mikkeller & friends

i still have a number of larger posts from the past few weeks that i'm working on, but in the meantime i'll throw in a quickie. on saturday, some friends and i went to mikkeller & friends, a beer bar about a 15 minute bike ride from our apartment that has recently opened. it was a cozy little place with 40 beers on tap from a number of danish microbreweries and just as many danish hipsters in their 30s. the bartender suggested i tried their #5, a classic pilsner, which was by far the "hoppiest" beer i've ever tried. not sure if it's a taste i like, but it was a nice introduction. 

and if that interior doesn't scream danish beer bar, i don't know what does!

views of vienna

my train from budapest arrived in vienna at dark and found my way to the air b&b apartment where i would be staying with my roommate from copenhagen, melissa, and some of her friends. the four out of the six of us who had made it already vienna went out for a delicious dinner consisting of duck and risotto just down the street. the next morning, we headed out and within 15 minutes had walked ourselves into the city center.

vienna state opera house

with the sun shining warm and bright, we walked down kartnerstrasse, vienna's main walking street toward st. stephen's cathedral. we entered the cathedral just in time to observe a mass in progress and admired the intricate details inside.

st. charles's church

kaertnerstrasse with st. stephen's cathedral in
the distance. 

we took a turn around the city once more before we ended up strolling along the naschmarkt. for block after block we meandered our way past heaps of spices, countless bowls of hummus, cheeses, olives, seafood, and desserts, while eagerly taking as many free samples as we could get. we stopped for lunch at neni, one of the small restaurants lining the food stands and enjoyed their homemade lemonade made with soda, lemons and mint leaves, hummus, and almond-chicken. 

naschtmarket cheese

naschmarkt hummus. literally you could find any
type of hummus you could ever want

stuffed, we headed toward schönbrunn palace, the former imperial rococco residence of the hapsburg monarchs and took the imperial tour that featured approx. 20 rooms displaying just a handful of the beauty and grandeur of imperial bedrooms, dining rooms, entertainment rooms, office rooms, and ballrooms. afterwards, we walked through the gardens in the back and up the hill toward the gloriette, collapsing at the top to enjoy a magnificent view of the palace and vienna in the background and lounged there as the late afternoon sun warmed our faces.

looking toward the gardens
and the gloriette

view of schönbrunn
and vienna

schönbrunn

later on, i met up with lea, another grinnell friends who is studying in vienna for the semester and enjoyed falafel balls, chili and eggplant hummus, and an assortment of vegetables that she had gotten earlier that day from the naschmarkt in her apartment with some of her housemates. not only was it great to see familiar faces in a place so distant from home, but it was also interesting to hear the similarities and differences between all our study abroad experiences. later that night, we met up with colin and tj and enjoyed cocktails together as well as a small taste of the viennese club scene.

the upper belvedere

having crashed at lea's apartment, i made my way back to my own apartment the next morning and headed out with melissa who had an early morning train to budapest. we enjoyed a nice morning cappuccino and cake at a nearby cafe and after she left i headed toward one last museum before i had my own train to catch to prague.

the belvedere is a historic building complex, consisting of two baroque palaces (the upper and lower belvedere), the orangery, and the palace stables and houses the belvedere museum. besides being an absolutely beautiful building in itself, i primarily went to see the klimt collection that houses what is probably my all-time favorite painting, 'the kiss'.

gustav klimt's 'the kiss'

after admiring the painting for a solid 20 minutes, i went around and enjoyed more views of vienna from inside the palace and the extensive impressionist and biedermeier collections. i had also wanted to see the "japan and avant-garde" exhibition, but unfortunately didn't have enough time before i needed to catch the train to my next destination: prague. 

roomies in europe :)

beauty in budapest

after another busy week, i left copenhagen again a week and a half ago and made my way to budapest! there, i met up with tj and colin, two grinnellians who are also on the dis program in copenhagen, at our hostel and soon after met up with aaltan, abby, and sydney, three more grinnellians who are studying in budapest for the semester. 

tj, colin and i overlooking buda and pest

view from the top of st. stephen's basilica,
hungary's largest church building

never mind the fact that it was midnight by the time we all met up, we waited no time to hit the town and experience budapest's never-ending nightlife from the start.

