Saturday, April 30, 2011

Orestad Field Study: 4.27.11

My friend Laura, from the Cal Poly Florence program visited Copenhagen this week with her roommate Marielle! I invited them on my History class's field study where we went to the Harbor area of Copenhagen, Sluseholmen, and Orestad.




Sluseholmen is a housing complex reminiscent of Amsterdam's housing and its canals:


In Orestad, we visited the three BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) housing projects, the VM house:




The Mountain Dwellings:




And the 8 house (which I pictured in my very first post).

Also while they were here, we made homemade frikadeller (Danish meatballs). I will have to make some for you guys when I come home. They are fantastic.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

SPAIN

Last semester we went to Italy for our two week break. This semester we went to Spain. WOOOHOOOO. I'm going to be super minimal with the text on this entry. Because there is just too much to say and too little time to write it all.

Barcelona:

Barcelona is awesome. That's all you really need to know about the place.
We saw a lot of Gaudi's works like,

Casa Batllo:



Casa Pedrero:



and Segrada Familia (LOVE):





Structure on the beach by Gehry:



Gaudi designed Park:





Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van Der Rohe:



Olympic Park, this sculpture/structure thingy is by Calatrava:



Castle thing:



Tower by Jean Nouvel:



Valencia:

I also loved the City of Arts and Sciences by Calatrava. The place has got this Star Wars futuristic feel to it that I kind of love:





Weird headpiece thing (shown below) that we wore to go into the Imax theater(in the theater pictured above):









Playgrounds:









Spain has these city markets where people sell their homemade goods. We bought some empanadas and pumpkin pastries:





Alicante:

Another Castle Ruin:





One of four beaches we went to:



One of 7 Paellas we had in Spain:



Granada:

Alhambra Palace is to die for:



Sangria:



Tapas:



Cordoba:

While we were in Spain, it just so happened that a Spanish holiday called Semana Santa (Saint Week) was going on.


I know. I KNOW. But it's not what you think. There is a parade everyday where these people in masks and women in black lace garments walk down the streets. They are in the parades because they want to be forgiven for their sins. They wear those hats to hide their faces. The KKK's outfit was actually was inspired by the Semana Santa hats.

Okay the ONLY reason we went to Cordoba is so we can see their epic mosque. But because Semana Santa was going on, we were not allowed...



This is the best attempt at an interior shot. FAIL:



Madrid:

Caixa Forum by Herzog de Meuron:



Museo Del Jamon:


Hanging meat, whatevs. And super random meal of french fries, egg, and ham.



If you are in Madrid, you must get Calamari sandwiches from El Brillante. It was literally the best Calamari I have ever haaaaaddd:



Chocolate and churros:



London:

It was cheaper to fly back to London and then out of London back to Copenhagen than just buying a straightaway ticket from Madrid to Copenhagen. So we had a fabulous day in the UK. London is just as wonderful the second time as it was the first time.





And yes, we spoke in obnoxious English accents for a lot of our time there.

La Glace for a birthday

April 6 was Marcella's birthday. Shelley, Laura, Marcella and I decided to go to La Glace to celebrate the occasion with expensive, but oh-my-gosh delicious slices of cake.



La Glace, founded in 1870, is the oldest confectionary in Denmark. It boasts a high reputation and supposedly the queen gets her cakes from there. It also has the best cake I have ever tasted. :D






Cake slices from left to right:

Volmer Sørensen: creamy nougat in whipped cream, macaroon bottom, apricot jam, vanilla custard, marzipan. Decorated with green hazelnuts.

An apricot cake: this one was not on the menu that we could find, but the consensus was that it was our favorite. Sooo good, it melts in your mouth.

Sportskage: house speciality with crushed nougat in whipped cream, macaroon bottom. Decorated with caramelised choux pastry.

Schwartzwalder (Black Forest): cherry brandy in whipped cream, chocolate sponge, chocolate butter cream, cherry jam. Decorated with grated chocolate and red berries.



GONE.