Okay. First, I have to talk about the Royal Danish Opera! Because I don’t…… Wow. Sorry. I stopped mid-sentence there about ten hours ago and have absolutely no idea where I was going with that sentence. This is awkward.
But here! It’s a dress from one of the Danish Opera’s first renditions of La Triviata. The show was beautiful, and obviously the performers were amazing. I personally loved watching the conductor and listening to the music, because it was pretty hard to follow the story line considering the singing was in Italian and the subtitles were in Danish. (A little LCD screen popped up above the stage with the subtitles.) During each intermission (there were four), we took turns exchanging what we understood and what we guessed was going on. It was pretty fun, to say the least. And champagne during the last intermission!
The hallway! We got a little backstage tour before the show, but the tour was conducted in Danish, so it was about as easy to follow as the show itself. I missed the number, but apparently these chandeliers go for quite the hefty price. I couldn’t take pictures inside the theater because of copyright laws (silliest thing ever), but you’ll just have to try it out for yourself sometime. Thank you, Scan|Design for a wonderful night and a great cultural experience!
Man, I slept well last night, let me tell you. We landed in Trondheim around 10:40, and Jackson’s super wonderful roommate Yannick picked us up so we wouldn’t have to use nighttime public transit. What a champ! And seriously, because it was about a 45 minute drive. I slept most of the way. And then I brushed my teeth and didn’t wake up until eleven when Jackson got back from a morning full of classes and group presentations. Oops.
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Okay, let’s go backwards. I haven’t seen much of Trondheim yet because of my sleepiness and the raininess of the outdoors. Pretty much all I accomplished today was a shower, grocery shopping, cooking, eating, reading, and this blog. (BTWs: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a fantastic quick read, but very thought-provoking and funny. Highly recommend. Started on the plane to Paris and finished on the plane back to Copenhagen!)
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Highlights of Paris: the sun, the food, the art- in that order.
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It was deliciously warm and bright the whole time we were there, but we didn’t really take advantage of it the first day, unfortunately. Instead, we spent seven and a half hours in the Louvre. SEVEN AND A HALF. We woke up around sunrise, found a perfectly posh bakery and bought an entire loaf of chocolate chip bread cake, metro-ed over to the Louvre, and locked ourselves inside until sunset. Which is a bummer, because the sunset was so stinking gorgeous and it would have made for an excellent photo by the Eiffel, but our tired little legs didn’t make it. By the time we reached the Tower, the sun was gone (as is pictured in the main photo). Kind of regret spending so much time there, because we were so tired by the end of it that we weren’t really enjoying it anymore, but oh well! We made up for it later.
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Okay, I feel like I should accompany the rest of my stories with photographs, but I have forgotten my WordPress password, so I’ll need to hold off until I can remember again. I’ll try it out again tomorrow, hopefully after some Trondheim adventures!
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Until then,
Venlig hilsen/ best regards/ vennlig hilsen (Norwegian is so similar to Danish!),
Golly goodness; it’s really kickin’ in. The bags under my eyes have certainly put on some weight in the past few weeks. Sometimes it’s because of all the fun I’m having. Sometimes it’s because of all the reading and writing I’m doing.
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Speaking of which, I’m doing NaNoWriMo! Or I’m trying to, at least. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, and the idea is to write a 50,000 word novel, or the first 50,000 words of a larger novel, during the thirty days of November. It’s pure evil. I’ve tried it several times and failed miserably over and over again. But I don’t know. This time could be different. I certainly have lots of stuff to write about! So far, I’ve started a little study-abroad novel. Original, I know. However, to do a little twist on it, I’m doing it from the perspective of my younger sister (sort of) as she journeys through her own study abroad two years after me. Funny thing that she ends up doing the same program. (Convenient, eh?) So yeah. I’ve got… a bit over 3,500 words now, so I’m actually behind schedule already. *sigh. Wish me luck!
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Okay. What fun things have I been up to since my grand return from the Great Beyond (AKA: Iceland)? I honestly don’t remember too well. I’ve been pretty wrapped up in school work the past ten days, and I get to go to the opera tomorrow, so that’s all I’ve been able to think about. My very first opera! Eep!
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Oh yes! Last Wednesday, I got to visit Fredericksborg Castle again, this time with my Creative Travel Writing class. The sun was shining, the wind was punishing, and the guide was adorable. He also looked pretty much exactly like Jackson, but with hipster glasses and a mustache. Very strange… But the castle was definitely better with a guide. I learned so much that I had just glanced over the last time!
