Feb 22 - Feb 27: Danish weekend of surprises

I think I slept for two days straight after Iceland. I was sooo exhausted and knew I had a big weekend ahead of me. I was also very excited to spend a weekend in Copenhagen- it's always great to be home.

On Tuesday, I biked through Norrebro and ended up doing readings at Bevar's. This place was great and I definitely want to return later in the day for a platter and glass of wine.

I would like to note that I do go to class! On Wednesday, I was called out in front of 60 or so kids and was asked to talk about Whole Foods and its competitors. I would say I did a pretty good job and probably sounded very American. The weekend festivities started later Wednesday at DuPong. This place is a bar with one very big ping pong table. We all got drinks and joined ping pong game of 25 people. My skills were pretty poor but I ended up getting to a round of only 5 people, which I was pretty proud of. The bar was a ton of fun and a few of us got pretty competitive.

On Thursday, I picked up Utter and Stef at the airport. Katie had no idea they were surprising her for her 21st birthday and spending the weekend in Copenhagen. I was so excited for them to arrive because I missed them, wanted to enjoy Copenhagen with some visitors, and couldn't wait to see Katie's reaction. We also picked up a cake at Andersen Bakery near Tivoli, which was delicious. We surprised Katie back at the dorm. She had absolutely no idea. Later that night, we went to Norrebro. We tried going to Baest for pizza but it was full so we ended up at BRUS. They had a really great selection of beer and their vegetable burger was delicious. I tried a sour red ale and wouldn't get it again but happy I tried it. After dinner, we went to a FC Copenhagen soccer game. We met up with other Kathrine people and watched a good match. It was snowing so much outside that we ended up going back to the dorm for an early wake up call to explore Copenhagen.

On Friday, we showed Utter and Stef all of Copenhagen. It took us 2 weeks to see what we showed utter and stef in a day. We started the day with a brunch at Kalaset- sooo goood. Copenhagen does brunch really well with amazing platters. We then proceeded to show a lot of Copenhagen to Stef and Utter. We stopped for lunch at the Glass Market and Utter and I shared a pizza from Gorm's. We also got to see the Black Diamond Library (so beautiful) and trampoline street. I'm also happy that Stef saw how cute the babies are in Copenhagen- I think she really appreciated it. We tried going to see a jazz show but ended up getting there late. We went to Dahl & Dahl for cocktails instead and were absolutely in heaven by how good they were. We went back to our dorm afterwards to make dinner and get ready to go out. We showed Stef and Utt what a typical Kathrine pregame was and they got to meet our friends. The second surprise of the weekend also happened as I coordinated Ush to surprise Mike for his 21st. Mike had no idea when Ush walked in as soon as the clock hit 12am. It was so great. We spent the night in the Meatpacking District at KB3. This was our latest night out as I reached my bed around 5am.

On Saturday, we had a later start to the day but made it downtown by 12:30 and were sitting at brunch at Cafe Dyrehaven, a pretty eclectic spot with dolls hanging from the ceiling and other weird directions. Brunch was amazing- per usual. We then went to Christianshaven and walked up to the top of this really beautiful tower and church called Vor Frelsers Kirke. We climbed a lot of steep and narrow stairs and saw a beautiful view of Copenhagen. We then took Stef and Utt to Christiana and walked through a couple of cool galleries. Christiana hit us a lot harder then we thought it would and we ended up back in Kathrine for the rest of the night. Stef and Utt made it to Paper Island and ate amazing food (duck fat fries FTW!). We later got ourselves up and pregamed in Kathrine, celebrating Katie's bday as the clock hit 12am. We metroed to Norreport, attempted to get into Hive, and ended up at Penthouse. This place was a really great time and there was an interesting mix of music. Stef, Utt and I ubered home around 3am as we were exhausted from the day.

I said bye to Stef on Sunday morning as she had an early flight. Katie and I took Utt to Bodenhoff for some traditional danish pastries and walked her to the metro for her flight. It was so great having Stef and Utter here for the weekend and we were able to do so much. They also got to see Katie and mine's life in Copenhagen and I think they liked it here. To celebrate Katie's bday, we biked to Forum, walked around Frederiksberg, went to B9 Vinbar to watch the last day of VinterJazz Festival (I got to buy a mature 21 Katie a mature glass of wine), then went to Desserthuset and got these amazing milkshakes. We then went back to Kathrine and later ended up at Sticks n Sushi for dinner. This restaurant had a really cool menu concept. I ate the best seaweed salad I have ever had there, and finished it with a clean and spicy 8 piece of maki.

