When Two Blogs Collide

I'm sure everyone has noticed "Kelly and Mads" posting here for the past couple of months. She ran across our blog while searching Google for "Danish Lessons in Dallas". Funny enough, I was actually able to tell her where she could find Danish Lessons in Dallas and she started them! As it turns out, she lives in Allen not far from where we lived, and is getting ready to move to Herning, Denmark in June to be with her (as of this past Friday) husband Mads. The more we wrote the more we realized we had in common. I love that I met another Texan who is in the process of moving to wonderful Denmark and have enjoyed following her story of discovering Denmark as it reminds me of a time when Michael and I were falling in love with the country we have become to adore.

We had planned a few weeks ago to meet up yesterday for lunch in Copenhagen with her daughter Jess and Jess's friend Danielle. We went to a restaurant called, "Riz Raz". I had heard many good things about it from multiple people so we gave it a try. It is a Mediterranean restaurant and everything was vegetarian and very good. We all decided on the buffet and piled our plates full of food.

We had a lovely time and Mads and Kelli were completely adorable together. I honestly thought they seemed as if they had been together for many years (in a good way). Kelli was just as great in person as I imagined that she would be and Mads was fantastic. He stuck both of us as one of those very rare, genuinely nice people. Jess could have been Michelle's (Michaels sister) younger sister. They looked so very much alike and had some of the same mannerisms. It was funny for us to see. Kelli and Jess will not be in Denmark permanently until June, but I am very much looking forward to big move here.

On our way out Kelli and I hopped downstairs to to restrooms and there was a sign on the door that said the womens was out of order, and we had to use the mens. We weren't the only women in there which made it slightly less weird, but it was a little (ok a lot) strange to be not only be in line while men were washing their hands, but also strange to walk out of the stall and have man using the urinal right in front of us. That was a first. I'm glad I had someone there with me to share that story with.

Mads and Kelli

Kelli and Me
It was cold, can you tell?

"We are like Brothers" with matching hair.

Kelli and Mads, it was so great to get to put voices and motion to the pictures and writings.
Tak for en rigtig god eftermiddag! :)

After parting ways with our new friends we walked around Copenhagen for a while looking at many of the shops that were decorated for and selling nothing but Christmas stuff. We also decided we would hop into Tivoli and see what was going on there.

On our way to Tivoli I stopped to get a picture with most famous Dane, Mr. Hans Christian Anderson. He wrote, "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "Princess and the Pea", "The Emperors New Clothes", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", and "Thumblina" just to name a few. There is a huge statue of him in Rådhuspladsen just across from Tivoli. And so, I was able to cross number 126 off my list of things to do in Copenhagen before we leave. Take my Picture with the big statue.

Tivoli was CRAZY. The line to get into the park was the longest I have ever seen times 20! Since we have year cards, we got to skip the line and jump inside the park. We only stayed about 15 minutes. It was long enough to walk around a little bit and escape the insanity that was Tivoli.

I found time for one picture

We got home about 5 (after a brief stop at the grocery store because all Thanksgiving leftovers only lasted 1 day) , put on our PJs, made some tea and were lazy the rest of the evening. :)

First Snow

We had a blast on Saturday night. We went to the city and picked up our tickets and yup, you guessed it, went for a Guinness. Seriously we are addicted to the stuff. We spent as long as we could in the pub to stay warm. It was fun in there, lots of Irish tunes and singing going on. We left there and went to one of our favorite cafes for a bite to eat. I had a veggie/mozzarella sandwich and Michael had a chicken club sandwich. From there it was time to head to the front gates of Tivoli to wait to be let into the park to get to the theater. It was kinda cool to get a preview of Christmas in Tivoli because it was already decorated. Though this will be the third time we have been to Tivoli at Christmas time, there is something really exciting about seeing it again...and again...and again. "Around the World in 80 Minutes" was HILARIOUS!!!!! Just as good as last years...if not better. This years show lasted 3 hours. Last year, we were in there 3.5 hours! But it goes so fast! When we got there we got a couple beers for the show and were able to pre-order our drinks for the intermission! I thought that was a good idea. Michael just went out to a tent and found our drink number and just picked up our drinks and came back. Cool idea since the line at the bar was outrageous at intermission.The woman that writes the play is incredible. This year there were 3 scenes where the characters where in the US (California, the Great Plains and New York to be exact) So it was funny to hear them making fun of the US. Especially the part where everyone has a gun, because it is a topic of conversation that always comes up with our Danish friends. Then there is a character every year called, "Dr. van Helsingør from Elsinore" who is basically in the play to make fun of the Danes. This character is too funny for words. I know it is a year away, but I'm already excited for next years "Crazy Christmas Cabaret".

Michael at the Lyngby Train Station pretending not to be freezing

Mmmmm Both mine!

