I'm just going to assume we all know who Hans Christian Anderson is (author of The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, etc...)
He moved to Denmark when we was 14 years old and had 3 ideas for himself. Firstly to act, if he couldn't do that then he would dance ballet, and if ballet didn't work out he would sing choir. Unfortunately the only thing we got to do was sing, and only for a short time before his voice started to change and he got kicked out. Poor boy!
I guess we can't feel to bad for him though. If he had been a Ballerina we wouldn't have some of our most loved stories!
Speaking of The little mermaid, we went to go see her! I was thrilled!
Now, back to today. Because it is New Years Day and therefore a holiday, we didn't have many things to do. We also needed some time to sleep off yesterday's adventures.
Something we could do was visit Christiania, again. We went last night, but I was so intrigued I knew I had to go back in the daylight before leaving Copenhagen.
Christiania or "Freetown Christiania" is just that, a free town. 'Founded' in the 1970's, it is a town within Copenhagen started when people started squatting in abandoned army barracks. Since then it has evolved and expanded into something much more. People, mostly homeless, live here today.
Because it is considered a free town, they have their own rules within, as well as a flag and currency of their own.
Here are some of the rules.
-no photos (selling hash is still illegal)
-no running (it causes panic)
-no guns, knives or bulletproof vests
-no "hard" drugs
-no vehicles
Walking in I didn't know what to expect or what I would see, and going at night first and then during the day, I got a very different feeling.
At night the town is dark and ominous. There are no street lamps. Being that is was New Year's Eve when we first went, it also offered that uncomfortable feeling knowing that so many people were intoxicated. We only walked through it a short ways before we decided it was best to leave.
Today when we went back, everything seemed different in the light of day. The town looks partly like a hippie caravan, partly like a pro-drug advertisement and partly like a disheveled slum.
One of the main tourist draws to Christiania is the tolerated hash trade. Anyone can go in and buy the drug like they are buying groceries. This is obviously highly controversial. Some people say drugs like hash are 'gateway' drugs, others say that they are harmless.
Basically the whole town is a social experiment and a huge opinion piece.
I can't explain to much more about it because I don't know enough. Every turn I took inside, and all day after I saw it all I had were more and more questions. I find the dynamic very interesting and I'm going to look up more about how it works.
If you have a spare moment I recommend you look it up.
When we finished in Christiania we walked back to collect our luggage, have dinner and wait for our train. This particular train will be our longest yet at 14 hours. Fortunately most of those hours are appropriate to sleep through. When we get to the other side we will be in Brussels, Belgium!
How does 2013 look for you so far?
Jan 1, 2013
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