Outside the Royal Playhouse, there are no guardrails to keep you from falling into the water. You are expected to be aware of your surroundings and act accordingly. Amazing.

Loved the inside cave-like interior of the playhouse and I loved hearing about all the wonderful little details that were considered when designing the space. For example, the chairs with black woven into the red so that they would be less distracting in low light and viewed from behind. The special shape of the chairs so that you could easily turn around in them. How the backstage and office areas were built so as to encourage different areas to interact with each other. 

Also I enjoyed the star-trek like sliding doors into the bathrooms.

It seems to me, considering all of these little details like the Danes seem to do, results in a better, more rich, theater going experience all around. Its this attention to detail in most things the Danes make or do, that probably helps them to be the happiest country. After all, when you’re not cursing at something for not working right, or not being annoyed by bad planning and stupidity, you’d have a lot more time to be happy.

Also noticed today a blank wall outside the Royal Playhouse with little paper signs placed on it that read: “Please do not tag here. This will be used for a mural.” so Danish! So polite! and even more shocking: no tags! people actually didn’t tag it!

Love Denmark so far.

Also fascinated by the female urinals. Interesting idea.

Getting ready to head out for Distortion street parties! Hoping to get my european dance on!

So, got locked on the roof of the museum. Yeah.

But, because of this, I got to ride my bike home solo and get myself lost and turned around a bit. I actually enjoyed this. There’s something a little exhilarating about panicking and then realizing you can figure something out on your own. I feel like I know the city a little better now.

At the Glyptotek there was so much amazing work, I mean literally amazing. The sculpture is what most fascinated me. I was awestruck at how some of them appeared to be actual people getting ready to move. The Burghers of Calais got to me the most. Although the proportions were slightly off, the movement and emotion of the figures…wow, just wow.

But yeah, ruined that nice peaceful feeling by getting myself stuck on the roof. ugh. 

Took the bigger regional train to some palaces today. Away from the city you get more of a sense of what the actual country of Denmark looks likes landscape-wise. It’s surprising to me how lush and green and flowering everything is. It reminds me a lot of Portland or Parts of Virginia.

We all got off at the wrong stop at first and ended up at the Queen’s summer palace. Which was alright by me, since we got a little bit of time to explore around the palace and town. Ashlee and I went into the park that surrounded the palace and it was almost magical with how green and lush everything was. The path at first had a canopy of trees overhead so it was like a green tunnel, eventually we turned along another path which led to the grounds behind the palace. there we saw monuments and statues and another path leading off into more trees. So of course we followed that one, there we discovered these enormous trees with HUGE central trunks and then lots of smaller offshoot trunks. In total the tree was probably 50 feet across and made a huge shaded canopy underneath its branches. It was like the Keebler elves tree, I kept expecting a door to pop open on the side of the trunk and smell baking cookies.

It was at this point, my alarm I’d set on my phone went off to remind us to meet back with everyone. Ashlee and I started walking back and we ran into a deer on the path and we started snapping pictures. At this point we checked the time and realized we were very late meeting everyone so she and I started running back to the train station.

Back on train and on to Fredricksborg castle! This place amazed me, although much of it is rebuilt, the attention to detail in EVERYTHING, from the tiniest inlays on chairs to the tiles on a wall with unique hunting scenes carved into each to the cieling of the palace church to the grand ballroom. AMAZING. seeing this amount of attention to detail makes me realize, most of what we see in the U.S. are just cheap, plastic, disney-world copies of the rest of the world.

Walking through the gardens was another amazing experience. Although I tend to prefer wilder, more natural looking gardens as opposed to the more manicured ones here, the light was just right and made everything glow in a golden-warm green. 

Hope my pictures from today all come out the way I want them too.

I used to ride a mountain bike, a lot. Like I mean 30+ miles a week, and I enjoyed it, and I had a pretty kick-ass bike for then too. I do not have a kick-ass bike in Copenhagen, I have a heavy, crap-tastic POS with coaster breaks (coaster breaks?!) and gears that slip! My butt is so sore from the men’s seat on the POS I swear I have bruises, for real. But, I have a basket! This will make getting groceries and carrying stuff around substantially easier.

We took a bike tour of architectural sites today, and honestly I’m amazed by many of them, how the community is involved in much of the decision making and approval of buildings. I’m also amazed at the amount thought put into how many of the buildings and surrounding areas would be used and the attempts made to address the needs through design. For example, creating a lagoon at the man-made beach island so that it would warm the water and create a safer, more easily accessible space for children to play in the water.

The public bath at the beach was another good example. Plenty of platforms to dive or sun on with new ones appearing or disappearing as the tides changed. The tall walls to block the wind so that swimmers could stay warmer. I’m hard pressed to think of anything designed so thoughtfully for public use in Denver.

I also really enjoyed the materials opening. I bought the catalogue for the exhibition so that I can remember the names of all the materials I’d love to use to build something from. So inspiring, made me want to make a crazy giant light up sculpture of some kind. If only I could work that into a school or work project somehow. 

