oh what a day.
Alice and I took a great trip to visit Francesca in Venezia, where she was studying. It was quite cool to return to the city that I remembered when I visited as a child with Dad. We got in a huge traffic jam and I wasn't having it so somehow found side streets to get us in.
Similarly, Alice and I took local trains all over and around Austria to get home to KBH. We'd decided to leave a day or so early. Being the studious girls that we were, we wanted to get back to our exam studying. However it was Kristi himmelfarts dag, which meant many trains were running. We ended up tkaing about 5-10 trains to get from Venice to Copenhagen.
Looking back on it, we should have given up and stayed in Innsbruck for the night as it looked like a fun place, but we were so focused on the goal!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Halloween in Copenhagen
Halloween along with Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving because we have about 20 friends at my parents house and they all bring a dish to share. We've been doing this for about 25 years. My parents moved out from Connecticut and a few families followed, so they wanted to welcome them to California by inviting them over for Thanksgiving to share in the holiday spirit. Good times.
Halloween is fun because dressing up in costume is a blast. Somtetimes it may seem a bit daunting to figure out what to wear, but once I get into it, it's fun. In Copenahagen, Alice invited Sanna (Sweden), Li (Canada), Karin (Denmark) and me to her house for Tom Ka Gai soup which was delicious and then we headed to the studenterhuset (lit "student house"). Studenterhuset is a bar/cafe in the center of Copenhagen where students can get a membership and then buy cheap beer, which is a good thing because Denmark can be expensive.
Back to the night. I dressed up as a Jungle woman with a sarong, hiking boots, purple bra, frizzed hair, paint on the face, and vines wrapped around my legs, arms, neck. I'd never met Li or Karin before and now that they have become great friends by bonding over biology, Karin remarks at how crazy she thought I was that night. Thinking how Denmark is a liberal nation, I didn't think twice about showing some skin, but I was wrong, people stared.... maybe because it was freezing outside?
The night was fun. Not everyone dressed up.... you could definitely pick out the people from the United States. Alice had a fun costume. She'd bought a Russian flag and a gas mask when we were in Russia and ended up wearing the flag as a toga and the gas mask dangling from a shoulder or on her head.
Halloween is fun because dressing up in costume is a blast. Somtetimes it may seem a bit daunting to figure out what to wear, but once I get into it, it's fun. In Copenahagen, Alice invited Sanna (Sweden), Li (Canada), Karin (Denmark) and me to her house for Tom Ka Gai soup which was delicious and then we headed to the studenterhuset (lit "student house"). Studenterhuset is a bar/cafe in the center of Copenhagen where students can get a membership and then buy cheap beer, which is a good thing because Denmark can be expensive.
Back to the night. I dressed up as a Jungle woman with a sarong, hiking boots, purple bra, frizzed hair, paint on the face, and vines wrapped around my legs, arms, neck. I'd never met Li or Karin before and now that they have become great friends by bonding over biology, Karin remarks at how crazy she thought I was that night. Thinking how Denmark is a liberal nation, I didn't think twice about showing some skin, but I was wrong, people stared.... maybe because it was freezing outside?
The night was fun. Not everyone dressed up.... you could definitely pick out the people from the United States. Alice had a fun costume. She'd bought a Russian flag and a gas mask when we were in Russia and ended up wearing the flag as a toga and the gas mask dangling from a shoulder or on her head.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Russia? Why not?
October 1998
The Europeans thought we were mad? Russia is so far away, they would say. For us, it was so close. Just 2 boat rides, a couple of trains and a bus. Cake.
We went to St. Petersburg in October. It was beautiful. Just starting to get a bit cold. Leaves were dropping.
Getting there was interesting. Penny travelled on her own for a week or so. We met her in Finland. I went 2 days ahead to check out Stockholm and met Alice at a McD's at 7am or so to catch our ferry to Finland. Ferries are quite a sight. The swedes get on to buy as much alcohol as possible because it's cheaper. A fair amount gets drunk along the way too. We got some chocolate liquor and by 11am were feeling sickly sweet so to counteract that got some chips. Didn't help. No spewing happened, but we weren't the happiest sailors.
My memories of being in Russia are of the contrasts between the bleak supermarkets with empty shelves and the splendor of the Hermitage. We stayed in a hostel that gave us a timelimit for eating breakfast and didn't allow us to bring jackets or backpacks in (where we could steal food). They served cherios (that had thorns in them) and cheese that was sweaty. At night we tried cooking and ended up with a hanger with bread hanging over a flame in an attempt to make toast. One great food experience was walking into a random restaurant and ordering a few things. I don't remmember whether it was good or bad, but I felt like a local (ha despite everyone staring at us).
We had trouble getting money too. One night they let me take the last bit of money to go see the Kirov ballet. Don Quixote was playing. It was magnificent. I got a ticket on the street. Lucky to find a woman who spoke English who helped with purchasing. Unfortunately, it was a student ticket. I was a student, but not a Russian student. When handing the ticket to the usher, she asked a question. I answered 'da'. She asked for my student card and I gave her my ISIC card. She said, 'Russian student card'. ..... It ended with her telling me I could never buy the wrong ticket again. I agreed. The subway ride home was interested. I felt like I was going to the pits of hell. Down and down on escalator after escalator...
