The Santorini Trip and More

So, as promised, I am now going to divulge the details of my glorious Santorini (Greek island) adventure. To begin... Greece is amazing. Words cannot accurately describe the natural beauty and atmosphere. When we arrived we stared in awe at the deep blue water, rugged cliffs and white village sitting atop the towering volcanic rocks, standing speechless. When then subsequently spoke when we realized that the white village sitting atop the volcanic rocks and cliffs was the white village where we would be staying, a white village that happened to be four hundred feet above us only accessibly by winding roads on the edge of the cliff, an hour long walk with the constant threat of imminent death. With suitcases packed for two weeks of travel and a fear of heights (and death) this was problematic. Luckily, the hotel we had booked (a cheap hotel, 10 euro a night per person) sent a van to the port to pick us up which was surprising, but surprisingly delightful. The hotel was owned by a family that owned four other hotels on the island and we had stops at each one of those as well. We arrive at the first hotel, a four star hotel (not ours...) only to find out it was in fact ours! The family had not opened their other hotels because it was the off season and so we got upgraded to a four star hotel, everything included, for 10 euro a night. Yes, luck was on our side. It was quite the nice beginning, needless to say.

The first day we explored the island, hiking up along the cliffs, traversing the narrow streets, passing the donkeys and blue tiled fountains. The next day we took a boat trip to the volcanic island just to the side of Santorini, the hot springs, and to Thirissa, another island, untouched by tourism and quite cozy and, dare I say, authentic. We witnessed the sunset from atop the volcanic cliffs, fell in love with pitas and Greek yogurt. We rented ATVs and explored the island, making our way to the black sandy beaches, hiking atop the ruin of the ancient city of Thira, and to an old winery converted to an art gallery off the beaten path. We rode donkeys up the hills and through the town. We ate dinner at the some of the finest restaurants, as they were willing to give us quite good deals to eat there since it was off season, overlooking the island as the sun set. We sat on our balcony, soaked in the sun, and literally rejoiced at the warmth we had been so unfortunately deprived of in Denmark. We lived it up.

It was paradise.

But, as all things do, it came to a end. Only to have us thrown back into reality when we arrived back in Denmark with two group projects, a 1000 pages of research to submit, articles to write, and insurmountable reading to do. It was time to go back to Greece.

Since returning I have developed less of an appreciation of volcanoes as they seem to erupt at incredibly inconvenient times. They seem to erupt when I was planning on taking four girlfriends to the French Alps for a weekend of relaxation, hot tubbing, wine, and cheese. But, hey, I guess since Iceland is running low on cash, they tried to compensate by sending ash.

Enough bad jokes and nostalgic tales, I'm off to rest up for my quarter marathon tomorrow and my extreme joy for when its over.

The Travel Adventure

Sorry for my slacking on blogging, although I do have a legitimate reason- I have been gallivanting Europe for two weeks and returned to essays, group projects, presentations, and academic chaos. But the chaos didn't seem to phase me as I was still in "Greek-mode", thereby unaffected by anything.

The trip started in Copenhagen with my mother (and you all now know how well that went). We then proceeded together to Berlin where we literally walked ourselves to exhaustion. A four hour walking tour trying to sum up the entire last century of Germany and Berlin history (which is impossible, even the last sixty years could fill a library). We saw the East Berlin Wall, the waterfront, the Turkish market, some of the old areas that were bombed, the remaining Berlin wall, the Soviet headquarters, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker some other things I can't remember.... basically, we saw it all. Our feet can attest to that. We ate incredible food (none of which was traditional cuisine which consisted primarily of some unknown meat, covered in some unknown sauce, with a vegetable of some sort that lost all of its nutritional value when they doused it in butter and fat). We stayed in West Berlin which was surprisingly quaint, much like London and really came to love the area. We also discovered that Berlin is not a pretty city, it is not the kind of city that you go to and fall in love with the architecture and beauty of the city. It's ugly. Mainly because it was bombed to bits, rebuilt mainly in the 1950's and 1960's (an area not know for their aesthetics or quality architectural design), and the Soviets had a big say in what it looked like. But it is a city with more history than one can begin to imagine, although the ghost of Hitler and the shadow of the Holocaust remain ingrained in the city, a constant reminder of the horror and a feeling of persistent unease. We visited the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, an incredible and powerful remembrance site. We also saw Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp outside Berlin, which was a sobering experience, although too touched by tourism in my opinion, loosing some of its value and experience.

