To Copenhagen!

We started our trip on Friday morning. We did all the final chores in Raleigh and schlepped our mountain of luggage to the airport.

We rode in a small plane for our connecting flight, and I was worried it would be bouncy and horrible and prime me for a bad experience on the overseas flight. But it was lovely! The first half of the overseas flight was not so good. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt nauseated, but all I wanted to do was sleep. But the second half was far better! I read "Anne of Green Gables"and it was sunny and we were closer to land every minute. I think Todd had the reverse experience: he read Harry Potter for the first half, then fitfully slept through the second.

I wish I didn't get so distressed flying. But I suppose it has helped me develop gratitude. I say lots of prayers on planes, mostly because I'm grateful things aren't going as poorly as I imagine they could.

But we made it! 

From the air, Copenhagen hardly looks like a city! There are almost no tall buildings. It was strange for me to recognize the lay of the land when I'd never been here before--I've mapped so many things on Google Maps, I knew exactly what I was looking at.

The airport was different from any I've been in before. Each gate has its own separate room separate from the hallways and there are no announcements or music. Exactly opposite of where we'd come from (JFK: worst airport).

All of our luggage made it safely and unharmed (more grateful prayers). The taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong entrance to our apartment building. He can't be blamed, really--he dropped us at 8 and we are 8A. The bad news is, we're on the 4th floor (5th floor to Americans) with no lift. And we only discovered we were in the entrance after carrying half our heavy suitcases up and discovering the key wouldn't open the lock. I found the correct entrance around the corner, and we (mostly Todd) hauled all the suitcases up to the top floor. We'll have no need of a gym while we're here.

Our apartment is very nice. It's twice as big as the rest in our stairway and is very open with lots of windows. And there is a queen bed! REJOICE! I was fully prepared for weeks of sleep deprivation due to overcrowding a full-size bed, so that was an extremely happy discovery.

We set two goals for the day: get train passes and groceries. The walk to the local station, Svanemøllen, is through a picturesque little neighborhood with cobblestone streets and ivy. We don't have the train system down pat yet, but Todd easily navigated us to the central station and back.

For groceries, we tried a little mini-mart version of Aldi with less (albeit different) selection than 7-11 (which are everywhere here, by the way). We bought some pasta and marinara sauce and salami... I'm now realizing we bought mostly Italian food, probably because I could actually read the labels!

Then we came home and collapsed.

NY-MD-VA

We escaped Brooklyn after one night. We drove to Manhattan, parked near the consulate, and wandered about Midtown for a while before our appointments. We walked through Grand Central and the south part of Central Park, which was just as pretty as I imagined it would be in summer.

Our appointment at the consulate couldn't possibly have gone smoother. We got in early, out quickly, the consular officer was really nice, and there were absolutely no issues. The officer laughed a little bit at our super organized applications, but said they were perfect and he wished every application looked like ours. YAY!

Sayonara, NYC. Maybe we'll be better friends some day.

We bailed on Brooklyn in favor of Baltimore, and our experiences were polar opposites. The hotel was beautiful and we were upgraded to the nicest suite we've ever stayed in-- nicer than our 5-star honeymoon hotel. Huge windows, gorgeous aerial city view, top of the line everything. This picture makes the hotel look like junk, but trust me, it was marvelous.

It was a short walk to Baltimore Harbor, where we ate seafood outside and walked along the boardwalk at sunset. We were so happy to be out of NYC. It was a perfect night.

We drove to Charlottesville the next morning. I obviously love and miss Charlottesville, but Todd also misses it a lot more than he lets on. We ate at all our favorite restaurants, and surprisingly, they all disappointed us. (Todd thinks it might be that my cooking has improved, so he's less desperate.) And it was weird being there, kind of empty. It still looks like it should, but so much of what we loved about it isn't there anymore.

Darden, Grounds, Albemarle House, the Thomas Jefferson Parkway, the downtown mall, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Swannanoa were as beautiful as ever.

The trip was perfectly timed for one of my favorite activities in all the world: watching fireflies on the Lawn. Possibly better than watching the lights on the Eiffel Tower twinkle.

4th Anniversary in NYC

Last week, we road-tripped up to NYC to submit our residence permit applications at the Danish Consulate.

Todd hates cities, NYC especially, so he was not looking forward to this trip. My goal was to change his mind. I felt like I was succeeding a little bit when Todd got out his phone to snap a few pictures of the Statue of Liberty on our drive in. But it was all downhill from there.

The neighborhood around our Brooklyn hotel was sketchy: run-down, dirty, graffitied. Nothing like Manhattan. We happened upon Little Israel--everyone wore traditional Jewish dress! We probably looked out of place anywhere in New York, but I, in my white jeans, and Todd, in his chino shorts, were clearly out of place here. And we were carrying originals and copies of our passports, social security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and college transcripts, plus $800 cash, 2 iPhones, 2 laptops, and an expensive camera. We scream ROB ME.

We went inside our hotel room and started looking at dinner options. We checked a crime map to see if the 6-block walk to the subway was safe and found recent assaults, robberies, and shootings. (Why did I not check this before?) I wanted out immediately, but it was already getting dark. And this wasn't entirely just me being prissy-- Todd wanted to leave, too. So we ordered pizza in and thought about our options/cried (me) about the stress of the move, the paperwork, the scary neighborhood, and everything we had to accomplish in the next month.

This was our 4th anniversary. Todd said we'd laugh about it one day, and I knew he was absolutely right. I did find it funny that the graffiti immediately outside our window looked, at first, like it said "I like Todd." Really, it said "I like to do bad things." Comforting.