thiswanderingpineapple

[thiswanderingpineapple]

We were up so early we had to wait an hour before Cafe Tomaselli opened, but it’s not every day you have breakfast somewhere that was founded in the 1600’s. Well worth the wait.

[thiswanderingpineapple]

Can’t wait to tell Mozart how proud his hometown was of him

[thiswanderingpineapple]

Amazingly, our jet lag worked in our favor, and we woke up at 5:45 this morning. We had stayed in a nice hostel with private rooms that was right in the middle of the Old Town, which meant the Mirabell palace gardens (where they filmed a scene from Sound of Music) were just 5 minutes away. We got a nice early start, and thus rewarded with a quiet empty city that hadn’t quite woken up yet.

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I met Maria my first time in Denmark, back in 2015. She came to visit me in Ireland a few weeks later, and we hit it off (sharing a twin bed will do that to you). The next year, she came to stay with me in America for two weeks, and the year after that, we met up in Budapest and partied for a few days, and then I stayed with her and her family in Copenhagen. That was the last time I had seen her, was back in 2017. Since then, I had gotten married, and she had moved down to Spain.

Jaden and I were at The Living Room, a hipster chic little pub cafe she had brought me to, and I sent her a quick picture of it, saying it felt weird to be in Denmark without her there. Right away, she texted back...that she was?! She had been in town for a few days seeing friends, and was heading to the airport. Her flight ended up leaving an hour after ours, giving us just enough time beforehand to meet up for coffee at the airport Starbucks. We had too much catching up to do for that short amount of time, but truly this was one of life’s happy little coincidences ❤️

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It was fun just wandering the city for a few hours with this one, fueled onward by hot dogs, vafelbegeren, and a very good whiskey sour. Nyhaven was of course, insanely busy. We spent most of our time on the little side streets. I love how in this city you can be in the middle of everything, but it’s all quiet, peaceful, and clean. The only thing you have to worry about is possibly being run over by an attractive Scandinavian on a bike. 🚲🚲🚲

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Copenhagen is a city I’ve always felt at home at. It’s possibly because I’ve always been there with people who feel like my home; first Lindsay, then Cezanne, and now my dear husband.

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I have been to the deepest, darkest pit of despair on Planet Earth, and that pit is JFK. So many angry, tired, and confused people. So many unending lines. So many crying children. Getting through Norwegian Airlines unorthodox chaos just to check in took a good hour. Getting through security...I’ve never seen TSA agents scream at people like that. By the time we made it to our gate, we were just at the mental capacity to appreciate that our boarding time would be delayed for another 45 minutes. And that all Norwegian employees would disappear from existence until 2 minutes before they told everyone standing in line they could finally board.

The wheels finally left the ground at about 1:00 am. I was pleasantly surprised to get a whole half hour of sleep that night before our first stop on the European continent: Denmark 🇩🇰

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We spent our last night wandering Chinatown, ending at the infamous Shanghai Joes. It was humble at first sight, one of the five star reviews on the wall described it as ‘the perfect dumplings come with a sacrifice: zero ambiance of any kind’. A little bit of a backhanded compliment, but they were the best dumplings 🥟

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We became the art 🖼

[thiswanderingpineapple]

Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m a big old history nerd. When I was 8, I used to bring the Chronicle of World History, a volume half my size, to devour on road trips. So the Metropolitan Museum...kid in a candy shop doesn’t even begin to describe it. No joke at one point I had some tears in my eyes. Highlights included:

-Hatshepsut!!

-ancient Egyptian bricks dated right before the Exodus

-the first known Trinity, Horus, Isis, and Osiris

-one of the jars the Dead Sea Scrolls were in

-a carved stone box from the Migdal Synagogue that was in use during the time that Jesus was doing his preaching campaign in Galilee...which means Jesus might have actually touched it or used it

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After finishing a full day of tours, we went over to Paul and Cheryl’s little apartment, which was like walking into Pinterest, but better. Like it wasn’t even trying to be cute, it just was. We had a lovely dinner with them, and took way too long saying goodbye. Then it was off to New Jersey for a cheap last minute Airbnb. I’ll just say this: it had blue shag carpet in the bathroom. Hope that gives you the vibe of the place. But at the very least, there was a bed, which was the first real sleep we had gotten in 36 hours, and it was glorious.

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Lookin pretty good for a couple who got 45 minutes of sleep the night before 👌

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My absolute favorite part of the day: meeting so many of our dear brothers and sisters! The highlights:

1. The only ones we have photos with, a group from Thailand. Jaden had actually briefly met one of them years before when he was there, and they knew people in common, because the organization is such a small, small world. This group was so adorable though, and we actually ran into them the next day as well outside of the Met.

2. A young sister named Victoria, whose family recently moved here from Venezuela.

3. Two elderly Chinese sisters, who were so so cute, and started talking very fast in Chinese when we said ni hou. They actually came all the way from China to be there at the branch. It warms my heart to think of our brothers in banned countries, coming all the way to Bethel, and how they must feel to be able to openly serve Jehovah with their brothers.

4. A group from South Korea. We actually got to chat with one of them, a brother in his late twenties named Jin Son-yun. He had spent his time in prison for Jehovah, along with two others in his group. One even spent 3 years in prison, instead of 1 1/2. We asked him how he felt about the Korean courts decision to release all the brothers. He said mostly good, a little jealous; his younger brother only had to do 2 months in prison before the decision was announced and he was released. Son-yun said, ‘I said no, little brother, go back and do your time!’ Sibling love is truly universal.

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After our morning tour, we had the lovely privilege of having lunch at Warwick. We met up with Paul and Cheryl, our in-laws in-laws, and Kausten, a brother from Jadens old hall. I had actually met Kausten many years ago, when he had a convention part with Jaden. I had shown up to it to give support (aka I had a big crush on Jaden). So it was nice to see all the Bendites and catch up, especially over 5 cups of coffee and a delicious sweet potato pie. Also we saw like 2 GB members walk by, NBD.

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I keep cracking up at this depiction of the beast from Daniel that’s supposed to be vicious and iron crushing Rome. I know they tried hard but it looks like stumbling onto your pet cat eating something it knows it shouldn’t.

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The Photo Drama of Creation, an incredible achievement of its day, and a beautiful way to fulfill Matthew 28:19,20.

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100 years later and we’re still taking service photos with cows 🐮