dohany street synagogue complex consists of the great synagogue, the heroes' temple, the graveyard, the holocaust museum and the jewish museum.

the next morning, we met up with abby after a hearty hungarian lunch consisting of goulash and paprikash and spent the entire day walking around the city.

the great market hall

the liberty bridge that connects buda and pest
across the danube river

it was such a nice change of scenery, and a great form of exercise to be walking up the countless hills around the city. i would definitely call budapest the city of panoramic views.

the gellért baths, part of the famous hotel gellért in buda

view from gellert hill overlooking the danube
and was named after st. gerard who was thrown
to death from this hill

view of parliament and margaret island from castle hill

buda castle

matthias church, at the heart of buda's
castle district

fisherman's bastion, a terrace on the castle hill. its seven towers represent the seven magyar tribes that settled in the carpathian basin in 896.

another view of parliament and pest from fisherman's bastion

the next day, colin, tj and i decided to do some exploring on our own and experience the must-do hungarian baths. we began by walking down the beautiful andrássy avenue, lined with spectacular mansions and townhouses featuring beautiful facades and interiors. the avenue led us to heroes' square, one of the major squares of budapest.

another section of vajdahunyad castle
in a different architectural style

the millenium memorial in the
center of heroes' square

vajdahunyad castle in
castle park

after taking a tour around the beautiful vajdahunyad castle in castle park, built between 1896 and 1908, which celebrated the millenium exhibition celebrating the 1000 years of hungary since the hungarian conquest of the carpathian basin in 895, we found exactly what we had been looking for. the szechenyi thermal baths. we slipped into our swimsuits, quickly swam past the indoor sulfur swimming pools and made our way to the heated outdoor pools. from there, we sat, waded, popped into the nearby sauna, tanned a little (!), and relaxed HARD. 

the széchenyi medicinal baths.

inside the thermal baths

feeling rejuvenated, we met up with some more friends later that night for dinner and drinks at szimpla kert (simple garden), the oldest ruin pub in budapest, and easily everyone's favorite bar. it was a great way to spend a last night with friends, new and old, in the unforgettable city.

colin and tj left around noon the next day for vienna. i was to soon follow them there, but before my train departed i enjoyed a lovely picnic-lunch on the grass outside one of budapest's train stations. and with sunny skies, i said a warm goodbye to budapest and a warm hello to vienna!

colin, gilbert, abby, ian, tj and i at szimpla kert

first fridays @ amar'

last friday, our house took our bikes and the nice weather and made a fabulous outing out of both!
we took a bike field trip to a number of galleries in amager as a part of the first fridays @ amar’ event.

SWARM, an interactive installation featuring collective
performance, video art, 3D symbols and lectures on swarm
theory and collective behavior. 

during the evening of the first friday in every month, in the radius of two kilometers are eight different exhibition sites sprung up with a mix of apartment-based exhibitions, major commercial galleries and experimental non-profit-run exhibition spaces. amager arts district now provides a common front and introduces first fridays, an event evening.

while it was great going around to various galleries showcasing a variety of different styles and intentions of art it was also a great night to bike around a part of copenhagen that many of us have not yet visited.

romeo and juliet

last tuesday my ballet class went on our third field study to see the royal danish ballet perform romeo and juliet. choreographed by john neumeier, director and chief choreographer of the hamburg ballet, the royal danish orchestra performed prokofiev's timeless score that complemented an absolutely beautiful performance by the dancers. 

it was without doubt, my favorite ballet performance i have ever seen to date. i have never observed a chemistry between two dancers than that of ida praetorius, who played juliet (and is only 19!!) and gregory dean, who was her romeo. the choreography, while extremely complex, was performed with such lightness and ease and was a perfect aesthetic balance of traditional ballet and a modern dance. the unique choreography paired with the simple set, rich costumes and talented dancers created an absolutely mesmerizing experience that i only wish i could see again and again. too bad the entire show is sold out until the end.

i feel sLOVEnia

from poland i returned to copenhagen for the night only to hop back onto a plane the next morning to see my family in slovenia!!