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Isn’t it pretty?! They actually had the fountain on this time! The first time I visited, the fountain was shut down for maintenance and the water was covered in a thick layer of green algae and muck. It was disgusting. I think they were still running tests, though, because the water kept turning on and off. It caught a little girl by surprise and soaked her through. Tehe.
The Jackson look-alike pointing out the shields lining much of the castle walls- The shields represent the “orders” awarded to various people (kind of like a knighting, if that’s the term?). Fun tidbit: a person can only keep their… award? badge? medal? (I was unclear about that) until they pass away, because the state only has so many. When they die, the order is returned to Denmark. Therefore, in order to ensure that the order will be returned, an order/ knighthood must be given to Denmark as well, and they’ll do a bit of trade-sies. Because of this, Americans can’t receive Danish orders because they have nothing to exchange. The only American exception is Eisenhower for his duty as general during the war!
Ceilings (:
Queen Margrethe, current reigning monarch of Denmark
More ceilingsss
A royal bed! So pretty.
I stuck around after the rest of my class left so I could explore all the nooks and crannies of Fredericksborg on my own. In the process, I discovered a Steve McCurry exhibit that was being held on the ground floor. Steve McCurry is the photographer who captured that iconic Afghan Girl with the green eyes. I loved the exhibit! Most of the photos were from Middle Eastern and Asian countries, temples, slums, etc. New favorite photographer.
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I spent Halloween at home with Sara and Mikayla. We baked banana bread and watched Interstellar (color me confused for most of that movie- I finally felt some closure and understanding by the end, though). We also had a total of four trick-or-treating groups. “Trick or treat” sounds so stinkin’ cute in Danish! Slik eller ballade. The first time a group said that, I asked Sara what they were saying, and she responded with, “Uhm… Candy or I’ll kill you or something?” Imagine my alarm. It was only when I said that was a lot more dramatic that “trick or treat” that she remembered slik eller ballade is pretty much a direct translation. At one point, a group of little girls came to the door, and instead of knocking, they just stood there and chanted: Slik eller ballade. Slik eller ballade. Slik eller ballade, until Sara opened the door. I could not get over it!
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Oh! I also got to meet Sara and Maria’s grandma! She was so sweet! Her little apartment was covered in art, some of which she had painted herself, and she gave us mocha ice cream and tea. What more could you ask for? She also informed me that I will be missing some big Danish holiday next week while I’m in Trondheim. Nobody else had cared to mention this to me the whole time I’ve been here, but it seems sort of Thanksgiving-esque as far as the November, before-Christmas, get-together-with-family-and-eat idea goes.
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We actually went over there to deliver a jack-o-lantern that Sara had carved. Tehe. It got stuck in the bike basket and was a struggle to get out. She liked it, though!
Her decorations also gave me some ideas for when I get my hands on my bike back in Seattle… (;
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Today, I had Danish class in Christiania, believe it or not. We got a tour from a man who has lived there since 1989, and it was a lot less scary in a group of American students, let me tell you. He told us all about the businesses and goings-on in Christiania aside from the Green Light District, which is apparently known as Pusher Street. I’ll try to brave it again in December for the Christmas Market.
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Graffiti in Christiania
Indoor/ outdoor skate park in Christiania
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Alrighty! No class tomorrow, so I have to finish a big essay for my Rome class before heading out to the opera! I’ll let you know how it goes!!! Eeep!
Okay, so I’m not technically in Iceland anymore (sadly), although I am certainly a lot warmer now than I was before I left. Maybe that’s just because fifty degrees feels sweltering compared to the thirty-or-so I was getting in Reykjavik? Anyway. Pictures!
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This is the first thing I saw when we stepped off the plane in Keflavik Airport. The typical Icelanders in their typical Icelandic style. Needless to say, I was intimidated.
I’M RICH. Or I was. For a second. In Iceland. But not really, because this bill is worth around $45ish. But hey, one can dream.
The Blue Lagoon! It was so pretty and milky and warm and wonderful and sulfury and we covered ourselves in mud and apparently I looked super weird and what are commas?
Our first dinner: traditional Icelandic ramen. Haha.
LOOK AT THE COLORS.
Checkin’ out those geysers…
Posing next to the geysers…
This is the Little Geyser. Old Geyser, the big one, was hard to capture in a photograph, but believe me when I say that it was big. Twenty feet across, spouts twenty meters high, and it looks really cool on video. I’ll show you later, Mom.
