so first off i dislike snow already and after seeing it here ruing the train schedules i really wish i would go back to wyoming! i was soooooo lucky i received the best christmas present just before christmas! my best friend sean came to visit me on the 17th of december. his plane was supposed to arrive at 7:15 and i was supposed to arrive at the airport at 7:40 giving him just enough time to get his bags and get through customs...i had told him that i would be there waiting for him at the exit of customs... however... it turns out that the danish rail system doesn't know what to do when it snows so much... which did not help my very early trek to the copenhagen airport! so i was at my home base train station and checking the boards... i am very lucky that i heard another non-danish speaker ask about a few red words scrolling atop by my train with a time... turns out my train was delayed about 10 min... when i first got there!... as it got a little bit later and i waited i kept seeing the time grow and grow and grow... i decided to take the first train out to copenhagen instead of waiting for the train that goes directly to copenhagen airport... so i hoped on the first train that would take me to the central station... it left 30 min past the time i wanted to leave... and on top of it that train was also running late by another 20 min... so already i had barely left my city and i was running 50 min behind schedule!... oh man i didn't give sean any info other than i would be there to pick him up and he had nothing to worry about... i crossed my fingers and said a few little prayers that his plane would be slightly delayed and my trains would be faster than expected...
much to my dismay the trains were not faster... they weren't even on time with the new start... they were crowed with people who had to take my train as a backup route like myself... people were standing all through the isles and i'm sure all the people getting on and only some people getting off lead to even more delays... i finally arrived in copenhagen central station at 9 something... and of course all of the trains i needed to go 12 min to the airport were delayed... i waited around for another 40 min probably until finally the loud speaker announced that there was finally going to be a train going to the airport... it too was packed to the max... i got stuck in the middle of a entrance section of a train car without anything to hold onto... which did not help my tension about being late... i almost fell on the people next to me a few times in the 12 min it took to get to the station... i ran up the walking sidewalk to the main terminal with the meeting section... scanning and scanning for sean... finally i had picked up my visitor... almost 2.5 hours later... boooooo snow...
getting back to my city was not much better... it didn't help with the added heavy luggage he had in tow with him... (because of the american goodies he brought me from my parents and himself)... i was pretty proud of my ease to just hop on a train and switch to the correct ones without any problems... it was the first time i had to make my own decision to change plans and figure my own way back without the internet or timetable booklet...
i felt so bad for sean he had not slept much in the last 2 days because he was trying to get to me... however i'm so glad he put up with the problems we had with the trains and the snow... already the trip had not been exactly as i had planned it out to be... this was supposed to be a relaxing day for both of us before we went to our cities we had planned out... we finally got back to odense around 2 i think in the afternoon... it was so nice to have my room not be so lonely as crowded as it was between my stuff and his....
i was so happy he brought with him some peanut butter, dr. pepper, koolaid, twizzlers, spice mix and other american goodies along with some clothes i had back home that would be nice to have here... it did make his luggage soooo much heavier than it needed to be... but he was happy to bring it to me... :) gosh i'm so spoiled!
we ended up just hanging around... sean was beyond exhausted from the traveling and the waiting and worring about getting picked up... i know in his head all he could play were clips from "the terminal"... causing some not so great thoughts about how he could be stranded in a foreign country not having a clue what to do... i should've kept him from taking a nap so that he could start to fight the jet lag... but i thought he would be fine... later would we find out that his body just doesn't do the switch of 8 times zones with ease!
on friday morning i had a welfare studies exam at the university... lucky me! i had to wake up early around 6 to take the buses to the university since there was too much snow and ice for me to ride my bike or even walk because i'm such a klutz! the welfare exam wasn't pretty but at least i got a passing score thats all i wanted... to be honest i didn't understand a single thing... but somehow i made up enough junk to pass! or maybe they just felt bad that i'm a music major with no background in any economics or social sciences! but anyways...
i came back to the dorm happy just to get ready to start our trip... we didn't rush which was nice and we packed up my pack and another backpack so we could hop back on the trains to copenhagen... we were going to go earlier but let me tell you the weather was soooooooo freaking cold we both couldn't stand to be outside very long because it was so miserable! so we took our time and got to copenhagen maybe around 8? i forget exactly the time... we found our hotel which was really nice and close to the station... someone famous must've been staying there because (and this was at the end of the copenhagen environmental convention) there was a police officer that escorted us in... which was a little fishy because the second couple that walked in didn't get a cop to escort them in... so we must've looked pretty sketchy or something since we had our own personal bodygard standing very close to us while we waited to check in... it did seem a little unfair but oh well... if we look like we are trouble then... they must be missing out on some really bad stuff somewhere else... but anyways...
