Thanksgiving in Borup

After seeing everyones pictures on Thursday, I was feeling pretty sad about not being home for Thanksgiving. This was the first Thanksgiving I haven't spent with my family, and since I've been gone for four months not being in Charleston made me a little extra ready to come home. I am so thankful for my family, but I am equally thankful for this semester in Denmark, the people I've gotten to know here, and the ability to travel all over Europe.  

Each year for Thanksgiving, Helle has her students cook at traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was a little daunting at first considering I'm not the most experienced in cooking, but our meal went off beautifully! Sam and Gabrielle began cooking Friday night to reduce the amount of work to do for Saturday. Saturday morning we woke up with the daunting task of cooking the 18 pound turkey. After carefully following a step by step YouTube video, the turkey was in the oven! At 6pm, our dinner was ready for the 18 people willing to eat our food. The final meal was a huge spread of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, baked pineapple, creamed corn, cooked carrots, green beans, and rolls! 

To say that we were proud of our completed meal would be an understatement. It was so exciting to have successfully cooked an entire meal for so many people. It tasted and smelled just like a traditional Thanksgiving. I was so happy to have Sally make the trek out to Borup to celebrate with us! For dessert, Gabrielle made all three pies. The crust was even homemade! It was quite impressive and the pies were extremely delicious.

I was so happy to get to share our special holiday with the Danes. We filled our stomaches with delicious food and talked for hours about our semesters here in Denmark. It was a wonderful, hygge filled night! 

Love, 

Back to Edinburgh

For my last trip of the semester, I headed back to Edinburgh! I have really come full circle as going to Edinburgh was also my first trip of the semester. It's crazy to think about how much I've changed in these last four months, but that deserves its own post. Let's just say my independent traveling skills have improved significantly! Going through Scottish boarder control this time was a breeze. I was supposed to go to Paris this weekend to meet up with a bunch of Deltas to celebrate Zoe's 21st birthday, but in light of recent events we decided to cancel our trip. I wanted to journey out of Denmark one last time and happened to find a round trip flight to Edinburgh for less than $100! I'll really miss being able to bounce from country to country so quickly and for such a cheap price.

I got into Edinburgh at 11am, so after heading into the city we grabbed lunch at a thai place. We then went to the apartment to drop off my stuff and say hi to Nick's roommates before heading to the National Gallery of Art. Edinburgh's Christmas opened for the first night of the year, so we went right for the opening. The market is right in the middle of the city! We grabbed dinner at the market and some Pimm's hot cider to drink while wandering around. It is absolutely amazing! They bring in a giant ferris wheel, carousel, and swings and have the cutest little stalls set up. After wandering through the market (multiple times), I was convinced to ice skating. My coordination isn't the greatest, so I was a little wary of my ice skating abilities. It actually turned out to be so much fun and I didn't fall once!

Saturday morning, we got breakfast at place called Elephants and Bagels and then walked up Calton Hill. The hill is a UNESCO World Heritage Cite and had the best views of the city. It was a surprisingly clear day, so we could see everything! After wandering through the farmers market and down Princes Street, we headed back to the apartment to work on some homework. Since I only have two weeks left of classes, I have either a test or a paper to finish for each of my classes before I leave and needed to get some work done. 

Saturday night we went to the light show at the Royal Botanical Gardens. We didn't really know what to expect, but it was really fun to walk through. The different lights were supposed to represent the changing seasons. There was smoke, fire, and some parts were even interactive! After the lights, we just went back and hung out because I had to be up at 6:30am for my flight back to Copenhagen! Edinburgh is such a cool city, and I'm so happy I was able to go back. It was the best last weekend adventure of my crazy semester abroad! 

Love,

Adventures in Spain, Part 2

Friday morning I took the train back into Madrid to meet up with Tori and Alice! Their apartment is right in the center of the city which made exploring so much fun. After grabbing some breakfast, we wandered through the Plaza Mayor and then headed over to the Parque del Retiro. The park is massive and absolutely beautiful because the leaves were starting to change! We walked through the park stopping for ice break by the lake, around the Palacio de Cristal, and then rented one of the little blue row boats. Being on the water with the feeling of the sun shining on my skin, I couldn't help but miss being in Charleston a little extra.

After the park, we walked down Gran Vía (the main shopping street) and then headed back to the apartment to pick up Tori before heading to the Mercado de San Miguel for some Sangria. For dinner, we met up with some other Richmond people at Ojala. It was in the coolest neighborhood and had absolutely delicious food! Being in Spain I knew that one night I had to experience the crazy night life. We went to a seven story club called Teatro Kapital at 1:30am which is considered early and didn't get back until 4:00am! As someone who goes to bed before midnight on a regular basis this was quite the experience but was so much fun. I might have had a little too much fun because I woke up Saturday morning without a voice! I'm going on day four and my voice still isn't completely back.