All the sweaters! In all the stores!
Erin being cute next to Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall)
Gulfoss itself. This baby was huge, and a double-decker, to boot.
The winding path up to the look-out. These are the kinds of roads I have nightmares about where my Dad accidentally drives over the edge.
Ignore my grumpy-looking travel buddies. They were happy, I promise! (Although they were maybe non-plussed with our sandwich-only diet.) Just look at the colors! Also, an Icelandic joke via our tour guide: “What do you do if you get lost in a forest in Iceland?” “You just stand up!” (Note the tiny trees.)
The church of Reykjavik. This place was weird, man.
And I mean weird. It was extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY modern, art included. There was also a man playing the organ in there, and it was a beautiful organ, but he was playing music that reminded me less of church and more of a haunted house.
The view from the top of the church! (Plus, the ticket-counter lady thought I was fourteen, so I only had to pay 100 crowns instead of 800. Ha!)
Coffee break (:
Graffiti! And Tessa!
That on the left there is an Icelandic troll penis. True story.
Read this, if you have the time. You won’t regret it. It’s a declaration from the man with the world’s largest recorded penis. I just can’t. I can’t even.
Reykjavik’s viking ship monument thing. Look how beautiful it is! This was taken on our “city day,” where we didn’t have any tours or travel planned.
Saturday was a different story. We were up before the sun and got back well after it went to bed. No regrets.
Seljalandsfoss! And Abbi!
This was the waterfall you could walk all the way around, and this is a view from behind it! It is also the “Elsa’s powers” waterfall (see three posts ago), but it’s kind of hard to see it in a still shot.
The Icelandic sheep! Way too cute!
Me poking Tessa’s head. She didn’t even notice.
Skógafoss. So pretty. So big. So wonderful. So wet. The three of us (Abbi, Tessa and I) braved the waters for some photoshoots on the nice cameras that aren’t my cell phone. Nobody else went that close!
Drama.
ICE. I can’t. It was too beautiful. This is Jökulsárlón, or Glacier Lagoon. Three different glacier trails fed into this pond of beauty. We almost lost a few appendages while enjoying the view, but we couldn’t stand to stay inside.
Look how little Tessa is among all the wonders in the world!
This is the beach across the way with the black sand created by glacier-ground lava rock. And it just had chunks of ice sitting along the shore that had washed up from some icebergs. Like what the heck?! How does that ever happen ever anywhere?! Why is life so beautiful?!
Our last day. (‘: We packed, hit up a coffee shop, and then stopped at this little hot dog stand for lunch. The picnic tables even had hot dog holders. Tehe. So yummy.
Look closely at the flight schedule. Three of the four of us had flights that went straight home. And by home, I mean Home home. Seattle home. We all stared longingly before boarding for Copenhagen.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be here. Copenhagen is beautiful, but I just saw a news report of the crazy Halloween people who live down the street from me back in the States, and it made me a little nostalgic for the over-the-topedness that is The Holidays in America. What will I do without ABC Family’s The 25 Days of Christmas? Or ABC Family’s The Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas?! I may die. We’ll see. At least it’s starting to look like I will be having two Thanksgivings while I’m here, so that should be fun. (:
Okay. Let’s see if I can try to be a bit more choosy (remember, I took over 1700 photos while in Rome. Choosing my favorites is very difficult.)
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View from the top of Castel Sant’Angelo
And Castel Sant’Angelo itself. Apparently parts of Angels and Demons was filmed here. (And apparently Angels and Demons is a sequel to the Da Vinci Code? I was unaware. I should read-up. Although, I have read nearly four books in the last ten days! Travel will do that to ya!)
This is gnocchi. It is a weird, potato-infused, chewy, squishy, cube-ishly-shaped pasta. And it is so. good. I didn’t like it at first. I just ordered it because a lot of other people did, and the restaurant made it by hand, and it sounded Italian. But it was just such a pasta-textural-experience as I had never before experienced, and now I MISS IT SO BADLY.
Behold, THE COLOSSEUM. (dun. Dun. DUUUUUNNN!)
An inside view! (You don’t see much of those.) The maze on the bottom floor is where they kept supplies, lions, tigers, bears, etc, and it was originally covered with what would have been the actual stadium floor.