It was quite cold all weekend. Last night it started to hail a little bit...or so it appeared. I looked carefully at the hail falling but it wasn't really bouncing off the ground when it hit...so I opened the door and picked up some and it was the strangest stuff! It was clearly hail, perfectly round but it was so fluffy to the touch... soft hail perhaps? I went to see what Wikipedia had to say about it and I think it was Graupel more commonly know as snow pellets! If this is what it was, it only lasted about 3 minutes before it clearly turned into thick snowflakes. It only snowed for about 45 minutes to an hour and didn't leave more then a pretty dusting of white. Our balcony is still covered in ice.

Snow Pellets
If you enlarge the picture you can see that everything falling is in perfect little circles. As is the stuff on the ground.

We got brave and made feet prints in the snow. I really don't know why.

Dusting of Snow

I love the way the roof look out in the distance with a little white on them.

Around the World in 80 Minutes

You may or may not remember that last year for our anniversary we went to Tivoli to see the annual "Crazy Christmas Caberet". It is an audience participation play. (You get to cheer at the good guys, boo at the bad guys and more) Last years show was called, "Bored of the Rings" and this year it is "Around the World in 80 Minutes". We had talked about going on our anniversary again but the seats left for that day weren't so good The first show is tonight and and everything up till Christmas was almost sold out with only bad seats left. We did find some good seats on Saturday, so we will be doing that this Saturday and I'm quite excited about it. The show is always in English, and last year was HYSTERICAL! I'm sure this year will be no different. Tivoli does not open for Christmas until next weekend so that will take away from the experience, but since we have that wonderful year card, we will just wonder back once it opens for Christmas. :)

http://www.londontoast.dk/

Halloween Preview

We had planned all week to spend Saturday in Copenhagen, because there were three things we needed to get done in the city.

1. Get a Guinness :)
2. Purchase everything we need for our Halloween costumes
3. Go to "Halloween in Tivoli"

The air was quite chilly and according to the weather, it was the coldest it has been in Copenhagen so far this season. I can, without a doubt, feel winter in the air.

The Guinness was great (Always is). We hit a new Irish Pub and I think this one will be our new favorite and regular place to get our Guinness fix. Not only was our Guinness poured correctly (Pour and let it sit for 2 minutes, and then fill it the rest of the way), but the bar tender made little shamrocks on the head of the beer. Way fun! It was a pretty cold day, but the sun was shining and we were able to sit outside comfortably.

We did get everything we needed for our costumes and I think they are going to look great. Unfortunately, I can't say what we are going to be here because some of the people coming over read this blog from time to time. So you'll just have to wait and see what we are. ;)

Tivoli was a lot of fun. This was, I believe, only the second year that Tivoli has re-opened for Halloween. We spend a couple hours there walking around, eating, and checking out all the cool Halloween shops they had set up. This was a nice change because most stores sell very little Halloween stuff. The toy stores don't even have more then a small section of stuff set up. Denmark is just now starting to embrace Halloween, but they have a LOOOOONG way to go to catch up to all its hype and glory that it holds in the states.

Check out the cool Pumpkin Roof

Decorations

Me (with several layers of cloths on) and My New Friend.

I think Tivoli bought all the pumpkins in Denmark

Michael and the Pumpkins


We got back home about 7:00pm and were exhuasted. Both of our heads hurt and we felt like we were coming down with something. I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that we were outside in colder then normal weather all day long. We crashed at 9:30 and got a good nights rest and felt all better this morning. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to Viggo!
Happy Birrrrtttthdaaaay deeeaar Viggo and Meeeee!!!
Happy Birthday to us!!!

Those who know me well, will probably be shocked to see that I am not only admitting that someone else was born on September 23rd, but that I am openly sharing my birthday with another person! haha. Last year, I was sooo excited to hear that my friend Marianne had given birth to her sweet son Viggo on September 23rd. So now, adorable little Danish Viggo and I are birthday buddy's and I can't think of a cuter little kiddo the share my day with!

My Birthday Buddy
Tillykke med fødselsdagen Viggo!!

Picture stolen from Marianne

Finally...the big 2-8!! This is very strange, and people have made fun of me for this, but for as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be 28. It seemed like the perfect age. Still quite young, yet old enough to be taken seriously and have a semi-defined life. I hope my 28th year goes nice and slow in a very fun and exciting kind of way.

Since my birthday falls on a Sunday this year, I got the very rare, but very fun "Birthday Weekend" This only works for us if our birthdays fall on a Sunday, because it usually feels funny to still be celebrating on the day after.

