What Happened To October??

Greetings from Copenhagen!

I’m sorry that it has been so L O N G since you all last heard from me! October was a crazy busy month of traveling, new projects, final papers, midterms and really good food! This post is going to be similar to the post two posts ago: lots of bulleted lists and a large ass photo dump (with some nice quality pictures and others not so nice), as it is the best way to catch everyone up on the craziness of the spookiest month of the year!

Here we go!

The first full week of October was the first out of two study breaks. Study breaks work as followed: one week devoted to traveling with your classmates and department, learning new material, one week of vacation time off. My week off happened to be the first full week in October and I decided I would fly to London to visit my friend Miriam who is studying abroad there for the semester through Oxford.

But before I headed to London, I met up with my adopted Danish Parents, Dorthe and Poul, and visited an art exhibition with hundreds of artists, both professional and amateur. We did a quick walk through of the place, but found it hard for anything to really stand out because all of the artists had styles that were incredibly different form one another. However, a surprise at the end of the exhibition was getting to see some fo Salvador Dali’s original works, and for those of you who know me, yes, I cried. Fan girl moment. It was a good way to start a chaotic and fun break!

Art Exhibition with Dorthe and Poul

After a crazy mishap of a scheduling crisis, I booked my flight and flew into London on a Monday morning at 1AM. While I was there I visited the British Museum, KEW Gardens which had a lot of different green houses, (a?) Camden Food Market, and an amazingly beautiful restaurant (which I unfortunately forgot the name of) with delicious drinks. We made dinner one night consisting of cod, vegetables cooked in soy sauce, and couscous. It was a whirlwind visit, being there for only three days.

After I had gotten back from London, I had the rest of the week to poke around Copenhagen and study for my upcoming mid term in the class I have to most concern for. I woke up at 6:30am on a Tuesday, took my early two hour midterm, and then went right back to sleep until studio that afternoon. Wednesday then consisted of me S C R A M B L I NG to write my final draft of a paper for Travel Writing in which I completely scrapped my original idea and wrote a whole new paper as the final draft. Not my greatest move, but when the ideas aren’t flowing, there’s not much you can do.

My watercolor painting class took a trip to the aquarium to do some sketching as a field study. It was an early morning, but totally worth it. I love aquariums, they heal my soul. I spent a lot of time in the shark tunnel, a tunnel that was made of glass that went under/through the giant main tank that had sharks, sea turtles, sting rays and a lot of different fish. The lightning was incredible. They also had a large tank window that was the size of a two story building that you could sit in front of in the dim lighting and watch the fish. I spent a lot of time there, listening to low tone music and watching the fish swim by.

THEN CAME LONG STUDY TOUR!

Six days of traveling with my classmates through the Netherlands and Germany. Words can’t really describe the feelings and excitement of being in a different country on your own with your friends, learning new things, and visiting some incredible sites. Long story short, I had a bunch of fun, had some great food, saw some awesome places. But by the end of the week, I was ready to come home to Copenhagen.

Monday-Wednesday: The Netherlands- Amsterdam and Rotterdam

Day 1: Amsterdam

Monday, we all met at the Copenhagen airport at 6AM for our flight out at 8AM. All of us made it, no one was late, and all of our belongings made it too. Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we took a bus into the city where we stayed at this really cute hotel (I roomed with my friend Fiona) that was really centrally located and close to everything. We had a little bit of free time before we started so Isaiah and I stopped at this book store that had a lot of different design books, and a wall completely made out of mirrors (yes, I walked into it). We were there for about twenty minutes leafing through all the books and trying to convince ourselves that we did not need any more books and that we shouldn’t buy any. On our way back, we stopped at a cheese and meat store where we got a lot of delicious free samples.

Isaiah and I exploring the Amsterdam Canals

Rijksmuseum: The first place we visited was the Rijksmuseum, and we had lunch at their cafe. DIS normally provided us with breakfast and lunch, and dinner we had to do on our own. DIS has a list of who has specific food allergies so that the places we eat can accommodate for us. There were three people out of the 22 students who had food allergies, and they just happened to be myself and both of my friends from my studio, the only three from our studio on the trip (we called ourselves the problem children). This meal wasn’t too different than what everyone else got. After lunch, we had two hours to go off an explore the museum on our own before meeting for the next place, so Isaiah and I spent out time running through the museum trying to see as much as we could before our time was up (most of that time was us getting R E A L L Y lost, as the museum had a semi confusing layout).

