Copenhagen is for Lovers

Allrighty, so i promised to put up some pictures and tell a story so heres the story of the first INTL stop on mainland Europe; DENMARK.


As some of you may know, I talked a lot about moving to Copenhagen in the months leading up to embarking on this trip. Well, after visiting, i must say my conception of this place has changed. Yeah, its a pretty bike friendly place, yeah the politics are progressive and yes its very green, clean and the aesthetic of the entire place (from skycrapers to toilets) was very sleek indeed. The problem is not with the city (its big, busy and open till dawn), its with the uniformity of the people. a good three quarters of the people there were wearing pretty much the same get-up, and this pissed me off to no end, Black pants, black shoes, black coat, and a brightly colored blouse or shirt, conveniently covered up by the black coat... BORING.....! We were fortunate to meet some cool cats out there though, but widely the people were not very open or exciting.


We did meet one cool cat named Jesba in the groovy hippy artist commune island of Christiana (a reccomendation of our hostelmate Lars). No photography allowed in there, but plenty of hash smoking and live music. We popped into this "area" of town, and things changed immediately. you go from walking a rather urban/suburban street to stepping foot into handmade slanty shanty music halls and vendors. Everything is covered in graffiti, the streets are gravel and there are woods and paths and open fires all around, unleashed hounds at your feet. The policy there is "No Hard Drugs" but pretty much everything else gos. Music and smoke billows from every crack in the rick-a-rack facades of these buildings. The place was, in a word, "dope". We asked around on where to score some of the sticky stuff, and ran into Jesba, a 19 year old who is currently attending "Folk School" in Denmark, and spends his weekends around Christiana. He pointed us in the direction of the hash sellers (selling hash on the street is totally legit there) and we shelled out 25 euro for some good danish hash that we managed to conserve for most of the trip, and a kabob (yes, the hash man was also the kebab vendor, how convenient ! ) We went back to where Jesba and his friends were sitting and he showed us how to roll a bomber Danish style, and laughed when we messed it up "No no! Your trashing it, here let me show you!" He was gracious enough to outfit us with the proper tools to create one of these things, which are a real pleasure to consume. Some pre-rolled "cones" and a Christiana postcard folded into what looks like a boat, for breaking down the stuff. We puffed away, Alex had an allergic reaction and threw up Curry for about 45 minutes while Jesba and i laughed and smoked more hash. around 4:00am we walked back to the metro, but not before painted a dope mural on our way out. Residents coming home to the building we were painting on said things like "Cool" and "Make sure its a good one" which was very relieving. I must say the hash helped the creative process ab it as well...

WE got to the metro, and exchanged contact info with Jesba, he showed us that we didn't really have to pay for the metro because no one checks your ticket. The Copenhagen metro is super cool too, its 3 stories underground, perfectly smooth and silent. Looks like the future. Jesba told us ours in the states will look the same in about 10-15 years. WE bid him adieu and would have gotten back to the hostel and went to sleep if we hadn't run into some more hip young people and had a chat around 4:30. WE had been looking for a antiques store to buy a pocket watch (something we never accomplished) and they showed us around the walking street/shopping district.... One weird thing about all of Europe is that, although the streets are generally clean, it also generally smells like sewage, and, because of the high tourist traffic, the sidewalk garbages are nearly all overflowing by about 8:00pm any day of the week. We got back to the hostel around 5:30, and i decided to just pop in the shower and go make some tea and go for a walk, which i did. I witnessed some Danes hopping in the river and taking a morning hangover plunge, which was fun, they waved, and i thought maybe there are some interesting, box-breaking folks here in Denmark.

This box breaking would be further expounded when, while taking a nap under a statue, Enrico and Alex awake to the sound of some 300 Danes shouting "Fri Hash!" and participating in a Legalisaton protest.






We of course joined in and, after receiving a complimentary (no shit!) hash joint to smoke, walked along with the crowd, next to the big Hash-mo-bile, which was equipped with turn tables and a PA, overwhich were heard all the accolades of this magical substance. The highlight of this moment, was probably when the man on the PA said "Hello Foriegners, we are here because we like to smoke hash! you should try it, come join us!" To which my brother and I gave a big "Hoorah" allready being part of the march.



After "marching" for about 5 blocks or so, we took a side street, bought some fresh strawberries and chilled in the central plaza.



we also met this fellow, who finally made me realize that there are some crazy eccentric people in Copenhagen after all ....



ALLRIGHT, so thats about it for copenhagen, the next stop in Denmark was the city of Koge, where we WOOFed with our Norweigian friend Siri and ate tasty vegan treats, among other things... but that is a story for another day, hopefully tomorrow. Until then, heres a picture from Koge....




Enrico