pickled herring and liverpatte..

...are good? What is this world coming to?

I've been able to avoid these two "classic" Danish dishes until very recently. I tried liverpatte a couple of weeks ago, and it was surprisingly not vomit inducing. Tasty, even. After months of eating cucumber sandwiches at lunch with the family, I was feeling brave one day and tried it. Since then, i've moved from spreading about 1/2 a teaspoon on my rogbrod (rye bread, refer to previous entry) and smiling politely, I now take an adult sized serving and smile genuinely. My mind still has to zone out a little bit while its happening, but I've grown to enjoy it. Pickled herring on the other hand.. was something I was not eager to try and ridiculously content with never getting around to.

Until this Sunday, when all the neighbors came over for Easter brunch. For the first course, the two main options that were passed to me were: a dish my host mom made with cut up apples, a creamy sauce, some other crunchy vegetable, and.. pickled herring. The other option was another pickled herring dish made by the neighbor. I gingerly took a spoonful of the first and smoothed it on top of my rogbrod. As I sat there eyeing it, waiting for the cue to start eating, a round of shots (schnapps) was poured for everyone. To this I remember thinking, "Oh sure. I'll be able to handle this.. I've been to college, I know this game." This brunch surprised me in two ways. One, I discovered that pickled herring is, somehow, delicious in all its forms.  Two, damn. These Danes can drink.

We've eaten another half a smorrebrod? (Smorrebrod= The Danish open faced sandwich deal) Alright, time for another shot of schnapps. Oh what's this? My shot glass is empty? And I've eaten the other half of my smorrebrod? Pour another round! Ooh have you tried this one? Straight from Bonholm. And this one? It has a little honey in it. Six, seven.. eight shots in and I'm still thinking, I've got this, things are fine.. they pass me a beer, then an apple cider, we drink some more snapps. "Don't be shy!" They're saying. At this point, everyone is rosy cheeked and smiling big. I'm making little to no attempt to translate what's being said around me, but I'm still laughing on cue and nodding along. I help Anne Marie in the kitchen and she asks me how I liked the herring. I was pretty honest about how gross I thought it was going to be, a topic I've avoided gingerly my entire stay here. She laughed at my admittance of, "Yeah! I thought it was going to be sooo super gross, and was thinking eww why do these Danish people love this stuff so much?! But it wasn't bad!"

We returned to the table and had the next dish, which was frikadeller (Danish meatballs) which, like everything in Denmark, you also eat as an open faced sandwich. It is topped off with a salty red cabbage thing, which makes for an unexpectedly delicious combination. The next smorrebrod is a piece of rogbrod, a peice of slightly fried fish, topped with a yellow sauce (with mystery but tasty yellow chunks), and a lemon squeezed on top. If you're not too full, you can have another smorrebrod with liverpatte topped off with some crispy bacon. All in all, the Danes LOVE their meat. Its been an interesting experience, especially being someone who hasn't eaten meat for eight years until I came here. But its definitely a really important part of the culture, and I don't regret my decision. I haven't decided what will happen when i travel back home, but there are a couple of things I want to eat before I make the final decision. A piece of sausage pizza (and you thought cheese pizza was my favorite? sausage has always secretly been my favorite topping), a bite of a Big Mac, and a piece of chicken from my mom's chicken and dumplings. Just so you know.

Brunch progressed merrily, I chatted up the little girl next to me named Caroline who took a liking to me and made a big fuss about wanting to sit next to me at the beginning of brunch. She's got good taste. When all the courses were eaten, I went outside with the kids and we played around with Zianna (pronounced Sienna to us), my host family's new Jack Russell terrier they got while I was away on break! This dog is seriously one of the cutest things I have ever seen. She is always excited to see you, and scurries and hops happily from here to there.

So the kids and I played outside with Zianna and another dog, and even went to the backyard to play a lawn game for a little bit. When we came back all the adults were sitting outside, and we joined them. I felt like I was toeing the "am I an adult or a kid?" line in a new and bizarre way. My cheeks were red and I was a little bit tipsy, but I was still playing in the grass and the backyard with a puppy and the neighborhood kids, Caroline, her brother Max, and my host brother Lennart. And when I sat down at the table with the adults, Caroline came over and started giving me an unsolicited neck massage. For a ten year old girl, she seriously knows how to knead the dough. As I'm sitting there soaking up the sun and getting this massage, I glance over my shoulder and see my host mom smiling and looking at me in disbelief. "What do you do with the children, Bridget??" she asked. "Det ved jeg ikke.." I responded. "That I do not know." 

So, one thing led to another and my nod smile method of dealing with the Danish language when I'm feeling lazy led me to a sleepover in a tent with Caroline, Max, and their dad. It was surprisingly one of the best nights of sleep I've gotten, out in the fresh air and including a very sweet wake up call from Caroline when I ended up being the last one left in the tent. I ate breakfast with her family, who are all very very sweet, and walked back the lonnggg two doors away. 

And today was a wonderful day as well, its been so beautiful here! The first day when I got back from Barcelona, I was blown away by how gorgeous it was. I was snapping pictures my whole walk back from the train station, and then was met by the adorable puppy, and a grill out by my host parents. Unfortunately, had to spend the bulk of this beautiful day inside working on homework.. orr writing this blog entry. Either or. 

And now is about time I showed you all some pictures of my last two weeks. 

The trip begins in Amsterdam:

Where I think its safe to say they are bike fanatics.

Dinner at the beach.

With Lara, her lovely parents and very tall little brother.

A lunch in Amsterdam. 

A couple of shots from the canal ride we took on one of the last days. Cute hat, right?

And then the adventure continued in Barcelona.

This was taken on top of the mountain that I referred to in my last entry, where I pointed to it and asked what it was, and then Laura Blue nonchalantly responded that we could climb up after coffee.

And this is Gaudi's Park Guell, up on top of the mountain. Soo beautiful.

Taken at the beach in Barcelona. There was literally not a cloud in the sky.

Laura Blue, looking like a diva.

Spanish soccer fans are some of the CRAZIEST fans I've ever encountered. And I really loved their group mentality. If the ref called something against their team, they would all throw up their right hand angrily, and hold their hand straight as a board in disbelief. If their team made a mistake or let a chance at a goal slip away, they would do a collective, "Hooooo...." and put their hands on their head in unison. 

Spaniards chilling. They've got this down pretty good I think.

At one of the markets. Everything was so colorful and beautiful!