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Although my semester abroad ended in May, recent travels brought me to Key West, Florida.

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(Never uploaded) 

MAY 16TH: Whale Watching & Blue Lagoon

On my last full day in Iceland I started my day by going whale watching in the bay. It was a total of a 3 hour venture and I got to wear a ridiculous red floatation onesie that kept me super warm. We only got to see some harbor porpoises and 3 Minke whales. I managed to get a photo of NONE of them because they came up so quickly and went away. In fact it took me so long to even see one after the guide would call out the direction to look I would constantly be missing it. I straight up thought it was a hoax and was ready to just sit and bask in the sun not the boat lol. Then I actually did see the whales and it was pretty cool, but still no humpback whales so that was a bummer. Then the whaling tour I went straight to the Blue Lagoon. On the pick up route the driver picked up another American whom I was not so eager to socialize with, but sometimes you have to be nice. We chatted then I split dodged him at the Blue Lagoon and enjoyed the lagoon to myself for a majority of the time. It’s pretty funny to see all the people in the lagoon with the white mud on their faces just floating around so casually. I however did not partake in the mud mask because when I actually touched the mud it was grossly filled with hair HA no thanks. I’ve heard that the swimming pools within the city are also very good to visit and geothermal heated as well. Also there are apparently hot springs on the side of the road that people seemingly just hop in.

Overall I would like to return to Iceland with people and rent a car to go around the island. I don’t know how far we would really get considering I want to stop and hop off the bus like every 50 meters. There are hundreds of sheep and horses everywhere and I didn’t get a photo of them anywhere! Ho Hum I could just google them to see what they look like, but the Icelandic horses are some funky short looking ponies. Also was suggested to not call the horses “ponies” to Icelanders because it’s insulting. People here are super sensitive about their short, stocky horses. Anywho I will be going from 40/50 degree weather to 90 degree weather in NY and that is going to be SUPER weird.

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MAY 15TH: Southern Coast & Glacier Lagoon

On Monday I went on a 15 hour long trip through the southern coast of Iceland and ended at Jökulsárlón a glacier lagoon located at the mouth of Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður. Iceland’s largest glacier and national park. Along the way out there we stopped at various points, such as Skògafoss and this farm that was caught in the ash cloud of the volcano eruption in 2010. The owner of the farm took photos and opened a museum across the street from his farm lol. Then we stopped at Skògafoss and took photos of the beautiful waterfall and ventured on to another stop of lava rocks. The lava rocks were only 200+ years old from an eruption in 1783. The moss that is on the rocks is seen all over the island, but is very delicate and takes a long time to grow. At the glacier lagoon our driver took us to a beach that contains some washed ashore pieces of ice. I finally got to see some black sand beaches and a seal! It was so windy that watching the birds try to fly opposite the direction of the wind was somewhat humorous and sad. Afterwards we took a boat/truck combo into the lagoon to get up close and personal with the glaciers. Well not thaaaat up close. Apparently this lagoon has never freezes because it has warm air coming in from the Atlantic. In the James Bond: Die Another Day something something .. they froze the lagoon by blocking the opening to the ocean. Pretty nifty. Anywho after the boat tour we ventured back to Reykjavik. We were supposed to stop in Vik; however, the wind was so strong that we were advised to continue going and skip dinner. I’m pretty bummed I didn’t get to see the lava stacks on the beaches in Vik, but I’ll have to come back. Then we were driving through this valley that gets up to 25 m/s (56 mph) winds and there was a camper van that lost control and got blown off the road. Luckily the cabin portion of the van landed upright, but all the people’s belongings and rest of the van was scattered in the valley.

Afterwards the tour guide decided to tell us a story about the “hidden people” in Iceland. Apparently these “hidden people” stem from the garden of eden where they too ate the fruit of knowledge and were therefore banned from the garden. However, there was so sort of tiff with God and apparently he got mad and made them and all their children invisible like ghosts and never to permanently exist anywhere. SO in Iceland they claim to have these mysterious figures that exist and then disappear into thin air. The tour guide told us of a story involving his 6 year old daughter and her two older siblings. The young daughter would speak of this man in the mountain behind the house. So her older siblings knew of these hidden people and their rumored knowledge of all and they tried to take advantage. They then asked the younger sister to go to this man and request the numbers for the Saturday night lotto. Time passed and the young girl came back very confused saying that “One must promise a favor in order to receive one.” So the tour guide said he is a product of his environment and believes these hidden people exist since his daughter came back speaking words that she didn’t even understand. It was a lovely story that was a great distraction for us considering the wind was blowing so hard everyone was a bit weary of driving through.

