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Hello readers (if any of you still exist),

I'd like to preface my London thoughts with the following: Lily Allen once sang about London being all nice on the outside, but under the surface "you can see it's all lies."

As a London native, I'm sure she's right. But I think what she says goes for almost every city, especially a large one. That being said, I'm happy I got to see that marvelous outside.

Thursday 24 September 2015

Blessed with beautiful weather, we were excited to begin our day with a walk to Westminster Abbey. The city was abuzz with life and chatter about the Rugby World Cup. Coincidentally, we almost literally ran into the Romanian team on our way to Westminster, but that's besides the point. Westerminster, opened 1090 AD, delighted the art historian in me. Unfortunately, due to silly rules, I don't have any photos, and if only my words could describe the awe-inspiring craftsmanship of the beauty within those walls. Our audio guides told us much about the history of the Abbey, but some things that really stood out to me were Poet's Corner, and the fact that Mary Queen of Scot's rival Elizabeth was buried exactly opposite to her. I also find it important to state that I don't have many spiritual moments, but laying my eyes upon the beauty and history of Westminster, even in my pain and exhaustion, had me in tears for nearly every moment of my few hours being inside the Abbey.

From Westminster we walked/limped under Parliament and Big Ben. The guilding on the bell tower shines more brightly than any photo I've seen could ever convey. We knew our next stop was the boat tour, and so we boarded the hop-on-hop-off boat with our destination of Greenwich. Once in Greenwich, we explored fun & interactive Maritime Museum, the Chapel and the Painted Hall of the Royal University campus a bit, and I jokingly made comments about how the main courtyard(?) looked much better than it did when Thor visited in Thor: The Dark World. We limped up the large hill to the Royal Observatory to see the large telescope and Meridian Line, and a very spectacular view of the London Skyline, but sadly we missed entrance to the museum by fifteen minutes. But, we found a small garden instead, where we sat for a while, enjoying the tranquility and resting our ankles.

View from the Royal Observatory, overlooking London and Greenwich University

Because we missed the last boat back to London, we grabbed a pint of cider and some food at a pub in Greenwich, and decided we'd try the Tube back to the hostel. We hobbled about Greenwich along the water watching the sunset, before we hopped on the Overground line to Canary Wharf, where we got another gorgeous view of the sunset, and then figured out we had to take the Jubilee Line to Green Park, where we would catch the Victoria Line to our station in Pimlico. We entered the station, and Cerisa saw that a train was waiting and she, just a few steps ahead of me, got on...right as the doors closed. I will never forget the look on her face as the train pulled out of the station. Thankfully, because we had previously established our route and the next train was only two minutes away, we met up at Green Park and had a good laugh about being too eager to get on the Tube. Back in Pimlico, we stopped at the store to grab me a nightly bag of ice for my foot and knee, climbing five flights of stairs, before falling asleep.

The River Thames at sunset, from Greenwich

Friday, 25 September 2015

On Friday we hopped the Tube to Tower Bridge and London Tower. London Tower was full of a lot of interesting artifacts, replicas, stories, and enthusiastic actors portraying Anne Boleyn, George Boleyn, and miscellaneous other members of the kingdom. While the two of us marveled over the beauty of the crown jewels amidst jokes of me marrying Price Harry,and at the macabre torture instruments, the tower is infamous for, I found the most interesting parts of London Tower to be the sad and mysterious tale of the missing princes in the Bloody Tower. For those who aren't aware of the story, The Bloody Tower gets its name from the theory that two Princes, Edward V of England and Richard of Richard of Shrewsberry, the sons of Edward IV, were lodged in the tower after the death of their father by their uncle, Richard of Gloucester. Supposedly, this was in preparation for Edward's coronation. Instead, the boys disappeared and Richard (of Gloucester) took the throne. While all evidence is merely circumstantial, in 1694 a Tower work crew dug up a box containing two smaller skeletons believed to be the bodies of the two princes. While widely accepted, but not proven, that these two bodies are those of Edward V and young Richard, King Charles II had the two bodies buried in Westminster Abbey. 

