During Semana Santa, my friends and I decided to do some travel outside of Spain.  First, we went to Copenhagen, Denmark.  Upon landing, I realized that I was going to immediately find my gloves and scarf, as the weather was significantly colder than anything we had experienced in Madrid.  Our hostel was less than a 5-minute walk from the famous Nyhavn Canal, which is a series of restaurants, stores and homes that are painted in bright, cheerful colors.  I traveled with Ana Sophia and her cousin is currently studying abroad in Copenhagen and gave us great recommendations.  We went up the Round Tower and had a panoramic view of Copenhagen and later had a sunset dinner at the local food market.  On the following day, we visited the Danish Design Museum, the Little Mermaid Statue, the Amalienborg palace and Tivoli Gardens.  Walt Disney visited Tivoli and was inspired to make Disneyworld.  The next day, we visited Hans Christian Andersen’s grave, the Superkilen park and finished the day at a board game café. 

Since we had an extra day, Ana Sophia and I decided to take a day trip to Lund, Sweden.  According to a recent DNA test, I am 10% Swedish, so you can imagine I was excited to visit the place where my ancestors were from!  Lund is a quiet, small town and had a cool indoor and outdoor museum called Kulturen.  We learned about Swedish history during the medieval ages.  At the museum, there was a visiting exhibition about the history of transgender individuals and it was interesting to learn how a lot of the history started in Scandinavia!  Later, we tried a local IPA and ordered off of a menu that neither of us could read, but it wound up being my favorite meal of the trip!  We returned to Copenhagen later that day and found the trampolines!

Then, Ana Sophia and I met up with Kristen in Budapest.  We all took a much-needed break day to sleep in and read before walking to the Citadel.  The Citadel was a nice walk and we had breathtaking views of the city at sunset.  After not seeing many locals out on street in Copenhagen due to the cold weather, it was cool to see so many people with their dogs and families in the park.  Our friend Siobhan had previously traveled to Budapest this semester, so we referred to her recommendations for our first full day.  We did a fantastic walking tour and learned about the back-to-back occupations of Hungary during the 20^th century and how the cities Buda and Pest united to form Budapest.  After a quick stop for cake and lemonade, we made our way to the Basilica and climbed to the top.  The views were amazing!  After a long day of walking, we rewarded ourselves with a long soak at the famous Szechenyi baths.  The next day, we had an early morning tour of the House of Parliament, visited the Museum of Terror and later made our way to the Jewish quarter to eat at the renowned Getto Gulyas.  We wanted to visit the Dohany Street Synagogue, but it was closed for Passover activities.  Later, we finished our day at the Gellert baths where we again enjoyed a long soak.  I also had the chance to go in a sauna!  Then, we had drinks at the ruin bars.  On our last day, we visited the Hospital in the Rock and had an evening Danube river tour.  We had a great time during Semana Santa but are looking forward to being able to communicate in Spanish.