Autumn bike ride in Grimstad

Some weeks ago, Knut told me about a beautiful place he had biked to that he wanted me to see. And when I arrived in Grimstad yesterday, we found out that today would be a good day to go there, as the weather forecast looked very nice (meaning cold, but sunny).

The place we biked to is called Dømmesmoen, which is an old farming school, and has been made into a agricultural museum. The bike ride took about 25 minutes from Knut's apartment. We partly had to walk, as the route also included grass and mud surfaces. On our way there we saw beautiful autumn colors on the trees and the sun was very sharp. The place itself was beautiful. It had a little lake and was surrounded with grass fields. We took some pictures, sat on the bench together and let the sun shine on our faces and then biked back home. Thanks to Knut for taking me on this beautiful bike ride ♥

Autumn has always been my favorite time of year, and the colors are the main reason.

Art hanging between trees. 

Hovedhuset, Dømmesmoen

Being a music student in Copenhagen

Vacation. Not something I was longing for as if there was nothing in the world I wanted more, but now that the week of vacation has started I am happy to get my new life on distance and get my thoughts together. There have been so many things happening the last two months that are worth thinking about. Do I regret moving to a different country to study? Not a second. Am I happy with my choice of education? YES. Do I miss Norway? Sometimes. When I don't know how to get the Danes to understand a word of what I am saying. But I AM GETTING THERE. Hopefully my danish friends agree, but I feel like I have learned some danish, and I can still count on one hand the times that I have said something in English instead of Norwegian to be understood. My danish will be even better within a few more months and I will be teased for the rest of my life back home in Norway for speaking danish. Is it all worth is. Oh yes. 

A mirrorselfie in my room in my old home on Østerbro. What is a blog without a selfie?
In three weeks I will be moving to a new place on Amager, closer to the University. 

The past two months have been filled with exploring, learning and enjoying. I have made a lot of new friends at the University of Copenhagen, and I could not have been happier with my choice of studying musicology. I love everything about it, from music history, to piano class, music theory, musical analyses to the early choir-class at 8 am on Wednesday mornings. I have always thought, and I still think, that there is no better way to make friends than through music. We all have different taste in music and all have different backgrounds when it comes to musical education, but we can all communicate through the music that we sing, play, read about, enjoy, or don't like at all.

Yet another choir-class at 8 am. As it was the last class before vacation,
we made a short concert for our teddy-bears (as seen on the picture, paying good attention to the beautiful music) 

The studying part of my musical life is of course really enjoyable, but I am also really happy that I have joined the University of Copenhagen Funk Big Band. Only a part of the big band members study music, others come from the other different faculties. Also there: the educations we are all doing differ, and the person next to you may belong to a total different faculty. But that does not affect the fact that the big band sounds really good and that we have a very good atmosphere within the band. Music once again, builds bridges.

I like the Danish humor: "Avoid hangovers -Just stay drunk". 

From going all alone to Copenhagen, knowing as good as no one, to being two months into the semester, I feel so lucky to have gotten to know so many, seen so much of the city, and already learned so much about my favorite thing in the world: music. And there is of course more to come. My plans are, as usual, huge and I am ready to try them out in the world's cutest city with all the cute people who live there.

Now it's time to enjoy the vacation, and of course my jetset life never rests. Right now I am in the Netherlands, and on Wednesday I will go to South Norway and stay there for the rest of the week.

-Annlaug

Liverpool

Last weekend, I travelled to Liverpool together with Knut and his family, and it was a really nice trip. I had never been to Liverpool before, neither had most of the others. My experiences with England also just limits to one trip to London, april 2013, and a sailtrip to somewhere along the east-coast of England, where we stayed for about half a day, in may 2012. So my excitement for the trip was overwhelming, also because of the sweetest traveling companions.

The city was very pretty, with typical British architecture and with some sweet cafes and a lot of shopping opportunities. There were also always street musicians to see around every corner, with varied levels of talent.. :)

Our hotel room had it's own piano. Too bad it was out of tune. 

American breakfast pancakes at Uncle Sam's

There was some time for shopping too. Everything from Topshop to Forever 21 to 2. hand. 

A visit to the Beatles museum is mandatory on a trip to Liverpool

John Lennons piano from the Imagine music video

Beautiful Albert Docks

The Chinatown of Liverpool

The Candystore, Bold street sweets, with the best milkshakes. 

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, built 1962-1967

On the inside of Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool (a different one from the one above). Written in pink neon light letters: I felt you and I knew you loved me. 

