Today we split up and I headed to the National Gallery while Sarai attempted to do every museum in Copenhagen (she did two). The Copenhagen marathon was going on, and I followed the runners some of the way. My favorite part was the drum band playing this awesome beat.
The National Gallery is in a really pretty building and has amazing chocolate cake in its cafe and has some lovely paintings, which I think are organized by theme instead of time period which I really liked. Except in the portrait room they threw in this super realistic modern statue of a dead guy in a chair and he was all gray and disgusting and it was the creepiest thing ever and kept distracting me from the old stuff.
Anyways, I liked the museum but I didn't think it was great until I got to the end. I'm glad I took the path I did, because I ended on a super high note. I turned the corner and there was this enormous gallery with a bazillion paintings hung salon style, which is my favorite, floor to very high ceiling. It was MARVELOUS. I've never experienced anything like it. You were just engulfed in art. It was all arranged by type. I particularly liked the marine and perspective paintings. I had left my camera in my locker, but I ran down to get it because the room was so amazing. There was also a room where you could watch a conservator work which I thought was cool, although the conservator wasn't in. And then they had a whole room with the most amazing 17th century trompe l'oieles.
As I had been walking into the museum there were some people futzing with this big thing that looked like a bunch of shopping bags taped together. Since it was close to the modern gallery I thought they were installing a newpiece. As I was getting my camera they were inflating it with air. As I was leaving I realized you could GO INSIDE. I practically flew down the stairs, kicked off my shoes and jumped right in. IT WAS SO COOL. Absoltuely enormous and so colorful from all the different bags. I was just in awe, it was such a cool experience. I'm so glad I timed my visit when I did and that I had my camera!
As I was going back to the hsotel ti started pouring. I had my umbrella but it was so windy and coming down so hard that I didn't want to try walking in it, so I ducked into an alcove to wait out the worst of the storm. When I finally got back it was so cold and wet and gross Sarai and I decided to just go to this close by pizza place that we ate at my first night, and Sarai had the most enormous calzone on the planet. I still can't believe she ate all of it. The before and after pictures were hilarious, because of course it gave her a stomache ache. I said she should title them 'Sarai did battle with a calzone, and lost'.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
May 21st
Today was a lot of walking and I am ridiculously sore. We went shopping first and I got some souveniers in a touristy shop and a pretty brooch for my Regency dress at a flea market. Then we went to a Titanic exhibit which was OK. The audio guide was really long winded and I thought the part where you could touch an "iceberg" to experience the excruciating pain of dying of hypothermia for yourself was a little insensitive. And the audio guide kept telling me how to feel. What the hell, you don't know me narrator guy, I'll feel whatever the hell I want! After that we began the very long trek to see the Little Mermaid statue. We stopped by the palace on our way there which was gorgeous. And there were guards in tall fuzzy hats. You know how they stand perfectly still and never react to anything? Yeah, one of them scoleded us for standing too near the palace. I'm kind of proud to have interacted with a palace guard, sort of. We're such trouble makers.
Everyone says the little mermaid is overrated and disses her. I don't know, maybe they're expecting something huge and elaborate and are disappointed? I knew exactly what to expect and I thought sehw as very lovely. Very elegant and beautiful in her simplicity. And she looked so sad, it was very moving. I thought she was beautiful. We got a bunch of pictures, and my only sadness is that my hair didn't look nice enough to wear down.
Everyone says the little mermaid is overrated and disses her. I don't know, maybe they're expecting something huge and elaborate and are disappointed? I knew exactly what to expect and I thought sehw as very lovely. Very elegant and beautiful in her simplicity. And she looked so sad, it was very moving. I thought she was beautiful. We got a bunch of pictures, and my only sadness is that my hair didn't look nice enough to wear down.
May 20th
Sarai and I started the day with some French toast at a cute place called Stella (or as we called it Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!), then wandered around trying to find where we could go on a boat tour. Copenhagen has a completely different feel than Stockholm, although I can't sayhow. We got to the canal and realized that we had inadvertently stumbled upont he place with the old boats and colorful buildings thats on all the postcards!! I had completely forgotten about that place and it was kind of a magical moment. We both flipped out and started taking a million pictures. It's so nice to have some one to take my picture!!! We tried to get a shot of me jumping up and clicking my heels but were unsuccessful, and I'm sure everyone around thgouth I was a total lunatic. After picture time we went on a boat tour which was a really great way to see and learn about the city. Did you know that Hans Christian Andersen originally came to Copenhagen to be a ballet dancer, but he was too tall and awkward so no one would take him. After the boat tour we went to the National Museum, which was only open for another hour but we wanted to check it out. And poor Sarai didn't know what she was getting into with a Katy Museum Expereince. We only got through half of prehistory, and the wrong half to boot, but what was there was so cool. They had remnants of a Viking boat and giant stones with runes carved in and bog bodies with their clothes preserved!! It was so amazing to be face to face with some one that lived thousands of years ago. And the clothes were so well preserved, at first I thought they were recreations. To think that I could still see the weave pattern and different fibers of something worn thousands of years ago. Some bodies were from like 1350 BC. It was so magical.
