uphill through wind sent by Zephyr himself, we finally found a grocery store, bought sandwich food, and convinced a store owner to let us sit inside their store and eat, since it was freezing outside unless you are biking.

Along our bike ride, we stopped at a beautiful white beach that exports its sand to go into sand timers.

Boardwalk to the beach

We also were stuck in a torrential rain pour-down and had to stop biking and huddle underneath someone’s carpark.

Day 1 was tiring, but a huge success.  Sleep that night was fantabulous.

Holly all smiles after a downhill

Day 2! (45+ km)

We started a little later, thinking we would have plenty of time if we were “only” doing 45km, but we hadn’t factored in Holly crashing into the woods, warping her tire, and having to wait 2 hours for a new bike to arrive. Thank goodness, she landed in a flower patch after swerving out of control on a dirt path.  She was backpedaling (that’s how you brake on the bikes we were given…like when we were 5 years old and learning how to bike) and it wasn’t working, so she grabbed the handbrake on the right side, but forgot that the bike had the handbrake on the left side. At that point she gave up, put her hands up, and flew into the woods on the steep, curvy road.  Her head landed a few inches away from a rock, and in between 2 trees.  Her bike had twisted around 3 times, but somehow, she only had a few scratches on her legs and one on her neck.  Thank you flower bed.

all she could think of was that it smelled like garlic when she fell....she fell next to a field of garlic grass

battle wounds

trying to fix the unfixable

waiting for the new bike to arrive

All in all, spectacular day!

We saw the “biggest waterfall in Denmark”!!! (Basically a trickle of water.)

you people at home can probably almost feel its mist, it's so powerful

We finally found a fishery smokehouse that was open!

mid-biking herring lunch

Deena is a master at deboning fish

the heat was getting to me

smoked herring, rye bread, onion salad, with a side of raw egg yolk

interesting placement of bones, boys

and we're off! fish sitting heavy in our bellies on the immediate uphill

We saw ancient ruins!

Hammershus Castle (or what's left of it)

roomie

There was an adorable moment that we had the pleasure of witnessing at the ancient ruins:

As we are leaving the castle, we see a boy about 5 years old holding a toy sword, who is overwhelmingly excited to be able to slice the air and his invisible enemies.  All of a sudden, in the distant horizon, we see 3 knights walking down a hill towards the little boy, decked out in full knight outfits.  The little boy stops swinging his sword and freezes when he sees them.  He runs behind his mother’s leg to hide.  The knights then turn on their heels, and with warrior screams and their swords swinging in the air, start sprinting away from us, back up the hill.  In a moment of truth, the little boy hesitates only for a second before running out from behind his mother and, swinging his own sword, starts chasing after the knights up the hill.  I could not have been more impressed with his perseverance.  It turns out that the 3 adult knights were filming a movie.  But that little boy must have thought he was engaging in full on battle.  Certainly a highlight of my trip.

the knights!

the wee knight

As the day came to an end, we realized it was 4:30pm and we were supposed to be back at the hostel at 5pm, and we had to go 24 km.  Whoops. But then we ran into one of the DIS leaders, so we figured as long as we stuck with him, it would be okay.  But he is macho and very ambitious, and really wanted to find these lakes called the oval lakes that he had been looking for all afternoon.  We found out the hard way it was on the top of the highest lookout on the island.  MY. THIGHS. HURT. SO. BAD.

We get to the top of the steepest mountain, and we find the lighthouse and a bunch of cattle/sheep grazing.  A particularly boisterous sheep BAHHHHED in my face.

sheep next to us, no big deal

The steep uphill was worth it.  Check out this view…

We finally made it back in time for dinner, and as a cherry on top of our already spectacular weekend, we decided to go all in as a biking group and buy the biggest ice cream cone in the world.

as advertised

the cool 50's diner where we bought the biggest ice cream in the world

finishing it off #1

finishing it off #2

finishing it off #3 aka all germs have officially been dispersed

That’s about it folks!

bye!

]]> http://jessmorse.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/sweden-canoe-trip-and-bornholm-break-your-butt-bike-trip/feed/ 0 jessmorse angelholm sweden1 angelholm sweden2 angelholm sweden3 angelholm sweden4 24954_1327215495469_1083360079_30807357_4763494_n 24954_1327216015482_1083360079_30807364_5573362_n 24954_1327215575471_1083360079_30807358_6320275_n 24954_1327215415467_1083360079_30807356_7336301_n 30189_1292251706432_1234440282_30782015_8168943_n 24954_1327215295464_1083360079_30807354_6001870_n 30189_1292267826835_1234440282_30782058_5044650_n nimis.1702.large_slideshow nimis.1704.large_slideshow nimis.1705.large_slideshow nimis.3466.large_slideshow nimis.3464.large_slideshow Digital StillCamera P1010501 P1010450 P1010458 P1010454 P1010461 Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera P1010559 Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera P1010563 P1010570 P1010572 Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera P1010591 Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera P1010594 Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera P1010596 Digital StillCamera P1010522 Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera Digital StillCamera P1010476 http://jessmorse.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/spring-break-israel-egypt-italy/ http://jessmorse.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/spring-break-israel-egypt-italy/#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:38:54 +0000 jessmorse http://jessmorse.wordpress.com/?p=224 Continue reading →]]> I’ve been a slacker with the blog these days, but I needed a few days to recharge my entire body after an incredible 2 week Spring Break of non-stop planes, trains, automobiles, hiking, busing, cabbing, + running to catch trains/planes/automobiles/etc.

hitchiking.......(just kidding)

Before break, I somehow managed to write about 20 pages for 3 different essays in the span of 3 days, and so I was still in crazy mode when I got on the plane to Israel. So crazy, that when I made my connection flight in Riga…I looked out the window to see snow…and realized I had no idea what country I was in. Riga, yes, but Riga…where? I listened to the announcements on the plane, trying to decipher the language, but it just sounded like the attendant had milk bubbles caught in his throat as he spoke. Okay, so Eastish Europe.

