Apartment in Copenhagen!

We've got our apartment in Vesterbro all lined up, all that's left is for me, natalie and cody to go over the paperwork and pay for it. Not really sure how that works overseas, but Astrid, the owner, is really nice and really helpful. Vesterbro is supposed to be one of the nicest neighborhoods of copenhagen (which is already a really nice city!) and it's only about 15 minutes from DIS by bike. Super excited!!

Here is what she told me about it:

"The apartment is on third floor, has three separate bedrooms and a livingroom, free wi-fi, tv (CNN and a few other American channels), washing machine, dishwasher, balcony and a great gardens place. The apartment is approx. 1,000 square feet. The building is from 1907 with stucco ceilings and wooden floors, typical Scandinavian style.

It's located on Vesterbro, the most hip and cosy neighborhood in Copenhagen, with lots of local food stores, designer clothes, coffee bars, restuarants etc. The night life is great too - with lots of bars, clubs and concerts.

Within 10 minutes walk is a supermarket (with lots of organic food if you're into that) and a shopping mall with everything you'll possibly need. In the summer time you can swim in the harbour right by the shopping mall - Copenhagen has some of the cleanest water in the world.

Five minutes walk to the local train station (and 15 minutes to Copenhagen main train station) and 25 minute walk to DIS, 15 minutes if you rent bikes or take the bus.

It's a safe neighborhood 24/7. My spouse and I have lived here for two years and we really love it. "



Here are some pictures, for your viewing pleasure:

Garden view:


living room:


kitchen (with dishwasher & washing machine! they air-dry their clothes!):


bedroom:


livingroom with other bedroom:

Travel Plans & Plane Tickets!

[All times listed are local to the host cities to which they reference.]

Yesterday morning Cody's mom got him his tickets for Copenhagen, only she didn't leave him any time (well, an hour and a half) to stay in Raykjavik (where there's a free multi-day layover if you want it, when going on IcelandAir to Europe) so I didn't immediately buy my tickets to match his. Brekke already had hers and is staying for like 3 days in iceland before heading over to Copenhagen. Natalie hadn't bought hers yet though, and so we met last night and in about an hour and a half had finally worked out which flights we were taking. I ended up being able to take cody's flights (last seat! so they said!) to iceland and then the whole way back from copenhagen.

Natalie, who is flying out of NY rather than BOS was originally going to take a flight which, she discovered, transferred in boston on to OUR flight. But then she also found out her total order was somehow 4,400 dollars. US dollars. I joked that there was a 3500 dollar Boston Fee for new yorkers, but she checked her dates and they were all right, and the only flight that DIDN'T stop in boston was the right price. Somehow. So she's not going to stop in boston, which she didn't want to do anyway, but somehow her flight is 40 minutes shorter than mine will be anyway. The unfortunate thing is that the only ones that didn't stop in boston were redeye flights, so when cody and I get in at midnight (he moves on to copenhagen to get in early morning) natalie will be in at like 6 am. So Basically the only time I will have to be alone in a foreign country will be the 6 hour period in which i will take the shuttle (which they have) from the airport to the hostel or inn or wherever we end up staying, and pass out til natalie gets there. As I pointed out, it will be so light there for so long in the day it doesn't really matter when we sleep or get up, and as she pointed out, our sleep schedules will be so messed up anyway from having been on overnight planes and time differences anyway.

So then natalie and I, after some more sleep, will have the whole day to spend in Raykjavik, which i am SUPER EXCITED about! Although my frame of reference for iceland is hearing about my friend's trip in elementary school, and Lazytown, I have wanted to go there for a long time and I'm glad I'm taking the chance to do it now or else it may be a long time before I really have an opportunity to go there again. It's just enough time to go to the hot springs for a little while, eat, and go to a museum or touristy place, eat again, and walk around the city. They have a horrible economy in iceland, so they ship in foreigners to spend money there, and it's worked with us; as my dad said,"we'll be KINGS!"

Then, early the next morning, we have to get back to the airport for a flight around 7-something, and we'll get into copenhagen by about 12:30 on the 3rd day of our whirlwind European travelcation, and as exhausted as we will inevitably be by then, and our biological clocks so confused the hands will just be reeling around in circles and frantically throwing us into states of narcolepsy, we have to check in to DIS by 2 and then make it out of the orientation information events alive, and then we can spend our first night in Copenhagen.

I'm really excited to have one whole day in Raykjavik, and I look forward to years from now when I can look back on this whole trip and say, "I got to see Iceland for a whole day, too. I'm so glad I did that."

And I can't wait to meet Sportacus.