We balllllllleeeeeddddd out on food this weekend. It was incredible. I wouldn't want it any other way and the next time I'll be able to do this is the next time I have a visitor as the food is incredibly expensive here. But it was all worth it. I'm mostly hanging out this week, catching up on school work, filling out scholarships, and preparing for Berlin- which I'm very excited for.

ICELAND

I was in Iceland from Feb 16th to Feb 20th and about 13 of us in Kathrine hired rentals cars and drove around the southern coast of Iceland on Ring Road. I had a lot of time to help plan the trip so it was awesome to see it come into fruition and I think everyone had a really great time. I was so exhausted by the end of it after driving hundreds on hundreds of kms but Iceland was unreal. I had no idea what to expect but it was totally unlike what I thought it would be. I could imagine the moon looking a lot like Iceland with its endless horizons and random topography changes.

Thursday, Feb 16th
We arrived at KEF, took out $$ (Katie took out $500 by accident), hit duty free, rented cars, and drove to Reykjavik. Reykjavik is a really cool city, very small and expensive, but it wasn't very commercialized, the homes were so colorful, and there was a ton of grafitti. We took the rest of the day to walk around the city. We parked at Tjornin lake, walked to city center, saw a huge concrete church called Hallgrimskirkja, walked by the old harbor and saw Harpa which is a huge concert hall with a really cool exterior, and walked through Old Harbour. We also hit Baejarins Bextu Pylsur, which is a cheap hot dog stand and apparently one of the best in Europe. I really wanted to hit some record stores but they were all closed by the time we got there. Afterwards, we did some grocery shopping, parked our car at Oddesson Hostel and walked through Grjotaborpio district back downtown to get a couple of beers at a sports bar. During Happy Hour, I spent $6.00 on a delicious Viking White Ale- it was so so good.

Friday, Feb 17th
We started our road trip early in the morning. We drove to Kerio, a red crater lake near Selfoss. The water in the crater is the water table so it's not fed by rain fall nor does it dry out. We walked around the rim of the crater and hiked down to it as well. It was beautiful with the deep turquoise water and red colored walls. We then proceeded to Geysir and Strokkur, a couple of geysirs. On the way, we ran into some really cute miniature horses that Iceland is known for and petted them. They were adorable. One of them blew a few times while we were there and the heat from the water warmed us all up. The ground was also really beautiful as the water was reflecting so many colors on the red rock. We then drove to Gullfoss. This waterfall is fed by Iceland's second biggest glacier called Langjokull and the water plummets down 32 meters in two stages. The waterfall was ginormous and it was so windy and so cold and we were all so uncomfortable and cold but it was epic. We then drove to Thingvellir national park and checked out Oxararfoss and walked around the national park and saw Althing, an open-air parliamentary assembly that met from 930 to 1798. There was also a church and adjacent farm, kind of forming a Viking Age pioneer community. Afterwards, we left for Vik to drive to Reynisfjara, a black sand beach. There were amazing basalt columns forming a cliff and the black pebbles were so dark during sunset. It felt like I was looking out into a black and white world. The waves at the beach were also so strong and formed huge waves. It was so beautiful. I thought I would see some puffins there but unfortunately none appeared from the water. We were so exhausted, cold, and wet from the day that we picked up dinner from a grocery store in Vik and drove to Hotel Drangshlid for the night. I posted in this Aurora Hunters Facebook group about the possibility of seeing lights but it was too cloudy. I bought Iceland's most domestic beer called Gull and tried it. I think I'll pass next time but something I learned was that beer was banned from Iceland until 1989 and grocery stores can only sell 2.5% so what's the point of drinking one. By the end of the day, we had probably drove around 300km or around 185 miles.

