This is the end, I promise.

So maybe I'm just addicted to blogging, but I didn't think that hating on the entire airport system was an appropriate way to end this little literary project of mine. I just got a phone call from my favorite little Portuguese man at the airport (keep in mind that it is 11:50 pm on Christmas) saying that my bags will be here in the morning!! It's kinda like Santa Claus, only .... not.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a little time to reflect on the abroad experience, once and for all. I'm really enjoying being home (more than I thought I would, actually) but it IS strange. I drove a car yesterday. I got confused trying to find things in my kitchen. I went past my high school and for the first time felt no sort of burning attachment to it. (Yeahhh, I know, I kind of hold onto things for a while. Prepare yourselves.) The little novelties will wear off soon enough, but these past 4 months have changed something in all of us.

Apparently, only 2% of students study abroad. Seems crazy, considering DIS alone had like 500-600 kids in the program. Obviously, I feel that the other 98% are missing out. The experiences we've had can't be put into words. In the opening ceremony in August, an intern suggested that before the semester began, our best stories were something to the effect of "Dude, remember that time you got drunk and fell down?" He assured us that the quality of our stories would increase ... tenfold. Between everyone at DIS, I'm pretty sure we've seen it all. Gypsies trying to sell us their babies, skinny dippers in the fountain by Tivoli, parties consisting solely of deaf people, Romanians offering to share their STDs with us, getting acupunctured by a Danish GPs, european raves in solid white, breaking & entering, 6 year old host brothers giving us the big F.U. .. the list goes on and on.

But beyond producing crazy stories, studying abroad has opened our eyes, made us appreciate life, and helped us to be ourselves. Being given an experience that I knew had a limited time frame definitely encouraged me to make the most of it. I basically doubled the number of close friends I've made in college in one semester, because we were all forced to be less inhibited. The whole "I'm never going to see these people again" mindset really allowed us to open up to each other, and show off how strange we can be. And now, as a result, I BETTER be seeing these people again!

So to everyone, thank you for the laughs, for the embarassing photos. Thank you for cracking up with me during class, and complimenting my doodles of elephants and rocks. Thanks for the hygge nights and the wild nights. Thank you for spotting me the 100 kroner when you knew I needed it. Thanks for being fully engaged in the experience, and for allowing me to be as well. Thanks for the memories! They will last a lifetime... and just in case they don't, God knows I have around 3,000 pictures to refresh them ;)




Hej hej, for real this time, & good luck to future travelers.

I'll be back.


- Caitlin

The Nightmare Before Christmas/Phil-a-delphia Freedom

Mannnn. I thought I had ended this blog too nicely to add in any sort of "P.S." or "Oh by the way..." but I've been presented with a story that needs to be told. I chose to fly home during one of the biggest snowstorms of the decade, and prices were paid.

So, I woke up at 6am on Sunday morning & Iben and I carried my overweight (maybe even obese) bags to the car, and drove to the airport in the snow. I should have known our experience would be interesting when the line at the check-in counter extended back into the next terminal. I also had chosen to fly at the end of the climate conference, when everyone else and their mothers were leaving CPH. I checked in, met up with Becky, Sara, Megan, and this kid Ben, who I incidentally met for the first time as we were leaving Copenhagen. We were all on the 10:10 flight to Frankfurt, and Ben, Becky, Sara and I were continuing on to the land of soft pretzels & cheesesteaks.

The flight was a little delayed, so when we landed we had to hustle to our next gate. Ben checked the gate # on his boarding pass, and we blindly followed, only to realize that he was flying to Philly on Lufthansa, and we were supposed to be taking U.S. Airways. Didn't matter that we were late though, as we soon found out our flight had been cancelled. That's when the real adventure began.

The 3 of us were sent on a wild goose chase around the Frankfurt airport, in pursuit of the U.S. Air desk. We finally got there, and found a 4 hour long line to get re-booked and all that. At one point, Sara asked some official looking man if he thought we'd be able to get home for Christmas...... to which he responded, "Pshhh I don't even know if I will be home for Christmas." SO reassuring.

When it was finally our turn to get some help, we discovered that flights weren't leaving from Frankfurt to Philly until Wednesday (keep in mind it was Sunday) but we learned that we could get home on Tuesday if we re-routed to Lisbon, Portugal and then flew to Newark. We jumped on the opportunity to get home ASAP.... plus, Portugal? That's kinda cool, right? In hindsight, we probably should have just stuck it out the extra day in Frankfurt, but that wouldn't have made as good of a story.

Our next flight was delayed by a few hours, and we didn't land in Lisbon until 2:30 local time. We waited at baggage claim, where Becky got both of her suitcases, but Sara and I didn't see either of ours. This began the process of fighting with an army of Portuguese airport workers. We had remained surprisingly calm this entire time.... but by 5am, after being deferred to a million different places in the airport, I had just about lost it. The man at the Lufthansa desk kept trying to tell me that my final destination was Philly "because that's what it says on the ticket." I hate being treated like an idiot, and I hadn't slept in 24 hours, so believe me when I tell you I was practically climbing over the desk, with tears in my eyes, yelling and ready to strangle the guy. I remained all fired up until I called my Dad, who was just like, "go get yourself to a hotel, we'll figure it out tomorrow, call me when you're ready."

We got a cab, but legitimately no one in Portugal speaks English (and our proficiency in Spanish was more useless than we thought it would be). We ended up just saying "hotel" and giving hand signals to indicate "3 stars?" We didn't want to spend TOO much money. Well, after a drive to God-knows-where, Portugal, we were left at a strange hotel run by a single man that had lots of mirrors and smelled oddly like my SAT tutor's house from when I was 16. The cab driver was really nice, and handled most of the check in process for us. Then, we were led to a dark room that I swear was colder than the temperature outside. We slept from roughly 6:30am to 3:00 pm. Much needed.

Monday was spent basically killing time. We would have liked to have seen the city of Lisbon, but we didn't really know where we were, and didn't want to mess with too much transportation. So we settled for a pretty gross meal at a cafe, and a little place where we got an hour of internet for a euro. Not bad, not bad. Then we watched some strange movie on Portuguese MTV & slept..... again.

The flight to Newark was great. We left on time, I watched 2 really good movies, got a surprisingly good meal (way better than I expected from TAP Portugal.....which I had never heard of). Unsurprisingly, when we landed our bags were still nowhere to be found. So poor Becky had to wait with Sara's and my parents for a couple hours while the 2 of us fought with more airline people, all of whom wanted to blame our problems on someone else. Finally, we filed a claim for the bags, put it all behind us, and crossed our fingers that we would hear something in the next couple of days. The nightmare was over, & I was in my beloved state of NJ.

UNTIL..... we were around exit 5 on the Turnpike & got a flat tire. REALLY?! We had to awkwardly chill on the side of the road until a flatbed came and picked us up and we rode way up high (still inside the car) to the nearest NTB station. Meanwhile, Becky's mom and uncle were at my house being entertained by my unsuspecting 16 yr old brother.

Ultimately, it was all okay, and we all got home. The only problem is I still don't have my bags, which contain all of my clothes, all of my souvenirs from the past semester, my acne medicine, and all of my Christmas presents for EVERYONE. Booooo. I called the airline today, but got nothing. They are PROBABLY still in Frankfurt, but realistically they could be in Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Newark, or Philadelphia. Ideally Philadelphia..... but most likely Frankfurt or Lisbon. Just so happens that we were forced to file the claim with TAP, and the workers are all Portuguese and not as easy to communicate with.

So for now, I'll just be sitting, waiting, wishing (thank you Jack Johnson) and enjoying Christmas in the land of the free with my family & friends. It's just a shame that I'll have to be naked the whole time since I am without my wardrobe.

This is not the most positive way to end the blog. Maybe I'll be back. But at any rate, Happy Holidays to everyone && I hope that the rest of you make it home easier than I did!

