ratatat.

Psychedelic-electro-instrumental- craze hasn't been my 'thing' in the past, but after seeing Ratatat with some friends a couple of weeks ago, I think it could well be in the future...

Godt Nytår / Happy New Year to you all, I will be back after a whirlwind trip of Amsterdam and London over the next few days. The next month is going to be crazy, as I wrap up life in Denmark, explore Europe and finally make it home. Stories and pictures that don't appear in the next 30 days will be sure to come later :)

glædelig jul.

I feel like a bit of a Grinch this year as I'm not in a very Christmas-y mood, but Glædelig Jul/Merry Christmas too all who are. I hope you get super-spoilt and that you eat more food than you can possibly imagine, topped off by the beach and/or post-christmas-dinner-coma cricket-watching on Boxing Day (if you are in Australia, at least). Have a wonderful day xx

malmö.

Malmö turned on the bright lights for me today!! Well, we had some blue sky in southern Scandinavia, at least. It has really been trying to show through the last few days, but in turn the wind has been horrendous - never before (and probably never again) have I had wind coming at me from all different directions, all at the same time. Other times you will be walking with the wind at your back, pushing you so hard that you have to walk leaning backwards, and then in a flash it swirls around and it becomes a struggle to walk forwards. I will never understand the weather here!

I spent the day shopping across the Øresund, where it is much cheaper than in Copenhagen (well, relatively!) and where two of my favourite shops ever are located! Monki, an offshoot of the Cheap Monday brand, and Lagerhaus, full of wonderful homely bits and pieces! It is a pity that these stores are only in Sweden and don't ship anywhere else... But it is OK, I stocked up at both :)

PS That giant lamp is the coolest, most practical thing for a Scandinavian winter that I have ever seen. It gets light so late and dark so early, why not light up the streets with some overgrown home decor?!

more barcelona.

Perhaps an odd combination of pictures, but that is what Barcelona is like! I nearly died when I saw that bakery-themed street art. LOVE!

We handed in our group project today, so I am free from Uni until January 5th, when I have my exam. It feels good to be 'done', but it also means that things are coming to an end... it's less than a month until I leave Denmark. I think I will miss her.

beach!

Sure, the sky was kinda black... but it was the beach, there was light, there were palm trees, and it was warmer than 2 degrees.

sun.

Barcelona was wonderful. We had sun. We ate, and ate, and ate. We wandered. We spent hours in book stores. We had a band meeting.

Thank you for your comments :) As it turns out, Tannon WAS the first name picked, but he gets letters anyway... so second was Katrine! Of course, Katrine is from Denmark, but I will be sure to send her some bits and pieces from home as soon as I return!

*100*.

So today is not only the one year anniversary of my humble little blog, but also my 100th post! If you had told me this time last year that I would be posting this from Denmark, I definitely would not have believed you - I would probably not have believed that I had even made 100 posts, let alone be living somewhere as 'exotic' and far away as Scandinavia! Some mornings I wake up and wonder where on earth I am and how I got here... but I am here nevertheless and am enjoying it very much.

To celebrate, as many bloggers tend to do, I will run a tiny little give away (as such). It won't be much more than a letter in your mailbox and a handful of bits and pieces from around Denmark and Copenhagen, but everybody loves a bit of snail mail, right?* Anyway, it will be a name-out-of-the-hat affair, and you have until I get back from Barcelona (Wednesday) to leave a little comment on this post :) it can be as simple as 'hi' or, if you're feeling adventurous, tell me your favourite song at the moment - I love hearing what other people are listening to. Me? I'm always listening to Interpol (although 'Way Out' by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's is stuck in my head at the moment). I don't know how many people even read this blog... my guess is anywhere between 3 and...13? We will see :)

I took the pictures above back in February, and they are all from home. One thing that I cannot get over is how BLUE the sky is. I'm lucky these days if I can spy a gap of milky-blue between the grey, let alone some full on colour like at home.

*If someone FROM Denmark happens to get drawn out, you may have to wait until I get home for your letter - otherwise it could just be boring for you!

these are awesome.

Read more about them here.

more from tivoli.

(The top one is similar to the the 'Scandinavia' entry for the Photographic Dictionary).

abandon, bathroom, citroen.

I'm totally loving The Photographic Dictionary . I took exactly the same picture as the one for 'Scandinavia'! (Although in my opinion it doesn't really sum up Scandinavia... but it was taken in Scandinavia nonetheless.)

christmas.

So apparently Christmas is creeping up, although it doesn't feel like it for me at all... it's so cold, work isn't getting busy, there's been no Christmas pageant, I don't have a tree, I'm not frantically buying gifts. The only thing that gives it away a little is that the shops are decorated and they are always packed, particularly in the centre of Copenhagen. It is a strange feeling though.

Tivoli seems to be embracing Christmas though, I took these photos when I walked through it the other day. My favourites are the tree with the hearts tied to the branches, and the giant trojan reindeer. I love deer!

I am going to Barcelona in a week, and London via Amsterdam for New Years. Travels in January look like taking me through Czech Republic, Hungary, France and the UK. It is exciting, but stressful to organise and a little bit daunting.

walks through cph 05.