After spending a few hours at the Tower,  we walked over to Tower Bridge, meandering through the exhibits, and making an uneasy Cerisa, who is afraid of heights, even more uneasy when I leaped onto the glass floor overlooking the Thames and the road at about 137 feet. But together we walked the glass floor, on both sides, and took some pretty cool selfies.

After Tower Bridge we explored the complexity of the HMS Belfast to kill some time so we could see the drawbridge open on Tower Bridge. We were so invested in what we were learning on Belfast, we almost missed the bridge opening...so close, in fact, that we only caught a glimpse of it as we were running down the sides of the boat to get to the bow so we could see it! Overall, though, the Belfast is an impressive war machine and was fun to explore--even with the "Warning: Asbestos!" signs everywhere!

We got some dinner at this outdoor/Tropical themed place just outside the Belfast called the London Riviera (well known for its chips, and they were the best I've had so far on this trip!) before hopping the Underground to Buckingham Palace. We arrived at the Palace at last light, just enough to see the guards outside starting to slip into shadow. Instead of harassing the guardsmen, we took a seat on the stairs of the sculpture out front and watched the moon rise over the London Eye (or Coca-Cola Eye, as it is technically) before heading back to the store for my nightly bag of ice, and then up to sleep. 

The sunset in over Victoria Memorial and the Eye near Buckingham Palace

Saturday, 26 September 2015

The 26th was rather casual in schedule, although crazy in nature. We spent the vast majority of the time running up charges on our Oyster card. As per the suggestion of a few people, we went to Camden Market...however, it was not the Camden Lock Market so....we saw a lot of street vendors, but not the artsy craft market that I was (not really?) expecting. We did get some cheap sweatshirts and some great Brazilian food lunch before heading in the direction of our next brief stop: the last Police Box in London. 

For those of you who don't know, or even for those of you who do, Cerisa and I are pretty big Doctor Who fans, and The Doctor's spaceship is an old 50s style police phone box. While it's not the famous TARDIS, it is the last remaining one in the city that resembles what is in the show, so we had to go out to see it and take a few pictures. We'll come back to Doctor Who later on.

We returned to London proper for our next stop: Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter! There was nothing extraordinary about Kings Cross station (although St. Pancras Station was gorgeous). We waited in line to take pictures with the fake cart and owl embedded in the 9 ¾ wall. What was actually really nice is they allowed you to take your own photos and they took the professional ones (of course we bought some). After spending some time in the gift shop, we went to walk along the Thames and see the inside of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. However, the latter didn't happen--they were mid-show so we had no luck. Instead, we acted like idiots and found an access ramp to touch the Thames, taking ridiculous pictures while doing so. After getting our hands dirty and cracking jokes about how the Thames tasted better than English tea, we carried on to what was known as the London Bridge Experience. The LBE was a combination of history, horror, and interaction, and it was a blast. After that, we were going to go on the Eye, but the line was too long, my feet hurt too much, and we were really hungry. So instead, we watched the sun set over Parliment, before finding food, getting ice for my knee, and going back to the hostel. 

Sunset over the Thames and Parliment, from next to the Eye

Sunday, September 27th 2015

Honestly, not whole lot to report about that day. It was museum day, so we first hit 221B Baker Street (The Sherlock Holmes Museum for the uncultured), followed by the Science Museum and then the Natural History Museum. The Sherlock Holmes museum was cool...it was tiny on the inside, set up as it was described in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, with Sherlock's, Dr. Watson's, and Ms. Hudson's room appropriately decorated--with pipes, bullet holes, medical books, and trinkets. Another one of the floors was dedicated to fan letters and uncanny life-size wax figurines of characters from the Holmes universe, such as Irene Adler and the arch nemesis himself, Jim Moriarty. 