It rained that morning. A lot. A lot a lot. It was pouring at times. Before we had left from breakfast, I warned the boys that they should grab a jacket (they were both sporting very nice cotton t-shirts), to which they replied that their weather apps predicted no rain. *cue my blank stare and pause. “It’s raining right now,” I said quizzically. They were doubtful of my rain-sensing abilities, and they apparently lacked the ability to open their own curtains. Luckily, they went back for their jackets anyway, because that rain was a mess!
The Colosseum, like much of the ruins, was under construction. *sigh.
Inside the Forum Romanum!
Inside other parts of the Forum Romanum!
Inside yet other corners and places inside the Forum Romanum! (Did I mention I took over 1700 photos during my four-day stay in Rome?)
Inside the Temple of Vesta inside the Forum Romanum! This place was crazy. You should do some personal research on the Vestal Virgins. They were dedicated ladies, and they were buried alive if they broke their oath of chastity.
A Roman stadium
A view of Rome from the Palatine Hill
A view of the Forum Romanum up above
My favorite pasta dish. My favorite dish. My favorite food. The pasta with seven sins. Golly…. Believe me when I say I would sin a few times to have some more of that pasta………….. gaaaahhhhh….. I miss the cheeeeese!!!!
We went to a modern fashion exhibit in the old market streets of ancient Rome, where they were holding an exhibition on food and fashion. This is the result. (:
Thorvaldsen! It was nice to see a little piece of Home all the way in Rome. (And by Home, I mean my current home in Denmark, haha.)
The ceilings. I cannot get over the ceilings. Have I mentioned how much I love ceilings?
A little backyard alcove behind Michelangelo’s Santa Maria degli Angeli
The fountain in the center of Piazza de la Republica
Another rendition of Medusa’s beheading
So many mosaics inside the Vatican!!! They put my little 8.5″ x 11″ from sixth grade to shame…
Mom. I saw the actual School of Athens by the actual Raphael. The Actual One!!!!!!!!! I almost died. (Also, it is huge! An entire wall! It’s so hard to picture buildings and paintings in real life while studying them in class, because they are all the same size on the power point slides, you know?)
Ceilingssssss
MORE CEILINGS
Okay. Embarrassing moment. I thought this was The Actual Last Supper. And I was over on this side of the room, taking bunches of pictures, wondering what the heck everybody else was doing on the other side of the room taking pictures of the Resurrection. Did they not realize how much more famous this painting was?! Idiots. And then I realized that The Actual Last Supper is, in fact, a painting. Not a tapestry. Which was what I was looking at. And then I shuffled quietly into the next room and hoped that no one paid me any attention.
There was an Egyptian exhibit inside of the Vatican because of all the Egyptian influences in Ancient Rome. And parts of this exhibit included actual real coffins from thousands of years ago, and inside one of these was an actual real mummy. But I will not post a picture here because it made me sad that he/she (it was unclear) had been dug-up, un-wrapped, and put on display in a glass case miles and miles from its resting place so that millions of strangers could gawk on the sidelines.
Writing from nearly three thousand years ago. (Do you even realize how long ago that is?!?!?!)
More posing!
And yet more posing, this time right outside the Medici Villa!
Drinking from the water fountains, because When in Rome….
Enjoying the sun outside the Medici Villa. Not sure what Abbi is doing…
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And then we trudged back to the hotel, took a cab to the airport, and landed in Copenhagen just after midnight. What an exhausting and exhilarating and overly-picturesque trip! Iceland will come later. I’m tired.
If you look closely, you’ll see that nearly every window has laundry hanging out to dry. So cute!
Markets and Vespa delivery boys
I wanted this man to draw my face so bad…
The Spanish Steps, presided over by James Bond, and gated-off for restorations
The magnificent Trevi Fountain! Covered in scaffolding and drained to the pit! (I still made a wish and threw in a coin. Tehe.)
The Pantheon. Spent a lot of time around this area (:
Some hunky gladiators trying earn a few euros
Largo di Torre Argentina ruins, right next to our hotel and swarming with cats day-and-night
Paintingggggssss! I bought the right one for myself (Piazza Navona) and the left one for Jackson, provided I don’t decide to keep it later
The view from my hotel window. I made faces at the people across the street all the time. This is the first time I’ve every had a window that looked into someone else’s window!
Just a really pretty door (:
Posing in the old meat-packing district, literally the only quiet part of all the Rome we saw
The cemetery for non-Catholics… Because that is a thing in Rome.
Pyramid of Cestius
A beautiful Roman manor house
The “keyhole of Rome.” My phone wouldn’t focus in on the light, but you could see a beautiful view of St. Peter’s Basilica and the surrounding city all the way at the end of those hedges
Rome from up top!