Saturday, Feb 18th
We left early in the morning for a 2 and a half hour drive to Skaftafell. On our way to Skaftafell, we stopped at Laufskalavaroa, a lava ridge covered in cairns.  People would stack cairns to send good luck. We then continued to Skaftafell and went for a beautiful 2 hour hike and saw some waterfalls, endless mountains, and a couple of glaciers, one of them being Skaftafellsjokull glacier. Our group split into two after the hike. One group going on a glacier cave tour and the other going to another glacier and nearby town. I joined the latter group and we drove to Jokulsarlon and saw incredible glacier formations. It kind of looked like the Titanic. We then drove to a small town of 2,000 people named Hofn. We got a langoustine sandwich, a type of lobster that Iceland is known for, from Hafnarbuoin. We walked around the fishing village and walked on the black beaches and climbed a cave to look at Vatnajokull (Iceland's biggest glacier). Of course I was on the look out for puffins but unfortunately didn't see any. We then drove to Hoffell Hot Tubs in Hoffell. These hot tubs are fed by geothermal water. We decided it was a good spot to come back to at night once everyone was there. We then met up with the group later in the day at Skyrhusid Guest House and drove back to the hot tubs. The hotel was even further east along the southern tip of Iceland. As it was so beautiful and clear that day we thought there would be chance of seeing the lights but no luck. We then went back to the hotel and passed out, knowing we had another long day the next day. The hotel had tons of yogurt so we ran through so much Skyr (so good, will buy in the states).

Sunday, Feb 19th
On Sunday, we left early in the morning for Skogafoss. This was another huge waterfall but it was pretty touristy so we weren't there for very long. We drove by a town called Skogar which has a population of 25 people. We then tried to drive to Thorsmork, a huge mountain, for a hike we wanted to do. This pass was a gravel road on the side of a volcano called Eyjafjallajokull. We were driving down this gravel road in our small European cars and then one car passed a sign that said 4x4 only as we had to drive through a river to get to the otherside. The car eventually realized it and reversed to turn around, accidentally falling off the side of the road. The tires got stuck in a ton of gravel and the car couldn't get traction but a Russian family in a huuuuge 4x4 passed us and was able to help us push it out of the gravel. We then proceeded to find another hike- which was my favorite part of the trip. We started walking up this river, eventually ending up in this slot canyon. It then turned into a really tight path where we had to hop across rocks to avoid ended up waist deep in the river. It turned out we were hiking up a waterfall. At one point we had to pull ourselves up with ropes and we made it to this beautiful waterfall. We were all soaking wet but so so mesmerized by the falls. We then climbed our way out the canyon and scaled the side of the volcano (eyjafjallajokull) and were just stunned by the views and mountain rivers. It was so beautiful and green. As we were all soaking wet, we eventually made it back to the cars and changed. We had a plan to see Seljalandsfoss, another waterfall, but we were so wet that we just drove back to Reykjavik back to Oddsson Hostel.  It was 7:30pm by the time we left to get dinner. A few of us went to this place called Saegreifinn for delicious seafood, vegetable and potato kebabs. This was the best seafood I ever had. I tried a red cod and it was so fresh and tasty. We then went to Dubliner for happy hour and got some wine. We walked back to the Hostel and crashed for our 3:30am wake up call to make it to KEF.

Monday, Feb 20th
It was an exhausting day but I can sum it up by saying my main activities were sleeping and eating. There was nothing more I wanted to do. I had no idea how tired I was but the driving, traveling, and planning really exhausted me.

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Although I didn't see the northern lights or puffins, I had such a great time exploring the country and would love to go back in the summertime. I'm really happy I went on it as it's not your typical European urban adventure and it really felt like I was on the moon. I only packed one sweatshirt and it was my Wisconsin grandpa sweatshirt so I like to think I was the first Wisconsin grandpa to land on the moon. I also liked how we rented cars instead of paying for tours because we were able to determine our own trip and weren't stuck with a huge tour group on a bus. If we were to drive directly on ring road from Reykjavik to Hofn (the furthest East we went) we covered around 560 miles round trip. I had a great time driving in km/hr but was very happy to return the car with everyone alive and no damage. I'm looking forward to going back to Iceland to find some puffins.

ICELAND ~photos~

One Month Anniversary

This was my fourth week abroad and tomorrow marks my one month anniversary with this beautiful country!

After getting back from London, I needed a little bit of a recovery (both with my wallet and with my sleeping). I really lucked out with an easy week- classes only on Wednesday and Friday. I had my Introduction to Sustainable Business class on Friday and really enjoyed the readings and lecture so I'm excited to continue with this class. I've also brainstormed a couple of ideas for my synopsis and oral presentations for Operations Management (Emergency Service distribution systems) and Retail Marketing (Wegmans).

