I can hear the bells

The rarely-seen Copenhagen sun poked its head out today, leading me to think that I was still in sunny California. I was waiting near a bus plaza this morning for a bus to take me to Kronberg (Hamlet's Castle) when I realized, in my relaxed state, that I could very possibly be in San Jose right now. But then I heard the bells. They rang and rang, reminding me with each toll that I was in Europe. In Denmark. The place I have been dreaming of for almost an entire year. And I just couldn't help but smile.

It has been a crazy few days. Friday night a Dane, Louise, taught me how tomake traditional Danish cake, since they only sell one kind of ridiculously-expensive, gross cake mix. Yes, family, Hannah helped make food. And it was to die for. And yes, Grace, I got to use one of our two Danish phrases we learned on our way to PA (no, not I love you).

Then the next day, as in Saturday, I finally met my visiting family, aka the family that takes care of me and makes sure I don't starve while I am here. Now I knew that Danes were always on time, but I had no idea how exacty they schedule their time. If a Dane says, oh dinner is around seven, its not around seven. It is at seven. 7:01, you are late. And everyone who knows me knows that I rarely show up as early as 7:01. But listen to my schedule with my family for the day, and yes, it was just as amazing as it sounds:

1. arrive in Viby Sjaelland at 15:46, get picked up by Karin, the mom

2. Have juice on the terrace with Karin and their 19 year old daughter Maja

3. walk out to their fields (yes, they live on a farm) and have a picnic with coffee (the first cup i have had in Denmark! it costs about $7 in Copenhagen for black coffee!), bread, butter, and cakes

4. Make dinner with Maja and their 16 year old son Peter (we made something like really yummy Danish meatloaf with plumb sauce)

5. While dinner is cooking, sit down to appetizers of shrimp-stuffed avocadoes with amazing dipping sauce (yes i ate and enjoyed the shrimp!)

6. eat dinner, clean up, and sit down to watch a movie with Danish cookies for dessert (laura, this pic is for you)

7. go to bed

8. wake up to a huge breakfast and a packed lunch of smoresbrod and liverpaste for my trip to kronberg castle

9. repeat on thursday night

As for Kronberg castle, the famous place where Hamlet declares that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, well, you'll just have to keep imagining it. All I'll say was, it was amazing.