THE END OF AN ERA / Lessons Learned

I think it is safe to say that I cried more last night than I have all semester (granted, that's not even a lot). Now that the goodbyes & the tears are out of my system... it's time for one last blog post.

This past week has been, in a word, INCREDIBLE. I turned in my final paper for art history on Tuesday, and then I was completely done with school for the semester! Monday night, Becky came over to say goodbye to my host family... and we went out on a limb & decided to cook them a good, Amurrrican meal (burgers and mac&cheese, obviously). We used Martha Stewart's tried and true recipe for the macaroni... and even though Denmark doesn't have half of the ingredients, it turned out surprisingly well. Tuesday night, I went to Becky's house to say my first goodbyes - to her host family. Afterwards, we met up with some of the other girls and went through our traditional Tuesday night routines. I insisted that we swing by the Moose so we could grafitti the walls (I left a note for Tara to find in the spring!) and of course we finished up the night with some karaoke. Even though Sam's Bar was being mean to us the last night, and cheating us out of our songs, it still holds a very special place in my heart. <3

Wednesday was a day of great exploration. I met up with Ariel in the morning and we wandered the red light district, and ventured out to some part of Copenhagen that I had never even seen before! Crazy that that can still happen. It was cold & snowy, and it was at this point that I realized I was getting a cold, that I have managed to keep relatively under control this whole crazy week. For dinner, I met up with our little group of Rome friends at Chili Milli, and it was wonderful. HYGGE!

Thursday was spent returning books, loitering around DIS and the city in general. I did some extremely last minute Christmas shopping, and bought myself a little Danish flag :)

And then, there was Friday. We all assembled at some theater at 2:30 for the DIS concluding ceremony. It was really, REALLY cheesy, but I loved every second of it. They had a string orchestra from the University of Copenhagen, some presentation of awards, and funny speeches about the "you just saw the whole world.... now what?" issue. The DIS choir sang "Don't Stop Believin'" and Jamie and I were like allllll choked up, but pretty much everyone else was laughing at how corny it was. There was a little reception after, with some cookies and glogg ("what's better than wine? HOT wine!") I said some goodbyes there, but it was super crowded so unfortunately I missed a lot of people.

I came back and made pasta with my favorite pesto sauce ever, that my host family is obsessed with, and got ready to go back out. I took my final ride on the 6A to norreport, to go to the DIS party. It was oookaayyy I guess. I was hoping that more people would be there, but there got to be a pretty solid crowd by the end. I started with the waterworks pretty early, when Allie and Carolyn left because they had morning flights. It was at that moment that it finally hit me that it was the end. I'm not usually THE most sentimental person ever, but goodbyes really get me.

Eventually, we made our way to La Hacienda, a club right near DIS that I had never been to before. Fortunately, there were tons of my people there, too. Medina (a popular Danish singer) was performing, and it was all around tons of fun. Until I had to say goodbye, of course. There were lots of hugs, and then I got on the night bus and put on my "songs to cry to" playlist on my ipod (DON'T JUDGE ME). Ahahaha it's really stupid because like half of new friends go to Gettysburg and I'll see them in 3-4 weeks anyway, but it was the other half... and the random acquaintances that I'll never see again... that REALLY made me sad.

AHhhh this is getting long. Today is a packing/hanging out with the host fam day. I just said goodbye to Thomas and the dogs, as they are headed to Jutland until late tomorrow. Anst is coming over tonight and Iben is making my favorite Indian food :) Happiness is Denmark.

------------------------------

Lastly, I stole this idea from Allie.... I have learned SO much more this semester than I have in the past 4 semesters at Gettysburg. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration... but I have learned a lot. Academically, and otherwise, we are all much, much wiser now. So here goes.




- Danish is an impossible language.
- However, I have mastered the basics: "Hi," "My name is," "Can I have a...?", "I don't know", "What?", "Beer," and "Ham and Cheese."
- 2 minute showers are possible.
- Pickled herring doesn't taste nearly as bad as it sounds.
- The easiest job in the world is that of a meteorologist in Denmark. You can say whatever you want, and most likely, at some point in the day, you'll be right.
- Underwear is a luxury, not a necessity.
- There is no correct answer to the health care issue.
- As dumb as this sounds, the Euro is NOT the same as the Dollar. And kroners are not monopoly money.
- Don't eat licorice here.
- A little impulse never hurt anyone. A little rationality never hurt anyone either.
- Dryers are bad for the climate. Cold, crispy clothes are the Danish way.
- I am even more awkward than I previously thought.
- HIV numbers are low in Scandinavia.... but really high in Estonia. (Which kind of debunks Nat's "it's because they wear more clothes" theory)
- The 6A is the best bus ever. The 82N is the worst.
- It is socially acceptable to date someone who is half your age, plus 7.
- I can pass as Danish very easily, but only when I dress nicely.
- You shouldn't travel to places just because there's a song about them. A wise irishman once told me "There's a song about Alabama... but I would never want to go there!"
- It is pretty easy to convince Europeans that NJ is the best state ever. I like that about them.
- "Party in the U.S.A." can be easily changed to fit any country, and the outcome is always hilarious.
- "Kulor boots" are just as essential as "frat flats."
- Sketching buildings is the best way to understand them.
- St. Peder's Bageri and Hey Bagel make the world a better place.
- If you put your mind to it, you really CAN do anything. (or anyONE ahahahah jk jk jk)
- "The simplest explanation is always the American explanation," and the world is made up of humans, microorganisms, and elephants and rocks. (Courtesy of Peter Christensen)
- Life is wonderful, and shouldn't be wished away.

Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Don't worry, this isn't my final blog post. Many things still need to be accomplished before I cap this off for good. However, the thought of leaving the greatest semester of my life behind in a couple of days reminded me of this poem from like 7th grade. You're right, I have zero interest in poetry what-so-ever, but this one felt appropriate to share:



Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
Then Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.

- Robert Frost

Every day, a new experience

For as much as this feels like home, it amazes me how foreign Copenhagen can feel every now and then. The whole city has been a little out of whack lately, due to the COP15 Climate Conference that conveniently ends at the same time as our program. Every now and then, I'll hop on a bus and it will just decide to change its route or something. Love it when that happens. But yeah... the climate thing is a really big deal over here, and it's actually been really cool to be right in the center of it. Radhuspladsen (the main square) has a stage for concerts, etc. and a giant globe thing. There's a melting "ice bear" in Gammeltorv... all kinds of crazy stuff. Protests tend to happen right under my classrooms on Vestergade. Makes taking finals interesting for sure.

Unfortnately, I haven't had much of an opportunity to experience the climate hype, due to all the work I've had this week. Between Thursday & Friday alone I had a project, a paper, 3 finals, and my final Visual Journal to be turned in. STRESS. I mean, that might be an exaggeration since we all know how little I like to stress about anything, but it was tiring to say the least.

So we chose to celebrate the end of the week with something familiar: The Nutcracker. That's about as familiar as it gets, right? Like, how many times have I seen the Nutcracker? WELL. You haven't had the full experience until you've seen the Danish Nutcracker.... or should I say nøddeknækkeren? THIS version of the Nutcracker would have been better appreciated on some form of drugs. There was surprisingly little dancing, but don't worry, this was compensated by the inclusion of monkeys, bikes, and a giant Easter bunny looking thing. That's the Danish sense of humor for ya. Usually, I can appreciate this.... but you don't mess with the Nutcracker. I was pissed.

What does not belong here?!?!!

Afterwards, despite our exhaustion, we rallied for our last Friday at Kulør. It was ......... typical. Hahah um except for the part where I made the poor choice of wearing heels. Given my size, and my coordination skills, I am just simply not meant to wear heels. ESPECIALLY on cobblestone. I have no idea how the Danes do it. Let's just say that I have multiple bruises. Actually, I have a confession. I took them off for a little while on the way home. I know that's gross, and it was FREEZING, and it's going to be a miracle if I don't catch some form of the plague, but better that than a broken ankle. Seriously. Those shoes have been retired.

