State side.
Hi again,
miss me?
So I'm home now...it's been 2 weeks since I have seen Europe and most importantly, Copenhagen. It was tough at first. Jet-lag really got me really confused and in a constant daze for a few days (daze... ;) ). But now I am back into my routine. I have an unpaid internship at a non-profit in D.C. called Bread for the City. They provide free food, clothing, medical, legal, and social services to low-income d.c. residents. I go there three days a week and do anything necessary for the development department. Right now...that means I'm getting postcards ready to send out for an event in July. But I will also be working with clients and maybe even writing on their blog. If you want more information about the organization, let me know!! I love it so far. It's a very well-managed organization and we serve thousands of d.c. residents a day. So that is me now...working...looking for something to do that pays on my days off...and enjoying home. But I have yet to update you on my very last (and quite busy) life in Copenhagen. Here goes...
Bornholm:
Me and 100 of my closest DIS friends all took an overnight ferry to Bornholm...we saw the sunrise over the island as we approached at 6am. DIS organized it and provided us with all the necessary biking tools. We started our bike journey after breakfast at the hostel. Up the hill all ten of us embarked on the Wilderness trail which was supposed to take us through the huge forest in the middle of the island and then to the town just below our town by lunch time....it was a little different then we expected. We did see plenty of rolling hills, golden gardens, and round churches, but the forest itself was almost like a maze. We ended up making a wrong turn a couple of times....which may have been my fault...but luckily the locals were very willing to pull over and direct the 10 lost bikers to the closest bike trail. I did fall while trying to take a picture...but I only suffered a few bruises :) We ran into goats, ducks, dogs, Londoners, and attempted to take part in eating their famous smoked herring. Rock and pebble beaches ran the coast all the way home each day...I even braved the cold Baltic water to go ankle deep on the second day! But after the forest and getting lost the 1st day we finally found our town of interest--svaneke! It is a gorgeous little fishing town (as most of the towns are) and we had some lunch...not smoked herring (town specialty)...but definitely fish...they were out of herring. We finished off our tour of the town by walking to the big rocks along it's coast and enjoying some soft ice (like frozen yogurt but better) by the town center. We let our butts heal a bit before getting back onto our bikes...but dinner time was early so we braved the pain and took off. Up the main hill and then pretty much smooth sailing until we met a huge up hill....that's where we broke down a bit and 10 became two groups of 5...and when Carrie and I saw a beach...that group of 5 became 3 and the two of us decided to take a few stops on the way back. We took extra advantage of a robe swing and another beach before reaching the hostel just in time for dinner, beers, chips, and a sunset. We all crashed early that night. Sunday, our last day there...our group shrunk a lot. It was just me, Jes, Meghan, Norrell, and Alex. We took the trail that headed up towards the top of the island this time. We stopped for all tourist sites, cliffs, church on top of the island, ruins, and lunch in the northernmost town. We also gave ourselves a nice break during hills...we were hardcore the previous day and biked all of the hills (except one). We ended the day with a dip in the Baltic, showers, soft ice, dinner, chips, beers, and another beautiful sunset. We got on our bus to the ferry and were back in Copenhagen just in time for 8:30 classes! (How convient!) I went home to rest and may have missed a few classes in the process...but at least I had a great time :)
Festivals! and Park adventures:
May was created for parties in Denmark. I went to a huge May Day event on May 1st in Faelledparken (huge park in my neighborhood) to support social unions! I started the day with Annette and her union at their head quarters in Fredricksberg. Caitlin joined us, as well. We had breakfast and a few morning shots of liquor to go with the pep speeches in Danish and the many songs and dances we all sang and danced to together. I got to wear my hat and vest again. We marched from the headquarters to the park holding a huge sign that said 'Hop Hop Hop, lønne dan skal op!' --jump, jump, jump, salary is going up!. So fun to chant and clap to with our red clapping hands. Usually most residents of Copenhagen spend the day in Faelledparken, drinking, eating, enjoying music and speeches...but this year it poured. So we huddled in the union tent until an important speaker came on. Caitlin, Sara (from soccer came, too!) and I met up with Annette's daughter and some of her friends to explore the park and wait for the sun to shine. It finally showered us with some dryness after about 3pm....granted the day started at 9am...so this was near the end of my day out in the park...but we had a blast dancing to the free concerts before the sun went down.
