Multinational 4th of July

What do American expats in Copenhagen do on the 4th of July? Three of them - Katie, Jason, and I - throw together a BBQ in the park. It was a gorgeous evening...we played Kubb, tossed the football, grilled, and as all good Americans do we stuffed ourselves.

Though there is no trace of graham crackers in this country, roasting marshmellows was still pretty tastey!

We even had sparklers ( they had been on a desert at a dinner I was at last week and I "freaked out" exclaiming 'you have sparklers here??!!'). The only "trouble" with the Danish summer is that it doesn't get dark until around 11pm and we were a little impatient. A great night and a job well done by the organizers!

More Visitors!

May and June were big months for visitors to Copenhagen...Mom, Dad, Jenny, and now Cara and Lizzie! Cara is a fellow Deac who now lives and teaches in G-vegas (aka Greenville, South Carolina) and Lizzie is a friend of hers who I had the pleasure of meeting on their Scandinavian adventure.After a slight delay due to a canceled fligth from Greenville to DC, they arrived on a Saturday afternoon and we were off to explore the city. Copenhagen has a City Bike service where you can "borrow" bikes from stands all through the city. They're not the grandest bikes, but they are free and as you can see from above, Cara and Lizzie really got the hang of it!

After a delicious morning brunch along the Lakes, Cara and Lizzie headed to Nyhavn for a gorgeous canal cruise where I met them after church. On Monday, Cara and Lizzie headed off to Norway for some fjun in the fjords.

My fun house guests returned late Friday night, and we had Saturday to explore the city some more....and what trip to Copenhagen is complete without a trip to Tivoli!!!

Danish Showers!

The typical Danish shower involves on and off rain for most of the day...but I'm refering to baby showers! This one was for my good friend Nikki who is due at the end of July and her friend Anamette who is due any day now. Nikki's office is quite international, and no one except Americans, British, and Australians have baby showers so most of the girls were very intreagued for what the afternoon events would be, and Nikki certainly didn't dissapoint. We had the party in the garden of Nikki's apartment to enjoy the gorgeous day (warmest temparature of the summer, probably aboout 85). There was plently of freshfruit, homemade cupcakes and some delicious Danish pasteries. And what shower would be complete without games??! We all brought baby pictures of ourselves and then saw who could determine who was who correctly. For the other game we each got toiletpaper and tried to guess how long of a piece was needed to fit around our mom-to-be's bellies.

Good luck Anamette and Nikki...you'll both be fantastic mothers!!!

Kubb

Kubb is a Swedish lawn game, also called Viking Chess, that is super fun to play on the long summer days we're experiencing now. You play Kubb by dividing into two teams on a rectangular field. Each team places 5 blocks (kubbs) in front of them and the king pin is placed in the middle of the field. Players then toss stickes trying to knock down the other players kubbs. Once you knock down a kubb, the other team tosses it across the field and wherever it lands is your team's new baseline until the other team can knock down one of your kubbs. After you have knocked over all 5 kubbs, you then go for the King pin...whichever team knocks down the King wins...but if you knock it down before knocking down all the kubbs, you automatically lose.
A fabulous night spent with good friends like Cecilia and Gustavo.

JenJen comes to Copenhagen!

Jenny and I have been friends for so long that we can't even remember exactly how long we have been friends. I think since 1st grade...but it may have been kindergarden. Jen lives in Chicago and is dating a great guy named Jannick who just happens to be Danish. They were in town for a few weeks last month and it was fantastic to finally meet Jannick and to see Jenny again. Jannick went to a wedding one weekend, so I had Jen all to myself. We caught up on life, reminised about a lot of our favorite stories from growing up, and we biked all over Copenhagen. Who would have throught that two girls from the suburbs of Chicago would end up hanging out in Copenhagend 24 years later?! And lucky me, they're coming back in a few months!!!

Bob travels across the Pond!

When we got back from Prague, Mom entertained herself while I worked. She went to the Fredericsborg Castle, Louisiana Museum, and even got pretty good at biking around Copenhagen. Then we were joined by Bob who bravely made his first trip overseas alone. He did very well, except never quite got over his jet lag.

Last year Absolut Ice Bar opened in Copenhagen. There are a few of these bars around the world and I'd been wanting to try it out - my parents were game, so off we were. First you get decked out in insulated parkas, gloves, and boots. Then they lead you into the bar which is entirely made of ice from somewhere in Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle. And when I say everything I mean everything....bar, glasses, chairs, tables, walls, etc.

Nikki's mom was also in town (all the way from Sydney), so we all headed to Klubben one night for A LOT of authentic Danish food and many laughs. Grant subjected Bob to the Danish tradition of Gammel Dansk, which literally means old Danish and is bitters/schnaps which is quite pungent.
There is a Scandinavian shop in the town my parent's live in and the owner instructed them to have a hot dog from one of the many stands around town...so we headed to one in Kongens Nytorv, the King's Square.








Nyhavn and a Canal Tour










The Beach


Tivoli

After making our way around Copenhagen, we rented a car and headed south for a few days to Møns Klint...the white cliffs of Denmark. The small towns we passed through along the was were cute and quaint, the cliffs were breathtaking, and the forests were gorgeous.

There is a tradition in Denmark where if you turn 30 and are not married, they put a huge peppermill outside of your house. We passed by one such celebration on my 29th birthday, so I hopped out and we took a picture.
Had a great time with you Mom and Dad...you're welcome back anytime!!!

Mother's Day in Prague

My parents have been planning their trip to Denmark for awhile now and the time finally arrived. My mom came in first and after a few days in Copenhagen we headed to the Czech Republic.

We enjoyed some absolutely gorgeous weather during our 4 days in Prague. I had been to Prague about 5 years earlier and it was just as fantastic the second time around! We spent our days wandering around the the historic streets and quaint squares.

Here's mom in front of St. Vitas Cathedral. We also went to Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, National Theater, Old Town Square, the Mucha Museum, and more.

My mom's family is from the Czech Republic - her grandfather and grandmother grew up in small towns in the Czech countryside and came to the US when they were young adults. We got up early and headed to the train station for the first train headed east. vWe had to change trains in a town called Pardubice. Unfortuntely our first train was late so we missed the connection and were stuck in Pardubice for 2 hours. We hit the streets...and shops. I was looking for shoes, but didn't find anything. The city, shops, and people were a little "behind the times" and I felt like I had been transported back to the early 80s.

Finally it was time for our train. There were 2 trains leaving from the same track at the same time. I doublechecked to make sure we were on the right one...or so I thought! After a few stops I noticed that we were going in the wrong direction...oops! So we got off and then my mom thought she saw a train headed back to Pardubice about to leave so we ran to get on. This was also the wrong train! Good thing we had all day and no agenda...plus it was a gorgeous day and the Czech countryside was gorgeous.


The second time we got off the wrong train we found ourselves in an incredibly small town where almost no one spoke English. Too bad my mom didn't try and learn Czech from her grandmother when she was growing up! After much hand gesturing I was able to find out that it would be another few hours before a train went through, so we got a cab, something we should have done in the first place!

We finally made it to Hlisnko and had a great lunch in the town square!!!
Not too much was open in the town...which was strange for a Saturday afternoon. But we found the exhibit on old houses, which were probably similar to the ones our ancestors lived in. We walked around and got a flavor for the town before heading back to Prague.
I haven't spent Mother's Day with my mom in a lot of years...how special to be able to spend it with her in Prague!