This morning, the host fam went "into the forest" to get their Christmas tree. AND THEY DIDN'T WAKE ME UP. I mean, I guess they figured a normal American college student wouldn't be too thrilled about being woken up after a late night to go drive 45 min. into the middle of nowhere in pursuit of a tree. But I'm secretly very bummed out. Christmas trees are my favorite :) Hygge, in a nutshell.

Okay, I promise I'll write at least once more before this blog comes to a close. In the meantime, I'll be writing one more paper, experiencing as much as I can in my last week, and continuing to kid myself into thinking that I'm ready to get out of here.

Ca va, toi!

So this will be the last of my travel blogs.... meaning the last of my travels outside Denmark. I got back from Paris late Monday night, and have been doing work ever since. Finals are this week, but I have a little over an hour between classes right now, so obviously I have to prioritize and write my blog. It's a little difficult right now because I'm on a Danish computer at school, and everytime I try to type an apostrophe, I end up getting one of these: ø

Becky and I left for our Paris adventure on Thursday night, and neither of us were really feeling up to it. We had been traveling for essentially an entire month straight, with only a week and a half in Copenhagen. BUT Paris is a must-see, and we decided that we were willing to rally. I mean, not that we had a choice.... being the genius that I am I never put cancellation insurance on my flights.

The first order of business was finding our hostel. The second order of business was finding a crepe. We fell in love. If we counted correctly, I'm pretty sure Becky managed to eat a grand total of 9 crepes in the 4 days that we were there haha. But anyway, our hostel was called "Yound and Happy" and it was on Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter. The location was definitely ideal, and the name led us to believe that the hostel would be full of young, happy people. We had been pretty lucky with hostels up until this point, so I guess it's only fair that we got stuck with a stinker. Well, really, it was just cleanliness that was the issue. I know I'm kind of high maintenance, but there were multiple mysterious stains on my sheets (which we had to PAY FOR by the way) and the bathroom floors were covered in some suspicious little black curly hairs. Yummmmmm.

Young and.... dirty??

We managed to suck it up for 4 nights, and it was worth it. Friday morning, we wandered around a little bit, checked out Notre Dame (didn't find Quasimodo though) and waited for the rest of the Gettysburg crew to arrive. Jenn, Jamie, and the Megs showed up around 1 and we spent the remainder of the day being fabulous and shopping on Champs-Elysees.... probably the best shopping street in the world. We picked the right time of year to come, too, because there was a huge Christmas market set up.... kind of like the one in Bath. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to BUY anything (see bank account) but walking around was enjoyable enough. There were lots of pretty lights & all that good stuff too.

Notre Dame, the tree, and Becky

Lights!

We decided to stick to the area of our hostel in the Latin Quarter for dinner almost every night to save money. We found a pretty good place the first night and got a 3 course meal for €10-13. Okay, maybe that's not THAT cheap... but hey, it's Paris. Afterwards, Meg led us to an apartment where 2 other Gettysburg girls are apparently living for the semester. They were celebrating a birthday, and there were randomly like 10 other Gburgers there. So weird. We hung out for a while, roamed the streets, and then ended up just going home. Jenn, Meg, and I didn't feel like waiting (or paying) for a taxi, so we walked ourselves home from the Bastille area. On the way, we encountered some interesting French men who were asking for directions. They clearly knew where they were going... but they were just like "ohhhh we're confused! We'll just follow you to where you are going!" Ummm, nej tak. Jenn went into teacher mode on them and made good and clear the path that they actually needed to take.

Gettysburg in Paris

Saturday morning, I insisted that we do my favorite thing ever: the NewEurope free walking tour. Once again, did not disappoint... but our tour guide, Jacqueline, was CRAZY and almost everything turned into some sort of sexual innuendo. Fortunately free tours appeal to people my age, so no one seemed particularly horrified.

I'm Louvre'n it! (bahaha)

That afternoon, we met up with one of Meg's friends in Montmarte (I think that's how you spell it? I don't feel like looking it up.) which is where Pigalle st., the red light district, is located. We ended up sitting on the stairs outside of a big cathedral (this name is also escaping me) listening to some live music. It was at the top of a hill, and we had a view of the entire city. Perfect.


That night, we went to the Eiffel tower, fully intending to climb up. However, we were too late by like 5 minutes. So sad, but I ended up saving €13 so I can't complain. We got more crepes (ahaha...) watched the light show, and took tons of unecessary photos. At one point, I was just standing there harmlessly, and all of a sudden there was a guy in my face saying something in French. And then in a split second he was gone. I was so confused. Our French speaking friends informed me that he had said "ca va toi", which apparently translates to something like "you're good." Whaaateverrr.



The first Sunday of every month is free museum day in Paris. (Good to know if you are traveling on a budget!! Of course, this was just coincidence for us bc we obviously don't do much research) UNFORTUNATELY, this past week or so, the vast majority of the public museums in Paris have been on strike. Go figure. We did managed to get into at least a small part of the Louvre, as well as l'Orangerie... so that was good. I saw a few of the paintings that I've been studying in my art history class this semester so I was really excited about that, but Becky and I agreed that our attention spans for museums are not what they should be. Plus, we had gotten caught in the pouring rain and were all wet and squishy. My wonderful Old Navy boots are now completely destroyed. So we ended up just going back to the hostel, showering, and hanging out for a while. (I mean... not that a shower in that hostel gets you clean or anything.)

All of the other girls had left, and once again it was just me and Becky. We decided to be really cheap/really French for dinner, and got crepes, french fries, and brie cheese. Oh, it was healthy too. We saved the cheese for last.. and when I opened it, something smelled AWFUL. Conversation at this point went something like this:

Me: Ew, Becky did you fart? (Come on, this is not that out of the question)
Becky: NO? Oh my god, it's the cheese.
Me: Ew!! Do you think it's okay to eat?
Becky: I don't know, you eat it first.
(we sit and stare at the cheese, alternately smelling it and laughing for like 10 minutes)
Me: Maybe we should text Jenn and ask her?
Becky: Yeah, go for it.

So we texted Jen, our resident France expert. She just laughed at us and told us that all French cheese smells bad. We pretended to be reassured and ate the cheese, but we were definitely nervous and awkward the entire time. Kind of took away from the moment, you know?

Monday was kind of a waste, unfortunately. Because the museums were closed, because we were out of money, and because we had packed everything else into the first 3 days, we esentially had nothing left to do. And our flight wasn't until 9:15pm. We wandered around the red light district for a little bit, but ultimately ended up back in the common area of our hostel hanging out with some strange man whose name we do not know but that I like to call Howard, who is in his late 30s and has been traveling the world for a few years now. He really was weird, but he had some great stories about how he met Obama's grandmother in Kenya and all kinds of crazy stuff like that. So that kept us entertained until it was time for the airport.

All in all, I thought Paris was a great city... but I would really like to go back sometime when I have more energy... and money. Up until this weekend I will be scrambling to get the bulk of my work done so that I can have the last week to hang out in CPH with my friends and host fam. I am going to miss this place so much, it's not even funny. I do not envy the people at home who get to deal with my depression once the fairy tale semester is over.

Okay! Time for my last Visual Journal class everrrr. Stay tuned for at least one more blog post in the next week or so. I haven't written much about actual Denmark lately... and there is BIG STUFF going on here, with the COP15 Climate Conference and all that jazz. I just realized this, but it's going to be reeeaalllyyy fun trying to fly out of here on the 20th with all of the climate delegates and world leaders. Yep.


Vi ses!