Circus Maximus, where the Romans used to hold chariot races (I really wanted to run down there)
The Mouth of Truth–line was too long to actually test my lying abilities
My dream bike, if ever I live in Rome, Tuscany, or Amsterdam. *sigh
The beautiful Forum Romanum!
St. Peter’s Basilica (this is when it first started to rain)
Posing with Abbi and Nynika
Inside the Basilica
Bernini’s Bronze Baldachin
Ceeeeeiliiiiiingssss….
Trying to convey just how large this cathedral was (impossible)
A few thousand chairs to seat a few thousand people to see the one-and-only Pope
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Okay. I’ll continue in another post, so as not to drown you!
And I’m alive, don’t worry! I barely survived, let me tell you. I almost lost the muscle control in my feet while in Rome, and I definitely lost feeling in my nose a few times while in Iceland. The woes of travel (which are far outnumbered by the thrills).
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As I’ve had one of the most ridiculously packed and fabulous and exhilarating and exhausting and busy (in the best, homework-less, studying-less way possible) weeks of the semester to date, I feel as though I cannot fill you in on every corny detail. (Is that the phrase? Or is it “every hairy detail”? I like corny better, anyway, regardless of how long it’s been since I last shaved my legs.)
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Instead, I will do a two-parter, possibly three if I feel adventurous (unlikely). This first part will include my writings and musings of travel, and the next will contain a multitude of pictures. How many pictures, do you ask? Well, I’ll try to keep it to a miinum, but as I took over 1700 in Rome, and I have yet to count the ones from Iceland, it could end up being quite a few. Or maybe I’ll just choose my absolute favorite (impossible) and slap that up here. We’ll see.
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All right. Wow. I guess I’ll do a bullet-point-and-comparison thing here. Yeah, that sounds fun. I have two essays looming ahead of me over the next few days, and I don’t feel like thinking about paragraph structure.
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In order of appearance:
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ROME:
It smells… dirty. Like car exhaust and motorcycle exhaust and vespa exhaust. So many vespas. The vespas of Rome are like the bicycles of Copenhagen. And they smell.
Everything is so old! Sometimes in a beautiful way, sometimes in an off-putting way. The ruins and the ancient buildings are gorgeous, obviously. Plus, I went with a class (Classical and Renaissance Rome), so it was fun actually knowing what I was looking at and understanding a bit of the history surrounding me. Had I not taken this class, I would have been relatively clueless in Rome. I would be wandering around with no idea what to see besides the Colosseum. I hadn’t even heard of the Forum before this class. Thank goodness for DIS.
Because things are old, some things are relatively shabby. Everything just seems a little back-corner-of-the-city, if that makes any sense. Especially the cobblestones. So many cobblestones. Believe me, there have been cobblestones in every city I’ve visited so far in Europe, but these ones were old and had deep, deep trenches in between, and my feet felt it. I mean FELT it. All that extra muscle movement really takes a toll, especially after walking 48 miles over four days.
Because of the walking and the heat and the walking and the walking and the walking, people got tired. There were only eight of us, and the first day went swimmingly. Everybody was in a great mood, the sun was out, we had left our winter jackets in closets in Denmark, and we were in Rome, for goodness sake. But Day Two was a different story. And Day Three. And Day Four. With each step, people got more and more tired. Which put people in bad moods. Which put me in a bad mood. Okay, scratch that. It tried to put me in a bad mood, but I tried really really hard to stay in a good mood because I was in Rome and it was beautiful and I was having a fantastic time, but the attitudes and the fatigue was getting to me. They even tried to rush through the Vatican on the last day! Ugh. It was rough. It was beautiful, but it was rough.
The pasta was delicious, as is to be expected. My favorite meal of the trip: Penne with Seven Sins at the Seven Geese restaurant. SOooooOOOOoooOO good. So good.
