Bergen

Ever since Hong Kong, we have been planning our trip to Bergen, Norway. My good friend Maria is from there and we met her parents during our semester in Asia. If we were to visit, we were promised their famous fish soup. Although there may have been other reasons, this was the driving factor for booking our flight even further up north.

We arrived to Maria’s cozy, Norwegian home with a beautiful view overlooking a fjord and the rest of Bergen on the opposite bank. The much anticipated fish soup was for dinner and we had some time catching up with her parents before they headed off to a gathering. The soup really was delicious and did not disappoint! That night we went into the city center to meet up with some of Maria’s friends from back home. A nice, relaxing night out where we got to see the city at night and be introduced to the well-known meeting spot, The Blue Stone.

With Maria's friends at the bar

Bergen sightseeing day. Having grown up in Bergen, you would expect Maria to know lots about the city, mountains, and history, which wasn’t completely the case. Either way we had a great time walking around the center and learning bits of information that popped into Maria’s head. There is a world heritage site in Bergen that used to be the old city. A series of buildings are literally sinking into the ground and are trying to be restored. This whole area was very quaint with a European tower overlooking the water nearby. After grabbing some coffee from the best shop in town, we headed for the tram that takes you up to the top of the mountain.

Bergen's harbor

The view was amazing. The tram and view reminded us of The Peak in HK, except the small building version instead of the skyscrapers. Before going on the trip, I didn’t realize how big Bergen actually is. I just assumed that all Norwegian cities were small, quaint, cold, wooden places. Instead of taking the tram down, we spent the next hour or so “hiking” down. Although most of the path was paved, we went off-roading a few times just to spice it up. Walking down the mountain and through the woods was so great. Beautiful views and nature all around you.

View of Bergen

After spending some time in Bergen, we ventured to the Leknes’ summerhouse on the island of Tysnes. Saturday we bundled in roughly 8 layers and went out for some fishing. Three fish were caught, one lure was lost, and lots of fun was had. Sitting out on the water was so relaxing and peaceful. In fact, everything we did on the island was. We hardly looked at a clock, no obligations were planned, we just took our time and enjoyed Norway. We all helped out and made delicious tapas one night for dinner and even had a nice movie night.

All bundled

Fishy!

On our last day in Norway, we woke up late and went for a walk around the mountain until we reached a great lookout spot in a gazebo. It was a nice way to end our time in Tysnes although still no one wanted to leave. We managed to not talk about schoolwork almost the entire trip. Magically, it also didn’t rain the entire trip until the ferry ride back to Bergen.

View from the house

Along the walk

Right before catching our flight back we had a great dinner with all of Maria’s family. We finally got to meet her brothers and everyone had a great time chatting and being forced to eat way too much dessert. The trip to Bergen was truly a proper holiday. Now back to two quick days of the real world before heading off again to London.

Museums

I finally went to my first museum in Copenhagen. The city is filled with them actually, but for some reason it took this long.

First stop was to Statens Museum for Kunst. The building is big, beautiful, and old. My friend Anders (pronounced On-us, not An-ders) and I went to check out the Toulouse Lautrec exhibit and it was great! If you’re like me, you base everything in life on a movie. You may know Toulouse from Moulin Rouge… the short one with the line “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn…”. Remember him? Well supposedly he was actually that crazy in real life and was truly inspired by the Paris entertainment scene.

His models were friends and “ladies of the night” that he met in cafes, cabarets, and dance halls. He’s most known for his bright colors and poster art, but his sketches were just as intriguing. Certain characters were featured several times and the people were always exaggerated and slightly interpreted. Yvette Guilbert was a lady in different drawings and paintings and there was a horribly sad song written about this poor “drunkard” lady. Near the end of Lautrec’s life (he died at age 36) he painted a circus scene that was one of his more interesting we decided. Much different from everything else he did. Overall it was a really great exhibit! We even got to use Anders’ iPhone to listen to some special descriptions of the art. Great use of technology.

Another neat thing they do at the museum is sponsor an artist each to month to interpret artwork. We stumbled upon a really great painting called “And in his eyes I saw death” and a band called Stoffer & Maskinen (Materials & Machinery) that did their own music piece inspired by the work. We could again listen to it on the iPhone while sitting on a bench in front of the painting. A great idea to add yet another sense and enhance the experience.