Part of the Holmes home

At the Science Museum, there was a super cool exhibit called Cosmonauts which told Russia's side of the space race...and surprisingly the Natural History Museum felt kinda empty. Seemed like there was a lot missing from the museum. 

Perhaps the most exciting thing about that day was the night we spent on a Jack the Ripper tour. We had a really enthusiastic tour guide (who actually KNEW that New York was more than just the city, because he had lived in the Catskills for some time!). My favorite fact was that they had covered up all of the original crime scenes, except for one, in an attempt to shy the public away from the heinous crimes committed. Despite my aching feet, hurting knee, and overall fatigue, it was a really great end to an amazing time in London.

Until next time,
Elissa

Jack the Ripper Street Art

London Police Box

Tower Bridge, from the HMS Belfast

Tower of London

Extraordinary orientation in the chapel

HMS Belfast (I love the camouflage!)

Keflavik Airport Icicles

Back in my post about Icelandic design, I wrote a bit about the "icicle" decoration in Keflavik Airport. At the time, I didn't have a photo, and I forgot and/or misplaced the photo I took of them on the way back.

Well I found it:

To Denmark, With Love: A Reflection

Dear Denmark,

I say this time and time again, if six months ago you had asked me if I thought I would be here, if I could do this, I would have instantly told you no. But now it feels like just yesterday I stepped off that plane, shaking and sick to my stomach. My two months flew by, and I have grown so much and understand so much more about myself: my flaws, my skills, my confidences, my abilities, are are much clearer now. I now know that I can be okay, that I can feel at home in a place that isn't my home. I want to do this again.

Denmark, you and I have shared a very important chapter of our lives together. Thanks to the Vejlefiord Rotary Club, I was blessed with the most incredible family, the thing I will miss the most. My family understood I was a introverted recluse from the beginning, and they understood it seems. I battled with this for eight weeks.

This is probably the biggest thing I would do differently. I, much like the rest of my generation, view my technologies and devices as extensions of myself, and I'm addicted to them. Most often, I did as Christina had done in our house (and also as my father had instructed), sitting in public places when on my laptop or phone like the living room. My friends and I sit on our laptops and phones and talk and show things to each other, so I never really considered how doing this would hinder accessibility, and in retrospect I definitely would change that. I feel bad about that, actually. I struggle with making conversation in general, and I know Sophie and Christian suffered from both my reclusive personality, the computer, my flawed ability to converse, and my uncertainty on what to say/do with kids their age. I'm truly sorry if I did not live up to your expectations, but you were two of the sweetest and most amazing kids I've met and you will grow up to be so smart, so funny, so talented, and wonderful people just like your parents.

I will miss you all terribly, the way you made me laugh, and made fun of me trying to say Danish words. I am ever grateful for the experience you have given me. You showed me so much of Denmark, from its family life, to the countryside, to the cuisine, to even a little bit of Deutschland! You told me, that at the rate I was finishing the manual, I'd be staying until Christmas. The fact that you made my last supper a Christmas dinner is a symbol I'll never forget. I look forward to the day we meet again.

I will miss Arense and Christina, my Danish sisters. It is tough knowing that our friendship happened so quickly, shared between experiences and two countries, and although this friendship is far from over, it is anything but over, it will require more effort to maintain. I loved the cities you showed me; you gave me the [real] interaction with  college-age individuals I needed, and if I were to repeat this experience, I would have loved to live in Aarhus to experience that social aspect that I generally lacked in Middelfart. We shall see each other again soon, whether in Denmark or in the US.

I will miss my team at Uhrenholt. Truth be told, I was scared to be working in a corporate setting. But you all showed me that a thick style guide doesn't mean one can't have fun with rules. Løne, thank you for providing me with a 104-page project that encouraged me to think outside the box within the box. I am proud of my involvment in it, and I hope that everyone else likes it too.

