Day 106 - April 16

Time to be Danish! Det var Dronning Margarethe IIs fødselsdag.

What does it mean when the Danish queen has a birthday? It means that suddenly the population explodes and more people than I even thought were in Denmark suddenly crowd into central Copenhagen. It also means they bring the flags out in full force.













Angela and I arrived at Amalienborg Palace about 45 minutes before noon, and it was already crazy crowded.





I was despairing of being able to get a good photo, but when a royal historian is determined…nah, turns out many of the Danish are quite adept at finding open spaces in crowds, and so in the beginning we followed people weaving their way in and out. Then, we found a pretty decent spot, and learned that you could not stay in a place, no matter how good it was. The crowd was like an amoeba, pulsing and changing. At one point, when the changing of the guard moved by and opened up some space, we surged forward, and I ended up being closer than I even thought we would get even with our crowd maneuvering skills. Also, I noted that the most vicious crowd cutters were the old ones. Interesting.

Fully ready to be Danish for a day.

This man's hat wins every possible award.

If there was a mass of cut-throat elderly folk, there was also a mass of adorable children. Kindergarten classes were all out for the day to witness the spectacle, although how they saw anything, being the passive ones in the back, I have no idea. However, a few had prime spots on their parents’ shoulders and tip-top national spirit!





Three quarters of an hour passed a bit slowly, with me very antsy, but at last…shadows in the window! And then the clock chiming noon, and a roar from the crowd, a sudden rattling of hundreds of flags whipping back and forth.



Hello royal family!! My finger went trigger happy with the camera, and thanks to my wonderful wonderful camera, a little bit of cropping made for some pretty good photos.

First came the queen.

And then Prince Henrik

And then the whole beautiful family.

I call this one "Denmark". It is purposeful art, and not my flag getting blown into my camera right when I took the photo.

Look at them - what a happy family!

The children probably enjoyed the day the most - the family came out onto the balcony three (four?) times, and after the queen's first appearance, it was always the children running back, leading the way.

The band playing a birthday song for their queen.

Goodbye!

Denmark singing happy birthday to Queen Margarethe II:

I apologize for the poor quality - my arm was getting a little tired.

Angela and I thought we would try to leave as she was getting hungry and had class, but every direction we tried we were roped in and trapped.

The Danish are rather insane, sometimes...

However, in our efforts to get out, we ended up right in the place to be in the second row of people right at the street where the queen and her husband drove by in their carriage. No photos, though, because I attempted to take a video, and when I thought I had pressed the button, my camera decided to be finicky and not actually start recording, which I didn’t realize until I could only record her back driving away. Ah well, still saw her within a few feet. Mission accomplished and exceeded.







Angela went off to class, and I met up with Julia and Marcin A. to head over to Tivoli and meet Marcin F., Andrzej, and Kasia. We were a bit worried about it being crowded, but turns out everyone was much too concerned about the queen, even after the celebrations were over, and it was not even moderately crowded until around 4:00. It was a day of lots of silly fun and riding rides until my head hurt (it’s my one and only day in Tivoli due to the ludicrous price, and so we got our money’s worth).

Can't get to Tivoli that way - better go around!

The sight that greeted my eyes upon entrance to Tivoli.









Vikings vs. Pirates was the theme of this ride - how do I choose?



I like that they make me look short!

The Tivoli Gardens is, in fact, a garden.

Two-seater giraffe on a carousel? I wish to give whoever thought of that a high-five.









Isn't she supposed to be in China?

My least favorite ride - *eep!*



Of course, the Polish guys were prepared, as always, and had brought in (unallowed) snacks and tea, so we were able to keep going until utterly exhausted and freezing at eight. Hurrah for an amazing day!

Days 103 and 105 - April 13 and 15

April 13

Remember Shreddies, the English cereal that is amazing? Welcome to delicious (and my morning routine):


Monday's photo:


It was another beautiful day on Tuesday. In the afternoon, Dori came home and decided we should sit out on our porch, so we took out our chairs and sat outside in the shining sun listening to music and chatting.

I also made the chicken noodle soup again, and it makes so many servings. It’s definitely a keeper for a college student – make once and have leftovers for two weeks! It became a food sharing night – Dori had some, and when Tamar came home, I let her have some, as she was amazed that I made soup (“Where did you buy that?” “I made it.” “You made it?”). Then, she saw my pear on the counter and commented that it was all alone, so somehow that led to the discussion of what fruits we all had, and we realized we could make smoothies. Best idea ever.



Need ice? It just so happens we have a broken freezer!



Yum


April 15

Finally, Dori, Ditka, and I were all home at the same time and we undertook the epic freezer de-icing. It has been documented in photographs.

What a freezer should not look like:


Objective? Rid our freezer completely of ice. Tools? A butter knife, a steak knife, a hair dryer, and a towel. Result? Success!

Step 1 – Bottom shelf. Remove, then proceed to clean out ice.







Step 2 – Place boiling water in the shelf to quicken the melting of ice.
Note: Do not put boiling water in glass. If you do, this will happen:


(oops...)

Step 3 – Middle shelf


Step 4 – Top shelf, a.k.a. Iceberg of Massive Doom


a. Blow dry for about 20 minutes


b. Chop the ice incessantly until your arm is sore, and get the shelf halfway out.


c. Manage to wiggle the shelf out at long last



Step 5 – Complete the job, and dry off


What a freezer should look like:


--

I had a horrible dream that night. I was extremely excited about the next day – getting to see the royal family when I’ve been in love with royals since as long as I can remember. I was also having a hard time sleeping – even though I had no caffeine, it felt like the effects of caffeine. After tossing and turning for over an hour at least, I finally fell asleep. In my dream, it was tomorrow. I was meeting Angela to head off to Amalienborg, when I discovered that they were handing out VIP tickets for the queen’s birthday – it meant we got a car ride to Amalienborg and we got to be within the “inner circle” of crowds. So I picked one up, then found Angela, and we were almost didn’t make it before the car (limo, actually) left. We just barely made it, and the car drove to Amalienborg, and dropped us off. I found myself a perfect position, almost front and center (and in this scenario, the queen came out of a door on ground level, not from a balcony). There were already a few stray royal family members coming and going, waving at random intervals. But then they all disappeared, and I pulled out my camera. It was noon – time for the queen. Only the queen didn’t come out, but Crown Prince Frederick and a state official. The official brokenly told us that the queen had just passed away, that day, on her 70th birthday. The entire crowd was in shock, and I thought it was some kind of terrible joke at first, but seeing CP Frederick’s face, I knew it wasn’t. The reaction of the people was immense, and I even felt tears welling up. In order to ensure succession, Frederick was crowned right there, and then we all went off, feeling rather disoriented. We met the Polish guys, who we were supposed to be going to Tivoli with. Very upset, we asked them if they had heard the news, and also that Tivoli – and everything – would not be open that day, in mourning. There, I woke up. It took me a while to figure out what had happened, and a huge wave of relief washed over me, when I realized it was 5:30 AM on Friday morning and that none of it had actually happened. It was an extremely upsetting dream, because my mind put so much emotion into it – I have no doubt that it would be a sad event for the queen to die, but the level of attachment I created between the Danish people and their queen is not nearly so intense. However, in dreams, whatever is true is true, and I could literally feel the weight of the shock and horror from the surrounding crowds. It was really hard to shake off the feeling.