Jutland - Family style! Food, Fairytales, Vikings, and More Food!

When Ole told me about a family get together that his family was holding in Bording, Denmark (a town in Jutland), I was excited to go see Jutland and meet some families living outside of Copenhagen. On Saturday (the 25th) we kicked off our adventure to Jutland. Instead of going directly to Bording we stopped at Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christien Andersen. The house or hus where he was born is still there, and now part of the H.C. Andersen Musuem. For those of you that don't recognize the name H.C. Andersen, it is the author of tales such as Tin Soldier, Thumbelina, Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, and many more. Between his fairy tales and novels it is suffice to say that he is an extraordinary figure in Danish literature. The picture to the right is the plaque that Odense put on the house that H.C. Andersen's family lived in and where he was born.

Here I am in front of the H.C. Andersen's House!

Next to the life size model of H.C. Andersen, the teller of tales. He used tp entertain the children of his friends with stories, and paper cut outs. How lucky those kids were who got to hear the tales from the teller himself.  

After spending time at the Museum, we went to lunch in Odense and I got to try Flødebolle. This is a very Danish chocolate. It is a dome of chocolate that is filled with almost a marshmellow substance made of egg whites.  The bottom of the dome is a wafer cookie. They are really delicious, but something I have to learn how to eat. If you look them up you will be able to see why it is hard to eat them neatly.

From there we continued on to Bording where I got to meet a lot of Ole's family. They really are such nice people. People often say in the U.S. that the Italian families are all about showing that they care through food, but those people must have just been to Italy and the U.S.. During the whole trip to Jutland there was always so much food. I have gotten some emails inquiring about the food so I will elaborate during this post.

As soon as we entered into the door at Ole's cousin's house we were served a dessert. It is a kind of rice pudding, though it has more cream than in the US. It was served with hot cherries in a syrup on top. This is something that they typically eat at Christmastime. So if you want a new twist to your rice pudding try adding hot cherries, I can vouch for it being a great combination.

During our visit with Ole's family a lot of the time I was not completely sure what was going on, but it was wonderful none the less. (Oh how I wish I knew Danish) Ole's Aunt had just come back from living in Canada, thus the get together, so there were family members that I was able to talk to. However, I loved just listening and trying to figure out what is going on. Later in the afternoon tea and cake was served. Though they had a layered cake, and cookies I preferred the dessert which was the mix of a sweet bread and a pastry complete with raisins. It was absolutely delicious. It was shortly after this that we left Ole's cousin's house, and heading to Ans (another town in Jutland) where we were to stay the night with Ole and Birgitte's friends' family.

This was a great experience, we were at the table from about 7 to 12, talking, eating and enjoying each others company. I had a terrific time, and I learned a lot about Danes (everything I learned was good). Over the time span we were at the table we had homemade pizza with sausage, ham, and vegetables, fruit, a brownie and ice cream dessert, chips (much later in the evening), tea, beer, and wine. Needless to say I was not starving as I went to sleep saturday night.

The next morning we had breakfast at nine before leaving. The breakfast buffet was complete with breads, cheeses, fruits, sausage, bacon, eggs, liver pate, tea, orange juice, and apple juice. It seems like it would be impossible for someone to leave Jutland hungry, or at least I didn't!

After leaving this amazing family, we stopped by Moesgård Museum, which my Aunt Laura would have adored. It is jam packed with historical archeological finds from Denmark, including Grauballe Man which is a body that has been preserved in a peat pit from the Iron Age in Denmark. Thought to have been a sacrifice to the gods, he was found almost perfectly preserved.

Continuing on from the museum we had one more stop to make before heading back to Copenhagen, and this was another great part of Danish history, the Jelling Stones. These are two stones erected in the 900s. The first was erected by King Gorm the old in memory of his wife Thyra, and the second was erected by his son Harald Bluetooth in honor of his parents The large stone in the following pictures is the one erected by Harald, while this smaller was done by his father.  This is significant since it is one of the earliest writings about Denmark. UNESCO has made this a world heritage site, and the stones are soon to be sealed in a glass container to prevent further deterioration. So it is very special that I was able to get up close and personal with these pieces of history.

