Hidden Treasures

"Violin Girl"
There are statues scattered all around Naestved. This is a picture of a statue in front of an apartment building and across the street from a large church. I think it is really beautiful that the city is sprinkled with fountains and statues. I noticed that a lot of different species of trees and plants grown here. It seems like every day I notice a new kind of plant.There are a lot of fruit trees around too. I walked around the neighborhood at sunset tonight and picked an apple off an apple tree and saw a beautiful garden in someones backyard. It had all sorts of flowers and plants. The house behind our apartment has a peach tree with so much fruit that peaches are scattered all over their yard. Yesterday, we tried white raspberries for the first time. They were sweeter than the red ones!

"Hookah And Boots"
This is a picture of the front door of the neighbor that is right across from our apartment. I thought it was an interesting picture and a simple insight to the casual laid back atmosphere of Denmark. A hookah and some shoes rest safely outside the door. The ironic part is that I heard American rap music coming from inside the apartment!






"Bricks of Heaven"
This is a picture of the church across the street from the violin girl statue. She has quite a view! All of the churches that I have seen look very much like this one. They are huge and have incredible brick work. I haven't been inside one yet. Lutheranism is the official religion of Denmark. Even though most Danes subscribe to a voluntary tax that supports the Church, many of the churches remain fairly empty because most Danes don't attend.


"The Sound & View of Town"
I took this picture from the window in our living room. Train tracks separate us from the main part of town. That grey building in the very back of the picture is the grocery store we shop at. The top part is the "biblioteket" which means "library" and the bottom part is the grocery store. The train is passing through right now. It is dark out right now and I can see the lights from town and hear the sounds of the train station. Perfection!

"Peaches and Clotheslines"
I took this picture from the bedroom window. If you look closely you can see the peach tree and dozens of peaches resting on the roof of the shed. I am tempted to walk over there and gather some to eat! I noticed the clothesline in their backyard and thought of the simplicity of how life could be. The people here seem so much easier to satisfy and aren't as materialistic as the people in the states. Their lifestyles seem physically and emotionally healthier. They are all very active, walking and biking everywhere. No one here is fat! You don't see girls wearing a lot of makeup and I have not noticed one single person with any obvious signs of plastic surgery. And they are happy. They don't need to be consuming fast food and the latest trend to be happy. We could learn something from them.



"Vand"
Vand means water in Danish. The tap water here tastes so pure that we mostly drink our water from the tap. Tonight I filled up a water bottle and stuck it outside the window to chill the water. We found this glass in a store in town and we had to take a picture because it was the same glass that Brandon always drinks from back home. This particular store was cool because it had the most random things you could think of...from painting supplies to candy bars to candles. And it wasn't expensive, which is rare here. Figuring out the value of kroners compared to dollars was one thing...but lately I feel like I have been a converting machine! Kilometers to miles...Celsius to Fahrenheit...and converting all the measurements when I am trying to cook. Brandon and I have been cooking at home a lot. We try to keep things a little authentic by cooking a lot of potatoes with Bearnaise sauce and finishing it off with some DELICIOUS danish cookies! ;-) But we haven't exactly moved on to pickled herring and dishes topped with raw egg yolks! Baby steps, baby steps!!

Okay, well it's time for me to say "hi hi" (that means goodbye in Danish!)

With Love,

Becca