Opera in Copenhagen!

Yesterday after my class, Jenae and I took the train to Copenhagen to go to the opera. We arrived in Copenhagen just as the sun was starting to set, which made our walk to the opera house really beautiful. The opera house is situated on an island in the center of Copenhagen. The problem we had was that because it was an island there were many waterways for all the boats, which made getting to there very frustrating! We could see the opera house from the shoreline where we were walking, but then we would have to cut around the many waterways that went several blocks inland. At one point we had to backtrack for 10 minutes to find our way around. Finally we found the opera house, on a little island by itself.
The opera house was finished in 2005 and cost over $500 million to build! It's a beautiful building, and the interior is designed like a traditional opera house, which is really nice.
Jenae in front of the view across from the opera house...

The front of the opera house...

The doors that lead into the theater- Jenae said that they reminded her of a spaceship!

On the second level...
Looking down from the top balcony where our seats were... We actually got "standing" seats, but there were a lot of open seats so the ushers told us we could move down and find seats.
We saw Elektra by Strauss, sung in German with Danish supertitles.... so again, we were a little in the dark. But we had read a fairly detailed synopsis beforehand so it was easier to follow. The orchestra was huge! They had 6 basses as well as 8 french horns! The other sections were large as well, but those were the two that stuck out to me as being especially large.
The inside of the theater....

Looking down at the stage....(note the large orchestra pit!)

Trip to Stockholm with Jenae! Day 4

Our last day in Stockholm, we got up early for breakfast and then caught a train to Stockholm central so we could take a bus to the airport. We were there really early, and we went to the airport coffee shop and bar (it's a tiny airport, so there was only one in the terminal past security). The bartender asked us about where we were from and how we were liking Sweden. When we said that we were from the U.S. he told us that he was born in New York, and lived in New Jersey until he was nine when he moved to Sweden. He was a really nice guy, and after talking with us, he brought us free coffee (he said it was a "little treat" for us)! The one above is the one he made for me, and below the one he made for Jenae. We also found out that him and his sister (who also works at the bar) speak English, Swedish, and Spanish (their father is from South America) fluently.
We finally got on the plane, flew the 40 minutes with takes to get back to Malmö, and then walked back to my dorm... it was an amazing trip!!

Stockholm, A Night at the Opera!

Before going to the opera, we went to a really nice restaurant called "Victoria" for dinner. We ordered the set menu, which consisted of a salmon appetizer on a piece of toast (we forgot to take a picture, sorry...). The main course was veal with creamed cauliflower and a red beet chutney (above), with fried potatoes on the side (no picture, again, sorry). For dessert we had a chocolate pudding with fresh whipped cream on top (below).
After dinner we went to the Royal Opera house to see a performance of "Läderlappen" (Die Fledermaus). The performance was all sung in Swedish with no supertitles. It was fun to listen to the music, even if we had a hard time following what little plot there is in this opera. The hall itself is beautiful! It was great to see how many people were there for a Monday night opera- the house was packed! And there was a wider age range of people attending than there seems to be in the states. From the reactions of the audience, the show was really well done and very funny.

Jenae during intermission....
From my seat I could see the basses perfectly, which was fun!
After the opera, we took the train back to our hotel: exhausted, full, and happy!

Trip to Stockholm with Jenae! Day 3

Our third day in Stockholm was just as nice as our first in terms of weather. The sun was out again and it was fairly warm. We walked to a food market that Jenae had read about called Östermalms Saluhall. It was amazing!! So much fresh food all through the large open room. The room had lots of vendors spread out over the floor, selling all types of fresh food as well as several restaurant type stands with gourmet food.
We wandered around for a bit, just taking it all in- all the smells and noise of a busy market. We got there right around lunch time, so there were a lot of business types there for their lunch breaks.
We decided on a food stand called "Tysta Mari", which has a chef on staff and a changing lunch menu. The woman taking our order saw our confused expressions while we were trying to figure out the Swedish menu, and gave us menus in English (we were not the only ones who were confused, a few people behind us were also handed English menus). I had the meatloaf in a red wine sauce with mashed potatoes (above), and Jenae ordered the fresh cod with a butter sauce and boiled potatoes topped with horseradish (below). Both were really great!


After lunch we walked to an island called "Djurgården" which has a zoo and really beautiful gardens (well, it was beautiful covered in snow, but I'm sure it's even more beautiful in full bloom).
Jenae was super excited about all the snow on the ground and went running off the path to stomp in the fresh snow....

It was a great afternoon of wandering through the gardens and seeing all the fresh snow!

Trip to Stockholm with Jenae! Day 2

The next day of our trip, we woke up to the weather that we had been expecting the day before. It was overcast and snowing! Jenae was really excited about the snow- the picture above captures her giddiness pretty well. We walked around for a bit, and found a theater that is devoted to chamber and folk music, which is really exciting!

We also went to a small island called Skeppsholmen, that mainly has museums which was nice because it was really cold and snowing. We went to the modern art museum there, which was really nice. They had exhibits of local as well as more internationally known artists.

The modern art museum
Sculpture in front of the museum...
We walked by the Grand Hotel, which I thought was cool...

Because it was so cold, we went back to Gamla Stan for lunch. We found a little cafe called "Kaffe Koppen, which was pretty packed when we arrived. They told us that they had more seating downstairs, so we headed down a tiny spiral staircase into a small basement area lit with only candlelight. It was such a great little place, and the food was amazing. We split a chicken quiche and a brie and salami sandwich, both of which were really great. The atmosphere was also very nice for the cold weather, with the candlelight and cozy cellar feeling.

After lunch we went to the Swedish economic museum, which has the largest collection of Scandinavian coins dating back to the Viking age. It was cool to see all the coins and how they progressed and became more uniform as time went on.

While in Gamla Stan, we also saw the changing of the guard. Here's a video of the guards changing over in the snow! It's funny how similar it was to the display I saw in Prague (which I also posted a video of..).


After the last museum, we took the train back to our hotel and got sandwich makings at the grocery store around the corner for dinner. It was nice to have an early night in, mainly because we had been walking around in the cold and snow for the whole day!

Trip to Stockholm with Jenae! Day 1

Jenae and I made it to the Malmö Airport really early so we had breakfast at the 7eleven while we waited to check in. Our flight was right on time and we landed in Stockholm around 2pm. We were expecting snow and overcast skies, but when we got off the plane the sun was shining and the sky was clear! It was amazing weather to wander around the city, which we did for the entire afternoon.
We were able to find a bus to the Stockholm central station, which is in the center of everything and about a 10 minute walk from the "old town" island of Gamla Stan. The picture above was taken right across from Gamla Stan, by a really nice Swedish couple who told us how lucky we were to have the nice weather for our trip (apparently, this time of year sunshine is a rarity).
For lunch we stopped at a street vendor and had a typical Swedish meal called "varmkorv" (pictured above), it's a hot dog or sausage with mashed potatoes in a pita type bread (many thanks to Susan Larson for the suggestion!).
We spent a couple hours walking around Gamla Stan, where we saw the palace and parliament buildings. That part of Stockholm is really great (and a little touristy- there is one street where every other storefront is a tourist shop), there are so many little cobble stone side streets that spider through the island.
This is the Royal Opera House, where we bought tickets for a performance the following night.
After walking around the city all afternoon, we took the train out to our hotel which was near the international conference center (about 10 minutes on the train from Stockholm Central). We found a little Indian food restaurant near the hotel for dinner. It was different than Indian food in the States, but it was really good!

Jenae is in Lund!!

The day before yesterday, I went to the Copenhagen airport to pick Jenae up for her visit to Sweden! We've been having a great time, walking around the city, trying new coffee shops and seeing the campus. Yesterday, as well as today, Jenae got a chance to explore Lund while I was in class. She said that she really liked the town with all the little back streets (which she may or may not have gotten lost on...). We took the picture above in front of the Lund cathedral yesterday- yes, it was sunny! It's been extremely warm here (for Sweden in the winter.). It got up into the high 40's and the sun has been out the past few days. Apparently Jenae decided to bring the sun with her from Los Angeles! We're going on a trip to Stockholm tomorrow, so our warm days are about to end- it's still snowing and in the high 20's there.
One of the back streets that Jenae explored during her walks through Lund

Danish and Swedish flags on campus.

Jenae had to try the traditional Swedish pastry "semla", which is supposed to be just for "fat Tuesday", but they serve it year round here.
We also had a slice of lemon meringue pie which was great!

Day Trip to Helsingborg and Helsingör (part 2)

This is one of the many frescoes that they have at the monastery, although some are badly damaged.
The sanctuary of the monastery.
After our tour of the monastery, we had lunch in Helsingör before taking the ferry back over to Helsingborg. We walked from the ferry to the Kärnan Castle, which has the last remaining building that was part of the Castle. The tower (pictured below) was once part of a larger compound that was on a hill, surrounded by a wall and moat. It was built in the 1300's when Hensingborg was still part of Denmark.

Stairs up to the tower...
The view of Hensingborg from the top of the tower...
After the tower, we went to an art museum in Hensingborg and then took the train back to Lund. It was a really fun day!

Day Trip to Helsingborg and Helsingör (part 1)

Today I went to Helsingborg and Helsingör for a class field trip! We took the train up to Henlsingborg and then got on a ferry to go across to Helsingör. The picture above is right when we started to cross over to Denmark.

This is an example of the type of streets that they had in medieval cities, with the drainage ditch in the center. Apparently, Shakespeare is said to have sat in the gardens of some of the houses on this street while he wrote Hamlet. His theater troupe also gave several performances near this street, although the exact house and yard they used is unknown.

Our professor for the day, Anders Odman, in his bright jacket...
This is the Kronborg Castle, which is known as Elsinore in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. Hamlet has been performed at the castle several times.
We visited the Carmelite Monastery, which is the oldest remaining monastery in Scandinavia. We had a guided tour and got to see all the history and art that is preserved in these buildings.