Bloody Blizzards

I don't mean the tasty ice cream ones from Dairy Queen. I mean the windy, snowy hell of winter weather. The kind that makes your eyes water so you can't see. The kind where the snow hitting you in the face is like the pain of getting a tattoo. The kind where you can hardly walk because the wind is so strong. That is what the weather was like when I arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday morning. The snow stopped yesterday, but the wind didn't. Today I went out of the city, and I just got back to another blizzard!

Unfortunately, due to the nasty weather, I have spent most of my time indoors. I have seen a lot of museums, castles, palaces, and churches. Today was my favourite day so far. I went to Helsingør, otherwise known as Elsinore. For Shakespeare fans, the name might seem familiar. I visited Kronberg Castle, which was chosen by Shakespeare to be the setting for Hamlet. Besides being famous for that, it was an important Renaissance castle and military fortress. Ships passing through the sound had to pay their toll there. In the underground tunnels of the castle, there is a giant statue of the Danish hero Holger Danske who is fast asleep. Legend has it that he will wake up whenever the country is threatened. However, he failed to do so in WWII when Germany occupied Denmark. The castle is in a beautiful setting right on the coast and you can see across the sound to Sweden.

I've met two really great girls which are sharing my room at the hostel. Elody is from France and Katya is from Germany. They are so sweet that they even fed me the first night I was here so I didn't have to venture out into the blizzard again to go a supermarket. Elody is busy during the day with work at the University related to her PhD, but Katya and I have done some sightseeing together.

One more day and then it is back to plus 10-12 degrees. Of course that also means back to work. : (