Eventually we got to the other side of the mountain and visited Seljalandsfoss. This is the waterfall you are able to walk behind; however, I chose not to because it was far too windy, cold and my jacket was still wet from the glacier lagoon. I wasn’t trying to perpetuate my cold my being showered in spring water. However, I did fill my water up with the water and it was far better than the sulfur-y tap water. Anywho after a long and exhausting day I finally made it back to my guesthouse. It still baffles me that the sun doesn’t fully set until close to midnight.

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Iceland

MAY 14TH: Golden Circle Tour

Upon arriving to Iceland I noticed that the weather was predicted to be super rainy everyday I was here and let me tell ya… if you drive 15 mins in any direction you are guaranteed different weather. Also the sun here rises at 4AM and sets at 10:30PM. So even arriving at my guesthouse at 10:50PM on Saturday night it was still pretty light out! During the summer they have 24 hours of sun so that is insanity.

Anywho the first stop on my Golden Circle Tour was at a geothermal heated greenhouse called, Friðheimar. They grow different varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers. Nearly 90% of Icelandic homes are heated via geothermal springs that are piped into houses across the country. In fact there is a town called Hot Springs that if you dig about 6ft down you are guaranteed to hit steam. Thus, there are little steam pockets all along the mountain ranges and some power plants as well to harness the energy supply. Furthermore, Iceland is extremely proud of their ground water; however, I can tell you firsthand it is SO high in sulfur. A scent I smelled ever so clearly on our next stop along this tour at the Geysir (dormant) and Strokkur (active geyser). Strokkur goes off about every 5 minutes and released water into the air that is 80 to 100°C (176 to 212°F aka boiling). So the group was warned to stay clear of the southern wind that carries the boiling water past the marked off area. Anywho it was our first stop that I saw mountains in the distance and I was totally floored…little did I know this would be a regular occurrence.

Next stop was Gullfoss, “foss” in Icelandic means waterfall and let me tell ya there are plenty of “fosses” to go around. This country is COVERED in them. Also another reason why they have hydro-power stations scattered around the island. They also tried to turn Gullfoss into a hydro power station; however, the owner of the land at the time denied it and now it is a national park and protected from such actions. Anywho Gullfoss was gorgeous and the mist coming from the falls was insane I thought it was raining - honestly couldn’t tell the difference.

Our last stop was in Þingviller National Park, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. These waterways lead into the largest lake in Iceland that was created by….you guessed it a GLACIER! Anywho this entire area is ridiculously scenic and I was able to get up close and personal with some gorgeous rock walls. Also side note Icelandic as a language has some funky letters and even more funky sounding. My tour guide described it as a Germanic language that is similar to the Nordic languages (Norwegian, Danish and Swedish), but would be the equivalent of someone speaking Latin to a Spanish/Italian/French native speaker. She said that they learn English and Danish in school as a requirement; however, they are not very good at speaking Danish (that makes two+ of us). Also it’s basically a given for teens to go away for college and possibly live abroad for some time because the 6 universities on the island do not offer everything. Our tour guide lived in France for 8 years and worked for the French embassy and police department before returning back to Iceland to work in tourism - a much happier job she said. She also noted that the unemployment rate in Iceland is 2% so it’s a lot more appealing to come back home.

Also Iceland is easily the most expensive country I have ever visited. Their gift shop prices jump from $12 to $39 to $79…for what you ask? Hmm maybe just ya know a small wool felted sheep that is a magnet…$45. HAHA NO. Nope. No thanks. Nej tak! It is far more expensive than Denmark so I consider that impressive. However, the tours are well worth it and my guides have been really lovely!

Also after I got dropped off at my bus stop, which is located at the famous church in Reykjavik… the Hallgrímskirkja. I decided to take a few pictures. Also featured in front of it is as statue of Leif Erikson.

P.S. There are WAY more photos than this!

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Last few day trips and activities in Denmark! The other day in the midst of trying to find boxes to ship things home in..I went to the top of Church of our Savior in Christianshavn for a good view of Copenhagen. Today my two friends and I took the train the Malmo, Sweden, which is a only a half hour from the Copenhagen Airport. We walked around the park, went to their Moderna Museet (modern art museum) and then went to the sauna for a while and jumped in the Baltic Sea! It has been quite a busy week and I am sad to say tomorrow will be my last full day in this lovely city I have called my home for the last 4 months. It’s oh so very surreal.

