The Beginning: Copenhagen - Vienna

I hope the "back in time" exercise worked for everyone, because we're doing it again.  Luckily we're still skipping back to October, so if you got the visualization down for the last one, just put yourself if the same place, only about a week later.  

I had a whirlwind of papers and exams in the few days between my parents leaving and setting out for my travels, but as soon as I put my pencil down after completing the last test of the week I knew I was free.  I rushed out of my classroom, took the train home, grabbed my suitcase, took the train back, and met Lena at the Nørreport metro station, where it all began...

In fact, it turned out Lena and I didn't even need to leave Copenhagen for the adventures to begin. When I finally made it to the metro it took at least another ten minutes for us to find each other.  We were walking way underground where our cell signal didn't always go through.  Finally, we found each other.  I'll spare all the adventures, or this could take forever, but believe me, they never stop.  Lena and I usually say we can't do anything normally, and we always prove ourselves right.  Some might say it has something to do with our lack of planning, our ability to become distracted by the wonderfullness always surrounding us, our chatty behavior, or "whatever goes..." attitude.  They might be right, but we wouldn't change anyway.

In fact, so many adventures surround us, we could hardly believe how smooth our trip went from entering the airport to finding the hostel.  Did we really get through security, make it to the plane, get on the right bus, navigate through the right streets, and flawlessly happen upon the front door to our hostel?  Yes, we did!  But we congratulated each other too early.  By this point is was about 11pm.  After finding the door to our hostel it was probably another hour and a half before we found our beds.  We opened the door to the hostel to find a dark room with staircases going up and a hallway that looked nothing like a hostel.  I walked down the dark hallway a little to find a very small, old, and shaky looking elevator and a sign that said "My MojoVie" with an arrow pointing up.  My MojoVie is the name of the hostel.  We proceeded to drag our suitcases up 3 flights of stairs (we said nej tak to the elevator) with the motion censored lights flickering off every now and then.  Finally we made it to the top and came to a door with an envelope taped on that read "Hillary and friend."  We weren't sure what to make of all of this, so before taking down the envelope we paused and looked at each other.  In the time of that momentary pause 3 people walked out of a door to the left and another 3 out the door we were staring at.  Those 3 looked at us and looked at the envelope.

"Are you Hillary?"

"Yes,"

They open the envelope like they own the place and say, "Ok, follow me."

We thought they did own the place.  We follow them into the hostel which looks like a super decked out dorm room.  It was decorated with fun colors, egg chairs, and round lamps dangling from the ceiling at different levels. They lead us into a a big, spacey, but cozy 10 bed dorm.

"Ok, here are your beds," they say, gesturing to two bunks with shapes taped on, labeling them.

"Thanks!"

"We just got here tonight and are looking for a pub or something, wanna join?" Turns out they didn't own the place...

"Uh...no."  I realized that these weren't actually our beds.  Lena and I had ordered a single room for the night, not a dorm.  

We read the letter and turns out these Italian travelers probably weren't trying to fool us, this letter was just next to impossible to decipher any meaning from.  We take our time, reading line by line, noting what has been scribbled out, written over, arrows drawn to new notes, and finally conclude our room is in another building.  Finally, a few doors down, across the street, up more stairs with temperamental lights, and a key that takes more minutes than it should to work, we find our room.  Clean, comfy, and cute.  

the confusing letter kindly left for me and Lena

As it turned out, it was too bad we didn't stay in the original beds we considered, because if we had Lena's friend from Dennison, who had no idea she was in Vienna, would have found a friend from the States sleeping in his bed when he returned from his night out!  Those beds weren't only not ours, they were taken. We went to the front desk area the next morning to pay and such, which is also right by the room we almost stayed in, and Lena say her friend Ryan getting ready for the day.  Neither of them knew the other was in Vienna, let alone the same hostel.  Too make the world seem even smaller, one of the four guys he was traveling with was from IU!  

We went with this group of super planners to the Royal Palace, their first stop of the day.  We split with them here, choosing different tours.  Lena and I took a great tour of the beautiful palace and explored the garden they are famous for.

 After that we headed to the Saturday Market, something we actually did plan for.  It was a huge, colorful, and multi cultural market full of different things to buy and foods to eat.  We ended up buying some dried fruit that came in very handy over the next few days for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner!  We bought it from some Italians who maybe knew only enough english to gather we were from the US and exclaim "AMERICA! We LOVE America!!! Obama Barack! Barack Obama! We don't know..." They were very funny and very enthusiastic.  It is nice to travel and have people love your country.  I often find myself thinking non-Americans love our country more than a lot of us do, or they at least are not so critical.  After discussing this with Julie I am pretty sure this is new, and it is due to Obama being in office and Bush being out. 

I brief pause to mention other reaction I get when I say I'm American:

"I love Will Ferrell!"

"Have you met Obama?"

"Do you like football...why?"

