London and Switzerland

This post was supposed to be separated, but due to lack of wifi and my inability to do anything productive, I am combining them into one – so bear with me.

First: my class trip to London. We stayed at the King’s Hotel right outside of Hyde Park. I would consider it a very typical European hotel; and that is not necessarily a compliment. I roomed with Rikke, Kat and Zeynab. Our bathroom was across the hallway from our room and we couldn’t figure out how to lock the door so we were constantly fighting with the boys to get them to stay out of our bathroom. Every morning we ate the hotels complimentary breakfast of corn flakes, toast, and croissants. The rest of the meals we had to find on our own so naturally, I tried to go to as many American places as possible. Unfortunately, I only managed to get to Subway and Krispy Kreme.

Sunday:

We left from the school at 7:30 to catch our flight out of Aalborg. We landed at London Gatwick around 1:30 then Zeynab (who is originally from Afghanistan) and I were separated from our group and placed in the “not European Union” line. Behind us was a group of American college students. I could hear they were American before I even glanced at their passports. All I could think was “my God, we are annoying.” Anyways, after getting to the hotel and having rooms figured out, we went on a walking tour through Hyde Park and to Buckingham Palace. Afterwards we had free time so I went with a group of people back to the hotel, got fish and chips, and then did some exploring in the Queensway/Bayswater neighborhood.

Monday:

We left from the hotel at nine clock sharp; whoever wasn’t outside the hotel got left behind. It was a little scary to see how much responsibility and trust the teachers were putting in us. We went to the Natural History and Natural Science Museum. After lunch, we took the train way into the outskirts of London for a non-tasting tour of the Fullers Brewery. Our tour guide was drinking beer out of a water bottle and was slightly tipsy so perhaps not the most educational. All of the girls in my class left from the brewery to go shopping in Piccadilly and Oxford Circus. We spent over an hour in Lillywhite’s before we decided it was time for a nice Italian dinner. The rest of the night was spent hanging out in the hotel.

Tuesday:

The Royal Institute of Britain and Faraday Museum held a workshop on Magnets and Motors for our class. Rikke and I took off from here to go exploring in the touristy areas. We were planning to walk through Westminster Abbey and try to go up Big Ben, but they were both closed. That was a little disappointing but our afternoon was very relaxed and hygge. After running out of things to do, we went back to Oxford Circus to do some more shopping. There is this store called Primark. Imagine walking into Forever 21 at Mall of America but add four more floors and pack as much stuff in as physically possible. It was so overwhelming. At one point I had a pile of about twelve things but decided against everything because I didn’t feel like waiting in line. Our class met up for dinner all together and after Rikke, Kat, Christina, and I took off to do some more exploring. We ended up getting free tickets to a comedy club. It was improb night and we laughed through the entire thing. One of my favorite nights of the entire trip.

Wednesday:

Greenwich Village was the destination for the day. We went to the Royal Observatory and Museum, as well as the Meridian Line. Honestly, the museum was pretty boring but it was on top of a big hill so you could see all of London. After lunch of a Caesar salad (which I had been craving for the last seven months), we took a boat ride back into the city. That night, a group of us went to see West Ham play Chelsea at the West Ham Stadium. I had heard so much about the fans at premier league games, I was a little disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm. However, West Ham sings this song about bubbles and it was so cool to see the entire stadium burst into song and bubble machines spray bubbles throughout the stadium. The cheers also consisted of “the referee is a wanker” and “*insert players name here*’s mom is a *derogatory word*” Chelsea won 1-0. We went back to the hotel and hung out as a class.

Thursday:

Breakfast, packing, and check out all had to be completed before nine so everyone was up early. We went to the National British Museum where we walked around for an hour then left to do more shopping. We picked up our bags then made our way to the airport for our flight home.

Being in an English speaking country was so weird. At first, I was so excited to hear English and be able to read signs without thinking, but then it made me want to speak Danish more because no one could understand me. Out of habit, I was saying tak instead of thank you or undskyld instead of sorry. This made me chuckle at first but then switching back and forth got confusing.

Now, Switzerland! My host grandparents take everyone on an annual holiday every year so we were a group of fourteen! Seven adults, two eighteen year olds, two teenagers, a pretween, a nine year old, and Magnus. I am so thankful to Kurt and Birgitte for taking me along! Travel time between Viborg and Engelberg, where we were staying, was about twelve hours. First, we had to take a train to Copenhagen, fly to Zurich, trains to Engelberg. Before leaving, I was told we were staying in a monastery. Instantly thoughts of white walls, minimalism, nuns, and religion came to mind. Apart from the nuns, all of my stereotypes were wrong. We stayed in an apartment with brand new appliances and electronics (they had a towel warmer). I only found one cross in the entire apartment. The nuns were so nice; my host sister and I kept our nun jokes to ourselves. Breakfast and dinner were served every day at the hotel. Breakfast was a buffet with different kinds of yogurt, buns, and masses of hot chocolate. Dinner was a three course meal, always starting with soup. The food was so interesting and delicious at the same time! I wish I could tell you what it was, but the signs were all in German.

The days took on the same routine; breakfast, skiing until two or three, home and shower, dinner, card games until we were too tired, sleep. Never having skied before, the first two days were pretty tough, but I caught on very quickly. The movements for stopping on skates and slowing down skis are very similar so it wasn't too hard. The only problem is that I learned to ski in the mountains and I loved it, so skiing anywhere else is going to be a little disappointing. Mid-week, there was a storm coming through, so I was expecting rough conditions, but when we got up on the mountain, we were so high the storm was below us. It was so fascinating to see the valley disappear behind grey clouds and get a sunburn at the same time. All of a sudden I was mid hill and visibility changed, within seconds, to about fifteen feet. We could only outrun the storm for so long. We called it early that day and I took a nice long afternoon nap. I don’t have any other specific stories to tell so the rest will be told through pictures.