June 21: Freetown Christiania & marionettes in Kongen's Have [journal]
Located in the borough of Christianshavn,
Christiania was set up by a hippy collective in the 70’s, governed separately
to the rest of Copenhagen. You don’t pay
rent to live in Christiania – you apply and get accepted. The other thing that sets Christiania apart
from the Christianshavn bustling around outside its walls, is its ‘green light
district’ where you can buy joints from men in balaclavas.
Anyway, we’d heard lots about Christiania,
but hadn’t visited yet. On the morning
of June 21, we had no intention to stop by the marijuana-scented commune, but
fate intervened; I left the map at home, we took a couple of wrong turns and
ended up out the front.
A brick archway bearing the words “beware here be
dragons” met us at the entrance. The smell of marijuana got caught in the wind
and floated towards us, as if to let us know where we’d found ourselves.
We strolled in on the aptly named Pusher
Street, greeted by numerous signs indicating that photography was
forbidden. I tucked my camera under my
cardigan. The vendors kept their faces
concealed, in case an unsuspecting tourist accidentally snapped them dishing
out spliffs. Marijuana is still illegal
in Copenhagen.
Continuing past old buildings, untamed
flowerbeds and veggie gardens, we walked through the “no car” zone, being
overtaken only by pushbikes. Several
dogs meandered around, leashless, and a few locals pottered about, tending to
their homes and painting. Lots of cafes
advertising vegetarian and vegan food caught our eye, but we were without cash,
and assumed there were no EFTPOS facilities inside.
We made our way out of Christiania, heading
onward to the Opera House and swinging by the architecture center, before
making a beeline for Kongs Haven.
Partially due to its central location, and partially because it’s
beautiful, we’d spent a few hours exploring the gardens already. On our last sojourn through the gardens, we
spied an old marionette theatre that advertised free shows twice a day.
I'm guessing 'slut' means something different in Danish. Nicholas later informed me it means 'finish', which I guess makes sense.
Hungry, hot and thirsty, we decided to pack
in most of our remaining budget and head for a waffle street vendor we’d been
eyeing off since we arrived. A long,
late-night conversation with our London-based adventurer friends had put our
trip into better perspective; subsequently, we decided that spending $40 on
waffles wasn’t the worst thing we could do.
We were almost there when Nicholas patted
down his pockets, realised he’d forgotten my phone at the marionette show, and
we had to make a mad dash back to the theatre.
Seats empty, the theatre packed up, we felt a little down on our luck. Fortunately, a puppeteer popped out of a
small door in the theatre and retrieved it for us. Success!
Potentially enough success to justify an extra waffle?
Oh my god.
Our current AirBnB host had head north to
Jutland for the night previous, but told us he would hurry home so that he
could take us to the Tivoli for our last night in Copenhagen. We had walked past the beautiful Tivoli, with
its twinkling lights, most nights since we had arrived, but been deterred by
the 99DKK entry fee.
Just after 9pm, our host arrived home,
offering to take us down and let us in using his annual pass. Happily, we accepted, and begun the sunset
stroll back into town.
Stepping through the golden archway of the
Tivoli, in the blue halflight of sunset, was its own kind of magic. The red and yellow fairy lights sparkled in
the distance, slightly out of focus as I adjusted to the light.
“Let’s go this way,” our host said,
pointing down a narrow pathway lit with warm light. “I need to check when the laser show starts
at the lake.”
The photographs and stories from our
enchanted sunset in the Tivoli deserve their own piece of the Internet, though,
so I’ll save them for another time…
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