Better than the Prairie Path

On Saturday, I visited Arken, a modern art museum southwest of where I live. It's located right on the beach and getting there was about an hour bike ride each way. The museum was good, but what I really enjoyed about the day was the bike ride. Making scenic bike paths usually isn't a priority in Denmark, but this one was beautiful. Most of the ride I was on off-road, paved, multipurpose trails. A large part of the trails went alongside old fortifications that were built at the end of the 19th century and were manned during WWI. Currently, the fortifications are being restored and a park is being developed along them.

Some fortifications.

Some sheep.

Fortification + Sheep.

At one point, there was a little park for mountain biking. It even had a nifty bike repair station.

Mountain biking park with different ramps for practicing.

Bike repair station with tools attached to cables so they can't be stolen.

After riding along that trail, I turned and went on another one that goes parallel to the sea. There are some protected manmade saltwater bays there and the trail went along those, which were calm and beautiful.

Swans galore!

There were houses along these protected bays (the bike path ran between the water and the houses) and almost all the houses had a little dock. 

I went to the museum, the I went and hung out on the beach for a while. The day had started rainy, but had turned nice. I had brought a picnic and I sat on the beach for a while and read. People had told me the beaches were actually pretty nice, but I was a little skeptical. Nice beaches? Denmark? But, I was pleasantly surprised.

After enjoying the sun and sand for a while, I had another beautiful bike ride back home!

Helsinki

As I mentioned, I spent a couple days in Helsinki over the weekend. I had printed out a walking tour to do in Helsinki and the author wrote that Helsinki is a city of second glances. You don't fall in love at first site, but when you take a careful look, you really like it. I think that was an accurate description. It doesn't have the glamour or charm of Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen, but it's an interesting city and it has a lot of character.

I spent a lot of time walking around and looking at the interesting architecture in the city. The city is known in particular for both its Art Nouveau and more contemporary buildings. There is also a design district, with a lot of stores featuring Finnish design. I had a list of stores to visit, and enjoyed seeing their wares. Going to the different stores was almost like visiting museums devoted to Finnish design.

The other main thing I did in Helsinki was visit Suomelina, a large former fortress on an island outside the city. The fortress has been held by Russia, Sweden, and Finland and had an interesting history. I enjoyed the museum there as well as just walking around the vast fortress. At one point, it was the second largest town in Finland.

I enjoyed my little trip to Helsinki. I love seeing the subtle differences between the different Nordic cultures and appreciated the Russian influences on Finnish culture. I loved walking and running around the city and experiencing Finnish design.

Bike Ride to the Airport

Last weekend, when I went to Helsinki, I rode my bike to the airport. I'd been hoping to do this at some point and this seemed like a good trip because I was only bringing a backpack with me. The ride to the airport was especially nice because it was sunny and in the high sixties. Overall, I was impressed with how easy it was to get to the airport. There were bike lanes going all through the airport and there were no places that I had to cut through something or ride with traffic in the way that I'm sure you would have to at an American airport. There were even some signs like this one, telling cyclists where to turn for the airport.

The ride took me about 45 minutes and public transit would have taken 30. It was a little longer, but not by much. Especially with the cost of public transit (it would be around $6.50 each way), the extra time spent biking isn't much of an extra cost. The other added bonus was that I was able to park about ten feet from the terminal.

I found a place where I could lock my bike to the rack and left for the weekend. When I came back, it was waiting for me. The only slight problem was that I bought a number of things over the weekend. I got creative and made them all fit on the bike and had another lovely ride back into Copenhagen.

Although it wouldn't work with a lot of luggage, riding to the airport worked out really well and I was once again impressed with Copenhagen's infrastructure that makes it possible.

Eating at Noma

This afternoon I had the best meal of my life. Although it was delicious, what really made it the best was how innovative it was. I was fortunate to be able to have lunch at Noma, a Copenhagen restaurant that was ranked as the best restaurant in the world in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Since Noma became famous, I've heard many NPR interviews with René Redzepi, the head chef and read many articles about the groundbreaking culinary work at the restaurant. Noma (the name comes from the Danish words for Nordic and food) is known for pioneering "new Nordic cuisine," a style of cooking which embraces the nature and produce of the Nordic region as well as taking inspiration from molecular gastronomy.

The restaurant is small, it probably seats between 40 and 50 people, and they serve lunch and dinner five days a week. Because of its popularity and small size, it is difficult to get a reservation. However, they are egalitarian in getting reservations because they open up an online system once a month. In early March, when it was possible to make reservations for May, Juliana, Jared, and I were all online hitting refresh over and over until Juliana was able to get through and schedule my meal for today. The meal was my birthday present from my parents and I have been anticipating it since March.