May 19th
Getting to Copenhagen was an adventure. Everything was fine until we got to a town with a name I can't spell but kind of sounded like Shepping which sounds very British in my opinion. That was when we all had to get off the train and get onto buses. They didn't explain why in English, but the Swedish lady I talked to told me that some of the railroad track had gone missing. She also said something along the lines of "Trust Sweden to loose its own railroad." How do you loose railroad tracks?!?!?!? I choose to believe that the metal parts were stolen by four boys from a small town with big dreams whose story will eventually get made into a movie that will make me cry every time I watch it. So we all got on buses that drove to the next railway stop in North Shepping. At least the crew had a sense of humor about the situation. A guy came over the intercom on the bus and said "We hope you enjoy this high speed X2000... bus. And the bistro is in the center of the bus." Then we got onto another train to Malmo, Sweden. At this point the trainw as two hours behind schedule, and a guy came ovr the intercom to say that because we were so delayed we wouldn't be able to cross the border into Denmark. It was almost 6 PM, I hadn't eaten since the small caesar salad I had at 11, I had been travelling all day, schlepping around my 30 lb backpack plus my 9000000000000 lb daybag and if I as going to be stranded in Malmo I was going to cut a bitch. I had a very eloquent speech prepared but then they said that if your final destination was Copenhagen then you could get on another train in Malmo. So three trains and a bus later I was in Copenhagen. That was when my left leg decided that every time I took a step I'd feel excruciating pain. I had been planning on walking to my hostel but since I was in so much pain (and still carrying like 40 lbs worth of stuff) I decided to take the bus. Except the one I needed doesn't exist. After walking all over, in pain, trying to find it, I said fuck it and started limping to the hostel. Do you know how hard it is to limp with a 30 lb backpack? Then I couldn't find the hostel, then I couldn't find where the entrance was, and then I heard some one shout "KATY!!!!" and I was engulfed in a hug by Sarai, who also got the Phillips and was meeting me here. You can only check in until 6, and it was like 8, but fortunately Sarai had not only arranged for us to room together but also for me to check in late.
Then I ate an entire pizza and passed out in bed.
Then I ate an entire pizza and passed out in bed.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Stockholm in Pictures
Sweden out the window of the plane.
Pretty roofs.
The national theater founded by Gustav III in the late 18th century.
Inside the Royal Apartments.
This room was based on the hall of mirrors in Versailles.
The Vasa.
Some of the intricate carvings. They were painted bright colors originally.
Me and a canon at the recreation of part of the interior of the Vasa.
A piece of construction equipment made to look like a giraffe!!
The Nordiska Museet aka Thornfield Hall.
Royal sparklies at the Royal Treasury. The hilt of that sword is all pearls.
At the Royal Armory, stuff that was in that Versailles exhibit!
Pretty dress on display at the Nordiska Museet.
Stylish Sopranos.
Singing a duet with Jenny.
Sven the snail.
Me about halfway through my nature walk, when I reached the ocean.
I'm sure this statue wasn't intended to be hilarious, however...
The back of an amazing uniform at the Army Museum. Why don't soldiers still wear stuff like that?
17th century cabinet at the National Museum with a little theater in the center.
Me and Marie.
Well, that's it for Sweden. You know for a city made up of islands, Stockholm has a surprising lack of seafood restaurants. And where are the meatballs!!! I am most disappointed.
May 18th
I forgot to mention that while I was eating my delicious burger after my nature walk I listened to classy jazz covers of 1980s pop hits (Don't you want me baby! Don't you want me oooohhhhhhhh!). No really.
Yesterday I went to the Nordiska Museet finally. It wasn't really worth the 80 sek it cost to get in which was kind of disappointing. I really enjoyed the fashion exhibit they had going on, which conveniently taught me about 18th century Swedish fashion, and I really liked the exhibit on table settings, but other than that it was kind of meh. They did have a little section of Strindberg's Stuff, including the original manuscript of Miss Julie and some of his paintings. I saw some more of his paintings at the National Museum today and I quite like them.
