Thursday, July 14th
9:56am Texas, 4:56pm Denmark
Yesterday morning at 6:00am, my dad opens the door to the room Hanna and I are sharing and tells us it’s time to get up. We have 45 minutes to get ready and return our rented bikes because the ferry to Esbjerg (pronounced Es-bee-uh) leaves at 7:00am and from there we’ll drive the several hours to Copenhagen. Because 5 of the 7 of us are females, we of course were rushing around right up to the last minute. But we make it on time to the ferry and get to Copenhagen around noon. I’m amazed and pleased at how well our families get along, especially considering we’re in a van for hours at a time. If you ask me, I’d say that’s quite an accomplishment.
So once we get into the city, Mette calls the hotel to get more specific directions, and finds out that it is located on a different street than the one she’d previously been told. And this particular street just so happens to be in the heart of Copenhagen’s version of Amsterdam’s red light district. So picture, if you will, a nice family of 7 driving up in a huge touristy van to the Hotel Absalon, and parking across the street in front of the Erotic Sex store. Good times. The area we were in was pretty sketchy. I’ll put it this way: within the first few hours, Hanna was almost robbed and Thor was offered drugs. Yay Copenhagen! The hotel itself was actually great – much nicer than expected. And the city is beautiful with lots to do. While we were waiting for our second room to be ready, we went to the “walking street” in the middle of the city where there are shops and restaurants lining the road for miles. We had lunch at a kebab place. Side note: this is my favorite thing ever. Kebab/gyro/shawarma restaurants are the best because they’re delicious, inexpensive, and everywhere you go. It’s like how McDonald’s is in the states. That evening we ate dinner at “Manhattan Pizza”, which was owned and operated by Asians and featured a buffet of pizza (obviously), potatoes, pineapple, and a lot of other inexplicably random foods. After dinner we came back to good ol’ Hotel Absalon to get ready to go out. Around 10:30pm (sorry, 22:30) all 7 of us got into a taxi van and went to a bar that Mette’s niece had suggested. When we got there it was basically empty. Europeans wait until after 11 to go out for some reason. You know how happy hour is usually during the time of day when few people are out? In Maastricht where I studied abroad, happy hour was from 10-11pm, if that helps illustrate my point. So a big family group showing up together at a bar at 10:30 probably looked silly. But we have a lot of fun together so we didn’t mind. Plus, it was packed by midnight. Almost all of us had our fair share of beer, and by 1am we were all dancing by the DJ with drinks in hand. Made me think about my mom and how much she would’ve loved this. Anyone who knew her will understand what I mean. So anyway, we took a taxi home at 1:30 or so, drunk as hell. Well I was anyway haha. I don’t want to speak for anyone else. I think it’s safe to assume Julianne was though because she insisted on braving the streets and getting a pizza haha. Skyped with Chad for a while, until I fell asleep in front of the computer. “Why are your eyes closed..?” Haha, oops.
Woke up this morning with a raging headache. A coffee and 3 Advil please! I guess that’s what I get for not drinking for a week. I won’t be making that mistake again. Went downstairs for a really good breakfast, so that helped. After breakfast we checked out and left the red light district behind us for good, thank goodness. I saw more pictures of (fake) boobs than I would’ve liked to. Not that I would’ve liked to see any at all haha. It was pouring down rain, but we went and saw the changing of the guards anyway which was pretty cool.
We got in the van to try and figure out something warm and dry to do, and on a whim decided to pay a visit to Sweden! We were only about half an hour from the border so we figured why not? We drove into Molmö and had bagels and coffee for lunch. It was at this point that something dawned on me. One of the biggest differences between Americans and Europeans is that we tend to go out of our way to relax (which seems totally counterproductive). We plan a coffee date. We schedule a yoga session. We make relaxing into some kind of event that we have to make a conscious effort for. In Europe, relaxing – taking it easy, enjoying the scenery, sitting still for a while – is an integral part of life. They don’t plan to relax, they just do it, and without even thinking. It’s just assumed that you’re going to sit for an hour and have tea or coffee at some point during the day. I think that in the same way we try to incorporate healthy foods into our everyday meals rather than trying to plan some complicated diet, we should make resting and relaxing a central part of our lives, not an inconvenience or addition to our existing schedules
Anyway, now we’re on our way back to Fanø. We’ll be there for one more full day before we leave to another town in Denmark where Mette’s family reunion will take place. If it’s anything like the Blanton reunions, there will be plenty to write about afterwards 
Until then!
