Copenhagen: Ta Cesta Oprah

(Translation: Copenhagen: The Oprah Way)

Yes, I just referenced Oprah. Kind of pathetic, I know, but it will make sense soon.

Before I start I just want to throw it out there that here in Europe we changed the clocks this weekend, so it is now a five hour time difference from the East Coast.

Back to my weekend. I feel like my trips thus far have been good in that I am getting a little bit of each region, and the only way that I can really describe Copenhagen is Scandinavian. I honestly don't know how else to describe it. I am going to defer to Oprah on that. Lauren showed me these videos of one of her recent shows, and she describes it pretty well. Here they are:





Basically that gives a much better picture of Copenhagen than I can give. Some of the things may seem like Oprah is exaggerating, but it is true. They really did leave their children outside. I saw the unattended strollers quite frequently in my two days there!

Anyway, Lauren and I basically just wandered Copenhagen. I think that was the best way to experience it. We saw most of the major sites. I got to see the palace (they have the longest consecutive monarchy that still exists, I think), the Opera house, the Little Mermaid statue, the famous street with the boats in the middle (whose name I can't remember), and a bunch of other things that are slipping my mind right now.

If you watched the Oprah videos above, you might be interested to know that we went and got that same type of bread (that is hard to say) from the same bakery where she bought her eight loaves. We also warmed up on Saturday by having a cup of tea at The Royal Cafe where Oprah went with the Danish women. The bread was amazing, and the cafe was quirky and cute.

Lauren and I cooked homemade pizza for dinner, and it was nice to have a real homemade meal. What I have been making definitely doesn't count as homemade, but we even made the dough ourselves, so it was true homemade pizza.

I'm really glad that I visited Denmark because it was a nice relaxing weekend after a busy week, and I was able to experience a Scandinavian country.

Random Thoughts:

• It dawned on me on the way home that I just about doubled my Student Agency bus time this weekend with a weekend total of about 25 hours and a fall total of 52 hours. THAT'S MORE THAN TWO DAYS IN EUROPE THAT I HAVE SPENT ON A BUS!
• With the absence of the apple and pumpkin and general New England autumn festivities this fall, I have had to resist the urge to jump right into the Christmas season. I'm not going to lie, I did break down and listen to a few songs on the bus ride back.
• Have you ever heard of Marzipan? I had never heard of it before but it is EVERYWHERE here. There is so much candy with marzipan in it, and in Budapest there was even a marzipan museum, which I find so strange.
• Dad, ask Santa for a new black backpack, because I think yours may die in Europe. It is getting much more use than I had ever expected.
• Copenhagen is on the kroner, which sounds a lot like the Czech koruna (crown), but don't let it fool you. koruna > kroner. I love the crown.
• I made my schedule for PC this spring. Most depressing part of my weekend. Or of the last two months.
  
• I really really enjoyed the ferryboat rides that I had this weekend. It is probably just the influence of Grey's and my love of McDreamy, but I really did enjoy it. (Dad and Grandpa, I don't expect you to understand that reference, so don't bother.)
• I am really jealous of how much of a running city Copenhagen is. Whenever I go for a run here, people give me strange looks. I have only seen two other people running in general when I was here, not even just when I'm on a run. In Copenhagen I think 1 out of ten people on the street was running or in workout clothes!
  

As for at home, I saw the headlines about Obama declaring a flu emergency. If you ask me, that is an excellent reason for me to stay in Europe and never come home.

And finally I just want to congratulate my cousin Kate (not Katie, she's a sophomore now), on her amazing tennis season! Her team made it all the way to the state finals, and she was the only one to win her match in the finals. Great job!