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Thursday
I had the day off from classes so I slept in and then went to Christiantown (near Christiania, but not the same thing).  I walked around just window shopping and taking photos of pretty buildings. There was a harbor, like New Haven with full of cafes and people walking and boats, but not as crowded as New Haven.  I met Nanna and we went on a hunt for ice-cream. I had read about an Italian chocolate and ice-cream store not too far so we went there first, only to find out they didn’t have ice-cream yet (this season). LAME. So we walked back to Christiantown and found a cheap place. I tried a Swedish berry flavor, something with an M… I forget. haha. and of course, chocolate. We took our ice-cream and sat along the water and enjoying the view. We saw several canal cruises go by and Nanna said that I have to do one before I leave. Somehow my list is getting longer rather than shorter of stuff I must get done.

Still to do: Tivoli, picnic in one of the parks, amager beach, Bakken with friends, go to Malmo (Sweden)

That night I met up with the DIS group to take the overnight ferry to Bornholm – an island of Denmark east of Copenhagen. It’s been called the “Hawaii of Denmark”.

Friday
We arrived at 6 am and took a bus to the town of Gudhjem, where our hostel was located. We settled in our rooms, had a great breakfast of granola and yogurt and bread with delicious honey. Then we got our bikes and we were free for the whole day! Joy had never ridden a bike in her life so we took about 30 minutes to try and teach her in a parking lot. I was very impressed by how quickly she got it – she didn’t give up even after a couple of falls. I had to give her credit – she bypassed training wheels! :-)

We decided to hike along the coast instead of biking for the day. We walked about 5k and saw waterfalls, beaches, creeks, farm hills, and cliffs. It was a pleasant day with the sun peaking out of the clouds and the temperatures fairly mild. We arrived to a museum as it started raining and decided to take a bus to Allinge. The town was so cute!

We found a tourist info office and stopped in to figure out how to get to Hammershus -ruins of Northern Europe’s largest fortress (dating back to 1250) and  we walked the 2km. We arrived at Hammershus to very strong winds and stopped for lunch. I had a delicious burger and fries while Joy had a club sandwich and yummy hot chocolate. We made our way through the fortress, which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. We took lots of scenic photos and tried not to get blown over.

We wanted to get back to the hostel so we made our way to the bus stop. After being told by 2 people that the bus was coming at 3:20 we waited and waited. Until about 4 when another couple told us the bus wasn’t coming, but a bus would come to the next stop (that was in walking distance of where we were). We made our way toward the next stop and asked a lady at another hostel if the buses were coming. She said yes and we kept walking. Made it to stop, and waited. No luck. At this point, Joy and I were exhausted and cold and frustrated. We found out the buses weren’t running on a normal schedule because it was a holiday – prayer day I think. We decided to walk the 2km back to Allinge and see if the tourist info place was still open.

On the way we called one of our tour leaders and asked for help. We called the taxi service but the recording was in Danish and no one would pick up. We called the hostel and they agreed to meet us at the gas station in Allinge. Joy and I felt relieved and walked fast to hurry home. We arrived at the station and sat, then we got a phone call. The hostel couldn’t help us because we didn’t have a bike problem – Joy was great though and bargained that the hostel would call a cab for us. Finally, a cab came and we were on our way back to hostel. It was a frustrating thing to be stuck, but we made it back! We had dinner and then relaxed in the room before going to bed early.

Saturday
We woke up and breakfast then decided to give biking another try. We took the bikes and walked (and made attempts to bike) the 2.5km to Melsted. We arrived at the Baltic Sea Glass Company and it was great! We watched a demonstration as a couple made a pretty bowl and walked around looking at all the displays of candle holders, bowls, vases, wine glasses, etc. We went outside and took photos of the great view of Gudhjem and biked almost the whole way back. I was so proud of Joy – she didn’t give up on the uphills and we made it back all in one piece!

We returned our bikes and went to look for smoked herring – a traditional dish. We found a place along the water and ate outside. It was a gorgeous day and the fish was tasty. We had wanted to take a bus down to the famous beach Dueodde, only to find out that buses weren’t running to the beach. I’m not sure why that was…but oh well. So we made our day of walking around the town and hiking some trails. We took our time, looking at glass stores, chocolate and caramel shops, and scooping out ice-cream places for later. We hiked up to the windmill on the top of town and got a nice view, then found a trail to a lake. It was really peaceful and relaxing -not really having a schedule, but just enjoying the weather.

We came back to the hostel, showered (it was early in the evening but we wanted hot water – there were 50 other girls on the trip.) and had dinner – lasagna. Then Joy and I hurried to the ice-cream place we had found (they were only open until 8). The store was adorable – like a 50s diner type thing, decked out in pink and attached to it was a candy store. I decided on Lion (a candy bar) and After 8 (like a peppermint patty) and then soft-ice on top. The soft ice was amazing. So delicious. I mean the other ice-cream was good too, but the soft-ice was my favorite.

We found out we had to move all our stuff out of the rooms ASAP so we took our stuff downstairs and walked to the water for sunset. It was a beautiful – a great ending to our trip.  We walked back to the hostel and read some then got on the overnight ferry to head back to CPH. I slept in between the wall and row of chairs and it was much more comfortable because I kept the seats reclined to make a dark little cave for myself. haha.

So
Only 2 weeks left until I come home and still a lot to do. No more DIS adventure trips, but more adventures to come I’m sure!  I have good bit of work to do this week – 2 history assignments (analyzing 4 buildings and a paper), advertising portfolio, news simulation for Journalism and PR, and who knows what else. After this week I have 2 exams on Tuesday 11th and then I’m done. I have several days until I come home to the states on the 16th!

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