Sleepless Nights

On Friday I was awoken at 9am by builders sat on my windowsill outside laughing and joking.  The mind boggles as to why they could not sit outside another of the 7 street-facing windows and not the one where they could see someone asleep outside.  I hit the books pretty hard as I am starting to stress slightly about the amount of work still to do before Christmas.  In the evening I met Max, Lorelaie and Paul (all Frenchies) for a drink and then we went on to FredagsBar on campus.  The theme was meant to be HALLOWEEN but the music was mainly British 80s pop-rap and Wham!  Anyway a lovely time was had by all and I met a rather dashing young man.

The Superheros (Lorelaie and Paul)

On Saturday I woke up with a banging head, drank loads of water and decided that what I needed was to ride my bike.  Rode down the road to Maxs andwe cycled down to Vesterbro to a flea market I had heard about.  It was real nice but kind of made me miss home somehow, I don't know, lots of trendy folk, it was very Brick Lane.  It had a bar serving cake, hot toddies etc, and a huge hall full of people selling their wares.  Outside there were some guys practicing Parkour and a place called Street Mecca where kids were playing basketball.

We then went to Istedgade, the top half of which is Copenhagens red light district (where I stayed when I lived in a hotel for my first week here) and the bottom half is all independent designer shops, specialist food shops, cafes and bars.  The weather was insanely nice (probably 14C, sunny, not windy), we locked up our bikes, bought lunch and went walking, just looking into shops as we went.  Basically the perfect activity with a hangover.  After a while we decided we both wanted an ice cream, so went to this place just off Vesterbrogade and the banana ice cream was one of the best thing I have ever tasted.  Went a-walking through some residential streets, played in some autumn leaves etc. 

Went home to have a nap and then went to the re-opening of Studenterhuset (Student House) which is this cafe/bar/gig venue/study hall mash-up.  It has been under renovation since I have been in CPH but I think it is going to be right up my street.  They have a darkroom, music practice rooms etc and loads of room to sit and study or stand and party.  Very cheap drinks.  We watched a band who were basically the Danish version of Pete and the Pirates - it was good but did not blow my mind. And then they played a ballad, just the keyboard player and the singer and it was insanely beautiful - I was very impressed, kind of had a Sigur Ros feeling to it.  Matt came along and then was going to this Kollegium (halls of residence) party in Norrebro.  It was pretty close to where I live so I thought why not?  Bumped into a couple of people I knew and had the cheapest beer I have ever had - 10DKK.

Slept a long time today + my extra hour.  Now this day is wasting away so I must go and study.

'Lift me off the ground and take me to the garden of paradise'

OK, I think I might say this every week but after a weekend of reflection I wanted to have a really productive week, so that's what I have been aiming for.

The week started well with a number of hours in the library on Monday reading and trying to sort out my work for my exams coming in December.  The weirdest thing happened in the library, I was just sat there reading and I heard a British voice right behind me.  Obviously I turned around to see who it was and it was Theo, a boy who has just graduated Politics at the University of Surrey who did erasmus at KU.  He is back in Denmark with his Danish girlfriend and studying his masters in Roskilde, living the dream.  Crazy small world.  I had my Climate Change class and way fewer people showed up for some reason and I decided to speak in class (the first time in this class).  It kind of got brushed away but it was a step forward, next time I will say something really poignant.  Came out of class to find darkness and rain, the Danish winter is beginning.  Cycling home I couldn't see the curb for puddles and I ran into it and fell off my bike, grazing my knee.  Bad bike experience, and very embarrassing.

On Tuesday my 10am class got moved to 8.15am as it was a tour of Parliament.  I have already been to the Danish Parliament, plus there will be other opportunities to go so I stayed in bed.  Got up to head off to my 12noon class and realised 5 minutes before I was going to leave that that class was cancelled too as the lecturer is currently in Ethiopia.  I headed out anyway and did more library things, including not getting a fine on an overdue book. Get me!  At home my computer freaked out on me and I had a freak out but then my friend KATIE JONES helped me fix it.  Thanks Katie!  After the stress of this I was gonna go to bed at like 10pm but instead went out and met Matt and some Italians for a drink in Bar7.  I can't afford any of the drinks in this place, but Matt was in my debt so I was pretty lucky.