Prague was a far, far more beautiful city. The architecture was beyond incredible, anywhere you looked was amazing. The gardens were beautiful and the food was better than the Germans (although still doused in unknown sauces). Prague was overwhelmed with tourists to the point of nauseau and we found the best parts of the city at the end. But the city was great, the hot wine was not and the astronomical clock was a hilarious disappointment and there were far too many laughs to recount.

Then came Greece, quite possibly the best place I've been in Europe thus far (also the warmest, the longest time spent there, and cheap- those may be contributing factors in that statement). We started in Athens on their labor day, which happens to be the one day a year when all the ancient sites are free. So we saw the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, all the of ruins for free. They were incredible to see, their age alone is astounding not to mention we could literally touch the work of one of the greatest civilizations in the history of mankind. The next day was the best though. We hiked to the top of the biggest hill in Athens and had a 360 degree view of the city. Then we ventured through the gardens of the ancient Agora (the ancient city centre in Greece) enjoying the olive trees, fresh flowers, and beautiful scenery. We went to the local market after that, which included the fish market- a very, very bad idea for me. For you see I am scared of fish- terrified may be a better word- to the point of absurdity. I don't touch fish, I don't look at fish, I especially don't interact with them (I do eat them, maybe as a means of revenge, may because they taste good). This fish market required I not only look at them, but I jump over the dead one's flopping on the ground beneath my feet. I was touched by them as men passing by hit me with their flopping, sliming fish. I came out of the fish market (barely) alive, with sardines stuck on my flips flops and one of the more disturbing experiences of my trip. Really, though, I showered twice.

I cant finish my trip as I dont have time today (school is always getting in the way), but Santorini is still to come...

And it begins...

Where to begin...

I have had incredible luck since arriving in Copenhagen, things just seem to be going my way. With the exception of the weather, I really must say I have had extraordinary good fortune. Everything just works out...

That is until my mom arrives, then it all goes to hell.

My mom arrived on Friday and we spent the day rushing around Copenhagen with my host dad and ended the night with a lovely dinner. A short and sweet first day made possible only because we were chaperoned by Carsten (my host dad).

But then my host family leaves and the adventure begins...

Saturday morning we wake up early so we can get into Copenhagen and see everything possible. I planned the day so we would do a walking tour of Copenhagen- stopping at all the best sights, eating at the best places, and enjoying the best of Danish culture. We would enjoy the warm spring weather and it would be perfect.

But perfect is not the word I would use to describe this day. Perfect is not even close. Disastrous maybe. Unfortunate maybe. Challenging maybe. But perfect, no.

So we get ready quickly so we can be out the door by nine to arrive to the Royal Palace early to see the newly renovated Prince and Princesses quarters open to the public only for a month or so. We get to the bus stop right outside my house only to find our walking tour would be complimented with the torrential rains Denmark seemed to be experiencing. We sit in the rain and wait, and wait some more, and shortly realize that the bus schedule was different on Saturday so we had missed the bus by two minutes and had to wait another thirty minutes. We go back home, already behind schedule, and emerge thirty minutes later, get on the bus to the station, and hope we'll make it in time. When we get to the station we find none other than a message saying the train in cancelled, the next one comes in twenty minutes. Now we're over an hour behind schedule but just decide to roll with it.

We go to buy our tickets for the train while at the station (without tickets each person is charged $120 fine) and the machine doesn't seem to be working, but we can't be so sure as it is entirely in Danish. We fight with it for about ten minutes, try another machine, try another card, try another obscenity, only to find out that the machine only accepts Danish credit cards which it explains clearly when you go to purchase your tickets, but does so in Danish, a language I unfortuantley still do not understand. So we have no tickets as the train pulls up, but are unwilling to miss another train (as it would be our third) and so we plead with the worker to allow us on. She agrees and we find our way to Copenhagen now almost two hours late.

