This will probably be one of my last posts while in Paris. Shocking, I know, but such is the way of the world. I'll be leaving for home in less than a month, but I'll get into all my thoughts on leaving Europe/returning home in a separate post. Right now I want to talk about my spring break trip, where I went to Denmark, London, Aberdeen and Edinburgh with one of my best friends from high school! It was amazing, to say the least, even though we did manage to pick one of the coldest regions of the world during this time of the year. Most of my friends went south, to Italy and Spain and Morocco, but what do I do? Head towards the Arctic Circle. I blame it on my Scandinavian blood, calling me home. But more on that later. I guess I'll just be boring and recount my trip chronologically. Buckle your seat belts, everyone.
Copenhagen, Denmark
We begin our story in Copenhagen, where we spent the most time. This was a great choice, as it may be one of my favorite cities of all time. From the minute we arrived, we realized that it was quite the utopia. Everything was clean, people were smiling and friendly, and everything was just so darn cute. The bicycles (which appear to be the primary mode of transportation), the dogs (the majority of which were Boston terriers...?), but most of all the children (yes, I realize how creepy that sounds). Plus, there's a lot of public trust, which you don't find in many places these days. Parents have no problem leaving their child outside of a store while they do their shopping, and I really saw no law enforcement officials anywhere. All of these utopic qualities also have a magical effect: they make you want to do good for the community and be an honorable, upstanding citizen. Several times throughout our stay my friend and I voluntarily picked up trash on the street and put it in the proper recycling/trash containers. I would never do that in Paris. Being in Paris probably makes me more likely to litter, in fact. Perhaps the U.S. should look into the Danish system.
I pretty much ate pastries for every meal. I am still coming down from that sugar high. As you may have already known, "danishes" are not called "danishes" in Denmark. They are called something else. Which I have forgotten. Because the word made no phonetic sense to me in the first place. Apologies to the Danish language.
One of the many canals, near our hostel.
Cuteness and tranquility.
One of our favorite areas of the city, called Nyhavn. Fun story. Several hours after this picture was taken we were walking past the waterfront again, and saw a bunch of people gathered around the canal. Turns out some guy had fallen/jumped into the canal, and people were trying to rescue him. For whatever reason no police/fire/rescue teams were present, so the citizens were just doing it themselves. My theory is that their Viking roots make it so they just buck up and handle problems themselves. Some brave Dane stripped down to his underwear, jumped into the freezing water, grabbed onto the guy (who was conscious throughout the whole thing), dragged him to the ladder, and six other guys helped haul him out. The guy that jumped in then got out, put his clothes on, lit a cigarette and then drank a beer that someone handed him. A true hero.
By the mermaid statue. If you haven't already, read the non-Disney version. It's actually a pretty sad story.
The Danish Royal Guard/possibly the entire Danish Army.
Me with Hans Christian Andersen, near Tivoli Park.
One of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. Back to my Scandinavian blood. You see that hill to the left of the church? My friend and I sat there and fell asleep for about half an hour in the sunlight. I get back to the hostel that night, and what do I find? A fairly deep sunburn. I was wearing SPF 20. I feel like it takes a true Scandinavian to burn under such conditions. I'm oddly proud of it.
The last/oldest windmill in Copenhagen. Another story of catastrophe. As we were walking over to this area, we passed by a free museum on Danish history that we were planning to check out. Upon approaching it, however, we saw that the whole block was roped off. Turns it it had just caught fire a couple hours earlier. (Later reports said it was arson). We got to watch the fire crew try to put it out through the roof, but it was pretty nasty. They had to remove the entire roof to do it. It's probably a good thing we left Denmark when we did. I felt a bit responsible for all this mayhem.
London, United Kingdom
Unfortunately, for whatever reason we only schedule about 30 hours in London. Fortunately, however, we got an early start on the one full day we had there, because we forgot to set our watches back. Oops. In that one day, however, I managed to try all of the English classics (fish and chips, bangers and mash, etc.) and we walked at least 10 miles throughout the city. We didn't once take the tube, thank you very much. Oh, and English cuisine, by the way, is far superior to French cuisine. I actually don't see why people think it's so bad.
Me posing obnoxiously in front of Buckingham palace. The Queen was not at home, sadly.
Sharing the love with a telephone booth. Note the super cute panda tote bag, which I purchased at the wonderful Primark, the British version of Forever 21.
Basically all of the London tourist attractions in one shot.
Enjoying a pasty at Trafalgar Square. You can get the best ones at train stations, by the way.
Ah, an English cream tea. The highlight of this is, of course, the clotted cream, which you put on scones with jam. It is good enough to eat separately, though. I need to find a way to get this black market in the U.S. I don't think it is sold normally, because it's not pasteurized. Please correct me if I'm wrong, though!!
Aberdeen, United Kingdom
I never would have thought to come to this little gem of a place on my own, but thankfully another best friend from high school was studying here, so I got to visit. It's a really charming town in the north of Scotland that makes me think of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It's small compared to the other places we had been, so it was nice to take a break and relax.
Walking into town from the Aberdeen University campus.
The words on these signs apparently mean real things to Scottish people. I feel bad saying it but I had a very hard time understanding their accent. Maybe it's because I don't come into contact with a lot of Scottish people, but honestly most times I thought they were speaking a foreign language, so I just tuned it out. I wasn't the only one that had that problem though, which is a bit of a relief.
In Stonehaven, on our way to Dunnottar Castle. I am attempting to look epic while also trying to not fall backwards, bounce down a sheer cliff, and meet my death on the pointy rocks at the bottom.
The treacherous road ahead of us.
The beach, with just a bit of the castle visible.
The castle, which dates back to the Early Middle Ages. It was also here that they hid the Scottish crown jewels during Cromwell's invasion.
Me, looking excited yet skeptical of the deep fried Mars bar, which was apparently invented in Stonehaven and is a culinary specialty of Scotland. It's quite delicious.
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
The last stop on the trip. We were quite tired at this point and the weather was quite rainy so we spent an inappropriate amount of time watching Parks and Recreation in the hostel, but we also really enjoyed ourselves. Maybe it was the fresh sea air, or the medieval architecture, eating at J.K. Rowling's cafe, or the sound of the bagpipes, but being in Edinburgh was quite energizing. I constantly felt the need to storm a castle or something.
At a pub on the Royal Mile, after taking my first bite of haggis. I had no idea what haggis was at the time, but according to Wikipedia it is: a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed withstock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach. It just tasted like ground hamburger meat to me.
A view of the Old Town from Calton Hill.
On our way to Arthur's Seat. We never actually made it there because rain was coming and we were inappropriately attired, but the walk was fun and very scenic.
Very epic.
Me with Greyfriars Bobby, a little dog that is quite the town legend. Apparently after his owner died he sat by his grave for 14 years until he himself died in 1872. He was fed at a local restaurant, and cared for by the people of the neighborhood. The Edinburgh Museum claims that this story is widely popular in the U.S. as well due to a Diseny film, but I have hard of no such thing.
A view of the city from the Edinburgh Castle, which rests upon a formation of volcanic rock. There has been a royal castle on this site since the 12th century.
Another great view, which we actually had sun!
Well, my spring break is over on Monday. I've spent the week since coming back mainly recovering and writing two papers for one of my classes. Then on Monday it's back to my super grueling schedule of 5 hours of class per week, and then trying to pack in all the stuff I still want to do in Paris! It's going to be a very strange and intense next three weeks.