Bathtime & Transportation Adventures

Hello again, and Happy TAKsgiving! Ahahah sad I missed it in America, but a British Thanksgiving isn't such a bad alternative. Last Wednesday, I set out on a solo adventure for England/Great Britain/The UK/whatever you want to call it, to visit Rachael. She is studying in Bath, which I discovered is not the EASIEST place in the world to get to from Copenhagen. It was my first time traveling alone, and in order to get there I had to:

1. Take a bus, then the metro to the CPH airport.

2. Fly to Milan. The flight changed gates on me not once, not twice, but THREE times.

3. Exit the Milan airport completely, go through check-in/security/passport control all over again. (Sketchiest airport I've ever seen, btw) Fortunately, I found Hannah from my core class on my flight, so even though we weren't continuing to the same place, we kind of helped each other figure out what the heck we were supposed to do with ourselves.

4. Fly from Milan to Bristol.

5. Take a bus from the Bristol airport to the Bristol Temple Meads train station.

6. Take a train from B.T.M. to Bath. Only.... the machine wasn't accepting my card, because it doesn't have some special chip in it, and I didn't have any cash. I called Rachael and she told me to just chance it and not buy a ticket. But we all know how my luck is with THAT sort of thing. Fortunately, a lovely British man ended up buying my ticket for me. So nice!!!!

Yah, so I finally got there & was pretty pleased with myself for making it that far. Rachael and her friend Greg picked me up at the train station, and we wandered around Bath a little bit, saw the Abbey at night, etc. But it started to rain and I was SOOO tired, so we went back to their house. Rachael's program has only 50 American students, and they all live in these little flats together. Great in theory, but I can see how it can get old pretty quickly. It made me really thankful to be in the DIS program, where I'm still meeting new Americans all the time, and can escape to my own little Danish house if I don't want to be around them.

Bath Abbey @ night. Rachael and Greg are in there too, if you look really closely!


Thursday, we got up and did the most touristy thing EVER: the Roman Baths. Entry came with an audio tour, but we kind of breezed through the museum pretty quickly. I have seen so much Roman stuff lately it's not even funny. Probably the highlight (or lowlight, if you will) was the free glass of bath water that we got to drink. It's supposed to have "healing powers" or something..... but it was warm & tasted like eggs. And you all know how I feel about eggs. GROSSSSSSS.



Roman Baths!

Mmmm... Egg water.

Then, Rachael took me hiking, essentially, along this canal path that's kind of hidden. People like to run there, and I can see why because it was beautiful.... but also extremely muddy. Unfortunately, the only shoes I brought were my Uggs, so needless to say I was being a princess and walking SUPER carefully the whole time. We ended up going what I want to say was probably 5-6 miles. A distance that seems a LOT shorter when you are running.


Rachael had class from 4-6, and then we went to see Nicolas Cage "light the city." We got there really late and it was really crowded, so no... I didn't REALLY get to see him. But the lights were pretty, so way to go, Nic. Afterwards, we went to the ASE Thanksgiving dinner, which ... ehhh... wasn't as good as a home cooked Thanksgiving, but it was close enough. I saw an odd selection of people from my school, many of whom I didn't even know went to Gettysburg! You'd think we'd all know each other by now, but apparently not!


After dinner, I went with a bunch of Rachael's friends to a pub called the Huntsman. It was fun... especially since I found a lot of strange connections where her friends have friends who are in MY program, etc. Small world stuff, you know. I will have you know, that I only purchased one drink, but I wasn't even really able to enjoy it. APPARENTLY, the Brits have this rule where someone can toss a coin in your drink at any time if you're not looking, and they say "save the Queen, save the Queen!!" And then you have to drink it really fast and essentially..... save the queen. Being the rookie that I am, I accidentally SWALLOWED the Queen. I mean, I coughed her back up. But it was game over for me at that point. I spent the remainder of the night just trying to take revenge on people.


Friday morning, we got up and explored the Bath Chirstmas market, which is apparently a pretty big deal. It was set up right in the center of town, by the Bath Abbey, and there were tons of little stands set up and it was all decorated and SO CUTE. Rach and I got some hot apple cider, did some Xmas shopping, and sampled a lot of free cheese. (Ok, maybe that was just me.)


Saturday was the big day -- London! Definitely the New York City of Europe, if you ask me. It was cool to be there, but it's not actually at the top of my list of favorite cities. I definitely prefer Copenhagen.... but maybe I'm biased. Anyway, we did a bus tour (rode on the top of a double-decker!! so London-esque!) that enabled us to see a lot of the touristy sites. I took about a million pictures of Big Ben, who incidentally is NOT that big. Our bus tour included a little boat ride out to the Tower Bridge (what most people call the "London Bridge") but it gets dark so early over here, that we ended up seeing the bridge all lit up. 'Twas nice.



LONDON!!


We met up with Becky, Sara, and Stephanie for dinner.... they were on the DIS trip to London for the weekend. They said it didn't compare to Brome, but who could have expected it to?! Anyway, I'm really glad Rachael got to meet them, but the place we went for dinner was overpriced and NOT good. Oh well, it happens.


Afterwards, Rachael and I took the train back to Bath.... and even though our train was delayed, we still ended up missing it. So we had to hang out with the gross pigeons for an hour and wait for the next one. THEN, there was some sort of construction or something, so we got kicked off the train a few stops early and had to take a bus back to Bath. We didn't end up getting back until 1:00 am. Oof.

Finally, I left Sunday morning to do the transportation adventure again. Only this time, my layover was in Barcelona!! I spent a solid 4-5 hours in the Barcelona airport, where I tried to brush up my Spanish a little bit. I even stepped outside the airport so that I could say I've technically been to Spain! After all of that though, I was SO ready to come back to Denmark. The kicker is, I LEAVE AGAIN tomorrow night for Paris. I absolutely love all of this traveling, but I'm slowly burning out. Only 2.5 more weeks of living my life at 100 mph! (Ahh, that's actually really sad) I have so much to be TAKful for. <3


Vi ses!

- Caitlin

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

(Sad news: my blog won't let me upload Berlin pics... but I'll add them later, promise!)


Okay, once we landed back in CPH, this started to seem like a bad idea. We were soooo tired and the rest of our friends were done with their travels for the week. Becky's host dad, Martin, picked us up in his brand new Mini Cooper and we went back to their house to drop off some dirty laundry and eat dinner. That was all we really needed to get our second wind, and we went right back to the airport to catch our EasyJet flight to Berlin.


The flight kind of felt like something out of the Twighlight Zone. Everything was orange, the flight attendants looked like drag queens, there were strange men cackling behind us, and the whole plane itself was making weird noises. But, we survived! We landed around 10:30, but got kind of confused trying to get to our hostel... so we didn't really make it there until close to midnight. We were supposed to meet up with Liz & Julia, but they were already out so we just went to bed.


The hostel was called "The Generator," and as far as hostels go, it was pretty amazing. I feel like I should go write a nice review on hostelworld or something. First of all it was HUGE, pretty clean, had a really solid free breakfast, its own bar, etc. It was probably just because I was so tired, but I got a great night's sleep. We woke up pretty early, got breakfast, and went out to explore the city.


We decided to do the free walking tour, the same one Becky and I did in Dublin and that Courtney did in Prague. I didn't think it was possible, but this one was even better! We should have been tipped off by the hundreds of people that gathered for it. We all had to be herded around and divided up into groups. I don't know if it was just because of the 20th anniversary of the wall coming down, or if the Berlin one is just really popular, but for a little while I was afraid we were going to be turned away.


