Kobenhavn

"Hi" means hello. "Hi hi" means goodbye, which I didn't know upon landing in Copenhagen, so when all the flight attendants were saying "hi hi" to everybody as we got off the plane, I just thought it was the only English they knew... turns out they all speak English, and I'm guilty of making assumptions.

We landed late, and made our way to my hostel, the Downtown Copenhagen Hostel/Bar. Blair headed back to her apartment, and I got a quick beer and got to know the people who work at the hostel before heading to bed. In the morning, we began our journey through Denmark!

Blair showed me around a lot of different parts of the city. Here are some of my favorites!

The Royal Palace... the Queen actually lives here, and there were 3 guards total that I could see. Super low security, because super low crime.

   

We walked along the harbor, which was super picturesque with colorful houses, bridges, outdoor restaurants, bike riders, and boats on the water. The sun was out and that meant so was every Dane and every tourist--Blair was surprised at how many people were outside, because it had been such dreary weather for so long! I brought the sunshine :)

   

We walked across a bridge to Paper Island, one of the multiple islands in Copenhagen. There was a Yoko Ono installation of wishes written on little white paper cards and tied onto trees. Here was my favorite (although the ones that said "I wish you would just give me a baby already" or "I wish toenails were currency cuz I'd be so rich" were pretty great):

   

There is also a very cool little art installation that basically looks like you're walking in an inside out galaxy. That was a bad explanation... just take a look:

  

We went to another area of the city called Christiania, which is this little self-sustaining community where they pay taxes just like any Dane would, but the city has agreed to not interfere with them... at all. They basically do whatever they want (they have their own set of basic, relaxed rules) and the police never bother them. You guessed what that means! They were all high.

We aren't supposed to take pictures of illegal things happening, so the only picture I could get was of this indoor skate park:



We walked up to the top of a very tall church. 400 steps to the top, even though it felt like 8,000. The view was equally was breathtaking.

    

The inside of the church was astonishing as well, with this amazing gravity-defying organ:



We got pretty darn hungry, and stopped into an Ethiopian restaurant and chowed down on the best tasting bread and mush I've ever had.



We visited Kastellet, a star-shaped island in Copenhagen. It's shaped like that because it used to be a military base, and the Danes figured out that a star shape is the best way to protect the land, because either the opposition enters at the tip of one of the points and they have such a long way to the main part of the land that they get stopped, or the enter on one of the insets between points, and are surrounded on both sides. Today, it is a very pretty area to walk around and have a picnic and take in the views.



Near there is Hans Christian's Anderson's commemorative mermaid statue. I found out that I, too, can be a mermaid if I wish it hard enough.

    

Blair took me to a very cool cafe, called the Bastard Cafe (sounds cool already doesn't it?) where you can eat amazing fries and play pretty much any game in the entire world. We opted for scrabble, and bastardized our use of the Danish letters (ha, see what I did there?).

  

We bought some pasta and veggies, and a bottle of wine called Sunrise, and made dinner at Blair's apartment. Aren't we adorable?



The next morning, Went to the Glass Market, one of the semi-outdoor food markets of Copenhagen, and had some traditional Smorrebrod, which is yummy stuff on yummy bread (usually rye). And, it was very yummy!



We did some more window shopping, talking, and walking (our specialty) and happened to stop into one of the multitude of candy stores. It was pretty awesome:



We also went to a cool cafe called the Laundromat, which... you guessed it... was also a working laundromat! I was so excited about it I made this face:



I also finally found a few signs that fulfilled my fantasy of seeing "Nielsen" everywhere (and, for once, spelled right!):

  

I caught a cold, and that day it was bad, so we took it pretty easy. That night, we went to Studenterhuset, a very cool student-oriented nonprofit bar which had the wackiest Hungarian band playing--by wacky I mean they were somewhat scream-y, but also pretty rock-y, but the trumpet made it sound mariachi-y, and the fiddle made it sound country-y. Hard to describe, but unforgettable nonetheless.

