Perfect Days with the A's

          My best friends Amy and Amy (cause for a lot of jokes but at least no forgetting names) came to visit last week! They stayed from Thursday til the next Friday, but for what seemed like a month. (In a good way!) we got so much done, had so many laughs, saw countless beautiful scenes, ate far too much, heard so much music, enjoyed the sun in parks, gardens, canals, and the beach, and ate outside as much as possible. I took them to lots of my favorite cafes, restaurants, chill spots, new restaurants, touristy activities, and more. As Amy coined the phrase for the week we were "accomplishing much, breathing often."
          On Thursday, I picked them up at the airport with Lagkagehuset in hand, with plans of having a relaxing afternoon coffee and cake before getting the kids. I couldn't contain my excitement, as my Facebook friends could see from my bouncing in the metro seat status. With a late flight, it ended up being more rushed and stressful than I'd have liked, trying to arrange for someone picking up the kids, etc. Throughout this time though, I was switching from bouncing in my seat to tearing up from excitement to see them. They safely arrived, we made it home, the kids were picked up, and with their help, we whipped up some dinner and all was well. Then we got to relax and have the Lagkagehuset and coffee for dessert outside, checking off two things from our list (fiskefrikadeller og weinerbrød.)
        We didn't waste any time, as we went to see Sune and Morten play at their hostel gig. It ended up being such a nice night. Amy O. has a pretty evidence backed jinx going on with my love life where whenever she comes to visit me wherever I am, my current relationship ends. That nearly happened again, but things got back together so Amy actually got to meet one of my men. And my favorite. Everyone kept saying how happy we were and it just seemed perfect. And surreal. (feelings that lasted the whole trip). They both loved the music and the musicians. ;) Perfect first night. Oh, and as we were walking out the door, Sune started singing my song! That was beyond exciting.

        We went out for our touristy day on Friday, which involved lots of walking. We covered the usual attractions and made it back to the center for burgers at Sporvejen, the place decorated like a train car. We were delusionally hungry at this point and far too quickly scarfed down our burgers. Due to this said scarfing and all the walking from the day, we went into coma mode and had a hard time getting ourselves going.

        We stopped into Charlie's but nothing was going on, then stopped in Studenterhuset on the way back for some music. We just sat on a couch for a while before finally feeling satisfied enough and like we got our money's worth for the entrance, and went home.

        Saturday was supposed to be our relaxing, nature day at Dyrehavn. They got to meet the first of my Denmark friends, Maria. Maria and I tried to tell them some facts about Bakken and Tivoli but included a disclaimer to save us from likely inaccuracies. We just walked around Bakken and did two super cool rides... Two roller coasters that had us all screaming and impressed. Then we walked around forever in Dyrhavn trying to find the castle but we never did. :( But we did see some deer, relaxed, ate some bread on a hill by a pond, and enjoyed the nature. My reassurance the day before that "we won't be walking nearly as much tomorrow" did not hold true.

        We parted with Maria and headed to Sune's to get ready to go out. But not before eating some delicious pizza on the roof!

        Then we met up with Megan and Molly and went to Francis Pony... Of course. We had a great night out, dancing to Backstreet Boys, meeting randoms, and having some overdue conversations between best friends.

at The Fountain

       Due to rain, no soup, and laziness, the Amys actually got to experience a lazy Sunday with Sune (really showing them my daily life here). Sunday was Sune's birthday! Woohoo! So he came home Saturday night with surprise Danish flags everywhere (the Danish tradition), and his present in the morning. We made banana pancakes and Sune brought us cake on his birthday. We tried to go out for soup but I led us astray and then it started raining (the one day we weren't prepared with rain gear). But this led us to eating at Café Castro where we got the best nachos ever and a really good sandwich. Then, being excused by the rain, we all huddled inside and watched a movie, with half of us falling asleep. It was nice though, and we didn't feel too bad about it since we'd already accomplished so much in just three days.

       We headed out earlier than usual on Monday, as we were expecting rain later in the day. Thus, we also actually went prepared this time, decked out in rain gear, and it wound up being sunny all day! The weatherman was literally the opposite everyday. Not complaining about the sun though! So we headed to the botanical garden where I'd been with Sune in the winter (where I was going to link to that post but I somehow didn't blog about it). I loved it then, even without the flowers blooming outside, so I knew I'd love it in the summer. And it was an incredible site... Beautiful hills covered in flowers, cobblestone paths leading to amazing views of the whole garden, bright green all around, and several pretty ponds. We picked one of the ponds for our picnic spot with our packed lunches, and probably really annoyed a napping lady when we beckoned all the ducks over with our bread. Unskyld, lady.
        We then headed over toward Tivoli, doing some shopping along the way (naturally). I also got to introduce them to Riccos, where we got chai tea lattes (a staple for the trip) and rumkugle, and enjoyed them under a tree near the lakes. At Tivoli, we didn't do any rides because they were way too expensive (or the guy basically told us we were fat), so we just walked around, checked out all the flowers and scenery, and laid in a field listening to some band practicing. Afterward, we went in search of soup (again) but this time at Café Retro, before seeing Sune and Morten play again. To our dismay, the place was closed, so no soup again.

