Tuesday May 5th was a wonderful day! One of my now favorite books came out! And I was able to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit my adoptive Grandma M! (She's there serving a mission with her husband SM, they come home at the end of August)
I had later flight thankfully, so I didn't have to worry about fighting rush hour getting to the airport. When I arrived, it was raining and our plane was docked farther out on the tarmac, so we had to walk in the rain to get into the terminal. Once I walked through the gate, Grandma M was waiting for me! (Unfortunately I was dumb enough and didn't take a picture at the airport, which I should have!)
We headed down to the metro where we met one of her YSA's who had just gotten off the same plane from London that I had! It was about a 20 minute ride to the central train station where we got off and walked to the flat she and SM were sharing. While in the train station she pointed out the Dunkin Donuts that had just been put in. (Apparently people were so excited that they had waited in line for a couple of hours just to get the donuts! Which is a little weird because the Danish have very good pastries, there is no reason to be obsessed with Dunkin.)
We arrived at their flat (thankfully it had stopped raining, so we were only a little damp) and they showed me the cute room where I would be staying including a cute gift basket with some goodies that Grandma had gotten me:) Once I got settled I went downstairs where the three of us chatted until it was after midnight and we turned in for the night.
The next morning Grandma made a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast! (It was nice to have real bacon, since the bacon in England is technically ham).
She wanted to take me on a tour of the city center (called Stroget) of Copenhagen afterwards! The city center was a large walking only area with shops lining the road. We walked around the shops and stopped by a cute little Christmas store that was open all year long. We also stopped by a large lego store that was on the block (The Danish invented legos! Unfortunately they were still just as expensive though)
Pieces of home can be found even here:)
After we walked around the city center, Grandma M took me to the Church of our Lady where the original Christus is! This little church is simple, but beautiful.
When you walk in, there's a large chapel, which is mostly the entire building. Pews fill most of the room, and 12 large statues (representing the 11 apostles (minus Judas) and Paul) line both of the walls leading up to the alter. Behind the alter, sits the original Christus! Created by Bertel Thorvaldsen, this is the statue that the LDS church uses to portray Christ in Time Square and visitor centers around the world.
We spent some time just sitting in the church and enjoying the peace and quiet until a large group of school kids came in and we figured it was time to leave. We wandered around Copenhagen for a bit, making a stop at another church that was quite desolate. Until we finally made our way to a tasty looking bakery and bought a snack.
Mine just so happened to be a delicious cinnamon roll!
After we sat and ate our treats, we made our way to Nyhavn, one of the more recognizable places in Copenhagen.
Forgive me, I may have gotten a little carried away with the pictures of Nyhavn:D
We took some selfies and then decided that taking a Harbor tour would be the quickest way to see all of the sights! Our tour didn't start for some time, so Grandma took me to see the Hans Christen Anderson shop where they had all sorts of items that revolved around his stories. They even had a mannequin of him reading.
Our harbor tour lasted about an hour. The tour guide spoke in English (Thankfully) and in Danish. (I still think it would be pretty amazing to know more than one language. I think that'll be a new goal of mine, to learn to speak another language). We saw a lot of things on our tour, the Little Mermaid
She's kinda hard to see, but she's sitting on the round rock in the center.
We saw the Black Diamond
This is actually a very large library shaped like a square and made out of dark glass.
This is the Christiansborg Palace. This is the seat of Parliament and housed the Prime Minister's office.
We also passed the Opera House, which had a huge roof that hung out over the water.
We also managed to float down a canal and pass by another island. (Denmark is made up of hundreds of different islands that are all connected by bridges or fairies. Copenhagen sits on the island of Zealand, but it sits on the edge, hence the harbor.
After our tour it was time for lunch, which we found at a hot dog stand on the way home.
This hot dog was not only quite long, but had pickles and fried onions (like the type you put on a green bean casserole). But it was really good! The Danes sure know how to do hot dogs!
We made our way back down the Stroget and pass the flat so that I could stop by the fabric store and get a memoir of Denmark. Once we arrived at the flat it was nap time for the both of us. (Well I couldn't fall asleep, so it was reading time for me!)
