Around Europe in 80 Drinks

February 22, 2020September 8, 2019 by Ashleigh Westphal

Most loved and strongly disliked drinks in Europe! A journal about the 44 different beers, wines and spirits we tasted while traveling through Europe.

Scandinavian Food, a Smörgåsbord!

February 10, 2020January 20, 2014 by Ashleigh Westphal

A few people have been asking me about what kinds of Scandinavian food we’ve been having so far, so I wanted to take a second to tell you all a bit about what we’ve been eating!

Norway

First up, Norwegian fish cakes or fiskeboller. Mostly made from spices, flour, and fish puréed in a blender, they look like pancakes but with a dense consistency, and are very tasty! Siv (Nathanael’s cousin) made them for us one night and they were delicious. We had them with Norwegian potato dumplings served with a sweet sauce.

Some of my top picks in Denmark!

February 10, 2020December 26, 2013 by Ashleigh Westphal

My Top Five of Denmark

I thought I would continue what I had started with the “My five favourite things in Norway!” article with Denmark, so here we go! (Check out Sweden and Finland too!)

Frederiksborg Castle

Frederiksborg Slot was built by King Christian IV in the early part of the 17th century. It was a bit of a train ride north of Copenhagen, but situated in a lovely little city of Hillerød it was well worth the trip! We loved the lived-in (and spooky) feeling of the rooms. It was easy to imagine the royal family gazing out the windows at the lake or beautiful gardens. There were walking paths out behind the castle leading to the well-manicured palace gardens (we had a lovely lunch) as well as rougher trails leading into the spooky forest (with a witch’s house! Or at least, we imagined it was 🙂 check it out). We could have spent all day wandering the palace and the grounds, well-worth the admission!

Makvärket, a Cultural and Environmental Collective

February 10, 2020December 7, 2013 by Nathanael Weir-Wakely

It was a beautiful afternoon when we stepped off the train from Copenhagen, arriving in the tiny village of Knabstrup. We asked several of the villagers for directions to the place we were looking to stay: ‘Makvärket‘, the mysterious, abandoned factory known to house an ardent group of artists, philosophers, and travellers. The Knabstrup villagers kept pointing us further up a winding road. “It’s not too far,” they said, “the factory is at the end of the road.” At last we could see the cylindrical, brick chimney rising up above the trees and towering over everything. A mysterious factory on top of a hill, overlooking the village below… Sounds like a Frankenstein movie.

Final weekend in Copenhagen

February 10, 2020December 5, 2013 by Ashleigh Westphal

Welcome to Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark

We spent one last weekend in Copenhagen to see a few things that we didn’t get a chance to see the first week we were there.

It had gotten colder since the week prior, so we decided it would be nice to sleep somewhere indoors this time. Looking around at the hostels downtown, we knew this wasn’t going to be cheap. The hostels right in the downtown seem to flip between being expensive but nice, and cheaper but with awful reviews.

After an evening of scouring the internet I managed to find us a room for a fairly reasonable rate, but it seemed a bit ambiguous on whether this was a hostel or what. Crossing our fingers, we left Makvaerket that afternoon on a train.

It was a decent walk from Copenhagen central train station to where we were staying, but it was kind of nice to have a chance to see the city at night. After hesitantly knocking on the door of a house that matched the address we had written down, a woman answered the and told us we were in luck. Apparently, we had caught her on the way out for the evening since we hadn’t made a reservation and she wasn’t expecting anyone. Lucky us! To top off our good fortune, the room was awesome! It was nice, warm, and very comfortable, the perfect way to start off the weekend.

Now for the highlights: firstly, the one I was most excited about, the Tivoli gardens!

The Land of the Danes

February 10, 2020November 19, 2013 by Nathanael Weir-Wakely

We crossed the bridge from Sweden to Copenhagen. In the water towered several wind turbines, blades spinning silently in the distance. The bridge snaked to the other side of the border and we saw Denmark stretching out, a flat plate of land the Danes call home. We were dropped off near the central station, and swinging are packs onto our backs we set out to figure out where we were going to go next.