The next museum was the Carlsberg Glyptotek, which is the private art collection of the Carslberg brewing company’s founder, Carl Jacobsen. The main exhibit Andrew and I went to see was of the artist Gauguin and his pieces inspired by his time in Tahiti and all of Polynesia. He is known for his young Polynesian models and his wood sculptures. I didn’t know anything about him going in so it was neat to see his work. After going through the exhibit we stopped in to see the French painting collection filled with Degas, Renoir, Monet, Manet, and Cezanne. Amazing to see these works up close!

Barcelona

The first trip of the semester was to Barcelona, Spain. Andrew went to a sustainability conference at the beginning of the week and then the three of us attended ITMA, a machinery convention, at the end of the week. In between we had time to explore!

Barcelona

After getting settled into our hostel on the other side of the mountain, we went out to explore the city. We saw typical (beautiful) European buildings, cathedrals, and squares and some neat things specific to Barcelona. There is a hill called Montjuic that overlooks the entire city of Barcelona with great views and a great hike up all the stairs. On the other side of the hill is the Olympic stadium and more residential areas that Debbie and I got lost in. After finding our way out of the steep, winding streets, we sat down for a delicious lunch at an Italian restaurant where the owner was from Venice.

View from Montjuic

Since we were there the whole week, we decided to use one whole day to visit the beach. On the way we found a great local tapas restaurant and then hit the sand! Although I got a very limited amount of color, the day was so nice and peaceful and warm!! Compared to the weather in Denmark, this was paradise.

Deb at the beach

During the week we went to quite a few Gaudi buildings. Antoni Gaudi is a genius of an architect and completed most of his works in Barcelona. Several of his projects were unfinished at his death and are still being worked on today. One of these, and my favorite building we saw, is the Sagrada Familia which is an elaborate cathedral that is currently only 60% finished and is expected to be complete in 2026. I didn’t know before, but much of Gaudi’s design was inspired by and directly reflects nature. Tree trunks are strong so he used a similar column design to hold up the huge cathedral ceiling. The trunks eventually span out into branches and finally leaves that cover the ceiling. The columns are made of different types of stone and all of the windows will eventually be filled with stained glass. There are three façades representing the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. Each is decorated uniquely and the final façade of the resurrection scene will be the last aspect of the entire building to be constructed. Without seeing it for yourself, the building is very hard to describe.

Death Facade side

Columns inside

Trio at Sagrada Familia

Leading up to the altar

The other two Gaudi buildings we toured were La Pedrera and Casa Batllo. Both were families’ homes and a distinct contrast compared to surrounding buildings. Both had elaborately decorated chimneys and ventilation systems on the roofs that resulted in function and design. Bones, shells, plants and animals inspired Gaudi and you can see the components throughout all of his work. Needless to say, learning about Gaudi was probably my most favorite part of Barcelona.

Roof of Casa Batllo

Outside of Casa Batllo

Roof of La Pedrera

The main reason we chose Barcelona as a destination was the International Textile Machinery conference that was going on in mid-September. Professors from COT were attending the conference and it was a great opportunity for the Trio to represent students at the COT booth and be exposed to an enormous part of the industry. Huge machines and booths filled at least eight exhibition halls ranging between weaving, dyeing, sustainability, yarn and chemicals. Intertextile in Shanghai was great, but ITMA had such a heavy focus on machinery that it was completely different. It was nice to connect with the college and tons of alum throughout the show. We also sat in on a sustainability conference sponsored by Textile Exchange to hear what companies are doing and where they think the future of sustainability lies. The first night Andrew, Deb and I went to a festival and dinner with someone we met from Patagonia and his wife and had a great time seeing traditional Spanish festival dances. The two days ended with a very nice Spanish dinner with everyone from the college and some cava (sparkling Spanish wine).

Leaving ITMA

Hanging out with Ryan and Meridith

Note: Sangria accompanied almost every lunch and dinner meal. Yum.

Sangria!!

Tour de Chambre

There is a tradition in Denmark at most kollegiets (dorms) of a party called Tour de Chambre. It’s supposedly French for “tour of the rooms”. Each person in the kitchen creates a theme for their room and they decorate, have a related drink and game. Taylor helped me on ideas and they were all so good that I just finally decided my theme on the Wednesday before the party… PROM. This is super American and the only idea Danes have of prom is what they see in movies. Andrew helped me decorate my room with balloons, streamers, paper stars, a typical prom photo backdrop, spiked punch, crowns, voting ballots, and some snacks. Great success!! Besides the spills on the floor, everything went as planned and the evening lasted quite late. Everyone had been talking about their themes in code and counting down to the day and it definitely lived up to the hype!