Stedelijk Museum: I call this place the Bathtub Museum, a ten minutes walk from Rijksmuseum, and it was right next to the Van Gogh Museum, which I, unfortunately, didn’t get a chance to go into. The building itself looked like a floating bathtub and had mostly modern art inside. We had about an hour on our own for exploring the museum before leaving. Isaiah and I, again, wandered around with our folding museum viewing stools and drew different pieces of art. At the end of our visit, as we were finding our way out, we wandered into a private party by accident and were promptly excused from the museum. We still had six minutes before they closed, but they kicked us out early. Overall, a really cool museum with an exquisite interior.

From the Stedelijk Museum

For dinner that night, Fiona, our friend Mark, Isaiah, Mark’s roommate Logan, and I found our way to a pub for some burgers and fries. The food was good for a low-key first night in Amsterdam, and we stopped at a waffle place for dessert. The night was full of our laughter, getting really lost, and almost hit by some bikers multiple times.

Day 2: Rotterdam - “Rotterdam is truly a city unlike any other in the Netherlands. It has always been known as a working-class city and the city’s inhabitants are proud of this. In recent times, however, this hands-on mentality has been enriched by the incorporation of creativity and innovation. The city’s ambitions have translated to a flourishing creative industry. Many designers, artists and architects have found their professional home in Rotterdam. Famous archi- tects such as Rem Koolhaas, H.A. Maaskant, Francine Houben and Riek Bakker have their offices in Rotterdam and have made huge contributions to the city skyline. It is no surprise that the Netherlands Architecture Insti- tute (NAi) is situated in Rotterdam, as the architectural capital of Holland.”

Tuesday was an early morning after a delicious breakfast at the hotel before leaving for the train station where we took an hour train ride to Rotterdam where we would be spending the day exploring different sites.

Kunsthal: The first place we visited was Kunsthal, a museum situated in a museum park in Rotterdam. This museum had a lot of fun installation art that we could interact with, and a fashion exhibition which Katie and I explored.

De Harmonie: LUNCH WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Four course meal where I couldn’t really tell you what I ate, but I do know that it was good and it gave me ideas for home cooking. Definitely felt spoiled there, and incredibly underdressed.

Huis Sonneveld: “Sonneveld House is one of the best-preserved houses in the Dutch Functionalist style. The villa was designed in 1933 by architecture firm Brinkman and Van der Vlugt for Albertus Sonneveld, a director of the Van Nelle Factory. The architects designed a total concept in which architecture, interior and furnishings are perfectly coordinated and reinforce one another. Light and spacious, the house features numerous balconies and large areas of fenestration that offer views of the surrounding garden. Almost all items of furniture and lamps in the house were made by the firm of Gispen, some of them specially for the Sonnevelds. This customization reveals the family’s appreciation of luxury and comfort. Sonneveld House is therefore not a dogmatic example of functionalism, but a personal environment.” Overall a beautiful house that I would never want to live in myself.

Markthal: We departed for this indoor market after Huis Sonneveld, and we all were not impressed in the slightest for what we saw. It seemed, unnecessary. However, I did get some ice cream while I was there.

Cube Houses: I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. A cool idea, poorly executed.

The Cube Houses

That night, Isiah, Mark, Fiona and I wandered around Rotterdam looking for a place to eat dinner. We stumbled upon this tavern around six that evening where we sat outside in the cold at the table with heat lamps. Our meals were absolutely amazing, we had bottomless fries, and I payed for dinner that night because I love them all so much and as much as they wanted to fight me on it, I wouldn’t let them. We got back to Amsterdam that night around eight (we road on the train in the silent car, had it all to ourselves) and decided we take a slight detour through the red light district, as we were all curious. Well, we sprinted through the district, we were all a little overwhelmed and had many, many questions.

Day 3: Amsterdam

Wednesday was definitely the day I enjoyed the most while in Amsterdam. The weather had been nice all week, blue skies for days, so there wasn’t much to complain about. Wednesday consisted of some incredible sites and a really good place for lunch and dinner and dessert.

Failed Architecture: First, we visited this firm that was actually in the red light district (which was closed from 5AM to 10AM) where we got to talk with the people working their about what they do. It turned out that Maja, our tour leader from DIS, used to work there before coming to DIS.

EYE Film Institute: Next, we took a ferry out to an island where the EYE Film Institute was (a place my friend from home would absolutely love if he hasn’t already been there). The building looked like it had been modeled after the skull of a mountain lion. Inside, we went through some galleries that had some snippets of movies playing. Overall, an incredible space.