Anyways, after the Nordiska Museet I went to the Army Museum to see an exhibit about uniforms, but I ended up going through the whole thing. I actually really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. They had some actual Viking swords! I just wish I had had somebody to go through it with me, because there were all of these dioramas and interactive stuff and it would have been fun to take silly pictures with them. The uniform exhibit was really cool, and at the end they had all these (adult sized- take note Royal Armory!) uniforms you could try on. Once again, not nearly as fun when you don't have a friend with you.
That evening I got started decorating my dress for the regency ball in Bath in July. It's going a lot quicker than I thought it would, all the roses are now attached and all that's left is Sequinpalooza 2011 Part 2: The Revenge of the Sequins.
Today I went to the National Museum which I really liked. On the first floor, among other things, there was an exhibit about Swedish design from 1500 to the mid 18th century, and they had the most amazing display of 17th century cabinets! This past semester I took directing, and the play we worked on was On the Verge (which you should read/see if you at all possibly can). For my directors notebook, which contained notes for my own personal production, I used cabinets of curiosities as a sort of visual metaphor. I even designed a set based on a cabinet of curiosity (that, according to my set designer friend Joncie, could never exist in real life but oh well). The point of all that is that I've always liked 17th century cabinets, but recently they've been on my mind. There was one that had a little theater in the center, with columns and a balcony and everything. Absolutely gorgeous.
On the second floor they had paintings and sculptures, and a special exhibit called Lust and Vice which I really enjoyed. It was basically about sex in art from the Renaissance to today, and they had a whole variety of things from little dirty doodles these two 18th century writers sent back and forth to each other (loved them) to great masterpieces featuring nude figures from classical antiquity to modern art. I especially enjoyed the 18th century dirty doodles, which were usually satirizing something or other. For example there was a whole series called The Priest and the Girl. The 18th Century France gallery was closed for refurbishment (woe and misery) but fortunately a lot of the pieces were on display in the Lust and Vice exhibit, like this gorgeous painting of Venus by Boucher. They also had the whole series of The Rake's Progress by Hogarth in prints, and a chastity belt.
After that exhibit I went to the 18th Century Sweden/Europe gallery, where I ran into Marie Antoinette and her two children! I didn't realize that particular portrait was in Stockholm. There was also a Gainsborough and a gorgeous painting by Roslin, among other beautiful works. I was quite happy until some one came over the intercom to say that the museum was closing in half an hour. Everything closes at 5 here which I think is lame. I need far longer than a half hour to look at 18th century portraits! So I quickly finished up and headed to the gift shop.
The gift shop had a great amount of 18th century portraits available to buy on a postcard. But the most exciting thing was that you could also get an 18th century portrait poster. Museums NEVER have 18th century art on posters, and especially never portraits. It's always the same ten Monets and Van Goughs and Picassos. But the National Museum had like three portraits and a couple group images! It's like finding bigfoot. THEY EXIST!!!!! I didn't buy one because I don't think I have room in my backpack and if I'm going to squeeze a poster in I'd rather wait to see what Versailles has to offer, but maybe I'll order a poster off of their website when I get back home. Sooooo exciting, you don't even know.
Tomorrow I leave for Copenhagen!
Yesterday I went to the Nordiska Museet finally. It wasn't really worth the 80 sek it cost to get in which was kind of disappointing. I really enjoyed the fashion exhibit they had going on, which conveniently taught me about 18th century Swedish fashion, and I really liked the exhibit on table settings, but other than that it was kind of meh. They did have a little section of Strindberg's Stuff, including the original manuscript of Miss Julie and some of his paintings. I saw some more of his paintings at the National Museum today and I quite like them.
Anyways, after the Nordiska Museet I went to the Army Museum to see an exhibit about uniforms, but I ended up going through the whole thing. I actually really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. They had some actual Viking swords! I just wish I had had somebody to go through it with me, because there were all of these dioramas and interactive stuff and it would have been fun to take silly pictures with them. The uniform exhibit was really cool, and at the end they had all these (adult sized- take note Royal Armory!) uniforms you could try on. Once again, not nearly as fun when you don't have a friend with you.
That evening I got started decorating my dress for the regency ball in Bath in July. It's going a lot quicker than I thought it would, all the roses are now attached and all that's left is Sequinpalooza 2011 Part 2: The Revenge of the Sequins.
Today I went to the National Museum which I really liked. On the first floor, among other things, there was an exhibit about Swedish design from 1500 to the mid 18th century, and they had the most amazing display of 17th century cabinets! This past semester I took directing, and the play we worked on was On the Verge (which you should read/see if you at all possibly can). For my directors notebook, which contained notes for my own personal production, I used cabinets of curiosities as a sort of visual metaphor. I even designed a set based on a cabinet of curiosity (that, according to my set designer friend Joncie, could never exist in real life but oh well). The point of all that is that I've always liked 17th century cabinets, but recently they've been on my mind. There was one that had a little theater in the center, with columns and a balcony and everything. Absolutely gorgeous.
