My March 2018: Slovenia and the Faroe Islands

Working, studying, travelling – March has been much like most other months I’ve had since moving to Copenhagen 1,5 years ago. It’s been a great month, and I’m especially happy that spring is finally beginning to show its sunny face!

Breathtaking Slovenia

March started off pretty great in Slovenia! After spending a day in Croatia on February 28th, my mum and I headed to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where we were based during our four days in the beautiful mountainous country.

We spent our time there exploring quaint Ljubljana, walking around two gorgeous lakes with the wildest reflections and hiking for two hours in the vast underworld of the Škocjan Caves.

Slovenia blew me away big time and quickly jumped to the top of my list of favourite countries in the world. Stay tuned for the upcoming posts about the spectacular country!

Life in Copenhagen

I’m in the middle of my fourth semester right now and it’s getting pretty intense as I’m writing two exams at the same time as reading and having to work as well. Thankfully, I’m still loving my courses and it’s exciting to learn how to digitize an excavation plan, something that I had absolutely no clue of how to do beforehand, but I’m getting the hang of the programme now! I’ve also found time to hang out with my friends and go to the Thursday quizzes with other archaeologists.

I got some exciting news as well – I got offered an exchange spot with Nordlys, which means that I’ve been nominated for an exchange semester at the University of Greenland! I’m still not sure if I’m actually going to Greenland yet, as I have to send an application to the university itself, which they then have to approve. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be moving to Greenland for five months in September!

The weather here in Copenhagen hasn’t been great in March. It wasn’t as bad as in February, but it has been more of and on with snow and ice. I somehow managed to fly off my bike twice this month, but thankfully nothing serious happened (thank you, helmet! Always wear a helmet!). Now I’m looking forward to better weather and more daylight!

Work life and economy (aka. travel money)

Between reading and writing my exams, I’ve also been working in customer service at Bonnier Publications and every Wednesday at the National Museum of Denmark, where I’m finally beginning to feel more confident after I’ve tried most of the guided tours now. I even did one with a high school class this month – I was so extremely nervous for that one but thankfully it went really well.

I’m also really happy to say that I got rehired at Sagnlandet Lejre (the Land of Legends), which has to be the best workplace in the entire world. I can’t wait to spend a lot of my summer there.

It actually came as a big surprise to me, but because of my cooperation with GPSmyCity, I’m now beginning to monetize the blog. It’s small money at the moment, but it’s fun to actually get some money out of it after three years!

Economy wise, March has been quite great for me in general. I also found out that I’m going to get just over 4,000 DKK in tax refund, and I was granted 5,000 DKK from the Fiedler Foundation for my excavation trip to Peru. After a few months with almost no money because I had to buy flight tickets for Peru (they are crazy expensive!!), it’s great to finally have some money between my hands again (momondo.com, I’m looking at you!).

A visitor from home

At the beginning of the month, my younger brother Brandon came over to Copenhagen to visit me for four days! It was wonderful to spend some quality time with him, and I really enjoyed exploring Copenhagen by foot with him.

We saw a lot in those four days, but also had time to relax and grab a beer. We hung out in Christiania, had a coffee and hot chocolate in Kulturtårnet, a café and museum in one of the old control towers on Knippel Bridge, went to quiz night with some of my uni friends, fed ducks and street cats (the only two street cats I’ve ever seen in the city), found famous graves at the Assistens Cemetery and spent a night out on the town with my friend Nikolai.

Back to Hov for a weekend

The next weekend, I wanted to see some familiar faces again, so I headed back home to Eastern Jutland for a weekend.

I generally try to go home once a month as I love my family and get homesick if I don’t see them often enough (especially when not travelling), and I’ve also really started to appreciate and love the little beach town that I grew up in. I used to think it was boring, but it’s so beautiful and has a lot to offer – especially interesting archaeological sites!

