Travelin'

I just got back from an amazing week of traveling- great company, great food, great everything. It's pretty awesome to think that if I want to, I can get on a plane and be anywhere in an hour or so. Except home. Not such a buzzkill when I think about all the cool places I'll be going. I went to Vienna and Berlin for a few days, this is how it went down.

Day One

We went to a really Austrian flea market. There was awesome food, groceries and a weird assortment of knick-knacks everywhere. My kind of place. It was so so so hot there. I actually may have gotten some Vitamin D, something we seriously lack here in Denmark. It was also really nice to remember that there is cheap food in the world. Living in Copenhagen makes me seriously question how many calories are really "required" to function, but Austria really solved that burning question. I had a falafel sandwich the size of a small child that only cost €3. Whatadeal. 
After the flea market we went to the Museums Quartier, which is the Museums Quarter (shocking) in Vienna. It was a really nice to see Viennese people hanging out around a fountain and of course, I liked the stuffy museum and the old buildings located in the Quartier. 
By the end of the day we were ready for some real Austrian cuisine, so obviously we headed out for chocolate cake. There is a restaurant that has made this world famous torte for some inordinate amount of time, right across from the Opera House. It's incredibly delicious and warrants its own little paragraph.


Day Two

The Aftermath of an All-You-Can-Eat Australian BBQ

We traveled out to a small town on the outskirts of Vienna called Baden where they have natural hot springs. It was just like California. Kind of. Got a little sunburned, but my skin is grateful for any sun exposure these days. We rowed some dinky little boats in a pond, ate schnitzel and walked around the peaceful little town.
After Baden, the next logical place to go is an Australian bar/all-you-can-eat BBQ. We really got our moneys worth of weird (aka delicious) cheese filled sausages. We drank beer, met some Canadians and watched some Australians do beer bongs. Success.


Day Three
We walked through the jankiest neighborhood to get to the Schönbrunn palace, where the Hapsburg dynasty and some other fools lived. We refused to pay for a tour of the place. I mean, once you've seen one palace you've seen them all. Instead we walked around the gardens, which we incredible, up to another weird palace thing on the hill overlooking all of Vienna. After walking around more historical sights than I ever thought possible, we sat down with some real Austrians to eat sausage, sauerkraut and beer. It was a great little festival and there were some large men dancing. Overall an amazing way to eat dinner.




Day Four
Nothing incredibly exciting happened, we shopped in cheap Europe, ate more sauerkraut and sausages and had appfelstrudel. Leaving Vienna, I still didn't have a good sense of what the locals were like. Maybe they're just more elusive than the Danes, but I doubt that somehow. It's interesting, because Austria is (in my opinion) not quite Western, but not quite Eastern Europe. You can definitley see this disconnect in the people and the culture that inhabits Vienna. After all of this philosophical rambling, we got on the worst night train ever to Berlin.

Day Five
We got off the worst train ever and entered quite possibly the greatest city I've ever been to. Berlin was AMAZING. I'm so sad we only had one day there, because I could definitely picture myself spending extended periods of time there.
We started at the Brandenburg Gate and went on a free tour of the city. Our pink haired tour guide led us around to see the Reichstag building, the Berlin Wall and everything in between. Everything was so clean and quirky. It was very different than Vienna in that most of the buildings are very new. For all its newness, though, you can feel all of the history. It's like Copenhagen, but much bigger and more forward. Copenhagen is a sleepy little town compared to Berlin.
The people we encountered were super friendly with directions, and even if they didn't speak English they all tried to help.
Unfortunately, my camera died mid-Berlin, so I had to bum battery pacs off of innocent bystanders for most of my pictures. Needless to say, I'm going back and getting those shots that I missed.
We ended the night where we started it, back at Brandenburg Gate. I can say for certain that that's not the last time I'll be seeing it this year!

I decided I'm probably the type of person who blogs...

...We'll see how it goes.
I've lived in Copenhagen for approximately three weeks now. It goes by so fast, looking back, but each day feels so long. I can't wait to get home from Danish class, make dinner and pass out.
I've done a lot in these three weeks, and I probably should have started blogging right when I got here. Oh well. Rough overview time it is, then.

1) I got madly lost trying to find my apartment the first day. I walked up and down the street parallel to mine for about two hours. Thank goodness I had a map. Sadly, I did not know how to read said map.

2) When I got here I thought people lived here. Nope. I was alone for about three weeks, livin' in a creepy ass apartment.

3) I finally got a flatmate this week! After living alone for three weeks, I'm so glad to have someone to share this creepy, tiny little apartment with. I'm expecting five more in the next coming weeks. Should be interesting!

4) My first weekend here I went to the largest castle in Scandinavia. Pretty sick. It's just outside of Copenhagen city. I really want to explore all the little nooks and crannies of this tiny country. Everything was so pretty and it was raining a little; the perfect day for a country jaunt.

5) I have already visited another country! Okay, just Sweden, which is a half-hour train ride away, but still. We went to Malmö, which is connected to Copenhagen by a bridge. It was really cute. Very different than Copenhagen though. Its less like a big city and more like a little tourist town. The people were altogether less hot and less friendly than here in CPH, but we ate Swedish meatballs, so all in all it was a good day.

6) I learned Danish! HAHAHAH. Not really. I have been taking an intensive language course in Danish for the past three weeks, and this week I have my exams. I learned how to say my name, tell people where I'm from and tell them what I'm studying. Somehow the phrases, "where is the bathroom?" and "HELP! I'm being mugged." were not included in this course. Maybe they'll be in the advanced class?

7) I've met such great people here from all over. Even though I tend to stick to my Californians (and one Slovakian) it's still nice to get a bigger picture of the world by meeting the people who populate it.

8) The food here is a challenge. Mostly because I can't read Danish. That was probably what the language class was for. Whoops. I still have yet to buy and cook meat. Its scary! So far I've been living on cafeteria food, pasta and spinach with the occasional boiled egg in there for protein. I've tried to integrate by adding some of the weird Danish yogurt flavors and rye bread to my life, so we'll see how that works out. I do miss Mexican food though. I tried to find a good place, but sadly, everything is over priced for the pathetic little budget I have worked out.

9) I'm going to start rowing again! I just couldn't leave this one out. I found a great rowing club with classy ass ergs and I'm planning on working my little butt off. No really though. All the pastries have to come off somehow.

10) I've been to museums, seen crazy Danish movies, walked on cobblestones, gotten lost copious amounts of times, gotten on the wrong metro, the wrong bus, bought the wrong kind of yogurt. But everything is getting a lot easier to do. I'm so glad that I'm not being a stupid little baby about it anymore. I could have missed a grand opportunity to travel and meet amazing people.

So yeah, first blog. Semi-successful, if I do say so myself.
Next time- Adventures in Vienna!