Showing all posts in Europe

In Europe, France, Travel

Louvre

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

May 18, 2019

The famous pyramids at the Louvre in Paris was designed by architect Ieoh Ming Pei who also designed the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland that my husband and I visited two years ago. I.m Pei died this week at age 102. Both designs are beautiful and I’m glad I have seen both of these in person. 

I have always been interested in architecture. If you have followed my blog for a longer time, you may have noticed that I often post pictures of buildings I like. New York is a great place to find many fine treasures. The Upper West Side is very interesting for example.

The Louvre was an interesting museum with some old cool art, but I was mostly interested in the different rooms – the walls and the ceilings – rather than the pieces of sculptures and paintings displayed. Ok, all of it is part of the museum, but I think you understand what I mean. I kinda rushed through rooms with only art displayed (while J also wanted to see the art and took his time there). That’s why the Opera, Palais Garnier, was so much more of my interest (a separate post will come). I love to walk into a room or stand in front of a building and just stare at the details.
The Louvre had some really cool details as well. The art pieces, ya, there was some nice stuff there and it’s definitely worth going to, and if you don’t mind a big crowd you can see the Mona Lisa painting. The line to go in isn’t too bad so unless it’s pouring down, definitely go check it out. And while you are in the line you get a great chance to look at the building and the pyramids, so win win:) 

You’d think when they have seen the painting up front they would move, but nope,
people just hung out in front of it which made it impossible for anyone else to see it up close
This is a ceiling painting photographed in a mirror, so much easier to look at it that way than straight up This to me is really cool, it’s the size of a pocket watch. Look at all those details carved out! This was one of my favorites, and it was relatively new.
Large stone painting, 10 meters high, by Anselm Kiefer

In Europe, France, Travel

waiting by the phone

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

May 14, 2019

We came back from Paris on Sunday night. Guess if I have a lot of photos, haha. Even Jim have lots of photos on his phone from this trip (he usually never does). We had an amazing time! But any trip with Jim is amazing, it doesn’t matter where we are:)
Paris wasn’t exactly how I had imagined it though but it was still cool to go there. I expected the city to be in full bloom and have warmer weather for picnics in the parks in the month of May. But the parks barely had grass and the whole city is under construction, full of road work and scaffolding everywhere and more tourist than I have ever seen before. It was still cute and romantic, but that’s if you turn off to streets where noone else is. I guess movies and pictures romanticize this city so much more than it is.
I’m very happy that we went. J and I have a good mix of beach and bigger city vacations. The next trip is a road trip to Canada. 

This trip was supposed to be a nice getaway for us two after losing our baby, but as you know, I’m not done with the pregnancy yet. I barely slept this trip. Not knowing if I need treatment or not has been kinda stressful and I think my hormones are all over the place, I didn’t quite feel like myself this trip and poor Jim had to deal with me:( Right now I’m just sitting here at my desk in my office starring at my phone. Waiting for this phone call is no fun. Will I go in for chemo today or not? 
I’m actually not nervous for the treatment really, I’m more stressed about that I have an appointment at the Swedish Consulate in NYC on Thursday and I’m worried that I might have side effects from the chemo then. I can’t reschedule either since I don’t know if the treatment will be a one time thing or weekly, and I need a new passport before the old one expires. This makes me extremely nervous. But hopefully I won’t need treatment, and if I do I hopefully don’t have any side effects. 

In Denmark, Travel

Copenhagen for a day in January

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

March 21, 2019

It’s been two months since we were in Copenhagen for a day and Sweden for a week. Thought I would share some bits from our day in Denmark now.
Jim and I spent an afternoon in Copenhagen a few years ago and on that trip we did most of all the touristy stuff. On January 18, we landed around noon, grabbed our bag, found the train, traveled two stations and then walked over to our hotel. Quickly dropped our stuff off, freshened up and then went out in to the city. Beautiful sunny day but oh so cold. We were both pretty hungry so we walked down to Nyhavn and just picked one of the restaurants there. All the good restaurants in Copenhagen have seafood so it was a bit hard to find things on menu that I could eat since I was pregnant then. But we found a small place, I ordered meatballs and was so jealous of J’s shrimp skagen (that’s a must when you go to Scandinavia). We continued to walk around but it was just so cold now. There was one super old and very “denmark’y” bar that we went to the last time that we only stayed at for about 5 minutes before they closed then so J wanted to go back there. After-work Danish people in this old wooden room, haha, it was just too good:) Then we went to check out bar after bar. Not very fun for me who didn’t want to order sugary sodas everywhere. When you ask for seltzer water in Scandinavia they give you a bottle (like one you can buy in stores) and charge you for it and asking for a lemon with it seemed like a strange thing to do. Not at all like going out in America where they just keep filling up your glass and give you as many lemons you want.
We actually didn’t have anything to do in Copenhagen. It was nice to be there again thought cause unlike the last time we were there, everything was now open (it was a Friday night this time, last time it was Sunday and everything closed before 7pm). We had dinner reservations at The Olive Kitchen & Bar at like 6:30 pm, which seemed a bit too close to our late lunch, but whatever, that was the only reservation they had available when we booked. A very cute place. No walk-ins welcome because it was fully booked. We picked this restaurant out of all the fancy ones (Copenhagen is known for their restaurants) because it had things I could eat on the menu plus it didn’t seem like tiny portions for a billion bucks. We are ok spending some extra money on food but then we expect to be full. A lot of times, especially in Scandinavia I’ve noticed, you first overpay, they make an effort on appearance rather than taste and then you walk out of there being hungry. We didn’t want that. This was a fancier place with real plates. For starter we ordered ribs and this is the first time we ate ribs with gloves on (see the last picture of Jim hahah). Felt like we were going to color each others hair 😀 Ribs were really good. And then I ordered salmon and J ordered some meat and both dishes were very yummy. Good choice and I would recommend you to go there if you visit Copenhagen, but make sure to make a reservation, we made one the week before.