I'm glad we were so far back in line, because we ended up with the best tour guide everrrr. His name was James. He was kind of hipster... AND he was British. I fell in love. But even if it weren't for James, the tour still would have been super interesting. I'm not much of a history person, and I've already mentioned my attention span for tours like this.... but I was fully attentive all FIVE HOURS that it went on. Berlin, and Germany in general, really has a fascinating history. We covered everything from before the Prussian Empire, to the Great Depression, The Nazis & WWII, and of course, the Berlin Wall. We saw the place where Hitler committed suicide in his bunker (it's now just an ordinary parking lot), the remains of the wall, socialist propaganda, the Holocaust memorial (which was really awesome), lots of ARCHITECTURE, aaaand as an added bonus....... the hotel where M.J. infamously dangled a baby out of the window. So needless to say, we covered a lotttt of ground, but it was good because we were only there for one full day.


We finally met up with Julia & Liz and went to dinner (definitely our cheapest meal of the break). We all swapped our ridiculous stories from the previous 2 weeks, and then decided to go make some more memories by doing the pub crawl run by the tour company. It was a Saturday night, so unlike the one in Dublin.... LOTS of people showed up. We met all kinds of people, including some boys from Muhlenberg who had kind of accidentally been following Liz & Julia and their friends around Europe. I also met an 18 year old British guy named Michael, who was really interesting to talk to, because instead of going to "university" right after high school, he worked as a bartender in London and saved up money to travel for a while before getting back on track. Thought that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, doing something as touristy as a pub crawl kind of prevented us from meeting German people.... but trust me we did our fair share of that in Munich :)


In the morning, we left the hostel and all we knew is that we had a bus to catch at 11:30. We didn't know WHERE we were supposed to find this bus... or really any other information about it, so it turned into a pretty serious adventure. After taking the train and sprinting all over the place with our huge backpacks, we managed to find the right bus at literally 11:29, and we probably took the last 5 seats. SO lucky. That was just the beginning of the adventure though, because we took the bus to a ferry, and then took another bus to get back to Copenhagen. Tiring is an understatement, but that's how we liveee.


I guess this brings me to the end of travel break.... and to my formal announcement. After I graduate college, I will be taking a year off, moving to Berlin, working as a tour guide, and marrying James. You think I'm kidding. Watch me.


Hahah but in all seriousness... we didn't get enough time in Berlin, and I would love to go back. I just recently found out that that's where at least part of my German ancestry comes from, which I think is kinda cool. And no, I probably won't marry James.... but maybe he can at least be my role model. He was a mechanical engineering student, and I'm sure he'll return to that, but right now he is just living the life, telling the story of Berlin, and raking in the tips. I think I could handle that. Leaving Europe is going to break my heart.... so I have to start planning my return to make myself feel better. I've already put off my papers by researching jobs with the tour company. A girl can dream.

... do as the BROmans do!

So we left off with the antics of Tuesday night. How appropriate that we would have to get up early again Wednesday morning and take 2 metros and a train to the ancient port city, Ostia. Roman public transportation is NOTHING like Copenhagen, that's for sure. It reminded me more of the U in Munich that we took to Oktoberfest, only this was dirtier... and it wasn't crowded for any special occasion. Just a normal day in the life. I clung onto my purse and my classmates for dear life. One of my friends (not on this trip) got pickpocketed on the Italian metro, so we had to watch out.

We loved Ostia!! I mean, I'm sure it helped that we had a gorgeous sunny day, and the whole place was surrounded by fields of wild daisies (no joke). So we frolicked around, did a few more sketches, listened to several Broman lectures, ate lunch, and were on our way. I seriously could have stayed there all day, laying out in the sun with all the ruins. Glorious.

Ostia Antica

Then, we braved the public transportation again and went back to the Capitol and its museum for a little while. Everyone was pretty tired, so Bro set us free a little early. Except for Becky and me, that is. For being his class reps and partners in crime, Bro had planned to treat us to drinks and talk about how the trip was going. Knowing us, it should come as no surprise that we asked if we could have gelato instead haha .. and he got it! Awww. I really struggle through these class rep meetings because I can't take the man seriously... so Becky did a reasonably good job of trying to break the awkward silence by asking him lots of questions.

Thursday was our last full day in Rome (SO SAD!) but the weather was perfect again. We did another "Group Walk and tour led by Thyge," (as it says in our itinerary) including the Pyramid of Sestius, the Caracalla baths, the Circus Maximus, and Forum Boarium. We stuck our hands in the mouth of this Lion that's supposed to bite your hand off if you're a liar? ... but as far as I know everyone still has both of their hands.

The moment of truth....

We split off again for lunch, and our little posse found another great pasta place (guess it's not that hard to do). We had the majority of the day on our own, which was soo nice. Of course we got gelato, did some shopping, had a really unnecessary photo shoot with a life-size Pinocchio... you know, all the normal stuff. We took another power nap, and Becky and I prepared our class rep toast to be given at the last supper in Rome. It rhymed.

Dinner, once again, did not disappoint. But the restaurant was kind of far from Hotel Doggie, so we made a pit stop along the way. It was Nushelle's birthday, so Bro thought we should have a surprise pit stop to a bar for snacks and plastic cups of champagne (why we love him!!). So, being the STELLAR class rep that I am (modest, too) I spotted a kind of homeless-looking street musician, and asked Bro if I could give him 5 euro to sing "Happy Birthday" to Nushelle. He said sure, why not. So I did.... and I brought the guy over to our table, but he kind of ended up serenading me instead. Awkwardddd. And then he burst out into "O Happy Day," and was joined by a random drunk man on the street. We were all cracking up... what a moment.




Okay, so then DINNER was equally hilarious. Sara, Becky, Stephanie, Courtney, and I fought our way to the front of the pack on our walk so that we could sit with Bro at dinner. So worth it. We got to hear the story about how he met his wife, etc. Whenever there was an awkward pause, Becky did her best to fill it.... but this time she kind of failed. "If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be??" Eventually Bro called her out and said "Shtop ashking awkward questions." Our love for him continued to grow.

So we gave our toast, Bro gave a toast, we all ate and drank and ate and drank for what was probably hours. When we left, we could tell he was a little tipsy, and we convinced him to come out to a bar with all of us. It was so much fun, and I'm not sure how it happened that Becky and I were the ONLY ones who ended up paying for our drinks (the rest were magically free somehow... another reason why I'm broke) but we're considering it to be an investment to our karma. The night went on, and some of us ended up migrating to a club called "Anime," which no, doesn't sound promising, but it was pretty fun. To avoid getting lost again, I made sure to latch onto my classmates.... like physically latched. I usually have a pretty good sense of direction, but Rome confused me soooo badly. I was thankful to be with so many other people.


Finally, Friday morning we said our goodbyes to Rome, and left for the airport. Everyone was exhausted, and Bro took it upon himself to inform people that they had "slits for eyes." Whatta guy. So, clearly looking our best, we began the long haul back to Copenhagen. The end of the journey for most people... but Courtney, Becky, and I weren't done yet! Next stop: BERLIN.

When in BROme....

ROMA!! (This is going to be a long one)

I think it's safe to say that our travel break just kept getting progressively better and better as it went on. Becky and I flew from Dublin on Sunday morning (the 8th) and landed in Rome FCO like 15 minutes before the rest of our class coming from Copenhagen. (Oh, just to clarify, this Rome trip was part of a 1 credit class that I'm taking.) It was lucky that we met up with everyone, because I don't know how we would have gotten to our hotel otherwise. (Hotel Doge.... not pronounced "Hotel Doggie," but that's the name it eventually earned.)

After a week of traveling with just each other, I think Becky and I were ready to meet up with the 25 other people in our class. And I don't think we could have asked for a funnier mix of people. I was not completely optimistic about our group heading into the trip, but we all ended up meshing really well and we made a bunch of new friends, so that was great :) The best part though..... was our teacher, Mr. Thyge C. Bro. (First name pronounced TEW-GA, last name pronounced exactly how it looks.) Easily the most hilarious man I have ever met. I don't even have the words to describe him, really. His standard outfit is the jean suit, but for the majority of this trip (and I mean all except the last night) he wore the same UCLA sweatshirt, cargo pants, and optional matching vest, 24/7. He is sooooo socially awkard that it's actually endearing, and he knows more about Rome than the back of his own hand. I mean, I'm just speculating, but he knows a LOT.

