Same old, same old

Adam and I have settled into our routines nicely. Things have become common place, and not as exciting as when we first got here. I am still enjoying my job at the bike shop. Today we had a film crew from Latvia here. They were very interested in me renting out bicycles. I just have to laugh. I'm becoming an international film star! Ha!

Adam and I are going to Norway in a few weeks. I have a very good friend who taught at my school in Seattle who lives there. She lives in the middle of no where so it should be an exciting time. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures from that trip.

Hope all is well in the States. It is very cold and rainy here.

Settled In

And now for the long haul...we've settled in to a daily and weekly routine: daily bike commutes rain or shine (which, so far, has been lass rain than Seattle in autumn), dinner hours before our European roommates, and making sure we go to the store on Saturday because everything is closed on Sunday. Things are becoming more familiar around town, so we usually don't take our camera with us.

This was a shame last Sunday, because we ended up at a medieval encampment downtown, in the garden of the artillery museum in the wings of Christianborg Castle. There was alot of smithing going on, as well as archery, mead tasting, and, of course medieval candied apples. Brooke of course got one. At 15 kroner (about $2.75), it is one of the things we find cheaper over here than back home. According to Brooke, it was the best candy apple she's ever had. I had a bite or two, and I must admit, the combination of Danish apple that wasn't a Red Delicious, plus the coating of what I assume was real sugar (not corn syrup), without artificial dye, melted in a copper pot over an open fire...well, it was pretty darn tasty. We also took in the jousting show. It was a fairly raucous event, with lots of raunchy medival humor that seemed very believable, especially due to the real cabbage, apples, and bread rolls that were being thrown by the actors and the crowd. Yep, nothin' says the middle ages like throwing food in public. Brooke enjoyed seeing the knights' horses perform, while I enjoyed seeing everyone dressed like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Last Saturday, however, we did bring our camera on a nice jaunt around northwest Sjælland (Zealand, the island Copenhagen is on). This was a nice trip on a somewhat rainy day with two of my colleagues from the National Museum. We went to arctic explorer Knud Rassmussen's house
(obviously a point of interest for us Arctic researchers), then to a number of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age burial chambers, as well as a 12th century church. We finished with a look at the landscape west of Roskilde, which is a glacial moraine from the last ice age. I think Brooke had fun, even though the tour may or may not have catered to the three archaeologists in the car.


The mound to the left might be the Cave of Caerbannog...


In other news, my research is going well, or at least I think it is. I am studying the remains of my third Eskimo house from about A.D. 500. I have 5 more to go to reach my target, but further archival research may lead me to more artifacts that I want to study. We'll see how that goes, but as long as I get all 8 houses, I'll be happy.

Last, but not least, is my "food blog" picture, both for Colby and Dad. For Colby, because he wants me to keep a food blog, and for Dad because the one on the left is liver pate. Homemade liver pate. We stopped for lunch at a smørrebrød shop. Jens ordered the leverpostej, so I thought I should too. I can't say I need to order it again, but you never know.

for some more pictures of our adventures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/freebs429/DanmarkOct#

Oh My!

We've had a lot of fun things going on. We went for our first trip out of the city this weekend. More on that later...

I got a job. I don't get paid since I can't have a work visa, but Adam and I get free bikes and I get lunch each day. I work for a non-profit. They tell me that they're not a non-profit in the sense of the word, but that's what I would classify them as.

I work in a bike shop. Not what you think. The shop is called Baisikeli, and what they do is pretty amazing. They rent out bikes in Copenhagen, and that's how Adam and I found them. The money that they make goes towards buying bicycles and sending them to Africa where there are workshops set up by Baisikeli. The workshops are in the process of becoming self-sufficient. Baisikeli (which is Swahili for bike) trains mechanics to open their own shops. Baisikeli sends the bikes which are changed into a variety of different vehicals such as water carriers, ambulance, taxi,and bikes so children can make it to school. It's pretty cool.

So why the "Oh My" you ask... well, as I type this I'm at work. Which is pretty great, however, I am being filmed for Taiwanese television. It's pretty funny. They're interviewing Henrik and Niels (the masterminds) while I pretend to work. I finished my web page twenty minutes ago but I'm afraid to move! Lol. Oh well... So if you're in Taiwan, let me know if you see me!