Bording the mini plane for Riga! 2 weeks of clothes in 1 bag...incredible feat for me

I finally figured out Riga is in Latvia. Cool. I’ve been to Latvia. I boarded my next plane and at midnight I arrived in Tel Aviv to meet up with friends.  Dinner? Pita + hummus. Ahhhhhh Israel

Israel sunset over Tel Aviv Beach

Tel Aviv Beach

Only having a few days until Passover, I required that the first real meal be shwarma with laffa.  Day 1, we trekked through Tel Aviv to find not just any shwarma, but the best shwarma according to online reports (I would have been happy with any shwarma, but co-eaters would not settle for less than the best).  I made sure all cameras were left at home for this adventure. 15 napkins and 1 lamb later, I could not have been happier. Sorry, little Bo Peep. I have basically been a vegetarian this whole semester, not because I want to, but there is just no kosher meat in Denmark.  Therefore, for most of my Israel voyage, I went a little meat crazy. That sounds gross. Enough of the meat…moo-ving on.

Shabbat dinner in Tel Aviv- so cute!

The next day, we were supposed to head for Haifa, but half of our travel group had food poisoning or some other questionable sickness.  We decided to go a day early to the Israeli family who was hosting us for Seder, who made sure sickly folks were overly mothered, and before long, a quick recovery was in effect.Thank you, Jewish mothers, for all knowing exactly what to do.

SEDER!

The entire seder was in Hebrew. Very fast paced. Wine inspired “Who knows 1? I know 1!” and “Hagadya” at the end.  At one point, a giant piece of foiled meat was passed around the table (of 20 guests) and we were all encouraged to swing it around our heads a few times and say a blessing.  I’m talking at least a foot long. Very interesting evening, and (I know I said I wouldn’t talk about it anymore, but…) SO MUCH DELICIOUS MEAT!

After sleeping off a meat high, my body regained its natural salt balance, and we were able to continue on with activities as planned.

So now that Passover began, no more bread.  I therefore brought my big purse everywhere, so that it could fit this:

At the train station- matzah with plum/cinnamon jelly! passover delicacy

Matzah hotdog....gross...but had to try it for the experience

chewing...debating...

questionable validity of thumbs up

Next stop: Rosh Hanikra!

Rosh Hanikra is a stunning area of northern Israel, adjacent to Lebanon (we stood at the fence and looked across the border).   It’s referred to as “a love relationship between the land and the sea”, which is both corny and accurate.

The grottoes resulted from an ongoing geological process over thousands of years.  It all began with a series of underground shocks that ripped gapes into the bedrock. Rainwater penetrated the gaping rifts, dissolving them and forming within tunnels and sea caves (grottoes) that relentlessly proceeded to expand because of the intensity of the waves slamming the rock during a storm.

grotto

Before we took the cable car down into the grottoes, we decided to go for a little hike down to the beach area, you know, try and work off our matzah intake.  Going down the steep decline, we followed a sort-of-there dirt/pebble path through tall grass and spikey shrubbery until we got to a fork.  We could climb down a large boulder path, or spend an extra 15 minutes walking around the  boulders.  I, of course, wanted to take the boulder path. But my travel buddy Alex didn’t seem too keen. At least, that’s what I thought. After a few minutes back and forth should we, shouldn’t we, I decided to go for it and Alex followed. Alex’s side of the story, however, is that he thought I didn’t want to go down the boulder trail, and therefore didn’t want to pressure me. To ME, it seemed like he was the one who didn’t want to risk it. I made the mistake of admitting this and thus questioning his masculinity, which caught up with me later.  After the beach, it was time to head back up the mountain, and as a joke I pointed to one of the steepest parts of the mountain, one with thorny bushes, extremely tall grass, and no real path at all, and said, “Hey! That looks like the easiest way up!” Again…JOKE! Alex, still secretly offended by the fact that I thought he wasn’t man enough to go down a boulder path, can’t let that happen again. “Yeah! Let’s do it!” Before I know it, he is heading up the mountain on the worst chosen point ever.  And so I follow. Bad move, Jess.

Twenty minutes later, I felt like the hyenas in The Lion King after having followed Simba through a thorn patch near the elephant graveyard.  I learned my lesson…I think.  Or was I even the one in need of a lesson?

ANYWAYS…

We took the cable car down to the grottos, and as we stood in the cool caves, gazing at the frothy turquoise water, hearing it crash against the rocks, feeling its mist on our faces, the moment was suddenly broken by a loud, obnoxious: “HONK! HONK!!!!!!!!” We turned around and see the smiling face of a middle aged Israeli man. “HONK! HONK!” he yelled again. “Ehhhhhhh…can you…ehh….move…ehhh…so we can take picture? You are in way.”

Seriously? Honk honk? He felt to need to imitate a car horn to convey his point?  Israelis are certainly a breed of their own.

Going Back into Exile

Ok, here’s where my story gets a little interesting. So it’s Passover, the holiday where we celebrate being freed from slavery in Egypt and when our ancestors began their 40 year trek through the desert to Israel.

Now reverse that…

A few days into Passover, we decide to head South to a tourist spot popular among Israelis, although it is not in Israel: Sinai, Egypt. Some of you may think this is blasphemous, considering it was Passover, and are asking why on earth would I want to return to Egypt?!?! Well…I was asking myself that too. But after group discussion, I decided 1) a re-creation of the holiday would make it even more meaningful…what better way to understand the feelings of my ancestors? 2)  The very fact that I CAN go into Egypt today, and then return at my will, is empowering and showcases true freedom. At least that’s what I told myself as we sped through the Egyptian mountains at 3 in the morning.

One of my co-Passover-reinactors suggested we shouldn’t outwardly tell people we are Jewish, but just act like American tourists. He said this whilst munching on Matzah…easy giveaway. Turns out, that wasn’t the best idea in our case. The guy in charge of the Bedouin beach village we stayed at, Yasser, was in command of 3-5 Bedouin workers who run the place, clean, cook, and cater to his guests needs. Yasser, who loved Russians and is cool with Israelis, informed us as he served us morning coffee, “I hate America.”

