Go West, Young Woman! (Skanderborg)

We got to sleep in until 7:30AM! Yee-haw!

Don't get me wrong, I am very proud to be an American. I like my freedom and my Hollywood movies and my capitalism (though not at this precise moment). But the rest of the world has us beat on one count:

Breakfast Food.

I'm sorry, but cold cereal and Pop Tarts will always pale in comparison to fresh bakery bread, gooey preserves, and wonderful cheese cut with this wire swivel contraption that I still haven't quite gotten the hang of. Also, Danish yogurt is one of the strangest and most delicious things I've had here. Its more like thick milk than typical yogurt per se and comes in a cardboard milk carton. Musli has never tasted better... and I thought it was pretty tasty at home!

But I digress...
Our next visit was to Nymarkskolen, a public primary school that follows the Howard Gardner philosophy of multiple intelligences. It was pretty cool, mostly because I have never seen a public school with an "Arabian Nights"-themed reading room, complete with pillows and crimson fabric and a giant bamboo swing.

Then we went to Koldinghus Castle, which had mostly burned down in the Middle Ages. Legend has it that the princess who lived there fell in love with a commoner. When her father the king saw them together, he killed her lover on the spot. Soon after, he threw a lavish ball and invited three potential suitors for his daughter. The princess was commanded to dance with them until she made a decision. She danced and danced and danced, and finally dropped dead from her broken heart... and exhaustion. According to our guide, this incident prompted a new law in the Kingdom of Denmark, "no dancing when you are dying." All of us tourists really enjoyed that little factoid, which has to be the strangest law any of us has ever heard.

After Koldinghus, we arrived in our hostel in Skanderborg. After dinner, we made a giant bonfire and toasted marshmallows and made these hot dogs/hot dog bun things that were insanely tasty. Mostly, it was chill group bonding and trying not to get too much ash in our eyes. Around midnight, we decided to jump into the Skanderborg lake. It was FREEZING, so we only stayed in the water for a few minutes, but you're only young once, right? And how can you pass up the opportunity to start a story with, "so I jumped into a freezing lake in Scandanavia at midnight when..."

Silly pictures and campfire songs ensued. We did everything from "No Diggity" to "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog." It was really dorky, but everyone had a great time. Of course, the real adventure was the next day:
LEGOLAND