Our Address:

Today (Wednesday) it's raining. The first time in a week or so, other than that the weather has been really nice. I hope you're enjoying the blog! I'm not sure who actually looks at this... If you want to get a hold of either Adam or I you can e-mail us (bcfreeburg@yahoo.com or freebs429@gmail.com) and here is our address:

Brooke and Adam Freeburg
C/O Karen Gerd

H.P. Ørumsgade 33

DK 2100 Kobenhavn Ø

Danmark

And This is the Weekend Update with.....

We hope that everyone is doing well back home (wherever that may be.) Adam and I had an enjoyable weekend. On Sunday (since EVERYTHING IS CLOSED) we went for a walk on the quest for bikes.

This heron (?) was in one of the canals while we were walking to find our bikes. This heron along with a ton of Mute Swans (Denmark's national bird.) They are beautiful. I need to figure out how to bring home two of them too, along with my horse from the royal stables.


And here my friends, is my new sweet bike. You can't see because my leg is in the way, but it has a sweet fro sticker on the chain guard. The basket is also awesome because it carries our beverages around. Adam opted for a less fun bike, which is to the left of me. Not that it's less fun, but the city bikes are awesome. You sit up nice and tall. It has coaster breaks which I never thought I'd see again. We rented out bikes from a little shop that uses all the profits to buy bikes to send to Africa. It's a pretty great thing they're doing. Here's the link! http://www.cph-bike-rental.dk/


After we got our bikes we went on a mini tour of the city. We stopped first at one of the museums that was founded by the Carlsberg family. We saw amazing paintings by Monet, Degas (along with his sculptures,) and we saw "The Kiss" which is beautiful. The museum is free on Sundays, and because our sweet rides took a little while to get, we only had an hour. We're both looking forward to going back. The picture to the right is of the Carlsberg brewery. It's not like St. Marys. They don't give out free beer, but you can go on a tour of the brewery, which I think would be cool. It is closed on Sundays however.





*The Tivoli Boy's Guard. If the Queen can have her own guards, so can Tivoli. Or at least the website says so!* I'm not so sure how excited I'd be to wear a pumpkin helmet. Okay, I would, but a "normal"person probably wouldn't be very excited!

On Tuesday, Adam took me to Tivoli Gardens, which is an amusement park. Halloween is a new holiday in Denmark, and when they do something, they do something! The park was very crowded, but most of that was parents with small children. It got less crowded as the night went on. There were pumpkins everywhere!! It was amazing. I figure that's why pumpkins in the store are 30 dollars, because of supply and demand. Tivoli has probably bought the pumpkin growers out of all of the pumpkins, and left non for the "common folk." We didn't go on any rides, but we had a good time walking around. We got candy apples (much cheaper here than in the states, but that's the only thing.) They were on really long sticks, and delicious! We also had fish dinner, which wasn't so great. The ketchup here is weird, and it makes me miss "real ketchup" they put mayonnaise on their French fries (which isn't too bad.)

Kultur Natten

Last night was AWESOME! It was Culture Night (Kultur Natten) around the city. Everything was open from 6-midnight. We saw the Danish Polar Center, Thorvaldsen's Museum (Amazing Roman Art,) etc. Let me explain since these names might not have much meaning to you.

Adam came home from work and surprised me with tickets to Kultur Natten. We ate our first dinner in our new house and were off. We went downtown and of course stopped to see if there were any activities at the Royal Stables. The royal horses weren't out, but there were six teams of horses with old-fashioned carriages getting ready to go out in the city. I took some pictures of Fjords and we continued on our way.

We stopped downtown and got FREE Potatoes. That was my favorite part of the whole night. We stood in line, and they handed both Adam and I bags of potatoes. Beautiful, clean potatoes. Lol. You're probably wondering why getting free potatoes makes me so happy. Simple: they cost a FORTUNE!

Adam here. The free potatoes were at the Axelborg, or Agricultural Ministry Building. We also got potato soup, warm curry potato salad, and a sample of just grilled steak. We originally went for the free ice cream that was being offered, but so was everybody and their brother. We decided not to stand in the horrifically long line and hopped a bus (free with our Kultur Natten passes) to Christianshavn and the Danish Polar Center.

At the Polar Center, my colleagues from the Nationalmuseet/Center for Greenland Research were giving presentations on this year's archaeological field work. They are working on projects involved with Nordic occupation of Greenland, Eskimo prehistory, and -what I found most surprising- Nazi weather stations from WWII. Two of the guys from my office were also making a soapstone oil lamp with only stone tools. The finished products are very beautiful, made in a similar tradition to those made over 1000 years ago, and work (at least when it's not too windy). I tried my hand at shaping the outside of the lamp with a unifacial scraper made from Danish flint (threw in the technical term for my archy homies). It was fun.



