God Weekend

I had a fun weekend. It was great to spend time with friends and enjoying the last of the good weather ! Friday I went to my coworker, Cheyenne's, birthday party at her apartment in Nørrebro. It was nice and good to spend some time with all of my coworkers outside of the DIS environment. After a couple hours, Olivia and I left to go to a party, at my old dorm - Frankrigsgade Kollegiet. My friends, Jacob and Anders, were hosting the party and djing. There was a jungle theme and I was especially impressed when Anders told me he carried all of the decorations home on his bike !!

I hadn't been grocery shopping since before I left for Germany and literally had NO FOOD, so I took the time on Saturday morning to go to the grocery store. One of the things I had been wanting to make for a while was my own muesli - basically granola that you eat with yogurt. The store bought types that claim to have fruit or nuts in them actually have 95% oats 4% nuts and 1% fruit, so I decided to buy my own ingredients and add extras of my favorite parts. The combination I made had oats, raisins, craisins, cashews, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. I've been mixing it with plain yogurt and honey and its so good !!

The next day I met up for a fun afternoon with a my friend, Stefanie. Our final destination was 'The 2nd Annual Chili Cookoff', in Amager, which my coworker, Joe, had been raving about all week. On our way over there we stopped at Chrisitiania. After sitting by the lake, we got coffee at a small cafe in there, then made our way to the cookoff. When we arrived, I realized what I had pictured in my head had been way off ! For some reason I was imagining it would be a huge festival with hundreds of people, but really it was a small gathering where people from the local community could showcase their chili making talents. There were probably 12 people there, but they all seemed to be having a great time and really enjoying the chili - it was all gone !! It was cool though, they had developed a ranking system and were voting on each chili to ultimately decide who's was best ! I will ask Joe how it turned out.

Today, I took a bike trip with some friends from work, to the suburb Klampenborg, about 12 km outside of the city. Michael, a sweet old man from the accounting department at DIS, sent out an email on Friday suggesting us to go visit Dyrehaven - Deer park - where deers roam freely around the park and you can walk or bike throughout the trails. Besides the amazing fall weather, it was also perfect timing for a visit because its DEER MATING SEASON !!! woohoo !

We saw and heard massive elks persuing the deer. Their mating calls sound unworldly and could be described as a very loud and bellowing burp. Not gonna lie, there were a few times that I was a little bit scared !! There was nothing to prevent them from just charging at us or anyone of the other 100's of families that were all around, but luckily that didn't happen. We had a lovely time biking along the water on the way to the park, and then enjoying some salad, fruit and cake and biking around while we were there.

It was a fun and relaxing weekend :) Next week I'm looking forward a visit from my friend Mathew. We met at Fordham, but now he lives in Miami and decided spontaneously to come for a visit ! I can't wait to see him and introduce him to Copenhagen !

Return to Munich !

I wanted to visit my friend Markus in his home city of Munich, and I decided Oktoberfest would be the perfect time to go ! I was there Sunday - Wednesday and had such a good time. Besides going to the festival we walked around the city, did some shopping, went to a bunch of different cafes, went to the Deutsche Museum, saw Midnight in Paris, and just relaxed.

my first lunch : pumpkin soup - so good on a cold and rainy day !

the Deutsches Museum is full of new and old German technology and innovations

we stopped in an outdoor sporting goods store called Globetrotter. It was 4 floors and had a rain and ice chamber you could enter to test out jackets. In the basement there was a small pool where you could also test out kayaks and canoes.

our friend Benedetta wanted to go shopping for a drindl - the traditional dress that women wear during Oktoberfest - so we went shopping to a few different stores before finding the perfect one for her. I saw this hat in one of the stores.

we stopped in a candy store that sold only gummies to get a snack for the movie theater, and even they were playing along with the Oktoberfest theme
Oktoberfest at night. I didn't know it before I visited, but Oktoberfest is really a huge carnival with rollercoatsters, games, and performances, in addition to the main event of beer drinking.

Markus, Benedetta, and me inside one of the tents at the festival.

you know you're on vacation when this is what you're eating for breakfast ! apple strudel with ice cream !

Homemade Hindbærsnitter

I decided to make hindbærsnitter after enjoying it so much last weekend. I made them to bring to Markus, my German friend, and host for Oktoberfest. I found the recipe on a Danish cake blog called Gateau Mistress.

After a Saturday afternoon yoga class, I leisurely biked around Vesterbro stopping at Føtex (like Target) and Netto (supermarket) getting everything I needed to make the recipe. I finally bought my own scale to weigh ingredients while baking. It was an investment, but I am really happy to finally own one. The next thing I bake will be buns :)

RIP DJ Mehdi

I heard some very sad news today - one of my absolute favorite DJ's, Mehdi, passed away today, on his 34th birthday. He was killed in tragic accident that involved the roof of his apartment caving in while he and some other friends were on top of it. He was such a great DJ and had the most positive energy out of any performer I have ever seen. He was always smiling and dancing while he played and just seemed so down to earth. I am so glad I got to see him 2 times in the last year, and the last time I saw him, in Miami, I was lucky enough to run into him outside of the club when the show was over. Even though I made a fool out of myself by saying "Mehdi !! Hiiii ! I feel like I know you !" I don't regret it.

This is a video I took the first time I saw Mehdi Copenhagen in January, 2011.

RIP

Treat Break

So amid a long day of shopping, Olivia and I decided it was time for a treat break. We stopped and to get coffee and a pastries. I had a kaffe latte and she had an Americano, and then we both had a 'hindbær snitter' which is pretty much a gourmet pop tart ! It is fresh raspberry jam between two shortbread layers with icing and sprinkles on top ! Yum :)

Potato Omelet

I had some ingredients in the refrigerator that I had to use up so I decided to make a potato omelet for dinner.

First I washed and boiled the mini potatoes for 10 minutes. Then I sliced them into quarter inch slices and tossed them with olive oil and a spice mixture. Meanwhile, I heated a frying pan on the stove on medium heat. I dumped the potatoes in the pan and continued to cook them for about 4 more minutes.


Then I whisked together 6 eggs and dumped them on top of the potatoes.

I turned the heat of the pan down to lowish and let the ingredients cook together for 15 minutes. When I came back to the pan I checked the bottom and maybe I let it cook a bit to long, but it was still okay. I put a large round plate on top of the pan and flipped the omelet on to the plate. Then I slid it back into the pan to cook the bottom for 3 more minutes.


It tasted pretty good and was a good way to use up ingredients so that they didn't go to waste !

Spontaneity

So it was 11:30 pm on Thursday night and I was already in my bed, under the covers, just relaxing and getting ready to go to sleep, when my night took a sudden turn. I 'liked' a music video, from the Australian DJ Duo : Flight Facilities, on my friend Steffen's facebook, and two minutes later I get a message from him saying 'Well, they're playing at Rust tonight'. Rust is a club, in Nørrebro that is a 5 minute bike ride from my apartment. And so I responded, 'well let's go !' At first I was half joking, but then he responded 'yes!' so I got out of bed, got dressed, made a strong cup of coffee, and left my apartment at like 12:15.

the video that inspired the night

We met up there and ended up having a great night ! The music was so good - really groovy. Disco electro. We had so much fun dancing, drinking jager shots and beers, and making fun of the 'baby strippers' aka 16 year old girls dancing on stage begging for the photographers to take their picture. It was such a great night and I'm so glad I went out because why not !

I took this picture on my cellphone, and it happened to be perfectly timed with the flash of one of the professional photographer's flashes, which is why you can actually see the DJs !