Deb and James Invade CPH! (The Picture Version!)

Eurotripping

The past two weeks have, undoubtedly, been the most exciting and adventurous two weeks of my life.  Let me preface this post by saying that for the past two weeks I have been traveling to various parts of Europe and then coming back to Copenhagen to go to Sensation White with all of my Colby babies who came to visit.  So here it goes...

Florence, Italy
Determined to pack light and not incur the HEAFTY checked-bag fees, I packed all my stuff for two weeks into my north face backpack, and nothing else (not even a second carry-on!)  If you don't believe me see below picture...

After lugging this monster to the airport, we hopped on our first plane to Pisa, Italy, where we would then take an hour long train ride to Florence.  After a couple of hours we arrived in ITALY.  We stepped on the train, and as I watched the Tuscan scenery go by, I I took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling that I was finally in Italy- the land of love, pizza, history, and gelato.  After a quick hour, we stepped off the train and headed for the nearest ATM.  I opened up my purse and...NOOOO! OH MY GOD I REALLY AM IN ITALY!! Did I also mention the land of pickpockets? Oh brother.  Anyways, I'll spare you the boring details, but my wonderful parents were able to wire me enough money so that I made it through the trip with no problems, and I didn't lose my passport (also good!).  But with a slow start to our first day in Florence, we were unable to do much real sightseeing, so instead we got a delicious pizza and a mountain of gelato and wandered around the streets of Florence, seeing sights like the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio and others.  

The next day, we started off bright and early by heading to the Accademia Gallery, where we saw the amazing sculpture of David.  I don't know why, but I did not expect it to be so big!  The sculpture was truly magnificent, and I spent most of my time in the gallery looking at it. After this, we wandered around a little bit more and walked over the Ponte Vecchio and went in some of the stores that surrounded this street.  After heading back to our hostel for a bit to relax, we went to dinner to sample some of the delicious pasta di' bolognese.  We then decided to wander around a side of the city we hadn't been to yet.  As we walked around the winding streets of Florence, I heard someone yell, "Mandy?!?"  Confused, the three of us turned around and saw KELSEY POTDEVIN! How bizarre is that?!? Of all places, in a dark street in Florence?!?  After sufficiently FREAKING OUT for at least 30 minutes we got a little bit more gelato and caught up with her and walked around the streets of Florence. She agreed to meet us the next day to tour the Duomo, before she headed back to her teaching position in Corsica.  

We woke up on our last day in Florence excited to meet Kpot for a tour of the Duomo.  We met her at the train station and walked over to the Duomo, only to learn that it was closed for All Saints Day.  Bummer.  Luckily, we still got to play with Kelsey, and strolled down the walking streets of Florence until she had to leave us.  After she left, the three of us continued our tourism kick by wandering around the San Lorenzo market.  We looked at beautiful purses, scarves, wallets, and more.  Jenny ended up buying a super-trendy cross body bag for her birthday!  After this, we went back to the Duomo to see if there was any chance that we could at least look inside.  Luckily, there was a mass going on, so they let us in to sneak a peek!  It was so so so ornate and detailed inside.   Satisfied with our time in Florence, we took a train to Rome.  

Rome, Italy

Our first day in Rome was beyond busy.  We woke up incredibly early and headed to the Colosseum to see the ancient building and the sights around that area.  Now, I've seen picture of the Colosseum but I was not prepared for how COLOSSAL (haha) it actually was.  It was immense.  And really really cool!  Just the fact that the building was sooooo old (built in 80 AD!) gave me the chills.  After pairing the Colosseum with the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, we decided it was time to refuel with some Italian food.  We searched and searched but nothing was really tickling our fancy.  After about 1/2 an hour, we stumbled on this small little restaurant that had just about everything.  I decided on a piece of sausage pizza.  Best decision of my life.  I have never eaten something so amazing in my lifetime.  Seriously, it gives me shakes just thinking about it.  In addition to this God's gift to earth in the form of pizza, the wait staff there LOVED us.  They brought us roast pork and bread for no reason.  After eating 10000 lbs of food, we reluctantly left our new favorite spot and headed to check out the Pantheon.  We quickly toured this and then headed back to our hostel and passed out from a wonderful combination of exhaustion and food coma.  When we were finally revived back to life, we still weren't all that hungry, so we decided to go on a little night walk to the Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain.  Both of these sights were especially pretty at night, and it was so fun to see them in real life.  After this longish walk, we decided that we had worked up an appetite- for gelato.  So we replaced dinner with a heaping scoop of chocolate and hazelnut gelato and called it a night.  