It was a tourist trap. There were so many tourists. The whole city was flooded with them. Only on one occasion, when we went to the edges of the city to see a quiet little graveyard the old meat-packing district did we escape the tourism. Tourist shops. Tourist stands. Men walking up to you with handfuls of selfie sticks. Men walking up to you with 20-packs of postcards (I bought one). Men and women selling paintings of the exact same thing that they had clearly not painted. It was so strange. Never have I seen so much pushiness. It was relentless. Even the restaurants lining main streets and side alleyways had waiters and waitresses posted outside, begging you to come in and try the delicious, cheap food. Everybody was so pushy! So that was weird, and slightly unpleasant. But I don’t think it took away from the trip. I think it added to it, because I’ve never seen such a spectacle. (I did invest in some paintings, but they weren’t like all the rest. They were being sold by a tiny, elderly Italian woman wrapped in scarves with paint on her nose and under her fingernails. She was working on another as we walked up to her, and the ones on display were bright, unique, imaginative, and fresh. You could see the oil paints sticking off the canvas, see the mistakes, see the inspiration. I bought two.)
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ICELAND:
I’m going to start with a disclaimer: words cannot describe the wonders of Iceland. Pictures cannot describe the wonders of Iceland. Excited hand motions and wide eyes and repeated, disbelieving shakings of the head cannot describe the wonders of Iceland, though I have tried all of these methods. It just cannot be done. You have to go there. And you should. Because it is amazing.
I managed to pack only five kilos in my one backpack for four nights and five days, because I am a cheapskate and that is all WOW Air allows before they start charging extra. I didn’t wash my hair aside from the first night, right after the Blue Lagoon, because my hairbrush didn’t make the wight limit. I didn’t pack a second book and had to borrow because an extra wouldn’t make the weight limit. I had to wear the same set of tights-leggings-long-underwear for three days in a row because a second set would not make the weight limit. But I did it. I succeeded. I feel like I can do anything now, travel anywhere with nothing. I am a woman of the world!
The colors were… I can’t. I can think of not a single word that will adequately describe all the colors. The land isn’t just green, or brown, or white, or yellow, or blue, it’s all of them. It’s everything. Somehow, moss and pines and birches and dead grass and brown shrubs and black volcanic rock and snow and blue sky and teal ice all mix together seamlessly everywhere. The world is full of color! I couldn’t handle it!
Instead of talking about history and buildings like on most tours (they did that too, just not as much), the tour guides on our day trips discussed the history of the land, the way the rocks formed, the way the curves and mountains and rivers were shaped. They talked about the last volcanic eruptions and the next volcanic eruptions and the last Ice Age. It was so refreshing.
We didn’t see the Northern Lights. The other girls wanted to (Tessa from UW, Abbi from Rome, Erin from Abbi’s core class), but it clouded over every night we were there. Fingers crossed that I’ll see them in Norway in a couple of weeks!
Everything is ridiculously expensive. More expensive than Copenhagen. More expensive than Stockholm. More expensive, more expensive, more expensive. On our first night there, we went to a 24-hour grocery store down the street to buy some basic breakfast and lunch supplies: yogurt, apples, muesli, a loaf of bread, milk, ham, cheese, spread. It was only enough to get us through the next day, when we could go to a bigger, slightly cheaper grocery store. The bill was about sixty dollars.
Our lodging, on the other hand, was cheap and perfect: an adorable studio apartment with a queen bed, huge futon, giant TV, fully-stocked kitchen, and bathtub. I took a bath on our last night there. It was wonderful. And it smelled of sulfur.
There are only about 330,000 people living in all of Iceland. And they all speak Icelandic, Danish, and English. If they go to grammar school (kind of a high school/ early college hybrid for 16-20 year olds), a fourth language is learned. Why? So they can talk to people who don’t speak Icelandic, of course. Crazy Sauce.
Of those 330,000 people, over 200,000 live in Reykjavik, the capital. It is also the only real city in the whole country. The rest is made up of villages and towns. On our bus tours, we would often hear the guide say, “And this is the small town of….” We would look out the window and almost miss it: eleven houses, all with colorful roofs, under the watchful eye of a magnificent waterfall and surrounded by sheep.
The sheep are everywhere. And they are adorable. Not the gigantic, long, Puyallup Fair sheep I am used to, but tiny little fluff balls who sprinkle the green countryside. It reminded me of the wool cards in Settlers of Catan. We had to stop once to let a bunch of them cross the road.
Icelandic wool is a big thing. Nearly every store had its fair supply of Christmas sweaters, hand-made in Iceland. I wanted them all, until I felt how scratchy they were and saw the price tag (usually around $250, sometimes more.)
The nature. The nature. The nature. Waterfalls, glaciers, rolling lava fields, bubbling hot pools of water, soaring geysers, black-lava-sanded beaches with ice dotting the shoreline. I’m so tired of using the same words, but I can’t think of any more. Gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, breath-taking, eye-opening, magical, wonderful…. They all sound ridiculous compared to what I actually saw. None of them are enough. But I think the closest one is “magical.”
