Just Cope-nhagen

Sparknotes:

• Hung out with the guy I met from Boston and toured the city together
• Walked through the Free City of Christiania (a residential development in Copenhagen that essentially governs itself, the people don’t really pay taxes, and people are semi-allowed to buy and smoke marijuana on the street)
• Walked through a bunch of cool parks/cemeteries, walked along the canals and lakes in the city, saw the Tivoli theme park, and walked through the ethnic district of town
• Delicious dinner with 4 of Laerke’s roommates
• Talked with my mom for at least 30 minutes while she was watching the grandkids for the day (super Grammy)

I met up with John (the guy I met from Boston who was also staying in Copenhagen) around 10am set off to make a tour of the city for the day. John is definitely an experienced and efficient traveler, and was super fun to hang out with for the day. It was definitely nice to have some company and saved me from having to do the awkward “pose and take a picture of yourself” photo.

Our first stop was a small residential development in town called Christiania. It’s pretty famous in Copenhagen and if you ever get a chance you should swing by before the government completely cracks down on the area. Apparently the area was somewhat of a social experiment back in the 70's after squatters started living in these old abandoned buildings/warehouses (similar to the theater play "Rent" I guess), and the government essentially let the people live there/not pay taxes/smoke and sell marijuana on the street. Things are a little different now as the government occasional conducts drug raids, and the "citizens" of Christiania have to pay 50 million dollars/year as a community in order to continue living in the multi-billion dollar valued real estate they're occupying.

The neighborhood is pretty run down, with graffiti everywhere and old warehouses, but this is also what gives Christiania its special appeal. John and I must have seen at least 5 different school tours through Christiania, explaining the history and current state of the area. I thought it was funny that they did this considering there were marijuana stands all up and down “pusher street.” Haha It’s a very different culture over here. After walking around a bit, we made our way into the well known café in Christiania to warm up a bit and have some tea. The place was surprisingly cool, had free internet, and is open 24/7 which is nice.

The rest of the day we just walked around the city checking out the sights. We saw some cool canals and colorful buildings, the small 5 lakes within the city, a cemetery park, a cool ethnic street with lots of people and small stores, the king’s garden (apparently Denmark was the 1^st monarchy to exist), and a few other things we happened to run into. John and I then parted ways and I headed back to Laeke’s house.

On the way back home, I ventured through a couple different parks that were HUGE. It was nice just walking around in no rush to be anywhere at any time. Plus, it was gorgeous outside with all the leaves changing colors. Living in California the last 5 years has made me forget what fall is supposed to look like. Haha Spokane really isn’t all the pretty in fall either (too many pine trees), so it was cool to see all the colors and different types of trees.

The rest of the night was nice, but nothing too exciting happened. I got to talk with my mom for a while when she was watching the grandkids, I had dinner with 4 of Laerke’s roommates (tho Laerke was still at a workshop), and I spent some time planning what to do the next day. Around midnight I got a crazy idea to take a train to Stockholm, Sweden the next day, so I hit the sack “early” because I had to wake up around 6am the next day. Ugh.