I forgot Memorial Day weekend was a thing and that it was coming up. This whole year, all I could think about was the Europe trip and never saw much past that. Add onto that the fact that we have Canada next month and AJ and I were too tired (and too broke!) to really do anything at all this weekend.
So, Saturday AJ golfed with his friends and I got to hang with the Banana and take her to the dog park. There were soooo many dogs there, but she generally doesn't play much haha, this was some of the most action I got out of her.
On Sunday, we decided to drive up to the mountains to do some off roading trails that included a lot of great little mini hikes. It was nice because it was so gray and overcast that day, but up in the mountains we got above the clouds and had a great warm sunny day.
Then we made it to my moms for BBQ and Game of Thrones (yeshhhh!) and Monday was just hanging around, not doing much, then a trip to Home Depot for me to get a bunch of crafting supplies (including gold spray paint - I plan to spray paint my entire apartment a layer of gold ha!) and then Dairy Queen ice cream mmmmmm!
I don't want the weekend to be over! But I AM looking forward to June...
Hold on to your hats and glasses kids because Copenhagen. Was. DA. BEST. Absolutely the best. Certainly it helps that the weather was clear, warm and gorgeous, but, for whatever it's worth, AJ and I were googling how to get Danish citizenship on our second day there.
Flying in to Copenhagen from Paris we were seeing some neat scenery below. Unsure if it was northern Germany or southern Denmark, or both, or neither?? It's cool to see the globe like this though
AJ had researched the Copenhagen Card, which we decided to buy. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have, but he was all about it so I was like well whatever. But it was the BEST thing ever, seriously. First of all, you get FREE entrance to like a million and three spots in Copenhagen (like, all the best things), then you get discounts on tons of other things, sometimes you get a free gift, and the BEST part (which almost makes it worth it on its own) is that ALL transportation is included with that card: train, metro, S-bahn, bus. So, we packed in everything, but first we had to go to our cozy little home.
The central train station in Copenhagen
The bistro right outside our place had blankets on all the chairs. Why? The weather was lovely!
The view from our window, in an apartment right above a little plaza!
First thing we did was a canal boat tour. And by the way, we boarded right by a 7-11 (they love the 7-11's there) and they had the best, most delicious gourmet deli sandwiches there. We ate there more than once!
KMK heyo!
Afterwards we went to Tivoli Gardens, which is the most charming place EVER. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world (the first is also in Denmark) and it was the most adorable place ever!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to live there!!!!!!
Hans Christian Andersen is one of their crown jewels
Baby duckling!!
Me amazing Irish coffee. Take note America: You can sell booze and not become a devil-worshiping place of mayhem
That's me in the middle, a little too dark though
The lights coming on made it even more magical than before!
I had my eyes closed previously, this was my attempt to NOT close my eyes this time
Oh and for some reason, Scandinavia is inexplicably obsessed with Pringles. I thought this was a nice take on it.
That was about it for a day. The next morning we had grand plans that started with an early morning at the Little Mermaid, before she got overwhelmed. Boy, were we wrong. Before we even got there, we saw about 5 tour buses parked nearby and more just coming and coming and never stopping. She was absolutely swarming with tourists and it was annoying and frustrating. I elbowed my way down to take a picture so we could immediately leave. I was not having it! (Amazing I lived in NYC as long as I did with my aversion to crowds now).
After this we headed to Rosenborg Castle, which was FASCINATING and beautiful. First of all, the grounds were so beautiful and serene...
Then, touring around was mesmerizing. This was the castle most royalty actually lived in. You could see all the living quarters for everything, the throne rooms, as well as all of the crown jewels and royal heirlooms and stuff!! This was a small selection of some of my favorites:
The coronation throne
Ornamental bird cage; Large. With a clock underneath! That Nordic Sense has deep roots!
Jayna, this is expressly for you. It looked like a mini you and little Pippin!
I don't think your enemies will be suspicious at all if you serve them wine in this...
