Das Leben im Ruhrpott: Dronningen længe leve!

For all of you who don't speak Danish (and I'm pretty sure that's everybody reading this blog), the title translates as "Long live the Queen!" Denmark, like the United Kingdom, is a constitutional monarchy, and the current queen, Margrethe, has been on the throne since 1972. She's also very popular with the Danes, as I found out when I accidentally stumbled into her birthday celebration. It was my first full day in Copenhagen and I was wandering around and sightseeing on my own, because my friend Marie was in class. I turned a corner onto the street that passes by the royal palace, Amalienborg (basically the equivalent of Buckingham), when I was suddenly confronted by marching guards in full dress uniform and tons of people carrying Danish flags. They all were headed into the square in front of the palace, so when I overheard some people next to me speaking English I asked them what was going on. They replied that it was the Queen's Birthday, so she was going to come out on the balcony in a few minutes and wave at the crowd. Figuring I couldn't pass up the chance to see some real live royals, I let myself be swept along by the crowd. At 12:00 she and the rest of the royal family came out, they waved, everybody cheered, the band played, and I took pictures. So I have officially seen the Queen of Denmark.

Besides this obvious highlight, the trip to Copenhagen was probably one of my favorite trips ever. I loved Copenhagen; the architecture, the culture, the museums were all fantastic. And it was really fun to have Marie show me around, because she actually lives there (she's Danish), so she was a great tour guide. Plus I got to do cool things like go in the bell tower of the church she works at, and have dinner with people from her dorm. And Marie is also probably the sweetest person I have ever met; she cooked me dinner and breakfast, made me tea, and was just so excited to show me around her home. I stayed with Marie the first two days and night, and then I went to meet my second cousin Ally, who goes to Kansas State but is doing a semester abroad in Copenhagen. We'd never met before, and it was actually thanks to this blog that we connected in this first place (my dad posted on the family website and her mom saw and told her). Luckily, we got along great and had a blast doing a little more sightseeing and going out with some of her exchange student friends.

Guards marching towards the Palace for the Queen's Birthday. This is what I ran into when I came around the corner.

Long live the Queen! This day also allowed an interesting cultural comparison to Germany: all over the city the Danish flag was flying on every building and as evidenced by these pictures many people were carrying small flags and banners as well. It was such a striking contrast to Germany, where you almost never see the flag (patriotism is a tricky topic in Germany due to that whole business with the Nazis).

And there's the lady herself! (in the pink scarf). Much huzzah-ing and cheering ensued.

Kastellet, an island with old army barracks; Windmills: they're not just for Holland.

Tivoli Gardens, a famous (and old, founded in 1843) amusement park in downtown Copenhagen.

Town Hall; House of Parliament

Underwater sculpture (I don't know if it was ended to be underwater, or just ended up that way at some point); inside the bell tower of Marie's church

The Round Tower (used to be a conservatory); views from the top of the tower

Marie and me

Middle picture: the palace where I saw the Queen

Church tower with cool outdoor staircase; view out of a church window; the Black Diamond, part of the National Library

Two views of Nyhavn, a promenade with lots of cafes and restaurants

cruising around the harbor on the ferry

the Marble Church, the Opera House and one of Copenhagen's many canals as seen from the ferry

Walking through the park with Marie; some palace; Marie's dorm

Christiania is basically this hippie commune right in the middle of Copenhagen. Squatters took over some old army buildings in the 70s and established their own community. The government decided to leave them alone as a "social experiment", though lately they've been cracking down more and have even conducted a few raids. What Christiania is most notorious for, though, is the open sale of marijuana. Until 2004 it was sold openly in stands on "Pusher Street", the main road in the commune (for pedestrians only though, no motorized vehicles are allowed in Christiania). The government finally put a stop to that and now sellers just walk around displaying their wares or sell them from tables outside the couple cafes on Pusher Street. It was certainly an interesting experience to walk through there.

Pretty little lake in Christiania; clandestine picture of some of the graffiti. You're not supposed to take pictures inside of Christiania, in order to protect the identities of the people who live there (because of their engagement in questionably legal activities, such as selling drugs).

The botanical gardens; inside the Palm House (very humid); at the club with Ally

Also thanks to Ally, I got to go to Legoland! For those not in the know, Legoland is a theme park in Billund, Denmark that's based around Legos (Lego is a Danish company, btw). There are now Legolands in Germany and California as well, but the original is of course the best. As a theme park, it's pretty much geared to the 10 and under crowd, so it doesn't have any amazing rides or anything, but the real attraction is the section of the park dedicated to Lego models. They have models of everything, from the Royal Palace in Copenhagen to Angkor Wat to the Statue of Liberty. A lot of the models are motorized too, such as the boats that move around "Amsterdam" or the space shuttle that goes through a countdown and spews steam as it "takes off." It's astonishing to see what can be done with Legos, and also makes one wonder how many man-hours went into building those things, how one gets a job like that. What was also cool about the Legoland trip was that we (me plus other mostly american students who are part of the same Study Abroad Institute as Ally) took the bus there and back, and since Legoland is about 2.5 hours away from Copenhagen, in the southwest of Denmark, we actually got to see a lot of the Danish countryside, which was beautiful. I completely fell in love with Denmark and pretty much the only thing preventing me from moving there is the insanely high taxes they have to pay (which can be as much as 65% of income). Nowhere's perfect, is it?