"All the Americans come here and want to go on the Sound of Music tour" (more on that later...)

them: "Where in the US?" me: "Ohio" them: "Where....?????" them alternative answer "Oh, yeah..." my thoughts: they have no clue.

After the market Lena and I did what we do best: stroll.  We put the map away, found some yummy gelato, and went in whatever direction our hearts wished.  We did this until we were totally lost, and then we went some more.  We find with this strategy we enjoy ourselves to the max, still manage to stumble upon all of the important things, and even stumble upon those not so important but beautiful and unique things.  When the sun finally disappeared we pulled out our maps and made some real plans for the evening.  

The next day we visited the Leopold museum and saw one of the best collections of art I have ever seen!  We ended with some yummy coffee, tea, and marble cake.  

Before leaving Vienna we got some friendly alerts cautioning us away from Paris because of the riots.  After some discussion we decided it would be best not to risk it.  Lena, Eleanor, our friend we were supposed to meet there, and myself all had plans to meet family coming from the states following Paris and thought it would be best to not tell them we were trapped in Paris and unable to travel.  We made some desperate attempts to contact Eleanor, decided to extend our stay in Salzburg and Prague in the absence of Paris, and were on our was to Salzburg!  

ps - eventually dragging our bags up and down the stairs was too much to bare! especially since the room we were in the second night was on the top floor of this building!!! we chanced the sketchy elevator, after being informed it actually was fine, yet we had our doubts.  we had a fun time cramming ourselves and our bags into the tiny space.  

Guest Blogger: Rick Combs

OK, time for a little catch up.  What better way to start than with my first guest blogger? Meet Rick Combs, my dad!  I asked him to write a guest piece for my blog on his and my mom's visit here and he kindly obliged.  Before reading place yourself back in time to Oct. 15...before winter hit, before Thanksgiving, and before Halloween. Nice October when the leaves were turning colors, you were still wearing t-shirts, I just returned from Scotland, and my parents arrived in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen Guest Blog:  Rick Combs (AKA Hillary’s Dad)

            

The redeye from Washington Dulles took us through Paris, where Claire and I sat in a nearly deserted section of De Gaulle Airport eating French pastries and drinking coffee and watching the sun rise as we awaited our flight to meet Hillary in Copenhagen. Never having been north or east of Switzerland, I was excited to see Denmark and the other locations on our itinerary. The last leg of our flight was very comfortable. The pilot circled to approach from the sea, and we looked down on the huge wind turbines that sit out in the bay near the city. After navigating the sprawling Copenhagen airport, we made our way to the train station. Copenhagen has great public transportation, and is probably the most bicycle-friendly place I’ve seen. Trains and busses offer designated areas for bicycles, so locals carry their bikes aboard. The railway system is large and complex enough to be a little intimidating to non-natives, but with a little help we soon made our way to downtown Copenhagen.

Our first night in Copenhagen was the perfect start to our European visit. Hillary’s host family, Verner and Anne Christmann, and their ten-year-old son Anders, had us over for dinner. They are wonderful hosts, and made us feel very comfortable right away. I am not a wine snob, but I aspire to be one. Verner uncorked two excellent wines—one in particular really impressed me. Dinner was outstanding as well. Later we had dessert and coffee. It was great fun to meet the Christmanns, and to see where Hillary was living. They’re very close to the shore, and as we had approached their home I had a strange feeling of déjà vu. Out of curiosity I had Google-Earthed their residence and had been able to look around the main roads and intersections nearby, and was able to get within a couple of blocks of their home, so the neighborhood seemed familiar. They live a few blocks from a train station in suburban Copenhagen; after dinner we walked the short distance to the station and caught a train that took us within a short walk of our downtown hotel.

Copenhagen is a great city—large enough to offer all the advantages of a big city, but small enough that it can be navigated with relative ease. It’s a modern city with Old World charm, full of tiny restaurants and cozy cafes contrasting with the huge public squares, block-long government buildings, and palaces. Copenhagen is on the shore, but instead of the bustle of an industrial port city, the marinas are filled with sailboats and the canal tours carry visitors past condos and museums and galleries.

Copenhagen Canal

Verner and Anne took us up the coast by car one day to visit Elsinore Castle, the inspiration for the setting of Hamlet. It was the kind of outing we enjoy, since it gave us the opportunity to see the local countryside. The shore-side homes and shops and the rocky coastline reminded me a little of parts of New England. The castle was impressive---bigger than anything I’d have imagined, and complete with the requisite dungeon below ground. By chance, Hillary ran into several of her classmates as we left the castle.

