WHOA. I haven’t blogged since February 22? Time is seriously flying. (And based on other people’s study abroad blogs that I’m stalking, time is flying everywhere else, too.)
A LOT has happened since I was in Ireland. The last weekend in February, my friend Spain and I ventured to Copenhagen to visit several of her close college friends who are studying at Denmark International School. It’s an absolutely lovely city: the pastries are phenomenal (…I may have eaten hundreds in our four days there); the streets are quaint; the people are beautiful.
I’m not saying that people in London aren’t beautiful—I pass by several ‘fit’ guys a day going to and from class. But in Copenhagen, 8 out of 10 are hands-down, all-out beautiful (but in a way that it doesn’t seem like they’re trying; they’re just naturally stunning.) Blonde hair, blue eyes, poreless skin…sigh.
Anyway, we ate and drank coffee and danced. We also went to Christiania-- Wikipedia that if you don't know what it is, because it's worth knowing. Best of all, Gen (one of Spain’s friends) was lucky enough to snag the number of the hottie Italian waiter as we lingered over delicious pasta. (Half of that sentence is sarcastic, and it isn’t the part about the pasta.)
A fun fact/sidenote about Denmark: it doesn’t use the Euro. A good traveler would have looked something like that up before heading somewhere, but not Spain and me. We had our Euros out and ready when Gen told us that the Kroner Denmark’s currency. (Also, to convert to dollars, you have to divide the amount by 5, so a cheap coffee—which is hard to find in Copenhagen, as it is a pretty expensive city—would be 30-35 Kroner. The previously mentioned nice Italian meal cost almost 1,000 Kroner--eek!)
My marathon travel tour continued this past weekend, when I went on an Arcadia (my study abroad program) sponsored trip to Wales. Last Friday, we headed west across England and Wales (a nearly 5 hour trip that included two trains and a van ride), and arrived at Preseli Adventure Lodge near the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park late-ish on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, we rose early, and my group’s first mission of the day was coasteering. Coasteering is basically a combination of swimming, rock climbing up cliffs, and cliff-jumping off of said cliffs. My friend Lisa and I (along with the other members of our group) squeezed ourselves into winter
wetsuits (absolutely squeeeeeeezed- it was the tightest thing I’ve ever worn) and hopped in the van that took us to the coast.
The Welsh coast is really stunning in and of itself, and the day we coasteered it was sunny and blue-skied. We trotted into the water and, for the next hour and a half, climbed up cliffs and jumped off them. (The highest we could jump off was about 30 feet high.) We also explored water-filled caves, since it was low tide.
Later in the afternoon we kayaked in the Atlantic, which was fun but would have been more appreciated if we all hadn’t been tuckered out from coasteering that morning (and I would’ve liked it much more if I hadn’t been a bit seasick.) Sunday morning we took a 7-mile hike along the Welsh coast, and Lisa and I continued our now-tradition of lifetalks at high altitudes. (She and I climbed to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral together and had an in-depth talk there, too, so it’s become sort of a pattern.) It was exactly the fresh-air weekend I needed, away from the bustle, pollution and noise of London.
So here I am, in month three of my semester, with mountains of homework to do. I have hardly done any homework since my arrival (taking in the culture is learning!), so the next couple of weeks I’m going to try to put my proverbial nose to the grindstone. It’s less than a month until my mom comes (hi Mom!) and we embark on our week of Scottish exploration, and five weeks until I head to Italy for a gelatathon.
Strange to think I’ve literally been looking forward to this semester for years, and I’m almost halfway through. Time goes way too fast.
A LOT has happened since I was in Ireland. The last weekend in February, my friend Spain and I ventured to Copenhagen to visit several of her close college friends who are studying at Denmark International School. It’s an absolutely lovely city: the pastries are phenomenal (…I may have eaten hundreds in our four days there); the streets are quaint; the people are beautiful.
I’m not saying that people in London aren’t beautiful—I pass by several ‘fit’ guys a day going to and from class. But in Copenhagen, 8 out of 10 are hands-down, all-out beautiful (but in a way that it doesn’t seem like they’re trying; they’re just naturally stunning.) Blonde hair, blue eyes, poreless skin…sigh.
Anyway, we ate and drank coffee and danced. We also went to Christiania-- Wikipedia that if you don't know what it is, because it's worth knowing. Best of all, Gen (one of Spain’s friends) was lucky enough to snag the number of the hottie Italian waiter as we lingered over delicious pasta. (Half of that sentence is sarcastic, and it isn’t the part about the pasta.)
A fun fact/sidenote about Denmark: it doesn’t use the Euro. A good traveler would have looked something like that up before heading somewhere, but not Spain and me. We had our Euros out and ready when Gen told us that the Kroner Denmark’s currency. (Also, to convert to dollars, you have to divide the amount by 5, so a cheap coffee—which is hard to find in Copenhagen, as it is a pretty expensive city—would be 30-35 Kroner. The previously mentioned nice Italian meal cost almost 1,000 Kroner--eek!)
My marathon travel tour continued this past weekend, when I went on an Arcadia (my study abroad program) sponsored trip to Wales. Last Friday, we headed west across England and Wales (a nearly 5 hour trip that included two trains and a van ride), and arrived at Preseli Adventure Lodge near the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park late-ish on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, we rose early, and my group’s first mission of the day was coasteering. Coasteering is basically a combination of swimming, rock climbing up cliffs, and cliff-jumping off of said cliffs. My friend Lisa and I (along with the other members of our group) squeezed ourselves into winter
wetsuits (absolutely squeeeeeeezed- it was the tightest thing I’ve ever worn) and hopped in the van that took us to the coast.The Welsh coast is really stunning in and of itself, and the day we coasteered it was sunny and blue-skied. We trotted into the water and, for the next hour and a half, climbed up cliffs and jumped off them. (The highest we could jump off was about 30 feet high.) We also explored water-filled caves, since it was low tide.
Later in the afternoon we kayaked in the Atlantic, which was fun but would have been more appreciated if we all hadn’t been tuckered out from coasteering that morning (and I would’ve liked it much more if I hadn’t been a bit seasick.) Sunday morning we took a 7-mile hike along the Welsh coast, and Lisa and I continued our now-tradition of lifetalks at high altitudes. (She and I climbed to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral together and had an in-depth talk there, too, so it’s become sort of a pattern.) It was exactly the fresh-air weekend I needed, away from the bustle, pollution and noise of London.
So here I am, in month three of my semester, with mountains of homework to do. I have hardly done any homework since my arrival (taking in the culture is learning!), so the next couple of weeks I’m going to try to put my proverbial nose to the grindstone. It’s less than a month until my mom comes (hi Mom!) and we embark on our week of Scottish exploration, and five weeks until I head to Italy for a gelatathon.
Strange to think I’ve literally been looking forward to this semester for years, and I’m almost halfway through. Time goes way too fast.
Kate! Super blog, so glad that you enjoyed your adventure with us here at PV - come back again next time you're in the UK :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the rest of your semester, Claire and all at PV x