I was lucky enough to have another friend (#5!) come visit me in Copenhagen. This time it was Stacey Chamberlin from DC! Stacey arrived on a Friday afternoon, and after taking a nap while I was finishing up some work, we headed into the city for goodbye drinks for Ali and Oyvind (friends of mine who have moved to London) and dinner at a quaint Italian place.
I decided that the combination of nighttime and jet lag might not go well with Stacey's first bike ride through CPH...so we held off until Saturday. After doing a couple errands, we were off to see some of the sites - the Lakes, Rosenborgslot (gardens pictured above), the Little Mermaid, and Nyhavn which was already all decked out for Christmas. Then it was off to dinner and drinks in Vesterbro with Jason, Asa, Mike, Jeff, Katie, Grant, and Nikki - thanks for organizing Jason!
The highlight of Sunday was Tivoli which has opened for Christmas! It is filled lights, Christmas decorations, glogg (spiced wine), and plenty of holiday cheer.
After a day of work for me and a day of relaxing and shopping for Stacey we were off to
Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia was under Soviet rule until 1991 and though you can still see traces of it, Estonia was recently ranked in the top 10 worldwide for economic freedom and is rapidly advancing. We spent most of our time in the medieval Hanseatic part of town which is wonderfully preserved.
We spent most of our first day exploring all the cobblestone streets and colorful buildings. Had lunch at a great Russian place and dinner at "Grandma's Kitchen" which was excellent Estonian food and you really did feel like you were at a grandmother's house. Tallinn has some great overlooks of the city...this one was taken at about 4:15pm...not kidding..it started getting dark around 3:30.
On our second day in Tallinn we had 2 big 'adventures' -
1. I got my haircut! Nothing major...just a trim. Why Tallinn? a. I never can seem to find the time in CPH b. WAY cheaper in Tallinn!
2. On the advice of Rick Steves (Stacey's trusty travel guide) we headed outside of the main tourist area and to a local Estonian market. We literally felt as if we had stepped back in time to Soviet rule...people standing in long times to buy bread, old ladies in selling nearly rotten apples and beets, and people that looked completely oppressed. I bought some honey from one of the ladies so that we wouldn't feel so guilty about Stacey taking pictures (though she still got yelled at). It really is amazing how a 20min walk can put you in a completely different world.
And from there...it was off to the
Romantika - our overnight ferry between Tallinn and Stockholm. Think of every stereotype you can when I say "1970's Loveboat" and you might come somewhat close to the Romantika :) I think the 'highlight' - or at least the point of the trip where Stacey and I were laughing so hard our stomachs hurt - was when the Estonian Dance Factory performed on the main stage...lots of pink boas and silver sequins.
Stockholm is located on 14 islands connected by bridges. We spent most of our time in Gamla Stan...the preserved medieval city centre which is similar to Copenhagen, but with more hills, twists, and turns.
We visited the Vasa...aka the LARGEST VIKING SHIP EVER...or so we were mis-informed by Jeff! While the Vasa is an enormous ship, it was not a viking ship. In 1628, the Vasa - the largest warship ever built at that time - set sail from Stockholm and sunk in the harbor (the cannons were too heavy and the hull was not big enough). 333 years later (1961) she was exhumed and a museum built around her. What's amazing is that 95% of the original ship is preserved.
We then took a train back to Copenhagen (how about that for using all modes of transport on the trip - plane, boat, city bus, taxi, and train) and had a great dinner with Nikki.
Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving with friends from church (separate blog on that...) and then Stacey was off on Sunday morning (tear). All in all a fantastic vacation with one of my most favorite people :)
I haven't gotten my pictures loaded yet, but Stacey has some great shots - http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=198gawdm.546gs4sa&Uy=smbd6z&Ux=0
They only practice twice a week (which makes it do-able to manage with work) and only have 2 tournaments where they actually have games. So it is more like an "afterschool club" in my mind then the competitive basketball that I grew up with...which makes deciding how tough to be on them a little interesting at times...but overall it is really fun.
I had them over for brunch a few weeks ago which was a great chance to get to know them a little better and see their personalities come out. I learned that most of them have already lived in 3-4 countries by now and one has already lived in 7 different countries! On my teams I have at least 9 differnet nationalities that I can think of off the top of my head right now...Danish, Swedish, Canadian, American, Croatian, British, Chinese, Gambian, German....I think I might be forgetting one or two.
After a few hours preparing for the workshop the following day, Daniel and Ann took me to dinner and Red Square - which was fantastic!!! This was also the night when Moscow upset England in a football match (soccer) so the city was alive with celebrating fans!
There are lots of great canals and green parks. I was there for work so I really don't have any interesting stories, just a few pictures and an endorsement that if you have the chance to go, do it!