At Elsinore Castle

Eventually Hillary had to return to classes and studies, and Claire and I flew off to Vienna for a few days. We stayed in the type of place Frommer’s recommends--a small but very comfortable hotel near the museum district, frequented by Europeans.  The weather was rainy, but that just made Vienna’s restaurants and cafes more welcoming. We found navigating a bit of a challenge. The street and place names in Romance languages are a little easier for speakers of English to distinguish and recall than is the case in German. We were lost half the time. We didn’t care. Vienna is another beautiful city, and we enjoyed the museums as well as the cafes. One night we went to dinner followed by a symphony of Mozart music. The food wasn’t great, but the wine was drinkable and the company was interesting. We sat with a retired Australian couple on a three-month tour of Europe, an Asian mother-and-daughter (their limited English made it impossible to determine their exact origin), and an American forensic psychiatrist and his wife. After a long career in forensics, the psychiatrist thought Hillary was making an excellent choice to concentrate on positive psychology.

Lost in Vienna

Back to Copenhagen for a few days, then off with Hillary to Berlin. Europeans say Berlin is emerging as the new unofficial capital of Europe, displacing Paris. That is hard for me to imagine. I enjoyed Berlin mostly because of the history. We visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and drove by the remains of the Berlin Wall.  So much of Berlin was destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII that most of the city is very modern. As an American visitor, I found that a little disappointing. At times I felt that if it weren’t for the signs in German everywhere, I could have been looking at a city in the U.S.  No need for an American to travel to Europe to see a city that looks very American. We did have a great time, though. Our hotel was first class, with a beautiful view overlooking suburban Berlin and the Danube Canal. The café in the hotel boasted that it had recently been presented with the “Ernest Hemingway Best Bar in the World” award. They did know how to mix a martini, a skill perfected (as far as I have yet been able to determine), only by my late Father-in-Law Raoul and myself. Hillary asked for a wine, and since we were after all in Germany I suggested a Riesling. I am not a huge fan of Rieslings, but this one was pretty good. She had several others over the course of a few days, and all were good, prompting me to wonder if they ship only the bad ones to the U.S. and keep the good ones in Germany. Food is not, generally speaking, a reason to go to Germany. Still, Berlin is a very cosmopolitan city and good food can be found, if you look for it. Or if you ask the concierge at a good hotel where it can be found, which is what I did. We hopped in a cab and raced off to our last dinner in Germany, and it was fantastic. The Maître d recommended a wonderful, juicy cabernet.

Back in Copenhagen, we shopped. Copenhagen claims the world’s longest pedestrian-only street, and it appears to be lined with clothing and jewelry boutiques of the kind frequented by people like my wife and two daughters. That was OK; while they ducked into every other shop on the street, I stayed outside and people watched. Scandinavia, as I had long suspected, turned out to be a pretty good place for people watching.

Coffee and (what else) Danish

For our last night in Copenhagen, Verner and Anne took us out to dinner. It was actually our intention to take them out to dinner, but they were very insistent on picking up the check. We can only hope they will someday give us an opportunity to return their hospitality. It was another great dinner. I had red deer, shaved thin like roast beef, served rare in what tasted to me like a plum sauce, with a wine that complemented it perfectly. I have no idea what everyone else had, but they assured me it was excellent. (Did this turn into a food blog? That wasn’t my plan.)

Dinner in Copenhagen

We have been home for several weeks now. Recently while skyping with Hillary, I asked her if she was looking forward to getting back to her familiar haunts in Bloomington. Turns out not. Somehow Indiana appears to have lost its luster. She is already thinking about how she is going to get back to Europe. That is something we had been thinking about for a long time, and we’re very glad Hillary gave us the excuse to make it happen.

            

Fleeting blogs, fleeting life

I have so much to say about my two weeks traveling and my time since my return, and I must admit, I have so little time to say it!  As with my last post, I'm typing this up before leaving for yet another trip, hoping to get just a little bit down to satisfy both myself and you for the time being!

As for my two weeks of travel, it was amazing!  I loved Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Berlin, Munich, Heidelberg and the city's surrounding areas so much.  I did not make it to Paris because of the strikes, but it was ok because it gave me more time in Salzburg and Prague, both cities I now can't imagine having less time in.  I feel like I learned a lot about where I was, especially in Germany.  Touring three different cities gave me a great overview of the country as a whole.  I think one of my favorite parts of traveling was meeting so many new people!  I met people from not just all over Europe, but from all over the world!  From the locals in the countries I visited to countries like England, Italy, Czech Republic, South Africa, Australia, China, Switzerland, Russia, and many many more.  

Now I am about to leave for my final trip out of the Denmark before leaving to go home in 3 weeks!! Ah! I am lucky (and so are you...if you want to see me again) to have such wonderful, wonderful friends and family to lure me back to the States.  Seriously - if it weren't for you I might be back only on occasion, and certainly not in 3 weeks!  

I found a quote that seems suitable for my reason to love travel, and fits with my love to be with (and act like) a child! 

"That’s the glory of foreign travel. I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."

Bill Bryson

PS - Happy Thanksgiving!!! As said before, I am so thankful for YOU! I am also thankful for the wonderful opportunity I have had to live and travel abroad, for the education I have gained since being here, the new family and friends I have found, and for knowing that someday, hopefully in the near future, I will be back to travel, explore, and live abroad some more :)

Here are some pictures for now, stories will follow in a later blog.  Enjoy :)

Salzburg, on the Sound of Music tour :)

Beautiful Charles Bridge in Prague, right by our hostel!