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Here is my desk I made this semester that will unfortunately not be traveling with me back home! It’s made of bamboo plywood 15 mm and 20 mm. All the pieces slide together with dovetail joints that are hidden to the viewer and the entire piece flat packs into a box that is approximately 85 cm x 50 cm x 10 cm….mind you this box does not exist in Denmark unless you are buying a piece of furniture! Anyway I’m satisfied with my work and very sad the semester is over!

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Quick update: Copenhagen

Whilst I have a mere two and a half weeks left in Copenhagen I realize I should be taking more photos/going out and exploring more sites I haven’t seen. Thus, after a productive morning yesterday my friend, Alex, and I ventured over to the Experimentarium, which is Copenhagen’s science museum for kids. Though we weren’t interested in the science museum itself the lobby does contain this super cool copper cladded staircase as the museum’s main circulation. Thus, to avoid the entrance fee of 195 DKK ($23!!!) we walked over to the coat room and went up in the elevator. The Danish honesty system is extremely easy to take advantage of and well worth it! Haha Anywho we then went over to Nordhavn, which contains the rooftop playground that visited within the first two weeks of being in Copenhagen - Alex has not, which is why we went. However, what I did not realize is those personal sized trampolines have just a mere metal grate beneath them and then DROP in to the center of the parking garage. It was quite difficult to jump on them again when we went back up there; however, it was still well worth it haha. 

ALSO I made penne alla vodka and I would like to say that I am impressed I even found all the ingredients in these small, sparse supermarkets they have here! 

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April 16th

On our last full day in Paris we spent a majority of it waiting 3.5 hours in line for the Catacombs... needless to say it wasn’t that pleasant waiting to see the bones of 6 million Parisians from the 18th century. Lets consult wikipedia..

“The catacombs are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people[1] in a small part of the ancient Mines of Paris tunnel network. Located south of the former city gate "Barrière d’Enfer" (Gate of Hell) beneath Rue de la Tombe-Issoire, the ossuary was founded when city officials had two simultaneous problems: a series of cave-ins beginning 1774, and overflowing cemeteries, particularly Saint Innocents. Nightly processions of bones from 1786 to 1788 transferred remains from cemeteries to the reinforced tunnels, and more remains were added during later years. The underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis since 1874 with surface access from a building at Place Denfert-Rochereau in the extreme southern part of the city of Paris.”

So there ya have it! Bones used to reinforce walls of tunnels makes TOTAL sense... All i know is I would not want to be the one touching those bones. Afterwards we had lunch and walked into Luxembourg Gardens. After the 10 days in Copenhagen and Paris my parents and I walked a total of 50 miles. WOWZA - pictured above is a lovely shot of my dad at the Palace of Versailles...is he trying to be a statue?! or just resting?! The world may never know.

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April 15th 

On Saturday we went to Notre Dame de Paris, which means Our Lady of Paris. It is a medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris with the finest French Gothic architecture. There was no Hunchback of Norte Dame though gosh darn it (and clearly no Fighting Irish). Afterwards we headed over to the Centre Pompidou, which is Paris’ museum of modern and contemporary art.

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Palace of Versailles - April 14th

On Friday we went to the Palace of Versailles, which by the way is quite popular so it’s best to get there really early. It was a short 45 minute train ride outside of Paris. We made good timing on line - only waiting about 50 minutes to get into the Palace. The rest of the grounds have their own entrances including the gardens, Grant Trianon (Louis XIV summer house) and Petite Trianon (Marie Antoinette’s summer house). It was quite a long day filled with A LOT of walking approximately 7.5 miles! Luckily there was a trolley to bring us back up to the Palace after we got all the way over to the Grand Trianon. However, the palace and the grounds were extremely beautiful unlike anything I have every seen before. The palace was built in 1623 by Louis XIII and the  absolute monarchy lived there until 1789 at the start of the French Revolution, which summoned the royal family to move back to Paris. Simply amazing!

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Paris

Here is the continuation of photographs from April 13th as we continued our day after the visit to the Eiffel Tower!

