Sweden!

I've spent the last couple of days in Sweden! Every core class takes a short trip this week to different places in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany, and mine went to Kullen and Malmø. 

Monday:

We first went to Helsingør, which is a bit north of Copenhagen. It was freezing cold and raining, but we were able to tour Kronborg, the castle that Shakespeare's Hamlet takes place in. Despite the rain, it was gorgeous! 

We walked around Helsingør in the rain for a bit and went inside a church and Sancta Maria Abbey. 

Courtyard at the convent

After Helsingør, we took a 15 minute ferry ride to Helsingborg, Sweden. We drove around the countryside over to Kullen to hike to Ladonia. Ladonia is a micronation created by Lars Vilks. In the 1980s, he started piecing driftwood together to create a giant fort on the beach. Sweden said that the architecture wasn't allowed on a nature reserve, so Vilks fought with them in court until he was allowed to declare it a micronation in 1996. You can become a citizen of Ladonia for free online or pay $30 to get a title of nobility! (Already submitted my application to become a citizen!)

My class was really excited about it, until we saw the hike. These pictures won't do it justice, but we had to climb over a mile down an extremely steep rocky mountainside that was covered in ice, snow, and slush! It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever done! I must have fallen over half a dozen times, but miraculously, no one got seriously injured.

When we FINALLY reached Ladonia, the hike through it was almost as bad as coming down the mountain! There were a few forts, and you had to go through makeshift tunnels to get to them. Wood was nailed together randomly with lots of nails sticking out, and it's amazing that it's held up for so long! The forts were like any kid's dream, and the view on the beach was positively beautiful! 

We made the trek back up the mountain and back to humanity. We were treated to coffee, tea, and cakes at a little restaurant in Kullen, and they were delicious! The pictures don't do them justice!

After teatime (fika in Swedish), we made our way to our hostel, which seems to be an old mansion estate. The owners cooked a typical Scandinavian dish of fish and potatoes, which was great as usual! We watched a Scandinavian movie after dinner with some ice cream, and I got to try pear ice cream for the first time. It tasted like banana Laffy Taffy for some reason.

Tuesday:

We left the hostel and headed off to Malmø! An architecture professor at DIS gave us a tour of some parts of Malmø, and it looked a lot like the old parts of Copenhagen because it used to be part of Denmark a couple of hundred years ago.

We walked to the harbor where more modern buildings and homes were. The view was gorgeous but absolutely FREEZING with the wind! We got to see the bridge to Denmark that turns into a tunnel halfway across so boats can go through the water (we got to go across the bridge on Wednesday!) The houses were very modern and artsy, and our guide told us that the neighborhood we were in is actually used as a house catalog for the rest of Sweden.

This is the bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark

We took a break for lunch, and I went to Max Burgers with some of my friends. Max is a really popular hamburger place in Sweden, kind of like McDonald's. We all got the cheapest thing on the menu: the junior burger! It was really good though, and it wasn't as greasy as most fast food places in the U.S.

After lunch, we toured Sydsvenskan, one of the largest newspapers in Sweden. We were going to see a video about how the newspapers were printed, but it was all in Swedish so we just asked our guide some questions. The office was really neat and casual, and all of the reporters we spoke to were really nice!

We checked into our hostel (not quite as nice as the mansion from the night before) and headed off to a comedy workshop with a Swedish comedian. It didn't go quite as well as planned, so we didn't really learn anything, much to my professor's disappointment. Dinner afterwards was absolutely delicious! We had the most tender beef I've ever eaten with potatoes and French custard for dessert!

As a class, we went to a bar after dinner, and my professor treated us all to a beer (a very Danish thing to do). 

Wednesday:

Bright and early, we left to go to SVT, one of the most popular news networks in Sweden. They gave us the grand tour, and we had a discussion with our guides about multiculturalism in Sweden. One of the videographers came in after and showed us a video he and some others put together about how some of the most popular songs came into being and what made them so popular. The main clip he showed us was the one he did when he interviewed Jonathan Cain from Journey about the history of the piano music in Don't Stop Believin'!!! For those who know me well, Journey is my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE band, Don't Stop Believin' is one of my favourite songs, and the piano is my favourite instrument! Needless to say, my day was made after seeing that video!

We ate a delicious lunch of falafel wraps (very popular in Scandinavia) and toured more of Malmø while eating delicious baklava. It was freezing and snowing, but we got to tour a neat park, which was quite different from typical American parks. Instead of your usual playground equipment, there was a boat, petting zoo, little ice rink, some small roller coasters, and a giant night club built to look like the Taj Mahal. What we didn't see were people because they were smart and stayed indoors to keep warm!

On our last stop, we went to a synagogue and spoke to the rabbi about antisemitism in Malmø since there is a large and growing Arab population. The synagogue was beautiful, and we had a pretty interesting discussion. Then we finally left to head back to Copenhagen over the huge bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark!

Ice Skating and Vejleå Kirke

Hej! My week was pretty uneventful with classes and class socials, but I've had an enjoyable weekend! Last night I watched handball with some friends and saw Denmark beat Croatia! I'm still not entirely sure of the rules, but it's really fun to watch. 