Part of the East Side Gallery, the remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall

Overlook of Munich from Cincinnati's gift to the city

Statue of the Unknown Soldier at Dachau, the first concentration camp opened in Germany.  An interesting and in some ways enlightening experience.

We couldn't leave Munich without a traditional German experience at the Hofbrauhaus!

Neuschwantein, a fairy tale castle in Fussen, about 2 hours outside of Munich

Alps in Fussen, near Neuschwanstein Castle

A special visiter I had to come home to in Copenhagen!

Quick update and a farewell!

So like I mentioned in the last post, I'm leaving very soon for a 2 week travel break but wanted to quickly wrap the last post up and say farewell for now!

As far as my past couple weeks, I'll try to say more about that when I get back.  I had a wonderful time with my parents in town!!! Highlights of Berlin were some great dinners and sight seeing and my favorite activity was the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.  It was also very fun to be in Copenhagen with them.  I got to be a tourist in between my classes which was great!  We did a canal tour and spent some quality time with my host family.  It was great for my parents to meet my host family, and for my host family to meet my parents!  I was very glad that we all got along and enjoyed each others company so much.  Again...more later, including pictures :)

Now my suitcases are packed and I am ready to go!  This is just the start to a whirlwind of a crazy but wonderful month!!! First 2 weeks traveling, then my cousin Julie is coming back in Copenhagen with me, and as soon as she leaves Andrew will be here!!!  After that I have a long weekend in London and then it is December...where does the time go?

Right now I'm looking forward to a week with a friend in Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, and Prague and then meeting Julie in Berlin for a week through Germany by train!  I am so lucky and could not imagine a more perfect way to spend my 2 weeks of traveling!  So, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, ahoj, and farewell!!!  Have a great Halloween, *shoutout to Jenn - have a great 21st,* enjoy your extra hour of sleep for the Fall Back time change, and appreciate all November has to offer!

UK Journey Part 2: Glasgow and Ireland

When our plane landed we made a mad dash to the baggage claim so we could meet up with our class on time, whose plane was supposed to land 20 minutes before ours.  Winded and a little disheveled, we read the arrivals screen only to find that their flight was delayed an hour.  We took a seat near where they would enter and enjoyed a little bit of relaxing downtime.  Well, mostly relaxing.  The Scottish police standing around the airport carried HUGE guns and wore a stern expression.  We managed to get them to chuckle a little, but the guns were still off-putting.  When we final saw our classmates coming through the gate we greeted them with the same enthusiasm I expect when I arrive back in the Cincinnati airport!  From then on I fully enjoyed the leisure of a group trip, which means everything was planned and all I had to do was show up (mostly) on time!

A nice step up from our hostel, we got to stay in a hotel the entire week!  Not to mention, a very nice hotel.  Thanks again, DIS.

We stayed in Glasgow for two and a half days and I enjoyed my time there.  The city had some pretty areas, but overall was more industrial and had less charm all over than many European cities.  The first day we went to a beautiful cathedral!!!  It really was one of the most elaborate and biggest ones that I have been to.  Behind it on top of a big hill was a necropolis that we climbed.  It gave a beautiful view and had some of the biggest and most ornate tombstones I have ever seen.  It was a great way to begin my week in Scotland!

While in Glasgow I also went to a lovely tea party, reminiscent of my tea party days!  If only they had big hats, boas, and fancy dresses, it would have been just like it used to.  They had fancy little sandwiches, biscuits, and deserts for us and of course some delightful tea :)  I was actually a little sick on this trip, which explains the lack of pictures I have of myself.  But they are still out there!  I think it's important for you to see other people too, though.  So here are some of my friends in the Willow Tea Room.

We were given the option between two museums, but a friend of mind and I decided we could made it to both and what a great decision that was!  First we went to the modern art museum which has some interesting exhibits, but it was small.  While everyone else left and went back to the hotel or in search of lunch, we ventured far across the city (it was actually about a 45 minute walk!) to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.  As we approached it, just from the outside, we could tell we made the right choice to go see it.  It looked like a castle from the outside and was just as marvelous on the inside!  

Here is the modern art museum

and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum as we were approaching it.

Kelvingrove had some wonderful paintings by well known artists from all over Europe as well as historical exhibits on things like the vikings, wildlife in Scotland, and even a country-western American exhibit!  

The inside of the museum

Two pieces from the museum.  The one on the left was what a man working at my hotel noted as his favorite, it was the only sure thing I knew to expect before going.  The second was one of my favorites :)                         

Before leaving Glasgow we took a trip to tour the oldest house in the city, built in 1471!  Which was actually pretty impressive for being so old.  The family who lived in it must have been very rich because it is still standing strong today.  

After Glagow we hopped on a bus and made our way to Edinburgh!  I am very happy we took a bus there because it gave us the chance to see some Scottish countryside.  