I spent my weekend in Hov relaxing with my family, going on long walks to the beach, walking my cat in the garden and finding flint tools in my own backyard! I definitely need to dig up the entire garden next time I’m home 😉

First part of my Easter trip to the Faroe Islands

On March 27th, I flew to the Faroe Islands for my eighth visit to my favourite corner of the earth, so my March both started and ended in another country! My friend Andras had invited me over to spend Easter with him and his family, and I wasn’t going to say no to such a great offer. I adore Andras and his family, and it was great to spend so much time with them.

I spent the first few days of the trip exploring Tórshavn, buying a wool sweater (gotta love the charity shops in Tórshavn!), hiking from the Skansin lighthouse to the open air museum in Hoyvík, hiking with Andras to the top of three mountains on Vágar (with the most fantastic views, omg!), visiting my Faroese “grandparents” Ása and Erling, partying with good friends in Tórshavn, hiking with my friend Poul Magni just outside Tórshavn and spending quality time with Andras and his lovely family.

I absolutely loved those first days in the country. I saw so much and got to spend so much quality time with people and dogs that I really care about.

The last few days of my trip were in April, so I’ll write about that in the next monthly post!

Destinations visited in March 2018

• Ljubljana, Bled, Ukanc, Bohinj, Vogel, Divača and Škocjan Caves, Slovenia
• Copenhagen and Hov, Denmark
• Vágar and Streymoy, Faroe Islands

Highlights

• Wandering through the quaint streets of Ljubljana.
• Seeing the most spectacular reflections at Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj.
• Exploring the astonishing Škocjan Caves.
• Spending time with my brother in Copenhagen.
• Getting an exchange spot at the University of Greenland with Nordlys.
• Finding flint tools in my own backyard in Eastern Jutland!
• Getting rehired at the Land of Legends – the best workplace in the world!
• Making my first money on this blog!
• Visiting friends and families in the Faroe Islands.
• Hiking on Vágar with Andras and seeing one of the most beautiful views in the country!
• Hiking outside Tórshavn with Poul Magni!

Challenges

• Discovering mould in our hotel room at Ginger Rooms in Ljubljana and then not being able to get the money back or move to another room. In the end, they ended up moving us to another hotel, where we had to pay an extra 15 euros for an “upgrade”, which wasn’t even an upgrade, just a room without mould…
• Falling off my bike TWICE. The winter in Denmark has been brutal this year, and the roads have been extra slippery in March. Thank goodness for my blueberry helmet!
• Exam stress (can’t wait for this semester to be over).

Most popular post

• My February 2018: Macedonia and a new semester – I’m so happy that you guys are enjoying these monthly posts! I enjoy writing them, so I think I’ll continue to do so for a while!

The other posts

• An afternoon in Skopje, the city of statues – All about my one day spent in Macedonia’s capital.
• To the summer city of Ohrid in extreme wind and rain – The pearl of Macedonia in terrible weather conditions!
• A frosty afternoon in magical Zagreb – All about the afternoon I spent in Croatia’s capital with my mum.

Most popular Instagram picture

Not surprisingly, the most popular picture was from the Faroe Islands. Everyone loves the Faroes! I took this picture during a hike on Vágar, where Andras and I had the most spectacular view over the islands of Tindhólmur and Mykines.

Vis dette opslag på Instagram

Et opslag delt af Mel (@north.trotter)

Coming up in April 2018

My first few days in April were spent on the Faroe Islands, which was the perfect way to start the month.

I had originally planned on going to Iceland for a conference, but I simply don’t have enough time between school and work, unfortunately. Instead, I hope to take a trip to Iceland during May or in the summer as I miss the country badly!

On April 20th, I’ll be going on a two-day study trip to North Jutland, which I’ve arranged with my teacher and an archaeologist from Moesgaard Museum, who’s going to show us around. There are 30 students going and we’ve got a great programme planned, so I’m sure it will be a great trip!

I’m considering going to Bergen in Norway for a long weekend at the end of the month, as I have a few days off and I just know that I will be longing to get back to the mountains at that time. So why not go?

April is also my birthday month, and I’m celebrating it with my uni friends on April 7th. I also have to work a lot and study even more in April, and my plan is also to finish both my written exams (wish me luck!).