We find our way to the Palace, the line by now is over two hours long and so we skip it, missing an incredible opportunity but still optimistic. We wander through an old church and a museum on Danish design, both of which we enjoy. We power walk to Rosenborg Slot (an old castle) so that we can see it and make it in time to Norrebro Brewery where we will be having a late three course lunch complimented with local brews (a must have experience in Copenhagen, one I had been looking forward to for months). We get to Rosenborg, rush through seeing the first floor before it closed (we had about five minutes) and then crown jewels and opulence at its greatest.

We then power walk (and I mean power walk, olympic style) to Norrebro Brewery so we could enjoy our meal before we had to go home to change before the theatre we were attending that evening. By this time it was about three, we hadn't eaten since eight a.m. and were starving and anxiously awaiting this meal. We find the brewery after a bit of a detour and walk in only to find the restaurant is closed Saturdays and the cafe closes its kitchen at three p.m.- it is 3:01.

We begrudgingly walk back towards the station, frustrated at our incredible misfortune and decide to just go home, change and go out for dinner instead. We sprint to the station to make the train and arrive back to at our home station only to find the bus won't be coming for another thirty minutes. We call a cab to get us home earlier. The cab doesn't come. The bus, after thirty minutes, still hasn't arrived. Since being in Copenhagen I have yet to have a bus not be on time. Today, it was ten minutes late. We get off the bus, give up on being able to go out to dinner because we would now have thirteen minutes to change and catch the next bus. So instead we invest in some nice beer, some wine and go home, sit down and laugh at how absoltuley wrong everything went.

Well it wasn't over yet...

We try to buy a ticket to Ghana and the websites won't accept our payments so we have to go through three different websites to get the ticket, then we find out each website charged our card $700 and so the last website won't accept the payment because we are over our daily charge allowance. Then...We call a cab to take us to the station for the show we were seeing that evening and it arrives late, so we almost miss the train to the show but somehow managed to get on.

Needless to say, we ended the night in a bar taking advantage of the two for one cocktail special and left only to find two inebriated men peeing outside the station, not afraid to show their junk. And another one even more confident, willing to be directly in front of us onto the tracks as we waited for the train we just missed. What a way to end the day.

So.... My mother is never allowed to come back to Copenhagen, the entire city falls into chaos. She comes to Copenhagen and things just go to hell. So if you think of inviting her to your city, beware.

Oh Copenhagen

I have been slacking in my blogging as of late due to a high influx of homework and research to do. In the last two days i have written eight essays and read well over 300 pages while documenting my research about sexual violence used during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the human rights framework used to deal with such violations while also studying the role religious institutions in Eastern Africa play in local communities understandings of HIV and AIDS and the causes of such epidemics. Needless to say my brain is dead and I am developing carpal tunnel, a delightful combination for a twenty year old.

But... I felt I had to blog today because I have been seeing the most hysterical sights lately in the streets of Copenhagen:

Sight #1 (while walking to the library): I walked down one of the side streets I often pass through on my way to the University of Copenhagen, there is a quaint tea shop on this road, a hygge cafe, a sneaker shop, a store exhibiting a wide range of furs and hides.... and then two starkly (and completely) naked girls standing on the side walk painted like cats. Nothing but body paint on the corner of one of the busiest pedestrian streets in Copenhagen. No one was phased- no stares, no gawking, no double-takes. I am going to assume naked women painted like cats is a norm for the Danes, but one never can be sure. Well it actually turns out they were PETA protesters, protesting the fur shop above them and advocating for animal rights. I love there are activists here, but that was new for me. I was definitely the one doing double takes and gawking... I guess I'm not a true Dane yet.

