What on earth is a kartoffelferie, you ask? Why, it's a potato vacation, of course!
At least, that's the literal translation. "The potato vacation" or "the potato holiday."
And why do Danes have a potato vacation, you ask?
Well, technically, they don't anymore. The tradition of having this week in October off started so that students could help the family with the potato harvest. These days, however, it's really just the Danish version of the Fall school holiday. Think of it this way: Danish kids don't get a Thanksgiving break. Instead, they get a potato vacation!
I started the week off with a bit of sightseeing with my husband and an American colleague of his. We decided to climb the many, many steps of the Church of Our Savior. Copenhagen has quite a few tall, beautiful church spires. This one, however, is the only one with stairs on the outside, that you can climb all the way to the top. It was a chilly, windy morning, and it had just rained. All of these factors made for a terrifying, somewhat slippery hike up the spiral staircase. But we did make it to the top, and the view was spectacular. It looked a little something like this:
(The above picture is courtesy of my Instagram account, which you can follow at "thisgirlsaysow" for many more pictures of my adventures in Copenhagen and elsewhere)
Here's a little tidbit about my kartoffelferien that you may not expect:
I wish I didn't have one.
Strange as it may sound, I'd rather have class this week. It's been really good to have something specific scheduled for my week. An excuse to get myself up in the morning, and a way to keep my brain working on something useful. Plus, I'd much rather finish up module 2 at Studieskolen a week earlier rather than spend a week watching too much television.
If my 15-year-old self were to read that, she would shake her goth little head in dismay.