A few weeks after, the park played host to 'Festival' a Brazilian parade/circus that had women and men dancing in the streets in beautiful sequence, huge feather and revealing costumes. Everything ended in Faelledparken (where all the rides and games were) on Sunday evening. The line of dancers ran for a few miles. It was amazing. Kim (my neighborhood buddy and soccer teammate) and I, along with Laura (from my floor) and Le (a dane from our soccer team) all enjoyed the park during the day for some hardcore studying. We set up a couple of blankets...food in the middle...and spent about an hour on studying. Instead, Le, Kim, and I planned a rough route for our u.s. cross-country road trip. We plan on doing a 4/5weeks trip from California to Chicago through many south western parts, kentucky, maryland, nyc, boston, and chicago...with many place in between. July is our target month. It will be my lovely fodbol ladies: me, Kim, Sara, Le, and Rachel...with the possibility of a few more danes...but it's a long and expensive trip...so we understand if not too many danes are up for it :). We got a pretty good plan written out that day in the park and sometime before the summer ends...hopefully we will make it more concrete. (I'm open to comments/suggestions about the trip...don't hold back!)
Other than park visits and soccer things I was either doing homework, at my volunteer center, or wandering the city. The last week was crazy. I made eggplant parm for Annette and Par, had three exams, a soccer game, and said goodbye to a lot of people while also welcoming my family for our family vacation! After some really great last nights out with Jenna, soccer ladies, and my sisters, I said bye to DISers...one of many goodbyes.
My last friday while school was in session happened to also be the day the fam arrived. They were quite jet-lagged from the airport until three days later....so I did not attempt to do too much site seeing in Copenhagen. We went on a canal tour our first day, took a family nap and then went out on the town for dinner and bars! Our second day in Copenhagen was on bikes. We saw all of the tourist attractions by the water...the palace, the little mermaid, the marble church, and so much more. I also had to pack up to move out the next day...so we did lunch at my place and went out to dinner at my favorite vegetarian buffet place, RizRaz. I moved out the next day and we had dinner at Annette and Par's house. We enjoyed Copenhagen for a few more days before heading to Berlin. Before Berlin, we went to one of my mom's company's furniture factories north of the city and to Hamlet's castle in Helsingør, beautiful and the backdrop for many of the bell girl jumping pictures.
In Berlin, we stayed in old East Berlin near Charlie Checkpoint and Alexanderplatz. Lots of site seeing and just getting a feel for the city and the history of everything that happened there. We spent one night in Dresden, Germany after Berlin. In Dresden, every building looked as if it had just been hit by a bomb. Very dark and dirty but still lively. We went to the top of the Church of Our Lady which sat in the center of the old town square. After dinner we witnessed a remarkable event. A large portion of the destroyed center of the city was replicated and was dedicated on the evening we were there. The story of how the allies (we did it..) bombed Dresden near the end of the war was reenacted through fireworks and an orchestra (flown in from new york). My parents met a brother and sister from Munich who came up just for the event. They were children during the war. Overall, Dresden was very interesting and so unique next to the other cities we went to. We almost missed our stop, too. On our way out of the train my mom and dad got off first and Hilly, Maddie and I all reached the door a few minutes after them. We got to the door and tried to push the open button but it wouldn't go. A woman behind us who had just got on the train said very sincerely, "It's too late. You can't get off." So instead of ignoring her...we freaked out and started to hit the door and told our parents to get the conductor...he finally came and opened the doors with a bit of a sour attitude. Oh well...we got off at least. :)
Our second to last stop was Prague. We took a train from Dresden to Prague and my dad filmed the whole ride...if you stop by our house someday soon you will probably catch a showing of our family movies. Prague was beautiful...just as I had left it. We walked about 10 miles to the castle and toured around it. We enjoyed many wonderful dinners, an international meal the first night for Maddie's birthday, a jazz club dinner the second night, and dinner across the Charles bridge looking over the river the last night. We ran into Ryan Eickel from maryland while we were there! (He's a friend of Hillary's from high school who was studying for a few weeks in Prague). We took him to dinner across the river.
Our last two nights in Europe were in Copenhagen...at my request. We went up to Lousiana Museum of Modern Art to take in the art and the beautiful location along the øresund. We ate dinner in Nyhavn and I was able to meet up with Le and Astrid (soccer) one last time. I finally got to the beach at Amager Strand my last morning. I hoped it wasn't farewell...but just a see you later kind of goodbye. I think I will vi ses Copenhagen some day soon.
Thanks for keeping up with me on my travels. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog but now I may need to end this particular blog since I am not actually in Europe anymore. I may start another one someday...but I will let you know if I do.
Thanks again.
God Bless.
Emily
p.s. I'll try to post some more picture links soon!
miss me?