At the base of one waterfall in particular, Seljalandsfoss, the water came over the edge of a cliff and plummeted, free-fall, into a wide pool below. It was such that we could walk all the way around and behind it, out the other side. Because of this, as the water came down and hit the surface, instead of just continuing on in a river, rushing past, it came slamming down like a needle of pure power, sending sprays and winds in all directions, 360 degrees from its center. It looked exactly like Elsa’s powers when she stomps down in her ice castle and the wind and ice fractals emanate from the center of the building.
I’m not sure about the rest of the movie, but I know for sure a lot of it has to be inspired by Iceland! For one, Kristoff’s family is definitely made up of Icelandic trolls, which are apparently a thing. I would know. I saw an Icelandic troll penis with my own eyes. (We’ll get to that later). Also, Kristoff calls the wise old man grandpabbi, and pabbi means “dad” in Icelandic! I know this from watching an Icelandic movie with English subtitles on the plane to Iceland and from watching American dramas with Icelandic subtitles in our apartment.
So yes. While in Reykjavik, I went to the world’s one-and-only phallological museum. To save you the google: it was a penis museum. Tessa made me. And the other girls helped with the peer pressure, though they didn’t attend themselves. It was one of the most uncomfortable hours of my life. I was expecting… well, I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly didn’t brace myself for viewing actualpenises. Not human, of course. Because that would be weird (sarcasm). The small set of rooms was filled, and I mean FILLED with tubes and containers, some the size of a test tube, some reaching nearly floor to ceiling, depending on the species of course. And each container was filled with fluids and held a dead and removed crowned jewel, though not the type I got to see in Rosenborg. Uck. It was so gross. There were other things too (literally). Bones, photographs, stuffed animals with extra appendages. There was also a letter from the man with the to-date recorded, world’s longest penis. He explained his history in the locker rooms of high school and promised the museum the right to his manhood upon his death. It was accompanied by a nude photograph. I cannot un-see it. There was also a folklore room, which contained the pride and glory of countless mythical creatures: Icelandic troll (pretty sure it was a rock), elf (empty jar filled with water, apparently they’re invisible), merman (moss covered rock), wood nymph (literally a stick). This place was weird, man. So weird.
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Okay. Sorry. I just can’t really think of anything else to say about Iceland now that I’m reliving that unforgettable museum trip. I’ll come up with more anecdotes for the picture post. Sorry you had to read that. I hope you are accompanied by no small children.
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But despite the pain, the fatigue, the expense, the lack of hair-washing, and the uncomfortableness, I had an unforgettable and remarkable week. I loved my travel buddies, I loved the sights, the sounds, everything. Doing Rome right before Iceland was the coolest thing ever, because they were just so different, beautiful and wonderful in completely unique ways. And I have a new nickname! “Baby puffin.” Apparently that is my spirit animal. (:
I come to you with sad news. I have no time to blog! It sucks. I want to. I have so many adventures and plans that I want to share with the world, but so little time to share it all. I’ll do a sum-up of my busy life:
Wednesday, I had another trip to my favorite museum, the Danish National Gallery, for a study tour with European Art. Man, I love that place.
That night, I got around four hours of sleep writing an essay and studying for a final exam in Classical and Renaissance Rome (I think I did okay)
Thursday, Rome exam and a really early meeting with The Iceland Gang to finalize the plan. We are set! And broke!
That night, I got another healthy four hours of sleep studying for two midterms that I had today (Friday)
Friday morning: walking tour with Royalty in the Land of Equality. It was cold. I could feel the heat seeping out of my legs like the air around me was starving for warmth. I NEED HEAT, TOO, BUDDY. My toes were also numb by the end of it. I’ll have to triple-sock it during my glacier adventures in Iceland, I suppose, as I was already wearing two pairs today.
Then Danish midterm. I forgot two history questions, but I think the rest went well? I was also late. *sigh
Then Art midterm. I feel good about that one. We’ll see.
I ran to the train, read some more of The Martian along the way, and took a 2.5 hour nap upon arriving home.
I cleaned, I packed, I ate, I finished another essay.
I’m waking up in seven hours to leave for Rome on a plane at 8am. I’ll be heading for Iceland on Wednesday after a quick layover in Copenhagen. I’ll get back to Copenhagen Sunday night and may possibly go into hibernation. Hopefully, my teachers won’t mind.