Sight #2 (right before fur encounter): Near my school is a small convenience store in the downstairs of a building, selling candy, beer, soda, cigarettes all for relatively cheap prices. What makes this store different than the five other convenience stores on the road is that is seems to attract the drunks of Norreport (the neighborhood the school is in). Everyday a small community of mostly middle-aged men gather for twenty or twenty five beers outside of this store, sitting on milk cartons and chatting away. This starts on my way to school (around 8:30, they're early risers) and I'm not sure if it ever ends. There are usually the same people, sometimes new. They would be the homeless in America, but here they have homes, some even night jobs, but they retain a kind of community that mimics the homeless community in the States. Today I noticed something new... a baby! An old man, scraggly, white hair and a beard, with a Carlsberg in hand came walking up pushing a baby stroller. Upon closer examination I realized there was not in fact a baby, thank goodness, but rather he had hijacked someones baby stroller and proceeded to push it around the street of Copenhagen (it is very common to park your stroller outside shops, sometimes with a child in it, sometimes not, luckily this time it was not). He had taken this stroller, tucked in his 'babies' (aka a sixteen pack of beers) underneath the blanket and pimped out this stroller with flashing reflectors, Hawaiian flowers, stickers, fabric, etc. It was quite hilarious to see an old, haggard (and usually drunk) man pushing a very nice, well decorated baby carriage around , every once in a while tucking in the blanket around the cheap beer that sat inside as to protect it from the wind. Only in Copenhagen....

There is a lot more than went on in my past two week... more bad dancing and more Danes loving my bad dancing (and me loving the Danes more for loving my bad dancing), more studying, more sights, and definitely more sun than I have ever seen before while in Denmark.

But.. now I'm off again! It's first to the airport to pick up my lovely mother!! Then it's around the sights of Copenhagen, off to Berlin and then Prague. From there it Vienna for the day and the Athens and finally its Santorini for a lovely week in the Greek Isles!

More good stories and sights to come! (and hopefully more sun!)

The Amsterdam Adventure (Continued)

(Read blog below first...)

And so Kellye and I rushed from the Telegraph to our hotel to get our luggage in hope of making the train to the airport on time. We hired a cab to go what would otherwise be a fifteen minute walk in order to expedite the process which (unfortunately) resulted in a twenty minute drive in which the cabbie repeatedly told us we were in the wrong place (we should be going to Victoria Station and not Kings Cross he insisted) and then told us he was going to drive us to the right station to catch our train (we were in the right place and going to the right station, might I add). He would then turn towards the Victoria station at which point we would yell "STOP, we want to go to King's Cross" and he would subsequently turn around and go towards the station. Thirty seconds later we would again slam on the breaks and engage in a similar conversation in which he would turn the car around towards the Victoria station. This happened three times until we asked him to just stop, just stop, pull over, and please don't give us travel advice. We ran towards the train, cursing the cab driver, offending the people we screamed obscenities next to, and arriving completely flustered to find there is a train every fifteen minutes. That would have been nice to know. That would have caused less obscenities to be shouted. That would have caused us to not run through Kings Cross station with fifty pound suitcases, smashing into young children and innocent bystanders (and hot dog stands). That would have just been good. Needless to say we made the next train, arrived at the airport, made our plane with plenty of time to spare, and slept the entire flight... all 45 minutes of it.

We arrived in Amsterdam on a rainy afternoon, successfully navigated the public transport system and arrived in our hostel- Bob's Hostel. The Bob, of Bob's Hostel turned out to be a master deception artist with a keen ability to attract the grungiest and dirtiest bunch around, many of whom are middle aged punk rockers. Bob's Hostel did not look like the pictures... at all. Not to mention Bob's excellent architecture skills which were of equal glory. There were one-foot wide, steep and winding staircases that Kellye and I had to climb with our giant 50 pound suitcases (four flights of winding stairs to be exact, and yes judge our over packing all you want, we didn't think it through). I believe our exact words as we climbed the stairs were not "Thank you Bob" but more like "F*** you Bob" (sorry again for the profanity, it was essential in grasp the full experience).