And, for our last morning in Copenhagen, Blair took me to a great little restaurant that served a Danish version of breakfast tapas, and it might have been the best meal I had the entire trip. We went to the central train station, and said our goodbyes... :(

All in all, this trip was absolutely fantastic, and I think it went the best it possibly could have. Some things to know for next time:

• Go to Berlin, or Germany in general, for longer. Two days wasn't enough, and also go on the weekend, because it's obviously got a great night life. And there are a million museums. And tours of concentration camps. And German people are super cool.

• Always book tickets for the Anne Frank House in advance. It's an amazing museum, but it's not necessary to wait in line for 2 hours.

• Buy a train pass in all of these cities, it's always worth it.

• Bring less socks. Bring more shirts.

• There are a million canal tours in Amsterdam, but there's only one that is 9 Euro. That's the best one, because it's 9 Euro. Do it.

• Do a bit more research, but don't do too much, because the things that happen spontaneously are usually the best things.

• Always do the walking tours, because knowing the history behind the cities makes everything so much more rich. 

• You don't have to arrive on time for a pub crawl. Also, if it says the crawl is 8:30-9:45, that doesn't mean it ends at 9:45... it means that you go to the next place (of six places total) at 9:45. Be prepared...

• Find out ahead of time if people find it offensive if you ask them if they speak English... In Germany, it was necessary. In Copenhagen, asking them if they speak English is like asking them if they know where their nose is (aka, insulting). 

And that, my friends, concludes this amazing spring break trip. Next up: Costa Rica part 3! I probably won't do a blog for that one, since I've already done two, so just look out for more pictures of my risking my life in the cloud forest on Facebook. Also keep your eyes out for a video from this trip (I promise, I will make it this time). Hopefully, my next blog will be about me in Southeast Asia. Until then, vaarwel, auf widersehen, and farvel!!

Berlin!

We woke up in our cozy hostel, ate some breakfast, and hit the town! Not without help from out trusty tour guide friend Barbara though. She was taking us to where we were to start our free walking tour (like the one in Amsterdam), and she was pretty awesome. She pointed out this church to us, which had its roof blown off in the war and was never fixed:



Then the tour began. We had a recent European history master's program grad as our guide, so we got a lot of information about this city that came as a surprise to me. Here are some highlights:

There used to be 18 bridges like this one, built in the late 1700s for customs. This particular bridge had a "goddess of peace" sitting atop it, and 12 years after the figure was added, Napoleon entered Berlin, and took it for himself back to France. In 1814 it was brought back, but now is called Victoria (for victory of course). They named the square Pariser Platz (or Paris Square), and they even turned Victoria slightly to the left so that she can stare directly a the French Embassy building. Kinda petty, Berlin.



I learned that there was a building near this bridge that somebody (no one knows who) burned down  when Hitler came to power, and he naturally blamed someone who was a known communist, thus giving them permission to make laws and arrest anyone they deemed necessary, because "communism was destroying everything, see, that building even burned down". That's how the rounding up of people started.

Speaking of that, our next stop on the tour was the Memorial for Murdered Jews of Europe (yes, it is called that). It was put up in 2005, and was the first memorial of its kind. The architect said he won't say what he thinks is the significance of all the blocks, he wants everyone to make their own conclusions.

   

We then proceeded to walk to a parking lot, which stood 13 meters above the bunker where Hitler killed himself. Apparently, he wanted to be cremated, and ordered his soldiers to do so after he and his wife committed suicide. The soldiers took the bodies onto the street and set them aflame, but the Soviets were coming, so they decided to flee and leave the burning bodies behind. The Soviet army found these bodies and did two things: they bombed the bunker, then flooded it, then covered it in concrete (therefore it is now a parking lot), and they buried the half burned body of Hitler in an unmarked grave (he was later relocated).

What would a trip to Berlin be without going to the wall? Well, I don't have the answer to that question, because I did see the wall.

  

There are other parts of it that are more colorful, but I didn't take any pictures of those (I'm a bad tourist).

Between the years of 1961 and 1989, 161 people were shot trying to go over the wall.

Check Point Charlie was our next stop. Take a look...

      

No, that sign is not the original. Yes, you see a KFC and a McDonalds. Yes, that is a random American soldier with no significance whatsoever staring down at the formerly Soviet-controlled side, and yes, there is a random insignificant Soviet soldier on the other side staring down the formerly American-controlled side. Yes, that is awkward. It's become a total tourist trap and nothing about it is original, so we moved on.

