Copenhagen Journal #9: Normal Life

My office at DTU.

I've titled this blog post Normal Life because these last couple of weeks have been about settling into my routine, which is more or less the same here as it is in Missoula: wake up early, enjoy some quiet time before the busyness of the day, head off to work, and at the end of the day, come home for some rest and rejuvenation, then repeat. Honestly, it is this mundane, repetitive living that I enjoy most about living abroad for an extended period. Sure, the new places and exotic experiences are great too, but I prefer 'normal life' in a new place to exotic travel. Of course, it helps to have that place be awesome, as Copenhagen most certainly is. 

Living down in Nyhavn, which is as 'in the city' as you could be, has meant adjusting to a long commute. No matter which way you do it, it takes about an hour, although biking is the quickest at about 50 minutes. It is also the cheapest, so I've opted to bike the 18 mile round trip and have come to really enjoy it. I realize that I could do this (a longish bike commute) if I had to back home. And I've become embarrassed that I got into the habit of driving the 1.5 miles to UM from my house in Missoula several days a week.  

Copenhagen Journal #8: Saint Petersburg

Some unfinished business from all of time I've spent in Helsinki was a trip to Saint Petersburg. When I recommended to Jen that she and Aimee should stay with me in Helsinki and then we should all travel on to Saint Petersburg from there, she jumped on it. 

It's hard to get into Russia -- the visa process is involved and takes months -- but there's a loop hole for cruise groups, which allows for a 72 hour visa free visit. The low budget cruise company St. Peterline exploits this loop hole to provide cheap access to St. Petersburg from Helsinki. 

We left Helsinki Friday evening and woke up on Saturday morning in St. Petersburg. We spent two nights in the city. On the first day, I visited Fyodor Dostoevsky's apartment (now a museum), where he lived while writing The Brothers Karamazov. I have been on a Dostoevsky kick lately and listened to Crime and Punishment while walking the streets of St. Petersburg. On the second day, we visited the astounding Hermitage Museum. And on the last day, I walked and ran in the city while Jen and Aimee went to a Russian bath house.

There are a handful of cities that really resonate with me, and St. Petersburg is one of them. When I'm in such a city, I get why someone would want to live there. I felt this resonance as strongly as I ever have in St. Petersburg. I would go back in a heart beat, even though it requires more of a commitment to get there than most cities. 

We returned to the ship on Monday evening, and cruised on to Tallinn, Estonia, from where I flew back to Copenhagen. Jen and Aimee continued on the ship to Stockholm, for a full Baltic tour. From there they traveled by train to Copenhagen, arriving one day after me.

     

Copenhagen Journal #7: Helsinki

I spent last week in Helsinki at a workshop at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, put on by my friends and collaborators there. It's always great to be back in Helsinki. I know the city well, having had spent a year there in 2006-07, and then 2-3 weeks every summer for four years afterwards. We have good memories from our year there as a family, and I have good memories from those productive summer work trips. Also, after spending so much time there, I've developed strong friendships and collaborations. I've not done any research with this group of Finns for a while, but hopefully our time will come again. Oh, and the workshop was great, with good people and a good communal vibe.

For this trip to Helsinki, Jen joined me, together with her Missoula friend Aimee McQuilkin. We all stayed together in my flat. It was the first time Jen had been back since we had lived there more than 10 years ago, and she loved it. Aimee loved it too, calling it her favorite Baltic city. Helsinki is a special place, indeed. 

Copenhagen Journal #6: New Digs at Nyhavn 18

This past Monday we moved from our flat on the DTU campus to one in the center of Copenhagen on Nyhavn, which is one of the main tourist streets of the city. It's a beautiful flat and location, and we feel very blessed to be here. Our building is owned by the Danish National Bank (akin to the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S.) and there are five or six other academics and their families living here. In the below picture, it's the yellow building, and we live on the first floor, with one of our windows just to the right of Jen's head in the photo.

It was a competitive process getting in, requiring an application submitted by my host, Per Christian Hansen. The downside of the move is that I now have a one hour commute each way, whether by bike, bus or train, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around. I haven't decided yet what mode of transport I'll use. One benefit of public transport is that I can listen to books on Audible, and reading lots of books is one of my goals for the year. On the other hand, public transport is expensive, packed with people, and I still have to fit exercise into my day if I don't bike, so we'll see.

Copenhagen Journal #5: Backroads of Denmark

After getting back from our trip to Aarhus, we had a day of rest and then left again, going to two off-the-beaten-path places in Denmark, both suggested by my host Per Christian Hansen: the Medieval town of Ribe, on the west coast, and the remote island of Mon, on the Baltic Sea, with it's beautiful chalk cliffs. It was a good trip: we saw some beautiful places, met some great people (especially our B&B hosts), and we feel like we're starting to get a feel for the country. 

It's been an adjustment only having each other. Back in Missoula, we're spread thin, having so many things and people to occupy us. Not so here. And since the kids are gone now, it's truly just the two of us. So, we're working on us too, which is challenging, but we're blessed to have the time and energy to do it. Here's to growth and new beginnings.