But.... we survived, left Bob's immediately, and went straight to the gorgeous city of Amsterdam. I fell in love at first sight. Amsterdam is one of the most gorgeous cities I have been to, built around wonderful waterways with beautiful architecture and so much to do. Kellye and I had dinner at a cute cafe on the water, enjoying the famous Danish pancakes (spinach pancakes stuffed with ricotta and spinach, topped with a mushroom sauce...yumm). We visited Anne Frank's house, went to the food markets bought some fresh baked bread and local cheese and picknicked on the water. We ventured to the tulip markets and old traditional flee markets. We toured an old church turned into an exhibit on Oman and ate every baked good we saw (just imagine... hot waffles covered in dark chocolate with whipped cream, bananas, strawberries, and powdered sugar).

Saturday afternoon we decided to take a break from exploring and see "Alice in Wonderland in 3-D". We arrive in the theatre, excited, filled with sweets and ready for an adventure. I sit down, watch the previews and then fall asleep for the entire movie. Every single minute of it. I heard it was good though.... After that Kellye and I decided to go back to our hostel to take a nap (it was about 6p.m.) and when we said "nap" we meant sleep. We slept until 9 the next morning. So pretty much I slept my way through Amsterdam.

We did find our way to the Red Light District.... on accident. On our way back from Anne Frank's house (impeccable timing) we took a different route and ventured into an alley way in which I met Martha. Martha was a somewhat obese woman in a thong bikini, stilletos, chewing gum with one leg up on a stool while scratching her chest. And that was all it took for me to get over the glorified Red Light district... I didn't ever need to see that again.

Basically the past week has been incredible, I plan on returning the Amsterdam this summer and loved every minute of it (well except that minute with Martha and Bob, but those were all a part of the experience, right?). I've spent the past few days home sleeping, recovering, and trying to cleanse my system from the massive intake of baked goods.

The London/ Amsterdam Hang-Over

Oh man. I am recovering from vacation right now, I am in vacation hangover mode. Since I don't really know where to begin in recounting my adventures I would like to foremost apologize for how pretentious my last blog sounded in retrospect. It's not that I regularly blow off celebrities (or that I usually come across them) or that I run super fast because, admittedly, I exaggerated a bit, but it was more an issue of me having an inexplicable tendency to look like I'm drunk when I run, running from side to side incoherently, and that tendency combined with the very narrow treadmill belt is recipe for disaster (as exemplified by Evan in one particular, quite hilarious instance). Needless to say, treadmills are dangerous beyond mention and I take that threat seriously. But enough of treadmills and me trying to justify myself, I just spent a week in London, Stonehedge, Bath, and Amsterdam which is far, far more interesting than treadmills.

My trip comprised of a visit to the Saatchi Art Gallery, a modern art gallery exhibiting modern Indian art which was incredible.

After that was a visit to Buckingham Palace and a chance encounter with the changing of the guards. We took a stroll through the Queen's Garden which has a striking resemblance to Central Park but far more quaint. We explored Piccadilly Square, found an old pub, fish and chips and good English beer. I got the incredible opportunity to see Magnum Photo which is a photo co-op of sorts and they provide some of the famous photographs found in National Geographic and Time Magazine. We were lectured on the history and evolution of this co-op and background on some of the greatest photographers of all time. I saw Abbey Road, the infamous cover to the Beatles last album, and their recording studio. We ventured to an alley way in the Pakistani neighborhood to find street food and picnic tables set up with a wine bar. Right inside the alley way was a building that showed six short films once a week for free from film makers all over the world. The films were...interesting. Some incredibly well-done, others of less quality, and some just weird. The most notable is one in which a cannibalistic cat stole parts of human bodies before eating them in an attempt to turn himself into a human being... Speechless, yes, I know. We followed that up by a visit to club and a night in the VIP room. That, ladies and gents, was just my Monday.

