This blog post is rather belated and so I do have to apologise. I have been so busy lately that finding time to write a blog has been rather difficult..... Butttt given that I am now sitting in Danish class whilst my class work on their assignment (which i do not have to do) I now have the perfect opportunity to write away....
So... Last Tuesday I went into Copenhagen with two of my friends from school to celebrate the Queen's birthday. At 12:00, the Queen along with the Danish royal family step onto the palace balcony to wave at all of the Danes gathered below. It was really special being in the crowd at the palace, waving the little danish flags at the beaming queen who was smiling down on all of her adoring subjects. It was something that I will remember for the rest of my life. Mary also made an appearance which i was rather excited about. I made sure I had my Aussie flag with me to wave just for her! My two friends from school helped me hold up my huge Aussie flag and we are convinced that Mary saw it in the crowd, smiled, laughed and waved at us. Direct eye contact was made. Needles to say my life is now complete... and I can go back to Australia proudly saying that I did indeed see Princess Mary.
After our little Royal adventure, we ventured off through Copenhagen to Tivoli. Tivoli is one of the most magical places that i have ever experienced. There is such a wonderful atmosphere of fun, music and just pure awesomeness. Needles to say, it is now one of my favourite places in Copenhagen!! So we spent the afternoon eating ice cream, taking some rides and just enjoying the beautiful gardens that are in Tivoli. There wasn't many people there which was awesome as it meant that the ques for the rides were really short! I tried almosttttt everything.. There were cool rides like the giant swinging chairs that are similar to the ones at the Easter Show however these ones were higher and so you could have a beautiful view of Copenhagen! There were of course roller coasters, boat rides and other tummy turning fun that I thoroughly enjoyed. I had a magical day and I was so glad that I got to share it with two of my class mates :) We caught the train back home and were sooooo exhausted that we all crashed. The tiredness may have also been from the fact that we stayed up a little late on Monday night watching High School Musical in Danish and yes, Zac Efron is still cute with a Danish accent!
The rest of last week was spent in between school, danish lessons, gym classes and relaxing under the sun reading a book!! Although I did spend one afternoon cleaning the school.....and making pavlovas with Isa and Mel :)
The weather though is finally starting to get warmer here and Spring in DK is awesome. All of the flowers are starting to bloom and I love it! I also managed to get sunburnt on the weekend... never thought that would happen here!
So anyways, a new week has begun and I have rather an exciting start to it! On Sunday night, I flew out of Copenhagen airport (all by myself!) and landed in Berlin. The flight was only 45 mins, I could not believe how quickly it went! I traveled to Berlin to visit Chris, Sal and the kids aka my uncle, aunty and cousions! It was so so lovely to see them again and hearing the Aussie accent was very welcoming! Meeting them at the airport was also so easy, as they were on a flight with the same company as me, and our flights pretty much landed at the same time! So all ran smoothly through the airport. We chatted in the taxi on the way to our hotel and I loved hearing about their stories from their massive adventure around Europe. Being in the company of my family again though was so lovely. We eventually arrived at the Holiday Inn in Berlin, found our rooms and went to bed. Of course bedtime was delayed by a little malteaser party that was had in the room of Will, Meggie and myself :)
We all woke up on Monday morning feeling refreshed and ready to see the sights of Berlin. The weather was in our favour, and there clear blue skies with no wind. Perfect conditions for us to tackle pretty much every single tourist site, in the space of one day! A buffet breakfast began our morning. We all consumed bread..bread... and more bread (i kid :P). Will is now a huge fan of Danish pollys chocolate (which is like this bar of chocolate that you put on toast and it like melts into the bread- like nutella but so much better.. it is DELICIOUS). We then ventured down to the Berlin metro and tried to navigate our way successfully to our first stop of the day- the one and only Reichstag. Having studied Modern history for the HSC last year, I am rather farmiliar with all of the events that happened in Germany from 1933-1942. All of those sleepless nights consuming coffee and memorising dates seemed worth it when I was in the very place where it all happened. The Reichstag was a very impressive building and I loved being there and walking around it. So many historical turning points have happened on those very steps so it was so special to be there, experiencing the building for myself! The memorial park to the gypsies who died as a result of Hitler's racial policy was also something quite special. It was positioned in a park, right within eye shot of the Fuher. It was a very interesting concept that I really enjoyed seeing. We were then off to our next stop; The Brandberg Gate. This was such a beautiful thing to experience and it was made even better with a Starbucks coffee (my first real coffee in three months!!!!) The Brandberg gate though was probably one of my favourite things in Berlin! So after this and a much needed kaffeen recharge we continued on our quest through Berlin... We ticked off all the main sights and of course a Geocash for Sal! We came across a beautiful old church which we decided to investigate. It was absoloutley beautiful inside ... like most of the other churches in Europe.. It has a wonderful view at the top of the church where you had a view of the entire Berlin. We then went to East Berlin (through a rather interesting area... maybe like Kings Cross) to get to the beginning of the Berlin wall. This was amazing to see and witness the extent of the size and how a town was literally cut in half. The paintings along the wall were also really cool and politically interesting. It was my second favourite part of Berlin. I also loved the fact that there was a line of bricks that ran through the city and stood in the place of where the wall once was. Of course we ventured off to see Checkpoint Charlie and took many touristy pictures along the way. We also stopped at the place where Hitler's bunker once stood and saw the memorial to the Jewish people who were subject to Hitler's racial policy. There was something so beautiful in these grey unmarked, unnamed, different size blocks that stood in memory of the millions killed. It was very special to have been there and seen it for myself. I think that it is such a beautiful thing for the government to have done!
