Denmark 2013: Efterårsferie (Fall Break)

I started off my fall break by taking a train from Odense to Copenhagen to meet with my cousin Sadia and her husband. Recently Sadia and Keith have been living abroad and are currently living in London so I haven't seen them very often recently! Since London is closer to Denmark than Texas is, they figured they would come see me while they were nearby. We met at the train station and then headed to Tivoli Gardens, which is a 169 years old amusement park. We spent the day riding rides and catching up on everything that's happened. For dinner, Sadia and I decided to take the bus from our hotel to Nyhavn. We ate at a really nice Italian restaurant and then walked along the harbor. The next morning, Sadia had a bike tour around Copenhagen planned for the three of us. Since it was raining and we had no rain clothes, we decided we would do a Segway tour instead. We rode around downtown Copenhagen looking pretty lame, but it was a ton of fun! We spent the rest of the rainy day in museums until we met Nathalie (our old exchange student) for dinner. We ate right by the metro station and then all took the metro to the train station. After spending an amazing weekend with Sadia and Keith, they headed back to London and I headed to Dragør to stay with Nathalie. It's funny how no matter how long ago it was that Nathalie lived with us, we always feel as if it was just yesterday! We spent the night catching up and watching movies while eating american candy. (Just like old times) Nathalie's mom mad an amazing brunch the next morning with bacon and pancakes! Nat, Andreas (Nat's brother), and I then took the metro into Copenhagen for lunch and shopping. Copenhagen is such a nice city and it was fun just hanging out with each other. Nat's family took me out to a nice restaurant for dinner in the city before we headed back to their house. Nat and I made cookies and then spent the rest of the night watching scary movies with Andreas. It was such an amazing time getting to see them once again.

I took the train back to Odense the next day where I was picked up by my host grandparents. The next morning my host family and I headed out to the west coast of Denmark to a town called Søndervig. On the way there, we stopped at the famous Lego Land in Billund. The few times I had gone to Denmark before, I always asked my dad if we could go to Lego Land and his response was always, "If we're going to Denmark we're going to see castles and history." Well thanks to my host family, I finally got to go to Lego Land. It was very fascinating seeing what could be made out of only legos. In the center of the park, there was a whole mini world with many famous landmarks built out of Legos. We spent the whole day at Lego Land and then drove to the condos they rented for the rest of the break. I find it very funny how a car ride to get to the very west coast of Denmark from Odense is considered a "long" drive, yet it is only a two hour drive! In Texas, you wouldn't be in Austin from Sugar Land! When we first arrived in the city that we were going to be staying at, I noticed that just last summer I was in the exact same city having ice cream with my dads old host family! We spent the rest of our days going to the indoor swimming pool and walking around the cities along the coast. It was a very nice vacation!

As for today, I'm back in school! Since they don't have thanksgiving break here, our next holiday is Christmas break!!! Hope everyone back home is doing great! Miss y'all! Here are some pictures from the week. :)