Cecilie's birthday was last week, so Maibritt threw her a little party on Saturday. The Danes like to have their flag present when celebrating birthdays (as you can see on the table below). I was on the train last weekend when a group of girls paraded through doing a Conga line and holding Danish flags for one of the girls' birthdays. Pretty neat tradition!

After a delicious cake with fruit and whipped cream, we headed out to the ice rink. Apparently, Danes don't really have large feet because I got the biggest size they had (size 44), and they were a little snug. For those who know me well, I have absolutely horrible balance, ice skates and me isn't the best combination! I somehow managed not to fall the whole time, but I know I looked pretty ridiculous wobbling around the ice rink. It was a lot of fun though! Cecilie and her friend were doing really well and could probably have skated circles around me! 

After we finished skating, we came back and played Twister in Danish! That was a pretty fun experience. I kept mixing up my lefts and rights (venstre og højre), so I got more twisted than I should have. Each round would end with one of us getting so twisted that we would fall to the ground laughing. It was an awesome leg work out!

This morning I went to Vejleå Kirke in Ishøj, which I think was Lutheran. I got lost on my way there and ended up on the wrong side of the train tracks, I couldn't find my way to the other side, and when I finally did, I ended up in a mall somehow. I think it's safe to say that I have absolutely no sense of direction! I didn't get to take any pictures of the kirke, but it was beautiful in the simplistic Danish way. The walls were white with large, circular  chandeliers hanging to add a soft glow to the sunlit sanctuary. The floors and pews were made of a light, tan wood (and I actually had sufficient leg room, Mom!). The service was entirely in Danish, but it was still beautiful to see! There was a lot of singing, and I tried to follow along in the song book. I did recognize a couple of words! The only work I could understand in the sermon was fødselssdag, which means birthday. The priest said it a couple of times, so I'm assuming it had something to do with Christmas or Epiphany? By the way, the priests wear the old fashioned garb (see below), which is pretty awesome to see, especially since the priest today was a woman! I got communion during the service, which was pretty cool. 

I got communion during the service, which was pretty cool. Everyone went to the front kneelers, and they had fancy little cups for the priest to pour the wine into. I didn't realize they were upside down until I saw other people turn theirs over, but at least I didn't complete that faux pas! 

Sled Dogs and Frozen Toes!

This morning, I got to see Siberian Husky sled dogs in action!!! It was a beautiful sunny day (for once!), but absolutely freezing! I was bundled up like Randy from A Christmas Story, and I was so cold that I couldn't feel my toes! Here's a visual for you guys:

Maibritt and I later found out that it was -15 degrees C (5 degrees F). Pretty cold! The place that we went to is a training area for sled dogs that race. There are usually a ton of dogs out there, but most of them were at a race today. When we first got there, the dogs were already out on a run, so Maibritt and I climbed up a little hill to see if we could spot them. Here's the beautiful view!

After a bit, we saw the dogs running in! There were 10 Siberian Huskies pulling a "sled." Since the snow doesn't get very deep here, they use something that looks like a 4-wheeler instead because the ground would mess up the runners on the sleds. Following the sled was a man on a bike being pulled by 2 dogs.

The dogs were put on a chain and fed and watered, which they were pretty excited about! All of the dogs were so sweet and friendly! If you started petting one, the dog next to them wanted to be petted, too. And as soon as you would stop petting them, they would jump up on you to be petted more! I got lots of licks, and one even got some slobber on my camera lens! Here are some pictures of them!

After they were fed and watered (and thoroughly petted!), a couple were switched out with other dogs they had for another run. You should have seen how excited they were when they found out they were going out again! One of the lead dogs was going positively crazy with excitement! (Family: picture Olivia's excitement about her leash times 20!). They got all hooked up and were off!

They almost ran over a group of runners on the same trail! After they had left, Maibritt and I made hot chocolate from a thermos we had brought in an attempt to warm up. It tasted delicious, but my toes still hurt like the dickens! We left to go tour a bit of Roskilde, which was gorgeous! It looks like a smaller and quainter version of Copenhagen. Here are some pictures from Roskilde Domkirke (Roskilde Cathedral).

This is the museum attached to the church. It was closed for renovations, so we couldn't go inside.

We went inside Domkirke, but I couldn't take many pictures inside because a baptism had just ended and the family was still taking pictures. Maibritt and I did venture inside the tomb for the Danish kings, so we took a couple of pictures there. I'm actually in a picture this time!

After we toured the church, I got a couple of pictures of the town. I'm not sure what most of the buildings are, but I thought they were beautiful!

This is my favourite house that I've seen so far! 

We started heading home and got a bit lost, but I did manage to take a picture of Roskilde from across the fjord when we were on the wrong street at one point!

After we got home, I took a nice HOT shower to try to get the feelings back in my toes! The sun has been shining all day, so I've been enjoying it while it lasts doing homework in the living room. It's been a lovely, relaxing afternoon! :)