the land of my ancestors

A couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to go to DENMARK with two amazing girls Emma and Caity.  EasyJet is good, EasyBus not so much(waiting 45 min for a bus=3 frustrated girls).  This is a picture of us as we left 58 degree London for 40 degree Copenhagen!

   King Frederick VI of Denmark was my great great great great great great grandfather.  His daughter(my great grandmother) joined the church and was essentially disowned, but it still made the trip extra exciting and amazing to know I was walking where my ancestors walked!

Grandpa Freddy and Me!!

(I apologize for the blurriness!  Luckily, no family resemblance.)

Gardens at the Palace=amazing.  Huge lake, some wilderness type gardening and some very planned and formal.

Grandpa Freddy's Palace-Fredricksburg castle

danish in Denmark of course!  All the food exceeded expectations.

Nyhavn(newhown) was enchanting!  The buildings were all beautiful and different colors.  The city was still cold and wintery, but the colorful buildings added fun and made it exciting to walk around/ride the bus!

The little mermaid.  She watches longingly as ships leave the harbor.

Copenhagen is the most expensive city in the world right now.  5 Danish kroner=1 American dollar.  It ended up being really hard for us to convert in our heads after being used to converting pounds and dollars.

Dinner one of the nights.  Super good.  See receipt.

(if you look underneath the amount in Kroners, you will see the amount in euros, but still very hard to see the 365!)

changing of the guard in Copenhagen>changing of the guard in England

reasons 1. less people 2. happier people 3. changing of the guards in England is lame and Denmark's is not.

Nature shot next to the ocean.

The first night we were in Copenhagen, we decided to go see the temple.  It was fairy close to our hotel.  Taking the bus turned out to be a little scarier than we thought it would as we walked by a scary old cemetery, but luckily we were able to rise above it(thanks to singing primary songs).  It was such a neat experience to see this beautiful building! 

Another favorite experience was visiting The Church of our Lady.  Inside is the first Christus as well as statues of Christ's twelve apostles.  Below I have a picture of Peter holding keys.  Elder Packer explains the importance of the keys to the church in two different conference talks(1995 and 2008).  While in the church, we ran into fellow members of the Church, a couple of men who are employees of the church, it was really neat to not only have just read the conference talk mentioning these amazing works of art, but then to meet others with the same views as ourselves(as opposed to the homeless guy in the corner).

Marble Church.  The inside is not marble, but wood painted to look like marble.  We hiked to the top through dark stairways and through rusty doors and we almost gave our lives to make it, but the view was gorgeous and totally worth it!

If you have wondered why I came to Europe during the winter, this is why:

No lines at the airports!

forget where you're from-you're in France!

Paris part two:

Notre Dame Cathedral, not the school.  400 steps later I made it to the top.  A little scary, but mostly beautiful and amazing.  My favorite part about looking out over cities is seeing the church steeples.  Words cannot describe the beauty.

(if you look just to the right of my head, you can see the eiffel tower.  It was foggy, so it is a looks like a shadow on the horizon)

Versailles: Gaudy palace for royalty that doesn't exist anymore.  Don't go during the winter, it's ugly. Luckily, we found tandem bikes for rent!

The weather was beautiful, and really, although the trees were brown, just being outside in the fresh air laughing and being with friends was amazing.

france=yummy food!

Luxembourg Gardens.  Stay away from greasy looking, smoking young men.  This led to choosing fake names.  If I don't know you and I don't trust you and you ask me my name I will tell you Samantha.  I go by Sam.

The Pantheon(in Paris).  Beautiful, but cold.  The coolest part was the crypt.  Many influential people were buried in the Pantheon including Marie Curie, Braille, 

The Louvre.  After a looooong day it is not smart to end with the Louvre.  All of the artwork was AMAZING, but the entire experience was tainted by our physical and mental exhaustion.  Feet were throbbing, blisters were popping, tears were falling(not in a good way).  Advice for future Paris/Louvre goers: Give yourselves HOURS if not an entire DAY to spend here.  We spent over 2 hours and we had a list of only 9 works of art to find/see.

hall of statues

crown jewels

mona lisa

(don't remember what this is called, but I learned about it in humanities last year and just happened to stumble upon it)

the lace maker(?)

Napoleon's apartments

Venus Di Milo

winged victory

How we all felt.

Paris was beautiful and amazing.  I started the week with low expectations, and my expectations were exceeded.  I want to return to Paris one day for sure.

Coming soon!

Paris part two, Denmark(great grandpa Freddy) lake district, life at the centre, Sunday

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! Things are changing. In 19 days I will be back in Utah-but my adventures aren't over yet!

Picture=shutout to any Kellis girls or others reading my blog who LOVE pie. Enjoyed in Ambleside, England.

welcome my friends to Paris!

Before reading this post, you either need to go here and load this song and listen whilst you read and admire my photographs.

First Day: Groupish day.  Eurostar from London to Paris.  Lunch, Arch de Triumph, explore, Eiffel Tower, River Cruise, Hotel, Dinner, Bed.

The BEST churros I have ever had in my entire life.  Across the street from the Eiffel Tower.

Spiral Staircase to the top of the Arch de Triumph

France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Emma and I are starting a jumping tradition.  Annoying Americans? check.

My Favorite Picture from the semester so far!

(Emma, Caity, Courtney, Taylor)

Each night on each hour the Eiffel Tower Sparkles for five minutes.  Sadly, photographs can't capture the magic.  To be completely honest, I am not the biggest fan of the Eiffel Tower.  I don't really love it during the day, but I have to admit that it is magical at night.  Especially when it is sparkling.  To close our first day, the entire group waited and watched the tower sparkle.  AMAZING.

market day

Every Saturday I have to decide whether or not to sleep in to catch up on some much needed zzz's or to get up and go explore.  Last week was a mixture of both.   I slept in and then went to changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace at 11:30.

There were SO MANY people!  Because it's not the tourist season, they only do the big changing ceremony every other day:(

After changing of the guards, we headed to Borough Market in Southwark!!  The market is only food, and most of it looks AMAZING, but there are some things that look a little out there.

(Gluten Free shout out to all you celiacs out there!)

This past week we spent in PARIS, FRANCE.  Posts to come soon.  My last midterm is on Tuesday, and it is looking to be a rough one.  Our professor enjoys reminding us that the first word in Study Abroad is Study, so we shouldn't complain about a test that keeps us in the centre studying for a day and a half and then takes over 2 hours to complete.  Wish me luck.