An Introduction to Copenhagen: Part One

Earlier this evening, I got admonished/advised by mi abuela (not my actual grandmother but, if you could choose your family, I totally would've chosen her to be a part of mine so I'm super stoked that she is in my life and has chosen to take an interest in my life and has challenged me to take hold of my life. I hope I can do the same for you! We can't choose our family but we can choose the people to surround ourselves with that can help to encourage us, make us better at being alive, and to push us, even if we resist out of fear, to move along our own path, to take our own journey for the sake of ourselves.) to write about the amazing life I live. And it truly is amazing. I travel all over the world. I get the opportunity to meet amazing people. I have learned enough of several different languages to be able to find the restroom, order another drink, and find a place to sleep.

I've eaten street food and dined in Michelin-star restaurants. I've slept in a tent on a mountain, in a bed in a five-star American hotel, in a mosquito-infested room in Amsterdam, and been rocked to sleep on many a cruise ship. I once got lost in Luxembourg for three hours, looking for a hostel and rapidly running out of weed in the meantime but that's a different story for a different time. Remind me to tell you about it because it's a pretty good story. But I digress, as I usually do.

So, Copenhagen (which the locals actually pronounce as "Ko-pen-hay-gen," not "Ko-pen-ha-gen," like the rest of us who do) has quickly become one of my favorite cities thus far. It's truly a cosmopolitan city, much like Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, or Berlin. One of the defining characteristics of Copenhagen is that you can walk around the entire city, including Christiania, in the span of a couple of hours and that's at a leisurely pace. Denmark, and Copenhagen in particular, get mad bonus points for being super liberal in their politics, very supportive of their population, and being home to more Michelin-star restaurants than anywhere in the world (again, more on that later...this is just an intro).

Copenhagen is the kind of city that makes you smile so hard it makes it look like your face is going to break. A couple from Indiana took this photo of us after we had done the plane travel and, very jet-lagged found our way to for bevvies and snacks, my mum (on the right) and me (on the left, sunglasses hiding our travel-weary eyeballs). It's on Nyhavn (street, avenue, strasse??), which is one of the oldest paths in the city, on a canal, and, apparently, where all tourists end up when they first get to Copenhagen. So that happened. It also happens to be the place to be on a beautiful Friday late-afternoon when the weather is amazing and the average Copenhagen citizen goes to watch the people walking by, laugh at the silly tourists (see above photo), and enjoy the view. Boats line the canal and droves of people walk by in all states of dress or undress (we just so happened to be there at that time during The Distortion (Thank you, Wikipedia!). If you can manage to make it to Copenhagen during The Distortion, I highly recommend it and I also highly recommend taking part in the festivities (something I aim to do in the future for sure).

The average Copenhagen citizens seemed to be doing what we were doing but according to their own rituals, like these guys:

Perfect summer evening so the perfect opportunity to hang out of the canal with beers, bud, and friends after work. And let's not even get into the architecture or the boats or the chill vibe of the whole place while we're at it. There's a word to describe it and that word is "magical." Take your first stroll down Nyhavn and take it all in and go from there because this city is your oyster, a pearl to be found in every part of the city, in every step you take, in every person you see. Drink it in and savor the flavor of a culture of people who understand how you can truly experience life. 

And now for a very brief presentation of the average snack you'll get in Copenhagen. The place is surrounded by water so fish of all sorts is very heavy on any menu. Despite my Dutch heritage, I'm not actually that big on fish consumption and I usually rebel against it in favor of my comfort food choices (which usually include anything involving the revered potato, some sort of cream-based soup, and anything involving cheese). That being said, while you can get one of the best vegan/vegetarian meals of your life (again, more on that later) in Copenhagen, and especially Christiania, EAT THE FISH!! It's truly incredible what the Danes can do with the freshly caught, totally sustainable (they are WAY into that sort of thing....yet another cool thing about the place) fish and they have cultivated, over the centuries of their existence there, more ways to make fish delectable than anywhere I've been so far. I haven't been to Japan yet and had a real sashimi experience but, at this point, I'd put them head to head with the Danes for fish preparation, presentation, and eating experience. (And, again, I'm Dutch so that's saying a lot.) 