I was immediately impressed by the service and continued to be throughout the whole meal. When I came in, they said, "You must be Elizabeth," and as I went to my table, all the staff greeted me warmly. Although I did have a waiter assigned to me, I was attended to by several waitstaff. In addition, each dish was brought out by a chef. The dishes all needed explaining and some had to be eaten in a certain way or were served with certain elements that were not edible. During the meal I really felt that everyone wanted me to have the best possible experience. Even though it was clear that I wouldn't be buying expensive bottles of wine, I still felt special and taken care of. Given that Danish restaurant service is generally very hands off, this was especially impressive.

The meal is a tasting menu. Although they asked at the beginning if I had any allergies or dislikes, I had no say over what I got and I could tell that although everyone was getting similar dishes we did not all eat identical meals. In total, I think I was served 28 things. Some of them were just one bite, but it was still a lot of dishes. My reservation was at noon and I didn't finish lunch until 4. I hadn't been planning on taking pictures, but I did take some with my iPad. I'm glad I did. There were so many dishes, it would be hard to remember them all otherwise and having the pictures makes me appreciate the creativity of the cooking all over again.

From the first dish I was served, I knew that it was going to be an unforgettable meal. It began with the Nordic coconut: a whole potato hollowed out and filled with a warm juice which you drank through a dill straw.

Following the Nordic Coconut, I was surprised when a chef came out and put a small bowl of crème fraîche on the table and then moved the vase of flowers in front of me and told me that was the next dish. In the center of the vase was a sort of cracker that was edible and was supposed to be dipped into the crème fraîche. (The brown thing sticking up right in the middle is the edible part).

Following this, I was served eleven other "snacks," small dishes that were often just one or two bites. During the snacks portion, I had tried several unusual things including mashed grasshoppers, vinegar powder, hay ash, moss, and elm seed pods (I should note that I was not vegetarian for this meal, although it was a very vegetable-centric meal). Noma is focused on using native Nordic ingredients in unusual ways. Here are a few of the highlights:

Following the snacks, there were a series of main dishes. One of the most beautiful was this one that looked like tiny lilly pads:

My favorite of the main dishes was a wild duck egg from Sweden. This was a dish that not everyone in the restaurant got. My waiter told me that they only get 6-8 of the eggs a day, so I felt special that I got to have the dish. They brought out a very hot cast iron plate on a bed of straw. Although all the dishes were aromatic, this one was interesting because there was a pleasant bonfire sort of smell that went with it.

When they brought out the hot plate, I broke the egg onto it. The egg had a really thick shell and it was hard to break. I got a few pieces of shell into the egg, but the chef serving it was prepared with a pair of tweezers ro remove the shell fragments. They set a timer. When the timer went off, they instructed me to take the butter on the spoon and melt it next to the cooking egg. Then, I cooked one pile of the herbs and greens in the butter. Once they had wilted, I was instructed to put the rest of the herbs on top as well as break up the potato spiral (visible in the upper lefthand corner of the first picture) on top of the eggs. The chef topped it off with some sauce and it was ready to eat. This dish was fun because it was interactive, but it was also delicious. I had never eaten a duck egg before and it was so rich and flavorful: see how orange the yolk is! Although the final dish here (egg with herbs) was not as unusual as some, it was an example of how simple but delicious ingredients (like an excellent egg), can shine.

Finally, it was time for dessert. In total, there were five different sweet things served. They weren't very traditional desserts, nor very sweet, but continued to be unusual, surprising and delicious: beet licorice anyone? For example, this was a potato and plum dessert. In the middle is a potato purée and on the left is a cream infused with plum pits, which gives it an almond-y flavor. On the right is a plum sauce. I would never have expected potato in a dessert, but it was so light and sweet and worked well with the sauce. 

At the end of the meal, I was offered a tour of the kitchens. This was amazing, in part to see how many people it took to produce this meal: 45 chefs and interns. There were three main kitchen areas: one where the last minute prep and plating is done, one for the pastries, and one upstairs where a lot of prep work is done. They also have a grill area outside where several of today's dishes were cooked. Because the chefs help serve the dishes, the kitchen operates somewhat differently from a normal restaurant kitchen where one chef typically does the same thing the whole time. Instead, they frequently rotate through roles. Getting to go behind the scenes was a final highlight of the meal.

I left feeling like I was walking on air. As you can see from the first pictures, it was a beautiful sunny day in Copenhagen, and I was elated on the bike ride home. I have been happy after many good meals before, but this was on a whole new scale. Eating at Noma was such an incredible experience. The food was innovative and used what might seem like constraints in order to fuel creativity. It really opened my eyes to new ways to look at food and ingredients. The meal brought me such joy and I've spent the rest of the day just savoring and remembering it. This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so grateful that I could have it as a part of my Copenhagen adventure.