Brooke mostly occupied herself with petting the 20 sled dogs that were outside beside the stone lamp station. They were very cute and well behaved until Martin needed to cut some more seal blubber to add to the lamp. Wow! The dogs must have thought he was going to feed them dinner. Once they caught a whiff of the fresh blubber, they were flipping out! Luckily their chains held fast and any impending disaster (like Martin being attacked) was averted.

After that, we went back to the city center and walked around inside the Rådhus, or city hall. We saw beautiful murals in the staircases, lots of busts of dead (probably important) men, and a nice view of the city at night.

At the Round Tower, the University observatory completed in 1642 and Europe's oldest functioning observatory, I was enthralled with the built-in toilet halfway up the tower. There's also a toilet at the top of the tower (that we didn't get to see), but is 35 meters above street level. The holding tank for both latrines are below the tower (what a drop!) and only needed to emptied twice a century. Less interestingly, the tower has no steps, just a big circular ramp on the inside.
(Tele-Sheep inside the museum. They also had build your own animal, but we ran out of time.)

We stopped at the Post and Tele Museum, and then finished the night at a cute little candy shop that had been in operation since the 1840s. We listened to the 5 old farts playing their guitars on stage and tasted some lovely hard candy. One thing we did note was the presence of beer holders on the mic stands. Danish ingenuity continues to impress us!

(Danish Mountain Pies!!) Mmmmm..... We didn't get a chance to make one, but it looked like a lot of fun!

7-Eleven

So far Adam and I have had some really good food. My favorite being the steaks at Jensen's. Really, I LOVE THAT PLACE. Anyone who comes to visit, that's where we're going! They're so tasty. It's like Uncle Jack took his hot sticks and made them bigger. SUPER YUMMY!! (Mmmm... hot sticks....)

Anyway, today we went to get our keys so Adam and I had to grab dinner in a hurry. So where can you grab a quick bite to eat that doesn't cost a lot? 7-11. Yes, I know, what where we thinking.... We weren't, although, the 7-11's here are super clean and very nice. There are more 7-11's in Copenhagen then Starbuck's in Seattle. They are on EVERY corner.

So we got Fransk (French) hot dogs. It's a hot dog with mayonnaise in a weird hot dog holder- it's a big bun with a hole through the middle. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but now we don't feel so well...

On a better note, we got our keys to our house. Our room is so cute! We have a huge bed, with a large desk and a sitting room. It's very nice. I'm excited that we get to move in now.

I found a good place to buy drugs....

So, today was Adam's first day at work and my first day of needing to find something to do with myself. I can only take so much of watching TV in Danish, so after my morning nap, I decided to put my Nike+ to some good use and take a walk around the city (6 miles if I do say.)

The first thing I did was stalk the horses again. I figured out that the gate into to HUGE, MASSIVE, horse stable is open, but the doors into the stalls are closed. I decided to walk around there. I could hear them training the horses in the arena. I need to figure out how to make the horse master my best friend. I'm not sure that will work out, but I'm going to give it a try.

On Sunday, Adam and I went to a book store and I saw a beautifully colored book on Christiania. The Freetown within Copenhagen. The pictures were beautiful, and it mentioned something about horses being boarded within Christiana. I decided that I needed to go check out this "freetown." Well. What I found reminded me of the little shanties underneath I-5. I was offered pot 3 times during my quick walkabout the area. (I did reply in Danish, Nej. I'm getting better.) I'm not sure what that book was talking about. Maybe I stumbled into the "bad" section of it, because after I left the gates and walked further up, I saw a nicer looking section of the "town" but didn't want to try it again.

I'll just have to add that to my list of places NOT to take visitors. Other than that Copenhagen's nice, actually beautiful. The old buildings take my breath away. It's hard to imagine that some of them are over 500 years old.

It was a beautiful day today, and a tad too hot for my sweatshirt. It seems to rain a lot here, and I saw some pictures of Copenhagen in the winter with snow. I love snow!

Hope all is well back home (wherever that may be!)

Those Peruvian Guys we always see....

So, If you've ever been to a festival in Seattle, you've seen the Peruvian guys singing and dancing. Apparently though, they have now turned into Plains Indians. I'm sure some tribal council would NOT be happy to see this.... If you've heard them before, listen to the video. They sound the same, they're just dancing. Oh, and their album is called "Mohicans". Yes, I saw it. No I didn't buy it.