OK....so I wrote all of that right after I posted UK Journey Part 1: Dublin.  When I stopped it was because I had to run off to meet my parents in their hotel upon their arrival in Copenhagen!  Since that time they have been here, we went to Berlin, and I've been scrambling things together to prepare for a 2 week trip I'm leaving for in about an hour...so I wanted to sum a few things up before leaving for this trip and then add to it later.

So we drive into Edinburgh and as soon as the city is in sight we all think we've just driven straight into a fairy tale!!! It is a beautiful, old city that is centered around a giant castle on top of a giant rock.  We had a great hotel in the center of the city too.  So on this trip, in addition to our academic visits, we took a drive through the beautiful Scottish highlands to a whiskey distillery tucked away in the valleys and by a pretty waterfall.  At the distillery we got a tour.  I really liked the Guinness tour, but I have to say this one topped it.  May it is because I'm not a big fan of Guinness, but a better guess would be because of the beautiful surrounding area.  After that we went to a very pretty castle.  There we got a tour and then time on our own.  Again, absolutely beautiful!  

Another highlight of Edinburgh was a ghost tour.  When I first heard we were doing this I thought it would be similar to the night watchman walk I went on in Ribe, a nice walk around the city at night.  Could I have been more wrong??? It was scary!!! It was more like a walk in volts and chambers underground through the most haunted place in the UK, ranked by the BBC!  So while we were down there the tour guide explained the history of all the crime that happened in these volts hundreds of years ago which leads to why they now believe them to be haunted.  She told us about the strange experience people have and shared ghost stories.  Whether or not you believe in ghosts, it was a spooky place to be! Dark, old, candlelit, damp, underground, and a string of small rooms!  After we got out of there the tour continued above ground with more spooky history of Edinburgh and a demonstration of how they whipped 2 englishmen...yes, a demonstration!  Imagine our shock which she actually whipped the 2 volunteers in my class who agreed to participate in a little role playing.  Luckily she didn't whip them as hard as they did back in the 1800s, but there were still small red welts on the poor guys back :( Not something you'd find in America!  We enjoyed our last day in Edinburgh and headed home.

It was sad to end such a great trip with such a great group of friends, but we were also happy to be back in beautiful Copenhagen, which officially felt like our new home!

UK Journey Part 1: Dublin

My week long trip through Dublin, Glasgow and Edinburgh was amazing to say the least.  I found beauty, culture, and friends.  The cities all had their own beauty, the Irish and Scottish culture had a lot to show, and I made even better friends with those from my positive psychology class and made some new friends along the way!

My trip started on a Friday when I met four other girls from my class at the airport.  Our class was not meeting to go to Scotland until Sunday but we decided to extend our trip a few days and make an extra stop in Dublin.  The tickets were pricey but the second the plane hit the ground I was sure it was all worth it.  It was a beautiful flight in and I enjoyed all of my Irish countryside viewing from the plane before landing...I did not get to go to the countryside over the weekend which only gives me a great excuse to go back someday!  We had a few adventures through the airport, each one of us getting hit with our own doom!  Mine happened when the ATM machine ate my credit card :(  It was not so bad thought because I still had my debit card and plenty of Kroners if I needed to exchange them.  We got a cab, stuffed our bags in, and struggled to understand what we think we English.  We later found accents weren't so thick everywhere, but this cab driver, James, had quite a thick one!

When he pulled up to our hostel I could immediately see it was not a "hostel" like what DIS has spoiled us with.  In fact, I think our first reaction when he pulled in front of it was "why did you stop here???"  As it turned out it was actually a good hostel with very friendly people and a free pancake breakfast!  Because there were 5 of us the only room we could all get in and the room that was cheapest was the 12 bed dorm! AH! That was an experience.  I actually did not mind at all at first.  But by Sunday it was getting a little smelly, a little strange, and we were ready to get out!

We used our time wisely in Dublin and got a full experience!!!  A few of the girls I was with had friends studying in Dublin so it was nice to have them show us around Friday night when we got there.  Our hostel was right by the bar from PS I Love You!  It had a high entrance fee so we never actually went in, but it was fun to see it!


We also saw some beautiful cathedrals...

The castle...

The Trinity College...

Temple Bar...

We took a fun visit to the Guinness Factory which ended in one of the highest points in Dublin, giving us a beautiful view of the city!

And finally something near and dear to our hearts that's been missing from our lives...

It was interesting being back in an english speaking country.  It actually took a couple hours for us to adjust to actually being able to read signs and menus.  Sometimes we'd even find ourselves making things more complicated than needed until we remembered that we could actually get around by reading all of the signs.  The culture also struck me as a little more American than other European cities I have been in.  A large part of this may be due to the english speaking, but I'd also attribute it to the starbucks, subways, TGIFs, and many other US chains that are missing from Copenhagen!  The people also may have acted a little more American just in a general attitude and way of carrying themselves.  I think this was my first trip completely done on my own!  Which was also exciting and a big success...good practice for the long study tour.  