Other than class, I've been able to research more things to do in Copenhagen and more cafes to explore. I've also been able to start planning my trip to Berlin and Iceland. I leave on Thursday for Iceland and am very excited- hopefully I'll get to see the Northern Lights!

I've also been able to do so so so much fun stuff this week in Copenhagen.

Tuesday Night- I went to Mikkeller and Friends in Nørrebro with a few people. I tried the Alefarm Kindred Spirit and the Mikkeller Nelson Sauvignon. I really enjoyed the first one and was also able to try Wicked Weed Montmaretto and Aeblerov Cider (both of which I would love to buy bottles of). The bartender shared one of his favorite bars with me called Himmeriget bar and I would love to get there someday.

Wednesday Night- I competed in a International Student Trivia Night with Maddie, Danielle, Kim, and Katie and we won 7th out of 36th!! I was also able to enjoy a Tuborg in my school.

Thursday Night- This was a total G&T night. We went to an open bar in City Center at Zoo Bar. The bar was filled with smoke and great music.

Friday Night- THE XX CONCERT!! I had so so so much fun at this concert. It was incredible. I pregamed with a couple of craft brews and arrived at the concert an hour early. Kelela put on a great performance and repped D.C. The xx were just incredible, they had a great lineup and set design. I made direct eye contact with Romy and (not trying to be dramatic) cried a little. I love her so much and the music was so great and all of it was just amazing. I haven't been able to stop listening to any of their albums since. After the concert, I met up with a couple of friends in the Meatpacking District at Bakken and was able to enjoy some nice beats. We then went to KB3 and danced the night aawwwaaaaay with my friends, Josh and his Wisco friends, and random Danes.

Saturday Night- after a couple of long nights, I took an L. I got some readings done, worked on trip itineraries, and went to the gym. At night, my friends and I had a hygge night and enjoyed some delicious bread, cheese, veggies, and hummus. I went to bed afterwards because on Sunday...

Sunday- we got up really early to head to the airport to pick up a rental car. Australian Kim, who is used to driving on the left side of the road, drove a manual car to Møns Klint in Borre. This was definitely an experience watching someone learn how to drive on the other side of the road but she did a great job!!! The chalk cliffs were absolutely beautiful although it was so cold. We took a couple of great pictures and stopped in Stege for some pick me up coffee and hot chocolate. It was really nice to get out of Copenhagen and go for a car drive.

I only have class on Wednesday this week so I'm looking forward to working out, doing more school and trip itinerary work and exploring Copenhagen on Monday and Tuesday. I leave for Iceland on Thursday and return on Monday morning.

LONDON

Thursday Feb 2nd:
Tough morning, but I fought through it and made it to the airport still tipsy. I absolutely love Norwegian Air, they play the cutest cartoons during the flight.  I arrived in London and took a train and tube to meet Jazz at Gloucestor Rd. (at a Starbucks). It took me a very long time to adjust to cars on the opposite side of the road but we walked around Kensington Gardens and I saw a ton of dogs off leash and pigeons (who knew there were so many birds in London?). I saw Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace, Jazz's place (right next to The Netherlands' Embassy), and met a couple of her roommates. We then proceeded to Coco Momo for a brunch. I ordered the Eggs Royale and enjoyed a pot of tea and it was amazing. We then Tubed (took me a while to stop calling it the metro) to Camden and I learned about Tube Courtesy such as reading the newspaper and being quiet. We walked around the neighborhood and entered the Camden Market walking through record booths and other cool vendors. We went to Chin Chin for their famous hot chocolate. It was sooooo oooooozy with amazing marshmallow on top and the chocolate was so bitter- wow. In typical Jazz and Cam fashion (as we were on the loose), we then found some mulled wine and Jazz has never had it before so we obviously had to get it and that's when her life changed. A couple of weeks ago Jazz went on a bar crawl around Camden so she showed me the bars and we stayed at this one called Apres Ski and enjoyed some live music, Moscow Mules, and the atmosphere. I also saw these cool horse stables that were VIP rooms (maybe one day?) and the bathroom was serviced by a cool lady named Mama. Jazz also showed me the Amy Statue and we walked to Brew Dog for a flight of beer and some fries. We then walked to Shoreditch and looked at street art. I learned about the Guerilla Girls and Camile Walala. We walked to Brick Lane for some Indian food- this was Jazz's first Indian experience and it was so good. We ate at a place called Cinnamon and a customer gave us flowers. I then lost a bet at dinner so we walked to get a red velvet cupcake, walked by street dancers, got lost but then found our way home and fell asleep to music.