Wednesday I had plans with my French friend Lorelaie to go swimming in Frederiksberg, but these plans somehow fell through.  I went up to Hellerup to tutor my tutee.  I am really really enjoying this volunteering (I feel like I am helping, everyone at the school speaks English all the time and the school is just fantastic, colour everywhere, hahaha AND IM STAFF!!!  I am going to ask soon whether it is possible for me too sit in on some classes in order to get a feel for the classroom aspect of the school.  The weather was horrendous and everywhere I cycled I could not see a darn thing as the water got all over my spectacles.  I had dinner plans and was going to chicken out and get the metro as it is 30 minutes cycle away and I don't really know the way.  I gathered my courage though and made it down to Marias in Amagerbro without getting lost (I had told Simon I would definitely get lost and I was so proud of myself).  Had a lovely dinner at Marias, thanks Maria! Later, I set off home with Alex/Sandy and we proceeded to get very lost in Copenhagen, but we righted ourselves and I got home in about an hour I think.  Needless to say my legs were fricking killing me.

On Thursday Lorelaie and myself went swimming at last.  It was quite an experience.  Beforehand I was apprehensive because I havent' swum since I was about 13/14 and was worried I would not float or something.  We got to the pool, bought swim caps and went to the changing rooms.  It was here that we realised that we would have to shower before and after our swim - NAKED.  At first I was the typical English prude while naked Danish ladies aged 8 - 80 walked around without a care in the world.  In the end I just imagined that none of them could see me, as I could not see them without my glasses.  So I did it, showered naked in communal showers next to other naked strangers.  I then went swimming, which was awesome, I am weak from the years of no exercise apart from walking, but I can totally see myself going swimming here.  After our swim we had to shower again but by this point the exhibitionist part of me secretly enjoyed my liberating situation.  And I had my first sauna experience, naked again. So freaking hot (not the naked women, the temperature) - hahahahaha.  Went home for left-over lasagne of Simons - yum!  And spent the afternoon watching the Apprentice and doing reading for my Climate Change essay.  I had planned to go out but I was so pooped by 6pm I just stayed in and went to bed.

Close yet far, drop me a line and tell me how the hell you are

Thursday was a pretty productive day, I food shopped, washed ALL of my clothes and slept.  My friend Matt rang me while I was sleeping and then when I woke up we met to eat, although he didn't eat, he just watched me eat.  On my way to meet him I nearly got run over by a bus but avoided such a collision.  But then the bus and I were playing stop-start all the way into town as we took over each other at lights etc.  That was kind of embarrassing.  Cycled home in the rain with an empty weekend in front of me.

It was very much my intention on Friday to go to the library and do lots of good work.  I ended up doing lots of nothing, going into the city centre and looking in over-priced shops, knowing that I had no money and basically just depressing myself, went home and watched lots of TV and baked some lemon cupcakes. 

Thats right, I arranged the cakes into my initials.

Told Simon I was going to get up early and be at the library at 10, so good luck in his football game on Saturday.

At 11am the next morning, I was still lying in my bed.  Simon had already left for his game.  I did go to the library though and did some reading and note-taking for my oral examination for Scandinavian Political Systems.  Bought a couple of bits and pieces I needed and went home to find that although Simons team had lost the game, he had scored a goal so was off out to party hard.  I stayed in and baked banana bread. 

Then I lit some candles and had a romantic evening in with the Aerosmith back-catalogue.

Today has been tres tres productive.  Woke up and vacuumed the whole apartment and dusted my room while Simon did the dishes that had been sitting in the kitchen for a whole week!  Threw out a lot of stuff in my room and re-arranged a bit.  I have done some hand-washing that has been waiting about a month to be done, written a letter to Tanya, painted my toe-nails and eaten some banana bread.  As I have said before (to my friends Joe and Vikki at least) - 'a tidy kitchen is a tidy life', and I feel that today has cleared my mind, as well as my bedroom.  I find it very useful to have these moments of clarity of purpose pretty regularly as I get side-tracked by shiny new things very easily.

Baby, It's Cold In Stockholm

At the weekend I did more of the usual, collected my bike, got talked to in Danish, lazed around.  On Sunday I bought the Observer from the shop a few doors down my road that stocks international newspapers and magazines - very convenient - and cycled down to the lakes that seperate the city centre from Frederiksberg and Norrebro.  The weather was glorious, blinding sunshine, slight chill, but perfect for biking.  I ventured further into the city to run a few errands - bought a bell for my bell-less bike, a basket for my dirty clothes and a present for Miss Tanya Moody.  Met Charlie for a millisecond and had a catch-up.  Home for dinner and a heart-to-heart with Simon - very revealing, but also personal - not for the blog.

On Monday morning I think I pretended that I was getting ready for my trip to Stockholm with Max, Maria and Lorelai, but in reality I was mooching around wasting my life away - when it was less than 3 hours until the flight was to depart, I realised that I should probably start packing.  I met the guys at Forum station at 1.30pm and we got the metro all the way to the (END OF THE LINE) Kastrup airport.  And that was it - I was on my way to Stockholm, Sweden.

