So here in Denmark babies sleep outside in their prams (barnevogn in danish).
It doesn’t matter how cold or hot it is. They get bundled up (or de-bundled I suppose) and are put into their snuggly prams and they have a nap outside in the fresh air. This occurs everywhere, outside houses, outside stores, outside restaurants; I no longer find it odd to see a stray pram with baby inside parked on the sidewalk outside while the parent shops or eats. Don’t worry they get baby monitors!But that isn’t the main part of the story. The other day I went with my host mom to pick up her grandchildren, one of which was in daycare. We walked in and were told that he “was taking a nap.” Ok so what does that mean in Danish terms? This means that you walk into the napping room which is similar to a garage in that it is enclosed but it has no heat and isn’t a real room, just a space. Inside this room were about 30 parked prams all lined up around the edge of the room and containing sleeping children. I KID YOU NOT. It was probably the cutest/one of the most surprising things I have seen. Not only that but some of them were just cribs in the shape of prams but that lacked the mobility to actually be pushed. Oh well, I sure would like to be cozy like that if I was a baby.
London! I believe I did almost all of touristy things one is expected to do in London and was able to truly get by with the only
language I am fluent in haha. First up was the London Eye. Although it was expensive it was amazing to see so much of the city below us and it was my first chance to see Big Ben! Luckily for me, the friend I met up with had made us a 3-day schedule to make sure we got in everything we wanted to do. It worked out nicely and we had a lot of fun. After the Eye, we went to Trafalgar’s Square and posed with the giant lion statutes and managed to get in a bunch of photos peeking out of red phone booths! Next was the national museum to check out the mummies and we then had some really good Indian food for dinner.The next day we headed out to locate Abbey Road and take some photos of us doing the Beatle walk (with all of the other tourists.) I feel bad for the people that have to drive on that road daily. Once finished with this we headed to Big Ben and Parliament and then West Minster Abbey; this involved a terribly cold wait in line but was worth it once we were inside. The entire inside was so ornately decorated and housed so many famous tombs including Mary Queen of Scots, and her rival Elizabeth. It also contains the oldest door in Britain from 1053. We followed an audio tour and spent a lot time slowly walking through the abbey. Piccadilly Circus, aka the Times Square of London, was next just for a quick walk around and then we headed to King’s Cross Station. Here we were able to see the Platform 9 ¾. Woot! Harry Potter Fans! They even have a cart set up as though it was disappearing half way through the wall. It was a lot of fun and we were both glad we came to get some keepsake photos. haha. For the rest of the afternoon we went to Harrod’s which is THE famous department store. It was similar to a giant maze with tons of extravagant things and many people. We also we able to get dinner here as it has around 20 different places to eat inside of it. Insane. A person could spend years there.
For our last day we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, with about 3 billion other people. We nearly gave up because we were too short and being squished by the crowd but eventually a nice old French lady pulled us both up and traded spots for the second half of the show. We were actually able to see it then! Sadly they were
wearing grey winter coats and not the fancy red ones. In order to get a picture with the guards we headed over to Prince Charles’ residence. The soldier did not look very happy about this but a crowd of people was doing it so we joined in. Even though it was rather cold we headed to Kensington Palace and Garden’s where we saw the Peter Pan statue and a pond with many birds. Eventually the gardens turned into Hyde Park and we were able to visit the Princess Diana Memorial fountain. For our last meal we went to a pub where she had Shepard’s pie and I had fish and chips. Oh and we had some hard ciders of course.While not the most exotic place, London was a cool city to go and gave me a chance to visit places I hadn’t been before. Also I was able to understand all the signage! It probably wasn’t my favorite city that I’ve been to but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy myself. Perhaps I’ll visit again when it isn’t so frigid that I need to defrost my feet in the bathroom of the underground...
At this point, I’d been traveling for 2 weeks total and was only half way through with traveling. Next I flew to Munich to meet up with my boyfriend for New Years and travel throughout Germany and Poland. Why did I suggest that we go to these places in January? I’m still asking myself this question….
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