Enjoy this first look at Copenhagen. I have about eleventy-billion photos of this city and I plan to share more of them. You totally need to see the rustic-urban-rebellion that is Christiania, which I will offer you shortly. For now, feast your eyes and challenge your senses to the idea of adding this place and everything it has to offer (wait 'til you see the Opera House!!) to you list of places to spend more than a minute in because it deserves your time and attention.

To wrap up this post, here's a photo that I think is rad:

It's just a photo I took of ropes coiled on the back of one of the boats in the canal of Nyhavn. The beauty and magic of travel isn't always in the big sites, the big destinations, but in the details, the little things that constitute the lives of the populous. And in Copenhagen, you'd best bone up on your boating skills because that can't hurt, right? Humans are about 80% water so it's better to learn how to navigate and understand the tides and go with the flow. Travel on, .my loves!

More to come....and please leave comments regarding your own experiences in Copenhagen or anywhere else that you would recommend I visit. Follow me on IG for more adventure photos and/or tell me where to go for more of this life. 

*With the exception of the photo that the couple from Indiana took of me and mum, I took all of the photos with my phone. You're welcome to use them, share them, etc., as long as you cite you source. And please, PLEASE, travel and have that experience. You deserve it. 

Gettin' Funky, Y'all...

So, I've totally been in a funk lately...stuck in the doldrums between spring and summer, in a sort of purgatory where it's not so bad and it's not so great either. But, the thing is, it is actually pretty great, when I sit and reflect on it. Sure, there are plenty of things in my life that I'm angling to change and making steps toward doing that but sometimes it feels like that's not enough, y'know? I blame it on the weather, the planets, my hormones, my energy levels, whatever else I can think of as a reasonable excuse, plausible deniability when, in fact, it's just me. It always is...isn't it? Just when you want to turn the blame on someone else, you have to shake the shit out of yourself and realize that it's really you who is self-sabotaging. We really are in control of our own destiny but it's really challenging to accept that responsibility because it's A LOT. The overriding fear of failure, of disappointing someone else, of...of...of...the list of excuses gets longer the longer you wait to do something. I spent the better part of last weekend holed up in a blanket fort, hiding out from the world, drinking whiskey and feeling miserable about my life situation and feeling miserable in general. I blamed it on the weather and my relationships with certain people in my life but all I was doing was perpetuating the whole thing. My inactivity led to just that...nothing. Nothing changed. Nothing got better. My body continued to hurt. My mind continued to run roughshod over itself, blaming myself for doing nothing and then, on the other hand, congratulating myself for taking some me time and giving myself a break.

The thing is...as exhausted as I feel by my day-to-day life, none of that will change unless I actually do something about it. So today, instead of retreating from the sticky, cloying heat of the Florida summer setting in and settling into my joints where it likes to wreak havoc, I heaved my mass of bones out of bed and crossed a few things off my list, like sitting in front of my computer and writing a blog post and working on some other writing projects and purging myself of some stuff (fingers crossed that people want to buy what I'm selling!) and I, by putting it into writing here and now, intend to maintain the forward momentum. Do you want to join me? Do you want to get out of the funk and into the fun with me? Here's what I've got so far (feel free to add your own suggestions to the list!):

