I was a real stink about Denmark our last month there. It wasn't all Denmark's fault, but a combination of homesickness, my usual Seasonal Affective Disorder (greatly exacerbated by the wind and lack of daylight), and pregnancy/food aversions.
We spent just about every night watching How I Met Your Mother/Parenthood/Arrested Development and counting days until we could go home. There really was not a lot else to do. We were both ready to leave.
Landemaerket
Still, we'll definitely miss things about living in Copenhagen--the sounds of the city (cruise ship horns, bicycle bells, train announcements and pass scanners, police sirens), the beautiful old buildings, riding the trains, easy travel to amazing places, and giving directions like "it's up the street to the left, across from the castle."
I don't think I'll miss the food or grocery stores, how much everything costs, seeing/hearing Danish, never seeing a blue sky, having church meetings translated, or waiting for the bus to church in the freezing cold (it's always late).
On my last day in Copenhagen, we had dinner on Bredgade and walked to Amalienborg Palace. It was frigid and insanely windy, so we quickly walked over to Nyhavn and up to Kongens Nytorv where we took the train home. I thought it was a fitting end to the experience-- it's the reverse of what we did on our first day there in July and our favorite place downtown. Unfortunately, it was too cold to spend much time reminiscing or soaking up the experience. (Two weeks later, Todd did the same walk on his last Saturday in Copenhagen. Same result. Winter in Copenhagen is just not good.)
We may miss Europe more than Denmark, but in some ways, Denmark became home-- familiar and comfortable. I'm sure the memories of the last few freezing, boring, dark weeks will fade and memories of the first few wonderful months will be what we really remember. This was easily the coolest experience of our lives so far. Seriously, who gets paid to live and travel around Europe for half a year? We don't know what we did to deserve such an awesome blessing and we are so grateful for it.
Hej hej, København!
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