Oh. Great. Why’s that Yasser?

“In 1956, you SCREWED US OVER WITH THE SUEZ CANAL!”

Unsure of whether he would take his anger out of me for something that happened 32 years before I came into this world, I held off on drinking the coffee for a while. Yasser went on for 10 more minutes of uninterrupted venting about American politics and the 1956 Egypt War. I realized I hadn’t done my research. Whoooops.  After he stepped down from his soapbox, his eyes softened, he spread out his arms in a peaceful gesture, and said, “But! Now that that’s out in the air, all that’s left is love.” He tapped his heart. “You are my guests! What can I do? More coffee?” Wow. Certainly no Pharoah, but I’ll admit I was a little intimidated.

The first night, we all slept outside since there weren’t any “chooshahs” (huts) available.  I woke up with 17 mosquito bites on my face. SEVENTEEN! Not ordinary bites…Egyptian mosquitos. Reminiscent of…dare I say…BOILS! At least I skipped plagues 1 through 5.  Other than that, Sinai was magnificent. Stunning scenery- tan, shadowy mountains behind us, the Red Sea, calm and glassy, and nothing to do but relax in the sun, read, eat matzah, and try to avoid Yasser.

sunrise in Sinai

view from one of the open air huts

Two days later, we finalized the Exodus reenactment and made our way back to Eilat and eventually Tel Aviv. I was very relieved to cross the border, and could imagine how the Jews felt thousands of years ago, although I doubt there was a customs/passport check back then.

After another few days of hanging out in and around Tel Aviv, it was time to go

Thankfully, the week ahead of me was PACKED so I didn’t have much time to think about how much I missed Israel/ friends in Israel.  It was a really hectic morning of trying to get to Ben Gurion Airport: bus was late, the online info was wrong about which terminal to go to, and I ended up having to grab a cab from one terminal to the next, and didn’t have any shekels left, so I paid him in half shekel, half Danish kroner, which he was not happy about, but I was late, so I made a run for it and thanked him a thousand times.  I boarded a plane to Italy to meet up with Holly (Denmark roommate).

Italy

flying into Italy

Florence!

I flew in to Rome and as the sun was setting over the beautiful skyline, I caught a train to Florence. I wish I could have stayed longer in Rome than 1 hour, but hopefully  one day I can come back and do it the proper way.  I crashed at a Vanderbilt friend’s place who is studying in Florence for the semester. The next morning, Holly and I met up, and we started our day with some coffee and a hike.  We were guided by an Italy tour book that was a little quirky.  It felt as though it was written by a 17th century poet.

(“As you wind your way up the steep ascension towards Galileo’s house, open your ears and you’ll hear the heart song of tweeting birds leading you towards the countryside lookout…Peek through a peephole on the mossy stone and your eyes will be pleasured with a view of the whole city…hug the walls as you head East, making your way back toward civilization and you’ll find yourself at Michaelangelo’s David statue”).

galileo's casa

It was beautiful, and yes, the birds did indeed chirp. But the road was QUITE steep and there wasn’t really anyone else around, so we were forced to use self timer to take a pic of us in front of Galileo’s house. See epic fail below:

you're going to have to trust us on this one...it's his house.

the view as we "hugged the walls" and winded our way around the mountains

toooo manyyyy stairsss to get to David statue

see how HUUUGE the Duomo is! view from the top of the hike

David (and me) contemplating the battle he's about to have with Goliath

Michelangelo’s David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created from 1501 to 1504. The 5.17 meter (17 ft)^[1] marble statue portrays the Biblical hero David at a moment of contemplation. The most widely accepted interpretation is that the statue represents David immediately before his battle with Goliath, unlike previous depictions which portray the hero after his victory.^[2] The statue came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family.

just happy to be out and about...probably daydreaming about gelato

Once we had enough of David, we winded back around to the Boboli Gardens.

The Boboli Gardens, in Italian Giardino di Boboli, form a famous park in Florence, Italy, that is home to a distinguished collection of sculptures dating from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with some Roman antiquities.

It was a beautifully sunny day, and we had a fun time trying to interpret the statue whose titles confused us even more than the statues themselves. For example, the statue below was entitled “The Secret of the Skies.”

Holly still unsure of what the secret is

Adam and Eve

purrrty

I have an obsession with statue impressions

we climbed to the top of the park, and there was a labyrinth of shrubberies: unexpected and lovel

one of my favorite views

As our visit through the gardens winded down, we thought we had seen it all. And then we saw this:

The Nano Morgante by Valerio Cioli (1529–99), a naked fat dwarf riding a tortoise, supposedly an allegory of laziness and wisdom.

The rest of the day and the following day, we explored more of the inner city: the Ponte Vecchio bridge, the Duomo, churches, what used to be the Jewish Quarters, museums.  Oh…and gelato. 

cool pizza shop

one of the bridges that crosses the canal

Duomo- church side (Florence Cathedral)

breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

more Duomo

We went to the Bargello Museum, which housed tons of statues. Here are some of my faves:

this statue was called "Jason"....weird? a little.

this was taken from a fountain...hahah

more adam and eve...and posing

At one point in our adventures, we were walking down a street, no idea where we were…and then…out of nowhere…as though placed there by the Lord Himself…was…a…..KOSHER STORE! In Florence!

kosher!

While peering into the store, a Jewish older man walks up and asks us if we are looking for somewhere kosher to eat for Shabbat. I tell him, no thank you we are leaving Florence in a few hours, but he still demands that we let him treat us to coffee and cake at his family friend’s place. One hour and one HUMONGOUS coffee later, Holly and I had hardly gotten a word in, but we now know infinitely more about the Jewish-Italian history dating back to WWII era.  He asked where our ancestors were from, and so I told him Poland and Lithuania.  The man was still under the pretense that Holly was Jewish (she’s not), and so he was a little baffled when she replied, “French Canada.”  She left out the “Catholic Irish” part, too, but before he could ask anything else, we had to run to catch our train to La Spezia. Thank you, kind man, for the coffee and cake! !

coffee the size of my face

And we’re off…Cinque Terre

“The Five Towns”

What we did know: Cinque Terre is a stunning area of Italy, on the coast, where people come to hike through five different towns that are embedded into the cliffs that overlook the Meditteranean Sea.

