Köpenhamn!

This past weekend we went on a new adventure! We went to Köpenhamn, or Copenhagen as its spelled in English. Saturday morning we woke up early, finished cleaning the house, and did the rest of our laundry. Then we went to meet Anton's parents at the train station. We had fika and discussed what the plan would be for the day, as well as what is new in our houses. We talked about how I am teaching Anton Spanish, or at least basic Spanish. That way I can keep my brain in "foreign language mode" when I am speaking Swedish and don't know a word or phrase. A lot of my problem with speaking is that if I don't know a phrase, and have to say it in English, it gets hard to go back to speaking Swedish. After having fika we hopped on a train and we were off on a new adventure! We were on our way to Köpenhamn. I was excited. Anton tried to catch some sleep on the train ride. I was too excited to sleep. Once we got there I was excited. It was bigger than Malmö. It was pretty darn different too.



Near the train station there was an amusement park! Anton forgot his camera at home, so I do not have many pictures from this trip, but it is relatively close to here, so I am sure that we will be going back sometime. I do have access to pictures of the things that we saw though via the wonderful internet! Here is a picture of the amusement park Tivoli:
(for the record it is not even open yet. It opens April 12th)

I think its interesting that its right near the city's center train station. I also thought it was neat that when we went up in the tower, that I am going to tell you about in a moment, that we could see so many of the exhibits from above. So after walking past the amusement park, we went on to the city hall. Where the tower is located. Heres a picture: 

  The first thing that we noticed was that there was a wedding going on. After that we went to explore. It was really cool that not only did we get to go up in the tower, (which I will talk more about in a moment) we got to see one of the neatest inventions I have ever seen in my life. Its a world clock. Now I know you must be thinking, "Whats so special about a world clock?" And I was kind of thinking that too, but after seeing it, and looking at all the details, and realizing that I was in the presence of one amazing invention. I know what was so special. Its called Jens Olsen's world clock, and heres a picture:

The clock consists of over 14,000 parts. The clock must be wound once a week. Displays include lunar and solar eclipses, positions of the stellar bodies, and a perpetual calendar, in addition to the time. The fastest gear completes a revolution each ten seconds, and the slowest will have completed a full circuit every 25,753 years. Crazy right? It was super neat to be able to see that, and watch it work, and just to look at the little details. Although you cant really see them in the picture, there are TONS of little details engraved on the clock. After looking at the clock, we got the chance to go up in the tower... Now, I dont like heights very much, and REALLY dont like narrow stairs. I had a hard time, and about half way, almost gave up, because I was afraid. Then a stranger told me that the stairs the rest of the way were not so narrow, and that she is afraid of heights too, and that its not so bad. I got up the wooden stairs to what I thought was the top floor.... I was wrong. There was another set of winding stairs that were worse than the first. I conquered my fears though, and kept going up. I had gotten that far, and decided that I needed to get to the top. I finally got to the top and was amazed by the view.  Here is the one picture that we have: 

It was a bit foggy, on a clearer day obviously you would have been able to see more. I was alright though. It was definitely worth going up. It was beautiful. The walk down was way worse than the walk up. My legs were feeling shaky by the time we got to the end! It was 300 stairs each way, it was about 350 feet up in the air. I definitely thought it was worth it though to get over my fears and do it! I don't know if I would do it again though.  After that we went down the road to a HUGE shopping area. I saw so many shops. It was hard to decide where I wanted to look in. After a bit of walking down that road though, we all were hungry. We wound up going to an irish pub, and Anton's parents and I all got the same thing. The bars sports special which consisted of: a giant cheeseburger with bacon, fries, and a pint of carlsberg beer. It was delicious. After that we went walking down that street again. We found the lego store, which I thought was amazing! I really hope that I get the chance to go to legoland. I think seeing all the lego sculptures is just the neatest thing. They also had a wall of lego pieces that you could buy separately it was like a wall of candy. Sort of like this: 

