Let's Get Smart in Copenhagen

 

Have you ever noticed when you're going somewhere you've never been before and are following directions how to get there, it seems to take a long time to arrive?  When you leave to go home, however, you're there in no time at all?  That's my experience yesterday leaving the hotel to go back to the train station.  It took all of 5 minutes!  The day before going the other way, I thought I'd never get to my hotel.

After looking at a map of the city, I realized using local transit to get around would be much too complicated and timing consuming.  I bought a 24 hour ticket for the Red Sightseeing Hop on Hop Off bus.  Smartest decision!  The bus route takes you to 22 different places of interest in the city.  I did three.  I will do two more tomorrow - two palaces.  To be perfectly honest, I am not doing another museum to see works of art.  I'd sooner watch paint dry!

My first stop of the day is at Freetown Christiania.  Freetown is essentially a vibrant hippie community.  It contains unique houses filled with funky art, graffiti and self expression.  It was founded in 1971 when a group of people cut a hole in the fence of the abandoned military barracks and started living there.  There were legal battles with the Danish government to have squatters cleared from the area.  However, the people of Freetown wouldn't leave.  In 1989, the government officially registered Christiania.  The squatters had won the right to remain there.

 The 900 or so people who live in Freetown don't have to pay taxes and are essentially self-sufficient.  That would explain the street food stands, art stores and the two breweries.  They have to make money somehow.  I would also hazard a guess that a lot of people making their living at regular jobs.  I did read that the town has changed so much that some of the original squatters have left because the cost of rent for an apartment was too much.  Renters used to pay about $300 a month to a communal treasury.  When Christiania became "normalized" under Danish law, rent went to $1,300 a month.  In June 2011, the goverenment settled on a decision to establish the Christiania Foundation which allowed them to collectively purchase land from the state at below market prices.  They became landowners - 40 years after the commune's establishment. 

  

The entrance to Freetown Christiania.

Amsterdam may have its Red Light District.  Copenhagen has their Green Light District.  Drugs are illegal in Denmark.   In Christiania, however, the main street is known as Pusher Street where weed and hash can be bought and smoked even though it is illegal.  The sellers have pop up stands.  You can buy different varieties of weed and hash.  It's like the Disneyland of weed!  The police show up there three times a day.  Dealers have established a sophisticated surveillance system to evade arrests.  When positioned sentries put out a warning call, the pop-up marijuana and hashish stalls collapse and vanish before a single police boot steps onto Pusher street.  I'd well imagine the 50 or so people I saw sitting around, run for the hills too.  I saw a man who looked to be about 70 taking a drag off of a joint.  He sucked that smoke deeply into his lungs and suddenly sat up bolt straight.  He shook his head and his eyes kinda crossed.  Must have been good shit as they say!  I wanted to burst out laughing.  I was witnessing a real Cheech and Chong moment!  Out of respect for privacy, I didn't take any pictures of Pusher Street.

It's interesting to learn how large the area actually is.  When you're walking in it, it's a maze of different streets.  None of them are paved.  You can ride bicycles there but cars aren't allowed.  It is perfectly safe to go there.  At the entrance, I only saw one person who looked like he was panhandling.  Hmmm, maybe he was a sentry stationed there to send out the warning that police were coming!  Oooo, undercover?

My take on the place was that it was kinda dumpy but interesting.  Keeping a nice yard isn't anyone's priority.  Making art out of leftover metal, painting graffiti on walls and freedom to do what you want is the feeling I got.  I do recommend going there.  It was interesting to see an alternative lifestyle.

Like the lyrics to Paul Simon's song, I slipped out the back and hopped on the bus to head to Nyhavn.  It is Copenhagen's oldest harbour and lined by brightly coloured townhouses built with wood, bricks and plaster.  The oldest house, at No. 9, dates from 1681.  The author, Hans Christian Andersen, lived in Nyhavn for four years.  He said most of the ideas behind his stories came from living in Nyhavn.   I would think the view of the coloured townhouses has to be the second most photographed area of Copenhagen after the Little Mermaid.  In my previous blogs I mentioned connecting with a lot of solo travellers.  They, including myself, are easily identifiable.  We are the people trying without much success to get a selfie of ourself standing in front of something interesting.  Ever try to take a selfie and get the entire background in the picture too.  Not possible.  I noticed a girl, who was in her twenties, trying to do that.  I knew she was alone so I said "Would you take a picture of me and I will then take one of you?".  The answer was "Yes!".  We took each others picture.  She said "This is for my mother.".  She was from Hungary. 

