KOBENHAVN, DANMARK

I love Denmark. From the moment we all stepped off of the plane people were helpful and polite (for the most part). The first night was a little bit crazy; we had to find our hostel at around 10:30 pm and we had absolutely no idea how to pronounce any of the street names or metro stops. When we got to danhostel we were given a room for ten people, rather than the five person room we asked for. This created a few problems. First problem—when we got to our room, there were 2 people sleeping so we couldn’t turn on the lights. Second problem—we didn’t know if they were men. (There was a large pair of mens military boots near my bed, which made me laugh so hard because everyone was flipping out about a man in the room.) Third problem—When we woke up, there was this psychotic Danish woman staring at us. When we were all up she concluded that we were not fat white trash American girls who eat McDonalds every day and hang out at truck stops. I don’t think I need to say any more about this other than that we switched rooms the next night.
Day 1-
We walked through the tundra to the Rosenberg castle. We were thinking the castle would be warmer than the outside… but it wasn’t. It was in the middle of a beautiful park.
After this, we went to the Glyptotech museum for a few hours. There were so many rooms with famous statues and paintings. There aren’t many places where you can find Monet, Manet and Van Gogh in the same room. When we left the Glyptotech we walked to the Cathedral of Our Lady, the location of the original Christus statue. Throughout the entire trip we saw original artwork that our church uses(more later), why do they have this in Denmark?
Surprisingly, my hotdog count was only 2 for the entire trip. These Fransk Hot dogs were my favorite; picture a Baguette without the center, but with a hotdog and your choice of dressing.
Rosenberg Castle:

Glyptotech:

Christus Statue:


Day 2- We woke up, got fresh bread and cinnamon pastries from Illum and went to find the Fredrichburg castle. For anyone planning to go to Denmark—there are 2 of them. One is a military base, and one is the “Danish Versailles.” Don’t get them mixed up or else you will look like an idiot… we did. When we were at the military base, we walked into a restricted area when a uniformed officer walked out and asked us what we were doing. Anna then asked “Where are the paintings” and asked about a tour. This working military base had neither.
When we took the train to the REAL Fredrichburg Castle we took a tour, saw the paintings and loved everything about it. Inside the castle next to the chapel they have a room filled with the original paintings that are scattered throughout the US in LDS churches. After this we went to the Copenhagen temple, which didn’t really look like one, and then traveled to what was the opposite of spiritual areas in Copenhagen. Christiania is basically a hippie community where cameras aren’t allowed because of the illicit things which happen there. It was very sketchy place with painted shacks and home made bracelets and drug paraphernalia. This place was the epitome of freedom from the EU and large organizations that hinder individual choice. We didn’t stay long, but stayed long enough for me to indulge my apparent hippie side.

Military Facility:

The Castle:



Christiania:



Day 3- More pastries for breakfast, then we went to the Little Mermaid Statue. We came across a group of about 15 Irish exchange boys who were also taking pictures of the Little Mermaid. They were incredibly polite for their age (probably about 17) and even helped Anna when she couldn’t move because she was “stuck on the ice.” We all learned a lesson from Anna the wise—damsels always get the boys. I believe she held four hands. We went to Roskilde to see the Viking museum after this. It was on the opposite side of Denmark, but we got there in about 35 minutes by train. I love how Denmark is so small. We saw almost everything that we wanted to… we considered going to Sweden.

This trip ran too smoothly… so at the airport on the way home we waited 7 hours to leave because our flight was delayed. When we arrived in London, Leslie was detained by a power hungry border patrol man for a half an hour and by that time (2am) The trains were no longer leaving to central London. We bought coach bus tickets to get back to Marble Arch, rode the coach for an hour and a half until we were almost there. At around 4am we had to figure out which night bus would take us back home… tricky because we never really ride the bus and because the most creepy people come out at night. I am censoring the blog because my parents would probably want me to come home and stay inside for the rest of my life if they knew what was happening on the bus at 4. All I need to say was that it was scary, and I’m not easily scared. We made it home at 4:30, most of us without a shower after 4 days and a few of us with peed pants. TAK KOBENHAVN!

Little Mermaid:

Airport Fiasco: