Day Trip: Møns Klint

I have been in Denmark for exactly 5 months now and will be leaving very soon, but I haven’t really explored the rest of Denmark much outside the city. For a while now I have been talking about going somewhere else in Denmark, and like many other ideas and plans we have… it never really happens.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my experiences here for the last few months, it’s that there are very few things that go exactly as you plan in life… so sometimes, there’s really no point. Because the way I see it, “planning” is really just you trying to think of all the possible scenarios that can go wrong, and trying to come up with a solution to prevent them or fix them in case it does happen. And the possibility of that happening is like… 1/10000. When it comes down to it, you’re just giving yourself time to delay and cite reasons that you shouldn’t go through with it.

Well life is just a huge game of adventure, my friends… those who are afraid that they will draw a bad card or land on the wrong space and be ejected back to Start, will never take that first step!… in which case they’ve just turned the 9999/10000 probability for things to go right into a 100% chance for failure. I heard my pastor preach a sermon the past Sunday about the uncertainties in life: you can’t live life trying to prevent, because whether you do or don’t, THE PROBABILITY WON’T CHANGE! If we lived life afraid of the probabilities of all the things that could go wrong, no one would ever leave their rooms. But I digress…

ANYWAY! So Nicole and I decided to PLAN LESS and DO MORE. We’ve heard about this pretty little place with white cliffs called Mons Klint; it’s on the southern tip of Denmark outside the greater Copenhagen area. While working on our last exam prompt that had just come out that day, we decided to go the next day. So we bought our tickets, and off we went the next day.

The train took us to Vordingborg in an hour, from there we took a bus to a quaint little town called Stege… where we ate deliciously cheap pizza and waited almost 2 hours in an empty bus lot under the scorching sun.

We took another bus that took us through the forest to the Mons Klint Geocenter. Lady at the info desk pointed to the nearest route, we grabbed a map, and started the trek of 1000 staircases. We thought that was the hard part of the hike… but let me tell you. They were not. Once we descended the steps onto the beach, the beach of rocks and pebbles became our worst enemy. Yes, they were pretty, but we were twisting and wobbling… it was definitely a calf/ankle workout.

The chalky white cliffs and the brilliant blue of the ocean and sky reminded me of Greece (not that I’ve ever been there… yet). The sun was shining, and the light salty breeze kept the temperature bearable, the ocean horizon was calm and flat save a few sail boats, the gentle crashing of the waves onto the rocky shore was ever so soothing and serene.

  

Everything was perfect and it felt like we had no worries or care in the world… except for the time. Must make it back to the Geocenter to catch the 4 o’clock bus! We pick up our pace, struggling and stumbling over the rocks and pebbles until we see the next set of staircases we had to scale back up to the wooded trails. BUT WAIT… we’re at the ocean! How could we leave without at least dipping our feet water?! So of course we immediately peeled off our shoes and socks…

With our legs feeling cool and refreshed, the aching of our feet and ankles also subsided, and we were on the move again. Coming down the stairs was a piece of cake compared to the pain it was to climb back up again. But nonetheless, we did it with valiant grace… only stopping at every bench available on the way…

We made it back to the Geocenter in our own record time AND leeway for a superb thirst-quenching slushie as well. We beat the bus back to the bus stop and sat down to drink our slushies like it was nobody’s business. I have to say… some things in life are best when unplanned. Adventures are always more fun when they’re spontaneous 🙂

Have an adventurous day, my dears… explore life, and do it with spontaneity and an open mind! God bless~

ACTUALLY Travelling!

Tomorrow I will embark on my first journey outside of Denmark!!! Super excited (even though I have yet to start packing…) to be going to London and Dublin for the week!

I will fly to London after class tomorrow afternoon, stay until Saturday, then take a ferry to Dublin for St. Patty’s weekend (oh you KNOW there’re gonna be stories when I get back), and finally a ferry back to London on Tuesday to fly back to the CPH on Wednesday. So be on the lookout for pictures and crazy stories ^______^

ALSO my parents are going to be coming for 2 weeks this summer at the end of my stay. We will be travelling around Europe so I’ve been making a rough plan of where to go so we can buy tickets soon. You guys know this is my first time in Europe, and my parents have never been either. I’m sooo psyched to see incredible sights and making unforgettable memories with them!

Milan –> Rome –> Vienna –> Paris –> London –> Amsterdam –> Berlin –> Copenhagen –>HOME SWEET HOME!

Oh, in other news, I’ve decided to start another blog where there will be more personal/everyday/snippets of my life, etc. [Irene’s Thought Diary] Because I want to keep this more for travel and stuff… you know, now that I’m ACTUALLY travelling. Anyway… if you aren’t already entertained by this blog, feel free to check out the other one haha.

As always, good night and God bless.

(Semi-) Weekly Update

It hasn’t been a week since I last updated (aren’t you proud?!) so I thought I would do a little semi-weekly update for you guys… because what else would I be doing on a cold, gloomy, dreary… typical Danish day right?

Currently listening to: 

FRIDAY: Woke up and thought I should do a little bit of work out because my appetite has been well… anyway. So I load a couple of Cassey’s Blogilates videos on Youtube. Got through most of it… maybe with slower reps and a few more breaks than she did in the video. But HEY, you gotta start somewhere right? Thought I did reasonably well and felt pretty good… until the next day.

SATURDAY: Woke up and took a little longer than planned to sit up in bed (my abs! I almost feel them! They’re there!) Then stayed in a half squat position for a little while more because my calves were so ridiculously sore (darn the ballet workout!). Made it to Paludan to meet Adrienne for food/study session. [If you’re in Copenhagen and don’t know/haven’t been to Paludan, I strongly suggest it. It’s a cozy little place with great food and books all over the walls… only downside is that it’s so popular finding seats is like the hunger games] The whole process was a pretty long struggle bus. Walk around and stare people down for seats. Find seats. But they’re bad seats. So we get up and change seats. Finally finish eating and take out books and laptop to do some work. Too cold and distracted by people walking on the streets. Pack things up and go back to Adrienne’s dorm. Sit on computer and read Thought Catalog and Upworthy until we had to leave for dinner.

SUNDAY: Finally found a church online and actually went. FIBC was a nice congregation of people, not to mention when I sat down and scanned the room, Nicole and Dan were sitting right across the aisle! What a coinkidink! It was cold and foggy, but look a swan! Wait, is that a swan? That’s a swan right?

Went to the flea market at the Studenthuset in the afternoon with Adrienne and found these cute little pants from TopShop for 50dkk… with the original tag still on them. What a steal! I feel ready to party with these babies on

Went to Tietgen, the coolest dorm in the world (no, I didn’t give it that title, it’s actually legit: Tietgenkollegiet ) for dinner with Nicole, Pearleen, Dan, and JJ. Soba and Korean bulgogi was DELISHHH thanks to Pearleen 🙂 Watched Amityville Horror, the prequel to The Conjouring… apparently it’s one of the scariest movie in the genre. Screaming was involved. A lot of it.

Went to the Studenthuset at 1am to watched The Oscars. Funny how people feel the need to be extra patriotic when they’re abroad… because I would never have made the effort to watch back in the States, and that was at a reasonable hour too. Finally gave up a little before 5am and left to go home. Metro is down for maintenance. Had to wait in the cold for the metro (struggle) bus. Harder than it sounds, really, especially at 5am in the morning. I think I got bronchitis, or pneumonia, or something… if anyone found a lung, please return. I think I coughed it up somewhere…. A huge sigh of relief along with one single tear of joy escaped my eyes as I approached the revolving doors of Field’s and it opened. SCORE!

TODAY: Throat feels horrible. Did laundry. Got groceries. Sipping on hot ginger/lemon/honey tea while writing this post…..

Cheers~! God bless.

Settling down…

I’m back! and before you say something about me being lazy and procrastinating (which usually wouldn’t be too far off), I really didn’t forget about this! I was waiting because I thought I would maybe go to some of the more touristy landmarks of Copenhagen before writing/posting pictures again… BUT… that didn’t happen because I’ve been moving from hostel to dorm, and starting classes, etc. I have, however, taken quite a lot of pictures of everyday Copenhagen. So…. it’s piled up, and you’ll get a lot most pics in this post YAYYY! 

The Generator Hostel

This is the hostel where I stayed for 3 days. Looks colorful on the outside, and really cute on the inside as well. It was quite a big and social hostel, and this is the place where I first met a lot of people who go to Copenhagen University (KU from now on).

A couple days ago it snowed pretty much allllll day, and just so happens, that was the day a friend and I walked for a good hour (at least) in the cold doing errands and such. The cold was definitely more bearable because of the beautiful scenery in the snow! We saw crowds of tiny children walking on the street and we had no idea why until we passed by this park where they were all just sledding down the hills. *dramatic sigh* Only in Denmark do kids take snow days and teachers take them to the park… like WHAAAT?! I also only have one “back photo” this time because most of the time it was just me snapping pictures as I walk by myself…. *insert forever alone joke here*. 

My dorm: Signalhuset Kollegiet (the signal house!)

This is the outside of my dorm/apartment building. ISN’T IT PRETTY?! One thing I really really like about Copenhagen is the architecture. A lot of buildings are very well preserved from hundred of years ago, and the new buildings all look so unique, modern, and beautiful… it’s very breathtaking everywhere you go, but in two completely different ways. So here are some more pictures of this place in general 🙂

Central train station

Amazing sunset outside my apartment

Oh, and the Social Sciences department building where I have classes makes me feel like I go to Hogwarts!… all that’s missing are the uniforms. That will be for the next post… look forward to it! 😉

Good night, and God bless~