1) Do just one thing, or even part of one thing, on your to-do list every day. Today, I wrote a blog post and listed my engagement ring set on Ebay because I no longer want to carry the burden of the past that the rings carry with them. Plus, they are a consolation prize for giving up my life for a thinly veiled lie that I was too naive to recognize at the time. Why hang on to those reminders? Why keep them around to punish myself?
2) Say out loud at least one thing you are grateful for today. I know that there are a lot of advocates out there who say that you should say at least three things you are grateful for every day but, honestly, for me, sometimes, that seems challenging or redundant. Every day, I'm grateful for a roof over my head, a comfortable bed to sleep in, my beautiful cats, my wonderful and supportive friends, my loving family so, while they are all certainly included in my daily gratitude, I do my best to show my gratitude for something new, something different, every day. Today, I am grateful that I found a wash-and-fold right down the road for me that has reasonable prices and will use my organic detergent to wash my sheets so I don't have to be a laundry opportunist (though I'm extremely grateful to everyone who gives me open usage of their washer and dryer!) and I can support and small, local business. Plus, I get the chance to improve my Spanish, at least wherein matters of laundry are concerned. Limpia = clean
3) Eavesdrop. Seriously. Sit somewhere mildly public and just listen to the people talking around you and consider what they're talking about. It might make you laugh because it's silly or funny or ridiculous. It might make you feel something like gratitude for your own state of being. It might bring about a sense of compassion for them or for yourself. It will definitely remind you that you are not alone in this world and that you are part of a shared human experience, even if it's not your own current journey. The point is...just listen. For once, shut up and listen. It'll make you a better person. Listening is becoming a lost art. Don't let it die with you. If you need to talk, let me know. I'm here to listen. And I'll do my best not to give you unsolicited advice or to fix your problem.

That's it for now, loves. I look forward to your suggestions, comments, and your thoughts. You are important and you can do anything you want to do. I want you to succeed and live a life that is meaningful, just as much as I want to do the same for myself. So, if you're in, take my hand and let's run off into the sunset together and wind off into the great beyond.

Self-Love and Self-Care

It's been a rough ride these past few weeks and, if there is anything that can teach a person, it's that learning how to take care of yourself is vital to survival. So often, when we are taking care of the people around us and dealing with situations as they arise, we forget to take care of ourselves, rendering ourselves essentially useless to those around us. It doesn't take much to deplete your own energy, especially when you're expending huge amounts of it to everyone but yourself. Fortunately, it also doesn't take so much to attend to yourself and fill your own cup so that it can overflow for others. Here are a few things that work for me:

• Roll around in bed and hit the snooze button once or twice. Even when I'm awake and ready to leap out of bed to tackle all the things running through my head, I find that taking a few extra minutes to savor the calm, quiet safety of my bed is enough to prepare me for my day ahead, no matter what I'm anticipating. And, at night, when my mind is reeling from the day or going over the list of things I have to do the next day, I rely on a simple mantra: "I'm grateful for the softness of the bed. I'm grateful for the coolness of the sheets. I'm grateful for the warmth of the blanket. I'm grateful for the coziness of my pillow. I'm grateful that I have a safe place to sleep and rest my mind." I repeat this to myself until my mind quiets itself and I fall to sleep.
• Step away for five minutes here and there and say a prayer of thanks for what I have, no matter what it is. Sometimes I say a prayer of thanks for being employed or for having the opportunity to be a yoga servant or for being able to have a snack or having awesome cats who are always happy when I come home. No one really notices when I'm gone for five minutes. Sometimes I do this in the bathroom where I work so no one will bother me. Sometimes I step outside. Wherever, whenever, it helps.
• Go outside. Again, even if it's only for a few minutes, go outside. I'm fortunate that I live in a place where the sun shines a lot so I can go out and experience that. If you're not in that sort of environment, go anyway. There is always something in nature that will bring you back to center...wind, the movement of clouds, creatures making their way in your environment...seek and you shall find.
• Turn off the television (or stop paying attention to your phone, tablet, etc.). The light from these things sucks the life out of you. Read a real book, one with pages that you can turn and feel with your fingers. Cook something, even if it comes out of a box...stirring water and noodles can be incredibly meditative. Take ten increasingly deep breaths...it activates your para-sympathetic nervous system and can be calming. Dance around to a song you love and turn it up loud, whether it's piped in through speakers or headphones, it doesn't matter. 

When it seems like there is no time for you, remember that, without you, the rest of your life cannot and will not go on smoothly or easily. As long as you remind yourself that it's all good (even when it isn't), it's all easy (even when it doesn't seem like it), and you are the most important person in your life (even though it seems selfish...it isn't!), it is imperative that you take care of yourself, physically, spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally. Without your light, the people around you will fumble in the darkness. Shine on, you crazy diamond!!