Chapter 2: Day 20: 10 Feb 2019

This morning Sarah, Ellie, Nat, Patty and I all went to the Car Boot Sale which is essentially a rummage sale in a parking garage. I got two shirts, a jacket and two pairs of shoes which I did not need, but they were a good deal and I could not pass it up.

Today was a very fun and adventurous day! I started with a relaxing morning and then around 1pm Malachi and I decided to go hike Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh. We got ready, grabbed the bus and rode into town. Once we got there, we had to decide which way we wanted to go up, so we walked around a bit and I am pretty sure we took the hardest way up. One thing that we learned is that we are equally out of shape which was actually really nice because we took a lot of breaks. When we finally made it to the top the view was incredible! We stopped where we were for a bit to take it in before climbing a bit higher to the top.

After a while we started the hike down. Since we came up one side, we decided to hike down the other. We ended up finding a little ruin sight where we stopped and took a break before reaching the bottom. By the time we got down my hands were numb from being cold, but me being me I saw an ice cream truck and wanted some. So, even though we were both freezing we got some ice cream and it was well worth it! Once we were done there we decided to walk around Edinburgh for a while still since it was early. We ended up going to three different graveyards to look at the head stones and see which one we could find that was the oldest. We wandered until the sun started to set and oh my, was it beautiful. It would have been amazing to see it from the stop of Arthurs Seat. When the sun was almost gone, we decided to head back to the house to get some dinner.

After dinner Malachi and I decided to throw in a movie and try to plan spring break. We sat down about 6pm and did not leave until 1am! It was a long night of planning, but very good because we were able to solidify where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. It was a long night of planning, but it felt good to get it done. When we were finally done, we called it a night and headed to bed.

Chapter 2: Day 21: 11 Feb 2019 

Today we had class in the morning which was fun as always. After that we had lunch and then I got some tasks done while people were in Globalization. At about 4:30p we had our house photo, so everyone piled into the marble hall and we took a class photo. Once that was out of the way we had dinner and then a group of us went to Morrisons to get a few things. I did not need anything so I did not bring a bag and that is what Malachi said too, but the next thing I knew I looked over and he could not have carried one more thing if he wanted to. So, after a really expensive trip to the store we headed home. We did not have a plan for that night so we all just relaxed in the boy’s room until we ran into Rudy in the laundry room and she told us about her ghost encounter and that there were a group of people hanging out in the pool room.

After talking with her Sarah and I went back up and got everyone else to bring them down to the pool room. We talked a bit about ghosts and just hung out with a lot of people in the house. It was fun to talk with everyone not just in a classroom setting. We were down there for a while before people dispersed and we headed back up to the boy’s room to relax for the rest of the night.

Chapter 2: Day 22: 12 Feb 2019

Today not much special happened. We had class in the morning and then I had lunch duty which usually takes up most of the afternoon. Right before lunch duty we did have a fire drill so that was about as exciting as the day got. The rest of the night was filled with blogging and hanging out with friends.

Chapter 2: Day 23: 13 Feb 2019

This module, ever Wednesday, we get to take a class field trip for my British History class. This week we took a trip to Gladstone’s Land, which is one of the oldest building on the royal mile in Edinburgh, as well as The Queen’s Gallery to see an exhibition on King Charles II. Last time I was here we went to Gladstone’s Land, so I had already seen that, but it was still interesting to learn again. It was a fun day to be out of the classroom and explore more of the city. When we were back from the trip, we had dinner and then I spent my night packing for Copenhagen and hung out with Lauren, Kyle, Malachi and Sarah.

Chapter 2: Day 24: 14 Feb 2019

After a long week of late night and early morning I got to sleep in, and I sure did. The Heritage and Culture class had class this morning, so I got to sleep in until Sarah came in the room and told me to get up because we were leaving for the airport! So, I got up and we headed out.

For our first extended weekend Lauren, Kyle, Sarah and I decided to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. We were originally planning to go to Portugal this weekend, but the flights were crazy expensive and would have taken at least 17 hours to get there with layovers galore, so we decided to look elsewhere and landed on Copenhagen.

