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!