Week 6- I started this week out by getting a new tattoo!
Exciting for me, maybe not so much for my mom. My tattoo idea involved my moms
participation, but she didn't know she was participating. I asked my mom to
write on a piece of paper, "May you never take one single breath for
granted" and send me a picture of it. She did this with no questions
asked. The next day she asked me why I had asked her to do this and I just
said, "well your birthday is coming up soon" and we left it at that. I
got the lyrics tattooed on my back on March 4th and showed it to my mom on her
birthday, March 5th. My mom is not a big fan of tattoos but I think she likes
this one. The meaning behind this tattoo is what I carry with me everyday when
I wake up and remind myself of how to live this crazy thing called life.
A few days later my best friend, Maddie, from home arrived in
Copenhagen to spend a week with me. I had plenty of exciting adventures planned
for us. Our first adventure was to Møns Klint to ride Icelandic horses. The
trip there would have only taken one hour via car, but of course we had to use
public transportation so it took us four hours to get there and four hours to
get back. I would say the trip was worth it though. I've missed riding horses
since I left home and the views we saw while riding were alluring. Maddie is
also experienced in the equestrian field so this made the ride much more
enjoyable.
Next stop, Paris. I spent the previous
week trying to refresh my French language skills, thinking I would desperately
need them. Turns out most people in the Paris area speak enough English to be
able to communicate with them. The night we arrived we ate at a French
restaurant called Marcel&Clementine. I highly recommend this restaurant to
anyone who visits Paris. We had some traditional French cuisine including duck,
beef, puréed carrots, and chard.
We only had one full day to explore Paris
so we started with the Louvre. No matter how hard you try to prepare for the
large size of the museum, you can't. We spent three hours covering one of the
four levels and had to stop. The amount of artwork and history in the museum is
overwhelming. The only unsatisfying part about the museum was the original Mona
Lisa. I was expecting it to be a large piece of artwork in its own room. Well,
I hate to break it to you but its not. The painting is extremely small and
surrounded by massive paintings on the other four walls.
Next, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe.
With my Denmark residence card I was able to enter the Louvre for free and walk
the never ending spiral staircase to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for free. I
stepped my way to the top one step at a time, in heels. The view was worth the
deadly staircase trip to get there. I took several pictures, videos, panoramic
photos, and of course selfies. Taking selfies by yourself in front of strangers
can be embarrassing.
In the evening we enjoyed dinner and the
Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was beautiful, especially when it would light up
and sparkle. We didn't go inside the tower but I found the view from a distance
fulfilling. This was the end of our Paris trip and we headed back to Copenhagen
the next morning, well Maddie traveled back to Copenhagen the next morning. I
somehow made a mistake when booking my flight, shocking I know, and
accidentally booked for the following week. I was a wreck in the airport and it
took me a while to find another flight home and a lot more money. I definitely
learned my lesson about triple checking flight bookings before hitting confirm.
Oops
I spent the rest of the weekend showing
Maddie Copenhagen nightlife. My week with Maddie went by way too fast. Next
thing I knew, it was time for her to head back to the States. Knowing Maddie, I
had a feeling something would go wrong on the day of her flight and of course
something did go wrong. We were already running late to arrive at the airport
and once we got to the airport Maddie tells me that she accidentally took my
passport and not hers. Her flight was taking off in 30 minutes. I ran back to
my dorm to get her passport for her and bring it back. Our goodbye to each
other was quick and not the nicest. I was frustrated with her but luckily she
made her flight!
Two days later I was off to England with
my two friends, Andy and Victor. We flew into London and made our way to our
hostel. The boys insisted I book an extremely cheap hostel, so I did. When we
arrived at our "hostel" I thought we may have been at the wrong
place. This was in closer relativity to a homeless shelter than a travel
hostel. I will do all my readers a favor by not going into detail about the
restroom facilities. I honestly didn't feel safe sleeping here and I wouldn't
consider my guy friends that I was with as being manly when it comes to
confrontation and protection. Thankfully, I made it through the night.
