"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,you step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

Lots to update on from this weekend so everyone bear with me!!!

The week was mostly about working and getting ready for Copenhagen, but on Tuesday night I did attend my first campaign event.  I met up with Alex's campaign manager and some other volunteers and we all went canvassing (for you non-political folk that means knocking on doors) in a local neighborhood.  I was a little nervous about this because of my memories of canvassing for healthcare reform in Georgia, but even the Scots who didn't support Alex were all very nice. Some of them asked very specific questions which was a little intimidating considering my limited introduction into Scottish Politics but I managed to answer most of the questions well and the whole night was very fun!

Wednesday and Thursday flew by and on Friday I headed out for Copenhagen!!! After two planes, a bus ride, a train and the longest passport line I've ever seen, I finally got into Copenhagen.  I was a little nervous about taking public transportation to my hostel but fortunately most of the airport signs are in Danish and English so I was able to figure everything out without too much trouble.  I did however accidentally board the train without paying and only afterwords found out that if they catch you doing that its a 200 dollar fine.  Lucky much?

Sami and I with our sadly quite small dinner

Once I got to the hostel I met up with Sami and a bunch of her friends from Finland.  We all headed out for dinner where I learned my first piece of information about Copenhagen- its insanely expensive.  People told me that I would spend a ton of money in Copenhagen but I didnt fully understand until I got there.  Sami, the Finlanders and I wandered around for a good 30 minutes looking for a place to eat that cost less than 20 USD for an entree.  The best we could find?  Burger King.  Normally I wouldnt be upset about this, but apparently European Burger Kings charge you for both water and ketchup and then only give you one pack of ketchup for your money! Like seriously? one pack of ketchup gets me through about four fries.  Such a rip off. Anyways, despite the burger king incident the night ended up being very fun.  We met up with Perry and then all went out together.  Ironically we ended up at a place called the Scottish Pub which I obviously was very excited about. It was great just hanging out and seeing everyone that night and I think we all had a really good time.

Pretty Copenhagen

 

Enjoying the all you can drink bar

Saturday night Shawn and I slept in a little late (typical) and stumbled out of bed around 1030 in search of some kind of breakfast.  Unfortunately, due to our severe dehydration the closest reasonably priced place we could find was 7/11.  At first we were pretty iffy, but fun fact number two, 7/11's in Copenhagen are the best thing ever.  They are really well stocked with delicious food and the nice tellers dont make you pay for ketchup and it was just an all around wonderful experience so well done 7/11.  After that Shawn and I just walked around and saw the sites until Julia got in and we met up with her and Perry for lunch.  We just walked around for the rest of the day, which may sound boring, but it was so surreal and amazing being in a foreign city with all your best friends, I would sincerely recommend the experience.  Later that night after Mitchell got in we all went to dinner at a local pizza place (please notice that we are eating at the most basic restaurants available because of the absurd price of any food remotely unique)  After dinner we all headed to a great all-you-can-drink bar in downtown Copenhagen.  We ended up having a great night just dancing and hanging out with everyone.

Danish Crown Jewels!

Delicous Danish Pastry

Saturday morning under Julia's influence we all woke up a little earlier and headed out to the palace to watch the changing of the guards.  Unfortunately, I, as lead navigator, took us to what I thought was the palace but ended up being this random castle where the crown jewels are.  Small mistake but ended up being okay cause we got to see pretty crowns and rooms and stuff :) After that we went to a delicious danish bakery for lunch where Julia and I got the best pastry of all time. After that we headed out to the Carlsberg Brewery for a tour.  Unfortunately things got a little more difficult then we planned.  Fun fact number 3 about Copenhagen, the Danish language is impossible to pronounce.  The street names and signs were basically jibberish to us, and we took to just saying random words for anything in Danish because we couldnt even begin to say things correctly.  Anyways after getting off at the wrong stop and having to push a baby stroller out of the way to make it back on the bus in time we managed to make it to the Carlsberg factory.  The actual tour was subpar since we didnt get to see any beer being made but the tour did include a stop at the horse stables and two free beers so overall it was quite enjoyable.

Me with a Carlsberg horse!!!

That night we all met up again and headed to a local pub where a Dave Matthews cover band was doing live music (so ironic that I had to leave Georgia and come to Copenhagen to see a Dave Matthews cover band preform....) It was Sami and the Finlander's last night so we went all out and bough shots of fisk which is a uniquely Scandanavian liquor that tastes like a combination of Greek uzo and rum.  Can't say I enjoyed it that much but still fun to try.

Little Mermaid Statue

Outside Christiana

Sunday morning we met up with Julia's friend Michelle for lunch and then headed over to a really cute area of Copenhagen for a canal tour.  Some of the river was still frozen so we had to walk a bit to find the canal and once we were on the boat it was freezing, but it was still a really fun way to see the city!  The canal took us to a lot of the big sites including The Little Mermaid statue (Hans Christian Anderson the author of The Little Mermaid was Danish), the royal palace and Christiantown home of the infamous Christiana which we got off and walked around in for a while.  Christiana is basically this hippy commune that when you enter you literally feel like you've been teleported into the sixties.  Its like Berkley times ten.  There's hippies everywhere, skateparks, and all of these novelty gifts.  Not exactly my scene but definitely worth seeing. After Christiana we headed back to the hostel for a much needed nap and then went on a search for some traditional Danish food for our last night.  We ended up finding this tiny little place that was ridiculously overpriced and served us some of the oddest food ive ever had.  It wasnt bad but, for example, Julia's steak was served with a raw egg on the side.  Like huh?  If this is what traditional Danish food is like I can't say I'll be trying that again any time soon..

After dinner we were all pretty exhausted from our past few nights so Shawn, Perry and I just bought a pint of Ben and Jerry's and hung out for a few hours just catching up.  It was so great to just chill with them and talk, even though we were in Copenhagen it felt like it was just another night at SC which was great :)

Today I spent pretty most of my day in transit back to Edinburgh, but tonight USC hosted another dinner for us so I came back to a lovely three course meal courtesy of USC.  Not a bad way to be welcomed back to Edinburgh.

This weekend went by so fast but it was one of the best ones ever.  Despite its ridiculous cost Copenhagen is an amazing city that was made all the better by the presence of some of my best friends.  Im off to work tomorrow but then Julia and Caroline get in on Thursday and the fun starts all over again in Edinburgh! I'm truly living the life right now and I couldnt be happier :)

Talk to ya'll soon!