To the marketing department, I did have a blast working with each and every one of you, even if we sometimes disagreed about English syntax, diction, and grammar. Lars, you in particular are one of the greatest superiors I could have asked for. I'll miss seeing your goofy, charming grin every day. You were/are a great friend with whom conversation is easy; talking about music with you was great. Actually, not just music, everything we talked about was amazing. You accepted my dorkiness for who I was, partially because you're a dork yourself (go buy that LEGO set, already! Who cares if you're 33?) I'll miss you, and blame the volcano on everything that goes wrong, just as we promised.

To Carsten Sigvert and Family, I had a wonderful time spending time with your crew of boys. Victor, Lasse, and Jon are quite the entertaining trio, especially when they/we started making low blows at each other, and I've never felt so equally amused and offended to be an American in their company...that's a good thing. You showed me the lovely vistas of the Vejle area, and the picturesque  town of Skagen. I'll have to return someday in the sunlight to see the magical light that all those artists got to experience.

To everyone else who helped me experience the amazement here in Denmark. Carsten F., neighbor Carsten, Ella's parents, Henriette, Giada, Egon, and anyone else who I am forgetting off of the top of my head.

A shout out to the Art Squad, especially those in Europe (Tom, Corvin, Demi, Ruben). You guys provided me with the college-age interaction I needed when I wasn't with Christina, Arense, and the Sigvert clan. The talent in Art Squad is inspiring and extraordinary, and I'm proud to call myself part of the crew. I'll miss our nighttime Skype calls; they're going to be more difficult now.  Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeek. Andreas, I'm sad we didn't get acquainted sooner. Would have been great to hang with you in Aarhus during the days I was there. Yet another reason to visit Denmark again, my friend.

Moving on, Arense provided me with a series of questions that she ponders after a trip. After much thinking, these are the responses I came up with.

The best thing: My family, my friends, and my personal growth. The existential moment I experienced during The Little Mermaid ---That moment defined my time here in Denmark; I was surrounded by Danes, in Denmark, watching a famous Danish story told in Danish. It was surreal, and may have been my favorite moment, even if I looked foolish crying during "Part of Your World."

I would also like to cite my first time in Copenhagen as a defining moment. It was the first time that I truly stopped to think in a stressful situation like the one I had been in, and not panic. It proved that I could be okay.

The worst: The street party. It was a lovely setting with lots of nice people, but I didn't entirely get to experience that. It was the most isolating and the time I was most frustrated with not knowing how to speak Danish. It is hard to enter a conversation when you don't know what is being said.

The thing I would do again: I would return to Skagen in a heartbeat to experience that place in the sunlight. I want to see the difference in the waters in color, not just the difference in texture. I would also return again to Copenhagen and do some more of the touristy things as opposed to just wandering around.

What I wouldn't do again: It's not that I wouldn't live there again, because I loved Middelfart...The sights, the harbor, the quaint town, but I wouldn't live in Middelfart. Having no one my age is tough for two months. That contributed to the isolation, and certainly aided me in seeking out the company of the Art Squad a lot. I would try to live in Vejle, Aarhus or Odense. (I don't think I could do Copenhagen well, it's too big.)

The thing I am not going to miss: Huge spiders, not having ice in drinks, Danish Kroner (sorry, too many coins...I can't do it), bicycling everywhere (especially in the rain...I didn't dislike biking, I just love my car). I'll miss taking the train, but not the cost of taking it.

Things I am going to miss: My host family, my friends, my job and coworkers, the wind turbines everywhere, the architecture, the view overlooking Middelfart and Lillebælt on my way home from work, Bettanus the cat noisily climbing through the skylight in the wee hours of the morning when it's raining (and when it's not), sharing music and laughs with Lars, lunchtime walks by the marina with my team, and the salty smell of the ocean wafting through the windows by my desk.

