Weekend Activities

This weekend my goal was to do fun activities that were free! I came up with a Saturday itinerary of a morning at the Frederiksberg flea market followed by an afternoon at the National Museum of Copenhagen. My friend Andre from Germany accompanied me and we had a great time! The flea market is every Saturday and they sell everything from vintage clothes, to china, to old army hats! The museum itself is very large and we were only able to do one section of it before tiring out. I think I will save future visits to it for rainy days. Today I spent the day at the library studying for my classes. Students here do not attend lecture for as many hours as they do in the U.S, but they definitely have more reading to do!

The entrance to the National Museum

Inside the lobby

I've never seen so many random things in my life, I could come here every week!

Andre with the army hats

A vintage purse I wanted but decided it wasn't worth it when I have so

many places left I want to travel to!

Bienvenidos a Barcelona!

I just spent five days in Barcelona and really enjoyed exploring the city. The food is wonderful, the language beautiful and the weather hot! I liked that is was easy to use the metro system and things seemed a bit cheaper than in Denmark. I was expecting more people to speak Catalan, but this really wasn't the case. I found it easy and socially acceptable to approach people and speak to them only in Spanish.

A close up of one of the entrances to the famous Sagrada Familia, designed by artist Antoni Gaudi.

The entrance on the other side of the Sagrada Familia. It's 11 Euro to get in, but supposedly if you go to church with the elderly Spanish women on Sundays you can get in for free. I'm sure the service is beautiful from inside. What I noticed about this church was how massive it was. You stand next to it and can't stop looking at how large and intricate it is. Gaudi started working on it in 1883 and it has yet to be completed.

A view of the harbor by Las Ramblas at sunset.
Park Guell, also done by Antoni Gaudi. This is a picture of the backside of the entrance. It reminds me of Candyland!

Your first view when you enter the park. Gaudi's art is really different and very interesting to explore. I loved how colorful it was compared to the Sagrada Familia.

Inside one of the passageways.

This is Barceloneta Beach, we went here on the second day I visited. It was nice to get a tan coming from Denmark but I did not like how crowded the beach was. The water however was very refreshing and it is not hard to get to from the city center.

Plaza de Catalunya, one of the main shopping areas. If you take the bus from the airport you end up here. Overall I think Barcelona is one of my favorite cities. The relaxed atmosphere and lovely climate make it a wonderful city to sit back and enjoy life just like the Spanish!

Valencia, home of Paella

I took a bus south from Barcelona to Valencia with my friends Darline and Ebyan. The trip only takes about 3.5 hours and if you go with the Alsa "supra" line you get free snacks! The Spanish dish Paella originated just outside Valencia and we were sure to try it out. They make it with either squid, octopus, and shrimp, or you can order the Paella Valenciana with chicken and rabbit. We stayed in a nice hostel called the RedNest that was close to all the city's attractions. It also allowed us to meet fellow travelers from places like the Czech Republic, Spain, U.S and England.

One of the city's main Cathedrals.

The ladies tried Spanish Horchata, spelled Orxata and made with tiger nuts instead of the traditional Mexican Horchata made with rice. Very delicious!

Squares like this were very typical in Valencia.

A typical Spanish tapas, "Jamon Serrano" a Spanish ham that is thinly sliced and very salty. It's delicious alone or on a baguette sandwich!

We went to a cafe that specialized in hot chocolate. It was so thick it was like eating melted bars of milk chocolate! We were in heaven! The best thing to do is order churros (long strips of fried dough) and dip them in your hot chocolate or coffee. Can you tell we did a lot of eating on the trip? : )

Another square, this was where most of the teenagers hung out at night.

A tree I really liked in a park nearby.

On the last day we did a tapas tour. With Nonstop Tours, you pay 10 Euro and go to three different restaurants. At each place you are served either cola, beer, or sangria as well as various tapas dishes. It was a great deal for the amount of food we got and we were also able to meet more travelers! This company also does free tours and we were sad we didn't know about it before we had to head back to Barcelona.

Cake!

After returning from my trip my amazing floor mates surprised me with a belated birthday cake! Thanks Sofie and Daniel!

Ciao!

Hi everyone, I am leaving for Barcelona tomorrow so I won't be blogging until late next week!

Malmo, Sweden!

Hi all! Today I went with a group of people to Malmo, Sweden for the day. We took the metro to the central train station in Copenhagen and from there took a train to Malmo. A bridge was created so passengers can cross over the water and get to the city within 35 minutes. It costs about $25 roundtrip. Many Danes come to Malmo for the cheap shopping, but I found prices to be almost equivalent to those in Copenhagen. So far Stockholm seems to have a better reputation, so hopefully I will be able to compare the two soon!

St. Peter's Church near the main square in Malmo

Me with the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo in the background. It was extremely windy and rainy all day!
Some apartments by the waterfront
Malmohus Castle, now a museum that contains the history of the building itself. Even though we couldn't read anything, we guessed from the pictures inside that it was once a prison and a hospital.

This one's for you Mom, some tapestries and pilliows I found done by needlepoint in the museum. The entire room was filled with yarn and I thought of you.

Some of my friends from the group, Sam, Sofie, Kasie and Lexi!

A Day at the Beach

Today was a relaxing yet somewhat surprising day at the beach. I took the metro south and got off at Amager Strand, which leads to one of the beaches here in Denmark. My floor mate Sofie and I tried to find a nice spot, and noticed everyone seemed to plant themselves within the grass hills growing on the sand. We chose to lie on the flat sand instead. After being buffeted by the wind and sand we realized we should have followed the Danes' example!

Sofie and I were even more shocked when some friends of ours joined us wearing only neon colored speedos! My buddy Ron from Australia brought them over in order to "fit in" at the beach. : ) We couldn't stop laughing!

View from the dock

Our friends finally wearing normal swim trunks : )

Just booked a flight to Barcelona and am really looking forward to it! I should be leaving in about a week and will be sure to add pictures of my adventures there!