Our next day in Rome was very similar to our first.  Eat, tour, eat.  First, we headed to see the Vatican where we started off by touring St. Peter's Basilica.  Scared by threats of long lines and horrible waits, we arrived there pretty early.  Luckily, the line was only about 10 minutes long so we hopped right in it and headed into the church.  Now, trying to describe the inside of this building to you wont do it any justice, and neither will any of my pictures so just believe me when I say it is incredible.  Besides the fact that it is huge, every inch of it is covered in beautiful detail- gold, silver, magnificent works of art, and stained glass.  It is truly something everyone should experience in their lifetime.  After our mesmerizing trip to the basilica, we headed to the Vatican museum to see more art and the Sistine Chapel. We browsed through all of the art in the museum- seeing beautiful works by titans such as Michelangelo and Raphael.  Finally, we entered the great Sistine Chapel, which was so overwhelming. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I was sneaky and was able to snag a couple.  After this wonderful morning in the Vatican, we headed back into central Rome to get some lunch and look at Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps in the daylight. After marveling at these two sights some more, we decided to grab some lunch at our favorite spot.  The guys working there recognized us immediately and served us up some of our favorite pizza and some spaghetti on the house.  We made the right choice.  Afterwards, we headed back to our hostel for some relaxation (and digestion!) time.  Once rejuvenated, we headed looked for a dinner spot near the Pantheon.  We found a great one next to a gelato place that (get this!) had 100 flavors (I think I might have tried 75 of them)!  Needless to say, I was in sweet tooth heaven.  What a perfect way to wrap up our time in Italy.  

Gran Canaria, Spain

Im definitely not going to split up this trip into different days because then you would get really bored.  Basically, the Canary Islands are the funniest place on Earth.  We met our friend Mason down there and decided to stay at a dirt cheap, all-inclusive, family resort...with a waterpark.  Our whole weekend was filled withe buffet breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, waterslides, and of course- a great deal of tanning.  The entire place was filled with families that had naked kids running around with topless moms and dads in speedos chasing after them.  Epic.  Although we had an amazing time here, we were excited to head to our next destination- Barcelona. 

Barcelona, Spain

Our first day in Barcelona was wonderful.  We slept in a little bit, then took a free walking tour after breakfast. The walking tour took us to see all of the great Gaudi sights, ending with La Sagrada Familia. This church was incredible.  We went inside to tour the interior, which is some of the coolest (and weirdest!) architecture I've ever seen.  The walls were covered in stained glass which really lit up the entire church.  Once we left La Sagrada Familia, we headed to Las Ramblas (a shopping street), where we stopped for a much needed Starbucks chai-tea.  After sipping on that heavenly goodness, we walked through an adorable market that sold fruits, vegetables, smoothies, meat, candy- everything!  After this, we took a little breather in the hostel and then met up with our Colby buddy Laura for a delicious Mexican dinner (while in Spain, I know).  

The next day, we headed to the Picasso museum to see the progression of his art throughout his lifetime. All though I'm not really a big Picasso lover, I really really enjoyed looking at this evolution of his art.  After spending the morning here, we weren't exactly sure what to do next, so we headed back to Las Ramblas to stroll the street and do a little window shopping.  After this, we had worked up a little bit of an appetite, so we headed to the adorable market where we each bought delicious fruit smoothies. After this, we went back to our hotel and relaxed before eating a quick dinner and then meeting up with our friends Laura and Scott and my friend Ryan to sample the Spanish nightlife.  

This final day in Barcelona was mostly spent relaxing by the water and enjoying the scenery until our flight to PARIS!

