The fun didn’t end after my class trip to the Czech Republic. I arrived home from Prague on Thursday night, and on Friday afternoon I was already in another country: Sweden! Two of my friends from my class and I took the train from Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden– a 40 minute trip. The weather in Malmo was cold, rainy, and windy, but we made the best of it by shopping, drinking hot chocolate and seeing Malmo’s main attraction: the Turning Torso.
In front of the Turning Torso, the tallest skyscraper in Scandinavia.
The rest of my friends were back from their study trips by Saturday—just in time to celebrate my birthday! I spent the day buying birthday presents for myself (thanks parents!) and wandering around the city. That night, six of my friends took me out to dinner at a restaurant in Frederiksberg, a neighborhood of Copenhagen that I hadn’t been to. We ate homemade pasta at a delicious and pretty inexpensive restaurant called La Vita e Bella. They even gave us a free drink and dessert for my birthday! I highly recommend it. We hurried back to my kollegium to have dessert number two: cupcakes from Agnes, an amazing cupcake shop in Copenhagen! I had a blast choosing which cupcakes to include in my order of 24… They were incredible, and I heard multiple people say they were the best cupcakes they had ever had!
My friends and I at my birthday dinner!
Cupcakes from Agnes- unreal.
It had been a while since I had really visited any “sites of Copenhagen”, so on Sunday I took advantage of the free admission and went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, one of the best art museums in Copenhagen. I walked in and realized they had an entire exhibit of the sculptures of Edgar Degas, my favorite artist! I quickly toured the rest of the museum but spent a long time just hanging out in the Degas room. I would definitely call that a serendipitous museum visit.
Degas’ famous sculpture, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer.
Since I end class on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:25am, I continued my personal birthday celebrations by visiting somewhere I’d wanted to go for weeks: the Copenhagen Zoo! I had no idea what kind of zoo to expect since the grounds seemed to be pretty small, but I walked in and came face to face with a pride of lions! Well, not exactly. But instead of being set far back like lion enclosures typically are, these lions were probably 20 feet in front of us. Our only separation was a fence and a small moat.
How cute are they???
Me and my favorite animals!
It was a sunny day so all of the animals were hanging out outside. Besides the lions we saw camels, baboons (their butts were REALLY red), PENGUINS, tigers, poisonous frogs, extremely humanlike chimpanzees, polar bears, kangaroos, giraffes…the list goes on and on.
Look at that face. I die.
Fun fact: my college’s mascot is the polar bear.
The zoo also has some cool architecture: the Elephant House was built in 2008 and is one of the most sustainable buildings in Copenhagen.
Jessie, Kerry and Emily on our way into the Elephant House.
Emily was super excited to see the giraffes.
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I spent the rest of the week eagerly anticipating Friday, when my parents would arrive to spend the weekend! They got in at 8am on Friday morning and were extremely jet lagged, but I threw them right into Copenhagen living by bringing them to the Israel Plads market for lunch and taking them on a walking tour around Amalienborg Palace and the waterfront. That night was Kulturnatten, or Culture Night, when over 500 museums, churches, government buildings, libraries, and more were open from 6pm until midnight. After buying a pass for a little under 20 dollars, we saw the chapel at Christiansborg Palace, the Thorvaldsen Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Ministry of Finance (by accident) and the Royal Library for free! It was COLD outside but still a great night. I wish they had it every month!
Orchestra concert in the chapel at Christiansborg Palace.
Culture night = Thorvaldsen sculptures + laser light show?
We woke up pretty early on Saturday for a full day of exploring Copenhagen. We walked along Stroget, the walking street, from my parents’ hotel to the area where my school is. Then we went to Tivoli for a few hours. Tivoli was re-opened for a week since Halloween is coming up. The decorations were adorable! I went on some low-key rides with my parents and we ate lunch at one of the many restaurants there.
The entrance to Tivoli.
One of the many Halloween tableaus.
My dad claims he no longer likes heights, but he agreed to go on this very scary ride with me.
I next took my parents to Christiania just to see their reactions- but there was no marijuana around! The residents must have been anticipating a police raid or maybe knew there would be a lot of tourists visiting after Culture Night. We took the metro to my kollegium and recuperated in my room by video chatting with my sister and grandma at home. Finally, we went out to dinner along Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s famous canal.
Taken at the exit of Christiania- I think my parents got the general idea of what it’s all about.
Sunday was another busy day! I had heard amazing things about Louisiana, a modern art museum that’s the most visited in Denmark. It’s about 40 minutes north of Copenhagen by train. They had a huge exhibition called LIVING that was about architecture, homes, and specialized communities around the world. We spent most of our time in there because of how fascinating it was. The exhibit closes on October 23, but I want to go back! The museum is located right along the Oresund Sound that separates Denmark from Sweden, so we also wandered around outside just taking in the property. It was stunning.
An outdoor sculpture that’s part of LIVING.
My mom and I at Louisiana!
By the early afternoon, we were ready for our next stop: Sweden! We took the train 10 minutes farther and then caught a ferry bound for Helsingborg, Sweden. I spent a day in Helsingor, Denmark at the very beginning of my time here when I went to Kronborg Castle. Helsingborg is the Swedish equivalent of Helsingor, and my parents really wanted to say they had been to two countries in one weekend. There isn’t that much to do in Helsingborg, but we walked along the water and ate a delicious lunch at a restaurant on the harbor docks.
Helsingborg, Sweden.
The harbor where we had lunch.
After lunch we went to the Tropikariet, a zoo that the locals were pretty enthusiastic about. We soon learned why: the Tropikariet is inside a building, and in two rooms the animals aren’t enclosed at all! We had tamarins and lemurs swinging around over our heads and staring at us with big creepy eyes. Unfortunately, there was a no touching rule.
The lemur that was hanging out in the tree right in front of me.
MEERKAT!
I led the way from the Tropikariet back into the center of town, stopping at Helsingborg Castle along the way. The Castle is part of an old defense fortress from the 1300s that’s mostly in ruins now. We were hoping to climb the large tower that’s still standing, but the door was securely locked. We climbed up the steps anyway.
Can you find my mom and I in this picture?
After a gourmet dinner, I had to sadly say goodbye to my parents. It was so much fun showing them Copenhagen, and I’m glad seeing them didn’t make me as homesick as I thought it would! They were especially excited about my plans for my two week travel break that’s coming up at the end of October- until then, I have lots of more papers, tests, and visits!