Tallinn

This past weekend, I took a trip to Helsinki, Finland and Tallin, Estonia. I flew into Helsinki late on Thursday and left Monday morning. On Saturday, I took a boat from Helsinki to Tallin. The ride was about two hours each way and I'm glad I made the trek.

First, taking the boat was a bit of an experience. It was a huge ship and I accidentally bought a deluxe ticket. When I bought my ticket, the website said that I was only guaranteed deck space if I bought the cheapest one. I know that some ships in Europe are serious about that: you buy the cheapest ticket, you sit outside on the deck the whole time. I really didn't want that to happen, so I upgraded to have a guaranteed seat. What I didn't realize was that buying the cheapest option meant that you did have a seat, but it would be an ordinary hard plastic seat in a food court area on the boat. I got a ticket for a fancy lounge area where they had comfy seats, free coffee, wifi, and snacks. It was kind of fun, but had I known I would have saved my money.

When I arrived in Tallin, it was very foggy (the fog was on and off during the day). It was so foggy that I really couldn't see anything and I ended up going in the wrong direction. Although this led to frustration later because I was off my map, I started my day by exploring the 19th century area of Tallin which has a strong Russian influence. 

I then made my way to the old city which was fantastic. Perhaps other than Carcassonne in southern France, I don't think I've been to such a large medieval town. The old town was also especially interesting because Tallin has been invaded and occupied by so many other countries so it showed the influences of its different occupiers over time. Although the whole old town isn't walled any more, part of the wall still exists and I went up and walked on it. I enjoyed wandering through the old streets and seeing the beautiful buildings from different eras. 

I also visited The Museum of Occupations and Resistance, which focuses on more contemporary occupations of Estonia during the 20th century. Poor Estonia! They have just been walked all over for most of their history. However, as a result, Tallinn is an interesting city to visit, full of history and glimpses of many cultures.

Creativity, Collaboration, and Entrepreneurship at CBS

Since Ziyu and I have been here, we have both participated in focus groups or brainstorming activities for startups run by CBS students. These events are striking for several reasons and are reflective of the culture of collaboration at CBS. They are also interesting because I can't imagine Americans being so willing to help other people come up with ideas to improve their companies.

On Monday night, I attended a particularly interesting event like this. My friend Mads is interested in facilitating creative sessions as a careers. To get practice doing this, he and his friend Peter have started a group that meets once a month to help startups with challenges they are facing.

In addition to our hosts and the guy whose startup we were helping, there were 12 other people, including me. We all had some interest in creativity and the group included architects, designers, and students. We started out by hearing a presentation about the startup and the issues they are facing.

We then did a brainstorming exercise which we used as the basis for another activity to think divergently about the company’s problem. We took a break and had time to socialize and have some snacks while the facilitators and startup owner looked at what we had come up with so far and sorted our ideas for the next activity. I appreciated having this break and the chance to network and talk with the other participants. That was one of the ways that this meeting was win/win for everyone involved: I had fun doing the creative activities, but I also really liked the other people there and enjoyed having time to socialize with them.

After the break, we did another activity to come up with a concrete idea for how the company could expand their reach. We ended by doing short presentations and having the startup owner ask us questions about our plan.

In the end, everyone benefited. Mads and Peter got experience facilitating creative activities, the startup owner got new ideas, and the rest of us got a fun, creative challenge as well as the opportunity to meet similar people.

This sort of thing happens a lot around CBS and I appreciate the spirit of collaboration and cooperation. I think that Americans are less likely to do something like this because they would be suspicious of giving someone else ideas that might be monetized. I can understand that impulse, but I also appreciate the desire to help and see other people succeed while gaining personal experience in other ways.

Danish Exam

Yesterday I had an oral exam for my Danish class. We did the exam with a partner and the exam was 15 minutes long for two people. I was tested by my Danish teacher and another teacher. We had to be prepared to speak on two topics (we could pick two from a presentation about ourselves, our housing, or our homeland) and three stories that we had read. When we got to the exam, we drew a card to determine which topic we would speak on. We then had to talk for about a minute about our chosen topic and then the examiner asked us questions for four more minutes.

I drew the presentation about myself. I was happy about this because that's the easiest. I talked about how old I am, where I'm from, my family, etc. Afterwards, most of the questions were about Juliana: Why does she live in Bulgaria? What do we like to do together? When will I see her next?

For the second part of the exam, we had to ask questions about a picture. We were given a picture with people doing something and had to ask questions about them and the examiners answered the questions. This part was easy because you could ask pretty much the same questions about any picture: What are their names, what are they doing, is he married, etc.?

At the end of the exam, both my partner and I passed. I was told that I need to work on my prepositions, which I totally agree with. Overall, I'm really pleased with how much Danish I've learned while I've been here. I still don't know very much, but even though I spend most of my time in an English-speaking context, I've picked up a lot from being here.