Penny and Alice were successful. We had enough money to get out of the country and even a bit extra which we spent on 50 cent beers. They were so strong and tasty. Just through the neck and you were feeling a buzz.
Our bus took us to Estonia, where we spent the night in Talin. It was a bit like Disneyland. We had a cabbie that definitely charged the 'tourist' fare. The meter was turning so quickly that I thought it might pop like in the cartoons when the springs go flying all over. It didn't and it only cost us about $5 for the 20 min ride, so we were okay with getting ripped off.
The city is surrounded by a wall and has cobblestone streets. It was really cool. Alice and I were excited to stay out, but Penny was tired so we had dinner and a drink and then headed back.
The next day we hit up a market. I think markets are the most facinating places in a city. They are were everyone goes to get the neccessities of life and wheel and deal with each other. All the goods are laid out for all to see, so you get an understanding of the food preferences of the country.
The Europeans thought we were mad? Russia is so far away, they would say. For us, it was so close. Just 2 boat rides, a couple of trains and a bus. Cake.
We went to St. Petersburg in October. It was beautiful. Just starting to get a bit cold. Leaves were dropping.
Getting there was interesting. Penny travelled on her own for a week or so. We met her in Finland. I went 2 days ahead to check out Stockholm and met Alice at a McD's at 7am or so to catch our ferry to Finland. Ferries are quite a sight. The swedes get on to buy as much alcohol as possible because it's cheaper. A fair amount gets drunk along the way too. We got some chocolate liquor and by 11am were feeling sickly sweet so to counteract that got some chips. Didn't help. No spewing happened, but we weren't the happiest sailors.
My memories of being in Russia are of the contrasts between the bleak supermarkets with empty shelves and the splendor of the Hermitage. We stayed in a hostel that gave us a timelimit for eating breakfast and didn't allow us to bring jackets or backpacks in (where we could steal food). They served cherios (that had thorns in them) and cheese that was sweaty. At night we tried cooking and ended up with a hanger with bread hanging over a flame in an attempt to make toast. One great food experience was walking into a random restaurant and ordering a few things. I don't remmember whether it was good or bad, but I felt like a local (ha despite everyone staring at us).
We had trouble getting money too. One night they let me take the last bit of money to go see the Kirov ballet. Don Quixote was playing. It was magnificent. I got a ticket on the street. Lucky to find a woman who spoke English who helped with purchasing. Unfortunately, it was a student ticket. I was a student, but not a Russian student. When handing the ticket to the usher, she asked a question. I answered 'da'. She asked for my student card and I gave her my ISIC card. She said, 'Russian student card'. ..... It ended with her telling me I could never buy the wrong ticket again. I agreed. The subway ride home was interested. I felt like I was going to the pits of hell. Down and down on escalator after escalator...
Penny and Alice were successful. We had enough money to get out of the country and even a bit extra which we spent on 50 cent beers. They were so strong and tasty. Just through the neck and you were feeling a buzz.
Our bus took us to Estonia, where we spent the night in Talin. It was a bit like Disneyland. We had a cabbie that definitely charged the 'tourist' fare. The meter was turning so quickly that I thought it might pop like in the cartoons when the springs go flying all over. It didn't and it only cost us about $5 for the 20 min ride, so we were okay with getting ripped off.
The city is surrounded by a wall and has cobblestone streets. It was really cool. Alice and I were excited to stay out, but Penny was tired so we had dinner and a drink and then headed back.
The next day we hit up a market. I think markets are the most facinating places in a city. They are were everyone goes to get the neccessities of life and wheel and deal with each other. All the goods are laid out for all to see, so you get an understanding of the food preferences of the country.
Alice. Alice, who the f#%* is Alice?
Alice and I met in August of 1998. Vi var i Danmark og vi begyndte at laere dansk. Learning Danish was so hard at first. I always thought I was missing the part of my brain neccessary to learn languages. 7 years of French and what could I say?
My favorite memory of danish class was my teacher explaining a week she'd spent in a nudist colony in France as an aupair. She was telling a story and the only thing in understood (I thought she was walking sheep, not dogs...) was that people were sitting on plastic seats (picture a diner with red booths- at least that is what I did) and when the went to stand up there was the noise (well you have to hear the noise- hence my understanding) of flesh being peeled off of the seats. Somehow that doesn't seem comfortable....
My favorite memory of danish class was my teacher explaining a week she'd spent in a nudist colony in France as an aupair. She was telling a story and the only thing in understood (I thought she was walking sheep, not dogs...) was that people were sitting on plastic seats (picture a diner with red booths- at least that is what I did) and when the went to stand up there was the noise (well you have to hear the noise- hence my understanding) of flesh being peeled off of the seats. Somehow that doesn't seem comfortable....
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