On Friday, April 10th, I took an early train (the Eurostar) from Paris to London. There were no direct trains from St. Pancras (the train station where the Eurostar goes in London) to Brighton, so I had to take the tube to the London Bridge station instead. That was a little frustrating, but it was also good to be "home" where I understood the language, knew how the subway and train worked, and I saw several posters for Spring Awakening, which was exciting.
On Easter Sunday I decided to go to church, since Kara and I had found a Unitarian church in Brighton when she visited. The service was at 11:00 and I got there fairly early since I wasn't sure how long the bus ride would take. It's a very small and, unsurprisingly, old building - there is a stained glass window from 1888 and another to commemorate members' service in WWI. There weren't many people there, and only one person was even close to my age, but people were friendly and I liked the service. I hadn't been to church since I was home in December. I've been back a couple times since then and plan to go more in June once I don't have so much work to do.
When I got back Aoife made hot cross bun pudding, which is a traditional British Easter treat. You basically take hot cross buns, slice them, spread them with marmalade (which is what the Brits use as a general term for jam & jelly, so you can use any flavor you want), cover them with custard, and bake. Yum. I also ate some of the Sour Patch Kids my parents sent me. All in all, a good British Easter.
On Wednesday morning I had an early flight to Copenhagen to visit Kara. She met me at the airport and we took the train to drop my stuff off at her host family's house. Then we went to Christiania, Copenhagen's very own hippie commune. They've literally declared themselves independent from the EU (the sign at the entrance says "Christiana" on one side and "You are now leaving the EU" on the other), made their own "laws," etc. It's a funky place, with tons of very artistic graffiti, shops selling homemade clothing and antiques, and cafes. We had coffee at "the safest cafe in Copenhagen," which is actually called that because there have been 6,000 armed police raids there since 2004. haha
After Christiana we met the other students in one of Kara's classes at Tivoli Gardens, a really old amusement park. The layout was very classy for an amusement park, nicely landscaped with lots of pretty lights that lit up once it got dark. I rode the roller coaster, which was a short but fun ride since I hadn't been on one in a long time. Kara, one of her friends, and I ate dinner while waiting for the lights to come on and then Kara and I walked around taking pictures. At one point we asked a passer-by to take a picture of the two of us, and he happened to be British. When I explained that I was at Sussex, he said he had just been in Spain having drinks with some girls who said that they were also from Sussex. Turns out they were some other American students, friends of mine, who had planned a trip to Spain! Small world!
Thursday was the Queen's birthday, so we went to the celebration. On the way we stopped at Nyhavn, which is a picturesque harbor, and I got a Danish, for which I forget the real word in Danish. People had made a big circle around where the Queen was supposed to come out and wave to the crowd, and Kara and I snagged places near the front. A band played and then the Queen and her family came out three different times and waved to the crowd. The Queen of Copenhagen is really cool - she even designs opera sets! The country obviously loves her, too (or at least they do a really good job of pretending on her birthday). There were lots of people there waving Danish flags. It was a neat experience and I'm glad that the occasion happened to coincide with my trip.
Our next stop was Rosenborg, where the crown jewels are held. There were a lot of other fancy artifacts, too, like intricate ivory carvings and a Colt revolver given to the king by Abraham Lincoln. The jewels themselves were very impressive, though I can't imagine wearing something like that on my head. There was also a humongous purple diamond on display - I imagine it was a necklace, though your head would probably fall off if you wore it for too long.
We spent the night with Kara's host family, though her host mother was having a "clothes party" (like Tupperware but with clothes, so their house sort of looked like a shopping mall) so it was an atypical dinner. We sat downstairs with her host father and brother, watched TV and got the leftovers from the dinner party. Though I met them only briefly, her host family seemed really nice, and of course I was grateful that they let me stay with them.
On Friday we took the train to see Helsingor, aka Elsinore, aka Hamlet's castle. There was an exhibit about the history of Hamlet - I had no idea that it was originally a Danish story and that there was another version staged even before Shakespeare wrote his. We wandered around the castle and the chapel and saw the plaque of Shakespeare himself near the entrance. They still hold open-air performances of Hamlet on the grounds every summer, which would be really cool to see.
Then it was time for me to leave to catch my 8:00 PM flight back to London. It was odd because the last time that I had an 8 PM flight to Gatwick was when I came here in January, so it made me think about how much had changed and happened since then, which is a LOT. It was also hard to believe that my trip was over, after all the planning that it took, but I think I was ready to stay settled in one place for awhile again.
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