the day before my journey began. as was planned, i first stayed a night or two at Marte's house. then i went south to Christopher's house so i could make my plane. that plane went to the lovely country of Denmark, where i spent most of my vacation. at the pretty Marte's house. do you see the pawn with horns? i blame my loss on it. stupid wanna be Sorry game, anyway. Marte owns a cat or two. this particular cat is the only cat who ever liked me. i was happily surprised. Marte and her mother cooking dinner in their Norwegian kitchen. here we see the typical Norwegian stove. wonderful warming device.

Marte is learning how to drive at the age of 19, a relatively normal age to learn.

mountains and snow. sooo much snow. Kongsvinger--looking down from the top of a hill. no snow. on the way to this place, i rode in a double decker bus. it was the most amazing chance! stupidly, and most regretfully, i forgot to take a picture. i, of course, sat on the top, but perhaps that was not the wisest of ideas. on this 9 hour bus ride, i could barely write a text message, let alone read for entertainment. AND i had just broken my CD player. it was a long and stomach-upsetting bus ride.

a picture of a silly media building that Copenhagen decided to spend money on. much too large. near Helle's room in Copenhagen.

we flew across some water and some land and arrived at the grand location that is Helle's house and dairy farm. this is her sitting patiently waiting to kick my ass at Backgammon, as is usual.

we didn't know what to do, so we decided to bake a banana and almond cake. don't forget what Mr. Boley taught you about the word almond!

a beautifully typical Danish, brick house. lovely yellow flowers.

it was so bizarre to see a brick house after seeing a million wooden cabin type houses in Norway.

for my sister who loves windmills.

on a fearie to Helle's summer/island house which was on an island, obviously.

approaching the island.

a moderately typical Danish house with hay on the roof.

a pleasent little street full of houses with hay rooves.

on this island, we wandered into a glass shop and watched the glass being made.

a view of the ocean.

this charming island had many local, little shops for things like ice cream, amber, candels, and home made candy

and pepper brines.

this is of Helle's father, mother, and sister. somehow the sister knew i was going to take the picture and broke the hand-holding chain. typical embaressed teenager.

we tried to feed the ducks in little ponds, but they weren't hungry.

i was so excited to see flowers again, i just had to take more pictures.

a couple of deer in the middle of the road.

a pheasant wondering about.

the sun setting on the beach.

Helle by the sand dunes.

sand dunes that hid German bunkers once upon a time.

a poor picture of the house.

do you know what this is? it's a sauna. in the house. on the island. in Denmark.

this is typical to see on the island of Fanø, the island we visited, but it is actaully in the oldest town in Denmark. i have regretfully forgotten the name, but it's charming as well.

one of the thousand gorgeous amber necklaces. in Copenhagen, Helle and i found a Backgammon board made entirely of amber. we figured that within 10 or so years we'd fully pay it off, and be able to fly around the world to each other to play on it. how i do love all of the wonderful things you can do with amber.

we climbed to the top of this church's bell tower to get a view of the oldest town in Denmark.

the view of the church in the picture below.

a street right across from a bakery we passed several times vowing not to enter for reasons of money and calories, but after smelling the air for the 10th or so time, we were drawn in and bought just a little something each. so, the people, at the time the town was built, were not exactly the size of Danish people today as you can tell by the door. i'm wearing Helle's mother's coat, by the way, for i had packed a little too optimistically.

we went back to Helle's dairy farm and walked around again so i could be a tourist and take pictures. this is the side of a brick stable. smart to have a cow masoned (verb? perhaps not) in a dairy farm.

one of Helle's horses.

Helle's favorite horse. i rode around on it for a few minutes, but only after i fell off attempting to get on.

a fox tail found in the field. it was interesting to contemplate how it had become completely severed from the body.

the cows.

little Miss Dairy Queen. i assume there is such a pagent somewhere in Minnesota.

where the pregnant and sick cows stay for a day. actually, i don't know how long they stay for, but i wrote a day because it rhymed.

of course, on a farm you must have a thousand cats.

most of the time it was impossible to get a picture of one, because they ran all over the place, but sometimes they sat in a group of one hundred and one. a rainy day on the field. this looks like a scene from the new ultimate chick flick "Pride and Prejudice" (yes i know it was a book first; i read it).

this is one of a million snails that were on a few sidewalks we passed over. unfortunately, this is the last picture i could take of Copenhagen before my camera ran out of battery...and it's of the ground. i'm sorry. but here is a web site with pictures and links to pictures and lots of information: wikitravel.org/en/Copenhagen.

back at school, and hard at work. making costumes in the praktikant's appartment.

little miss Rensel.

workin' hard, or hardly workin'?

so, arrived back in Norway to this. wasn't exactly the welcome home weather i had wished for. a little drearier than the picture at the beginning of this trip.