Yesterday we spent the day in Copenhagen. I've been craving a Guinness (from tap not a can) since we got back from Ireland, so we went to one of the many Irish pubs in the city and got a delicious pint of Guinness. From there we went to Tivoli for lunch. We have a year card so we get free entrance. It closes this weekend until Halloween so we thought we would use it one last time for the summer season. From there we walked around Copenhagen and went to a few places we hadn't been since we left in 2003.

Ørstads Parken

Copenhagen Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Today has been great so far. We got up, had some breakfast, went to the gym, ate some lunch with a half bottle of champagne and now Michael has locked himself away in the kitchen making me a cake! Every year he usually orders me a cheesecake from the cheesecake factory to be delivered to me on my birthday. Not so easy to do from here, so he told me to find a recipe for anything and he would make it.... I will be sure to post pictures of it tomorrow!

Also I need to say a happy one day late birthday to my wonderful and beautiful niece Alex! I still remember going to the hospital to meet her after she was born and now she is 14!!!!!!!! She is one of the very few people that continually make me feel REALLLLLY old, only because she is getting so grown up herself.

Alex and I on Thanksgiving 2006

Enjoying Copenhagen and Lyngby

I love rain. I love fall. Most years I could do without summer. But what "they" say, seems true, when all you get is rain, you get tired of it, when all you get is cloudy days, you long for the sun. I don't know who "they" are, but "they" knew what they were talking about.

This weekend was nothing short of gorgeous days of sun, sun and more sun with a slight cool breeze that made the weekend simply perfect! The air feels like fall though, but one of those beautiful warm, fall days. So we took advantage of the weekend and played tourists in our own home!

First thing we did was head to Copenhagen climb the "Rundetaarn" (Round Tower) for a view of Copenhagen. We figured, we've seen Oslo,Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Istanbul and even a couple small German villages from way up high on towers and mountain/hilltop, it was probably about time we saw Copenhagen as well. The entrance was pretty cheap (for Copenhagen standards) at 25DKK a person (about $4.50) so we thought, why not!

"Rundetaarn"
Apparently the tower part of the Trinitatis complex, and included an astronomical observatory, a student church and a university library. It was built between 1588-1648We saw the church and the library which were a decent size and quite nice. It is also the oldest observatory in Europe and is still used! At night in the winter (which is practically all day long haha) people can go up and use the telescope to see the sky.

Climbing the tower was pretty simple. The entire climb looked like this until the very end where there were about 15 steps. Not too bad. Easiest tower climb we have ever done (worst one was in Freiburg Germany where we climbed just short of 1,000 stairs in the narrowest little stairwell, in a Cathedral to get to the top of a bell tower) I was actually a little surprised to see many people huffing and puffing on their way up.

Once at the top we had an amazing 360 degree view. Knowing so many of the buildings and streets made looking at wonderful Copenhagen that much better. We could see pretty far and could even see some really tall buildings in the distance which we immediately recognized as "Høj Gladsax" , which is basically where we lived last time we lived here.


After the tower we wondered around Copenhagen. Stopped at Nyhavn grabbed some soft ice, then hopped on a boat (one that is tied up and doesn't go anywhere) for a micro-brew style beer. The city was so very full of tourists, not many Americans though. Seemed like the streets were filled with Swedes and Brits. We both have an " Årskort" (year card) for Tivoli, so as long as we were in the city we hopped in there for another beer and sat right next to the little lake in there and had a really good time. After all this, we were starving so came home and ate and rested our feet. (We actually do tire ourselves out from walking, but no one has been brave enough to stick it out long enough to see that actually happen!)

Copenhagen Street

Tivoli

Tivoli

Sunday was just as lovely if not more so then Saturday. We hit the gym in the AM which was pretty much like an old abandon town. We were the only ones in there for about 45 minutes until 4 people came and hopped on treadmills. Then there were 6 of us. Danes love the sun, I'm sure they didn't want to waste any of the weather on being indoors. I can't blame them. We were doing abs and I told Michael that at that moment, I envied their freedom of not being so ridiculously dedicated. We got out of there as fast as we could and headed for a little walk. We stopped at a bakery on the way to grab some bread (and it was the first time Michael had ever witnessed me doing everything in Danish). We headed towards something called, "Lyngby Fort" I had seen it on a map and was just a little curious what it was, so we went. To be quite honest, I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but I know it was built in 1887 -1892. It was, "interesting" to say the least. Kinda hidden behind houses, and very overgrown with growth. We climbed up to the top and ate up there.

