Girl Gone Danish: Laundry Day

I took my fear into my hands pretty much out of desperation. I was getting low on clothes and had to brave the machines, the Danish laundry machines that is.

Look at those hulking beasts speaking a foreign language and threatening to destroy my clothes if I touch one wrong button. I approach them with great trepidation and whisper to them, "Please don't destroy my clothes." Well, look at this. They can speak English! There is a little icon of a world that magically transforms the instructions into other languages and adds pictures, just in case.

I still feel unsure but I guess I will find out when the 58 minutes of washing time are up. And after that hour, I find that I still have clothes to wear that are the same size and the same color.

I found out that there is a forest across the other street from me so that is where I journey for Saturday. It is close and it should hopefully be nice. Are there any scary beasts or plants to worry about in Denmark? I don't even know.

Well the entry looks pretty promising. How threatening can a place be when there is a kids bike right there at the entry. Question is, "Where are the people they belong to?" Nothing to do but venture in. Off I go. I have to make a choice right at the beginning because there are two directions to go. I choose the right for no particular reason. It is a lovely walk with beautiful deciduous trees.

Then I have a moment where my heart and body stop all at once. There is a big hulking dark shape up ahead. My body freezes as it appears to be a bear. Wait. It isn't moving. Am I sure? Don't know. Try to unfreeze. Move forward slowly. It is the root end of a large dead fall. Whew. I wonder if they have bears here? I grew up with them as a part of my habitat so it was a natural reaction for me being in the woods but I did have to laugh...a little.

I kept on heading to the right at every splitting of the path so that I would be able to find my way back out again. I guess I didn't need to worry because around a corner, I see a house, and direction panels. Yeah. Turns out I have made a giant circle all the way back to the road. That works!

And then the owners of the two bikes pass me by also on their way back to the place that I entered.

I guess if a dad, his little girl and the family dog could brave the forest then so could I!

Beautiful entryway to a house I saw while returning up the road.

Now if all of you smart plant people out there could tell me what these two lovelies are, I would be most grateful.

Made myself a little classic American sandwich with all Danish ingredients for my mid-afternoon meal. Isn't it pretty!

And this was the sky that I looked at while eating it.

I thought that I was all good in terms of jetlag but for the last 4 days, I have been crushed under fatigue in the mid-afternoon. Maybe I am just asking myself to do too much or I am just not 20 anymore. Maybe the jetlag is still there and just coming in a sneaky way. I say that because last night, I went to bed and couldn't sleep. I mean, I wasn't even sort of sleepy. I tossed and turned all night. I guess that is why I came hear with two weeks to get my body ready for school.

Today, I decided that I was going to go to this store called Jysk. I got my map all ready and headed out the door. They had a bathmat on sale and when your shower shares the same floor as the rest of your bathroom, this seems a necessity. It was about a 3km journey and it was on a new path. I got there and it was closed. Huh? I know that 99% of the town is closed on Sunday but I had gone to their website and it said that it was open from 10AM on Sunday. I went up to the door and checked there. It still said that it was open on Sunday at 10AM. I sort of stood there like an idiot for awhile. I suppose that I thought that if I waited there long enough that all the facts would start to make sense. They didn't. Now what?

I decided that I would continue on into town to go to Fakta. I knew that they were open on Sundays. Their sign said so too. Well, at least that one was correct. I looked around some more at all the foodstuffs that I didn't know. Then I headed off again. This time, I took a different route home.

I went through a nice little park and saw this path ahead so I climbed it. Walking up the path, I all of a sudden saw this tower that I had taken a picture of from afar. I had been wondering what it was. The problem was that the "path" up to it was almost straight up. I re-arranged my bags and camera on my shoulders so that I was least likely to fall or damage them. Then I started up. Almost immediately my feet started sliding quite quickly back down again. Yikes! Hang on. I grab a root that it sticking out of the ground and will make a good step if I can just get my feet up to it. I pull with my one arm and pedal quickly with my feet and I make it. Then I just have to careful step up each root until I get to the top.

And there it is. On the map it is called a Vandtårn which according to Google. Translate, means water tower. It was open and would have cost 20kr. to go up so I decided that another day would be better to make that climb.