Afterwards, Grandma, SM and I headed out to Tivoli, the famous theme park in Copenhagen! SM had a family pass, so we were able to get in without having to buy tickets! While we didn't ride any rides, we were able to walk around and take in the beauty of the park. They have 4 peacocks that they let walk around the park and it was cool because I had never been that close to a peacock before!
The park was full of beautiful flower beds and I couldn't resist taking pictures of them:)
While we were at the park, I purchased some candy floss to snack on while we walked around.
SM even stopped at one of the arcade games and played.
It was sooooo cute to see them interact with one another. It was probably one of my favorite things of the entire week was to see their cute moments with one another. I only hope that someday I can have the same thing!
We walked around for a bit deciding where to eat dinner, and finally decided that we were going to go to the Danish version of McDonald's (of course much healthier and tastier) called Max. The bad part was it was quite a ways to walk and when we arrived, there was a bit of a queue to wait for food, but it was worth it.
It was time to head home, after dinner we walked back to the flat to relax and change into some PJs. SM pulled out a stack of face cards and proceeded to teach me how to play Nines (a fun card game that mostly relies on luck) where I promptly kicked his butt! I think I won 2 of the 3 games that night, with Grandma winning the other.
The next morning (May 7th) was a day we spent preparing. After having a wonderful breakfast once again prepared by Grandma with a little help by yours truly, we sat down for another game of Nines. (My luck wasn't as good as it was the night before, but poor SM kept losing the game by one or two cards.
We went shopping later in the morning to make sure we had all of the items we needed to prepare for dinner at the YSA center. Thankfully we didn't have to walk with all the groceries, Grandma and I walked with SM drove to the center where we unloaded the groceries and then he took the car back and walked back to the center. We were having Taco pileups which we quite easy to serve, but needed a bit of time to prepare.
We had a wonderful lesson in Danish that night about the blessings that the Gospel gives to us. And I know what you're thinking, no I was not blessed with the Spirit of Tongues during that lesson, thankfully a newly returned missionary from Salt Lake took the time to translate the lesson for me.
It ended up being a very late night. Some of the YSA didn't leave the center until 11:30 or so and by that time I was pretty much dead on my feet and we still had the walk home. Thankfully, it was a pretty uneventful walk home. The weather was perfect and the streets were quiet with little traffic. As you can imagine, I passed out very quickly once we arrived home.
The next morning, SM went and rented a car so that I could ride in it! (They have a rule in their mission that they're only allowed to drive missionaries around in their car) We started off our day by driving out of the city to the Frederiksborg Slot, a castle that sits on its own little island (not sure if its manmade or not).
This castle's quite lovely, even if the front of it is under construction (Just my luck right?)
Grandma and I paid to go in and see the rooms, while SM opted to stay in the car and take a nap. We were able to walk around and see on the magnificent rooms! One of my favorite rooms was attached to the chapel. It's the King's room (the place where he sits during a service and worships there so he doesn't have to mingle with the rabble). This room is full of Carl Bloch paintings or the paintings that are often used by the LDS church to portray the Savior. You can see a collection of his work here if you don't know what I'm talking about.
The chapel was pretty fantastic as well.
Another one of my favorite rooms was where the dresses of the Queen of Denmark were held.
I love my dresses!
Afterwards we spent time walking through the garden, which was kinda bare since it was still springtime.
Afterwards we headed back through a small town to get some lunch, unfortunately it was a windy road and I ended up getting really carsick. We headed back to the flat where I went and took a nap to try and sleep off my sickness.
While I was napping Grandma and SM went shopping for food to make some food for a party we had been invited to that night. One of their YSA's had graduated and they were throwing a party to celebrate. They had some tasty food that I got to try such as Danish meatballs and a weird salad or two. (Someone was even kind enough and brought Swedish Fish to munch on). We were there for 3 hours or so, it was weird to be at because mostly everyone spoke in Danish, so I mostly talked to Grandma or SM, but overall I enjoyed it!
We headed home and ended up opening some chocolate and playing another couple of rounds of Nines where SM once again lost badly. Thankfully he was a good sport about it:) He kept mentioning that he "hated this game" and I kept reminding him that he was the one who wanted to keep playing!
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