copenhagen (7/11/11)

Thank You, Jesus, for safe travels. I'm now writing from the living room of the house of Ad and Ann, Saskia's aunt and uncle. Their first floor layout actually reminds me of my house last year in Buenos Aires, haha. We're in Delft, Holland, and we'll be here until Friday morning, when we go to Brussels and then London! But yes, this week is for Dutch exploration. Jesus, thank You also for hospitality in the form of Ad and Ann--it's really nice to have a home base again after a week of traveling and before my last ten days here. :)
So before I forget, Copenhagen update time. After we pulled into the station, I wandered around a bit in search of my hostel. Thankfully, it wasn't too far away, since my backpack is heavy! I found Saskia in the lobby, dropped off my things, and off we went on an early evening stroll. We were located right next to Tivoli, one of the oldest amusement parks in Denmark (and in Europe?). It looked fun but expensive, so we didn't end up visiting, although we passed by it quite a few times. We walked down Stroget, the longest pedestrian street in Europe, but most of the stores were closed by then (but not the candy store! where we made a stop). There were tons of crepe stands along the street, too. For dinner, I got a Danish hot dog (they translate it as "sausage wagon", haha), after which we walked around some more.

The next day, we got up and set out to explore Copenhagen on foot. We walked down Stroget to Nyhaven again, which is a really pretty port area, and then we kept walking down to the Queen's Palace to watch the changing of the guards at noon. It was less than impressive, but still fun to watch. There was so much construction going on in the palace square but also around the city in general. It made for some poor picture-taking, sadly. We continued on to see the statue of the Little Mermaid, which was even less impressive, and we also walked to see the old fortress, which didn't seem very fortress-like but was still pretty. On our way back to the city center, we stopped by a fancy bakery, where I tried my first flodeboller, this chocolate-covered marshmallow cream dessert. :) We also passed by some market tables, one of which had funny elf hats.
So there's something going on in Copenhagen called the Elephant Parade involving many "art elephant" statues all around the city, and it's to raise awareness and money for Asian elephants, which are endangered. Since Saskia's mom really likes elephants, we stopped by one of their stores, which had small replicas of all the statues around the city--cute! After a short rest-break at the hostel, we crossed the river to get to Christiania, the "free-town" of Copenhagen. It's known for its open sale of drugs and hippie atmosphere--kind of like the Amsterdam of Denmark. That's a pretty fitting description; overall, I personally felt pretty uncomfortable as we were walking around it, and I was glad Saskia was with me. Afterwards, we headed back to the center in search of dinner. After much searching for a decently-priced restaurant that was open, we settled on a bookstore cafe, where I got a big, pricey, but delicious sandwich. After dinner, we walked back to the hostel and chilled for a while. I met two of our roommates, these two guys from Taiwan (one was Taiwanese but the other was from England). One of them had just come from Norway where he'd been hiking in the fjords--he had some amazing pictures! I'd love to visit there someday. :) Downstairs, we caught the tail end of one of the women's World Cup games, Germany versus Japan. It was intense! Japan scored a beautiful goal in second overtime and won the game.

For breakfast yesterday morning, we made Ramen with the packets Ann had given to Saskia for the weekend. After checking out, we went to the Town Hall for the free walking tour offered by New Europe. Jonny, our tour guide, was very funny and energetic. He also does tours in Berlin, but he's originally from England. He took us around to Nyhavn, the Queen's Palace, and a couple of old churches. After the tour finished, we visited the King's Gardens and Rosenberg Castle as well as the Botanical Gardens, which had some cool greenhouses (they reminded me of the Butterfly Gardens at HMNS, hehe). We grabbed ice cream and also stopped by the Glyptothek, a nearby art museum, before picking up our things from the hostel and heading to the airport. We decided to be super awesomely cheap and use Starbucks' hot water to make Ramen and tomato soup...and we spent our remaining DKs on a fancy and apparently common Danish dessert, some sort of strawberry cream tart. Then we were off to the Netherlands. :) We landed a little over an hour later and took the train to Delft. Ann picked us up from the station and brought us back to the house. Okay, dinner time! First meal with the family--I just met Ad and Aiden a bit ago.

Dinner was fun and yummy :) we had spaghetti and fun conversation. I love their family! Now I'm watching HP1--everything is so primitive and everyone is so young! Ahh, I can't wait to see HP7 tomorrow night. Earlier, we also watched the King's Speech, which is really good. I can see why it won an Oscar. Another aunt and uncle of Saskia's came to visit, and we had tea and cake with them before coming back to the TV.
Today was a good day, too. I slept in, ate a late breakfast/lunch, and then headed out to explore Delft for a bit on my own. It's a pretty town; a bit quiet, but it's nice. I went to see the Town Hall, the Old and New Churches, and Pathe, the movie theater. I also looked at the library next door, which had a cool design and set-up. Afterwards, Saskia found me, and we came back. It's been a fun few days so far with her :)
Overall, Copenhagen wasn't my favorite city so far, I have to admit. It's pretty and has some nice architecture, but it's also pretty expensive and doesn't have much to offer in the way of food, haha. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the city.