A Royal Affair

Perhaps you know or maybe you don't, but Denmark is a constitutional monarchy, which (in a nutshell) means Denmark has a royal family.

Friday April 16th, marked Queen Margrethe II's 70th birthday. Every year on her birthday, the Queen steps out onto her balcony of Amalienborg at noon and waves to the people in the courtyard. Since this was an even year birthday, she rode in a horse-drawn carriage from the Amalienborg Palace to City Hall on Strøget (the walking street in Copenhagen).

Crowds trying to get into the Palace courtyard to see the Queen... it was packed! I couldn't get through!

Danish flag :)

Danes like to use the Danish flag to celebrate!

Holding a Danish flag under the Queen's birthday sign!

Getting ready for the Queen to pass in her carriage...

Police! The Queen must be close!

The Queen is next!

Queen of Denmark and her husband, Henrik, the Prince Consort of Denmark!!!

She went by so fast!

Fountain near my school that had golden apples in it for the Queen's birthday!

It might be hard to see, but on the left hand side of the statue at the top of fountain, there is one of the golden apples being pushed up by the force of the fountain water! This was the craziest tradition! No one ever takes the golden apples... I guess out of respect to the royal family? I'm not sure but there is no way those apples would stay there all day if this were in a tradition in another country.... especially the US!

Regardless, it was so cool to see the Queen so close and experience such a unique Danish tradition!

Copenhagen and London with Heath!

For the second week of my spring break, Heath came to visit me and we split our time between Copenhagen and London. We had such a wonderful time and saw so many great places! I was soooo happy to see him and get to spend the whole week together! I am glad that he came later in semester because now it isn't that long until I come home... Don't get me wrong, I am having a blast abroad, and I still have a handful of fun trips planned... but North Carolina is home and I finally feel ready to start this next phase of my life in Charlotte, no regrets and no "I wish I got to.... while I was still in college." Having Heath see what my life has been like here meant so much to me and I am so happy that I have such a great boyfriend that will travel across an ocean to visit me! :)

 Velkommen til Danmark!

 First Danish meal? Danish hotdogs!

 We tried to make it to the Carlsberg Brewery for a tour but were too late! But that's okay, because their slogan is only "Probably the best beer in town" haha

 Nyhavn!

 

First pub in London!

Yummy Sticky toffee pudding!

Classic English telephone pose

Heath wanted one too :)

London Eye!

(with Big Ben in between our heads!)

Tea Time at the National Gallery

Outside of Buckingham Palace before the changing of the guards ceremony

Royal Guard band that played "Sweet Caroline!"

Heath and I were amused since James Taylor is a NC native!

BEAUTIFUL Daffodils in a park beside Buckingham palace.

So happy that it is finally Spring!

Heath on the Tower of London Bridge

Heath at Heathrow, ready to get back to CPH!

Can you spot Heath?

Oh, you know... just biking around the royal palace in CPH!

ICEBAR! Brrrr

Heath & I in the Icebar!

My Roman Holiday

I had the pleasure of spending the first week of my Spring Break in Rome, Italy. In preparation of my very own Roman holiday, I watched William Wyler's Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn. I love Audrey Hepburn movies so watching this one before my trip just seemed like the perfect idea! I got to see many of the sites where the movie was filmed and absolutely loved Rome!

I could outline every detail of my trip but that would take forever and I think pictures are more fun... so here they are!

PS- If you get my blog by e-mail, the pictures probably won't show up in the email so you will have to click on the link in the e-mail, which will send you directly to my blog website.

Outside the Vatican wall, entrance to the Vatican Museum

St. Peter's Basilica

This looks like a sculpture in uptown Charlotte called "Disco Grande"

View of St. Peter's Square from the top of St. Peter's Basilica

Me in St. Peter's Basilica

Colosseum!

Me inside the Colosseum

Inside Forum Romanum

Pantheon

Ruins of Ostia

Angel of Grief in Campo Cestio

Baths of Caracalla

Mouth of Truth

Gelato on the Spanish Steps

Castle of Angels

And don't worry... I threw my coin into the Trevi Fountain so one day, I'll definitely be going back to Rome!

To travel is to live

So, I am a little over half way done with my semester abroad but I wanted to recap where I've been and where I'm going...