Noorderlicht Cafe: This place had the most amazing food and an incredible location. Still on the island, we took a bus, then walked, to this beautiful greenhouse that had been transformed into a cafe. For lunch we had a large salad, a portion of different meats, black cheese, falafel, Peeta and pretzel rolls. After, I had some tea called Tiger Tea which consisted of ginger, honey, and mint. I had found my new favorite tea. Definitely a place I would go again to eat at.

NDSM-Plein 28: Next stop was giant-ass warehouse with individual shipping container studios on the inside. Despite knowing that the studios are very very hard to get, and my chances of realistically moving to Europe are nil, I still want one of those incredible studios.

The studios

The Anne Frank House: One of the main reasons why Wednesday was my favorite day was because I got to see the Anne Frank house. It was listed as an optional activity we could do, and I was pleased to see that everyone from our tour group decided to go. We couldn’t take any pictures inside, so I have none to show you, but the experience was incredibly moving. Fiona and I walked through together with our audio tours, taking in every fact, every room, and every artifact.

Dinner that night was where the real fun began. Mark and I had been talking the day before about how we were both really craving Pho noodle soup, and that there was a recommended place in Amsterdam that had really good Pho. The problem was, the apple pie place that my friend from home, Jake, had recommended to me, was in the opposite direction of the Pho place, so we’d have to retrace our steps, or eat at four in the evening. We decided to take the hike. So Mark, Fiona, Isaiah, Katie, Lucy, Sam and I made the trek all the way to Pho King, to get our Vietnamese meal, which was amazing. We got to the place and we pretty much took over the small interior seating space. After that, with our full bellies, we made the twenty minute hike back past the Anne Frank house, and made it to Winkel 43, a cute little pub that had the thickest/thicc-ist apple pie I’ve ever eaten/seen. We all split a couple of different pieces and by the end of the night, had all agreed that this was the best dinner/dessert we’d had on the trip.

Thursday-Saturday: Germany- Essen, Köln, and Hamburg

Day 1: Essen and Köln

Let me just start out by saying, Thursday and Friday were spent primarily on a bus. As the weather had changed once we crossed the boarder to rain, cold, and cloudy, we were appreciative of not having to be outside. But those long bus rides really put our patience to the test. We left early that morning by bus and drove four hours to see our first site visit, which was out in the middle of no where, and really our only day of nice weather in Germany. We stopped along the way for lunch at this weird grocery store where we had to find food, so Mark and I regrettable got nuggets from McDonalds.

Early morning bus ride

Brother Klaus Field Chapel: This field chapel sat in the middle of giant farm field on a hill surrounded by crops and cows. We took the cold and chilly hike up, stopping to sketch at different points, until we finally got to the chapel. We all knew it was going to be a small chapel, but we didn’t realize how small it actually was. Saw a couple field mice too.

Ruhr Museum: Another two and a half hours later and we get to the Ruhr Museum, which is an old coal mine turned museum. We had to take a long escalator ride up into the main entrance of the museum, which mimicked the journey the coal would take into the factory. Isaiah and I took the time to run around and see everything before we left for our next stop. We made it up to the roof where we found Katie. You could see pretty much all of Essen from the roof.

The Red Dot Museum: Our next stop was a five minute walk from the Ruhr Museum. “the Red Dot Design Museum is the largest exhibition of contemporary product design worldwide. It is located in the former colliery of the Zeche Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, just across from the Ruhr Museum. The four-story structure showcases the best in contemporary design amidst the building’s original industrial fixtures: bathtubs balancing on grated walkways, bike helmets dangling from snakelike heating ducts, and beds perching atop a large oven. All objects are winners of the Red Dot award, the ‘Oscar’ of the industrial design world” We saw a lot of different designs for pretty much everything imaginable.

After another two hour bus ride, we made it to Köln where we would be staying the night. We checked into the Marriott Hotel, and since the rooms were such a hassle in Amsterdam, the tour leaders chose the rooming assignments for us. I lucked out and roomed with Katie, and we got a really nice room. Dinner that night was a huge surprise. We walked through the train station to get there and we pulled up to this place that looked like a nightclub, but had a fancy dining area where we ate that night. DIS bought us all drinks that night, so while everyone else got wine or beer, Sam and I got Gin and Tonics. Dessert for Katie and I was a bunch of fruit sorbet sitting in about an inch of Proseco! Absolutely delicious.