I felt like God was saying...

       So we had a dinner "that never happened," aka we were super disappointed, then stuffed our faces with Pringles and cookies... Yeah. We followed this by chilling on a bridge by a canal. As Amy said in her write up of the trip, it was moments like this that were extra cherished. Afterwards, the World Traveling Wonderful Guitar Show didn't disappoint! Do they ever? Nej! 

 Bikes! Bikes! Bikes! Tuesday was our biking day! Sune found us two to use and I'm so glad... Wouldn't be a full Copenhagen experience without biking. Off we went to finally get our soup at Soupnatural. Rubin got her Madhatter's Bubble Tea too! Then we headed to Christiania and had a beautiful ride around the lake. It was good having Sune as our tour guide so could tell us all the facts about it. Afterwards, we went and sat by a really pretty canal, with coffee/hot chocolate in hand, of course. Another of those great, cherished moments. We obviously had a lot of fun with the biking and took advantage of the photo opportunities. Perfect day. 

  

  

  Wednesday was an extra nice day. "Maybe my favorite day. But they're all favorite." (A commonly quoted phrase on the trip). Why was it favorite you ask? It was filled with nachos, ice cream, a harbor, fort, flowers, and beach. Where was this awesome place you now ask? The quaint little town of Dragør, Sune's hometown that I mentioned here. The day started out rainy so I was worried it wouldn't be too nice, but it brightened up when we got there for a beautiful day. We got (more) nachos before eating some delicious ice cream (and holding up the ice cream line), and ate it sitting by the harbor. We went up to the top of the fort too, which was covered in super green grass, with vibrant yellow flowers, and really blue ocean in the background. Was amazingly vivid colors. Much different than our trip in the winter. Being girls, we took lots of pictures here, as with most of our destinations. After getting enough pictures and stinging nettle on our feet, we went to lay on the beach. I was all tuckered out from pictures and posing, so I just laid in the sand while they got some lovely photos. I realized I didn't give this place much description at all in my initial post from my trip with Sune. I didn't even mention the adorable, picturesque town with cute, yellow houses and cobblestone streets with flowers all around. "Quaint" was our word to describe it.

       On our last full day, I had to clean, get the kids, and do dinner, so the Amys headed off to Sweden! When they got back, they got to try risengrød which they both liked. Then we made the groupie label official and went to see Sune and Morten play once more for the best show yet. We got Bieber requests, played Jenga, and had a great time hanging out after. (Not to mention Sune and I bought our tickets to Italy! So excited). Ah and introduced them to the oh, so delicious folded pizza slices. Big success! Haha
       Finally, the trip had to come to an end with the Amys flying back on Friday. We were able to fit in one more treat at Lagkagehuset before they left though! Overall, this was one of the best weeks ever. It was so amazing just seeing these girls, plus I got to show them around the town I've grown to love, introduce them to some of my great friends (who they loved and wished we could bring back with us), took them places they've read about in this blog, showed them my daily life, and introduced them to the boy (who they also loved). It was just such a great time filled with so many "perfect days." So glad they could come, and know we'll remember this trip forever! :)

Inspired by the always amazing, "Reasons my son is crying," we made a 

"reasons why we're smiling"

1. Rubin's shoes were tied. 

2. SUN. 

3. Flowers everywhere! Botanisk have, Tivoli, the neighborhood, the fort...

4. Chai tea lattes

5. "There's water!"

6. Good timing with transportation

7. Burgers!

8. Cake. 

9. Nutellaaa

10. Puppies! By the canal, by the harbor, on the train, in the garden... So many adorable pooches. 

11. Nachos

12. Blurred Lines

13. Music

14. Happy hour

15. Swinging by the bridge 

16. Baby shrimp in our tummies  

17. Backstreet Boys in Francis Pony

18. Vaca at Hotel Sune... with no screaming children!

19. Banana pancakes!

20. Feeding the ducks at the Botanical Garden

21. The canal

22. Soup! Finally!

23. Taxis!

24. Sune and Morten!

25. Their excellent rendition of Bieber gets a separate mention

26. Biking! (Maybe not on Rubin's list)

 27. Being together in Denmark. 

  Had to...