Week 13

Well, week 13 was about close to perfect. We took refuge from Denmark's rainy weather to enjoy the sunny beaches of Croatia! This marks our first extended vacation since we have moved and the first time boarding Beannie Girl. 

Nick, of course, worked the beginning of the week before our departure, while Heather prepared for the trip. We also attended our second language class. This time, it was Heather who got frustrated with the class, well really the language, not the class. It is very hard to start all over. Our persistence and desire to learn the language will definitely be put to the test! But, after class Wednesday, we were rewarded with the knowledge that we were leaving for vacation the next morning and all we had left to do before departing was get a good night sleep. 

Thursday morning, Nick and I drug ourselves out of bed early and walked over to the train station to catch our train to the Copenhagen airport. The station is about 1 km from our apartment. The train ride was quite pretty. From Nyborg, it goes directly off the island crossing the Storebælt then continues across the island of Sjælland through farm land and forests, stopping in quaint towns before finally arriving in Copenhagen. Everything went smoothly and in no time we were boarded and on our way to Croatia. The plane was small and relatively empty. It seemed like we were barely in the air long enough to get anywhere before the wheels were touching down. In Zagreb, we had a quick layover and change of planes before arriving in Dubrovnik. 

After a full day of travel, we got settled into our hotel room and were ready for some sustenance. The hotel Nick picked was really nice with very modern decor and views overlooking Port Gruž. The hotel, one of the oldest in Dubrovnik, was once a castle known as Piccola Venezia owned by a prominent family in the region. The hotel has since been expanded, but the original buildings remain. The location on the Lapad peninsula, was perfect for us. It was far enough away from Old Town's mass of tourists, but close enough to either walk or take a quick bus to it. 

View from our hotel, Port Gruž

Our hotel

Lapad is also home to a very long pedestrian street lined with restaurants and a few shops. This is where we decided to eat our first night in town. Nick was very eager for a traditional Croatian grill plate, so that's what we got! The dish consists of several types of grilled meat, including pork, beef, chicken, and a variety of sausages. We also got potato croquettes (a first for Heather and she LOVED them) and grilled vegetables. After dinner, to our surprise, we found an ice cream shop that makes spaghetti ice! 

A happy Nick ready to dive into his dessert!
What a wonderful 1st-day-of-vacation surprise!

On Friday, we ventured into Old Town and took tours of the city and of the surrounding city walls. The city has quite a long and interesting history dating back to a time before the Common Era. Originally, the city was a stop over for Greek sailors traveling between 2 larger Greek settlements. When the Ostrogothic Kingdom fell, the city fell under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. After the crusades, if fell into Venetian rule until the mid-14th century. Between 1358 and 1808 Dubrovnik was a free-state known as the Republic of Ragusa and between the 14th and 16th centuries was one of the wealthiest regions, rivaling the Republic of Venice. In 1667, a huge earthquake leveled most of the buildings and killed several thousand inhabitants. After that, the Republic of Ragusa slowly declined until it surrendered to Napolian in 1806. Shortly thereafter it became part of the Austria-Hungary until that fell in the early 1900s and it joined the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During WWII, the city was occupied by the Italians and later the Germans. When Croatia and Slovenia decided to split from Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik was under attach for the first time ever. In late 1991, the city was under attack for about 7 months with several bombings and artillery rounds damaging the historic city and surrounding walls and killing over 100 inhabitants. Until then, the city had manged to avoid battle through diplomatic agreements or surrender. Most of the city has been repaired, although some artillery damage remains as a reminder of the conflict.       

Old Port of Dubrovnik

City bell tower

Old Town Dubrovnik with island of Lokrum in the distance 

Minčeta Tower

We are loving the views of the city & the warm Mediterranean weather

View from the wall with Church of St. Ingacija on the right

Dubrovnik's walls and coastline

Saturday, we decided to hang out pool-side for most of the day. After getting our fill of sun and relaxation, we headed back over to the Lapad pedestrian area to walk along the coast and grab a bite to eat. 

Poolside

Sunday we ventured back into Old Town to take in the museums, monasteries, churches, and historic buildings. 

Dubrovnik's staircase modeled after Rome's Spanish steps

Franciscan Monastery where one of the first and longest running pharmacies is located

Stairway in the Reactor's Place. 

H at a literal hole in the wall bar. This bar is built on the cliffs
between the fortress walls and the Adriatic. The hole in the wall was an
emergency exit to escape the city in the event of a land attack.    

Passion Fruit! 

We love small alley ways! 

After an excellent lunch of Bosnian food and a bit more wandering through town, we decided to take a ride on to the cable car to the hill above town. From there, we took in one of the most beautiful sunsets we've ever witnessed.  

Cable car from below

View of Old Town from the top of the cable car

Start of sunset

Beautiful clouds to accent the sky

Love the islands off the coast

Art

Monday we took a cruise on a 16th-century-style galleon to three Elafiti Islands: Kolocep, Šipan and Lopud. 

16th-century-style Galleon style ship

Nice cannon, Nick! 