Here I am with the Jelling stones.

Thus concludes my trip to Jutland. My thanks go to Ole and Birgitte for including me in this adventure, among other adventures. I also must give credit to Ole for the amazing photography.

Fireworks In The Goalie Box!

Last Thursday our Danish teacher gave us all tickets to the F.C. København versus Brøndby Football (soccer) game for Sunday. When these two bitter rivals face off, I was told it is always a lively game both on and off the field due to the hooligan spirit! Thinking that this was something my friend Sandra would like, my "Danish Buddy", I got her a ticket to the game and we made our plans to go on Sunday.

Well, time flew by as it tends to do, and I am sitting on the train with another girl from DIS heading to the station. We knew that we were getting closer to the stadium when half the train was full of people wearing team parafernalia and drinking Liter cans of Carlsberg. After meeting Sandra at the train station we quite literally followed the masses to the stadium, all three of us thinking that this was going to be a very entertaining game in more ways than one. After finding our seats we got some Danish hotdogs "french style". Basically this is where they take hollowed out baguette halves (hole down the middle, with no splits in the side), they put a Danish hotdog in it, and then squirt Ketchup or whatever you want down the hollow. Needless to say I was quite amused by this hotdog evolution, though I must admit that it was a lot easier to eat.

While we were enjoying our hotdogs before the start of the game we were observing the hooligans for both teams, who were sitting in a section behind both goal boxes. They are very...enthusiastic. I truthfully do not know how they maintain such high energy the whole game. Everything they do in synchronized, sometimes they are all holding scarves in the air, whipping scarves around their heads, jumping up and down as a unit, and of course singing their battle songs.

Here is a picture of FCK hooligans from afar. Don't worry you will see more pictures of hooligans or hooligan acts!

The game started off great particularly since FCK, that's who we were cheering for, scored not too far into the game. The game then continued as normal...

Then all of a sudden it became not so normal as Brøndby hooligans started lighting little fireworks and throwing them into the FCK goalie's box. It was so bad that they had to pause the game so the goalie didn't have to be there until all the fireworks had been extinguished. So there I am, in total shock that something like that would happen that I was too preoccupied to take a picture of the fireworks in the goalie box.

But no worries now I was alert, so when they started burning seats and then stairwells on their side on the field I was taking pictures! :)

Some Seats burning... you know just your typical football game.

It had to have been European football players who came up with the saying, "The Game Must Go On", because it did!

(From the mind of a Brøndby Hooligan) "ugh the game isn't going so well guys. Let's make a bonfire in the stairwell, and distract FCK!" (Other Hooligans) "Yeah, and let's fight with the security guards and get arrested too."














Despite the sideshow going on, the game continued, FCK scored another goal, and won the game 2-0!

On the way back to the train the three of us were in for a surprise since we walked out to police with helmets, armored police cars, and police dogs. I don't like crossing paths with a wild squirrel, let alone a dog, so once we saw/ heard the dogs, we high tailed it all the way to the train station!

We found out on Monday that 38 people were arrested, 64 were injured (including 2 police), and there were over 150,000 $ worth of damage to both the stadium and the sorrounding businesses who recieved smashed windows compliments of football enthusiasts known as hooligans!

Thus ended my introduction to the world of European football!!

'Til the next adventure comes around

Combining Intellect With a Sense of Adventure

I sit at my computer and continuously ponder how to sum up my study trip. Finally I have concluded that the only thing to do is to start typing and hopefully I will find the pebbles I left along my travels to bring back to you. As I travel I constantly think that I have to remember to tell someone this, or I will take a picture that I know I want to show. The perplexing thing after traveling is to look at all these tidbits (or pebbles) and arrange them in a way where Hansel and Gretel do not end up at the witch’s cottage, but rather end up seeing through my eyes.


Though the Study tour was only three days, I believe that this is likely to be my longest post yet. The study tour kicked off Thursday morning with a tour of Storebaelt Bridge. Never before have I been on the inside of a highly trafficked bridge and my foremost observation was the noise. The public is not typically allowed to go off the beaten trail to this island, which is the headquarters for the bridge, but when your teacher is the former Danish Minister of Transportation you receive not only an extensive tour from the bridge director but a wonderful meal cooked by the staff. Here are some pictures of the bridge, and the lighthouse on the connecting island.