After two nights and two days of exploring we said, "See you later, Ireland.  Hellooo Glasgow!"

The story continues...

To all my readers - if you're frustrated by my lengthy time between posts, you're not alone, I am too.  However, if the time has creeped by, and you feel as though the minutes slowly turn into hours that stretch into days, you might be.  Or at least you're not in my company.  Time has flown since my trip to Western Denmark, and I can't believe I'm coming up to my second study tour!  I am very crushed for time these days.  I don't think I've ever said that I have no bit of extra time and meant it like I have the past few days.  I'm even writing this during some in-between times spent on the train, computer lab at DIS, and finally, I will probably finish right before turning my lights off for bed. 

The past couple weeks have simply been a continuation to my great adventure! From classes to friends, weekends biking to weekends with my host family, and nights out in the city to cozy nights cooking or in my new home, I truley believe I am getting as much out of this experience as I can!

I'll start with some smaller things and move into the longer stories.  Things I love about my study abroad: the friendly Danes, positive psychology, no class on Wednesdays, a cozy home with a great host family, my cooking class, new friends, city life, travel, and so much more.  In fact, I think I can say my only complaint as of now is a small wardrobe that's growing into a boring one!  Positive side of that is in October when my parents come maybe a few things can be switched out...or maybe I just need to do some shopping :)

A quick note on positive psychology.  I absolutely love it.  Sometimes, partly as a result of the Danish teaching style I believe, what exactly we're learning seems a little ambiguous compared to the straight forward teaching styles in the US.  I'm definitely getting it though.  I love that what we learn fits what I have always believed so well.  Today we had a guest lecturer on hope and he even pulled Emerson into the mix.  For those who don't know, I'm a big fan of Emerson.  Sometimes there are things in a person's life when it seems like all the stars align into a giant arrow saying "THAT WAY!"  I think mine are aligning and pointing in this direction.  It's amazing how things like this fall into place. I still don't know what exactly I want to do post graduation, but I am already looking into positive psychology related labs I can work in at IU when I return.

So now for the longer story...

I have had almost two weeks now to think about how I want to tell you about my weekend biking in Bornholm, and still haven't come up with the best way.  Here's what I've been thinking, maybe we can vote on best leads.

Lead 1:
I had a weekend.  I had a _____ weekend.  I had a good weekend, a bad weekend, a sad weekend? A tough, treacherous, windy, hopeless, courageous, triumphant, adventurous, spectacular weekend?  All of the above, perhaps, but if I had to pick one I'd go with the latter.

Lead 2:
My weekend began late Friday night, when I took my 30 pound bag stuffed over the edge like I was prepared for a week in the arctic, and got in the car with my host dad to meet the ferry full of DIS students to leave for our night long boat ride over to the Denmark's island, Bornholm.

Lead 3:

WANTED:

Biking tour guide, for telling innocent girls lies, sticking with us for way too long,

 and being leader of "The Killer" bike tour.  

Maybe between my three leads you've gotten a general sense of the weekend?  

I spent Friday night on the floor of a ferry, on the long ride over to the beautiful island of Bornholm.  I would say most of the time was spent on quality girl talk and giggles, with the rest spent on sleep.  When I woke up early to the rattling of the boat stopping and the traditional Bornholm song blasting (maybe you should look it up...) "tired" was the last word on my mind!  I was so excited to be there and could not wait to get started.  Although we were allowed to do whatever we pleased, there were three suggested tours and groups you could join if you'd like.  My friend suggested taking "the killer" tour and since it included a stop at a beach that exports sand for hourglasses, and because "it's not like anyone here is a serious biker anyway" (I said this at breakfast, to which a new friend said, "actually...I kind of am," which I brushed off), I said "let's do it!"

I believe I got on my bike, with a backpack weighed down by jackets, my video camera, and a HUGE jug of chocolate milk provided to me by my host family, I was literally singing "I'm so freeee! I love biking!"  Fast forward ten minutes - we're ALL walking  our bikes up a huge hill :)

So the glee continued and we stopped at some marvelous sights.  

Eleanor, Lena, and I at our first stop, a beautiful overlook of a rocky shore

Second stop, a little closer to the shore.

 Third stop, an old lookout tower that we climbed up!  

As the ride (I forgot to mention, a 65 kilometer bike ride, that's around 40 miles!) progressed I fell further and further to the back.  Ok, I was in the back from the start, but I said I fell further to the back, not in the back.  Luckily, I was in good company.  So we took a nice and much needed break!

Eventually, half way through the trip, we caught up with the group at the beautiful beach!  It was as much as I could have hoped for!  The sand was light and soft and the ocean was deep and rough!  The wind was so strong that day, a big component that added to the biking struggle, that the top layer of sand was constantly rushing under our feet.  At one point I was posing for a picture, about 10 feet from the shore, and the waves rushed over my feet!!!  Luckily it wasn't too cold and didn't bother me later, it just surprised me in the moment!

