Wait, Your Family Can Visit Too?!

{Now who could these silly characters be?}

That’s right, you’ve read the caption! Right before the first Long Study Tour Travel Week began, my whole family was able to visit me in Copenhagen. And not just for a few days, for a whole week! Given that my household consists of both of my parents and two younger sisters, the fact that my entire immediate family was able to visit me while I'm studying abroad was an incredible feat in itself. But when my family finally arrived, I made sure to give them a warm welcome!

{I've just met my family, and they want to go to a coffee shop?? Just kidding, so do I :)}

I began by meeting them at the Metro Station right after they arrived at the hotel where they were staying. They were literally a block away from Nørreport Station, so they couldn't have asked for a better location to spend their spring break. After I met them at the station, I took them to their first cafe of their trip, Emmery’s. They had to get a cardamom bun and coffee to set their newly established European circadian rhythms off right! Afterwards, they were still hungry, so we went to Torvehallerne for lunch to get Denmark’s national dish, stegt flæsk med persillesov, in sandwich form at Slagter Lund. I hadn’t even had the sandwich before, so the whole gang was in for a treat!

{not me catching my family at their most candid outside Torvehallerne}

And that was just the first day! On Friday, I gave them a walking tour of the city consisting of brunch at a book cafe, a tour of my classrooms at DIS, pointing out a few shopping spots around the inner city, and making sure to hit every single major plaza and urban area within walking distance. It was a great opportunity to test my knowledge of the city while showing around my new favorite places!

{As cliché as might be, a trip to Copenhagen would really be incomplete without a visit to Nyhavn!}

After finishing up our tour of Copenhagen at Nyhavn on Friday, we took a quick jaunt to London over the weekend, but that trip could be a whole other blog post in itself. My family opted to stay in London until midday on Tuesday, but I(like the academic weapon I am) headed back early in order to not miss any class. And right after flying back to Copenhagen, my family was able to connect over dinner with a family friend who had previously worked at DIS! 

Disaster struck on Wednesday when my family found out that their connecting flight back home was cancelled, whereafter they spent most of the day scrambling to find another means of return transportation. And on Thursday I was in class for the majority of the day, so they took a train trip to Hamlet’s Castle in Helsingør and the Louisiana Art Museum!

{A selfie my family took at Kronborg Castle - crazy to not be the sole photographer for once!}

Finally, on Friday, their final full day after figuring out a new flight path home, was spent very similar to the previous one: (my goodness I can’t believe they had already been here for a week!) We went on a cardamom bun crawl throughout the city, trying Skt. Peter’s Bakery, Andersen and Maillard, and finally Juno the Bakery. We then did a little more shopping for keepsakes and I enjoyed answering some questions that my sisters had about Danish art, food, culture, and ways of life (I answered the best that I could). Lastly, we got dinner at Gasoline Grill, an infamous restaurant burger chain that felt like an elevated version of classic Midwestern fast food. I then said my goodbyes and wished them safe travels back!

{Is there a more Nebraskan way to end your last day in Copenhagen than a burger and fries?}

Oh my goodness that felt like a whirlwind! So many people, so much excitement, and so much to see and do with the people I appreciate the most. At times it felt exhausting to always have the next best thing ready to show my family as they explored the city, but after a time I realized that what matters is not exactly the place that you vacation to over spring break(although it's hard to think of better place than Copenhagen), but its the people who you choose to spend your time with. Some of my favorite moments from my family visit was just sitting down with my folks at either a restaurant or in their hotel, just catching up on the latest and greatest things within the family. Turns out that everyone has a lot of things going on! But at least for one week out of the year, I was able to expose mi familia to a little piece of this new world that I’m really starting to call home. (And I think they really enjoyed it!)

Until next time you guys!