After sleeping in until past noon on Saturday, we finally ventured out of the apartment to the Federal Café for a delicious brunch! I had not had eggs with avocado and toast in so long, and this brunch did not disappoint. After brunch, we walked over to the Royal Palace of Madrid where we wandered through the gardens and past the Cathedral and then over to the main shopping area. I have been collecting postcards from each city I've visited, so I wanted to pick out my postcard and see if there were any other souvenirs that I wanted to bring home. I'm starting to worry about how I'm supposed to get all of my clothes and souvenirs home in December. For dinner, we grabbed some tapas at one of their favorite locals spots and then spent the night in hanging out and watching a movie.

It was so much fun hanging out with them and it made me that much more excited to head back to Richmond in January.

Love,

Adventures in Spain, Part 1

For my third and final travel break of the semester, I headed to Spain to visit friends in Valencia and Madrid. It's crazy to think that this semester is almost over! It has been absolutely unforgettable. Nick came to visit Copenhagen for the first weekend of the break, so I didn't headed to Spain until Tuesday. It was so much fun exploring Copenhagen with him, but unfortunately I didn't take enough pictures for its own blogpost. We wandered through Rosenborg Castle and Amalienborg Palace, Nyhavn, The Round Tower, Paper Island, the National Museum of Denmark, and the Danish Architecture Center. Friday night was Jule Dag where Tuborg releases their Christmas Beer. There were giant trucks filled with people in blue santa suits handing out the beer and Tuborg santa hats! Everything was decorated with trees and fake snow for Christmas with Christmas music blasting through the streets. Even though it's a little strange celebrating Christmas since it isn't even Thanksgiving yet in the states, I absolutely loved it!  It was a packed three days, but it was so much fun getting to be a tourist in my own city.

Tuesday afternoon I flew into Madrid and then took the train down to Valencia where Megan met me at the train station! It was so nice to spend a few days exploring Valencia with her. I love getting to wander the cities where people are studying abroad. Locals are the very best tour guides! I didn't get into Valencia until late, so we just went to the Airbnb where we were staying, chatted for a while, and then went to sleep. We woke up early Wednesday morning, got donuts for breakfast, and wandered through El Río and el Ciudad de Artes y Sciecncias. It is such a cool park nestled in between the old and new town. The weather was absolutely incredible. I've gotten so used to the cold weather and grey skies of Copenhagen, I forgot what it was like to be warm and feel the sunshine! For lunch, we ate sandwiches made by her host mom and I just hung out while she had a class. Unfortunately, our Airbnb doesn't have wifi, so I'm currently writing this post from her school. In the building you're only allowed to speak spanish so its really testing my 6 years of Spanish classes in middle and high school. After her class we walked through the city center, climbing up the Torres of the old wall and the Cathedral. Because they eat dinner so late here, we stopped for churros before cooking dinner at the airbnb with all of her friends! It was so much fun to cook, drink some wine, and just hang out. After dinner, we went to a bar to hang out but didn't stay up too late because we wanted to wake up early and explore on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we woke up and got brunch at this cute little market. She had class pretty much all day, so I was going to wander down the main shopping street. About an hour into my wandering, I realized that my phone had been stolen! I proceeded to search every store that I had been in but had no luck. Since there is not an apple store in Copenhagen and I was leaving the next morning for Madrid, I used my limited knowledge of the Spanish language and bought a new phone. It was not exactly how I planned to spend my day wandering Valencia, but I'm glad I was able to get things fixed relatively smoothly. For dinner, we had a traditional Spanish meal of sangria, patatas bravas, and paella. It was delicious!

(I was just a tad excited to see palm trees again) 

Friday morning, I woke up early and headed to Madrid for the weekend! Since this post has gotten pretty long, I will post about my trip to Madrid in the next one!

Love, 

My 21st Birthday!

We got home from Munich late Friday night and I was absolutely exhausted from traveling all week, so I just headed home for the night. Saturday morning (the morning of my birthday), I was woken up bright and early to the sound of "Happy Birthday" by my host mom and roommates. In traditional Danish custom, we all sat down and had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, bread, pastries, and tea! It was delicious. My roommates got me a few bottles of wine to help celebrate my 21st and my host mom got me a daisy necklace because it is the traditional flower of Denmark. 

During the day, I met up with friends and we headed to Tivoli Gardens because it was all decorated for Halloween. It was so nice to see all of the pumpkins, straw, and scarecrows. I absolutely loved it! We rode the swings which has broomsticks on them (it was so cute) and the rollercoaster before grabbing some cider to continue wandering the park. It's so cool that there is a theme park in the middle of the city.

After cooking dinner and relaxing a little, we all met up again in the city to go out and celebrate my finally being legal in the states. It was such a fun day and I am so happy I got to spend it in the city that I get to call home this semester! 

Love,