H on the ship

Šipan

Lopud

Just below the Lopud Franciscan Monastery is the beach area
where we spent the afternoon swimming in the crystal clear Adriatic.

Monday ends week 13, but fortunately not our vacation! More next week. 

Week 12

Holy cow, 12 weeks! That's almost 3 months in Denmark. Crazy! This week was pretty low key. We went to our first Danish class, and over the weekend did a bit of relaxing and had friends from Australia join us for dinner. 

This week actually delivered the weather we were expecting before we moved here. The forecast called for seven days of rain with highs hitting the low-70s, and they were close to correct with a few days only threatening at rain. Until now, we have been amazingly spoiled with the weather. Every person we have talked to has ensured us that this is not a typical summer for Denmark and that we have totally lucked out with weather. Lucky or not, we have relished it. On average, the temperatures since our arrival have been in the high-70s to low-80s with a few days touching the 90s. In our opinion, it has been nearly perfect weather, until this week that is. But even this week, although we did get quite a bit of precipitation, but there were really only a few days when it was overcast all day. When the sun did make its appearance, it really made itself known! Almost every day this week were either radiant rainbows or striking sunsets. 

Tuesday: Rainbow after the gym at dinner time.

Another view of the double rainbow Tuesday night 

Wednesday: rainbow before language class

Thursday: serene sunset before bed

Friday: striking sunset - one of the most stunning yet. 

After nearly 3 months here we are starting to get into a routine. This includes gym nights and relaxing nights, and new this week, Danish nights. This week we started our Wednesday night language class. It lasts for about 3 or 3.5 hours each week. Our initial impression is that this is going to be a very challenging language to learn to speak. There are several sounds in the Danish language that we, as English-speakers, have never made and have no idea how to go about making. Additionally, a large portion of the letters are silent or have a barely audible sound. If you are like Heather, you cannot really hear them even if the same word is repeated over and over and over. Nick is having less challenges with the written language, as it shares many of the same (or similar) words with German. Luckily, the grammar seems like it will be much simpler than German, and in several cases, simpler than English too. 

We have heard it is also difficult to learn because as soon as Danes hears you speak, they know Danish is NOT your native tongue and almost always automatically switch to English. The laughter that arises from your attempt at speaking is also not so encouraging. In our class, there are four other students all of whom are au pairs. They seem to be getting along with the language much easier than us. Our guess is that this is because 1, they have children to learn it from and 2, they have to speak it as the children don't know English yet. We'll get there though. Hopefully, by the end of our stay, we will be fairly fluent.  

Aside from language classes, the rest of the week was fairly routine. Over the weekend we decided to stay in town and relax. After being gone two weekends in a row, and with our trip to Croatia scheduled for the following week, we decided we needed to hang out at home and just enjoy it. On Saturday, we had a nice relaxing morning on the balcony sipping coffee and in the afternoon we took a trip into Odense to do a bit of grocery shopping. Sunday, before preparing for dinner at our place with some friends from Australia, we went for a walk with Bella. Although there was a drizzling rain, Heather and Bella took Nick along one of their favorite jogging routes through the castle grounds and along some forested trails. On our way back to the apartment, we stopped quickly at the bakery to pick up bread and pastries for dinner. By the time we got back to the apartment, it was raining quite hard. Luckily, the bread and sweeties did not get soggy and we did not melt. We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for guests. Nick grilled two tender pork loins marinated in a delicious nectarine chutney he concocted, and Heather prepared some caprese and bruchetta for an appetizer and a roasted potato and vegetable dish to compliment the pork. We had a great time with our friends and enjoyed sharing our expat experiences and love for Pearl Jam with each other. The evening was topped off by the most vivid rainbow of the week. 

Stunning rainbow to end the weekend

Monday was overcast and a good day for taking it easy. Nick was under the weather and stayed home in bed the majority of the day. Heather's big accomplishment was getting a massage in the morning and baking chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon. Ah, retired life is good...

Week 11

Week 11 flew by and before we knew it we had successfully hosted our first dinner party at the apartment, attended our first play, signed up for language classes, and tackled "primitive camping." 

Nick, of course, spent the week at work and Heather busied herself with preparations to host their first dinner party on Wednesday. We invited some friends over for dinner before heading into town for a play. In our small town each year, the theatre company puts on a musical. This year it was My Fair Lady. They build an outdoor stage on the ramparts near the castle and for about 3 weeks each summer they put on the show. 

My Fair Lady Set

After enjoying a great dinner, we all headed over to the play. It was in Danish and since Nick has never seen it in English, he had very little idea what was going on. Heather was in a bit better shape, although she really had to rack her memory to recall the story-line from a movie she hadn't seen in at least 15 years. Luckily, our companions were much better off with their Danish and could explain to us what was going on. Despite the language barrier, the music and acting was quite good and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. There was a full orchestra and the sound quality was impressive, especially for a temporary, outdoor stage. It didn't hurt that we were able to bring snacks, including a good bottle of red wine and some of Heather's delicious cheesecake. We are looking forward to next year's production (hopefully we will be able to understand Danish by then)!