To Humboldt University! This is where Einstein and Carl Marx and other notable smart people taught.



This is also the site of the infamous book burnings. Check this sign out: it says something like "When books burn, people will burn too" in the top right corner.



Can you see what is crazy about that quote? You don't even have to speak German to know.

Did you find it yet?

Okay I'll tell you. That quote was said in 1820... a century before the prophecy came true.

The students of Humboldt University hold a daily book sale on their campus. I wanted to buy one, but they were all in German! Surprising, I know.

Blair and I hung out in the area for a bit, then went to a bar to chill some more. Here's our hipster pictures:

    

The next day, we had a slow morning, and went to Cafe Anna Blume. Of course we opted for the three tiered breakfast buffet for two. And we definitely opted for the chocolate cheesecake afterwards.




We went back to the bar we were at the night before, and retrieved the souvenirs I absentmindedly left there... I got super lucky that no one stole it or threw it away!

Then we went to Blair's friend's recommendation, a place called Mano. We drank beer and wine in a treehouse, and felt very hipster again. Check us out:

    

Expect to see these pictures on instagram very soon.

For our last event in Berlin, we went to the Markthalle Neun (street food market) to chow down on some Currywurst (a Berlin classic of marinara sauce, sausage, and curry powder. A delicacy, really) and some delicious homemade ice cream.



And then we were off to the airport! Lots of plans for Copenhagen, and it's already been a warm and welcoming city... well, okay, it's pretty dang cold here, but you know what I mean. I'm also well aware that it is extremely possible I will meet many Danes who are potentially related to me. No wonder this place feels like home ;) 

Cheesin' in Amsterdam, Strolling in Berlin

Sadly, our time in Amsterdam has come to a close. That's okay though, because I am writing to you from Berlin!

Let's backtrack. Yesterday was our last day in de Nederlands. and it was truly wonderful. In the morning, we went to a little pancake house (one of the three thousand) to have breakfast. I got a Brini which is a thicker pancake, and Blair got a traditional thin Dutch pancake, just like a crepe! They were delicious and so filling. Take a look:



With full stomachs, we walked over to the Anne Frank Huis (house). We had tickets ahead of time, which was a lifesaver because if you don't get tickets beforehand, you wait in line starting at 3:30 and that line can wrap around the whole block! We walked right in though, and started our journey through her life and where she lived for two years. The museum did a great job of really telling her story thoroughly, as well as keeping the artifacts (like the wall where Otto marked Anne and Margot's height over the years--Anne grew a lot and Margot didn't) preserved and well presented. We even got to see the actual journal, and her other notebooks! She was such a beautiful, kind spirited person. The fact that this one singular story, that is similar to 6 million other stories, can change people's perceptions forever is astounding but also very satisfying. That's inspirational, and gives me a lot of hope.

After Anne's casa, we hopped on a canal cruise! One hour of sitting in a long, flat little boat listening to funny narration about the city in Dutch, German, and English was exactly what we needed.

      

Once that was done, we hung out in a neat cafe for a bit, then headed over to the airport. We hopped on our little EasyJet plane and two hours later got off in Berlin!!

Once we got to our hostel (took a little longer than expected... because Berlin is geographically much larger than Amsterdam) we refreshed and then headed out on a mission to see a jazz club play at a club called Edelweiss (yes, I had the Sound of Music song stuck in my head all night, thanks for asking). Only that was about 45 minutes away, and mind you it was already midnight, so we instead decided to just take a stroll (what else do you do in Berlin at midnight on a Tuesday??).

We happened upon this cool little bar that I couldn't even tell you the name of, and stayed for a few beers. It felt like a very local experience, because everyone there was definitely a resident (we heard lots of "unsts" and such). There was a group of friends in the back playing pool, which kept us entertained for quite a while. The aesthetic was pretty awesome too:

   

We were starving, but figured that, given it was Tuesday night at now 1:30 am, most people were out strolling like us, not working in a restaurant--but alas! Our trusty corner Kebob place was still open, and boy was it yummy.

If anyone has any requests for me to bring back any German chocolates, please send me no less than 100 Euro, and don't be surprised when most of your chocolate has bites out of it.