I’ve decided to spend an extra day in Copenhagen today. I figured that I could justify spending an extra day here, since the weather is nice, and I need to do my laundry. I haven’t actually washed any of my clothes since leaving London, which is kind of feral when I think about it. Especially since I was using the same pair of socks cycling for an entire week – those ones were ready to stand up and walk to the washing machine themselves! So my host Andreas Graem has very kindly offered me the use of his washing machine.
I’m holed up in an old 6 story building in the inner suburbs of Copenhagen – quite close to the harbour front where there is an old fashioned star fort (the defensive embankments are shaped like a star). Andreas is a pretty cool bloke. I rocked up into town a little disorganised, having not checked my emails properly before arrival, but luckily he’d just knocked off at the bicycle shop he works at, and we headed to his home, on the top floor overlooking a busy square. Despite the building’s age, it certainly had some charm about it, and upon walking inside, it was immediately evident the type of crowd that were living there. Andreas bunked down with three other people, Johanna, the hippy Danish girl with the trademark pale, freckly skin, and what red hair she had was wrapped up in huge dreadlocks. And then there were two other blokes, David and Simon. I met David just after he’d just finished a 24 shift as a carer for a disabled person with a horrible degenerative disease. Despite what he had to do to look after the guy all day, David was all jovial talk, albeit a bit tired. Simon arrived the next day, with 3 more of his friends in tow. All of them were young, mid-20’s and just delightful people, a broad cross-section of the Danish youth – and all were stoners, and loved a beer. I felt like I was living in an authentic student / young professional party pad, and it was fantastic!
Arriving at the same time as I, were two American cyclists from California, David and Cheryl. So there were actually 7 people staying in the house! They were in their 40’s perhaps, and were arriving by plane this day to begin their bicycle tour. Cheryl for one had never left the USA before, so this was going to be a fantastic experience for her and over dinner, we were never short of conversational topics. Andreas, being a bicycle mechanic, went far out of his way to help them acquire two bicycles second hand off the internet at a great price, and spent all day with David, going to get them, then servicing and repairing them back at the house whilst we again had dinner on the second evening.
I’d gone out to buy some groceries and come back with an entire crate full of beer – dirt cheap, 30 bottles for about $23 AUD! They went down extremely well with our hosts, and before you knew it, there was plenty of fabulous pasta and a special Danish dessert headed our way, of which I can’t really describe, but it had a citrus yoghurt base and was surprisingly good. Finishing my laundry, I came back to the living area to find everyone having a lovely old time with a spliff, and we canned on with the beers until fairly late that night. Even if the hospitality hadn’t been so awesome, it still would have been great just to not have had to ‘move on’ the next morning. This was the first time I’d actually been able to sleep in the same bed for more than one night since leaving London.
On the first day, whilst the sun was out, I did my cycle touring and grabbed a heap of photos. Not far from the house is where the Little Mermaid statue is, well, normally located. On my rounds of the city today, I went past to have a glimpse of the famous statue, only to discover a bare rock. The city council has shipped it off to Shanghai for some World Expo 2010 event. Who would have ever thought they would do something like that? So in it’s place were a bunch of tourists pretending to be mermaids on the rock where it once stood. Anyway, down the road there is a much better statue of a topless mermaid. Her tits are so big and bouncy you nearly get a stiffy looking at it. I can’t see the attraction of the Little Mermaid when this ‘Big Mermaid’ is just around the corner…
Moving on, I stumbled accidentally upon the very famous canal street that is on all the post cards around town, called Nyhavn Harbour. I must say it is actually a very beautiful area indeed, and if you were going to hit the town and eat out, this is where you would come to. I got some awesome photos.
To the West of the city centre and the regular tourist beat, is a famous area known as Christianshaven, and more specifically ‘Christiana’ which has been taken over by the local hippies and anarchists, an so forth. It’s known as a ‘free town’ and I believe it was formed back in the 1970’s in response to a hardline government. Christiana is actually nearly a suburb of it’s own in size but the main part is, ironically, an old army barracks which is now a happy, hippy haven. There is what is known as ‘pusher street’ where drugs were once openly sold to people who walked into the area. Andreas told me that the cops cracked down on it several years ago and pushed it a bit more underground. However, upon visiting, I was blown away by how readily available it was. Seriously, the proper ‘shops’ might no longer openly sell marijuana, but there are dozens of street stalls and vendors with drugs on display for you to look at and purchase at will. You could buy weed by the spliff, by the brick or by the bag, and all this was mixed up with shops selling various food such as BBQ beef burgers or kebabs, and numerous cheap bars and pubs. And you really did feel like you were in another, colourful world! Unfortunately, they frowned upon you taking photos inside, so I don’t have much to show of it, but I reckon as far as the drugs and stuff were concerned, this shat all over Amsterdam as the place to go, if you were into this sort of thing. I have to admit, it was very chilled out and relaxing in the gardens and streets of Christiana!
So overall, I’ve had a top time in Copenhagen, would highly recommend coming here to anyone, and there’s even more to see also if you are inclined to spend the tourist dollar. The Carlsberg Brewery, and the Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen’s answer to Luna Park) are the two I would have chosen if I’d had another extra day up my sleeve.
In the morning, I’m up at sparrow’s fart to catch a train to Malmö, to begin the Swedish leg of my adventures, which I can’t wait for!