The Bridge Right before we went inside of it

Taken from under the Bridge looking at the Light house.

After our terrific lunch we headed to Dybbøl Banke, a battlefield where the Danes faced the brute force of Bismark’s army in 1864. It was in this war that Denmark lost its southernmost province of Schleswig-Holstein and the area of the nation was decreased by a third. This is what helped define the type of nation-state that Denmark has become and their political position in the world. The pictures from this battlefield may be slightly fuzzy due to rain. The picture from Dybbøl Banke is following on the right.

That night we stayed at a hostel in Haderslev. It was an amazing hostel, I was quite impressed. Thursday evening after our group dinner we went to a Danish Pub and got to know each other since the rest of the day had been so rushed.

When we woke up Friday morning we ate the delicious breakfast that the hostel gave us and headed off to Germany, Kiel to be exact. There we met with the head of the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of internal affairs, where he told us about the modern Schleswig-Holstein.

Ministry of Internal Affairs for Schleswig-Holstein.

After the meeting at the ministry we had a German lunch. To the left is a picture of my amazing hot chocolate. (If anyone goes to Europe you have to get a hot chocolate at some point in time)


Next we headed to the Christian-Albrechts-Universitat in Kiel where a Professor there met with us and explained the German consensus on EU policies from an analytical point of view. This was a superb talk, and I feel like he really gave good insight. Looking back on it, I think that he was our best presenter throughout the tour.

Despite feeling that riding the bus was getting to be quite repetitive we loaded onto the bus, and drove the our last stop on the tour, Lübeck Germany. This stop was not centered around the EU but rather history in general, since Lübeck is considered to be one of the most historical cities in Germany. Many historical towns and cities were destroyed due to air raid in Germany, but Lübeck only received one bomb courtesy of the Allied forces, since the captured Allied forces were mainly kept in Lübeck. However, when we arrive there at 7 o’clock at night we did not know this and would not find out until the next day. What we did know though, was that there was a variety of music blaring from different parts of the city and we wanted to know why. Following both our noses (we were hungry) and our ears we turned the corner from our hostel and found a massive German street carnival, with food and drink, games, and party towers. From an American point of view it was an amazing party that would never have occurred in the states, while to the Germans around us it was just their annual street carnival, no big deal. Here are some glimpses of the night’s adventure to the left and then below.

Saturday morning bright and early we were strolling around Lübeck with an expert on the history of the city. Though it is a relatively small city (compared with Copenhagen) the tour lasted around 2.5 hours. Needless to say we hear countless tales of a Lübeck of old, and saw many aspects of the city that I may have otherwise not known to see. Here is my tour of Lübeck.

I don't think that many tourists go to Germany to see a chair suspended in clothesline next to the familys' Germany flag four stories up, But none the less here it is.


Below is one of the main streets leading up to the Cathedral.

Believe it or not this is the entrance to one of Germany's first retirement communities.

The beautiful church of St. Mary's. It is listed by UNESCO for Cultural Significance.

After eating lunch at a famous Sailing association, now turned restaurant, and shopping in the famed Marzipan shop and shop of solely German Gummies, we headed back to the bus to return to Copenhagen. I thought that we would get off the bus to go on our scheduled ferry. You can imagine my astonishment and my neighbors’ laughter as I came to the realization that the Whole Bus was going on the ferry!

Well that is all for now. Vi Ses!

EU, German, and Danish Flags - Appropriate ending to the study tour!

Bicycles, Picnics, and Castles

On Friday Ole and Birgitte, my host family, bought a third bike that I can use. By Saturday I was more than ready to try it. I can't remember  specifically when I last rode a bike, so I was a little nevous before I set out on my ride. I didn't do anything embarassing, like riding the bike into the only car around, so I consider my initial test to be a success. A little bit later Ole and Birgitte were going on a bike ride and invited me along, so I went along in order to learn the bike paths. We had a nice bike ride, but I don't think I am directionally capable yet to ride around the neighborhood on my own,or I may end up in another town. It will take a little bit of time to get used to riding a bike again, but that is all part of the adventure.

