Christinania

On wednesday my visitor arrived: Helen came from Germany! So I took her to class to admire our professor, on a canal tour, all around town, I fed her Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and of course we went out on thursday night to Kulorbar, again :P. We were supposed to have a tour of Christiania on friday at 9.30, but of course we got home somewhere around 5 and decided to explore it ourselves in the afternoon, after some chillout-time on the beach. Luckily Helen brought beachweather.

After lying on the beach for a while and swimming in the sea (cold, jellyfish, stony ground and tons of seaweed, but still a nice experience) we went to Christiania. It's one of the things you have to visit in Copenhagen and I haven't been there yet, so it was about time.

Christiania was founded in 1971 by some hippies who occupied empty military barracks and proclaimed their own free state, right in the middle of Copenhagen. They have their own post, legislation and people live there happily ever after. They really do. Of course some of Christiania's inhabitants have jobs in what I like to call " the real world", but others work there in the shops, the post office, the pubs, some are artists and some just hang out, smoke weed and drink beer all day. Unfortunately Helen and I got scared by all the "No Photos" signs, so we didn't take a lot of pictures. I found a youtube movie which gives you a good impression of what's going on there:



Even though I'm not really a fan of the way of life the people there, the place has a very special atmosphere and it was fun to be there. The Danish government is thinking about shutting it down for years, but they never actually did that. Sometimes the police goes there and arrests some people, probably for drug trade and abuse, because in Christiania, on a street called Pusher Street there are guys standing with small tables and selling pot. Which is of course illegal in the rest of Denmark. And if I was a politician I would not be too happy with a bunch of hippies occupying some part of my country and breaking my laws there. Still, I am wondering why they let that happen in the first place.

But maybe I can learn from the people over there, in case I ever want my own state. And Denmark seems to be a good starting place :D.