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So basically, that was my week. Don’t count on any blogs until mid-week of my return from travel, because my activity schedule is so jam-packed until then that I’ll barely have time to breathe. (I definitely will not be sleeping.) A surprise post may appear while in Iceland, depending on the wifi quality in the airbnb…
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Pictures!
Oh! I also went swing dancing on Tuesday night with Maia! It was fun, way too crowded, and awkward because of all the cafe-goers who were watching us in bewilderment. But still a great time. We’ll probably go back! Yay!
Some shadow art in the Eckersberg exhibit at the National Gallery (:
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Okay, I thought I had more pictures, but apparently I didn’t. I could post a really unflattering selfie I sent to a few people after that first four-hour-sleep night, but I’ll spare you.
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OKAY, BYE. I’M OFF TO SEE THE WORLD AND STUFF.
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Venlig hilsen/ I migliori auguri/ Með kveðju/ best regards,
It was rough getting up today, let me tell you. We have reached that time of year where I am forced to get up before the sun on a daily basis. It is horrible. And to make it worse, I was the only one up this morning because the girls are on their fall break! Which also means a lot of the trains are taking a break this week. Yay! (By which I mean Boo!)
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But that’s okay (for now) because I had a pretty fantastic weekend.
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On Friday, I slept in a bit because of a canceled class and had a field trip to the Glyptotek for European Art. It was my second time there. A few days ago, whilst discussing my many museum and artistic adventures, I actually had somebody say to me, “So you must be really cultured, huh?” Did I deny this? Of course not. I just finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, after all.
Here’s one of my favorite sculptures that we saw. It’s Medusa about to have her head chopped off by Perseus, who would then use her head as a weapon (as it still had the ability to turn people to stone afterwards.) Intense, right? Most of the other sculptures and paintings of the subject show Perseus with Medusa’s head after it has been hacked off. I think I like this one better. Less gore, more emotion.
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That night, my Danish class put together a little party before Kulturnatten, Copenhagen’s big once-a-year Culture Night that spreads throughout the city and clogs the public transportation systems well into the evening. I met up with some girls from my core class, and we explored the Botanical Gardens, saw the nighttime city skyline from atop the Round Tower, and had a mini baking class back at Meyer’s Madhus, where I had the sausage-cooking class on Wednesday.
Look at our adorable cinnamon rolls! I’m not sure why our hands look so weird, but believe me, they were delicious. (The rolls, not the hands.)
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Oh. We also decided it would be a great idea to check out H.C. Anderson’s graveyard while we were in the neighborhood. Needless to say, it was terrifying, and we participated in a lot of unnecessary shrieking and jumping.
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On Saturday, I met up with Tessa, Abbi, and Erin, who will from now on be referred to as The Iceland Gang. Because we are going to Iceland. In… eleven days. Holy cats. We decided to go to Tivoli, because that seemed like the most reasonable and productive place to plan a multi-day trip abroad that will end up costing us hundreds of dollars. (After some calculations: the absolute minimum cost per person after flights and lodging, if we eat nothing but bread and cheese and send zero postcards, will be $800.)
Isn’t it pretty? That stupid bus wouldn’t leave, though.
There was a little musical I wanted to go to inside Tivoli, but none of the girls were interested, so I just used the extra money to buy a season’s pass. I am spontaneous.
The place was all decked out for Halloween, and it really made me want to watch Hocus Pocus. The big swing ride even had brooms attached to the underside, so it looked like everybody was a wizard. Actually genius. Also pictured is a contestant in the giant pumpkin contest, which made me extremely homesick for the Puyallup Fair. *sigh.
Also, is this not positively adorable? Who came up with this? I demand that they decorate my room.
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We also got a little performance from the Youth Guard. ‘Twas adorable.
At one point, the air got really murky and I asked, “Where’s this smoke coming from?” One of the girls replied, “From that cauldron.” Tessa: “Casually.”
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On Sunday, Sara and I went for a little hike/ walk on some trails on the other side of the neighborhood. It was so pretty, and I wish I had known about them earlier!
I dawned my choice hiking attire for the occasion, of course.
And Sara made sure to get some directing in.
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I finished up the weekend with some swing dancing. It’s been too long, and I’ll miss the next two weeks, at least. Apparently there is even a big swing weekend I’ll miss while I’m in Iceland. Sad life… On the bright side, I’m trying out a new venue tomorrow with Maia! I’ll let you know how it goes.
