yep... that's us. She now goes to Indiana University and I go to Baylor. It's sad being so far apart (I know she misses me a lot, right Pants?), but I know in her I will always have a good friend who will be there for me. With that being said, she was there for me that weekend when I arrived in Copenhagen after taking an overnight train with 6 boys. We did not have a sleeper car, but by the grace of God our car was not full and I had a wonderful night's sleep before arriving at 10:00 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Me and the boys. They were so good to me and took care of me during our travels. Travelling with all boys is always an experience and an adventure. It was so fun!
Alexandra met me at the train station, and after dropping my stuff off at her apartment she went to class and I was left to explore the city alone for a couple hours. After looking at a map and realizing I probably wasn't going to be able figure out how to get myself anywhere, I started walking in a general direction that looked nice. The city was extravagent. Copenhagen architecture is very different from any other city I have been to. I felt like I was twirling in circles trying to look at everything at once, but it was a blur of scenery.
This building is where the Danish parliament meets. Ironically, this is where I was hoping to end up, but had given up after looking at the map. I showed up, snapped a picture, and met a girl from China named Rhivana (don't ask questions... that's what she said). She told me this place was indeed Christiansborg. I felt rather accomplished at this point. However, I realized that the 40 euros in my pocket was not going to help me defrost my fingers that I could no longer feel at this point. Let me just tell you that Denmark is a wonderful country, however, I could never live there. I moved to Texas because of the warmth, and Denmark is the coldest place I have ever been. Not just temperature... it's a bitter cold swept off the Baltic coast. I have never been in that much frigid pain. At this point, I was determined to find a reason to get warm. I turned back and headed towards a bank... I have never been so thankful for central heating and cooling. After converting my cash into Krone, I realized it was almost time to meet Alexandra at the place where she dropped me off so I headed back to the Latin Quarter.
I found her with ease and for lunch we grabbed hot dogs at one of street stands. I'm not a big fan of hot dogs, but these were better than most (it's Europe, of course they were!)... and unlike most everything else in Copenhagen, they were cheap. I quickly realized another reason I could not live in Copenhagen: it is one of the most expensive cities in the world!
Luckily for me, I had my own personal tourguide. Alexandra is taking a class on urban Copenhagen and so she was able to not only impressively navigate her way around the city, but also give me a brief background of many of the famous places we were looking at. We stopped at what I would describe as an underground coffee shop to warm up and catch up on life. I cannot describe what a blessing it was to be there with her! It was refreshing to be with someone who knows me so well, and is also going through many of the same experiences I am right now.
The port was frozen over... water was not moving, but here is the famous Little Mermaid statue. The little girl in me was surprisingly excited to see this.
The theater.
Nyhaven... we ate dinner here the next evening. EXPENSIVE, but beautiful :)
\St. Alban's Church
I think the queen lives here. I guess I was impressed or something...
That night we went grocery shopping and made dinner in her apartment. Then we went out with a bunch of her friends. They were so much fun and I was excited to meet some of her new besties from college. We went to the equivalent of what the French would consider a "discotheque"...I think. It was the closest thing I have ever experienced to a rave (except I didn't see any drugs, but I didn't really know what was going on...nor have I ever been to a rave sooo, I could be totally wrong about the comparison). Anyway, there was music, strobe lights, and dancing. Our friends from high school have a habit of having random dance parties (like most teenage girls), whether we are interpretative dancing to the Lion King Soundtrack in my room or making Mariah Carey music videos, or in some random club in Copenhagen... Needless to say, Pants and I were in our element that night.
The next day we toured the city some more, and saw Christiania... a self proclaimed autonomous hippie-commune in the middle of Copenhagen. I didn't quite understand the whole concept because it was cold, dirty and bizarre... apparently everyone in Copenhagen loves this place though. You aren't allowed to run or take pictures in the commune... I snuck a few anyway.
"Nemoland"... that's all you need to know about this place.
is that a duck?
Weirdest thing ever, but totally worth going through... people on this earth are wonderfully different, aren't they?
An old Church built in the 17th century. However, Alexandra informed me that most of the architecture in Copenhagen isn't that old because they have a problem with starting fires... really? You would think they would learn after the first few, but then again this is also the culture that leaves their children outside of stores in strollers while they go shopping. Maybe I'm kind of conservative, but shouldn't that be illegal or something? Alexandra explained to me that the Danish can't understand why anyone would want to take their child... Never thought of it that way before, but so true.
So before we saw this parade of Danish soldiers marching through the streets, we saw everyone outside was carrying Danish flags. I asked Alexandra what was going on and in a typical Alexandra response she said, "I don't know. People here just really like being Danish.".... Well put.
Rosenburg Castle. We walked around, snapped a picture, and left... too cold to care at this point.
Next stop: The train station. We took a thirty minute train ride to Malmö, Sweden... No big deal.
Got off the train and literally wandered the streets. We had no plan...just the entire city before us and as much as our bodies could take of the cold.
Sweden!
What is this? I don't know, but I'm in Malmö!
People really like parades over here.
This is why the plaza turns its fountains off during the winter... someone should tell Sweden.
Before leaving, we stopped by a Swedish pastry shop and got their famous passionfruit cake. I've never had anything like it, but both Pants and I agreed it was one of the best desserts we have ever had. The people in this country were so nice and really beautiful... somehow everyone was tan! I don't get it. It's freaking freezing here and they look like they all just got back from the beach. Maybe Celsius Tannery found a good market in Scandinavia...
Did some shopping. This part of Sweden is not quite as expensive as Copenhagen! Thank the Lord
When we returned to Copenhagen that night we had a nice dinner on the Nyhaven strip and the next morning I met the boys at the train station for an eventful ride home...
A couple hours into our trip, we had to get off the train and take a ferry over the Baltic Sea... It was really cool (literally). This is Michael Goldstein. He is one of my good friends on the trip. Like me, he is also from the Midwest...but Chicago style. He is always looking out for me and I know that if we go anywhere together he's got my back. Good friends are such a blessing when you are so out of your comfort zone.
Oh the boys... what precious lambs.
The beauty of this experience is the unexpected and unplanned adventures you go on... like a (free! thanks Eurail) trip to Malmö, Sweden one afternoon with a best friend just because you can... or a trip over the Baltic Sea on a ferry, or a dance club with about 100 of your closest new friends from all over the world. You just never know where the day is going to take you, who you are going to meet or what you are going to see.
Sometimes that "not knowing" can be hard though. You have moments when you just want to know what you are doing and where to go. You are sick of getting on the wrong bus and not knowing how to read the menu. Can I please have a glass of water without getting charged for once? Someone point me in the direction of a restaurant that isn't going to cost me 30 euros for one meal.
However, these experiences of not knowing have taught me a lot about what I value. What I have learned is that all of this... the knowing and not knowing, it all matters. All these decisions we are forced to make: who you are, what you want to become, how you treat strangers, the relationships you choose to invest in, your reputation... all of it. What you believe about the world matters. It defines who you are and who you are going to become. If it doesn't matter, than what's the point?
In the words of the writer of Ecclesiastes,
“Meaningless! Meaningless! ....Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless... I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."
Yet, the Lord's grace to us is that it is not meaningless.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end...I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. "
Your life matters. If you choose to believe otherwise, than you "leave it to others to make history."-- Albert Camus
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