On the second floor they had paintings and sculptures, and a special exhibit called Lust and Vice which I really enjoyed. It was basically about sex in art from the Renaissance to today, and they had a whole variety of things from little dirty doodles these two 18th century writers sent back and forth to each other (loved them) to great masterpieces featuring nude figures from classical antiquity to modern art. I especially enjoyed the 18th century dirty doodles, which were usually satirizing something or other. For example there was a whole series called The Priest and the Girl. The 18th Century France gallery was closed for refurbishment (woe and misery) but fortunately a lot of the pieces were on display in the Lust and Vice exhibit, like this gorgeous painting of Venus by Boucher. They also had the whole series of The Rake's Progress by Hogarth in prints, and a chastity belt.
After that exhibit I went to the 18th Century Sweden/Europe gallery, where I ran into Marie Antoinette and her two children! I didn't realize that particular portrait was in Stockholm. There was also a Gainsborough and a gorgeous painting by Roslin, among other beautiful works. I was quite happy until some one came over the intercom to say that the museum was closing in half an hour. Everything closes at 5 here which I think is lame. I need far longer than a half hour to look at 18th century portraits! So I quickly finished up and headed to the gift shop.
The gift shop had a great amount of 18th century portraits available to buy on a postcard. But the most exciting thing was that you could also get an 18th century portrait poster. Museums NEVER have 18th century art on posters, and especially never portraits. It's always the same ten Monets and Van Goughs and Picassos. But the National Museum had like three portraits and a couple group images! It's like finding bigfoot. THEY EXIST!!!!! I didn't buy one because I don't think I have room in my backpack and if I'm going to squeeze a poster in I'd rather wait to see what Versailles has to offer, but maybe I'll order a poster off of their website when I get back home. Sooooo exciting, you don't even know.
Tomorrow I leave for Copenhagen!
Monday, May 16, 2011
May 16th
I was going to go to the Nordic Museum today, on account of it being the only thing open on Mondays, but I decided to give myself a little rest from sight seeing and instead took a ridiculously long walk. I walked past Gamla Stan and down the waterfront where I walked past the exclusive shopping district, the national Swedish theater founded by Gustav III in the 18th century, past the Nordic Museum and around the inlet labeled Djurgardsbrunnskiven on my map (pretend there's a little circle over the a). Today was the perfect day for a nature walk, the sky was blue and there were big fluffy white clouds and all the birds were singing and the trees were so green. It was so lovely and peaceful, all the sounds of the city were gone and I could just relax and meditate. I felt like Lizzie Bennet. Rural Stockholm is so beautiful and tucked away amidst the trees are these pretty pastel colored houses of Victorian or neoclassic design. It was so nice to take some time to be alone with my thoughts. The last two weeks have been so insane, I never really got a chance to breathe.
While starting on my nature walk I stumbled upon fellow fashionable opera singer Jenny Lind. Her statue is by the Nordic Museum. I tried to get some decent pictures of her but she was so backlit I'm not sure any came out. But I want to go back anyways and see if I can find some one to take a picture of me with her. I will title it "Stylish Sopranos".
About halfway through my nature walk I wandered off on a little side path through a nature reserve area, where I saw some gray birds (I'd tell you what kind of birds but the plaque was in Swedish) and at least 11 enormous Swedish snails. I've never seen snails that big before. There was also some sort of yak-looking animal that supposedly lived there but I didn't see any.
In total my nature walk was at least 7 km, that number not including the walk to and from the hostel and my short side trip. On the way back to the hostel I stopped by a restaurant floating on the water and had a really good burger.
While starting on my nature walk I stumbled upon fellow fashionable opera singer Jenny Lind. Her statue is by the Nordic Museum. I tried to get some decent pictures of her but she was so backlit I'm not sure any came out. But I want to go back anyways and see if I can find some one to take a picture of me with her. I will title it "Stylish Sopranos".
About halfway through my nature walk I wandered off on a little side path through a nature reserve area, where I saw some gray birds (I'd tell you what kind of birds but the plaque was in Swedish) and at least 11 enormous Swedish snails. I've never seen snails that big before. There was also some sort of yak-looking animal that supposedly lived there but I didn't see any.
In total my nature walk was at least 7 km, that number not including the walk to and from the hostel and my short side trip. On the way back to the hostel I stopped by a restaurant floating on the water and had a really good burger.
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