What we didn’t know: People book their hostels months in advance.

The day before we left Florence, and we were desperately searching for a hostel but everyyyyything was booked.  We finally found this random hotel and it looked sort of close on a map to where we wanted to hike, so we just booked it in a state of desperation. Turns out that a topographical map would have been a lot more helpful, considering the map we were looking at showed no elevation…a key factor when you hotel is ON THE TOP OF A GIANT MOUNTAIN.

Didn’t know that. Now we do. When we arrived at the bus station, there were no buses to be found, so we had to get a cab but the address from the website was incorrect and eventually the cab driver had to wind his way around an entire mountain to get us to where we needed to be.

Crazy hotel with weird art deco and foam triangle shapes on the wall and fishtanks, etc etc.

Albergo Serena

At first, when we tried saying the name of the hotel in Italian to our non English speaking cab driver, I thought he was familiar with it because when I started to say “Albergo…” he nodded his head.  It took me quite a while to figure out that “Albergo” just means “hotel” in Italian. I’m dumb.

Anyways, the next day we tried to catch the bus down the mountain. FAIL. It drove right by us. We were on the wrong side.

Here’s where we were:

notice my cool-Mom-cargo-hiking-shorts-complete-with-12-pockets

Here’s where we wanted to be:

Eventually the hotel manager took pity on us and drove us to the next closest bus stop. We were on our way!! Bus to the train station…train to Cinque Terre…..except…then the train was postponed. For 3ish hours. ARGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 hours later: FINALLY IN CINQUE TERRE!!!! Time to start hiking!!

It was DEFINITELY worth the trouble to find our way to Cinque Terre.  The views were just stunning, the weather was sunny and cloudless, and Holly is a great hiking buddy because she is super athletic and makes me keep up with her. Thanksssss Holly. (The girl also nearly killed me on the final 30 minute straight uphill bit of the hike…I have never heard myself wheeze so much like an old man in my life…gatta hit the gym, Morse! and…now I’m talking to myself through my own blog. At least it’s only a parenthetical.)

Six hours of hiking later, we ruuuuuuun to the train because it’s the last one leaving that will get us to our hotel via public transportation, we make it on just as the doors are closing and high five! And then the train starts going in the opposite direction it should. FAIL.

OHHHHH WELL. So we had to get another cab to our hotel after a yummy Italian pesto pasta dinner. It was still worth it.

And we were off again!

Venice

Talk about confusing maps. We took one look at the map and decided it was pointless to use it. Instead, we took a picture using a digital camera OF a map, and used it when we really needed to, but in general we just followed arrows that pointed in the direction of a bridge. There were only 3 bridges in Venice that crossed the canals, so you head towards one and cross over and then aimlessly wander in and out until you find some cool building you want to check out.

The best part for me was just exploring.  When your attitude is that you don’t mind getting lost, then it’s a lot more fun and there’s no anxiety.  We stayed in a youth hostel and met some pretty cool people our age who we had dinner with in the hostel (it felt a little like an orphanage), and then went out with later.

Here are some Venice pics and then I am going to bed because this blog takes forever to upload pictures and it is past 2 am and I am veryyyyyyyyyyyy tired.

picture of a map we used.

Gandala!

We didn’t actually end up going on a gandala ride (the boats), because it was super expensive and the gandala driver guys don’t even really sing. It was so touristy and the striped, hat bearing men were just a little too sleazy for my taste. (“Oh, pretty ladies, come onto my gondola, special price, special price.”) Ew. Andddd No.

we went to Murano, the glass blowing island, and I couldn't decide which ring to get

Holly blowing glass

glass sculpture

Best meal in Italy was at this Italian-Israeli kosher restaurant. Falafel appetizer, house wine, and meat lasagna with tahini and eggplant instead of noodles. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

we found a kosher restaurant in Venice!!!

Falafel appetizer

Holly was a trooper for helping me find all these kosher places, but she was pretty happy too:

That’s it for now folks. Thanks for reading, and I’m off to sleep!

Shalom! Ciao!

//

I am pretty sure that my trip to Spain and Portugal was the best time I’ve had in Europe so far.

lisbon

barcelona

chocolate festival near lisbon

I cannot remember a time I had more fun, constantly, for a week straight. I was with my two best friends from school, Nikita and Lizzie, and Nikita’s best friend from childhood Shauna, who I love as well.  Funny things kept going wrong the whole time,  so we had an inkling that an anti-fun demon was following us around, but sure enough, we prevailed. I will reference the demon throughout the blog, just to show you how many times he tried taking over our trip.

The day before I arrived, there was a CRAZY freak snowstorm in Barcelona even though it was gorgeous weather the day before and after. Lizzie and Shauna were on a train on their way to the Dali museum. 40 minutes into their ride, the train stops, and they finally find out (no one would translate the announcements to english) that a tree has fallen in front of the track. DEMON!! They figured they’d just go backwards back to Barcelona, no big deal. Meanwhile, a train behind them crashes. They are stuck between two crashes. DEMON!!! NINE hours later, they are still in the train and finally there is an announcement that everyone will be moved to a basketball gym and have to stay there overnight. Meanwhile, Nikita is going crazy in Barcelona, because her friends are stuck on a train and don’t speak spanish so well. Plus they don’t even really speak Spanish in Barcelona, they speak “Catalan.” Finally, Nikita’s host family at 11 pm decides enough is enough! They go out in the storm, rent a car, and drive an hour away to pick up Lizzie and Shauna! SO SWEET!