Bro

The first day, we hit the ground running. Thanks to my handy little itinerary thing, I can tell you that we saw the Trevi Fountain (made a wish & it came true!), the Pantheon, Largo Argentina, Campo del Fiori, Piazza Navona (w/ the Fountain of the 4 Rivers), the Ara Pacis (Peace Altar), Piazza Del Popolo, and the Spanish Steps. So needless to say, after Day 1, our feet were already killing us. Courtney, Sara, Becky and I took a power nap in our room, showered, and met for our group dinner at Pizzaria Zio Circo. One thing that I love about Italians is that they consider a full plate of pasta to be an appetizer. We had soooo much food and wine, all on DIS! Well, I guess we kind of paid for it in advance, but it felt free. We also had some sort of weird mushroom-shaped dessert that was like a piece of cake drowned in rum or amaretto. It was gross. We named it the "drunken mushroom."

Trevi Fountain


The Pantheon

Day 2 started off with breakfast in the room. We got breakfast in bed every day.... which sounds great, except it wasn't. Basically cold coffee, a tiny stale roll, and a squishy little croissant was all we had to get us through Bro's walking marathons every morning. So, Monday started off with a hike to the Colosseum. I took sooooo many pictures, but the place is so huge it's kind of hard to capture. We also toured the Forum Romanum and the Palatine hill, where we had to do some sketches, and Courtney and I had to do our presentation on the Arch of Titus. Fun stuffffff.

Colosseum!

I think it was this same day that we discovered Pastarito! (I think that's what it was called?) Definitely our favorite restaurant, even though the wait staff sort of hated us. The first time we went, I got gnocchi with meat sauce... but we went back for dinner one night and I got this awesome gorgonzola & walnut sauce that Stephanie had the first time. I know, I know, I'm obsessed with food.... but I took a picture of it to remember it forever. The portions were so big that we ended up just getting gelato for dinner a few nights. Italy, you are the best.

Yummmmmm

Our favorite gelato place

Tuesday morning started early, with a trip to the Vatican. We had an audio tour of the museum, which was probably the most extensive art collection I have ever seen. In addition to all the Classical & Renaissance sculptures, etc., every inch of every wall/ceiling was intricately painted. Highlights included Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.... which I unfortunately couldn't get a picture of without being bullied by Italian museum cops. I think the coolest part of the whole experience was that we got to bypass the huuuuge line that forms outside the museum in the morning. Followers of Thyge Bro are VIP.

We broke for our group lunch, which included a full round of really good/interesting antipasti dishes, pizza, and once again.... WINE. Bro made sure to inform us that Rome is a "white wine district," so when given the choice, you should always opt for white. I don't know how it happened, but they kept bringing our little corner of the table bottle after bottle of white wine. Everyone started to get a little giggley but we all thought we were okay until we stood up. Bro informed us that they weren't supposed to bring us that much wine, but he was kind of whatever about it.

Don't worry --- we all sobered up pretty quickly because the next stop was St. Peter's Basillica. Or should I say, the cupola on TOP of the Basillica. I've climbed a lot of things this semester, but this was easily the most intense. Everyone was pretty winded on the way up, and I was embarrassed to call myself a cross country runner. We took a picture of how sweaty I was, but I'll spare you.

St. Peters

It was well worth it. The view from the top was incredible. ALMOST as incredible as the inside of the Basillica itself. I've also seen a lot of churches this semester, but I doubt I'll ever see one as impressive. It was beeeaauuutiful. Parts of it were being roped off, because they were preparing for the Pope to speak the next day, but we still got to see a lot... including the Pieta. I know I sound dramatic, but it didn't even feel real that we were actually there.

The Pieta

That night, as if we hadn't had enough wine already, we discovered some 2 euro bottles and got a good majority of the class together for a "social gathering" on the floor of our hotel. Good bonding. Bro walked in at one point, and we all got a little nervous, but he ended up just laughing and posing for pictures with us. I love him. Most everyone went out afterwards, but Courtney and I lost the group at the Trevi Fountain..... and Rome is not really the place we wanted to be aimlessly wandering at night, so we just went back to our room. From what I've heard, though, we missed some pretty good stories ;)


This is getting obnoxious, so I think I'm going to break this up into 2 posts for easy viewing. Keep reading though.... because it just keeps getting better!

Well, I took a stroll on the old long walk

Exhausted from our night out in Cork, Becky and I boarded our next 4 hour bus ride to Galway on Wednesday morning, expecting to pass out and catch up on sleep. I've decided that the reason I can sleep on planes but not buses is that when I'm on a bus, I have things to look at. I couldn't really bear to fall asleep and miss driving through Ireland. The only time I DID fall asleep, Becky started tapping me on the head to tell me that she just fell out of her seat. This is still kind of a sore subject haha.

Looking back on my financial ruin, Galway is probably where the worst of it happened. First of all, we splurged on a private room (our "honeymoon suite") at the hostel. I still think this was a good choice. But anyway, we wandered around the town (they call it a city...) for a little while, bought some unnecessary hoodies for ourselves and a bunch of gifts for other people (YEAHH that's right I spent my money on you all!) before ultimately crashing at the hostel for what turned into a 3 hour nap. We managed to gather the energy to get crepes & ice cream for dinner (nutritious, right??) but ended up right back in our beds for the rest of the night.

In the morning, we took an all-day tour to the Cliffs of Moher, and other attractions along the way. I took a ton of pictures, but none of them really do it justice. I was surprised to see how much of Ireland is just completely uninhabited/untouched. They claim to have something like 40 shades of green in their landscapes, and I believe it.

The wind at the Cliffs was CRAZY. I have never experienced anything like it. Like there were legitimately points where we couldn't even walk. Some random other tourist informed us in his broken English that he had taken pictures of Becky and me trying to walk along the Cliffs because we were struggling so hard it was hilarious. I kid you not. Snot rockets were flying and all that good stuff. But aside from that, the Cliffs were really amazing. It kind of reminded me of the Napali Coast in Hawaii.... but in an obviously less tropical/more Irish way. We decided to be rebels at one point and hop over the fence that you're not supposed to cross (tourists have died haha) but the wind was SO strong, we didn't want to venture too far. And as always, we ran into a couple people we knew, 2 kids from my core class. We also saw Sam and Libby from Gburg in Dublin, further proving that it's a small world aaaafter allllll!

The Napali Coast

The Cliffs of Moher

A little wind

That night we went to a pub that was on our list of recommendations from Mike and Bridget, and watched some more live music. And danced kind of embarrassingly to the live music. Needless to say, we failed at getting boys to buy us drinks once again, but the band was pretty good. We did, however, meet another random solo traveler named Nick, a photographer from Vancouver... so he awkwardly tagged along with us for a while. I'm impressed that this many people have the guts to go out and travel Europe by themselves. I don't think I'd be too good at it, but they all seemed to be pretty good at latching onto Becky and me.

The next day, we took the bus tour to Connemara, which was BEAUTIFUL. We were easily the youngest people on the bus, with the next youngest being the bus driver, but hey. It was worth it. Connemara kind of reminded me of scenes from "The Land Before Time," or something like that. I really half expected to see a dinosaur walk by... but all we saw were sheep. (Though the bus driver told us they were killer sheep.) Once again, we saw some other sites along the way, but this time we were less interested in the castles and more interested in taking pictures of Becky with cows (her new favorite animal).