I learned so much in Denmark, but I cannot list it all. I could write you a novel, Denmark, but instead you have 11 other blog entries you can read instead that tell you all of my thoughts, feelings, and analyses.

I think it is time I close this document, Denmark. I think it is safe to say I love you. I didn't fall head over heels for you, but our relationship slowly flourished into something that is definitely love. I'm ready to go home, but I'm not quite ready to leave you. My two months were gone in a flash. In reality, two months isn't really a long time, but as I know all too well, two months is just enough time to fall in love; it just is long enough time for me to put my life in New York on hold and start a new one elsewhere. I developed a new life here, a new routine; an everyday life with friends and family and even myself and growth. But now I must once again leave this life I created in a different land just to unpause the one I suspended in the States. It's sad, and even a little scary to resume the quiet one I led.

Denmark, you have taught me so much about myself, I am sad to see you go. This relationship, although short term, was amazing. Breaking up is always hard to do, but I think we'll both be okay.

All my love, tak for alt.

Until next time,

Elissa

Marsvine, LEGO, and HC Andersen...Oh my!

So...I've been quite busy running around Denmark these past couple weeks. I've had lots to do, and have been kept very busy.

Two Fridays ago, on the 12th, I went to go see Christian and Sophie in a school production of Odysseus Rejse. Contrary to the sweltering heat from being packed into small unventilated rooms with lots of people, and the school putting the entire show together in two weeks...they did a great job! The kids looked like they were having a blast singing altered modern songs such as "What Does the Fox Say" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and screaming out "Odysseus!" when the time came. The sets were fun, the costumes were great, and overall it was a nice, although warm, evening.

On Sunday the 14th I spent the better part of the afternoon with another Rotarian named Egon. On this rainy day, he and his wife took me down to the harbor where we went on a "whale watch" to see if we could spot some of the marsvine. Unfortunately, the only porpoise I saw that day was the stuffed whale on the boat, and I can't say I learned anything because the entire thing was in Danish. As always, however, I found a lot of peace being on the water, even though I was quite cold, and getting to see Middelfart from a boat. It's also not every day you get to go underneath a suspension bridge, so that was pretty cool too.

After the whale watch, I went back to  Egon's house and drank some tea, played his piano for a while (singing out all my favorites for the first time in a little under two months), and had lengthy discussions about art history and architecture. It was really nice to have educated discussions with someone who not only knows what I'm talking about, but knows more about it so I can learn. We talked about Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, and Norman Foster (whose work I am much more familiar with now, and I'm a fan of...except for his design of One World Trade Center). I had a really lovely evening with great conversation (and traditional Danish dishes!)

My week was generally pretty quiet at work, and otherwise. Jeg endelig spiste rød grød med fløde! (Or, for those who don't know what that says, "I finally ate red porridge with cream!") Rød grød med fløde is the phrase that is impossible for foreigners to say (although I'd say I've gotten very close), but also a very delicious, very Danish dessert made with berries and cream.





On Thursday, Lars let me bounce from work early so I could go see the Psykiatrisk Samling at the Middlefart Museum here in the corporate campus. Because Uhrenholt is housed in a former mental hospital from the 19th Century, there is a lot of history here and that's what I went to see. It was very interesting to see all the old tools, photos, furniture, and instruments that looked like the belonged (or arguably were) in a torture chamber. PS Krøyer, famous Danish painter who I talk a little about in the last entry, was the hospital's most famous patient and was admitted three times in 1900, 1903, and 1907.According to the information pamphlet, he had previously received treatment for syphilis and was afraid that the disease would return. Because of this, he was treated with quicksilver (mercury). However, a closer examination of his pattern of illness suggests that was a manic depressive, and his exposure to mercury only made his condition worse. They had some of Krøyer's drawings on the wall in his room, and stills from a recent movie made about him. I still often wonder why insanity is linked to some of the most amazing art.