The next day, Tuesday, I arrive. It is gorgeous and the first time since I landed in Europe that I don’t need to wear a coat. Overwhelmed with euphoria, I spread my arms wide, and exclaimed to the world: “HERE WE GO!!” at which point, a man who had been expressively talking to his friend, turned fast and his arm accidentally punched me in the stomach. Thank you, demon. Shauna captured this moment on camera:

punched in the belly

Meanwhile, Nikita had to go to class, so she gave us a check list to accomplish by the time she was out of class. First, we had to “find a street performer on the main walking road and get a picture with him, even though you won’t want to.” Very cryptic checklist.

lizzie and the terrifying street performers

These creepy, Lord of the Rings-esque creatures sit there on their thrones, quietly, motionless, as nonchalantly as such a creature can. We timidly approach for a picture, then all of a sudden, they start making terrifying noises, licking their lips, grabbing at you with their nasty claws. Thanks a lot Nikita for forcing us to accomplish this task!

Task #2, we had to find “The Black Cat” (El gato negro) and get a picture. We ask a kind man for directions, who points in one direction (“ALLI! ALLI!”) but calls his wife over for confirmation. “NO, NO, NO, NO!,” she says in an accusatory tone, as if we are to blame for something, “El gato negro ALLI!” Points in opposite direction. Meanwhile, a random guy walks by and feels obligated to jump in on the conversation, and points in a totally different direction. His mother disagrees and points in a different direction. We pick one of the Spaniards and follow him to el gato negro. He asks us where we’re from (meanwhile his mother is shaking her head the whole time, probably talking about how we’re still going the wrong way). Lizzie tells him she’s from Pennsylvania, and he replies with a smile, “Ahh, Pennsylvania!” Then he GROWLS at Lizzie and makes a demon-like face at her, baring his teeth. A very sad Lizzie can’t understand how Spanish people perceive Pennsylvanians as monsters. Then the man says, “Dracula!! Si?”

No. Falso. Lizzie was quite relieved.

He stops us and informs us in Spanish that el gato negro is actually closed at the moment. We ponder how a statue can be closed, until we realize he has brought us to a bar called el gato negro. It is 2 in the afternoon. Do we LOOK like raging alcoholics??!

His mom who we should have listened to from the beginning then points us in the right direction.

shauna with el gato negro

Then we headed to this really cool outdoor market. It was so colorful! You start off near the fruit stands, and make your way down the aisle of candy (every kind imaginable), and then suddenly, there’s a pig head. And a cow’s foot. And then you’re back to the fruit. Then some tapas: a Spanish tortilla here, some olives there, another pig head.

metallic chocolate

fruta

After wandering around there for a while, we met back up with Nikita and enjoyed some churros and chocolate in the spot in Barcelona where they are supposed to be the best. They were delicious!

churros and hot chocolate

(You probably have gathered by now that this week was not the healthiest. The demon probably managed to slip in some extra calories to everything we ate as well. Don’t worry, I played Rugby immediately after I got back to Copenhagen!)

Later that night, we went out to dinner for Nikita’s friends bday, and while I was out, I ran into none other than AJ Finer, my cousin from Tulsa, Oklahoma! Craziness!

cousin!!

The next day, we took a trek up to a park called Park Guell:

Park Güell (Catalan: Parc Güell, Spanish: Parque Güell) is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914.

cacti area of the hike, walking up to park guell

Gaudi architecture is so cool! Lots of strange curves that make buildings seem like they’re from a cartoon. This was also in the same place where Tyra Banks filmed one of the Next Top Model (tv show) runway shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNwpFhes_g&feature=related

We did out own runway show, but sadly my videos won’t upload. Here’s one shot. Notice Lizzie’s spectacular model pose (on the left).

strike a pose

here’s some more pics from that day at the park:

gaudi lizard

pretty view

We went out that night and didn’t really sleep and then made our way to the airport to head to Lisbon, Portugal. Blackmail pictures:

in line at the airport. lizzie eating cheetos, drinking coke at 7am. typical haha

Aww, they’re still cuties even after no sleep.

The first day in Lisbon, we took a quick nap, explored the town a little, and then made the best decision of our lives. Nikita had picked up an advertisement on the plane for a chocolate festival that only happens once a year for a few days, and it happened to be going on while we were there. Done and done. Doesn’t take much to convince us to go to a  CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!!

The bus ride there was on a double decker (closed roof), and we sat in the front row, so it felt like we were flying an airplane through windy hills. The driver…was daring, I’ll say. Considering the severity of the turns he made and speed we were going, he must have thought we were in a normal sized car going on a straight road with no other cars. This was not the case. I blame the demon. The ride was actually beautiful though:

As we got closer to the town, I noticed a pretty castle outline in the distance. As we got closer, it became more and more beautiful, and we decided we would definitely go explore the castle after the festival. Turns out, the festival was IN the castle! There were white cobblestone winding paths, stunning views, and adorable  shops everywhere. We bought our tickets (which came with a bar of chocolate) and headed into paradise.

The first road we started on was lined with shops that each sold its own special type of chocolate. First, we had the local drink which was a wild cherry liquor. They pour a little into a teacup.

a toast! to chocolate!

And then…YOU EAT THE TEACUP! Because it’s made of…chocolate!! Amazing. Like Charlie and the Chocolate festival.

We moved on. The next shop had crepes. And another one had pastries. Chocolate covered strawberries. Chocolate pie. Chocolate cake. Chocolate ice cream. EVERYTHING CHOCOLATE. Meanwhile, we hadn’t even entered the actual festival. FINALLY we get to the top of the hill (25 pounds heavier) and enter a room where there is cake upon cake displayed. Not every day from the box cakes. The kind you see on the Food Network. The kind that bakers spend days making. So cool!

wall-E!!