Once again, we only had one full day to
see London. We started at the Harry Potter platform 9^3/4 where we stood in
line for 30 minutes just to get our picture taken in front of the sign. Since
it was St. Patty's day and we all decided to head to an Irish pub to enjoy
lunch and drink some good beer. After lunch we visited Abbey Road Studios and
then I spent 15 minutes trying to get a picture of the boys crossing the same
street the Beatles did. Our next stop was to see Big Ben. I got the classic red
telephone booth picture with Big Ben in the background. This photo has turned
out to be one of my favorites thus far.
After Big Ben we were headed to see the
London Bridge but made an unplanned visit before that to a place called, The
London Bridge Experience, where we were introduced to all this history behind
the London Bridge and entered the London tombs. The London tombs portion of
this "tour" was a horror attraction. I didn't think this part would
be as scary as it turned out to be. We were chased, had to squeeze through
tight spaces, blinded by strobe-lights, and weren't allowed to run. My
friend Andy screamed like a little girl the whole way through. I on the other
hand quit being scared when I felt like I was going to pass out from the
strobe-lights. We all made it through safe and sound but a little shaken, We
finished the day off visiting Tower Bridge,
Early the next day we took a coach to the
city of Bath, where the Roman Baths are located. I was excited to see the
baths. By the time we arrived in Bath we were tired and hungry so we decided to
book a hostel and spend one night there so we could relax for a little bit. We
got settled in and then headed to the Roman Baths. The baths were beautiful but
hard to get good pictures of. The boys went out at night but I stayed in as
always. I am the mother of the group.
The boys weren't feeling their best the
next morning but I was ready to make our way to Stonehenge. Stonehenge ended up
being quite disappointing. It was expensive to get there and you can't get very
close to the stones. Pictures were also a challenge to take because of the
amount of people standing in the background. It was cold outside so we only
visited Stonehenge for about an hour or so. Then it was back on a train and on
our way to Brighton.
I was most excited to visit Brighton,
located south of London along the English channel. We heard night life was wild
here and it was Saturday so we prepared for a night out. This was the only
night I went out but, we had a great time and met some awesome English people.
The next morning began Tessa's day. I scheduled myself a Thai massage which was
the best decision I have ever made. I felt so much more relaxed and less likely
to strangle my oblivious male travel partners after this. In the evening we
visited the Brighton Pier just in time for sunset. It was so nice to be on the
beach even though this beach was rocks not sand. Our time in Brighton went by
way too fast and next thing I knew we were headed back to London on Monday to
make an early morning flight on Tuesday. The boys had been a pain this entire
trip and they topped it off by almost making us miss our flight Tuesday
morning. I couldn't wait to get back to Copenhagen and relax. Traveling can be
extremely exhausting when you are the one in charge of accommodation and
transportation. I still love my friends Andy and Victor but from now on I need
at least one female travel partner with me.
The next few days I spent relaxing and
trying to get back into a daily routine. I started eating healthier and going
to the gym everyday. I caught up on some school work but of course still made
time for social activities. During this time I encountered my second breakdown
since leaving home. When I spend too much time inside my dorm room my thoughts
are always about home. I started to miss my mom more than I ever have before.
I've been gone a little over three months now and the longest I've gone without
seeing my mom is probably about one week. I know this is a time for me to grow
as a person but sometimes I just want to stay my mommy's little girl forever. I
couldn't be more thankful for technology, which has provided me with the
capability to video chat my my family and friends via FaceTime.
I finally decided to really immerse myself
in the Copenhagen lifestyle and bought a bike. Cycling here is taken very
seriously and the amount of people riding through the city center can be
overwhelming. I was extremely nervous to ride my bike home from where I bought
it but it was fairly close by so I ended up being okay. It only took that first
ride to make me fall in love with cycling. I've seen so much more of the city
that I would never see if I hadn't bought the bike. I cycled to my University's
campus today which should have been about a 30 minute ride but I got lost this
morning so it took me about an hour to get there. I was okay cycling home
though, it just takes practice learning all the streets and what streets take
you where.
As far as school goes, I have been working
really hard the past week on a group research paper. We finished the report
today and I couldn't be happier. We have a practice presentation tomorrow and
then our final is on Monday April 11th. I will be done with block 3 after this
and have two weeks off before my block 4 classes begin. During this time I will
be traveling to Budapest, Malaga, Seville, and Lisbon. This will be my biggest
trip during my time abroad and I am stoked!
Best,
Tess