Lena caught the moment in action!

After our lovely time at the beach and some delicious ice cream, a specialty of Bornholm, the big group broke down into small ones, and I chose the one that was going to lunch!  Funny enough, I didn't actually buy lunch, I opted to have some of the many snacks my host family gave me for lunch while Lean and Eleanor got a sandwich and the rest of the group enjoyed (???) some traditional herring.  I thought my time for trying herring should be at a different time.  So while the group...let's just say ate, not enjoyed...their herring, we three girls found some shopping!  As Eleanor ended her blog with, best part of the trip: Lena bought shoes!  I think it entertained the tour leader a little bit, thought we didn't think much of it at the time.  

As the day went on and the wind grew stronger we approached what can only be described as near death!!! We were in gear 1 on flat ground and our legs were falling off.  I call it biking upstream.  Now comes in the true role of the Wanted man, seen earlier.  We wanted to walk, and he came back and wanted us to bike!  We wanted to know how much longer, and no matter where we were, he always said close, about 20 kilometers.  We wanted the wind to stop, and he said, it will as soon as we turn right (we never turned right...).  Also, we wanted him to leave us alone, and that didn't happen until "15 kilometers"and a "straight shot" away from the hostel.

Well, it was not 15 kilometers, and it was not a straight shot!  We figured this out as soon as we came into a split in the road that took you directly left or directly right.  We were at the intersection of two roads, that both had the same name!  There were a few houses nearby, a lot of farm land, and we were in the company of some cows.  We sat down, looked at a map, decided we were totally lost, then decided to take a break.  It really seemed like the best option.  We were past the near death experience, we were past aching, burning, and hurting legs, and we were past the frustration we faced earlier in the day.  We just thought everything was really funny.  I'm glad I was in the good company of someone who can laugh at a potentially dreadful situation.  It really was the adventure of the weekend.  So we rested, walked, studied the map, and decided to call a cab!  So we called a cab, got lost in the Danish the machine spoke, and approached two little boys playing outside.  We somehow communicated to them that we'd like to speak with their parents, and the very nice Danish man came out on his child's request and then went back in to call us a taxi!!!

We may have felt some embarrassment and shame, but I will tell you that we made it back before the wanted man!  They got even more lost, and didn't pull out their resources to get a taxi, and came back late for dinner and more tired than ever!  I used my resources, still got a verryyy long bike ride, and a really great story :) 

Sunday we enjoyed the beautiful sights of Bornholm, posted below.  

Overlooking our hostel, which had a beautiful view of the harbor!

Yummy bakery!

We found the perfect spot to enjoy our pastries!

 The Oluf HØst Museum, a famous Danish artist, and the museum is in the house he lived in!

Since Bornholm I would not say my adventures have come to a stop, or even slowed down.  I enjoyed last weekend at a family reunion with my host family, which was really fun and very interesting.  They do similar things that we do.  Eat, talk, play with and watch the kids play, eat and talk more...It was really nice to meet my host families extended family and to have that time with them.  I also like seeing the inside of a different Danish home, and one that was in the country as opposed to my families city/suburban home.  

As mentioned before, I've really enjoyed having no classes on Wednesdays!  Two Wednesdays ago I explored the city with a friend!  We walked all over, shopped, explored new places, and ended it with a fresh pastry and a glass of wine by the canal!  It was very nice, and "so european" of us :)

Yesterday I spent part of my Wednesday on a field study with my History of Copenhagen class.  We got a private tour of the inside of one of the mansions in the Queen's Palace square!  It is one of the most well preserved palace squares in all of Europe, as was the inside of the mansion we toured!  It is where even today the Queen hosts her fanciest dinner parties and where very special and important guests may stay.  It has been preserved in the same state it was in when built, in the 17th century!  As my very excited tour guide put it i was "dazzled" and "bewildered" by the "leap back in history" that I took.  I don't put the quotations in because he was wrong at all, but only to point out a few of the spectacular adjectives he was always using!  I think he learned his English from the British, but I have never heard any native English speaker use as many colorful adjectives in any amount of time as he packed into the one hour tour.  Unfortunately cameras were not allowed, or I would have great pictures to show you!  Instead you'll have to imagine a serious of rooms that grow bigger and more elaborate as they lead up to a great hall.  Imagine walls covered in paintings or huge sheets of elaborate fabrics, molding on the ceiling, floors still from the 17th century, loud colors, beautiful and elegant furniture, and feelings of grand royalty and riches!  

I will leave you with all of that, and the knowledge that I am leaving for yet another study tour tomorrow!  Except this time it will be an entire week.  I will try to report back to you soon after!  I am thinking about you and thinking about home and I hope you are enjoying your own adventures in the US! 

How are you feeling?

Right now I feel energized, happy, fresh, inspired, and like I'm beginning an adventure that will never really end.

