Walking in a winter wonderland

This past week Denmark decided that it would be really fun to pretend it was Norway or Greenland or even Minnesota. It's been snowing quite a bit and the cold is not going away. It's nothing I can't handle, I mean I am a Minnesotan after all, but it's a little upsetting that the winter I spend in Copenhagen is the coldest one they've had in decades.

So since my last post I've checked off quite a few things on my "Things to do in Copenhagen" list. On Wednesday some friends and I learned a bit more about the most important part of Danish culture--beer! We toured the old Carlsberg brewery and stables and then got to try a bunch of different beers. They had a room where you could smell different scents and based on the ones you liked best, you could pick the beer you would like. So between the 5 of us we were able to taste 9 different beers and I now feel much more educated about Danish beer. My personal favorites were the Abbey Ale which had hints of licorice, almonds, carnations and red apples and the Carlsberg Lager which had hints of oak, coffee, corn and toasted bread. So if anyone needs advice on good Danish beer, you know who to call.

On Saturday I went to Malmö, Sweden to go shopping with some of my friends. It's a 30 minute train ride and a very popular destination for Danish shoppers because the sales tax is a mere 7% compared to the 50% they pay here. It's also a nice place for a group of American students living on a budget to go and get some (relatively) cheap European clothes. We were also able to track down some Swedish meatballs and I'm not going to lie, I think the Gustavus cafeteria makes better ones. We were also pretty determined to find Swedish Fish but that mission was unsuccessful. I figured it would be though considering Swedish Fish are actually a Canadian candy. But after a lot of shopping and seeing several Gustav Adolf named things (Notice the picture of the cafe below) it was time to head home and meet Anne for night at the theater! First we enjoyed a delicious Turkish dinner complete with Baklava and then it was off to Mary Poppins. Even though they had to stop for about 30 minutes due to technical difficulties, the play was really wonderful! I actually enjoyed that it was in Danish because I was able put my Danish to the test since I knew the story so well. They were even able to translate Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious into Danish--Superphantaphænomænagenialilistisk. Impressive.

More Pictures from the brewery:

An old bottling machine

Beer chemistry (Possible fall back career?)

Old Tuborg delivery bike