My Week in Denmark

Sunday July 18th, 2010: 15 minute flight from Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL. No gate. Stuck in small plane for awhile. Finally let out on ground. Had to take train to international gate for our next flight. Last call for flight to Denmark. Race through security and take trolley seat to our gate to tell them to hold the plane for my mom and step dad. Barely made the flight. Try to sleep for the next 9 hours uncomfortably.

Monday July 19th, 2010: Land in Copenhagen, Denmark in the afternoon. My Uncle Joe and Winnie have the cutest little apartment/condo. We head out to this beach and boardwalk/promenade. I can't stop taking pictures and listening to people speak Danish. They play mini golf. I watch and try not to fall asleep. We go back to their place early evening and I fall asleep and sleep through dinner until the next day. Damn jet lag.

Tuesday July 20, 2010: My Uncle Joe's place is better than a bed and breakfast. It's so flowery, white, light and airy. They make us a Danish breakfast with meats and cheeses (and of course Danish). We go to see The Little Mermaid. It's a famous statue at a harbor. it's a well-known tourist attraction. However, a screen with a live feed of her in China is in the statues place. China is borrowing her for a world expo. She'll be back in a couple months. We meet up with Tina and Jane. Tina and I take a walk to a very large fountain of a goddess. We walk along the docks and shop and get ice cream. We take an alomst 2 hour boat tour in the different harbors and see a lot of different unique buildings and attractions from the water. I get sun burned very badly. We eat at a cute outdoor cafe in Nyhavn (a popular harbor with the most colorful buildings!). On the way back to the cars, we take a detour to visit the Queen's Palace and stand in the gigantic court yard.

Wednesday July 21, 2010: We joke about how Uncle Joe and Winnie are running the best bed and breakfast. Every morning they have a gorgeous and delicious breakfast made for us. Went shopping in Europe in the largest mall in Denmark. H&M is my new favorite store. Went to Tivoli (a beautiful and one-of-a-kind amusement park, full of rides, cafes, gardens and lights!). Rhode on a ride called the Flying Trunk which takes you through the fairytales of Hans Christian Anderson. He was a Dane. That was my favorite ride. I also rhode my 1st rollercoaster with Jane and my aunt Lilly. They made me laugh the whole time on it. We ate at the Copenhagen Hard Rock Cafe. I needed a cheeseburger and margaritas. :) I wish they had some kind of air conditioning though...

Thursday July 22, 2010: Visited Kronborg's Castle aka Hamlet's castle. It was the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet. I feel like crying. It's so big and gorgeous and I feel not only like I'm in history but that I have stepped into literature. I can only think of Hamlet and of Shakepeare and of exploring the halls of this castle as they did. I take so many pictures outside of the courtyard and children playing in the fountain and of the portraits and canvases inside the bedrooms and great halls. Afterwards, we eat at a little Italian resteraunt on an old style Danish walking street (made from bricks and no vehicles allowed). There's cute shops and colorful buildings again everywhere. We listened to street music as we ate and I'm now able to recognize some Danish words and speak a lille Danske. ;) My mom tells me she's so happy right now she could scream. I feel the same way and I just can't stop smiling and inhaling every ounce of air and happiness around me...

Friday July 23, 2010: Went shopping with mom and Jane in the morning. Got a cute jacket and scarf and the Copenhagen purse I wanted. Met with the others to go to a garden party at my Uncle Joe's friends house. Met Lars, Anne, and Signe. Their house is a dream! We go through a door from the brick street to a little garden and then through another door to get to their "apartments" and back yard. They have the cutest golden retriever named Joey. Their house is so yellow and charming and their flowers are...I feel like I'm in heaven. We explore downtown a little bit on the walking streets and see where Hans Christian Anderson used to live as a teen. Back at Lars' house, we pass a little vegetable patch to get to his neighbors yard where they have a little indoor porch with party lights streamed across and a huge dinner table set up. We eat lots of Danish food and laugh a lot. We listen to my step dad try to speak Danish and to Anne try to speak some English words. We listen to Signe's travels and how Signe has written a book and how both her and her mom, Anne, love NYC. Anne tells stories about how proud she was when a random black woman in NYC said hello to her while walking down the street and how a drive-thru bank is like science fiction. We stay past midnight listening and telling stories, eating desserts, and drinking wine and beer and laughing way too hard.

Saturday July 24, 2010: Shopping and lunch in Molmo, Sweden. More adorable brick walking streets, sweet accordion music, and listening to a mixture of Danish and Swedish languages. There's so many tourists in Sweden and Denmark from all over: China, Japan, India...so many countries. Eat at a steakhouse cafe outdoors. I love alcoholic cider. I've tried Blueberry, Apple, Pear and Elderflower. More street music. Later for dinner, we have traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches (Smorrebrod). I'm not a fan of fish or seafood but I tried it. I'm so excited to try everything here. My cousins Jane and Tina take me clubbing later that night. My last night in Copenhagen. It's so pretty at night! We take the metro train to different parts. The fountains light up at night. There's so many people out, all dressed up, a lot of them drunk. There's some charming Danish boys that tell us to have a good night. There's drunk European guys that try to dance with us. We check out an Irish pub on Nyhavn with live music. We sit outside on a balcony in a cozy club. We get into a club that has a dress code far better than what we were wearing but they let us in anyway. Our last club is one where we pay to get in but the music is loud and just right and there's so many people dancing. The drinks are expensive but the cocktails are gorgeous and delicious. The music is Danish and American dance music. There's fog, lights and sweat. I'm getting a buzz just from the sound and the feel of everything. There's so many people on the brick walking streets. All the closed shops and all the open clubs full of music. People riding bicycles still. We take a bicycle taxi driven by a cute Bulgarian guy. We zip by people and streets and I just keep thinking how I want this night to last and trying to take as many mental pictures as I can. The air, the sweat, the drinks, the lights, the music, the languages, the dancing. After taking the metro again, Jane and I walk back to my Uncle Joe's as the sun starts to lighten the sky.

Sunday July 25th, 2010: Goodbyes are hard. Long flights and stressful airports. Customs, security, luggage claims. Over-booked flight. I'm not staying in Toronto, Canada overnight. Home at last. Need food and sleep. I miss my family in Denmark. I miss Copenhagen.


Love Always and Forever <3 ,

Shy Lee Zephyr