Sunday was the DIS picnic for host families so our daily preparations were centered around that. That morning I cooked some banana bread for my host family, and we brought some with us to the picnic. Sunday was a beautiful day for a picnic, so we had a great time.

From the picnic we headed down to a marina and enjoyed some ice cream while watching the boats. After enjoying the marina, we headed back to the car and I thought we were heading home. But Ole and Birgitte surprised me when we pulled up to Fredensborg which is a royal palace where the crown prince and his family have been living while their Amalienborg palace is being renovated. Ole took the picture of me with Fredensborg in the background and conveniently a guard was passing behind as well.

 Here is a close up of one of the Guards protecting the palace.

After Fredensborg I thought for sure we were heading home, but nope. Before I knew it we were pulling up to Frederiksborg Slot. We have plans to go inside Frederiksborg another weekend, so we wandered the gardens since it was such a beautiful day.

This is a picture of the front side of Frederiksborg slot.

The garden was absolutely
 incredible. They had actually recreated it in a style similar to the way Christian IV would have had the gardens. (He was the one who built Frederiksborg slot along with a myriad of other famous sites, such as Rosenborg slot)

Here I am in the Gardens with Frederiksborg slot in the back.

So that was my amazing weekend. Monday night I went to Tivoli, which is the world famous amusement park. Being from Florida I appreciate how much charm this park has. I went with Ole and Birgitte directly after class, and I had forgotten my camera at home, so no pictures of this adventure, Sorry. Do not fret though I will surely go again within the next two weeks before they shut down for the season, so I will supply pictures then!

Wednesday I am supposed to go to Christiania and the Danish Foreign Ministry. Thursday through Saturday I will be with my European Union class exploring Haderslev Denmark and Lubeck Germany so keep checking in for that adventure!

Paintings, Jewels, and History Galore! A Day at Rosenborg Slot

Wednesday this week, the first of September, I did not have any field studies for DIS, so I had the day to do with as I pleased. Being such a newcomer to Copenhagen I have a list of sites I want to see and things that I want to do. My host Mom made a few suggestions and I decided to go to Rosenborg Slot (Castle). It is quite close to the train station, Norreport that I use when I go to DIS, so contrary to the popular belief of those who know me well, I was able to find my way to Rosenborg Slot or Rosenborg Castle quite easily. I arrive about 11 o’clock, and was immediately awestruck by the gardens. With the Rose Garden and the rest of the park next to the castle it is quite beautiful. It is definitely something that would be difficult to find in the U.S. and it is simply tucked away in the city of Copenhagen. I had no idea how close it was before Wednesday. It just affirms a prior observation that Copenhagen is a city in which the ultra modern is woven within such a vast history.


For those of you not acquainted with the history of Rosenborg Castle I will give a brief Natasha version of the vast history that this castle embodies (I wasn’t familiar before I read my collection of tour books, and got a handy information sheet from the ticket booth). The Crown started building Rosenborg Slot (slot means castle) in 1606. King Christian IV had a hand in the design of the castle since he was the one who commissioned it to be built. After Frederiksberg castle was built in 1710, Rosenborg castle was not used as frequently, and it eventually became where heirlooms, including crown jewels and thrones, of the royal family are stored.

So being the historically mesmerized person that I was, I methodically went through the castle’s many rooms taking pictures. Therefore this post will be more of a pictorial story of my day at Rosenborg Slot than a tale of my mesmerized wanderings.

This is the summer house of King Christian IV, known as Rosenborg.

The park connecting to the Castle.The Rose Garden

This is not a throne room, just a "typical" castle room. There was not a single room without either a beautiful painting on the cieling or magnificent molding.

Another of the many rooms of opulence.

The Thrones and one of three silver lions protecting the Throne.

One of the many cases of Royal Jewels... these are considered jewels of state

Royal Crowns

And that concludes my day's adventure at Rosenborg Slot!