"To be, or not to be

-that is the question"

lame beginning to a blog post, i know but that's the only quote i know from Hamlet! haha

and those of you who have read it, should know that it takes place in Denmark - specifically Kronborg Castle located in Helsingør

it is believed that an actor who performed at Kronborg met Shakespeare and told him about the castle, or Shakespeare visited the castle himself (the king was married to an English princess? so it is likely that he could have visited)
we went there on Friday (woke up at 7:50 am to meet the ISUP social program group at 9 am) by bus, and it was like the weather gods knew we were visiting, so they decided to make it cold and rainy

i don't think i'm going to say much about the castle/fortress except for a few things since i don't really remember lol and all i do remember is up on facebook

my general impression of the castle is that it's a pretty cool place except it does not even come close to the beauty of Frederiksborg Castle, although that would make sense since Frederiksborg Slot was built as a home for Christian IV rather than a defending fortress

Christian IV actually rebuilt Kronborg Slot after the fire so you can see his sign everywhere and the Baroque style architecture that he used (he actually asked his father if he could rebuild Kronborg but was rejected since he spend so much money on Frederiksborg, so he raised taxes and raised enough money to rebuild Kronborg)

i did, however, find Kronborg in this article - now i don't think i trust yahoo! travel that much anymore - cause Frederiksborg Castle is so much better

anyways, i'm glad i brought my thicker jacket - everyone was super cold (it was only around the mid-60s with wind and rain) but i wasn't =)

after touring the castle, i bought a cup with Shakespearean insults on it haha...except i found out later that you can buy it online from www.philosphersguild.com (which is where those Freudian slippers that mai showed me are sold too) but whatever - i checked it i bought it for around the same price - and plus, it's funny!

"I do desire we may be better strangers!" - i think i like that one the most

you can also go to Marienlyst Castle where you can see Ophelia's Well and Hamlet's grave (i don't know how that works since he's a fictional character) but we didn't go since it's pretty far away (don't forget it was rainy/cold/windy too)

we then walked to the town square/center and walked around to look for a nice cafe where we could sit and eat - i didn't buy lunch since i made a chicken sandwich for myself, but i did get a glass of yummy hot chocolate!

not too sweet and not too chocolaty =)

after lunch, we just kinda walked around and looked at stores - we passed by this amazing bakery with yummy pastries in the window

and it smells absolutely AMAZING inside ♥ ahh so nice =)i didn't buy anything though haha but other people did - Dora bought this lovely strawberry pastry

then we went to Helsingør Bycenter - a small shopping mall with an H&M inside and of course, i didn't buy anything since there isn't much on sale anymore - i don't think i'll be buying any more clothes since all the sales are ending (unless i really want something for regular price)

we split up since some of us wanted to go see the Helsingør Cathedral (me, Dora, Mario, Nick, and Dimitri?-don't know him that well)

we ended up at Sct. Mariae Kirke (Church of St. Maria) first although we didn't go inside...cause we didn't know if we could..and we didn't know how to get in haha

so we walked around this little courtyard inside - Nick said it reminded him of Harry Potter haha i guess it kinda does resemble the little courtyard in the movies

then we sat outside here on the benches for a little while before going to the cathedral

and here's Helsingør Domkirke!

after that, we walked around town some more and then headed back to the bus which took us back to Copenhagen where i spent the rest of the day and the next preparing for my exams = bleh :X

but today, i did go somewhere! i didn't go anywhere far since i still need to study, but around noon i went to Christianshavn to go back to that bakery we went to after the canal tour because when i backtracked through one of the sites i had bookmarked, one of them recommended that place - Lagkagehuset Bageri! i'm planning on going to the other one on Wednesday!

and i did indeed get the Kartoffelkage! but i'm not gonna eat it today

since i got this pastry too

looking forward to eating that (within the next hour) with a nice glass of tea ♥

after the bakery, i went grocery shopping and then came back to study some more

...and now i will resume studying X(

but i have prepared a break for pastry eating so it's ok! haha =D

oh yea, i changed the layout of the blog since i figure i should try to make it more Denmark-ish (more colorful) =)