Denmark - by guest blogger Stefanie

My boyfriend Joachim and I took a trip to Denmark.  This is something I never expected to happen considering my parents are not typically relaxed about trips with boyfriends or girlfriends.  However, a few months ago Joachim and I had the idea to go and visit his family in Denmark.  I started saving my money and strategically planned how to ask my parents in October and I was lucky enough for my parents to say yes to this amazing opportunity.  Joe and I spent 3 days in Copenhagen and 3 days in Aarhus, two different cities in Denmark where his grandparents live.  Heres a little overview of what we got to experience.

Copenhagen is a fantastic city – cold but fantastic.  We arrived in Copenhagen late Thursday night so Friday was our first official day.  We started off our day with the Blue Planet, which is Copenhagen’s aquarium.  I was so excited, but it did not live up to expectations.  Having been to the huge Georgia aquarium this small one didn’t exactly compare.  Even Joe was disappointed.  We spent about an hour and a half there and decided it was time to explore the city.  We started with an American meal at TGI Fridays just for fun and walked around the city.  It was incredible and we can’t wait to come back.  We got back to the house and is Grandfather or FarFar as he calls him told us we were going to his uncle and aunt's house for dinner.   Slightly intimidating considering he had cousins around our age that I would have to meet but it turned out to be a real fun time.  His cousins had an American exchange student living with them who also spoke very little Danish and it completely widened my comfort zone along with his super nice family. 

Saturday we were a little lazy and didn’t get out of the house until about 11 and we really ended up regretting that due to the lack of time.*  As soon as we got to the city we hopped on the canal ride around Copenhagen.  We sat outside in the back of the boat to get the best view and that was horrendously cold.  On the boat ride was saw beautiful buildings and the highlight of it was seeing the little mermaid (tiny in person).  

The Little Mermaid

After the canal ride we ran to get lunch and get out of the cold.  Our next stop was Christiana, possibly the most bizarre place I have ever seen.  Christiana is right in the middle of Copenhagen but they do not pay taxes and are considered to not be part of the EU or Denmark.  It is an occupied territory of basically drug dealers.  Thousands of tourists visit every day and when walking through it you walk down a street of pushers or weed sellers with masks on behind these big mesh covered stands.  All around is people smoking and not a police man in sight.  It is considered to sell drugs here but according to Joe’s grandfather they can catch the sellers but not the suppliers so Christiana continues to thrive.  Joachim and I both agreed that was not a place we would want to be in at night.  It was astounding. 

After that we hurried back to city center and quickly got directions to Ameilianborg Palace where the Danish royal family lives (the oldest royal family).  Following us getting on the wrong bus and ending up back where we started we realized we could walk to the Palace.  We couldn’t go in due to getting there too late but we were able to see the guards.  We had a few very funny experiences with a very relaxed guard who seemed to be on his first day of the job.  We messed around for a bit taking funny photos and wanted to go get a tea.  At this time it was about 5:30 and all shops and cafés had closed.  We decided to look up an English movie and went to see Deadpool in a huge Danish cinema.  Amazing cinema with chairs that leaned back and had heating.  After this we headed home after a full day.

Sunday was our last full day in Copenhagen and Valentine's Day. We had learned our lesson Saturday and got out of the house around 9:30.  We headed to Carlsberg brewery the Danish beer and had a lot of fun.  We saw the world's biggest bottle collection and there was a competition going on.  It was an app and whoever brewed the best beer won a huge beer.  Naturally Joe and I spent about 20 minutes focusing really hard on beating each other and I won the giant beer.  We explored the brewery and went to collect our prize which was actually a pretty good beer.  

After this it was back to Copenhagen’s center for a little bit of shopping.  Joe got a couple of pants and then we realized there was one more thing we wanted to do.  We rushed over to the Expirimentarium which is very similar to the Ithaca Science Center I grew up around.  Our dinner reservation was at 7 but we wanted more time to play so we changed that to 8:30 and enjoyed running around the Expirimentarium.  We then ran home changed and went to a fantastic dinner at Fuego an Argentinian restaurant.  It was a great night but we hadn’t gotten home until about 12 and did not thoroughly pack.  We were leaving at 9 the next morning to hop on a long distance train to Aarhus and were not so great at packing rushed…

We got on the metro on our way to Copenhagens main station and Joe was looking for where he kept the booking reference for our tickets.  He had them on his laptop which he had forgotten at his Grandparents… Next his phone died and we were incredibly stressed thinking we had no tickets.  Luckily we made our train just in time and were able to find the tickets.  It was not the most relaxed morning.  However the 3 hour train ride to Aarhus was beautiful, we went over the water several times and enjoyed it.  His other grandfather (Bedste Far) picked us up from the airport and took us to his beautiful home right on the water where he and Joe's Grandmother (Bedste Mor) had made us a huge lunch of delicious fried fish and other food.  We then ran to the beach and went to Joe’s summerhouse and just looked around.  That night Joe’s aunt, her husband and their three children were coming over for dinner.  Their kids names were Laura, Caroline and Magnus and they were amazing, adorable kids.  Laura and Caroline spoke a little bit of English and Magnus not so much however we had so much fun.  It is safe to say that I am favored over Joe and I spent the afternoon playing with them and laughing after Joe would translate their funny comments. 

The next morning Bedste Far and Bedste Mor took us to Aarhus old town which is basically a recreated very old town and had a recreated 70’s town.  Joe's aunt and uncle, Camilla and Christian met us there with their kids and we had so much fun walking around the town with them and going on a horse ride.  My highlight of the day was the kids whispering to Joe making sure I was not a socialist making sure they could still love me.  After the old town we went with Camilla, Christian and the kids for a bit of shopping.  I found beautiful hand made ornaments for my mom and Camilla was so sweet treating me to a few.  Joe and I went to another floor with the kids and he took Magnus and I took Caroline and Laura and we picked out clothes for them.  It was so much fun feeling like I had little sisters to shop for in Copenhagen and made me miss Rach a lot.  We then headed home to pack, learning our lesson about last minute packing.  That night more family came over, Joe's Uncle Jasper his wife Maria and their two sweet girls Alberte and Victoria.  The rest of the little cousins came over and we had a great last dinner as the whole family.  It was sad when the cousins left and we had to say goodbye.  Caroline ended up crying and they made me a little video to remember them. 

Wednesday morning it was time to head back to Copenhagen and spend a little more time with FarFar and FarMor and pick up all the things we had forgotten.  We had tea with them and a delicious pastries desert FarMor had made.  We spent the rest of the afternoon talking and looking at old photo books.  Around 5 it was time to head back to the train and go to the airport.  Joachim and I were both very sad after spending an amazing trip together.  Every thing went smoothly at the airport and soon we were on our way home. 

I would like to thank Joachim’s amazing family for being so kind to us and to his incredible Grandparents for everything they did for us and letting us stay there.  It was a trip of a lifetime.

*Mom's note - I will use this every time when we are traveling and I want our day to start early!