Wishful Wednesday

Recently an awesome friend of mine took me on a fab vacation (thanks, K!). It was a great little escape and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it (too bad it only took me a couple of minutes from beginning to end, but hey, these days you take what you can get).

Today, I'm feeling like going on a little trip myself. This time to my home-away-from-home.

Some people like to quote the song "I left my heart in San Fransisco." I'm sure it's a great city, but alas I've never been there so there is no way I left my heart there. However, sometimes I feel like a piece of my heart was ripped from my chest and is pulsating somewhere in the land of the Vikings.
The land of open-faced sandwiches and Elephant beer.
The land of "Dannebrog "
Hans Christian Andersen
really good ham and the Little Mermaid.

I want to go to Denmark! I was an exchange student in Denmark during my senior year of high school (is it really 19 years ago that I ventured forth into the great unknown and started my year as an exchange student? - egads). I lived with three wonderful families during the course of my year abroad and I will never forget them. I am still in close contact with two of those families and they are really like extended family to me. They are like cousins and aunts and uncles that you don't get to see very often but are always in your thoughts and are in your heart forever. I also began a few friendships in Denmark that are still going strong - we email, send Christmas cards, and over the years have rejoiced in many things not the least of which were the births of each others' children. My last visit to Denmark was in 1999 - to celebrate my completion of graduate school (and a hellacious 9-month internship) Rick and I took a trip to my second homeland (I am an Honorary Dane, don't ya know...) to visit my "families" and so I could show him many of the things I love about Denmark. One of my dreams is to someday be able to visit Denmark again with Rick and the girls to share with them the little country that I love so very much.

Today I want to take a virtual vacation to Denmark - wanna come along? I can still get by on my somewhat rusty Danish so I'll happily serve as tour guide!

Velkommen til Danmark! (Welcome to Denmark!)

After a restful non-stop flight where we have enjoyed a delicious meal of smørrebrød (those delightful open-faced sandwiches) with ice cold Aalborg Aquavit, a little nap, and a great in-flight movie, and where the flight attendants pass around wet steaming hot towels to invigorate and refresh us - we arrive at our destination - the lovely city of Copenhagen (or København (kö'bənhoun') to those fabulous Danes). Sidenote: of course the food will be excellent and we will be flying first class because this is my overactive imagination vacation!

First stop? Tivoli Gardens, of course! It's a short walk from the main train station right in the center of Copenhagen. We can stroll through the beautiful gardens enjoying the flowers and the fountains, take a ride through H.C. Andersen's fairy tales on the "Flying Trunk" ride (think It's a Small World, Danish style!), see the park from high above on on the Blue Sapphire ferris wheel, perhaps take in a few of the more death-defying rides and then grab a Tuborg and a bite to eat at an outdoor cafe. Finally, we can catch a show at the outdoor theater or listen to some live music.

When we have had our fill of good food and a mix of quaint and hair-raising rides it will be time to catch a train heading south (but not before we locate all my awesome Copenhagen-dwelling friends and drag them along on our adventure along the highways and byways of good ole DK!). Our next stop will be the island of Lolland! Home of Jeanne's Danish "family" and friends and also the locale of the famous Smiling Water Tower! No trip to Denmark would be complete without seeing this shining face:



After all, she is the claim to fame of my beloved "hometown" in Denmark! Isn't she adorable? We will spend a good deal of time hobnobbing with the Lolland Elite and eating good home-cooked Danish food (I'm sure my host moms will be eager to feed the hordes of folk I'll be bringing along on this excursion!).

From our 'base camp' on the island of Lolland we can take a drive and see some wild animals at Knuthenborg Park (yeah, I'm serious - there was some Danish dude who lived on a huge estate in southern Denmark and he started collecting exotic animals and established the park which has grown into quite a large attraction with tigers, monkeys, zebras, and the like), then we can drive out to the island of Møn and check out Møns Klint (White Cliffs of Mon) which requires a bit of a hike down and then up some pretty steep steps but the views are worth it! I can then take you on a brief but picturesque tour of my "hometown" and the other town a short train ride away where I spent most of my time hanging out with my friends and eating real danish pastry went to school.

While we are at it we can tour a few ancient churches - lots of them dot the countryside and are white with red roofs like this:

and they have the coolest artwork in the ceilings like this:

And, of course there are also tons of catherdrals (like this one in Roskilde) to visit that are full of history, ornate decorations, dead people in tombs and cool stuff like that! One of the funniest (not funny ha-ha, but funny strange) about Denmark is that there seem to be churches everywhere but no one really goes to church. But, they are certainly proud of the history of their churches and they work hard to preserve them for future generations.

After a very hyggeligt time visiting my family and friends on Lolland we will board a ferry to the island of Fyn and make a stop in the town of Odense. Here we can visit the H.C. Andersen House (and see some of his amazing paper cuts as well as his literary works), the Odense Palace, and the 19th century era open-air museum Funen Village (think Plymouth Plantation or Sturbridge Village and you get the drift).

Our tour continues on the mainland of Denmark, Jutland (or Jylland, which sounds like "you-lan" to the Danes...btw, it is often said that when speaking Danish it sounds like you are trying to talk with a cold potato in your mouth...I've tried it and it's true)! We will take the scenic tour along the coastline where we will see rolling green hills (the largest ones I ever saw in the flat, flat land of Denmark) and visit, among other things - Legoland in Billund - by way of a town called Middelfart (a town name that never ceases to amuse the potty-humor-driven 4-year-old in me) - the city of Århus where we can visit Old Town (another fabulous open-air musuem) and this rather interesting looking museum that I had never heard of nor visited before!

And last but not least, we will travel up to the northernmost tip of Denmark - an area known as the Skaw (or Skagen - say it with me now, "Skay-in"). It is in this area of Denmark that you can see two separate bodies of salt water beating up against each other mid-ocean and literally stand astride them as they crest! This area has long been known as an artists' community because of it's natural beauty - in fact, it's like another sandy spit of land I know and love not far from here but it lacks a certain level of bawdiness (it's kinda like P'town without the drag queens)! There have been many painters who have captured the essense of Skagen's beauty, including a number of famous Scandinavian painters who visited this area in the late 19th/early 20th century. I've loved the work of Peder Severin Krøyer and many of his most famous works were created on this little bit of sandy beach.

After many, many miles, along which we have eaten many great meals with dear friends, thrown back one too many shots of Gammel Dansk and Aquavit and quenched our thirst aplenty on Tuborg and Carlsberg (with those same dear friends), it is time to bid our little, sweet country of Demark farewell (or farvel, in local speak...."fah-vell").

And I will never, ever, ever leave my adopted homeland without saying "Vi ses senere!" (See you later!)

Mange, mange KAEMPE STORE Knus og Kram til mine danske venner og "familier"! Jeg savner jer alle og haaber at vi ses snart igen. (Many, many REALLY HUGE hugs and kisses to my Danish friends and "families"! I miss you all and hope to see you again soon.)

*sniff*