"To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom....Since our office is with moments, let us husband them."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Familial Events

While my family was here for 8 days we did more than just eat Christmas dinner and celebrate Thanksgiving. One night we went to Tivoli to see it all lit up. It was gorgeous. The only thing that could have made it better was snow, but I think that may have been asking for too much.


We also managed to stumble upon a winter light show over the little lake in the park. It was pretty cool.After taking that in we headed over to the Glass Theatre, which is also in the park, to see the 25th annual Crazy Christmas Cabaret. This is an original comedy show put on every year by a British woman, who writes a new script for each show. This year was a parody of Around the World in 80 Days, which was titled Around the World in 80 Minutes. The majority of the show was either raunchy humor or stereotypical jokes about different parts of the world. This show in general is quite the crowd pleaser, as over 75% of the 1,000 people attending were repeat visitors. That number of people coming back year after year lets the writer include some recurring themes from year to year, which meant sometimes the crowd was laughing hysterically only at the appearance of certain characters. My family, especially my Dad, loved it, and as expected we laughed the hardest at the jokes regarding the good ole USA and its NRA president George Brush. Personally, I was excited that I was able to understand the jokes about Danish culture. Made me really feel like I have become somewhat integrated.

Another day we took a trip outside the city to the town of Roskilde, which sits on a fjord, and use to be capitol of Denmark way back when. There are two primary attractions there, and we saw both. First was the Roskilde Domkirke which is an old Catholic Church, which is now Lutheran Reformed, where all the Danish Kings and Queens have been buried. It was a unique place, and somewhere I had been wanting to go for quite a while. Second was the Viking Ship Museum, where remnants of 5 Viking ships that were scuttled in the Fjord had been put back together. It was amazing to see wood that dated back to the 11th century.

My favorite activity took place on Sunday night. After a dinner in a restaurant that dated back to the 13th or 14th century we all headed back to my parents apartment, where I had left my laptop. We got back from dinner just in time to start watching the Browns game in the 2nd quarter. This was special for a couple reasons. One, I hardly get to watch any Cleveland sports games with my Dad anymore, which was always our main thing. Two, I'm not sure if I'll get another chance to watch a Browns game with him this year just due to scheduling. Three, this is the first season since 2002 that they have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs. To top it off, the Browns won the game against the Ravens in incredibly bizarre fashion (I'll spare you all the details), making it a game to remember.

That's all the recap I'm going to do on my parents visit. In other travel related news, I'm off to Vienna for the weekend tomorrow. I'm quite excited to see this gorgeous city in winter and explore everything it has to offer. I'm sure I'll take lots of pictures and fill you in with how the trip went. Luckily, it's only a weekend so there won't be too much to say.

1 comment:

Ken Wedding said...

Roskilde was the highlight of my first trip to Denmark, 25 years ago.

My third favorite thing near Roskilde is the Lejre Research Center. Of course, it's better when the weather is warmer.

Online at http://www.visitroskilde.com/product.asp?l=2&AUUID=Attraktioner&TUUID=Forlystelsesparker&UUID=24:143:19104

or

http://tinyurl.com/2469vh

if the first one's too long.

I've also heard that the Roskilde Festival

http://www.roskilde-festival.dk/

is pretty great, but I haven't been there for that.

Also something in the summer.