Paris, France

 Our first day in Paris was...interesting.  To my horror, I woke up on our first morning in Paris to a horrible rainstorm.  Jenny and I decided to trek outside anyways to see the Eiffel Tower.  Although I knew it was raining, I made some poor clothing choices (ballet flats), which I soon suffered the consequences for.  By the time we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, Jenny and I were completely soaked and the rain was coming down horizontally.  Even still, we went up the Eiffel Tower to see the view.  Unfortunately, I was blinded by the rain beating against my face so I couldn't really see anything at all.  So, after a disappointing visit to the Eiffel Tower, Jenny and I decided to head back to our hotel to to a clothes-switch. Now keep in mind that I'm only traveling with my backpack, so I don't have many options for warm, waterproof clothes.  Here was the solution I came up with...

1 pair of tights underneath 1 pair of leggings, underneath one pair of jeans.  1 sweater, underneath another sweater.  1 scarf.  1 pair of socks.  1 heinous pair of gym shoes (with my skinny jeans...). Needless to say, I looked good.  Jenny put on a similar outfit, and we headed to the Louvre which was SO cool.  It was also VERY big. After spending a few hours in there hitting all of the major sights (Mona Lisa and others), we headed home for a quick tourist break before dinner with our friend Soph! For dinner we stuck around our hotel and went to this adorable place with a set menu dinner for only 10 euros!  We started with delicious French onion soup, then got steak in pepper sauce, and finished with an apple tart.  YUM.  After this delicious meal, we walked around a bit before stopping for a crepe with nutella and almonds which was MAGICAL.  They literally melt in your mouth.  (typing this blog post has made me realize that I should probably go on a diet for a while...) 

The last day of our trip.  So sad.  I woke up praying for good weather, and we got it!  Although it was a bit dreary, it wasn't raining at all.  So Jenny and I headed for the Arc de Triumph, where we climbed to the top and got a beautiful 360 degree view of the city, Eiffel Tower included.  After this, we headed to the Eiffel Tower to snap some photos when we weren't in a torrential downpour.  Then we moved on to find some more of that DELICIOUS french onion soup.  Once we accomplished this mission, we took the Metro to the Claude Monet museum, which I loved! The museum was in a house with a garden and captured all of his greatest works. Sadly, once we left this museum it was time for us to head home.  While Jenny and I were walking over the bridge towards the Metro, we stopped to get one last look up Eiffel Tower at sunset.  At that very instant, the entire tower lit up!  It was beyond magical, and was legitimately the best moment of my life.  I want to go back to Paris this instant!  We reluctantly headed back to the hotel to grab our belongings and one last magical crepe before heading back to Copenhagen with Jess, Jenny and our friend Soph for Sensation White!

Sensation White

This was hands down the best night I've had in Copenhagen. SO many people from Colby were able to make it to Copenhagen for this event, and it was amazing to see them all and show them around the city.  Sensation White is a gigantic rave inside the Copenhagen soccer stadium with tons of DJs and everyone has to wear white.  So clearly, all of us crazy Colby kids did some damage on Copenhagen and had the time of our lives. Done and done. 

Oh man, long post! (as usual)  Enjoy :)

Much love, 

Mandy

Deb and James Invade CPH!

My Mom and Dad have now seen the beautiful city of Copenhagen!  I can't believe they have already come and gone, their visit seemed far too short and so surreal.  Having them with me in EUROPE was so weird, but also beyond amazing.  For the past 4 1/2 days I have been the expert tour guide, leading multiple walking tours of greater Copenhagen area.  In order to give you a better idea of what we did, I'm going to split this post into different days...

Day 1-

Arrival of the infamous Deb and James.  After I spent most of the morning sweeping and mopping the apartment, I finally thought that it was in good enough shape to show to my parents (although I was especially worried about my poor mother's mental health when she saw the state of our floor).  Anyways, I hopped on the train and went to go surprise them at the airport. After a semi-long wait, I finally saw my parents headed for the currency exchange.  I screamed for my mother who, at first, ignored me but then came and wrapped me up in a big hug.  My dad, however, had taken 2 advil pm's which had knocked him out and made him rather loopy, so he didn't really know what was going on the whole time.  Luckily, the airport houses the only Starbucks in all of Denmark, so he got his coffee fix and was back in action.  After settling into their hotel for a few minutes, I walked them down the picturesque harbor of Nyhavn and down the walking/shopping street of Stroget.  After this brisk walk, I showed them my apartment, which despite all my hard work, had gotten really dirty again in a matter of hours.  After having a minor heart attack, my mom decided it would be best if we left.  So, we headed to an adorable Italian restaurant by my apartment and chowed down on some delicious Italian food in a truly hygge setting. After the perfect dinner, we went to a bakery inside of  a cozy library for an even more perfect desert.   

