Friday, October 24, 2008

A walk in the woods


My friend and I drove outside of Copenhagen yesterday after work to this huge park about 20 minutes outside of the city, with a lake and lots of trails.



We started from the Sophiesholm museum's parking lot, which is about 100 feet from the Prime Minister's home. There wasn't a single gate or guard with guns or anything around his house! Just a hedge row! You could have driven right into this driveway and up to his front door! We thought about doing this since he loves America so much, I figured he might welcome me! Or not....





We followed the lake for a while and then cut into the woods and out to the river that runs beside it.



There were a lot of people running on the trails and the weather was that Autumn crisp evening air.



The leaves have really come down here in the past 2 weeks. It was nice to see some actual Fall color in the woods!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Rasmussen's house!




Last Sunday, a friend and I went up to see Knud Rasmussen's house. It was really rainy and super windy all day. Rasmussen was born in Grønland from a Greenlandic mom and a Danish dad. He started running sledge dogs at a very young age and when he got older, established the Thule trading post. He made many expeditions around Grønland and eastern Canada. His most famous expedition was the 5th Thule Expedition across the entire Canadian Arctic all the way to Russia. Actually, he was only in the Russian arctic for 24 hours before he was kicked out. During this expedition, he visited every Inuit group living in the Arctic collecting stories, amulets, songs, and at some point had a filmographer/photographer with him. At the beginning of the expedition, there were biologists and archaeologists also accompanying him in the eastern Arctic doing things such as digs at ancient Inuit sites.


His house of course faces Northwest towards Grønland.




Rasmussen is considered a national hero of sorts. He accomplished a lot during his short lifetime.


A bed with a musk ox fur blanket on it. It was rather rough fur.


Death portrait of Rasmussen along with his trusty Winchester.


It finally stopped raining when we were getting ready to leave but then we were able to walk up to the lighthouse and take super wind blown photos out into the ocean.