So I'm home now...it's been 2 weeks since I have seen Europe and most importantly, Copenhagen. It was tough at first. Jet-lag really got me really confused and in a constant daze for a few days (daze... ;) ). But now I am back into my routine. I have an unpaid internship at a non-profit in D.C. called Bread for the City. They provide free food, clothing, medical, legal, and social services to low-income d.c. residents. I go there three days a week and do anything necessary for the development department. Right now...that means I'm getting postcards ready to send out for an event in July. But I will also be working with clients and maybe even writing on their blog. If you want more information about the organization, let me know!! I love it so far. It's a very well-managed organization and we serve thousands of d.c. residents a day. So that is me now...working...looking for something to do that pays on my days off...and enjoying home. But I have yet to update you on my very last (and quite busy) life in Copenhagen. Here goes...
Bornholm:
Me and 100 of my closest DIS friends all took an overnight ferry to Bornholm...we saw the sunrise over the island as we approached at 6am. DIS organized it and provided us with all the necessary biking tools. We started our bike journey after breakfast at the hostel. Up the hill all ten of us embarked on the Wilderness trail which was supposed to take us through the huge forest in the middle of the island and then to the town just below our town by lunch time....it was a little different then we expected. We did see plenty of rolling hills, golden gardens, and round churches, but the forest itself was almost like a maze. We ended up making a wrong turn a couple of times....which may have been my fault...but luckily the locals were very willing to pull over and direct the 10 lost bikers to the closest bike trail. I did fall while trying to take a picture...but I only suffered a few bruises :) We ran into goats, ducks, dogs, Londoners, and attempted to take part in eating their famous smoked herring. Rock and pebble beaches ran the coast all the way home each day...I even braved the cold Baltic water to go ankle deep on the second day! But after the forest and getting lost the 1st day we finally found our town of interest--svaneke! It is a gorgeous little fishing town (as most of the towns are) and we had some lunch...not smoked herring (town specialty)...but definitely fish...they were out of herring. We finished off our tour of the town by walking to the big rocks along it's coast and enjoying some soft ice (like frozen yogurt but better) by the town center. We let our butts heal a bit before getting back onto our bikes...but dinner time was early so we braved the pain and took off. Up the main hill and then pretty much smooth sailing until we met a huge up hill....that's where we broke down a bit and 10 became two groups of 5...and when Carrie and I saw a beach...that group of 5 became 3 and the two of us decided to take a few stops on the way back. We took extra advantage of a robe swing and another beach before reaching the hostel just in time for dinner, beers, chips, and a sunset. We all crashed early that night. Sunday, our last day there...our group shrunk a lot. It was just me, Jes, Meghan, Norrell, and Alex. We took the trail that headed up towards the top of the island this time. We stopped for all tourist sites, cliffs, church on top of the island, ruins, and lunch in the northernmost town. We also gave ourselves a nice break during hills...we were hardcore the previous day and biked all of the hills (except one). We ended the day with a dip in the Baltic, showers, soft ice, dinner, chips, beers, and another beautiful sunset. We got on our bus to the ferry and were back in Copenhagen just in time for 8:30 classes! (How convient!) I went home to rest and may have missed a few classes in the process...but at least I had a great time :)
Festivals! and Park adventures:
May was created for parties in Denmark. I went to a huge May Day event on May 1st in Faelledparken (huge park in my neighborhood) to support social unions! I started the day with Annette and her union at their head quarters in Fredricksberg. Caitlin joined us, as well. We had breakfast and a few morning shots of liquor to go with the pep speeches in Danish and the many songs and dances we all sang and danced to together. I got to wear my hat and vest again. We marched from the headquarters to the park holding a huge sign that said 'Hop Hop Hop, lønne dan skal op!' --jump, jump, jump, salary is going up!. So fun to chant and clap to with our red clapping hands. Usually most residents of Copenhagen spend the day in Faelledparken, drinking, eating, enjoying music and speeches...but this year it poured. So we huddled in the union tent until an important speaker came on. Caitlin, Sara (from soccer came, too!) and I met up with Annette's daughter and some of her friends to explore the park and wait for the sun to shine. It finally showered us with some dryness after about 3pm....granted the day started at 9am...so this was near the end of my day out in the park...but we had a blast dancing to the free concerts before the sun went down.