Day 2-

Today we got an early start on our morning by heading all the way to Norrebro (what Danes consider to be the ghetto but it's not even close to being an actual ghetto...), to see the daycare that I work in.  The kids were so cute (as usual), and they really loved my mom and dad.  After this, we headed over to the Rosenborg Palace to see the crown jewels (which are so magnificently beautiful, I literally couldn't take my eyes off them!).  After a tour of Rosenborg, we were able to head over to Nyhavn to catch a boat to do a Canal Tour of the entire city.  Unfortunately, my parents were still a bit jet lagged, and I had to keep elbowing them to stay awake and soak in the sights of the city.  Once we got off the boat, however, the icy winds of Copenhagen seemed to perk them up a bit! Well, at least enough for a little bit of shopping!  After hitting all the good stores, we picked up Jenny for a wonderful dinner at Cafe G, and then headed back to our favorite library-bakery for some delicious dessert.  

Day 3-

My dad took more advil pm last night.  Not wise.  After watching him drag is feet through all of breakfast, I think it was safe to say that I was a little bit concerned about how his disposition would be throughout the rest of the day.  Regardless, we headed out from the hotel and to the train station to head to the stately castle of Frederiksberg.  What a beautiful place.  Although it is about 45 minutes outside of the city, it is well worth the trip.  Inside the castle there is a ton of cool architecture and art and outside the castle is surrounded by beautiful gardens.  After exploring this area for a few hours, we headed back into Copenhagen to relax a little bit before we met up with Anne and her relatives from Zurich for a wonderful dinner.  Food, wine, and conversation was plentiful and we couldn't have had a more wonderful time.  Except for the fact that the ice cream place that I had been so excited to go to was closed.  Bummer.

Day 4-

Today was also a big day for the Fergusons.  After a nice leisurely breakfast, we headed to Malmo, Sweden!  We saw the sites, and walked through a gigantic park that is so so so pretty.  After this, we went up and down the shopping street of Malmo, then hopped back on the train and started our short journey home.  Although we were a little pooped from our journey to Sweden, we mustered up enough energy to head to Tivoli!  My dad and I immediately bought tickets for the scariest ride there- the Star Flyer!  This is  like a typical carnival swings ride...except for the fact that it goes up hundreds of feet in the air.  Needless to say, my mom stayed on the ground.  Although it was a little bit windy and cold at the high altitude of the swing, we were able to get the most amazing view of every corner of the city.  After a wonderful time exploring Tivoli, we went back to Stroget to get a big, juicy, GLORIOUS, burger to end our day.

Day 5-

The last day :(.  But we made it count!  After another long breakfast, we went to the Amelienborg Palace where we explored the museum and watched the changing of the guards.  Inside the museum, we got to see all of the offices of some of the most famous monarchs as well as some of their clothes!  Naturally my mom and I loved looking at all the queen's dresses, and especially her wedding dress! (I've been deprived of Say Yes to the Dress for 2 months now...)  After all this, we headed to the Glyptotek museum to check out some ancient sculptures, as well as a bunch of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.  Once we had seen all the sites in the museum we headed out and back to our favorite spot in Copenhagen- the library bakery.  We sat there and chatted until the last minute when they sadly had to head to the airport.  

Overall, and amazing weekend and one I would be hard pressed to forget.  Unfortunately, I was snapped back to reality today in class with the realization that I actually have work to do this week before I leave on my two week trip! IN FIVE DAYS! AHHHH! Florence, Rome, Canary Islands, Barcelona, Paris- Here I come!

Ooodles of love!

xoxoxoxoxo

Mandy

Pictures from London and Dublin!

London Town

After a short blog-hiatus, I'm back in the game!  And with wonderful stories and memories from London and Dublin! Anyways, you're probably thinking "Mandy, how were you able to pick up and leave for 10 days?  Don't you go to school??" Well, the answer is yes, I do go to school, but as part of my child development class we go to London for a week, and then we had the weekend to travel. So basically we had a few academic visits throughout the week in London combined with a ton of time to sightsee on our own. So starting from the beginning, here are a recap of my adventures from the UK and Ireland...