ParkRun

I was looking for a 5k race in Copenhagen and stumbled across ParkRun. They are an organization that facilitates free, weekly, timed 5k races in parks around the world. In Copenhagen, there are three races that happen every Saturday.

You register online and get a barcode that you can print out. You bring your barcode with to the race. When you cross the finish line, you get a card with your finishing order and another barcode on it. They track finishing time based on overall place. After you cross, you give your order card and your personal barcode to someone and they scan it to get your time. Later in the day, the times are posted online and emailed out to all participants. There were also a couple people taking pictures and they posted those online later. I actually got some decent pictures of me running.

On Saturday, there were 62 runners as well as some spectators. We met at a beautiful park in eastern Copenhagen. We ran three laps around the park. It was a totally flat route and pretty: things are getting really green now and the trees are leafing out, so it was nice to be in such a verdant park for a run. The other runners were also great and I enjoyed talking with them before and after the race.

It was also fun to get out and race! I've been doing a lot of speed workouts here, so I wanted to do a race to see if I've gotten faster. It's always funny how doing a race makes you push more than you had planned. I was sore and my legs were pretty tight so I didn't think I would push too hard. Once the race started though, I couldn't go slow. I was the second woman to finish and I set a new 5k PR.

I'm running out of Saturdays left in Copenhagen. I wish I had discovered ParkRun sooner, but I will be back the rest of the Saturdays that I'm in town.

Malmö

On Saturday, Juliana and I ventured to Sweden. Getting to Sweden from Copenhagen is easy. In 2000, the Øresund Bridge was opened connecting Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden. You can drive across or take the train. You go through a tunnel part of the way and then onto the bridge which is about five miles long. Here's a view of the bridge from Malmö:

Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden and has a nice old city, a modern area, lots of parks, and a beautiful coastline. It's most distinctive building is the Turning Torso:

We enjoyed some coffee in this beautiful square full of cafés:

We also walked through several parks. We were there on a beautiful day and enjoyed the sunshine.

I am glad I got to enjoy beautiful Malmö on a beautiful day with my beautiful sister!

Ørestad

Copenhagen has a major housing shortage. About 1,000 people move to Copenhagen every month and there are not places for them to live. I've met many people who had to stay in a hostel or with friends for several months before they found housing here. Part of the problem is that Copenhagen is an old city. The buildings aren't very tall (and their are restrictions on height) and there isn't really room to develop more. However, there is an island, Amager, on the southern end of the city where the airport is located which does have room for growth.

On Amager, there is a planned community called Ørestad. Ørestad provides new housing, office space, and educational space for Copenhagen. At this point, the community is part-way built. Aside from the practical problems that it aims to solve, Ørestad is interesting because the architecture is very unique. Almost every building has interesting design aspects.

When my parents came in March, we visited Ørestad, but it was cold and windy, so we did a lot of our sightseeing from the Metro, although we did walk around some too. Juliana wanted to see Ørestad and we had a much better day for visiting. It's easy to visit because the community is long and skinny with a  Metro line running down the middle. Around the community is park land: one of the goals of the design is to integrate nature into the urban environment. Here are some of the sights we saw:

Tivoli

Sunday afternoon and evening, Juliana and I visited Tivoli. Tivoli is an amusement park in downtown Copenhagen. I'd heard great things about it, and I've been passing by it several times a week since I've been here. It opened a few weeks ago, and I could peek inside through the fence.

Juliana wanted to go to Tivoli while she was here, so we went. Neither of us was prepared for how magical it is. You really feel a big difference moving from the street into Tivoli: it's so different from downtown Copenhagen. It isn't very big, but they fit a lot in and the diversity of what's inside makes it feel big.

There are several areas for concerts. The day we were there, there were school groups performing music all day. Some were pretty elementary, but a number of the groups were very strong. My favorite was a group of teenagers playing steel drums.

Inside Tivoli, there are rides. There are also many restaurants. You can buy a season pass and I think a lot of people do that. Before visiting, I wasn't sure why you would want to go multiple times. After a few minutes inside, I understood why. It's beautiful and calm right in the middle of the city.

People do ride the rides, but mostly, people just sit and enjoy the ambiance. We did the same. We walked around and explored, but also enjoyed sitting on the grass and listening to music. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was so glad to be there with my sister!

A Special Visitor

I've been short on posting over the last week because I had a special visitor. After 20 hours of travelling from Varna to Istanbul to Copenhagen, I got to see my sister!

(I was going to crop myself out of this one, but I realized I would never hear the end of it if I did). We had a great time together. Spring finally came to Copenhagen, just in time for Juliana to get here. It was in the high 50s, low 60s and sunny every day she was here and we spent a lot of time outside. I showed her around to some of the places I love and also had the chance to see some new things with her. Over the next few days, I will be posting about the adventures we had together.