[Written earlier today at Rosenborg Slot and typed up at Cafe Paludan]

The view from the bench 

I didn't realize how difficult it would be to keep up with a blog!
And now that it's been so long, so much has happened it's hard to know where to begin.

A picture from my walk

Well, I've found that one of my favorite things to do here is just walk.  Leave the house, pick a direction and just go.  Just turn when you want to, stop and read some interesting menus, just get yourself as utterly lost as possible.  Maybe even find yourself drafting a blog post on a wet bench in a park, feeling your hands go numb and listening to music you haven't heard in years, and perhaps occasionally look up at the castle directly in front of you.  It's really one of the best way to get to know the city.

This weekend my house went to Svanholm, a co-housing community north of Copenhagen.  It was a really special little community, and definitely something I've never experienced before.  The property itself has a history going back to the 1300s, but the community started in the 70s. It was a bit run down and deserted in a start-of-a-horror-film sort of way.  Yet, despite the original cult-y vibe, we had a really fun time building bird houses and eating, quite possibly, the best meal of my life.  It wasn't that the food was anything extraordinarily special but it was just felt that everything had come together so perfectly and there was this incredible atmosphere of warmth and peace (the only word I can use to really describe it is hygge).  As a friend of mine said, while munching down on ice cream made with Svanholm cow's milk, "People who go in search of the best food in the world will never find it, because it's in places like this."  There was also some Tanzanian dancing involved on this little excursion, but there's no need to relive that experience.

The gate at the Carlsberg Brewery

Other than this past weekend, I went to the Viking exhibit at the National Museum with my class, toured the old Carlsberg brewery with some friends and two weeks ago I went to Sweden with my Sustainable development course (mre details to come).  This coming week, I'm going to Germany with the same class to check out all the sustainability stuff they have going on there.

Despite (or maybe because of) all this, I feel like I've barely had time in Copenhagen and with all the traveling I'm doing independently in the coming months, I'm not going to get much more.  I feel like I'm not going to get enough time to see Copenhagen, to really become a part of it.  I mean, I've only rode my bike twice, for God's sake!

A Brief Intermission from Denmark

I can't believe I've been here for nearly three weeks.  I feel like I've been here forever and at the same time I've done absolutely nothing.  Hopefully, that will change in the upcoming days.  Me and my roommates have got big plans for the weekend--museums, markets, oatmeal, hyggeligt cafes, one of the best hot chocolates in the world (as told by buzzfeed), Hamlet's castle, and, hey, maybe I'll even stop by a speakeasy...but honestly, I'm pretty excited for the oatmeal. What can I say? I'm a simple lady. 
Next week, I'm off on a week-long study tour with one of my courses.  The first half of the week is touring around Copenhagen and on Thursday morning, bright (actually, it'll be entirely dark at 7) and early, I'm leaving the country for the first time since I've been here.  While all the other losers go to places across Denmark, I'm embarking on an adventure to the balmy and tropical coast of southern Sweden.  Take that suckers! We're crossing the border and exploring the cities of Malmo and Lund and livin' it up in some hostels, and we're even going to a National Park.  I'm going to see Swedish trees! and nature! I'm going to see some Swedish nature!

This is Gaby with Sunday breakfast.
Also, look: a friend!!

I am really excited to see how the other Scandinavians live, but I'm also looking forward give myself a brief break from all the danishes.  No amount of physical activity can rationalize the amount I've eaten in the past week.  I'm literally living in the country they were named after. It's not that the country created them, oh no. This country perfected them, or so the story goes.  It's my own personal heaven. Or Hell, depending how you look at it.  I'm still stunned on how good the pastries can be at 7/11.  Yes, 7/11, the incredibly awful convenience store that litters America offers some of the cheapest, and shockingly decent, pastries in Copenhagen.  And there's two in a 5 block radius of me.  So, yeah. 

Gym membership be damned.