#9 - Replace "Cope" In "Copenhagen" With Your Favorite Verb

Last weekend, I went to Copenhagen, Denmark with three other lovely girls. It hadn't originally made it on my list of places to see, but I got invited and I liked the group that was going, and heard Copenhagen was a great city. For the trip, however, we did something a little unorthodox for vagabond college students: we stayed in a five-star Marriott. 

Now, why in the name of many divinities would four college students do that, you may be asking?

After surveying the Copenhagen hostels and realizing that we were most likely going to be paying anywhere from 35-50 euro for two nights, Bralow (my own personal Lord and Savior) nonchalantly mentioned that her parents had Marriott rewards, and we could check the prices on that--just for fun. So, we do, and lo and behold, two nights in a five star hotel is 45 euro, as opposed to a potentially grimy hostel for just a few euro less. Needless to say, we booked it.

We took an overnight train to Copenhagen and didn't bother to spring for a couchette/sleeping car. Huge mistake. Even for someone like me--and I can generally sleep anywhere if I'm tired enough--trying to sleep in the seats was excruciating. I'd left the Castle coughing a lot, and on the overnight train (when I should've been sleeping...) I started to feel the tingle in my nose, that ominous sensation that can only mean sniffles. Once we arrived at Copenhagen, I had a head cold to be sure, but since those are easily survivable, we checked in, dropped our stuff, and all headed out for a walk and some lunch. The walking was nice; we saw the Little Mermaid statue (underwhelming) and had two great meals before and after. MAN dinner was so good; we went to a Mediterranean Vegetarian Buffet and it was amazing. Then, we went back and, after a stint in the hotel's steam room and sauna (!!!!!!), passed out in the million thread-count sheets.

And I woke up with a fever.

If I were going to get a fever on any travel trip, my immune system's choice to crap out while I was staying in a five-star hotel was a fine, fine choice. Saturday, instead of walking around in the cold and having to stand in several museums, I laid in an astoundingly comfortable bed all day, lounging in my Marriott robe that I got in the steam room and that accidentally made its way into my backpack when we left. I had as much ice as I could possible want and one of two English-speaking channels playing random but entertaining movies all day. I even got room service for dinner!

Sunday, they got up and went to another museum, while I got up and packed, still feeling a bit feverish. Then, we walked around outside after checking out of the hotel. Had another GREAT vegetarian meal--a vegetarian breakfast at this quiet little café--and saw Christiania, which is/was a hippie commune in the center of Copenhagen. Now, it's just a real sketch "artists' colony" where a bunch of scary, thin drug dealers glare at you from barrel fires. After that, we headed to the train station for another horribly uncomfortable overnight train.

Unfortunately, I have NO pictures whatsoever from Copenhagen--and not because I was bed-ridden most of the time. My camera batteries died right before leaving, and since it takes a lot for me to get my camera out anyway, I decided to just leave it at home for a weekend. 

It's weird to think that I've got less than a month here--only one more real trip on my own before my family comes to visit me. It's to London though, just me and Bralow, so it should be a winner.

#8 - Czech'd Ourselves Before We Almost Wrecked Ourselves (In Heidelberg)

Our school "spring trip" was to Prague, Czech Republic this year! I was personally very excited about getting to go to Prague, since I'd always been envious of my high school peers: they went to Prague our senior year and all got "Czech Me Out" t-shirts--and I wanted one really badly.

Needless to say, I GOT ONE. 

Besides my cheesy souvenir, Prague was great. It's a really interesting city because it's such a melting pot of different things: culture, architecture, art, people, etc. I spent most of my time in Prague with my World Since 1914 history class, but over the weekend I got to see a tour of the city, the Cathedral at the Prague Castle, Terezin (a Jewish ghetto and prison right outside of Prague), an awful American-made museum on Communism, AND I fought the power here at the Castle to be allowed to go off on my own one afternoon to see the Mucha museum. Alfons Mucha, essentially the father of Art Nouveau, is by far my favorite artist, and it was great to be able to walk through his tiny museum and really take my time, by myself. 

A Mucha stained glass window in the Cathedral.

Photo credit: Nick Heller.

After our organized Prague trip ended on Monday, Rebecca Bradshaw and I headed out to Germany, where we decided to go for our "spring break" of six days. We chose to do this 1) because we both had Eurail, which meant we didn't have to pay for ANY travel for six days, 2) we're both acting students, and Germany's got a great theatre reputation. So we did five cities in six days: Dresden, Berlin, Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Munich. Dresden was my favorite, and Heidelberg probably my least favorite, only because we walked around in the dark for three hours in the pouring rain with our backpacks on trying to find a hostel--and then the hostel a) sucked and b) was expensive. We saw shows in Dresden, Berlin and Munich--the Munich show, at the Kammerspiele, was by far the best. It was an absolutely incredible physical comedy that would be much easier for me to gush about in person, so I will.

The view from the Heidelberg Castle.

All in all, the trip was great. The Germans--though we'd heard from some of our peers that they could be a bit harsh--were incredibly nice the whole trip, and the country is really beautiful. Not to mention, German actors literally get 10-15 minute curtain calls. Like, no joke. Why on earth am I trying to become an actor in the United States?

For my very few Prague and Germany pictures, click here!

#5 - Paris, Je T'aime

So. Paris.

Now, I took two years of French in high school, having always thought it a beautiful language. Since then, I've made seriously half-hearted attempts to learn more of it on my own, because I love languages and I'm usually really ashamed I'm not proficient in another one besides English. Besides that, though, I've never really had any overwhelming inclinations towards the French. I think they're a lovely set of people who've got good food and one of the most beautiful languages.

I didn't have any preemptive notions about how I'd find Paris. Didn't think I'd love it. Was excited to go. Thought it would be easier for me to get around, with my basic understanding of the language. Other sentences without a clarified subject.

I'll need to see if I can get testaments from the people I went with clarifying the extremely bizarre comfortability and unnatural naturalness that occurred within me on that trip.

I fit. With the Parisian lifestyle, I mean. It was rather indescribable, what happened. So rather than describe it, I'll wait and see if I can get any of those people to lend me a hand.

We did a LOT in Paris, and unfortunately, I only took pictures at Versailles--that means a lot of text for you! We rented an apartment for three days, which was PHENOMENAL. There were six of us and two double beds, but besides that, it was really an amazing apartment for the amount of money we spent (which was LESS than we would've spent in most hostels!). It was about a 20-30 minute walk away from a major part of the city, which was excellent as well. At the end of our 3 days in Paris, we'd seen: the Notre Dame, a David LaChappelle (contemporary artist) exhibit, the Champs Elysée, l'Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Versailles (not technically Paris--get over it), and la Tour Eiffel. That list, of course, excludes the numerous cafés and brasseries we went to, and all of the supermarchés and/or fromageries we ransacked, as well.

The only picture that's not of the ridiculous grandiose-ness of Versailles.

To see only some of my Versailles pictures, go here!