Day 2: Köln and Hamburg

Friday was a day in hell.

Kölner Dom (Colonge Cathedral): It went from raining, to misting, to raining, to cloudy, to raining pretty much the whole day in various patterns. We started off the day after breakfast visiting the Kölner Dom, a huge cathedral five minutes from our hotel. The inside was gorgeous, my favorite kind of architecture, gothic. I sat for awhile and just watched, listened, and took in all of the cathedral before the group headed to the tower of the cathedral.

Merzenich: Lunch was on our own that day, so Fiona, Mark, Katie and I wandered looking for a place to eat. We stumbled upon Merzenich where we all got various breads, sandwiches and pastries. We watched as pigeons made their way ALL THE WAY TO THE BACK OF THE CAFE before being noticed and shooed out again by employees. It was kind of like a game.

Mark and Fiona at lunch

Kolumba Museum: “Kolumba Museum (Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln) houses the Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s collectionof art which spans more than a thousand years. Zumthor’s design for the museum rises from the ruins of a late-Gothic church, integrating the remnants of the church’s facade into a new face for the contemporary museum. Articulated with perforations, the brick work allows diffused light to fill specific spaces in the museum. Handcrafted by Petersen Tegl of Denmark, the bricks were specifically developed for this project and fired with charcoal to impart a warm hue.” This place was absolutely beautiful. By far one of my favorite sites that we visited on study tour. I explored the museum with Mark and Fiona, and we found this one room where, when you made a noise, it echoed differently depending on where you were standing in the room.

Then hell really started. We board our bus for a six hour bus ride from Köln to Hamburg. Not only was the bus ride excruciatingly long, but we were driving on the autobahn. It was terrifying to see cars speeding by us at 110MPH when the roads were slick with rain. But we did finally get to Hamburg around eight that evening, and went to a pub for dinner. The food was okay, but after what we had when we were in Amsterdam, nothing really could compare. That night, while some people decided to go out, Mark, Fiona, Shanmathi and I stayed in, drank together, and played a less aggressive version of hot seat. We got to bed later than we had wanted. Katie didn’t get back from her adventure until after two in the morning.

Day 3: Our final day, Hamburg

As I was eating breakfast with Isaiah, Bjorn, Anthony and Mark, we realized it was raining outside, and we were starting our day with a walking tour. Luckily, or amazing tour leaders, Maja and Nina, rushed through the walking tour so we wouldn’t get soaked. We saw Chillehaus, Sprinkenhof, Kontorhausviertel, Hafencity Info Centre im Kesselhaus, and the Harborfront.

Elbphilharmonie Hall: Once we had finished our walking tour, we went to see a symphony music hall. We could only really walk around the lobby part and sketch from there. To sum it up, Elbphilharmonie took a long time to get finalized and approved and when it was finally built it was like ten times more expensive than anticipated. Overall, the money wasn’t worth it. We did our tour wrap up there, looked through everyone’s sketchbooks, and took a group picture.

NENI Hamburg: This was the best food in Germany by far. It was food very similar to what we had gotten in Amsterdam at Noorderlicht Cafe. For starters we had salad, sweet potatoes, peeta bread, beet hummus and a pumpkin-squash smoothie. The main course was salmon, tai chicken salad, mixed vegetables and more hummus. We didn’t get dessert because we had to book it to get to the airport on time.

We flew back to Copenhagen that evening, all of us ready to go home. Our flight was only forty minutes instead of the planned hour, so we got back really quickly. Isaiah’s seat was right behind mine so we shared a window view that faded fast into the night sky. The flight was fast, yes, but the seats weren’t too comfy, definitely threw my back out. Mark and I begrudgingly stopped at Burger King for dinner when we got back to Nørreport because neither of us had food at our places. I got back to my room around seven-is Saturday evening, and promptly stayed in bed for the next 36 hours.

Hamburg Airport Sunset over Isaiah's head

Overall it was an incredibly busy October, so I apologize for not getting you up to date sooner. November is going to be even busier, as I have a project presentation on Wednesday, a mid project critique Friday and final papers and portfolios due within the month. I will try to update you again before I head to Barcelona at the end of the month, but if not, defiantly right after.

Signing off and probably getting back into bed now!

Best,

Lilly

Me with my flag in Rotterdam!

Fun Fact: Fireworks were set off on my street outside my building at 3AM Sunday morning!