Friday Feb 3rd:
We woke up Friday morning and it was so beautiful outside so we went for a walk through Kensington Garden and I saw the Italian Garden and a fun statue of two bears hugging each other. We then went to Candella for a traditional english breakfast and tea. I tried a scon with clotted cream and jam and it was so delicious. We then tubed to Westminster and I saw the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Church. We then grabbed some macaroons and tea after walking around and walked to Buckingham Palace kind of high from the tea. There was the best shubbery at the Palace, I was truly impressed. We then walked to the National Gallery and looked at Monet, Pissarro, and Van Gogh. We walked to Piccadilly Circus and tried Paxton and Whitfield Cheese in Soho. We had to get home to get ready and eat dinner before going to see DVSN at Koko. While pregaming, I find holiness in G&Ts. Koko was a really cool theater turned into concert venue and nightclub. DVSN was incredible. After the concert, we went to Trufflesco and enjoyed some prosecco, truffle mac n cheese, and truffle cheesecake. We then went back to Koko for latin night and danced the night away, eventually finding our way back home.

Saturday, Feb 4th:
Jazz had a field trip this day so I had the entire day to myself. I ended up going to the Design Museum, for a stroll through Holland Park and Kyoto Garden (met a peacock and named him Karl), walked through Notting Hill without realizing it, walked around the Portobello Market, got a tea in a vinyl cafe, walked through the Acklam Village Food Market and Bar 58,  ate an esfirra, and realized I needed to make it to more museums that day. I then got lost on the tube for an hour and eventually ended up at the Natural Museum and learned about volcanoes and lived through a virtual earthquake. I was there until it closed and then tubed to Soho. I then walked around really cool streets like Carnaby Street, Kingly St, and walked around one of the best Whole Foods for 45 minutes that I have ever been in. At that point, I had to return home to meet Jazz for dinner at Princess Diana's favorite pizza place called Da Mario. We got a bottle of wine, garlic bread, a caprese salad, pizza, and pasta, sombucca and pistachio ice cream. It was all amazing! Earlier that night, Jazz also gave me a beer from the Old Dairy Brewery and it was great. We then walked to Harrods and around South Kensington, eventually taking the bus home.

Sunday, Feb 5th:
We made breakfast at home and then rode on the top of a double decker bus to the Borough Market which turned out to be closed. We walked to the Tate Modern and spent almost 3 hours in the museum looking at impressionism painting, among other art. I think i really grew a love for impressionism- but maybe thats because what Jazz loves. We finished up at the Tate and sat down at Founders Arms for a traditional fish and chips and cider (we also had a fig, beet, and goat cheese salad). Our table was overlooking the Thames River and St. Paul's Cathedral and it was so pretty. We then walked to Southwark Market and got a crepe and a rum toddy. We found this really cool area near the London Eye and got a hot chocolate with baileys and watched the most beautiful sunset. It covered the entire sky in pink and blue and lit up the Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster. We then walked across a bridge to London's oldest wine bar called Gordon's Wine Bar. We got a couple of glasses of wine and enjoyed some cheese in a cellar.  Our cheese plate included a gruyere from switzerland, a stilton from nottinghamshire, and I believe a taleggio from Italy. I tried the Chateau Canevelle from Bordeaux and the Cabernet Franc No. 2 The Avery from the USA. I also learned I really love Branston Pickle Jam. All of it was so so so good. We then walked around Picadilly Circus and ended the night at an airbnb with some chocolate cake and super good bottles of wine- one was from Jazz's field trip and other was organic or biodynamic.

Monday, Feb 6th:
We made it to the Breakfast Club for brunch and got an amazing feast of pancakes and eggs royale. We then walked around Borough Market (saw a Slow Food certified vendor), and continued to the London Bridge and saw the Tower Bridge. We walked across the Tower Bridge to the Towers of London. We then hopped on the Tube and that is where Jazz dropped me off on my train to head back to Copenhagen!

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What.an.amazing.trip. I'm currently writing this blog post drinking an Fortnum and Mason english breakfast blend tea and eating Walker Biscuits. I had so so so much and I balled out but it was all worth it. I also really enjoyed seeing how happy Jazz was in London and I learned that it's such an incredible city.

LONDON ~photos~