Prom King and Queen

Opening Pandora's Box

Everyone in the "period" room

Some of the other themes included: Michael Jackson theme with tequila sunrise drinks because he dances until the sun rises with a freeze dance competition. A period theme with bloody marys, a tampon throwing contest, and tampon/pad décor. A kindergarten school theme complete with lunch bags and a drawing contest. A Paradise Hotel theme with Pandora’s box and very tropical cocktails.  A Christiania theme (the free town I wrote about before) with charades. A nature theme with mojitos and a potato swinging contest. Everyone’s ideas were so creative and the 300 pictures taken account for the great time everyone had!

Two Types of People

I would like to share this insight that my kitchenmate Thore just shared with me. He told me he once heard that there are two types of people in this world. Those who eat their nutella first and then the bad things last, and those that eat the bad food first so then they can eat their nutella last. Although he said it was difficult to "freestyle translate" this quote, we got the point.

Thore was applying this to the lovely day outside and the extreme amounts of homework we are facing. We could either get some reading done then reward ourselves with the park OR we could just go ahead to the park and worry about reading later. A compromise was made to take the reading TO the park. Genius.

Futbol Match

Denmark versus Norway. The biggest Scandinavian rival in futbol and we decided to go to the game. The original plan was to watch the game from a Norwegian bar underneath the stadium with my Norwegian friends. While walking around ¾ of the stadium to find Maria, we got a call from her that there was a scalper selling tickets. We made a split decision to go into the game, which had been sold out since a few weeks after going on sale.

We sat up pretty high, but according to my grandma, those are the best seats at a sporting event because you can see everything. I cheered for Norway (sorry Danes) and Andrew sat in the middle of the Norwegian section screaming for Danmark. I have always heard that futbol games in Europe are so much more fun because of their energy and it is definitely true. They scream the entire time and have much cooler chants than we do in the US. Although Norway lost, the game was great and it was exciting to have gotten tickets at the last minute. Needless to say I am still getting flack for cheering for the “wrong team”.

Exploring Copenhagen

It’s time to wander around the city and see what the big C has to offer. During about two hours of sunshine, Debbie and I went to the Botanical Gardens near Rosenborg Castle in the Norrebro district. The gardens are sponsored by the University of Copenhagen and have a huge collection of flowers and plants. A stunning glass greenhouse is at the top of the gardens with many different rooms for tropical flowers, orchids, cacti, etc. We had a nice little stroll and when the clouds came again, we headed back home.

Botanical Gardens

My furthest trip to date was to the northern part of Zealand, which is the island that Copenhagen is on. The first stop was to Kronborg Slot (castle) which is the setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We made a smart move and took the free guided tour – or else I would have had no clue what we were looking at! The tour went through the “casemates” which looked like a prison underground, but was actually where the king’s soldiers lived until they were needed. Most men died down there because of disease or just going crazy. Then the tour went through the royal bedrooms, dance hall, etc. What’s interesting about the Shakespeare story is that they believe he never actually visited the castle, but spoke with someone who lived there. They say that he places his characters so well in the play that it is hard to believe he has that much knowledge of the castle without an actual visit.

Hamlet's Castle

After hopping on the wrong train and going a bit out of the way, we arrived at another castle called Frederiksborg Slot. Although we didn’t go inside, the outside was much more elaborate and surrounded by a lake and well groomed gardens. The sun was getting low so there were very few visitors which helped with the peacefulness of the area. After a full day of trains and castles, we headed back to Copenhagen.

Fredriksborg Slot

As if this was not enough exploring, one of my kitchenmates took me on a bike tour around the city the next day. Marie is quite talented and was able to be my tour guide while biking and yelling over her shoulder and dodging cars and pedestrians. One of the first and my favorite areas was Vesterbrogade. During the day it is hipster/artsy with cool shops and trendy cafes. At night it is full of prostitutes and sex shops, a bit different. We rode through the Carlsberg brewery that is now a museum, Fredriksberg park, Norrebro, a flea market, and finally ended with Christiania.

Marie - my tour guide

Christiania is a “free town” that is not technically part of Copenhagen where the residents don’t pay taxes and have their own society. It is also where they sell drugs. You notice the difference as soon as you set foot into this area. The buildings are suspiciously built, there are bright colors and paintings everywhere, dogs running freely, and of course a constant haze. It is such a neat and relaxing place. You would never guess you are in the middle of Copenhagen.

Back of Christiania