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PARIS

April 12th

We had a smooth flight to Paris. We ended up walking about 10 mins from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower and realized hmmm better off getting to every “must see” site right when it opens. However, we spent the rest of the evening strolling around scoping our boat tours to take and walking near the water. Beware of the gypsies that pull slightly unexpected moves on ya! FOR EXAMPLE, dropping a gold wedding ring (behind us), picking it up and asking if we lost it then continues to put it in Mom’s hands saying that WE should enjoy it and then bids us a great weekend and trip….walks away and comes begging for money - Dad handed her a $5 USD, not really useful in Europe. Lesson learned do not touch anything a stranger tries to hand you! Then at night we went to see the Eiffel Tower that shimmers every night for 5 minutes on the hour. It twas quite a beautiful slight to see! It almost looks like the tower is able to pick up and walk away because it doesn’t seem real that we’re here.

April 13th

We started the day off early and waited in line at the Eiffel Tower through both security and tickets. We of course took the elevator, but whilst we were standing on line for security before it opened we saw the French fire department training on the stairs. They run up and down to the first or second level ( granted thats like 7-10 stories high). Finally we took the elevator up to the VERY top of the Eiffel Tower. It was quite a trip going up, I kept thinking well this is good…is it going to stop soon? Anywho the views were pretty incredible it seems like we were stuck in a cloud. Afterwards we took the Boatbus along the River Seine and got off at the Louvre, ate at a nice Baguette Café and then continued to roam the grounds of the Louvre. The line was far too long to wait so we decided to skip out on the Mona Lisa. Instead we went to the Museé de l’Orangerie where Claude Monét’s water lilies are displayed along with many impressionist and cubist painters.

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April 7-12th Parents in Copenhagen!

After a long flight and some delays my parental units finally arrived in Copnehagen last Friday! Mind you mom has a lot of photos on her camera so this is just a small sampling. On Saturday we went to the Kassellet (the Fortress), the Little Mermaid, Amalienborg Palace (current residence of the royal family), Nyhavn (colorful buildings), Paper Island (Copenhagen Street Food) and then back to the hotel. Needless to say they were wiped from walking around!

On Sunday we took a 45 minute ride up to Helsingør to go to Kronborg Slot (Castle for the royal family aka these people had many houses to choose from!) The exterior of the building was much more lavish than the interior; thus, I think this was more of a “summer” home. We even explored the basement/caverns/cave/barracks/bat homes underneath the castle! The ceiling was super low and the floor was extremely uneven so Mom and Dad were having a blast after walking so much the day before!!! (previous sentence is filled with just a touch of sarcasm) It was super cool and we even got to see the “Sleeping Knight” that will awake anytime Denmark is in war aka he will never wake up because Denmark is not going to war anytime soon.

On Monday I had a paper to write so I met up with them late in the afternoon and we ventured over to Carlsberg Brewery to tour the museum and have a beer tasting. It was quite delicious and Dad got a few souvenirs! Jacobsen ‘Golden Naked’ Christmas Ale is in his future for the holidays fyi. Mom and I, however, preferred the lighter Jacobsen ‘Weissbier.’ In the end we agreed that they were all quite good haha.

Tuesday I am in class a majority of the day; however, in the morning we visited both the Round Tower and Christiansborg Palace. The Round Tower has a sloping ramp to the top of the tower with some great views of Copenhagen and then Christiansborg is another former residence of the royal family! Imagine that. Anywho this one is far more lavish and I unfortunately did not have my camera on me that day.

Wednesday afternoon we flew to Paris! Pictures to follow...

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Milan, Italy

Sunday, April 2nd

Our last day in Milan was spent in the city center not far from the airbnb. We visited Duomo (stood in line for a good amount of time), saw the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping "mall” and the Museo del Novecento (mostly Italian modern artists). The Duomo is the largest cathedral in Italy - even larger than St Peter's Basilica in Rome! When we walked in, they were conducting a mass. Then we ventured to the basement to see the archeological ruins of the perviously built churches on the site and then headed up to the terrace/rooftop! Then of course we tried some gelato, which was a hit and a miss... Harald got rose flavored something it was the equivalent of eating a rose scented bath bomb. He was not a fan! Afterwards we retrieved our bags from the central railway station and bussed over to the airport.

Overall I am so glad I got a taste of Italy by visiting Milan. I really would like to visit Florence, Rome and the Amalfi Coast in the near future. Lake Como is simply amazing I jokingly (seriously) want a vacation home there. The views are incredible with the mountains and snowcaps in the distance. Also just flying to Italy was quite a view! We flew over what I think was the Alps. Anywho I had a fantastic weekend trip and next up is Paris with my parents!!!