Around noon we headed to the airport to catch out plane. It was all going smooth, until Kyle thought that he lost his hat, but within 3 minutes a security officer found it and returned it. While that was not even that tragic, it was honestly the hardest part of the trip. After finding his hat we got on the plane and headed for Denmark. When we landed, we found a train right away to just outside our hostel. Once we got off the train and walked a bit, we found out hostel. It was called Copenhagen Downtown Hostel and I would recommend it to anyone. Since it was our first night there, we decided to head down the street to a little café for food. We did not know much about the area, but we did learn how expensive Copenhagen can be. When we were done with dinner we headed back to the hostel. Lucky for us there was a bar/hang out place as the main area of our hostel, so we were able to hang out down there for a while before calling it a night.

Chapter 2: Day 25: 15 Feb 2019

Our first morning in Copenhagen! Since we got a private room for the four of us we got to sleep really good with no other noises.  The beds were so comfortable and big we all were very happy the next morning. The only event of the day we had planned was to do a free walking tour that picked us up right from the hostel. So, we rolled out of bed and went downstairs to start the tour. It was a great time and a good way to learn about the city we were staying in and get a feel for the layout of it. On the tour we got to see where Carlsberg Beer was first made, the different city halls, the classic picturesque street, the toaster (Their opera house that many think looks like a toaster, all the beautiful canals and how Copenhagen was almost always on fire.

While on the tour we met a boy from Australia names Ryan. He was about our age and asked if he could tag along while we went to see The Little Mermaid statue. We walked for a while by the canals and found the statue in no time. The reason the statue is in Copenhagen is because the writer of The Little Mermaid story, and many other children’s story’s, lived in Copenhagen When we were done there we walked back to town and split up with Ryan so we could go back to our hostels. On our way back we walked through the main streets of town and saw all the different stores they have and found a grocery store to get some food for the room, so we did not have to eat out all the time. When we got what we wanted we went back to the hostel for a bit to drop off our bags and refresh before going on a hunt to find tacos. We were told that some of the best tacos were at a restaurant in Copenhagen, so we got the address and started searching. It took us about 30 minutes to even find the restaurant and when we did it was packed and a bit out of our price rance, so we wandered back to city center where we found a pizza place that had an all you can eat buffet for 88Kr which was about $14. Since there was not much else around, we decided to eat there. After dinner we went back to our hostel and sat downstairs for a while before calling it a night.

Chapter 2: Day 26: 16 Feb 2019

Today we decided to grab a train and go to Malmö, Sweden. – casual I know – Since we only had one day there, we got up kind of early to get breakfast at the hostel since it was the cheapest around and went to the train station. Malmö was only about a 3o minute train ride, so it was not bad at all, plus we took tracks that went under the watch which was terrifying and cool at the same time. When we got there, we had no plan what so ever, so we walked around the down and went into old town where the shops were adorable and looked straight out of a fairy tale. We knew that we wanted to see the castle at some point and the Turning Torso, so we started to wander in the direction of the castle and ended up finding a very nice park that has a river – which ended up bring the moat of the castle. – We walked and eventually found the castle which ended up being a museum and café.

When we got there, we walked into the museum and wanderer around a bit before Sarah realized that they had an aquarium, so we went and found that and explored more. On our way out we realized that we needed to pay for the exhibit but only if we were 20 or older so we figured that we could pass for younger. No one stopped up so that was a win at least in my book. After the museum castle we walked the grounds for a while and found a cute little garden and a pond that had seating in the sun, so we took a seat and ate our lunches that we packed. It was really one of the most serene places in the world. It was amazing to this that we are all studying in Scotland, on holiday in Denmark, visiting Sweden for the day and eating out lunch in a park.

Once we finished out lunch and were rested up, we started the hike towards Turning Torso. On our way there we ended up by the water, so we walked over and saw so many dogs – I was ecstatic – and the beautiful clear waters. We all ended up slipping our shoes off and sticking out toes in and boy was it cold. A bit off to the side there was a pier, so we walked over there to check it out. It ended up being a cute café that was very lively. We tried to read the menu, but it was all in Swedish, so we had no luck. We looked around a bit more and saw people keep going out a back door, so we figured it was more seating and followed. We walked out and saw many different small houses or covered room and were trying to figure out what they were for when not too long after we realized that we had walked into a nudist spa. Realizing this we quickly went back inside, used the bathroom and left. After that we were all a bit shook and did not know exactly what happened, but we still had more to see so we walked along the coast and found a board walk with different restaurants and apartments. We sat along the shore and relaxed bathing in the sun and people watching before heading to the Turning Toro.