So how are YOU feeling, right now?  This kind of self-reflection was a common theme throughout my lessons in Western Denmark.  I just returned from a three day study trip with my Positive Psychology class and had an unforgettable time.  Each day we had an academic activity, a cultural activity, yummy food, free time, and at least four hours on a bus. I loved every minute of it.  It was a great time to learn more about positive psychology, see more of the country I'm quickly falling in love with, and meet new friends, all of whom I'll be spending an entire week with in Scotland!

Our first stop was the most inspiring, interesting, and emotional one for me.  It was at a business school in a town called Esbjerg.  This school has a very unique program called "The Skills Project" that many of the students in the school don't even know about.  Each student enrolled in the program comes from a very difficult background, which for many means abuse, neglect, bullied childhoods, drug and alcohol use, suicide attempts, and low self esteem, respect, and confidence.  They have all been let down by either mothers, fathers, or teachers.  When chosen for this program they begin an 8 week program that literally turns their lives around.  83% of the students completing this program go on to start an education or get a job.  My class had the opportunity to hear from the man who started and runs the program, the psychologist, and students who have completed the program.  Hearing the student's stories, and then hearing their success and positive views on life is truly inspirational and moving.  It is through positive psychology techniques that they learn that there lives are valuable, that they are smart, have potential to grow, and can love and be loved.  The students were very open to talking about their lives in the past and how it has changed.  It amazes me how in only eight weeks a person can change so drastically, and that all of it is done through changing their frame of mind.  The positivity, potential, and hope that lies within human nature will never cease to amaze and inspire me.

On further visits, to an elementary school where we learned how positive psychology can be implemented in children and education, and to a university level business school called kaospilots where we did more personal self-reflection, I learned that asking yourself and others "how are you?" is not only important for people coming from backgrounds like the students in "The Skills Project," it is important for everyone.  In Denmark "How are you?" is not a greeting used like it is in the US.  Here, it is an honest question that is not asked unless you really do have time to hear the answer.  We learned through each visit that no answer is wrong, and that everyone needs to be heard.  Through self-reflection and understanding of ourselves and others work can be done to change problems or to enhance a happy life you already lead.

So that wraps it up for the academic, reflective, and emotionally charged parts of the trip - but I'll let you know it does not wrap up all of it!

Thursday night, after visiting "The Skills Project" we drove to a town called Ribe.  It's the oldest city in Denmark, and it shows!  It is the cutest and quaintest town I have seen in all of Europe.  I felt like I was in a museum and the families I saw eating dinner through candle lit windows were just cardboard silhouettes in a fake room, and that the tall slanting roofs were made of cheap plastic, and the cobblestone paths were mounted on a concrete museum floor.  It was too cute to be true!

After my positive psychology class and another one joining us on this leg of the trip (about 60 students total) took over the restaurants in the town of Ribe, some of us went on the Night Watchman Walk.  A long, long time ago the night watchman would walk around the streets of Ribe, singing songs, and looking out for the town.  Today it is a free tourist attraction, and you can follow the "night watchman" on his walk through the town, listen to him sing, and stop for information at certain landmarks, such as the oldest cathedral in Scandinavia or the oldest house in the town.  It was a little rainy, but I think that added to the ambiance.

DIS picked out some very nice hostels for us!  So nice that I think I should show you some pictures.  Here's my "hostel" on the first night. 

I started the second day very early with a morning meditation lead by my psychology professor.  One of the joys of studying with a psychology group :)  We moved on to the elementary school and then to a fun hands on science park!  Best parts of that was a giant blue cube with a waterfall running down the outside and fun attractions inside,

Riding segways around an obstacle course,

and a fun, unconventional teeter-totter.

The coolest room was a...can you guess? Yes, a science of the brain room!  There was one activity that measured your brain waves.  Two people sat on opposite sides of a table with a tiny ball in the middle of it, and but a headband with prongs on it on.  The goal was to be calm.  Brain waves were measured and whoever is the calmest pushes the ball to the other side of the table.  Some of you may think I am calm, but I went against my positive psychology practicum teacher, who was also the leader of my tour and the woman who began this program at DIS.  She went into immediate meditation and completely kicked my butt!

That evening we drove to a town called Hadersleve.  It was a very "hyggelige" evening.  That is a word that is best translated to mean cozy, and is something the Danes have perfected and made a major part of their culture.  DIS arranged a wonderful dinner for us that evening which was already paid for!  We had a yummy Danish dinner...

...and desert! Yum - banana split!

Afterwards the "hostel dad" made us a big bonfire and we made snobrød (twisty bread) around the campfire.  We all thought we would go into town to see a live band at one of the bars, but the fire was so hyggelige we all enjoyed a view of the stars, cabins and lake, good company and conversation, and some beer and wine instead.  What a great evening!

Our fire and everyone cooking their snobrød.

A few pictures of yet another "hostel" we stayed in.

That was five cities, thirty new friends, and million great memories in three days.  I'm happy to be back in yet another home I've found for myself and can't wait to tell you about my next adventures!