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Milan, Italy & Lake Como, Italy

Friday, March 31st

It was a bit of a trek from the airport in Bergamo to Milan but we managed to arrive at our airbnb around 3pm. The rest of our afternoon and evening was spent walking around the city. It was a warm 74 degrees so the park near the Castello Sforza seemed like the best option to stay outdoors! Around 6pm we went to a wine tasting, which was on the more educational side of wine tastings rather than a sampling of a vineyard's/company's brand. Alas we made reservations at the restaurant Dongio that was recommended to by one of my professors. The reservation was made under 'Alan' as opposed to 'Harald' aka everyone solely spoke Italian at this place and it certainly was not common for foreigners to visit.  The food was amazing and actually the best place we ate at all weekend!

Saturday, April 1st

We woke up early to travel to Lake Como, which is about an hour train ride outside of Milan. Lake Como is a place like no other it was like a fantasy land sprinkled with old yellow stucco buildings along the waterfront. I was completely baffled by all the towns along the lake and how they sat into the side of the hill. We passed George Clooney’s [former] home and the Versace’s vacation home. After an hour and a half on the ferry we got to our destination - Varenna. In Varenna we walked around a bit, ate lunch and just sat in the sun and enjoyed the view! It was quite a lovely time.

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SWEDEN

Our last day in Sweden started with an early wake up call at 6:45 to board the bus for four hours to Karl Andersson's factory and showroom. It was cool, but not as detailed of a tour as A Factory. Then we drove another 2 hours to Almhult aka home of IKEA. We visited the IKEA museum, which was super fun... well we made it super fun with some photoshoots and messing around with the displays. And of course I got the ORIGINAL swedish meatballs. All others will continue to pale in comparison. Anywho the trip was really awesome! I had a great time, but it is always nice to be back in Copenhagen. No city will ever compare!

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SWEDEN

Stockholm was my favorite city of the two. I would definitely return and would recommend others to go there. We spent the day wandering around - the hispter area, nearby islands (its an archipelago), and in the Moderna Museet. The modern museum had super funky art going on of Austrian archiect, Josef Frank and performance artist, Marina Ambromvic. I was absolutely exhausted by 5PM that I spent the last hour of the museum sitting and nearly falling asleep. Dinner was good; however, since I do not eat red meat and fish the predetermined meals that DIS orders for us usually does not include chicken or turkey. So I am classified as a vegetarian and majority of my meals consisted of potato. Therefore, I am DONE with potato for a while! It was an early night of going to bed in our super duper nice hotel.

The next morning kicked off with another breakfast buffet (my favorite by far). My plate is featured above... I thoroughly enjoy the color beige. I think I have a very diversified palette... what are YOU talking about?! Anywho the rest of the day consisted of roaming around Gama Stan, the old city and some cool museums. The first museum was the VASA museet, which contained a 300 year old viking ship that was excavated from the harbor (all 98% of it!!).  The following museum was small and a bit odd - it was the Biological Museum, which basically was equivalent to all the animal exhibitions in the natural history museum except it was Sweden native animals. Also the building was from like the 1850s and it was in its original condition - only lit by daylight and structured like a church. I didn't take many photos because my camera was getting a bit annoying to carry. Around three in the afternoon we met up as a group at the Woodland Cemetery. Super cool, park-like cemetery owned and managed by the city of Stockholm aka it's nondenominational. The city took over the burial process in the 1890s because the church's graveyards in the city became overpacked and issues of flooding aka people were poking out of the ground! So in the 1920s the city held a competition for the design of this former pine tree production site. They emphasized that the cemetery was for the living not the dead so one should also feel freely to use the grounds as a park. Thus, they kept the surrounding pine trees and rolling hills untouched (for the most part). There are quite a few chapels integrated in the grounds; however, we visited the Woodland Chapel and the Resurrection Chapel. Another interesting thing about the plots is a family can own a plot for 25, 50 or 100 years; however, when those years are up a family member is contacted to keep the plot going. If no one wants to then the plot gets recycled and the tombstone is removed for the next person. Mind you they start burying people up to 9 meters deep (27 feet) and leave about a foot of sand in between each layer. So there's plenty of room that's for sure, but still such an odd concept. I suppose it makes sense since in Swedish taxes there is a burial tax that guarantees Swedes to be buried on the behalf of the state. That doesn't mean you will have a tombstone marking your grave; however, burial costs are covered.  Also the future lifespan of these magnificent pines are limited to about 30 years... and there is no way to replant this forrest. The newbies that have been planted are still so short because they need a lot of sun and have been blocked by the taller pines. So we shall see what UNESCO will do with the site!