It once read, "LYNGBYFORTET" but now, there are letters missing

Along the side

Stairs to top
View From the Top

Top of the Fort

Walking back to our place we stumbled upon a hidden treasure. A "Møntvask"!!! It is a Laundromat!! For those of you who remember months and months ago I had to start doing our laundry by hand....again.... well. I am STILL doing it that way. Long story short...our landlord sucks and we do not want to spend the money to buy a washer that we can't take back with us because they are quite pricey. ANYWAYS, so we have searched every corner of Lyngby (or so we thought) looking for one and never could find one. On our way home, somehow we ended up on a hidden curve of a street, not too far from our place, and staring me in the face was the word, "Møntvask". I grabbed Michaels arm and pulled him across the street as he was laughing knowing my pleasure in seeing this word. I haven't minded doing our laundry by hand but the sheets and towels are quite the chore, because they are so big. I think that was the highlight of the day! Today, I'll be heading down there with towels and sheets to get those all washed and I am very excited about it, as I am sure my mom and a few of my close friends are very excited for me as well!! haha.

We got back to our place about 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening on our balcony. Reading, drinking some wine, doing Danish homework, eating dinner....etc.

Today looks just as wonderful as the past couple days. Perhaps August will turn out to be ok after all. I'm not holding my breath just yet, but I'm closing my eyes and wishing really really hard that it keeps this nice.

All Alone

Mary and Jason sadly left yesterday afternoon and before that Michael left here on Sunday for Boston and Dallas. Now, I am back here, by myself, once again. In all honestly, I'd rather be left here alone then in Dallas while he was hopping over to Europe. So, I don't feel bad for being abandoned!

We had a really fun rest of the time with Mary and Jason. We took them to see a ton more stuff. I'm working on a little something to talk about their trip, but it'll be a few days till I can get it up. For now, I'll just wet your pallet with a few more pictures.

At Carlsberg Brewery - thats beer in my hand, not wine.

Tivoli

On our balcony eating Taco's Jason made for us. YUM. We ate out here often. It was nice.
Jason conquering a hill
Mary at Kronborg Slot (Hamlets Castle)

Enjoying the sun in a park in Roskilde

Replica of a Viking Ship at the Viking ship museum in Roskilde. Thats Mary and I in the picture

With an actual old viking shipOn the Train on the way home

We really really really had a great time with them here. It was fun to get to show them stuff that we love and to finally get to show someone our lives here.
They also say to all our friends and family in the states:
"EVERYONE COME VISIT NICHOLE AND MICHAEL IN DENMARK!"

So there it is, come see us!! Mary and Jason said so. As the first guests they also got the sun room named after them. From now on, it will be referred to as "The Partney Suite" If you come, you'll get something too. :)

Anniversary/Room Pictures

First things First:
Our Anniversary! We had a blast. Michael came home a little early and we got dressed and ready to go. He had bought some champagne, I mean sparkling white wine (properly named, anniversary) that we had really enjoyed when we were here 3 years ago. I had also gone to a fantastic bakery/cake shop earlier and got us a couple slices of cake to go with it. On our way out we asked the Concierge service if they could send up a bucket of ice to chill it for us while we were away. Of course they did no problem. While in the lobby we got some free Glogg. You may say, what is Glogg? And what a funny name! It is a drink, similar to mulled wine and at the bottom of the glass there are raisins and almonds that have been soaked in port. You sip it, and eat the treats at the bottom with a spoon. I had missed it terribly the past 4 years, so have been so happy to have it again. We have had it from several places, but my personal favorite, was the one here at the hotel. ANYWAYS, we went to eatand see the show at Tivoli. Tivoli is pretty hard to explain. It is an amusement park, but not like 6 flags, and not like Disneyland. Its a beautiful place in the middle of Copenhagen with gardens, and restaurants a few rides, and just a really great place to go especially to people watch. At Christmas time they set up a Christmas Market and all sorts of other fun stuff. So we ate, walked around a bit, got rained on ALOT, walked around some more and saw the show there which was HYSTERICAL. It was a 3 hour show and we laughed from the start till the end. Anyways, enough on that.. here are some pictures!!!

Tivoli

Michael inside the Nisse House (basically elf house)

Me!

and for fun, heres a video from inside the Nisse Village thing... Push play :)
In the video I am drinking glogg with an added shot of whiskey. yum.




We have made it a tradition that every year on our anniversary we would take a picture by a Christmas Tree. So this is this years picture:

OK, Second! Where are we living??
I haven't taken pictures of the actual hotel or lobby yet, but here is our room! The room we were in previously was SOOO much smaller, we didn't have much space at all..Thankfully we only had to live there like 3 days! We have been in this room exactly 2 weeks today.

Front Door/Computer Desk
One of our two big windows, drawers, tvCouch and Coffee Table

Bedroom
Poor us, having to live here huh?? ;) Actually it hasn't been to bad. We both already think that this place has already become more like home then our Apartment in Plano ever did. I suppose since we never got completely unpacked there,and were there 18 days before finding out we were leaving, we never let it feel like home. Here, we have gotten pretty comfortable. Everything we have here is unpacked and well, as you can see, its pretty nice. No complaints :)