We left (after free samples that the demon offered us) and at last entered the festival. And by that I mean, Candy Land. There was a lollypop field, candy decorating all the buildings, a gingerbread man, easter egg bunny, 8 foot tall baker, fairies, man-sized cupcake and more!

lollypop field at sunset

The Easter Egg Bunny and Gingerbread Man were taking a snooze on the lollipop field and I was in the middle of telling the girls to get together for a picture near them, when the Easter Egg sits up all of a sudden. He then proceeds to sprint towards me, yelling something in Portuguese. I was terrified, needless to say! He jumps on me and starts giving me the tightest hug ever, all the while singing and yelling in Portuguese. (I think he got drunk with the Gingerbread man on his break.) He drags me to the lollipop field and sort of tackles me to the ground while tussling my hair with his giant paw.

about to take a picture of him, but no, he attacks me instead

down for the count

terrified!!!

now he just sits there, as if he hasn't done a single thing unusual. coy little rabbit.

Then, the Gingerbread Man approaches Nikita (who is…if you haven’t figured this out yet…Indian) and pronounces: “I shall make you my love, my chocolate woman!!!!” Great times!

gingerbread man proposing to shauna?

All in all- BEST DAY EVER!

Now, I don’t mean to be a showoff, but starting now, the rest of the blog post will be in espanol….

Hola! Me llamo magdalena! Tienes baño? Soy de Atlanta! Tengo hambre! Y tu?

That’s about the extent of my spanish, actually, so I will now continue in Portuguese…

Except…I speak no Portuguese. So you can imagine the anxiety I had when I was sitting in the barber chair of a hair cuttery in Lisbon, Portugal and the hairdresser speaks NO English.  I noticed the floor had tons of white and grey hair, not so much brown. “Okay,” I thought, “So their main income is from geriatrics. Hair is hair, right??”  I had google-translated how to say “no more than 1 inch, please” in Portuguese, so that’s the only instruction she had. She starts cutting. And talking to the other hairdresser. Who is standing BEHIND her. Yes, she is simultaneously snipping away at my locks as she is turned 180 degrees, laughing at something with her friend.

Now, all this discussion about my hair may all seem very self absorbed of me, but I have hair anxiety ever since one fateful haircut when I was about eight that my mom forced me to get that made me look like a boy. (I forgive you Mom, it gave me character…I guess).  Back to Lisbon- At one point, she had my hair parted down the middle (I’m a side-part girl), and was about to put her scissors to my bangs and condemn my hair to fashion hell. I panicked. The result?

Me: Ahh..ermm…umm…ESPANOL?!?!

Robust barber: (shrugs her shoulders)Eh…si?

Me: Cuando…cortas…este (points to bangs)…puedes cortar….(here’s where I blanked)…on el side-o?

Thank you kind lady for understanding my atrocious Spanish, even though you are Portuguese.  For 12 euro (15$), I had one of the better haircuts I’ve ever received, and by far, the best blowdry. I may have to go back to Lisbon next time I want my hair cut.

The next day we rented these things called GoCars! They are miniature vehicles somewhere in between a real car and a go-kart. It’s a convertible and you have to wear a helmet with a visor, which is pretty cool

How it works is there’s a GPS device inside the car, so it tells you where to drive and this (very loud) woman’s voice tells you all about the sites as you drive by them. She also tells you jokes!

knocking it as a test of safety. it passed.

driving on the road as tourists took pictures of us

We made a stop to check out some sites, and when we returned, the GPS wasn’t working. So we found our way somehow back to the shop, and it turns out someone had broken in and stolen the GPS’s while we were walking around outside. DEMON!!!!

The rest of the trip involved lots of fish, exploring, and overall just the best time ever. I actually have to run now, because I think the rye bread (rugbrod) I ate today was a little moldy and I don’t feel so great.

I am off to Amsterdam tomorrow and stayin there till Sunday evening. I will blog about that when I return.

Here’s some more random pics:

chocolate festival

my dad in chocolate form haha

gaudi architecture church

at the market in barcelona

sangria! yummy

chocolate pyramid/ egyptian! this was as tall as me!

Kafka's house! As written in Hebrew

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I should give a little background:

near Wenceslas Square

babies that artist David Cerny put on Soviet TV Tower to render it powerless (read rest of blog for more on Cerny)

old town square

“In the beginning…“

This past week, I along with 31 other students, took a bus from Copenhagen to Prague on an integrated study tour with our European Culture and History class (“Memory and Identity in Czech Republic”).  We experienced the Czech Republic  (Prague, Lidice, Cesky Krumlov) within the context of our classroom discussion.  For example, for the past month in class in Copenhagen we examined different forms of architecture (Renaissance, Art Noveau, Gothic, Baroque), different types of art (David Cerny, Milan Knizek, Egon Schiele), and different pieces of literature (Kafka, Kundera). When we arrived in Prague, everything that we learned in a boxy classroom in black and white letters suddenly took on an entirely new lifeform.   (Stinky) cheesy as it sounds, our class texts all at once surrounded us, three dimensional and in full color, pulling us into the beautiful city of Prague.

What we read in class from Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting:

“In February 1948, the Communist leader Klement Gottwald stepped out on the balcony of a Baroque palace in Prague to harangue hundreds of thousands of citizens massed in Old Town Square.”

What we saw in Prague:

the ACTUAL balcony!

In class, we read about a controversial artist named David Cerny and a mosaic of Europe he created called “Entropa.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropa

In Prague, we met Cerny in his studio! What a character. Crazy head of hair, absolutely no concern for anyone’s  perception of him (so he claims), and his aim is to “piss people off”. Here’s his recent famous piece entitled “Entropa” which we visited (and was one of my favorite parts of the trip):

Entropa

It’s three stories high- HUGE!

Entropa is a sculpture created by Czech artist David Černý under commission for the Czech Republic to mark the occasion of its presidency of the Council of the European Union. The sculpture was supposed to have been created jointly by 27 artists and artist groups from all member countries of the EU; but in a hoax, Černý and his three assistants created the satirical and controversial work depicting pointed stereotypes of European nations and fake artist profiles complete with invented descriptions of their supposed contributions.

Here’s some closeups:

Romania = Vampire Theme Park

Germany = set of moving highways in the shape of...well...Cerny denied it was in the shape of anything...hmm...