our hotel room was pretty sweet! weird to have a real tv in my presence which is just an odd statement to begin with... and the bathroom was fun danish style modern with glass and clean lines... just sweet! there was also a bathtub... which after living in a dorm for 4 months was a luxury! i felt completely like a princess when sean bought me a container of ben and jerry's ice cream and i ate it while take a bath... hmmmmm happy day... but then again it doesn't take much to make my night... plus i had not eaten ben and jerry's since i've gotten here because it is so expensive! yay christmas treat! :)
we woke up the next morning and met krista at tivoli for a day of goodness! :) we started out with some yummy aebleskiver which sean had not had before (and loved...i totally called it!) then it was off to the rides! yes we were like 10 year olds... we learned that 3 of the big rides including the roller coasters weren't running because of the snow but that was ok... and like the last two days it was freaking cold! and the rides didn't help spinning around in the cold! but thats ok... we went on a water ride kind of like its a small world or splash mountain without the big drop... we rode it twice because it was warm inside... we did other carnival/amusement park rides along with some sweet bumper cars... we really liked the h.c. andersen ride where they take you through his fairytales while a guy narrates... there is a switch for english or danish and i guess we didn't press it correctly or quickly enough the first time because sean and i got stuck with the danish the first time around! boooo story time isn't as much fun with only pictures! but thats ok we made up for it...
there were some other fun rides but i know i've already written enough and there is much more to come so i'll give you a break... the lights once it turned dark were amazing! i wish my camera took better dark pictures but thats ok... we also did some shopping and enjoyed just walking around in the lights... but it was super cold and we were all getting numb so we didn't stay very late after it got dark... plus there were a ton of people coming in as we were going out so they could see the lights...that night we ran back to the hotel to warm up before we headed out to eat... we went down the street to a swarma/durum/gyro place called aladdin's! the guy working who seemed to probably be the manager told us that he had lots of time to do a pizza if we liked... he actually really pushed the pizza... so we let him make us a pizza... it had swarma meat, green pepper and cheese i think? should find the menu i have in my souvenir paper box... but anyways... it was fantastic! that guy could make a pizza! yum yum yummmmm!
it was so painfully cold just to walk back to the hotel just a block away... icky! that night we revamped our plans because of the cold... we decided that it was going to be too miserable to walk around in berlin our next planned city so we decided to go back to odense and do things there... maybe catch up on some rest because sean still was dealing with jet lag and i was gearing up for the 3 weeks of go-go-go i had in store after christmas...
that was the best thing we could've done... it was so nice to have some down time to enjoy each others company... on sunday night even we went out to dinner with my friends at our normal place where we had fries and falafel and burgers... yumm...
i love showing sean my city... i love my city very much and i must say it is still one of the cutest cities i've been too but i might be a little bias now after getting to experience so much here... but anyways... i dragged sean around my city on monday and he also got to do a run here and see a few things along the river!
on tuesday we decided to do a day trip to lubeck germany where they were supposed to have fantastic lights and a huge christmas market... we got up very early and headed out... of course the trains were late again... but all of them gave us problems that week... we had to switch after an hour and a half and then had problems on the train heading into germany with seat reservations... it costs extra to reserve seats and sometimes it can lead to great frustration... but finally we found a pair of seats together... sean had not slept more than 2 hours tops the night before and i felt bad when of course we had to change trains unexpectedly in the middle of the journey just as he had fallen asleep for a quick nap... after that i thought he would get some time... but of course then we had to get on a ferry (the train drove onto the ferry) and we had to move the the higher decks while we crossed the straight of water... lets just say sean never got that nap he really really needed!
on wednesday i needed to pack for my trip and sean had to repack up his stuff... we walked around my city some more and we even went to the h.c. andersen museum which was nice we were basically the only ones there! :) because all of our trains had been late we decided that we should get to the airport as early as possible... we thought about taking a train at 3:45am but we were worried it would be late and really mess things up for his 8am flight out... so the next earliest train was at 12:50am... so we decided to take that one because we wouldn't have gotten much sleep anyways... with the snow and the heavy luggage again it was a challenge and we were cutting it close... once we got to the train station i ran up and down the escalators to the track... the train was trying to leave early... (this moment plays a crucial role in a few weeks) but the doors were trying to shut and sean was behind with the luggage! i yellled wait! and stop! but the doors were closing on the train... we had just run here and i was not about to go back to the dorm for 2 hours before coming back for another train that might be late... that train would not! would not! leave without us... the doors tried to start shutting but i pushed them open... they tried to shut some more but there was no way... i push them again and they held open for me... i was holding them... the train was going to have to take me like this if it wanted to go... but just then i saw sean coming down the escaltor to the track... thank god! i yelled that i was holding open the doors and he rushed and had to lift the heavy luggage up into the train... ohhhh man... we made it... i was not going to miss that train even if it cut me in two peices!
we made it to the airport... we sat down and hung out for a few hours before the baggage drop people opened... brittish airways was almost the last to open up which was very very irritating we just wanted to drop our bags and go sit somewhere... we snagged a bagel and sat... both of us squeezing every last drop out of our time together... but finally i couldn't let him stay with me any longer... he had to go back... :-(
(next post: christmas at bjorg's and start to the journey!)
**pictures: *copenhagen, view from ferris wheel *odense, h.c. christmas lights *tivoli, entrance, princess and the pea h.c. andersen ride and tivoli christmas tree and famous tower in the background *lubeck, historical building and matching gluwien mug and christmas market shop *tivoli christmas lights with snowman family
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