The rest of the trip was wonderful as well with trips to the London eye, absolutely incredible food (if you're looking for a study abroad program that hooks you up with delectable cuisine, which surely should be your main incentive, then DIS is the program for you), speeches from Tony Blair's "Spin Doctor" and a tour of the Telegraph. We saw Harrods and markets all over London, we toured the river-way and the streets of London. My favorite day, though, was our trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was fascinating given the sheer weight of the rocks and the ingenuity required to move those rocks from over 40km away (or more) and to play them vertically and on-top of each other. The theories surrounding the monument were equally interesting ranging from alien abduction sites to ritual prayer sites.

Bath, though, was the most incredible part of the trip. The old Roman baths were gorgeous and the entire city was built in the same stone used to build the Roman temple in which the baths sat. With gorgeous waterways and incredible architecture weaving through the city, it was more than remarkable.

This is Emma and I with some Romans we ran into.

After an incredible week in London, Bath, and Stonehendge we found our way to Amsterdam...

Amsterdam is continued in the blog above as this seems too long and combining the two adventure does disservice to both places.

Off to London

I would like to begin this post by making a list of why I am in love with Denmark (a short, condensed list):

1. I can go to a bar and break out the coffee grinder in a dance circle without being publicly mocked immediately after.

2. Not only can I do the coffee grinder, but I can moon walk across the dance circle and still remain socially unscathed.

3. The ocean is literally frozen for 20 meters out and yet you still find Danes swimming in the water.

4. Their bread weighs 10 lbs because it actually contains grains, real grains, not refined, processed, synthetically manipulated grains.

5. They invented hot lemonade.

6. I can see a 70 year old man riding his bike down the street while smoking a pipe.

7. I can be blunt and not offend anyone. That's the name of the game here.

8. They show replays of the Olympics in slow motion set to Mozart.

9. You can call the Parliament and chat with the representatives. I can call the head of the biggest party in Denmark and he'll talk with me.

10. There are more people biking than driving, and more people walking than biking.

11. They charge you for plastic bags at stores.

12. Companies have the most incredible benefits. Many companies pay for the cars of their employees (the employees get to pick the car, too), the gas, the insurance, they all have fitness centers inside, they pay for the employees lunches everyday and buy them drinks (wine, beer, shots) a few times a week at the cantinas they have in the office, they have department meetings over a glass of wine and cocktails, they have 6 weeks vacation, days off if their kids get sick, maternity and paternity leave, and the benefits go on and on.

I can't exactly remember my past week beyond the fact that it made it above zero degrees celcius which was probably the greatest moment thus far. My week, in summary, included Danish X-Factor and Wine Parties (yes, I got tricked into watching X-Factor again), Friends marathons and danish candy eating binges, gym mishaps (relatively minor), breaking dancing and falafel, tests, reading, eating, drinking, sleeping. Although I did have an odd moment I realized in retrospect might have been more than I originally thought....

I was running on the treadmill, watching some bad MTV Danish music videos on the screen on my machine (each machine has a TV attached to it). I was on my third mile, quite sweaty and almost done and this guy moves to the treadmill right next to me, turns it on, and starts walking while watching the same MTV channel. He then points to my screen and his screen and then himself, pointing out that we were watching the same thing, a Nik and Jay music video. I'm sitting there a bit bewildered and quite annoyed thinking, 'I'm three minutes from finishing my run, unable to see straight and quite frankly, I don't give a damn that we're watching the same MTV channel'. I smile, blow him off quite blatantly and keep going. Later, upon reflection, I realize that he was pointing out that he was the one in the music video. Nik and Jay are the biggest Danish hip-hop stars and he was Jay. After talking with the owner of the gym (who has befriended me, I think for pure entertainment due to my multitude of mishaps), my suspicions were confirmed.

(this is them) If the situation were the repeat itself, I would do the same thing ( I think you can understand why as the photo speaks for itself).

So I am off to pack for London and then Amsterdam for the next week. I'll be touring Magnum Photo, many museums, Stonehedge, Bath, tea houses, the London Eye, Billy Elliot, the Red Light District and enjoying myself thoroughly. Look for more adventures soon!

Hej Hej!