Denmark! made out of legos...and in the shape of the provocative Muhammed cartoon, althought Cerny denies this as well

Exploring

On Monday, we trekked up to the castle. (Sidenote: we thought we’d get some exercise rather than take the metro…but unfortunately as some of you may know, my depth perception is quite skewed and I see on a very compressed scale of reality…meaning, I typically think things are 5 times closer than they are. This is not a physical ailment relating to my eyeball or anything like that…it is just a subset to my inability of orienteering myself (never ask me for directions) and hence my over-reliability on my GPS. Poor directional sense + stubborn nature = me = an extra hour finding the castle.) SO! That being said, we find the castle…and it’s closed. But! We visiting the castle cathedral which was incredible. Here are some pics:

view of the castle (pointy thing in distance) from Charles Bridge...as you can see, we are still quite far

view from the top of the climb...quite lovely!

gargoyle looking things at the entrance of castle...a little unnerving

Gothic Cathedral- extremely ornamental

stainglass window

Even though we didn’t get to tour the inside of the castle, had we not taken the extra hour to walk there, we wouldn’t have had a guard stop us…

Guard: Stop right there.

Us: Huh?

Guard: Halt…don’t go further.

Us: Have we done something? What’s wrong?

Guard: Just wait.

(we wait….at which point 2 black cars zoom by mafia style)

Guard: Okay you can go now.

Us: What was that?

Guard: President.

Us: THE president? Of Czech Republic?

Guard: THE president.

COOL!

After the castle, I tried finding the observatory tower, but got lost instead (see parenthetical above). I ended up on top of a mountain with a friend and we had a great view and challenging climb down.

ok i admit it, we used self timer.

I forgot to mention that on day 1 we visited the Lenon (John) Wall, which some people thought was the Lenin wall…hmm…interesting mixup.

peace and love, man

Not sure what this display was for, but I thought it was cool:

So many locks!!

The Next Day

We visited Prague Radio and heard a great speaker, David Vaughan, talk to us about Prague Spring.

The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Slovak Alexander Dubček came to power, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and members of its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country to halt the reforms.

We debated whether or not it was a good idea for Jan Palach to light himself on fire in protest.

On 19 January 1969, student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague’s Wenceslas Square to protest against the renewed suppression of free speech.

Something that got me thinking was that Palach was my age when he revolted against the invasion and “committed suicide” (the religious authorities of the time actually deemed it wasn’t suicide…interesting conclusion). I feel truly lucky that I live in a free country, and take that for granted some times.  But at the same time, I wonder how I would have reacted as a 21 year old during Prague Spring. It was neat to hear about the history from a building smack in the middle of where it all took place.

Later that day, I went on an Art Noveau walking tour and saw the building where Kafka worked as an insurance agent, an experience that inspired much of his hatred against bureaucracy. Now, the building as shown below is home to trendy clothing store H&M.

After the Art Noveau tour, we explored the Mucha Museum. That night, DIS provided us with a dressy, hoity toity, froo froo, uppidy dinner reservation at Francouzska Restaurant, after which we enjoyed a musical performance at the municipal house- “Best of World and Czech Music.”

Municipal House, another example of Art Noveau

Day Three

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was #1 on our itinerary, where we met the director/ artist/old hippy with a ponytail  Milan Knizek (also famed rival of Cerny). Knizek was very into “action art” that riles people up…for example:

He wrote up these instructions, then followed them...see next pic for demonstation

Stand still in a crowd, unfold a piece of paper, stand on it, take off your ordinary clothes and put on something unusual, e.g. a jacket half red, half green with a tiny saw hanging from the lapel, a lone handkerchief pinned onto the back. Display a poster on which is written:

I BEG PASSERS BY, IF POSSIBLE, TO CROW WHILE PASSING THIS PLACE.
Lie down on the piece of paper, read a book, tear out the finished pages. Then stand up, crumple the paper, burn it, sweep up the ashes carefully, change clothes and leave.

And so he did:

Grandpa, I thought you would appreciate this piece of art I found:

"Election Poster of the Communist Czechoslovakia in 1925"

Later that day, we toured the Jewish Quarter, saw the house Golem was created, and walked through the cemetary which is very eerie.

who needs Golem to protect you when you've got a mezuzah?!

clock with hebrew letters that goes COUNTERclockwise because you read hebrew right to left

Jewish cemetary

Slight tangent:

That night, DIS treated us to the yummiest buffet dinner ever. The only 2 seats left for my friend and me were the two at the table with our teacher and the intern, which was fine by us! In between hard focus on using my utensils properly so the professor wouldn’t deem me “infantile” (that’s what the eating in Europe website warned if I switched hands with the fork and knife!!), I discovered the following:

1) my professor, who was originally American, used to be premed but is now a philosophy professor

2) he is unfamiliar with the names Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen

3) hair straighteners BAFFLED HIS MIND. He had no idea how girls hair was straightened, and didn’t believe us when we told him there was a device that obtains such desired results

Lidice & Cesky Krumlov

The last few days of the trip we ventured away from Prague, and into Cesky Krumlov, a beautiful quaint town, with winding cobblestones, stunning hills, and old but gorgeous architecture. On the way to Cesky Krumlov, we stopped in Lidice to check out the memorial for the town that was completely razed by Hitler as retaliation against his #1 man Heydrich being assassinated. Horrific story, and the memorial was very moving.

On the busride to Cesky Krumlov, the teacher decided to show us a movie about a creepy vampire princess who died a strange death, and was rushed away in the middle of the night to be buried in a church in Cesky Krumlov. So when we arrived, everyone was kind of creeped out. But it turned out to be the cutest town, with cheap prices.

OH! So, in the Czech Repulic, all the prices look the same as they did in Denmark, HOWEVER, to convert to American $ in Denmark, you take the kronor and divide it by 5. In Prague/Cesky Krumlov, you take the Czech kronor and divide by…20!!!!! SO CHEAP!!! Huge meals for under $10 was such a relief after mucho expensive Denmark for 5 weeks.

the church where the vampire princess was buried

"Van Gogh Cafe" decorated accordingly

I could go on and on about this week, but it’s 2:30 am and I leave for Barcelona in the morning (CAN’T WAIT!!!! I’m visiting my 2 best friends from school), so I’m going to call it quits yall.