After dinner we decided to go back to our hotel. It was only 8:30 but it was freezing outside plus I had only slept for two hours in total the past two days. Back in our hotel room we started to laugh at ourselves. Going to bed before 9 when we are on vacation, nah. So we went to the downstairs bar where we met an Australian CEO of some big company. He kept buying J beers and made bets about random stuff. I just sat there with my seltzer water in a bottle. 

And that’s it. That’s all we did. Ended up going to bed before midnight, I slept for maybe an hour in total that night and then had to get up at 6am to shower, repack our stuff and then take the train to Sweden at 7 am. 

I filmed our Denmark/Sweden trip as well. I haven’t decided if I should make a video or not. Would you like to see a video from our trip? Also, I have written before that I would post a video from Charleston but things happened and I put it away. Would you want to watch that as well? Please comment and let me know.

In Denmark, Travel, Uncategorized

Throwback: A day in Copenhagen

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

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We are always flying in and out of Copenhagen when we go to Sweden, because it’s the closest airport with direct flights to NY. When my husband and I were gonna fly back home from our vacation in Sweden in August last year, we had a flight at 8 am in the morning on a Monday. We decided that it was best to book a hotel in Copenhagen for that last night.
My lovely parents drove us all the way over, took us to the hotel, joined us for lunch and then they drove back home again. Jim and I spent the afternoon as tourists. I have been in Copenhagen some times before but never really been a tourist. I’ve been there on school trips which mostly mean sitting in a bus, I’ve been to the amusement park with my parents when I was a kid, I’ve been to dance auditions, but never been a real tourist.
Of course we went to see the Castle, the little mermaid (Den lille havefrue) and Nyhavn with all the restaurants. It started to rain after a while so we walked in to a random bar, but they closed at 7. We walked around for quite some time until we found something that was open. Strange. Even if it was a Sunday night we still expected the Danish to party all night long in bars, but nope, they didn’t. Eventually when we had been to two other bars and also finally found some food, we decided to go back to the hotel. We had to get up so early anyway.
Copenhagen was cute and I’m glad we got to see it. But I didn’t get that wow experience like some of my American friends talked about. There was construction everywhere and you couldn’t see big parts of the city (and you could definitely not drive anywhere). It also rained a bit which makes any city boring. I don’t know, maybe I’m too Swedish to appreciate it. But overall, my husband seemed to enjoy it and I’m glad I finally got to be a tourist in a city I ones wanted to move to (for school). I want to go back and go to other parts of the city that I’ve been before and I actually want to go to Legoland, with or without a kid, hihi.

Vi flyger alltid in och ut fran Kopenhamn nar vi ska till Sverige, for det ar den narmsta flygplatsen med direktflyg till NY. Nar min man och jag skulle flyga tillbaka hem fran var semester i Sverige i augusti forra aret, hade vi en flight kl 8 pa morgonen pa mandagen. Vi bestamde att det var bast att boka ett hotel i Kopenhamn den sista natten. 
Mina kara foraldrar korde oss hela vagen over, tog oss till hotellet, gjorde oss sallskap for lunch och sedan korde de tillbaka igen. Jim och jag spenderade eftermiddagen som turister. Jag har varit i Kopenhamn nagra ganger forut men aldrig riktigt varit turist. Jag har akt dit pa klassresa vilket mest betyder att sitta i en buss, jag har varit pa nojesparken med mina foraldrar nar jag var liten, jag har varit pa dans auditions, men aldrig varit en riktig turist. 
Sjalvklart gick vi och kolla in slottet, den lilla sjojungfrun (Den lille havefrue) och Nyhavn med alla restauranger. Det borjade regna efter ett tag sa vi gick in pa en random bar, men de stangde vid 7. Vi gick runt ett bra tag innan vi hittade nagot som var oppet. Underligt. Aven om det var sondag kvall forvantade vi oss att danskarna skulle festa hela natten lang pa barerna, men nej, det gjorde de inte. Till slut, efter att vi hade varit pa tva barer och aven antligen hittat lite mat, bestamde vi oss for att ga tillbaka till hotellet. Vi skulle ju ga upp sa tidigt anda. 
Kopenhamn var gulligt och jag ar glad att jag fick chans att se det. Men jag fick inte direkt en wow upplevelsen som nagra av mina amerikanska vanner har pratat om. Dar var ombyggen overallt och du kunde inte se stora delar av staden (och man kunde definitivt inte kora bil dar). Det regnade en detl ocksa vilket gor vilken stad som helst trakig. Jag vet inte, kanske ar jag for svensk for att uppskatta det. Men i det stora hela sa verkade min man gilla det och jag ar glad over att fa vara turist i den stad jag ville flytta till (for skola). Jag vill aka tillbaka och besoka andra delar av staden som jag har varit forut och jag vill faktiskt aka till Legoland, men eller utan ett barn, hihi.