Royal Happenings

Too many cool things have happened in the last couple of days and I feel like I never have enough time to actually sit down and blog about them. I've been so busy recently with essays, exams and the start of my new course. It's a 4 week intensive course called Health in Emergencies and Refugee Health. It is so good that it deserves a separate blog post altogether. 


Anyway, 


Wednesday the 14th; ballet at the Royal Theater

We went to the Royal Theater at Kongens Nytorv to see a ballet of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was actually organized through ESN (Erasmus Student Network) - they had 10 tickets available, and of course, we jumped on the opportunity. It has got to be my favorite Shakespearean comedy. 

 During intermission, all the elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen went and had wine at the bar, on the balcony, and in the beautifully decorated rooms. We took to exploring the theater instead. 

The fairies all wore body suits like this that looked naked under certain lighting and showed every muscle of the body. They were so in shape! The person who played the mischievous Puck did a really great job. He definitely got some chuckles out of the audience. 

I really love watching live performances. The actors, dancers, orchestra, lights, curtains, audience....  it's all so exciting when it's actually real and you can feel the amount of hard work and practice that has gone into putting on a production such as this. It definitely beats sitting in front of a TV.


Friday the 16th; Long live the Queen

Last Friday was Queen Margrethe II 's 70th birthday. I have never seen this many danish flags concentrated in one place. It was looking out at a sea of red! This picture was taken at around 12 o'clock noon, when the Queen is scheduled to come out onto the balcony of the royal palaces and wave to the masses below. 

 Then, a royal procession of horses, guards, trumpeters, and security people accompany the queen on her royal carriage on a parade through the center of the city to the main square. Adults and children alike gather around to watch the Queen go by. 

This is the only shot of her that I managed to get. It looks like the giant lemonade stand is going to eat her up!  

Of course it was all very exciting and what not. But this presented a real problem to us because we were hungry and needed to get to the other side of the street, but couldn't do so until the whole parade had gone by! It was such a nice day outside and we decided to enjoy the outdoor restaurant seating.