If you have anything to add or questions or anything at all, as always feel free to email. I love hearing from everyone. Stay well, I hope your weather wherever you are is glorious, and I’ll update again after Spain.

deena, hans christian andersen, and me!

this was an island in a pond...but we just walked across the frozen pond.

on our way to the ballet

The Royal Danish Theatre!

cute lil viking

This is going to be a little quick, because I have work I need to get to, but here goes:

Tackling the Snow!

I went to rugby practice on Saturday, and this time it wasn’t indoors.  I did have Underarmour (thanks mom) which helped a lot, but I didn’t have cleats, so I was slipping and sliding all over the place.  I kept thinking I was going to catch the ball, but then I would slide and do the splits in the snow and fail epically. This practice was especially exciting, because I learned how to tackle.  (In reference to your question Mom, no, I do not wear a helmet when I play rugby…) Back to tackling: the number one thing you learn is how to BE tackled, before you can learn to tackle someone else. Basically what this involves is holding onto a rugby ball (prevents you from using your hands when you fall since that would cause wrist breaks), and …. FALL. Onto the snow. Then you get up, and fall again. And again. And you keep falling until the snow has completely covered your non-waterproof outfit and has found its way down your shirt and into your socks. And then, you get on your knees (in the snow) and someone runs at you, and you grab their knees and pull them on the ground. Then you run at someone else and you are thrown onto the ground. The snowy ground….

(Have I mentioned it was snowing on Saturday??)

Anyways, overall I had a blast, and even though my shoulders feel like rocks because they are so sore at the moment, I can’t wait till next practice. My coach told me I look like I’ve been playing for a while! Yayyyy.

The Ballet

Saturday night, Deena, my roomie Holly, and I headed to Kongens Turtorv (“cons-new-toe”) to the Royal Danish Theatre to see a ballet performance! It was quite lovely. We saw the show, with one intermission, and got up to leave, put on our coats, gloves, hat, scarves…then realized no one else was. Hmmm. We politely asked someone who looked quite accustomed to the ballet what the dealio was, and if it was over…she looked at us with surprise and pronounced: BUT OF COURSE NOT!!!

Oh. Right. Oh course not. (Followed by us awkwardly taking our coats/scarves/hats off.)

Turns out that in Denmark there are TWO intermissions, and the show that night was two completely different ballet performances. Which is awesome, especially considering I liked the second one even better than the first, so I’m glad we asked someone instead of just leaving. That would have been bad news had we missed half the show.

Anywho…moooooving on.

My Luck

Friday, I lost my purple hat. Very sad. Good thing I have 3 more hats otherwise my ears would be frozen off and lying on a street somewhere in Copenhagen.

Saturday night, I went to a party and on the way there, this guy who lives in my kollegium kept throwing snowballs at me (which was annoying and cold) so I was running away. I get to the party…and my cellphone is not in my pocket where it was 15 minutes earlier. I face the cold once more, thinking yeah right, there’s no way I’m going to find my phone in the dark in the snow….BUT I DO!! I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!! AHH!!! SO EXCITING!!!!

Then!!…Sunday morning…I check the mail, and what else do I find other than….MY BUS PASS!!! Someone returned my bus pass!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still haven’t found my hat, but it’s okay.

Other exciting news:

My roommate from Vanderbilt, Nikita, is visting me this coming weekend! I can’t wait!

Gatta run. Much love!

feeding the ducks....this was in south jutland from my trip last weekend

smacking the barrel for womens rights!! (protest going on in middle of copen to get equal wages for women)

In other news, I rode my bike to the center of town by myself for the first time the other day, and the chain only fell off once! This is what I drove by…I stopped the take the picture, don’t worry.

I did not alter this at all

Here's my bike!

Helmets are C-O-O-L

Cooking update: I sauteed broccoli, garlic, onion, mushrooms and added it to rice and soy sauce the other night…yum yum. I’m not as shy in the kitchen anymore.

I have to run to Danish class so my professor can pick on me as usual. VI SES!

In case you were wondering, yes I did go on a cleaning frenzy at 4:30  AM last week.  And yes, I did just use a pair of scissors and some innovation to turn my brutally rough duvet cover into window drapes.

But, back to the weekend: overall, great trip. I’ll give the bad news first:

1) I lost my buspass on Wednesday (moment of silence) the day before I left while I was transferring buses, and unfortunately had yet to make a photocopy of it, so now I have to buy a new one. I couldn’t remember how much it cost, and at the time I was flipping out, and I was thinking in terms of kroner, so in the thousands, and I was hyperventilating because I was thinking it was going to be in the thousands in American dollars…….but it turns out it won’t be too bad. I did however start crying in the middle of Copenhagen, and rushed down an empty alley so the happiest people in the world wouldn’t be saddened by my sadness. I’m better now, though. No worries!

2) My boots….that have cozy looking fur in the inside…not so cozy when they get wet. Especially when it’s below freezing outside and they are soaked through and I don’t change my socks or go inside for 5 hours.  Ouchies.

MOVING ON…

So at 7:45 am on Thursday, my European Culture and History class (the same group I’ll be going to Prague with in a little while), headed to Western Denmark on a bus.  Our first stop was Jelling, where we toured a museum and learned all about the Jelling Stones. Here’s what wiki says:

The Jelling stones are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. King Gorm was the first king of all of Denmark. The runic inscriptions on these stones are considered the most well known in Denmark. ^[1]

The larger of the two stones was raised by King Gorm’s son, Harald Bluetooth in memory of his parents, celebrating his conquest of Denmark and Norway, and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity.

After that, we departed for Vejen to an art museum where we checked out all these cool statues of trolls and grotesque shadow-men and also Nordic Mythology representations.

troll!

cheers to ribe's bday!

girls from my hostel room