January 17: Arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark
Feb 4-6: Vejle & Sønderborg, Western Denmark
Feb 28-March 5: Brussels & Brugge, Belgium
March 5-7: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
March 29-April 3: Rome, Italy
April 6-9: London, England
April 17: Malmö, Sweden
April 23-26: Böblingen & Munich, Germany
April 29-May 2: Paris & Giverny, France
May 8: Billund, Denmark (LegoLand!)
May 16-May 23: TBD, somewhere in Europe

Most of these dates are set in stone but there is always room for some change in the itinerary ! My hope is to have visited at least 10 countries while I am here... so during my last week in Europe, I am going to have to go to at least 2 new countries... but I doubt that will be very hard :)

Dansk Musik

Last night I went out with my host brother in Copenhagen and it was a night full of hygge, laughs and long waits for public transportation! The night began unexpectedly  (as I had no plans of going out) at a truly Danish band party hosted by a Danish college and ended with a not-so-happy-non-English-speaking-taxi driver and a lovely Danish couple that I shared a cab with since it was raining too hard to ride home (at 5AM, mind you). It's even a longer story than that, so I won't type it all out... but to my friends and family- feel free to ask me about it, it was pretty humorous :)

So tonight both my host sibs came over for dinner (they no longer live at home) which was great because I hadn't even met my host sister yet because she has such a crazy schedule of school and work this semester. She asked me tonight if I think it is weird or if it gets annoying that all the music over here is in English instead of native languages and honestly, after hearing Danish 24-7, it's kind of a relief to hear something familiar! My host family has introduced me to some great new Danish and European bands...

The Baseballs: A German-rock coverband that takes top-40 pop hits and turns them into rock-n-rock 1950's-esque songs. I love it! They are even coming to Copenhagen at the end of April but (un)fortunately, that's the weekend I'm going to Paris. It's a hard life, I know! (wink, wink!)

The Baseballs: Umbrella (Originally by Rihanna)

Alphabeat: A great Danish pop band with 6 members, both male and female and they take influence from retro 80's melodic pop with British influences as well.

Dúné: A Danish rockband that is inspired by 70s punk, 80s pop and 90s indie rock, and mixed all together, they call their style indielectrock.

For the first time ever, iTunes has completely disappointed me in my quest for Danish music. I usually don't go too far past mainstream stuff so that's probably why but I would have thought that they would still have some albums since these guys are so popular in other parts of the world! I guess that means I will just have to take it back to like, 2002 and actually go to a music store to purchase an Alphabeat album!

This post is kind of all over the place and I attribute that to my lack of sleep today, excitement for study break, and having too much to blog about!

Summer Nights

Yes, I am in Denmark.

Yes, I realize that it is barely spring here and that it is only beginning to get warm and I have many more wonderful things left to do in Europe.

However, I can't help but be excited for summer since I just bought my summer MegaTicket!

What is this, you ask? A series of 7 country music concerts throughout the summer.

This is the first year I have done it and I couldn't be more excited! Here is the line-up:

May 27th: Country Throwdown Tour
June 4th: Brooks & Dunn with Jason Aldean
June 26th: Rascal Flatts with Kellie Pickler & Chris Young
July 11th: Toby Keith
July 23rd: Tim McGraw with Love & Theft
August 27th: Brad Paisley with Darius Rucker
October 1st: SUGARLAND!!! (My personal fave!)

So, here's to future summer nights in the beautiful Carolinas!

Maryah & I at Sugarland in Charleston, SC

Meg, Cat & I in Morehead City, NC before an epic summer night

Fave sorority sisters at Sesh's going away party, Raleigh NC

Heath & I, Labor Day weekend in Charlotte, NC

Giverny Dream

Monet memories... My mom would always get me pictures and posters of Monet's work that took over my walls of my childhood room. Naturally, I had the book "Linnea in Monet's Garden," a book that helped children learn about the impressionism art movement.

I have the most vivid memory of watching my dad look at art in museums. My memory is of him, with reading glasses on and hands clasped behind his back, getting as close as possible to the paintings to observe the brushstrokes and movement of the paint on the canvas. I didn't really understand it until I saw my first Monet painting.

When other middle-schoolers had posters of boy bands on their walls, I had Monet's water lilies, trees, boats, poppies, weeping willows, and haystacks covering my room.

The brushstrokes that looked so blurry up-close create a masterpiece when you take a few steps back. Something about Monet's work has always given me a feeling that I've never had before- the way the paintings capture nature's beauty by blending colors and light has always made me feel like everything will always be okay. It gives me chills just thinking about it.  

Okay, so you get it now. I love Monet. What's the point of this post?

The point is that I am taking a class called Impressionism in Paris. I will be spending a long weekend in Paris at the end of April. The Saturday while we are there is a French holiday. Everything, literally, everything in Paris will be closed. The only thing open? Monet's house and garden in Giverny. We will be spending the day at Monet's house and gardens. I am so excited I can't even stand it! This is amazing!!! How did I get so lucky!?