Kolding and AMERICANS!

Just some background info before i start: I am in Flensburg, Germany. For a year. I have been here a little over 2 months already. The parents are "Fa" und "Mor". The boys that i help with are A (just turned 4) and G (almost 2). With the kids a speak German, with the parents mostly english. The 4 of them speak danish. Therefore, i am picking up on a lot of Danish also :)

Yes, that does say 1589.

This weekend, Fa's parents came down from Silkeborg, DK to visit. The are very nice (and speak German and English which is helpful) but i sometimes feel like i'm hovering when people come to visit. So i took Sunday off and drove up to Kolding, DK. A few people from Kansas were training at the Brande plant, so we met near the middle for coffee/lunch/etc. When i went to meet them, i had no idea how i was going to find them considering Kolding is kind of large, i have never been there, and i didn't have a GPS. So i was getting ready to drive around aimlessly when i saw the cafe they were at! I am not sure how i happened to be on the right road at the right time, but it helped out tremendously. It was so unreal to actually see them. I realize i am on the other side of the world, but it was shocking to realize that they came all the way to Denmark and i was able to drive just a few hours to meet up with them. We talked in the little cafe for a while and then walked around some of Kolding's Zentrum. Because it was Sunday, none of the stores were open, but we window shopped a bit and looked at all the really old buildings.

Me and Jana's little Sock Monkey

Apparently. Kolding also has a very old castle, so naturally we spend a few hours touring it :) It was amazing. Unfortunately everything but some of the outer walls burnt down some time ago, so there wasn't many furnishing from the time period (1500s-1800s). It was still awesome to see the architecture and old brick walls, fireplaces, and floors. At the top of the tower (because naturally it had a tower) you could look out of all of Kolding and to the ostsee. We then ate a good lunch/dinner down in the former dungeons. It was so beautiful and make me want to just go castle hunting while im here (not that i wasn't going to anyways lol) Also, Jana and i discovered that we lived there in our past lives. I was a princess or duchess or something and she was my governess. So we began redecorating the very bleak rooms. :) After we parted ways, i didn't want to go back to flensburg just yet, so i drove a little further to vejle. There i did a little more window shopping and ate subway. YUM! i found a really nice bench by the river and ate, listened, relaxed, and read my book. It was the perfect end to a great day.



(I will update on past adventures when i have more time)