After that we went to the disney store. Of course Anton and I being the little kids that we were decided to get a nalle puh (winnie the pooh) set of plushies. They really are adorable. It definitely made me feel better after climbing that tower. After going past all the stores, we came to a street the borders the water. This street to be exact: 

And it is just as beautiful as the picture looks. Although it was a bit chilly, I was alright, and the sun was starting to come out at this point. Once we got to the end of the road, we were actually at the theater! We didn't go to see a play, but we did get to see the theater, and the opera house, both of which have gorgeous architecture  as seen here: 

After sitting and resting there for a while, we had fika, and then headed back towards the station to head home. We walked a different route home rather than walking directly back the way we came, because we wanted to see a building called "The black diamond," which is actually the royal library. The inside was indeed royal. I could spend an entire day exploring it and still not see all of it. It was gorgeous, but heres a picture of the outside: 

The building itself was built in 1999. It is formed by two black cubes that are slightly tilted over the street. In the middle of them there is an eight story atrium whose walls are white and wave-shaped, with a couple of transversal corridors that link both sides, and balconies in every store. The atrium's exterior wall is made of glass, so you can see the sea and, in the other shore, Christianshavn's luxury buildings. Three bridges connect the Black Diamond with the old part of the Royal Library. It was amazing to say the least. After that we headed back to the train station, and came home!

 We made chicken fingers and mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner. We all then watched a movie. It was called "Up in the air" and it starred George Clooney.

 Its based off of a novel. I really recommend it, because the whole movie was fantastic. I liked the end, because it was up to you to decide what decision he made. I think it was just very interesting the way that his character progressed throughout the whole story. 

On Sunday morning Anton's dad had to get ready for work, and his mom had to catch a train home. It was nice to have them here though. I hope that we get the chance to have them come again sometime! After they went home, Anton and I discussed plans for the day, and came to the conclusion that we should go see a movie. We actually went to go see two movies! On the way to see the first movie, we noticed that they were handing out free popsicles and fudge bars in the square near the movie theatre, that was just a bonus surprise to make the day even better. 

 First we went to see "The hunger games" I thought it was interesting. I liked the movie, I also especially liked the theatre that we saw it in. We saw it in the Royal theatre here in Malmö. It has a HUGE screen. For those of you who have been to the extreme theatre at rave cinemas at fallen timbers, its bigger than that. and the sound system is like none i have experienced in a movie theatre. Basically no matter where you are in the theatre you get the same sound. Its wonderful. The seats were especially comfortable, they had high backs and headrests, and were situated in a way that you could not put your feet up, which is nice, because then you dont have to deal with peoples feet being in your way when you are trying to see! It was nice to be so comfortable.

The movie itself was actually really cool. It was interesting to think how different life would be if we lived in a world like the one pictured. I think that it was definitely worth seeing. I think eventually I will get around to reading the books, maybe if I find a copy in English here that would be the next thing I will read. 

After the first movie, we decided it would be nice to walk home, and relax before the next movie. We walked through the park near the library. I chased a duck, and then watched it charge at a group of ducks. It was fun. The weather was gorgeous. My legs surprisingly were not hurting too badly, even after all the walking from the day before. at about  8:15, after eating dinner, we headed out to catch the bus to the next movie. 

The second movie that we saw was titled "John Carter" It was very interesting, and out of the two that we saw I liked this one more. The only problem that I had was that my eyes cant focus well with 3D movies, at least not for the whole length. I got most of the way through, then things started going blurry. And mostly it was the subtitles. The only other thing that I had problems with was, during part of the movie the aliens did not speak English... they were not speaking Swedish either, but the subtitles were only in Swedish. Which caused me some problems, because I couldn't hear Anton translating over the noises from the movie. Although I don't really think that  it was a huge deal. The movie was still fantastic, and I completely recommend that everyone go see it if you have the chance. 

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. I hope to be able to update soon with a picture of me with my certificate from school! (I haven't gotten it yet) and Next time I update I will be posting some translated recipes! 

Jag älskar er allihop. Hej då.