A view from Kylemore Abbey at Connemara

The Cow

I think we probably got more fish & chips for dinner, and enjoyed our last night in the honeymoon suite. We got up pretty early and "took a whirl 'round the salthill prom" before heading back to Dublin in the afternoon for one more night (only because that's were we had to fly out of the next day). In Dublin, we pseudo-randomly met up with RACHAEL (!!) for dinner, and then went to bed because we had to be up at 4 a.m. to fly to Rome. We had to take a cab to the airport, and since we were with Rachael, I had her make the arrangements for us. Don't know what I'd do without her.

And so, after an epic week, we kissed Ireland goodbye (SO SAD, Galway was definitely our favorite) and left for Rome......or should I say, Brome? Kind of a huuuge change of pace, but excellent none the less. Stayyyy tuned!

Put a Cork in it.

We got to Cork around noon on Tuesday. Or maybe it was 12:30… “half twelve!” Hahah I crack myself up. Either way, we immediately trekked from the bus station to our next hostel, Aaran House, which is not exactly centrally located, but adorable. It’s run by a woman named Tracy and her dog, Riley. We were in a 4 person room, but no one else ever showed up, so our living situation was pretty ideal. Fortunately or unfortunately, we did not spend much time in Cork at all… and even less time in our hostel.

Aaran House Hostel

Tracy gave us a great recommendation for lunch, and afterwards we hopped on a bus up to Blarney, to do the most touristy thing possible: kiss the stone. We paid for the bus, and we should have known we were going to get charged to climb the castle as well, but for some reason it still came as an angry shock. It was a steep, slippery climb because it rains sometimes in Ireland (just in case ya didn’t know). When we got to the top, we realized that kissing this stupid stone was no easy task. It’s actually the keystone of an arch in the castle, so you have to lay on your back and grab onto a metal bar as some guy dangles you out over the ledge. And then you kiss it. And with all the experience it has, you’d think it would be a little bit better of a kisser. (I’m on a roll with these bad jokes, aren’t I?)

Anyway, the deal with the Blarney stone is that when you kiss it, it’s supposed to make you eloquent. Becky kind of debunked that story, when the first thing she said as we were walking away was “…that sucked.” I had to agree, but I mean come on, you can’t go to Ireland and not kiss the Blarney stone! Maybe I’m just saying this because the whole thing was my idea, but I have no regrets.

Kissing the Blarney Stone... awkward, right?

I don’t even remember what we did for dinner that night, but I’m sure it was really overpriced and not that good. (See now that I’m broke I’m starting to reflect on these things.) We were hiking back to the hostel mumbling something about how we hate Cork, when Becky spontaneously asked these 3 guys if there was anything to do around there on Tuesday nights. They gave us the name of a bar where all the students in the area supposedly go, and marked it on our map for us. That’s when we were like ah-HA! We got showered and changed really quickly, and trekked back into town to see what it was all about.

Our goal for the night was to meet these beautiful Irishmen that the priest had advertised, and have them buy us drinks so we could save money.We met some boys, Tim and Max, they weren’t exactly beautiful and they didn’t buy us drinks, but they certainly were Irish. We couldn’t even understand half of the things Tim said, and Max looked like a leprechaun. But it appeared that this was the best we were going to do. At least we were making friends right? We went to the club upstairs with them, where we discovered that Irish people can’t dance. I felt like everywhere I turned, I was getting whacked with some sort of elbow or something. We made sure to get out of there as soon as possible to catch the earliest bus to Galway. Our hopes were still high.

Becky and Tim

"Ah, we was just havin' a bit of crack!" -- DUBLIN

Before the title scares you away:

Craic or crack is a term for fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation.

- Wikipedia

Upon our arrival in Dublin, Becky and I immediately realized that a) Ireland is windy and b) though they speak English, Irish people are not easy to understand. One thing that definitely gets lost in translation from the Irish/Gaelic language is the word "craic." Like "hygge" in Danish, it's kind of something you just have to experience to understand. And don't worry, we had a good bit o' crack in Ireland.

The first day, we did a 4 hour free walking tour of the city, run by a company that does these kinds of tours all over Europe. Good to know, because it was amazing! Our tour guide, Louise, was everything a tour guide should be: adorable, funny, and of course extremely knowledgeable. I barely even noticed that we were walking that long (and that's something to say for Becky and me, who have the attention spans of gnats). We saw all the major sites, including Christ Church, Trinity College, Dublin Castle, St. Stephen's Green, etc. Afterwards, we wandered a little bit and rewarded all of our walking with food (yeahh... this becomes a common thread throughout the trip. probably why I'm broke).

Dublin Castle & The Ha'penny Bridge

Before leaving for Ireland, I had contacted Casey's best friend Mike, and Bridget from my XC team, who both lived in Ireland for a period of time. We seriously couldn't have done the trip the way we did without their advice. But anyway, Bridget had told us to look for a fish n' chips place near Christ Church........ best suggestion ever. We felt really legit Irish and fell in love with the greasy, delicious combo. Fish and chips became a staple for the week and now I weigh 300 lbs. Just kidding.... well, kind of.


The company that does the free tour also runs pub crawls in all these European cities. It was a Sunday night, but Louise convinced us to give it a try anyway. If less than 10 people showed up, we got our money back but still had an hour of free drinks. Of course, only 4 of us showed up: Becky, myself, our new friend Dennis from our hostel, and a 60-something British electrician named Brian. Needless to say, the pub crawl didn't happen.... but our odd little group of 4 ended up wandering around the streets of Dublin together. We ended up at a place called The Celt, near our hostel, because we saw a sign for live music. It was here that Becky and I fell in love with Ireland, and the approximately 17-year old musician named Darragh who was playing in a band with his grandmother and her friends. If you have never heard "Kids" by MGMT played on the fiddle, I highly recommend it. OH, and of course they played "Galway Girl," which was totally the theme song of our week.

We called it quits pretty early and went back to the hostel (Jacob's Inn). I know I'm kinda high maintenance, but I was NOT a fan of staying in a 12 person mixed dorm with a snorer and an Italian couple making out all night. The perk was that the hostel had breakfast for us in the morning, so we got up bright & early for that, and then made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. On the way, we ran into Brian again by the Spire (or the "stiffy by the liffey" or the "stilletto in the ghetto" or if you're really inappropriate "the erection at the intersection"). We took a picture with him, and vowed to take pictures to chronicle everyone we met. Didn't happen, but at least we got Brian.

Brian, at the Spire

The Guinness Storehouse was about what I expected. I bet it would be really cool for someone who knows how to appreciate a pint of Guinness, but I am not one of those people. After we made our way through the museum, I soldiered through a "free" pint with Becky at the top of the Gravity Bar, overlooking the whole city of Dublin. All part of the experience.

at the Gravity Bar

After that, we wandered around for a closer look at some of the things we saw on the tour the day before. We went through the crypt at Christ Church, where we ran into a priest. He started making conversation with us and cracking jokes.... and then he directed us towards the prayer request book and told us that if we write it down, he would pray for us to find Irish husbands. Didn't have to tell us twice! Hahaha that's what we had silently gone to Ireland for in the first place.

All in all, we liked Dublin, but we knew there were bigger things in store for us. So we got up early the next morning and took Bus Eireann (soooo convenient, btw) to Cork!

Let's start at the very beginning

Hej everybody!! Did you miss me? I got back to Copenhagen last night after 2 weeks of travel, and I have never felt so behind on life. Naturally, I have tons of blogging to do, but I also have lots of papers to write this week.... and some financial issues to take care of. They tell you that Europe is expensive, but I can tell you that it doesn't really hit home until you return to an e-mail from your parents saying that your bank account is in the negative digits. (I thought ATMs were supposed to tell you when you don't have any money left?! Tricksters.)

Anyway, speaking of my parents, they were here in Denmark right before travel break. We didn't have a lot of time, but we definitely covered a lot of ground. I took them to all the sights, that I no longer think are a big deal because I see them everyday, and they took me out to a couple of nice meals :) Also, Iben made this huge traditional Danish dinner the Saturday night before I left, and both my families plus the other regular cast of characters were there. I felt so loved!