A nice view of Denmark on my way home. 

Thanks to Solveig for the amazing trip!

Visitors

The last two weeks have been packed with activities. From sunday to wednesday last week, I joined my class at the university on a trip, to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, as a get-to-know-eachother- trip. It was very amusing and social and I was very happy that I had joined. On thursday, I met Susanne here in Copenhagen for the first time. She had just moved here from Molde as well, and it is really fun to have someone that I know from home here in this city, too. 

When friday finally arrived, Knut came to visit me for the first time. We had a great weekend together, and I got to show him around in the city and had him meet some of my classmates. On saturday, we also met Ragni, which was really nice. I felt so happy to meet people from home, and not least was I relieved to be able to speak Norwegian, and only that, for a whole weekend. Normally, I speak a kind of twist between norwegian and danish, which makes the Danes understand me better, but makes me sound like a Norwegian fool. Can't wait until I finally learn some more proper Danish. 

This last week has been packed with activities at the university, to get us to know the university, the IT and other types of systems better. On Friday we had the student enrollment ceremony, where the headmaster of the university presented the different faculties and held a very nice speech. The old tradition is that all new students shake the headmaster's hand, which stands for an informal contract between the student and him, that the student will follow the University's rules. This took place yesterday too, and I can proudly say that I am enrolled at the University of Copenhagen as a musicology-student, after shaking Ralf Hemmingsen's hand.

Susanne helped me buy and put together a clothing reck!

Selfie in front of Amalienborg castle

Having the most Danish thing there is, red sausages, at Nyhavn.

Two pretty ones <3

We went on a canal tour, and passed the royal yacht.

Visiting Svanemøllen beach. It has been such a beautiful summer-week with sunshine and nice temperatures. Nice to finally have some time off with Knut. 

Now I am more ready than ever to start studying, and on monday it all starts. I have already bought my books, and I am so excited that I can finally call my self a music student. Next weekend will be something totally different, though. I am going on a trip from friday to tuesday, but I will not write about it until I'm back, so stay tuned!

-A

Hello Copenhagen!

Since the last time I wrote a blog post, I have moved to a new country and I am super excited about it. Together with my parents, I arrived on tuesday to move in to a nice and already furnished apartment and later we spent 3 days on exploring the city and get me settled here. Now my parents have gone back home, and I am actually all by my self in this city at the moment. I don't know anyone very well, but I have had my first day at the university today and my class seems really nice. I got to know a lot of people and we had some social activities on campus, both singing and playing games to get to know each other's names. My class is not the only thing that makes me sure I will enjoy living in this beautiful city. I can also just enjoy myself while walking the roads in the city for hours and hours. Everything is so beautiful here, and the sunshine and 25 degrees don't make it bad, either. I really can't wait to explore more of what this city has to offer me, specially the "being a student"-part of it.

My mother's appetizer at Hotel d'Angleterre

My dinner was a Chateaubriand. 

And two over-dressed macarons for dessert. 

Nyhavn viewpoint.

Saw this lovely sculpture of a beautiful friendship at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Good vibes at Højbro Plads. (Kontrabassen var tilstede, men jeg lette voldsomt, uten hell, etter de tre kineserne)

The cast of an outside theatre, Visen om Sidsel, that we enjoyed on wednesday evening.

Enjoying an apple cider while hiding from the sun and heat at the Royal Smushi Cafe, right next to Højbro Plads. 

-A

SPA

Etter 40 dager på sjøen i sommer ga verdens beste Knut meg en nydelig gave, nemlig et opphold på Farris bad i Larvik, og en mer perfekt gave kunne jeg vel aldri fått. Et nydelig hotell, med en deilig 3-retters middag og ikke minst et herlig spa, som de selvfølgelig er mest kjent for. Jeg kjente kroppen min var takknemlig for de forskjellige typene saunaer, både innendørs og utendørs jacuzzier og den avslappende atmosfæren der inne. Begge dagene av oppholdet vårt var vi flere timer inne på spaet, og jeg har sjelden vært så lei meg for å reise fra et hotell som jeg var torsdag ettermiddag.

After 40 days at sea this summer, Knut gave me a nice present: a stay at Farris bad, a spa hotel in Larvik, Norway. It was a lovely stay that my body really needed, with several saunas and jacuzzis, nice meals and a relaxing atmosphere. 

Fin kveld i Larvik! Nice evening in Larvik.