The Beginning-
After a bright and early wake-up call, Jenny and I headed to the Norwegian Air ticket counter at the Copenhagen airport where we met the rest of our class.  From there we hopped on a plane and headed to London!  After a quick 2 hour flight we touched down in London town and began our bus adventure to the hotel we were staying in.  After a little lunch and unpacking we headed to our first academic visit of the trip which was to a crazy "adventure playground" where the kids essentially run rampant and climb high structures with no rules.  After having 5-6 minor heart attacks at the playground (from watching these kids swing from bridges 2 stories off the ground) our class headed for dinner at a Pakistani/Indian restaurant (we are studying multiculturalism, so we sampled various types of food throughout our stay), and then to the London Eye where we got a beautiful view of the city and all its attractions.  After this, everyone was exhausted and just headed back to the hotel to get a well deserved good night's sleep.  And so began the London trip...

The Middle
So throughout the week we saw a bunch of different schools including an all Muslim school and mosque.  All of this was super interesting and cool to me because before I took this class, I didn't really have any kind of understanding of Islam and its fundamental beliefs.  We also saw an extracurricular organization called CARE which used a local professional soccer team (in Greenwich) to unity and teamwork through athletics.  So basically, all of our "academic" visits were really cool and they were hardly academic and mostly just involved me playing with kids for a couple hours. Perfect.  When we weren't doing any of these school visits, we had time to sightsee on our own or in our group.  On one of the first days, we took a bus tour of London and hit most of the big sights including: The tower of London, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and some other sights that I'm right now forgetting.  In my spare time I also made it to Kensington Gardens/Palace, Notting Hill, and Abbey Road.  All in all a pretty successful tour of London.  One of the nights we also got to go and see Avenue Q- which was amazingly funny.  This night of the trip was probably one of the most memorable due to a certain incident.  While I was getting on the tube, there was a whole crowd of people getting on behind me.  Somewhere in the shuffle, a woman kicked the back of my foot and sent my shoe flying underneath the train tracks.  As I turned around in horror the doors of the train closed and we started heading to the next stop.  Now this doesn't seem so bad, but keep in mind I have 1/2 hour to make it to dinner and then to a play.  So that eliminated any possibility of going back to the hotel and grabbing another pair of shoes. So like a true friend, Jenny gave me her sock until I could purchase another pair of shoes (I cant go to a play in London without shoes!) So we ran off the tube and started searching London for a place to buy shoes.  Boots, flats, heels, slippers for all I care!  The problem with London is that "cheap shoes" is an oxymoron.  They don't exist.  After an hour of searching the London streets in one shoe and one sock, Jenny and I decided we had to take a break to join our class for dinner.  We finally found the restaurant and scarfed down some pretty decent Chinese food.  And then the search party began again.  Finally, I spotted and angel in the form of a TJ Maxx across the street.  Jenny and I ran in, found the cheapest pair of shoes money could buy, and made it back to the playhouse just in time to see the beginning of Avenue Q.  Although I did get ridiculed the rest of the trip for not "minding the gap," the whole ordeal made for a pretty laughable story.  The only other good story I have from this part of my trip is that I met Johnny Depp while he was filming the Pirates of the Caribbean 4.  What a hunk.

The End
So after our wonderful time in London, Jenny and I headed to Dublin to meet up with our friend Raymond.  Our first full day there, Jenny and I took ourselves on a walking tour of Dublin, hitting all the good sites and even going in some museums and culturing ourselves.  Once we were through with that, we met up with Raymond and he showed us around Trinity and we hung out with a bunch of his new friends at school.  The next morning we woke up super early for a bus tour of the Irish countryside.  This was so beautiful and I would totally recommend it to anyone visiting Dublin.  Once back, Raymond took us to a traditional pub dinner and to some of the local bars and such.  I even overcame my fear of beer and tried a Guinness, which to my surprise, wasn't so bad.  After a wonderful weekend of Irish festivities Jenny and I finally headed home- to Copenhagen.

Whew, what a long post, but I've been gone so long so I think it's ok.

Much love,
Mandy

Malmo, Oslo, and Soccer Game