I finally had a hotdog.  They are popular in Amsterdam.  I didn't have one there so I decided I had to have an authentic Danish hotdog.  Surprisingly, sausages and the bun are bought separately.  You pay one price for the type of sausage you order and then 5 kr for the bun.  I chose a sausage with bacon wrapped around it.  I asked for yellow mustard.  The woman says we have sweet mustard.  I say okay.  The mustard was kinda like a mild sweet mustard sauce.  It actually tasted okay.  Kinda like the fries in Hamburg, the sausage was okay.  It was like a big Harvest hotdog but wrapped in a casing like that of a Frankfurter.  Would I buy another one, maybe.  Hotdogs are so popular in Denmark that the airport has a hotdog stand so that Danes who have been away and missed having a hotdog, can buy one as soon as they land.  Even Anthony Bourdain from Parts Unknown, did an episode on Dane's hotdog stands.

My bacon wrapped sausage.

Another bribed lunch guest!

After lunch, I roamed around the area.  I came across the Danish Operahouse.  Magnificent building.  The opera Carmen will be opening there soon.  When I see anything to do with opera, I always think of my friend, David, who is the director of the Philadelphia opera.

Across the street from the opera house was a building with the words Magasin du Nord on it.  I Googled it to find out what it was.  It is a Danish department store.  I go into the store and quickly learn this is another store selling designer brands including makeup and perfume of all brands.  I only go so far as the first floor and the fifth.  The fifth for the bathroom!  When I get back to the first floor, I can't find the door I came in.  I have to go out the same door as I came in because I know how to get back to the bus from that way.  I roam around the first floor for at least twenty minutes hitting dead ends.  What the heck!  Finally, I see the words Michael Korrs and know I've found the exit I need.

Loved the colours.

The pink purse was about $109 CAD.

Back to catch the Hop on Hop off bus to go see the Little Mermaid.  Copenhagen's number one most photographed sight.  The little mermaid depicts a mermaid becoming human and is based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale of the same name.  It is 4.1 feet tall.  I was immediately surprised how close the statue was to the shore.  I thought for sure I'd have to zoom in using my camera.  I didn't.  Being that close to the shore now explains why the mermaid's head has been cut twice and paint was thrown on it several times.  For fun, people have been known to dress her!

The bus stopped for 11 minutes so that we could take pictures and not have to wait around for another bus to arrive 30 minutes later.  From there, I headed back to town to take the Hans Christian Anderson Experience.  It was an add on to the bus.  The total of the ticket was $47 CAD.  It was worth every penny!  There is an audio guide playing that tells you about the different buildings you're driving by.  A new headset is handed to you when you get on the bus.

I get off at the last stop of the bus ride to go to the Hans Christian Anderson Experience.  Ms. Google shows me the way.  I, actually, am pleasantly surprised when I find myself in a small shopping area of the city.  There are cobbled streets with lots of shops that I will explore another time.  The Hans Christine Anderson Experience was cute!  Fully automated displays about his most famous stories.  I thought I would see a museum about him but it was more about telling his stories.  I'm glad I went.  Hans Christian Anderson wrote a lot of the fairytales I remember growing up knowing - The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl and Thumbelina to name a few.

Hans' father was a shoemaker.  Hans was born in Odense.

 

I am now done for the day.  I found a grocery store so stocked up on a few things.  Grabbed some dinner to take to back to the hotel.  By now my feet are burning from all the walking.    I used to think cobblestone sidewalks were wonderful and made me feel sentimental.  Not anymore!!!!!  Those uneven square domed pieces of rock are agony on sore feet.  I now look for flat pavement.  I am finished being sentimental.

Yes, this is my picture!  The smooth pavement is just to tease you.  It's between the bus stop and the street.

The end of day one of being a tourist in Copenhagen.

Steps today even though I used the bus = 10,690.