I probably shouldn't really write this, but I thought it was funny. Having forgot my camera the day I went to the museum, Lars let me borrow the company camera, and told me to return it the next day. After I went to the museum, I went down to Middelfart Strand (the beach) out by the marina to take pictures. I was standing on the pier, with the camera around my neck. I fiddled with the lens cap and ploop! into the water it went. I laughed because I would do something like that. I removed all electronics, and into the water I went. Thankfully the water was relatively shallow, and only went up to my mid-thigh, and I was able to grab the lens cap with my toes so my upper half remained mostly dry. But it was a less-than-fun ride home on the bicycle.

On Saturday September 20th, the family and myself piled into their Mazda and headed off to one of the places I was most excited to see...LEGOLAND! The morning was grey and misty, and there wasn't a lot to see as we drove through the fog towards Billund. But it lifted shortly after we entered the park, and the day was amazing! The lines were short, and I got to go on pretty much everything twice. The best one was the Ice Pilots School (or called something like that...I only know it as the BIONICLE ride, and that's what it looked like. The mechanical ride arms resembled the body components of the Toa Nuva sets). This was my favorite ride, where you basically  made your own ride. You set the intensity (I went with the most intense of course) and choose the motions. I felt like I was getting whipped around like a slingshot. It was awesome. But Miniland. OOOOOOOHHH Miniland. I will forever be impressed by the complexity of the models built. Mount Rushmore, The Capital, Düsseldorf, Kennedy Space Center, Skagen, Billund Airport (with moving planes), Amsterdam, the Dong Energy Oil Rig and Wind Field (with surfacing, breathing whales) among my favorites. It was all amazing and I had a blast hanging out with the family and bonding with the kids that day.

Immediately after LEGOLAND, I hopped a train to Århus to visit Arense again. This time her friend joined us. We started evening with board games, delicious pad Thai, and Irish coffees, then we went out into the night. After being unimpressed with a few places, we settled on a bar. Arense treated me to a couple of fitting beers: One called Albani and the other called Thor, and a third one was her favorite, but I can't remember the name of that one. After those beers, a group of seven handsome Danish men found our table of three women, and they joined us at a dice game, and buying us licorice-flavored shots (which were quite delicious). Arense also discovered her brother had moved to the city, and so we met him at another bar which was famous for its cocktails. Arense picked a drink for the both of us, yet another licorice-flavored mixed drink (quite delicious), but the 20-dollar cocktail was thankfully on the house. Contrary to me saying I only wanted to be out until two, we ended up getting home closer to four...but it was a fun night.

The next morning, Arense and I ventured out into the Old City, a historic part of Århus preserved to look like it had been during the 17th century. Some of the shops had "actors" in period clothes, and some places, like the bakery, cooked goods using old-style recipes. The Old City was very very cute, and we killed a couple hours wandering about the cobblestone streets. Also part of the Old City was a 70s exhibit, still under construction. Similar to the Old City in its setup, but a couple of centuries newer, the 70s exhibit featured homes and businesses from the 70s. This included an old communal living space, another bakery, a bookstore (this included old copies of Danish books, comic books  (Batman & Robin in Danish!), and yes, porn magazines), and a gynecologist office. One of the coolest parts was that they included a functional rotary phone that could call between the rooms in the exhibit.

After visiting the Old City, Arense took me to her favorite ice cream spot (really gelato) and I had a nice chocolate-chili & coconut cone. And then we proceeded a little farther to see the church, which we couldn't go inside, but then onto ARoS, the museum of art with the famous rainbow walk on top. ARoS, according to the Wikipedia entry, is one of the largest art museums in Northern Europe. It opened in 2004. It was designed by architect Schmidt Hammer Lassen, who won the design competition in 1997. Its name is a the Old Danish name of the city, but also its capitalization is a reference the Latin word for art. Due to our time constraint, we didn't get to see a whole lot of the museum itself. I'm not usually a fan of contemporary art, but most of what I saw I rather enjoyed. We saw an exhibition based on Dante's Divine Comedy and the 9 Circles of Hell called "The 9 Spaces," and saw some other rather, eh, suffocating exhibits that I don't remember who the artists were. I also got to see the famous piece "Boy" by Australian artist Ron Mueck. I'd seen his works, including this one, on the internet but it was cool to finally experience his larger-than-life piece in person. But the work was really cool, and we took a couple of laps around the Rainbow, and boy was it amazing. The Your Rainbow Panorama was added to the building in 2011. It was designed by Danish-Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson.