After a successful dinner party, Heather spent the rest of her week preparing for their weekend excursion, a camping trip at Møns Klint. The area boasts a 6 kilometer stretch of chalk cliffs standing around 120 meters tall with a sheer drop to the Baltic Sea below and behind that, protected beech forests and scrub/pasture land. The area is home to 18 varieties of orchids, as well was the Peregrine falcon, which apparently is the fastest animal on the planet.  

With the bags all packed up when Nick got home from work Friday afternoon at 2pm, we were ready to head out on our trip. After a short stop over at the language school to register for our free Danish language class, we were off on our weekend adventure. After a two hour drive, we arrived at the park at the far eastern edge of the island of Møn, located just south of Sjelland, about 5 pm. 5, that's when we would have been getting off work if we were still in the US, but here, we are already at our weekend destination! There is really something to be said for these working hours! After driving around for a bit (because things really are not very well labeled here), we found the parking area closest to the camp grounds. 

Side note on camping: Tent camping actually in the woods is not common in Denmark. It is most common for people to "camp" in at large camp sites with several people. Mostly, camping is done in RVs, although there are some people who camp in tents. These designated areas typically have full restroom facilities, power, water, and even wifi. Not quite the definition of camping we are used to. After a lot of research, we found a few places to go "primitive camping." Primitive camp sites are designated sites that you must hike into. Typically they include an established fire pit, and are the only areas authorized for people to camp overnight in the wilderness. They can either be reserved and/or used on a first-come-first-serve basis. This gets a bit tricky though as you will have to evict the campers yourself if you reserved the area and they did not. "Wild camping" where you hike into a location and set up camp anywhere you find a flat spot is illegal here in Denmark. Although, it is legal to sleep on the beach, as long as you don't set up a tent. 

Back to our camping experience though: after parking, Nick, Heather and Bella took off without our packs to find the campground. We have learned that the trail systems here are not well marked, so before walking through the area with 40 pound packs on, we wanted to scout the place out. That was a good choice, because after walking around several different trails, we finally stumbled upon the campsite about 1.5 hours later. With the campsite finally identified, we headed back to the car (a mere 1/2 mile away), grabbed our packs and hiked back in to set up camp. We quickly set up the tent and then Nick went to work starting a fire while Heather set up the tent and got us all settled in. 

1st camping trip in Denmark

We spent the evening relaxing by the fire, relishing in the silent, bug-free environment. The next day, after drinking our lattes (yep, that's right, Heather packed the percolator, espresso, and milk...very "primitive"), we set off to hike around the area and see these famous chalk cliffs. 

Bella and Heather contently enjoying "primitive camping" with lattes.

Unfortunately for us, the day was quite rainy and before we could get too far we were forced back into our tent to take refuge from the rain. 

Bella took advantage of the rain to nap in the tent

After a bit of lunch, reading, and napping, the rain died down to a drizzle and we headed back out again. Luckily, the trails meander through beech tree forests with thick canopies that blocked most of the water. 

Happy campers now that the rain has subsided to a drizzle

Chalk cliffs from above

Stunning view of the cliffs falling into the Baltic Sea

We returned back to our campsite from our 10 mile hike to find some new guests. While we were out, a small group of friends found our campsite and decided it looked like a good place to stop for the night. We were thrilled to find a fire going in the pit (we still are not sure how they got it lit with all the rain) and happily warmed ourselves by it. They were a very diverse group of about 8 who came from Copenhagen on a whim and consisted of both men and women from Iran, Slovakia, Latvia, Turkey, Pakistan and Dominican Republic. It was quite the eclectic group and we found it quite funny that there was not a Dane among us. For dinner, we took advantage of the fire they had started and grilled our chicken breasts and peppers. Afterwards, we enjoyed some of Heather's cheesecake with the added delight of fresh blackberries that were growing adjacent to the campsite. We were roughing it! 

Sunday was a clear day and after breaking down the tent and hiking back out, we decided to walk down, and later back up, the 484 stairs leading to the sea at the base of Møns Klint. The stairs were definitely worth it. The shoreline between the cliffs and the sea was narrow and made up of small obsidian rock, smoothed by the water. The contrast between the white cliffs, the black rocks, and the blue-green sea was breathtaking.

View of Møns Klint from the stairs

We're enjoying going down...wonder how happy we look going up

The family walking along the cliffs

Swans heading out into the Baltic Sea.
They are the national bird of Denmark.

If you look hard, you can see the stairs
leading back up to the top of the cliff 

After walking along the shore for a while and then hoofing it back up the 484 stairs, we headed towards home to enjoy an evening of Bears preseason football on the internet. Thank you NFL network! Of course, the first football game of the season demands pizza, so we grabbed a few and settled comfortably onto the couch to watch the Bears beat the Eagles. Great ending to a good week! 

Monday took Nick back to work while Heather aired out the camping gear to get it back into storage. Thus ends the excitement of week 11 in Denmark! Next week: language class. Wish us luck!