mama's pastries and potica

as the plane landed amongst the majestic mountains it was beautiful sight to see after the months of complete flatness i've been surrounded by for so long. i met up with my parents at the airport and together drove back to my grandparent's house in ribnica. my last visit to slovenia was over a year ago, so it was so nice to be back and begin enjoying the trip without having to worry about any trace of jet lag!

a blessed basket

unfortunately, i only got a small taste of the mountains and hills that surround our house that i'll have to carry with me in my mind until i return - it was gray and rainy the next day and until i left. nevertheless, it was great to relax with the fam and fill up on all of my mama's homemade meals and goodies. while hiking up sv. ana, the mountain behind our house, with my dad was on my list of activities while in ribnica, the weather proved too much of an inconvenience to do so. but i did have a great time lounging and got a fair bit of tradition into the trip as well. seeing as it was easter sunday while i was there, mama, and my sister, katarina, dyed eggs. afterwards they, mami and i went to church on saturday where there is a special service for the blessing of the eggs. everyone in the village brings their straw baskets filled with eggs and other easter food to be blessed. it was adorable seeing some of the little kids waddle in with their mini baskets filled with little chocolate eggs.

another highlight of the trip was a visit to a restaurant, (gostilna) pri kuklju that served an absolutely delicious traditional slovenian meal of mushroom soup, štruklji (breaded dumplings), and pork medallions.

mama, me, katarina and ata

oči, mami and me!

after easter sunday mass where the church's stone floor nearly froze all our toes, we returned to mama and ata's house for an easter meal that would keep us filled as we all packed and prepared for our return to copenhagen together!

gdańsk, poland

the day after my birthday was the beginning of another travel week! a friend from my medical practice and policy core course, julia, and i were both looking for a travel buddy for a couple of days and like any other college student who goes on break when they are studying abroad in europe we decided to visit gdansk, poland! (that was sarcasm, btw)

ulica dluga (long street), also referred to as the royal road,
since it was once the former path of processions for
visiting kings

gdansk is a polish city on the baltic coast, the capital of the pomeranian voivodeship (you can look that one up yourselves), poland's principle seaport and the center of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area. we arrived on sunday night, successfully made it to our hostel, and ventured 30 feet before we encountered a woman who was on the sidewalk outside a restaurant named 'friends' trying to get people to come in. "we have large selection, very cheap, we like students!" and soon enough friends became just that. we enjoyed an enormous amount of food that included some of their famous polish pierogi's, various meats, lots of coleslaw, potatoes, and beets. we also learned that polish currency is not, "polanders," as we had thought, but polish zloty. just a fun fact. 

we happened upon this cupcake bar the first day in the city
and returned the following day for another round of scrumptious
sweet treats! 

what could make a girl happier
than a cupcake?!

we spent monday exploring and visiting the numerous churches located all around city but pretty much found our way around all the corners of the city in under two hours. while there was still snow on the streets, the sun shone brightly and warmly all three days we were there. it was a lot nicer stolling the streets than we had expected. one of the nights we had dinner at the best restaurant in gdansk, kubicki. we wined and dined on delicious salmon, caviar and apple pie. the only downside was the service, where our server was less than friendly and as he served me my salad asked, "good luck with that?"??? what was that supposed mean?? i'll just settle on believing it was just nervousness due to the language barrier. regardless we enjoyed the rest of the quiet, peaceful and clear evening.

on tuesday, we strolled a little more and visited the gdansk history museum, which is located in the main town hall. while my mom had mentioned before going, i had no idea how badly the entire city was destroyed during world war II. literally, the city was nearly barren. since then, the city has been completely rebuilt. however, the reconstruction was not tied in any way, apparently, to the city's pre-war appearance, instead its politically motivated purpose was to rebuild a pre-german city. any traces of german tradition were ignored, suppressed or regarded as "prussian barbarism" worthy of demolition while flemish-dutch, italian and french influences were emphasized. every single facade was indeed its own work of art, giving the whole city a very quaint, storybook feel.

the royal chapel of the polish king - john III sobieski built
in 1681. just behind stands st. mary's church, the largest
brick church in the world, begun in 1379.

the beautiful ceiling of the red hall located
within the main town hall 

we spent the rest of our time in gdansk lounging in various cafes and left gdansk well rested and with a good amount of fresh air in our lungs. it was the perfect way to start off my 2013 spring break.

neptune's fountain