We arrived into Stockholm-Arlanda Airport around 4.30pm and went straight to the Tourist Office to buy our City-Bike cards for the next few days.  We then walked through the centre of the picturesque Gamla Stan (the Old Town) to our youth hostel Gustaf af Klint, also known as we were sleeping on a boat!

After we checked out our accomodations we headed back into the city and had dinner near the Central Station, it was ok food and ok prices so it was OK.  We then hit up ICEBAR STOCKHOLM (the original) across the street.  On our way there we saw the World Trade Centre, I thought it was pretty creepy.

It was a good experience to put on one of the ice-coats and drink out of an ice-glass and generally be surrounded by ice.  However, it's one of those things where people just go to take pictures of themselves in icy conditions (which, in fairness, is what we did).  We stayed pretty much the maximum time that you are allowed to, but then it became too cold.  This is a selection of photos, there will be more on Facebook shortly I'm sure, for those who are Facebook-enabled.

We walked back to the boat/hostel and saw some of these things.

On Tuesday we woke up, had breakfast and set out for the Vasa museum on Djurgaarden.  The Vasa was a ship sunk not far from Stockholm in the 1600s and the museum documents the history of the boat and the people who were onboard.  It was pretty interesting, here are some pictures.

LONDON

KOBENHAVN

STOCKHOLM

It was very interesting, I particularly liked the skeleton remains as they were named and someone had recreated what the people onboard would have looked like and it was eerily lifelike.  Now it was lunchtime and on the way to find somewhere to eat we walked round a courtyard that seemed to house the Museum of the History of Washing, very unexpected.

In the afternoon we went to the city hall where we saw this cool horse, and I bought a keyring.

And then we just walked around and saw some of the city.

 The next photo is for all my friends that love ROCK.

We had dinner at this lovely cafe that was a little bit like a cave (in that it was underground).  It was reasonably priced and the lady who ran it was lovely.  Afterwards we walked around the area we were staying in (Sodermalm) and had a drink.  We will not dwell on the price of my glass of red wine but I will add a section about money when I complete this blog post later today.



An interrupted sleep in our cabin (bloody Pole washing his face loudly at 2.30am) was followed by Wednesday - already our last day in Sweden.  We started slowly with a cup of tea and I bought a cool bag in an international magazine shop in Sodermalm.

Then we cycled back to Djurgaarden to Skansen Museum (an open-air affair with a Scandinavian zoo).

Skansen was pretty good, I liked being in the country, in the city and seeing the elk, brown bears and wolves.  The afternoon was juts more of the walking and exploring.  In the centre we went into an H&M so now I have been in one in the founding country.  Then we went to the boat through Gamla Stan and its narrow cobbled streets again.  So pretty, especially in the rain.  Had dinner at this Mexican place that was so warm and cosy, we never wanted to leave.  Went back to the boat and messed around.  Me and Lorelai took some great Titanic pictures on the deck at midnight, so they will appear later.

Got up at 5.40am this morning, packed, got the Swedish metro (slightly better than LDN, nowhere near as good as CPH), then the train and got our flight at 8.30am.  Got home this morning and have just done some errands and sorted out my life a bit.  There are more pictures to come from the others and below is some key points I took away from Sweden.

1. SEK vs DKK - Sweden has a reputation for being very expensive, more so than Denmark.  However, Swedish kronor is more favourable to the £ than the Danish kroner so I got more for my British £s.  It was very expensive compared to England, thats for sure.
2. Swedish people are beautiful - Max said he found the Swedish girls more beautiful than Danish girls, but us girls weren't so sure about the men.  If I'm honest I was expecting a overwhelming wall of tall, blond guys but I think after some careful consideration I prefer Danish men, on a purely looks-based level.
3. BICYCLE CITY - People do cycle in Stockholm but it is not made for cycling the way CPH is.  It is slightly hilly and rained most of the time we were there.  In CPH sometimes you feel like there are more bikes on the road than cars, but this is not the case in Stockholm.
4. The Weather - I knew it would be cold. I knew it might rain. It was consistently between 0°C and 8°C which I did not enjoy.  It also rained the majority of the time we were there.
5. Window displays - A slightly strange point to make but I will make it anyway.  Avid fans of my blog will remember the shop in CPH selling glasses and having a pasta window display.  In Stockholm I found one with a wood window display and one with a LEGO display (which is weird anyway as LEGO is Danish).

Also saw this amazing window display but did not understand what the shop was selling.



So all in all, Sweden was cool, pretty etc and I would like to go back (in the summer) but I was so pleased to return to Denmark and the city that has come to be my home in just 2 months.  I do think about all you lovely people in England more and more as each day goes by, but I also fall more and more in love with this city, which doesn't always feel like a city and which I can definitely see being my home in the future, if I am lucky enough.