A few weeks after, the park played host to 'Festival' a Brazilian parade/circus that had women and men dancing in the streets in beautiful sequence, huge feather and revealing costumes. Everything ended in Faelledparken (where all the rides and games were) on Sunday evening. The line of dancers ran for a few miles. It was amazing. Kim (my neighborhood buddy and soccer teammate) and I, along with Laura (from my floor) and Le (a dane from our soccer team) all enjoyed the park during the day for some hardcore studying. We set up a couple of blankets...food in the middle...and spent about an hour on studying. Instead, Le, Kim, and I planned a rough route for our u.s. cross-country road trip. We plan on doing a 4/5weeks trip from California to Chicago through many south western parts, kentucky, maryland, nyc, boston, and chicago...with many place in between. July is our target month. It will be my lovely fodbol ladies: me, Kim, Sara, Le, and Rachel...with the possibility of a few more danes...but it's a long and expensive trip...so we understand if not too many danes are up for it :). We got a pretty good plan written out that day in the park and sometime before the summer ends...hopefully we will make it more concrete. (I'm open to comments/suggestions about the trip...don't hold back!)
Other than park visits and soccer things I was either doing homework, at my volunteer center, or wandering the city. The last week was crazy. I made eggplant parm for Annette and Par, had three exams, a soccer game, and said goodbye to a lot of people while also welcoming my family for our family vacation! After some really great last nights out with Jenna, soccer ladies, and my sisters, I said bye to DISers...one of many goodbyes.
My last friday while school was in session happened to also be the day the fam arrived. They were quite jet-lagged from the airport until three days later....so I did not attempt to do too much site seeing in Copenhagen. We went on a canal tour our first day, took a family nap and then went out on the town for dinner and bars! Our second day in Copenhagen was on bikes. We saw all of the tourist attractions by the water...the palace, the little mermaid, the marble church, and so much more. I also had to pack up to move out the next day...so we did lunch at my place and went out to dinner at my favorite vegetarian buffet place, RizRaz. I moved out the next day and we had dinner at Annette and Par's house. We enjoyed Copenhagen for a few more days before heading to Berlin. Before Berlin, we went to one of my mom's company's furniture factories north of the city and to Hamlet's castle in Helsingør, beautiful and the backdrop for many of the bell girl jumping pictures.
In Berlin, we stayed in old East Berlin near Charlie Checkpoint and Alexanderplatz. Lots of site seeing and just getting a feel for the city and the history of everything that happened there. We spent one night in Dresden, Germany after Berlin. In Dresden, every building looked as if it had just been hit by a bomb. Very dark and dirty but still lively. We went to the top of the Church of Our Lady which sat in the center of the old town square. After dinner we witnessed a remarkable event. A large portion of the destroyed center of the city was replicated and was dedicated on the evening we were there. The story of how the allies (we did it..) bombed Dresden near the end of the war was reenacted through fireworks and an orchestra (flown in from new york). My parents met a brother and sister from Munich who came up just for the event. They were children during the war. Overall, Dresden was very interesting and so unique next to the other cities we went to. We almost missed our stop, too. On our way out of the train my mom and dad got off first and Hilly, Maddie and I all reached the door a few minutes after them. We got to the door and tried to push the open button but it wouldn't go. A woman behind us who had just got on the train said very sincerely, "It's too late. You can't get off." So instead of ignoring her...we freaked out and started to hit the door and told our parents to get the conductor...he finally came and opened the doors with a bit of a sour attitude. Oh well...we got off at least. :)
Our second to last stop was Prague. We took a train from Dresden to Prague and my dad filmed the whole ride...if you stop by our house someday soon you will probably catch a showing of our family movies. Prague was beautiful...just as I had left it. We walked about 10 miles to the castle and toured around it. We enjoyed many wonderful dinners, an international meal the first night for Maddie's birthday, a jazz club dinner the second night, and dinner across the Charles bridge looking over the river the last night. We ran into Ryan Eickel from maryland while we were there! (He's a friend of Hillary's from high school who was studying for a few weeks in Prague). We took him to dinner across the river.
Our last two nights in Europe were in Copenhagen...at my request. We went up to Lousiana Museum of Modern Art to take in the art and the beautiful location along the øresund. We ate dinner in Nyhavn and I was able to meet up with Le and Astrid (soccer) one last time. I finally got to the beach at Amager Strand my last morning. I hoped it wasn't farewell...but just a see you later kind of goodbye. I think I will vi ses Copenhagen some day soon.
Thanks for keeping up with me on my travels. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog but now I may need to end this particular blog since I am not actually in Europe anymore. I may start another one someday...but I will let you know if I do.
Thanks again.
God Bless.
Emily
p.s. I'll try to post some more picture links soon!
posted by Emily Bell @ 9:39 PM
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