I feel all turned around and lost and not sure where I am at any moment during the day. Today we participated in “the amazing race” style walking tour of Copenhagen. I took so many pictures and everything is so different from back home. We saw parliament, palaces, churches, statues, etc. This was supposed to help orient us and introduce us to the city. I appreciate the effort, but I have no clue where I am! I think its going to take me getting lost to really figure this place out.

As we walked around the city I noticed how many buildings have decorative features to them, like heads popping out from above windows or animals prowling above doors, or a statue of a man throwing a javelin appearing to teeter on the edge of the top of a building.  All the shops and tourist traps are catching my eye too! Especially clothing, it’s been hot again today and I didn’t bring anything with me thats appropriate for this warmer weather, so shopping for some shorts will definitely be in order.

Thinking back to our welcome speech from the director of DIS this morning, I was surprised at how politely he asked us all to not go to Christiania because he thought it was not a nice place. I think this may have been a very stern warning if we were Danish, but it was so polite!

Also, food so far has been AMAZING. I had a Greek salad that was just fan-fucking-tastic this afternoon. I hope all the food is this good, but realistically, it can’t be, right?

I feel tired, sweaty, and gross.

Discovered getting off the plane in Toronto that Evan was also on my flight. We sat at the bar in the airport and drank. The bartender didn’t know how to make a white russian, she said she didn’t have any coffee liqueur, we had to point out that Kahlua was coffee liqueur and she had it on the shelf right behind her. We moved to a restaurant in the airport and I had poutine…and yes, it IS the Canadian answer to chile cheese fries. Met another kid who was heading to Copenhagen for a study abroad program also.

The flight from Toronto to Copenhagen was long, and I tried my best to sleep, but it’s so hard to do sitting up and crammed right up against a complete stranger. The gentleman who sat next to me was very nice, but chatty, and wanted to discuss healthcare and the existence of death panels. I was not in the mood, so I nodded politely, kept my own views private and turned on a movie, the Iron Lady with Meryl Streep. I fell asleep about 20 mins in, but never deep enough to be restful.

When we arrived in Copenhagen, it was sunny and HOT! Totally not what I was expecting at all. The drive on the bus from the airport was amazing, my first look at a non-US country. The buildings and architecture and the people on bikes and the buildings older than my whole country! Yes, yes, yes! I wanted the European experience and I’m getting it. I cannot wait to explore more, but right now I’m way too tired for any more thinking. Goodnight.

After getting dropped off at DIA by Matt this morning, I made my way to the gate for my flight. As I sat down I noticed a plane parked on the tarmac with emergency vehicles all around it…oh great! Turns out it was just something minor, but still stressful to see that right before I get onto one of the longest flights I’ve ever taken!

I’m flying through Toronto and then onto Copenhagen from there. I just plugged my headphones into the plane’s entertainment system and turned on the EDM channel. First song: Daft Punk, Around the World. Ok, you’ve got me there, I love that song. It’s followed by Above & Beyond and then Toronto native, Deadmau5’s Raise Your Weapon. Dang! I like all these songs, but they’re all radio mixes, so they’re super short without all the build-ups and drops.

The cabin of the plane is hot and smells like breath. Not bad but not good either.

When I get to Toronto, I’m gonna find a bar and maybe some poutine. I’ve never had it, but my theory is it’s the Canadian answer to Chile Cheese Fries.

Airplanes and airports are this weird limbo world where you seem to be in travel purgatory, you’re not home, but you’re not there yet either. I’m already over it, and I just want to be there already. C’mon Copenhagen!

Perfect way to deal with a hangover today: biking near the ocean, the smell of roses, sunshine and an awesome playground with beautiful Danish children playing!

When I see a bunch of raw, awesome, though provoking materials in one place, I get a similar feeling to when I would get a new lego set as a child.

“Oh boy! I could build all sorts of awesome stuff out of this!”

I think the massive conglomeration of materials I want to use would probably come out looking like a giant glitter-turd at this point, so perhaps I should think on them some more and come up with some solid ideas on things to build.

I’m particularly drawn to all of the light emitting, glowing and elictircial materials we saw. I would love to have a wall in my house made out of the cloth that glow, or the uses for cleverly hiding wire using conductive paints. or the EL-strips we saw at the opening. 

This may actually turn out to be some kind of giant light sculpture, or maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to build something and go to contribute to Burning Man.

I purchased the catalog for the materials exhibit we saw at the other center, specifically so I could look up the materials later to use.

I need to think on this more…I see a foggy idea coming into shape in the dark, murky recesses of my mind, and I feel like this one is gonna be good.

Things I will miss about Denmark:

• The lovely, polite people
• The interesting buildings
• The greenery
• How design is incorporated into almost everything (successful or not is another list)
• Random strangers do not talk to you while waiting in line somewhere (I hate this in the US)
• Public transport is easy and quick
• Riding a bike almost every day
• Having a glass of wine with lunch with no dirty “you must be an alcoholic” looks
• The food, oh my god, the food!
• Soda Pop is expensive, thereby helping me achieve my goal of cutting drastically back on diet drinks
• Cheap, GOOD wine

Things I will not miss about Denmark:

• Living in college dorm with drunk Danish girls that party, sing and dance loudly up and down the hallway in front of my door until 4:45 AM.
• Bikes that are shittier than a rusted huffy
• The sun coming up at 4:30 AM