Royal Stables

So I've been going through major horse withdrawal since we left Seattle. Today was awesome!! We got to go to the Royal Stables. Being the Royal Stables, you can imagine how amazing the grounds them self are. The horses are beyond beautiful. The pictures don't do them justice. The master of the horse told me the name of the breed. Kladruber. http://www.uskha.com/index.php?pid=6

I had never heard of it.

I ate carrots before we went, and as a result I was an instant hit with the horses. They are all stallions, and SO calm (I think Denali should make a visit to the barn.) They are also huge horses. They don't look like it in the pictures, but they have to be at least 17h. I think I made Adam spend the full two hours at the stable. I wish my pictures did the horses better justice. They are beautiful!
This is my buddy. He's the one I am with in the first picture. He pretty much loved me and wanted to go home with me. Well...not really, he really just wanted a carrot.

Drinking from his automatic waterer (as opposed to the marble trough behind him)
Adam trying to memorize the layout of the stable so he can build me one JUST LIKE IT (here's to dreaming!)

Ok folks, Adam is finally contributing to the blog. We've hit the weekend, and a bit of respite. We think we found a place to live, we've gotten around the city, and learned to ride the bus. I stopped by the museum twice, to say hi and drop off my suitcase full of reference books. I should have an office key, ID badge, and computer password by next week. My office is on the third floor in a corner office! (Okay, it's in the common room, but it's still got windows on two sides.) I will start office work on Monday. Until then, I'm borrowing Brooke's laptop to keep up on other work for the Cape Krusentern, Alaska project. My laptop has been as good as dead since we were in PA, so I have to wait until I can burn a new boot disk and see if I can fix it.

Most importantly, we've found some good food over here. Jensen's Bøfhus has a $10 lunch special with one of the best steaks either of us has ever eaten at a restaurant. The curry sauce went well with the fries, too. It was probably for the steak, but we dare not sully such a fine piece of meat with cover-up.

For a few more pics of this week (to be updated after we visit the Royal stables today) check out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/freebs429/KBenhavnWeek1#

Day 4

Today was one of the first days that we woke up at at a normal time. We had our delicious breakfast of corn flakes and apple juice.

Yesterday we went to look at a room to rent. It is in a HUGE 4 story house with a very nice lady, and her dog Emma. Not that we'll ever see them. They live on the second floor. The room is on the fourth floor, with a small room off of it. We'll share a bathroom (on the 1st floor) with two other roommates. One girl is from Greece, and the other Spain. They weren't home when we stopped in. The area reminds me of houses in London (not that I've been there either) but it is in a very cute neighborhood.

Downfall: The house is for sale, she is showing it on Sunday. Adam asked when she expects the house to sell, and she said two years ago. I'm not TOO worried, but it is very hard to find a room to rent. Especially not knowing the language. I'm hoping that this room just works out.

Went to the city center, and saw the little mermaid. We've done a lot of walking, but that's good. I can't believe how many people bike. EVERYONE bikes. Families drive these awesome trikes. It has a huge basket in the front with seatbelts for your children. I want one (but NOT for kids, maybe Molson.)

Well, that was our day. Learning how to ride the bus, saw some random urinals outside the soccer stadium. Lol. It's

Hope all is going well with everyone. We have Skype to call back to the states, so if you get a number like 001234567, that would be us! Skype's awesome. You should download it!

We're here!

We arrived in Copenhagen yesterday morning at 7:15 (Copenhagen time.) The plane rides were uneventful, which is good. We enjoyed delicious airplane food (Adam's going to change his Kosher preference) and movies.

Once the plane landed we boarded a train with our bags (I have a new found respect for pack horses.) Our hotel room is the size of a horse trailer with the shower right over the toilet. I'm not sure how else to explain this without a picture. I'll try to post some soon. We have nice bunk beds (I called bottom!)

We spent yesterday napping and looking for a place to live. This is much harder when you don't read or speak the language. Adam went to the museum today, and got some contacts. We go tomorrow to look at a place, wish us luck!

Other than that it reminds me of Seattle. Raining and cloudy but without the Starbucks. The buildings are beautiful, and everyone, EVERYONE rides a bike. It's crazy. The bikes remind me of beach cruisers. I want a trike! I'll have to take a picture of one! It's like a reverse bike with a huge box on the front to put your children in. I think Adam should peddle, and I should ride in the box!

That's about it for the excitement! We did get some food at the market yesterday. I've learned my lesson on looking up words in the dictionary. I spread some cheese on the bread today, and noticed baby shrimp in the cheese.... Mmmmm... well, not exactly.

Hope everyone's well!

Love, Brooke and Adam