When looking up ‘What to do in Malmö’ this building is one of the main features. The Turning Torso is on of the tallest residential building in Europe. The architecture was very interesting and on certain day you are able to tour it. We took some photos end decided to walk around the residential area a bit more. It was interesting to see how different their houses are in Sweden verse the United State and even Scotland. We ended up walking back to the board walk and watched a bit of the sunset there before making our way back downtown.

Since it was getting to be around dinner time, we stopped at a café to set a Semla, which is a very traditional Swedish pastry. After that we walked downtown so I could get a postcard as a souvenir and we ended up getting sandwiches for the train ride home. It was a great day exploring a new country and making memories with amazing new friends. We ended up catching that train back to Copenhagen and headed back to the hostel and stayed downstairs for a bit before calling it a night.

Chapter 2: Day 27: 17 Feb 2019

This morning we were all exhausted from the adventure the day before, so everyone decided to sleep in a bit, but I knew that I wanted to take some photos around town, so I got up and went for about an hour walk around while everyone else slept and got ready. It was a lovely morning for a walk and a great way to start the day with some self-reflection and fresh air.

When Sarah woke up, she sent me a snap and I headed back to the hostel to meet up with the others. We decided to make PB&J for breakfast before going on a canal tour. Since the canals are such a bit part of the city, we decided that it would be the best way to see the city. While we did not learn much more than on the walking tour it was still nice to see the city from a different view. Once the canal tour was done, we got off at Nyhavn, which is where most photo of Copenhagen are taken. The two foods that were the most common in the city were waffles and hot dogs, so we decided to stop in a waffle shop and try them out. I got Nutella and hazelnut, Sarah and Lauren got Rainbow which was Nutella and sprinkles and Kyle got White chocolate and cookies. They were delicious and a must have when visiting Copenhagen, but the key is to not get them in the middle of the most touristy area.

Once we ate our waffles, we decided to go to Christiansborg Castle and climb the tour for a beautiful view of the city. Luckily there was an elevator to the top, so we did not have to climb the 300 some stairs. While up there, there was four look out points one was crystal clear and then on the opposite side it had a haze over the city with the sun trying to peak through. While there we also discovered that there was a lot more to do than just the tower. There were tours of the stables which everyone else decided to do and since I am not too big into horses I chose to walk through the Queen’s Theatre. The theatre was beautiful and elegant. I would have loved to have had the chance to watch a play there at some point. When we were both done with our tours we met up and toured the ruins which were under the current castle. They were impressive and a lot bigger than I ever thought.

After our tours it was getting to be dinner time, so we walked back to the main areas to get a hot dog from a cart and then found a place to eat. They had delicious food and we got to sit outside. My favorite thing about Copenhagen is that every restaurant has outside seating even in the winter. They all have heat lamps hanging from the ceiling and standing between most tables. It was so warm and cozy and yet had the fresh air that was needed. We sat at the restaurant for a long time talking and relaxing on our last night. When we decided to move, we made our way back to the hostel because we were all exhausted. We were all showered and in PJ’s by 8pm and snuggled into bed for movies on our last night.

Chapter 2: Day 28: 18 Feb 2019

Our last day in Copenhagen 😦 today we woke up, packed up, had breakfast at the hostel, caught our train to the airport and headed home. Our gate ended up being at the other end of the airport, so it was a good thing that we got there when we did. We did not have to long to wait so we relaxed before catching the plane. Our plane ride was very good and smooth until the end where there was some serious turbulence, but we made it and that is all that matters. When we got off the plane, we caught the bus home.

Before going back to the house, we stopped at Lidl for some groceries. When we got back we all unpacked, Sarah and I did laundry, we homeworked and blogged, and after a while we showered and made chocolate covered strawberries. We wrapped a nice weekend all – Lauren, Kyle, Sarah and I – watching movies and relaxing for the week ahead.