There's something AWESOME in the state of Denmark!

Two somethings, in fact!

A couple weeks ago, I flew to Copenhagen to visit Emily and Rachel at DIS! I woke up at an UNFORTUNATE time on Friday morning, and here’s why. My plane to Copenhagen left Keflavík at 7:45 AM, and the only bus I could take from Reykjavík to get there in time left at 5:40 AM, and I had to wake up even earlier because I had to walk from my dorm to the bus station. It was cold and dark, but not nearly as miserable as I expected it to be, and I got to the station in plenty of time.

[INTERLUDE from day before: I went down to the bus stop by the dorm to check if there were any city buses running that early so I wouldn’t have to walk the next morning. (Answer: no.) While I was perusing the timetables, a guy started talking to me in Icelandic, and I was all, “Whaa?” and he was like, “Oh, are you from the States?” As it turned out, he was, too, and we started talking, and, as it turned out, he’s a Mormon missionary. We had a brief, pleasant, though in some places laughably predictable conversation while he waited for his bus.

Mormon: So what are you studying?

Me: Well, at home I study English literature, but here I’m taking classes on Icelandic culture and folklore, so I’m really enjoying that right now…

Mormon: So, have you read The Bible? Because you seem really interested in old books and things.

Did you catch that nice transition there? These guys don't mess around.]

I got into Copenhagen no problem and no one tried to stop me from bringing 22 packets of ranch dressing into the country, so that was a success. (Explanation: I asked Emily if there was anything I could bring her host family to thank them for letting me crash at their house for four days. She said her host mom loves ranch, but they can’t get it in Denmark. Bónus does, in fact, carry ranch dressing, but…only in little individual packets, not bottles. So I just grabbed a pile and hoped the lady at the cash register wouldn’t judge me too much.) I hung around for a couple hours at Starbucks. Drank some tea. Ate a sandwich. Finished Independent People. (Finally!) And thennn, JOYOUS REUNION! Emily and Rachel came to pick me up!

That night we made dinner at Emily’s host family’s house. Sort of. Her host dad was seriously judging our cooking methods, and ended up doing most of the work himself. It was an excellent dinner, and afterwards we went into the city and wandered around, then saw host dad’s friend’s band play at a bar. It was a nice, relaxing first night, which was good because I was still getting over a cold. (Blerg!)

Saturday we went to the deer park in Klampenborg, which was beautiful!

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Psh, deer. They’re all over the place.” But no, no—these were exciting, European deer with great big giant antlers AND we saw a couple of them FIGHT. A little bit. They weren’t that into it.

The park itself is 11 square kilometers and absolutely gorgeous, so it would have been worth it for the walk, even if we hadn’t seen cool deer.

We also had a pleasant surprise—there was some kind of family kite-flying festival going on in the park, so in one area there were all these people with their kids flying kites. It was just a lovely thing to stumble upon, and made me really happy!

We spent about four hours walking around the park, and then we went back to Copenhagen and ate a scrumptious dinner at Mamma Rosa (where they charge 20 kroner—about $4—for a glass of water! Ridiculous, Denmark.)

The tasty, tasty ice cream sundae we split

After dinner we met up with a few of their non-Wooster DIS friends (excellent folk, the lot of them!) at Tivoli, which is the second-oldest amusement park in the world!

It was all decked out for Halloween. (Pumpkins! Everywhere!) We saw part of a bizarre, breakdance-ballet show—I still don’t have a clue what the plot was, but it sure looked cool.

The chicken-clown-vampire-man appears to have been the villain of the piece. That's all I know. They sort of lost me when the teddy bear showed up.

Then we wandered around the Halloween market and tried on some goofy hats, then went on the giant swing ride! It goes up pretty high and you can see over the whole city. It looked beautiful at night.

There was also a gazebo where you could try the Playstation Move for free, so we had some fun with that. Emily and I put our collective dignity on the line by dancing to “Poker Face,” followed by—and let me just note that this was Emily’s choice—“U Can’t Touch This.” Seriously? It was actually a ton of fun, and much better than DDR.

Emily and Mason dancing to "Bulletproof"

Rachel MAY have injured her shoulder due to swatting at virtual flies a little too vigorously.

Mason, Rachel, Emily, and I hung out chatting late into the night, and had a strange, ambiguous conversation with a Dane while waiting for our train at 3:00 in the morning.

Dane: Have you ever been involved in a crime here in Copenhagen?

Us: …No…

Dane: Would you like to try?

Us: …No…

We couldn’t figure out whether he was offering us drugs, offering to mug us, or inviting us to participate in mugging someone else. He left right after that, though, so I’m afraid his intentions shall always remain a mystery.

Well, SPEAKING of drugs, on Sunday we went to Christiania.

Some rules: No hard drugs. No weapons. No violence.

Christiania is an autonomous collective in the middle of Copenhagen, where scruffy hippie folk openly sell marijuana in various forms on the aptly-named Pusher Street. They also sell a lot of beautiful jewelry and knitted things.

It’s a charming little town-within-a-town—lots of colorful murals, lots of colorful people. Pretty much what you would expect. We wandered around, played on some rope swings, and ate a delicious, long-awaited dinner at a little restaurant, where a live band was playing folksy music. After dinner we got hot chocolate at a place Rachel insisted has the Best Hot Chocolate in the World (True!), and then we went home.

Monday was quieter, because Emily and Rachel had class, but Emily and I did go up the Round Tower.

The Round Tower, built as an astronomical observatory!

Made it to the top!

Copenhagen!

I display BLATANT disregard for warning signs.

After classes were over, we met up with Jordy and Lauren (more Wooster people!) and got coffee at a BEAUTIFUL coffee shop called Paludan. I wish I’d taken a picture of the inside—it’s a fantastic old wooden building, and not only does it have reasonably-priced coffee (for Denmark), it’s also full of books. Books!

I'm a big fan of this wolf-gargoyle.

That night Emily’s host family made a traditional Danish rice pudding dish for dinner (yum!) and Emily studied for her biology test while I started reading 101 Reykjavik (yikes).

Of course we ate pastries at SOME point.

I’m very proud of myself for successfully navigating the Copenhagen public transportation system all by myself on Tuesday! I got coffee with Rachel at The Living Room, and then it was time to go! I missed both of them a lot and was sad to say goodbye so soon, but we’ll be seeing each other and all the rest of the Wooster crew again in LESS THAN THREE MONTHS! I’m registering for Spring semester classes tonight, so sometime in the wee hours of the morning I will find out just HOW excited I will be for next semester.