The throne room! Guarded by three lions. Three lions are a big thing for them, it's to represent the three Scandinavia powers of Norway, Denmark and Sweden (sorry, Iceland, I guess you didn't make the cut!)
These are gem-encrusted gold pieces meant for young monarchs to practice war strategies on!
GIMME THAT SCEPTER!!!
After that was the National Museum, which I really liked. We got to see The Egtved Girl!
This was one of the most wild things I had ever seen. This picture was painted just as you see it - all swirly and weird. But, you are supposed to be able to view it perfectly precise in the reflection of that silver pole in the middle - and you could! It was hard to capture on film, but really neat to see in person!
AJ was really excited about making it to the aquarium, and it turned out to be a really good thing that we did, because it vindicated our entire trip! It was relatively small, but really cool! Remember our whole goal in Iceland was to see a puffin but we never did??? Well look what greeted us in Copenhagen!
They were SO ADORABLE toooooo!!! I got a video of it swimming because it was just so dang cute! I swear this one and I had a connection.
Then, the aquarium made an announcement that they would be feeding all the creatures in the ocean tank, so we went to watch that. They had a big tank with sharks and stingrays and all that jazz, but the demonstration was all in Danish. In case you were wondering what that experience was like, look no further!
Then, we did a touch tank and we watched sea otters play and we went to the tropical tanks which was neat because they had an outdoor section which was warm and humid and filled with butterflies.
They also had a tank of piranhas, and we were around for the feeding, so AJ made a time lapse video of it. They lowered what looked like a dead stingray on a hook and the piranhas went to town.
After the aquarium we made our way to Visit Carlsberg, the Carlsberg beer brewery. I've done quite a few of these (namely Guinness and Heineken), and this wasn't exactly as exciting as those, but it's always kinda cool and the free beer is always nice too. Plus, AJ and I love Copenhagen so we support anything from that city.
They had their own replica of The Little Mermaid - the guy who founded this brewery is the one who commissioned the statue for the city - I finally got to see her without being harassed by a million other tourists!
We went to town in their gift shop - AJ bought a backpack and cards and bought me a shirt and a million other things too.
We were SO TIRED by this time - I could barely feel my legs. We got kebabs (mmmm) and went back to our place. This picture is great because we were engaged in a text conversation with our friends that were in Iceland with us. I texted them something to the effect of "I haven't annoyed AJ once this entire trip" and this was his face after he read that HAHAHAHHA.
On the day we were to leave, we had a leisurely 12:40 flight from Copenhagen, direct to LA. We slept in with the windows open, listening to the church bells tolling for the last time and packed slowly. Then, shit hit the fan. It was getting late and we found out we still owed money to our host (apparently we had only paid a deposit) so we had to find an ATM for cash. Then the bus was late. Then we got off on the wrong stop. Then the next train out to the airport wasn't for 20 minutes. Then the train was delayed. Then the train kept stopping on the tracks. Originally, I was incredibly stressed. By the time we actually got to the airport, AJ and I had just accepted that we missed our flight and leisurely walked to our airline gate. By this time we were making plans - maybe with the extra day we would take the train to Sweden, or be able to fly to Norway and then to LA for Oslo. We got to the airline counter at 12:10. Remember, our flight was to leave at 12:40.
Imagine our surprise when they made a call and said if we would carry on our bags, we could still go. Um, what? I was actually a little disappointed because I was looking forward to Norway! But they let us through and fast-tracked us through security. Of course, we had been planning on checking our bags so they were full with liquids and they both got flagged and screened, and the one that didn't was also randomly selected for a random search. Then, our gate was literally the last one at the end of a long hallway and we were running and the stewardess was in the hall waving us on and I couldn't even breathe... and somehow we made that damn flight! Amazing.
We did have some neat sights as we flew over Greenland, we were able to actually see a lot of the terrain. That was neat!
We landed in LA and it took foreverrrrrrrr to get through customs on our end (sooo annoying) and his mom picked us up and we stayed that night in LA. On the way back to AJ's place the next morning we started planning our next two trips, because what is life if you're not on vacation??