Another highlight of that weekend was J-Dag (pronounced J-Day). J-Dag is basically just another Danish excuse to party. Tuborg releases its Christmas beer and tons of free bottles are delivered by little men in blue hats to all the bars. I made the unfortunate decision to split up with my parents for this, because it sounds like they had a more authentic J-Dag experience than I did! DIS threw us a party, but it was kinda silly to be surrounded with all Americans on a Danish holiday. Got a free hat though. Can't complain about that!

Sunday morning, Becky and I left for Ireland, and my parents stayed an extra day in Copenhagen, before leaving for Amsterdam (somewhere I still haven't been!). I'm trying to think of the best way to divide up these blog posts, because I have SOOO much to say, and if I'm not careful I will inevitably end up rambling on much longer than any of you want to read. I will leave you with some pictures of J-Dag and my parents visit for now..... but STAY TUNED!

- Caitlin

Mom and me at the top of the Round Tower


Mor og Far :)

Tuborg Jule Bryg (the Christmas beer)

Our hats!

Just another weekend in the life...

Hej everybody!

I'm currently holed up in the little cave that is the DIS library. The school tried to play a cruel trick on us just now, by locking all of its doors and forcing me to sneak in through the window of the architecture studio. Prompted a few strange looks from the AD students, but they all think I'm crazy anyway. Wonder why.

I am mostly blogging to procrastinate, and at first I was worried that I'd have nothing to say. This weekend has been pretty standard. Four of the other Gburg girls are in Amsterdam... and I feel like comparatively speaking, my stories will be a little boring. Then again, I have to remember that I am still in Copenhagen... and even a "boring" weekend is infinitely more exciting than a weekend in the 'burg or B-ton.

I'll start by saying that since the emotional chat with Iben on Thursday, things have been a little better. Friday night we had a fun dinner where we like grilled stuff on the table. I wish I could remember the word for it, but in theory it's kind of like fondue..... only with a grill. So there were just a bunch of random ingredients out on the table, like mini burgers, sausages, mushrooms, peppers, cheese, etc. and everyone just made what they wanted a little bit at a time. I secretly think that Iben picked it because it forced everyone to sit together for a longer period of time. It worked.

Then, those of us that were still here went out for Jamie's 21st birthday. And what a better way to celebrate than with karaoke?! Hahah so we went to our favorite, Sam's Bar, and signed up for a whole bunch of songs. I will admit... this was the first time I did karaoke without any alcohol in my system, so I was acutely aware of how bad I sounded. Caitlin and I made an attempt at "Land Down Under," and they ACTUALLY shut the music off on us. It was like being dragged off stage by an invisible cane (Though I still think it was just a technical problem). We eventually redeemed ourselves with "Africa," which was sooooooo good that we inspired some drunk Danish men to come up on stage and join us. The highlight of the night though, was probably Josh & Ali's rendition of Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me." I wish I hadn't accidentally deleted the video.

Saturday was spent being relatively productive. I got up and went for a run in the morning, and when I was waiting at the light by my house, some guys asked how far I ran. I must have been delirious or something bc I looked at my watch, which read 50 minutes so I said "50." Of course, they interpreted that as 50 kilometers and were SO impressed. I just rolled with it. I am now Rødovre's newest marathoner.

Saturday night, Liz, Julia and I decided to explore beyond central Copenhagen, so we took the bus over to Vesterbro (the western part of the city, known for being very trendy, and a little sketchy). We went to a club called Vega, but got there right as it was opening, so there weren't that many people around. SOMEHOW we drew the attention of a huge group of middle-aged Danish men, some of whom were married with children. It was probably very morally wrong to let them buy us drinks, but smart travelers know never to turn down something that is free. Julia was the one they wanted to talk to, anyway, so Liz and I just kind of reaped the benefits haha.

Fortunately, we escaped from them and went next door to dance for a little while. It was cool and all, and it was soo nice to take a break from the rest of the typical DIS bars, but we decided maybe Vega wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We left, decided that we wanted pizza, and somehow ended up eating a whole small pizza each. It was then that I whipped out my knowledge on the hormone ghrelin and how drinking makes you want fatty foods. Thank you, Dr. Noreen. hahah

I was lucky enough to gain an extra hour last night, so when I woke up at 1, it was really noon. It was nice to sleep in, but I hate sleeping past 11. And now I'm mad that I used that extra hour on sleep because all of a sudden it's Sunday and I have lots of homework again. I'm trying to get everything done before my parents come this week. So excited :)

Cultural Literacy

Wow, I have so much to write. Today has been oddly emotional, so I guess I will start with the most recent.

Iben and I just had a chat. She feels that I am really reserved and don't want to be part of the family. I said that the whole thing is really awkward for me because I feel like no one wants to talk to me. I guess it's just been a big misunderstanding all along, but I'm hormonal and she had me in tears because I don't want my host family to think that I hate them :( I also wish they would stop comparing me to the other students they've had! Yes, I should be putting in a LOT more effort than I have been... but at the same time, I was forced into this living situation that is really not my personality at all. Iben says she has complained to DIS about schools that force students into host families, and I plan on complaining to Gettysburg when I get home. However, for the meantime, at least I know that my family DOES want to talk to me... they just want me to start the conversations. I guess I'm pretty similar to all of them, actually, considering I want them to start the conversations. This talk was so emotional and embarrassing, and it delayed dinner and me working on my paper.... but I'm glad we had it.

In other news, I had a strange, serendipitous encounter this afternoon. Allie and I had been working on our outline, and when we left to go home... I made the split second decision to use the bathroom first. I only say this because if I had left with Allie, it would have thrown off the timing and this would never have happened. Anyway, I walked to my bus stop, and just as I was getting there, 2 guys rode by on bikes. They were speaking English, which prompted me to look up.... only to discover that one of them was Marc Baker, who I went to high school with! I shouted, and undoubtedly drew all kinds of attention to myself, but I had to get his attention because HOW WEIRD IS THAT? Apparently, he is studying in Prague this semester, but he and his friend are here for the weekend. And neither of us ever would have known if it weren't for being in the same random place at the same random time. I can't get over it.

Okay, so that was basically today's events. What else has been going on lately, you ask? Tuesday night, Courtney, Sara and I went to the opera... almost solely because we now sound so cultured and sophisticated saying that we went "to the opera." The truth is we weren't that glamourous. Sara had her enormous backpack with her from doing work all day, and we all probably had kebab breath from getting Turkish fast food beforehand. ALSO, the opera (Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin) was in Russian. The translation? Yeah, that was in Danish. It was still an amazing experience, and I don't think too much was lost by not speaking either language. I swear we are starting to be able to read Danish anyway. But the opera house was beautiful at night, and we went up to the balcony during intermission and took pictures over the waterfront. Thank youuuu, self timer.

Yesterday was chock full of culture as well. I had an art history field study from 1-8, which again, ate up some valuable paper-writing time, but it was worth it. The first museum had a Munch exhibit (ya know.. the guy who did the Scream?) but the real attraction was the modern art museum, the Louisiana. We saw all kinds of crazy contemporary art, exhibits on sustainable architecture, and my personal favorite, a Jacob Holdt exhibit.

Jacob Holdt is a Danish photographer who traveled to the U.S. in the 70s with $40 in his pocket, and stayed there for years, making friends of all social classes, moving in with them, and ultimately photographing them. They say "every picture tells a story," but in this case, we were given a little book of stories to go with the pictures. He lived in some of the poorest, black ghettos in Jersey City (JERSEY!) as well as with KKK members, serial killers, and wealthy plantation owners. And he still keeps in touch with a lot of them. The guy is nuts, but the photos are even crazier. It was awesome.

So NOW, I am going to finish my epidemic disease paper, and hopefully go be social with my host family. Jeez.