After our little tour, we were feeling rather exhausted but had to have some German food for dinner! There was a little German restraunt right across from our hotel which catered for Uncle Chris's desire for a German sasuage (the german accent actually convinced two waitresses that we were german LOL). So Chris ate his sasuage, Will had some sort of meatballs and I along with James, Will, Matt and Sal ate a German schnitzel (my first in three months). It was absoloutley delicious and we had a really lovely dinner just sitting around and talking. I dont think that I have ever laughed so much in my entire life! But i loved seeing Chris, Sal and the kids. It was so lovely! We finished off our day with some apple struddle which was equally if not more delicious than the schnitzel! No malteaser party happened that night as we were all so exhausted and crashed into bed.
On Sunday morning, we were all eager to finish off our little tour through Berlin. We had big plans for the day and were feeling super confident as Chris had finally mastered the German metro- we were pratically locals walking around with his German accent. These plans however were put on halt as we had to wash some clothes. The laundramat was quite a treck away (you would think that the hotel service had a washing machine!) So off we went on the German subway to find a laundrymatt.... We eventually did thanks to the guidance of a sweet little old lady. This place was also a little dodgy and had the vibes of like Bankstown or something... We thought we would be able to drop off the clothes and go, however this was not the case and we had to wash them ourselves. So we put the load on and headed to mcdonalds... which lacked in size, tea and also wifi... it was a very interesting experiance to say the least! We eventually headed back to collect and dry the clothes. We had plans to leave them and go however this was again put on halt as Uncle Chris managed to get the clothes stuck in a machine that we thought was a spin dryer....... it was one of the funniest things ever! We ended up getting the clothes out after turning off the machine... but not understanding german directions made this task quite difficult. So we waited for the clothes to dry and it ended up being a hilarious morning! I was in stitches just thinking about the funniness of it all... the fact that we were stuck in a laundrymat with clothes stuck in a machine that we had no idea a) what it was or b) how to use it. needles to say it was an adventure that i will remember for a very long time. Defiantley a story to tell the grandkids!
So after we had seen the laundrymat walls for quite some time, we got back on track with our plans for the day. Hiring bikes though wasn't as easy as we had hoped so we ended up walking a little bit back to the Jewish museum where we found some and got to cycle through the Tear Garden which is located near the Brandeberg Gate. It was so awesome riding through this beautiful garden. Some of the spring flowers were out and there was beautiful statues positioned throughout. It really was so special! So we spent about an hour doing that before heading back to our hotel room to collect our bags and say a final farewell to Berlin. We hoped on the metro for the last time and headed to the airport where i had to say a sad goodbye to chris, sal and the kids. It was so great to be able to catch up with them! and see berlin with them :) I had an awesome time!
After saying goodbye to them all, I headed through border security and waited for my flight to board. I managed not to get lost, find my gate and make it home safety. Mission accomplished!
The week is coming to a close and I have many more plans to fulfil. Each day is jammed packed with exciting danish adventures! So tomorrow, I am going into the Australian embassy in CPH with other Australian exchange students for the ANZAC service... On Friday I am going for an adventure with Christina to either Sweden or Hamlet's castle! Then on Saturday I have a conformation and on Sunday it is my host brothers conformation! So much to do, so little time!
Until the next time im bored in class feeling like writing an update, vi ses!
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