I was sad to get on the train at the end of that Sunday. It wouldn't be the last time I saw her on this trip, but it was a realization that I wouldn't get another day with my friend like this for a long time. Same thing for Christina, who I would be visiting a few days later....which brings me to:

Wednesday, Sept. 24. I took the day off of work to go visit Christina in Odense, and this was one of the only few days off she had. I had a lovely day with my friend. She first took me to HC Andersen Hus, or the house where Hans Christian Andersen was born. There was a lot of overwhelming information here, but what I found the most interesting was that his books are the ones that have been translated into the most languages, and that his grandmother did a stint in prison because she had children out of wedlock. I loved his paper cutouts and drawings, seeing all the pieces that I didn't realize were his (like The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes), but one of the things I liked the most of this museum was actually one quote from a diary entry they had on display. It read, "Dust and ashes he is, dead, burnt-out like the candle, there is nothing left! Oh Lord may you let us disappear completely! I have a dread for it and am now too wise-- and unhappy." I thought that was really beautiful, and just the poetry of that one excerpt alone proves the talent this man was.

For the remainder of the day we walked around Odense, visiting a number of places on the Andersen tour like the cathedral where he was confirmed (absolutely stunning piece of architecture, but the back half was hidden by scaffolding since the organ was being renovated it seemed). We saw the very exciting (sarcasm) location where his mother washed clothes, and just wandered around the city through parks looking in shops. Christina took me to her favorite sandwich shop, a cute part of town with quaint houses, and even nowhere in particular. We stopped to watch some swans, who came and posed for me before baring their scary "teeth," hissing at me, and practically chasing me backwards. It was a lovely day (experiencing the same bittersweet emotions as I did with Arense), and the rain managed to mostly stay away until I was riding my bicycle back home.



Thursday the 25th was another really exciting day. Hans, our neighbor, was taking me back to Billund to see the LEGO Idea House, the exclusive employee-only museum. Inside, I marveled at the history of LEGO, LEGO's creations, and the wonderful interior and graphic design of the museum. I am forever grateful to Henriette, our "guide" and connection into the museum, for letting me in, letting me geek out (like a LOT), and answering my questions all while evading them. Also, a mega thanks to Henriette for taking my resumes and business cards, and attempting to put me in contact with someone who could maybe put me in a job not too far from where I live. We shall see, fingers crossed, but no hopes.

I had an amazing couple of weeks that were super busy, super fun, and very exciting. Now, onto the final one.

More observations:

• Less smokers
• More little dogs than I see in the US
• Treated as equal, not intern, in the office. My opinion matters.
• Commercials on TV. They (almost) don't exist.
• An observation about LEGOLAND was the difference to the Six Flags parks I've been to in the US. There wasn't any security, and you were allowed to bring in and eat your own food and drink. 

I feel like there's more, but once again I can't remember. So...
Until next time!

E

Düsseldorf, Germany

Royal Houses in Copenhagen

Romance is totally canon, Greg.

Skagen, Denmark

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Billund Airport

A 70s Grocery Store in the Old City

A 70s Book Store in the Old City, with comics!

Edvard Munch's sketch

The suffocating exhibit

HC Andersen

The Memorial Hall

A quiet Odense street, with HC Andersen's House at the end.

This one snapped at me.

Good old Tahu Mata

Brick mold

<3

Giant bricks in front of the LEGO headquarters.