Took a long walk..... Went for a run.... Only saw 15 seconds of sun....

8:00: Woke up and chatted with Trevor. Ate danish rye bread with raspberry jam for breakfast. Then mapped out a run to a nearby park.

8:30: Went for a 1.5hour run/walk (see map) and took some pictures.
Found the Little Mermaid statue (background: the Den Lille Havfrue was made by sculptor Edvard Eriksen in 1913 as a tribute to the fairy-tale written by native Dane, Hans Christian Andersen. The statue is now world famous as a symbol of Copenhagen). When I asked a co-woker about the statue, they said Denmark had lent it to China for a few months. Apparently the Chinese love this statue. I was a little disappointed but I figured I would just go visit the area where the statue used to be anyway. When I found it the statue was there! There was a group of asian tourists taking pictures of it. Here are some pictures from my run:




10:00 Met my neighbor! He's a young guy from India and lives right across from me. I was excited to meet another young foreigner and was hoping we could be friends. He's going to back to India in 2 days. Oh well.

10:15 Showered. Thought a vein on my chest was about the explode because it was bright blue/green.
...figured out that it washes off. It was just a mark from my necklace. phew!

10:30 Played with a dead bug (See Biking Bugs post)

10:45 E-mailed a cousin of my great grandmother. I have been in contact with a lot of distant Nordic relatives recently. One cousin of mine lives on the other side of the park from me. I've hung out with him and girlfriend this past week. I think we have the same great great great great grandparents (something like that).

11:00 Left for a 5 hour walk! Found the US Embassy a few blocks away. Thought it would be good to take a picture for the blog. Apparently it's illegal. The security guard ran right out when he saw my camera and made me delete the photo. Oops. It was an ugly building anyway, looked like a jail built in the 1960's. Next door was the Canadian Embassy which closely resembled the Queen's Palace.

12:00 First stop: the Queen's Palace, Amalienborg They have a parade of the guards everyday at noon. Not so impressive. I was a little nervous taking pictures after the embassy, but saw some other people were doing it:




13:00 (Danes go by military time) Lunch at Nyhavns Faergekro (www.nyhavnsfaergekro.dk). Had my first espresso and my taste of herring. They espresso was gross, but I could get used to it. The herring wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Nyhavn is a famous place in Copenhagen with lots of cute and colorful restauransts/shops/apartments. While at the lunch the sun came out for about 10 seconds!! It was the first time I'de seen blue sky or any sign of sun since my arrival. Although brief, it was still glorious.

14:30 Walked through the city center outdoor mall and shopping area (known as Stroget). There were tons of people. I will definitely be coming back here.


15:00 Lost. Could not find the visitor center but found the National Museet, a museum of Danish history. It's free so I mozied on over and saw some cool Viking memorabilia. I only made it around the first floor before I was completely exhausted. I will definitely come back to finish the rest of it.
Side-note: I am very confused by the floor numbering system in Denmark. What I consider the 1st floor they call 0 floor. Their 1st floor would be our 2nd. My apartment is advertised as on the 5th floor. However, I count everyday and if I was in America I would be confident that I live on the 7th floor.

16:00 Took the train home. Had a beer and turned on the Olympics. It was a good day.



View from out my living room window:






Side question: Did anyone pick up "the little mermaid" tune in the title? Or was that too much of a stretch?