Tsang's RISE Trip

Nothing's Rotten in the State of Denmark (Aug. 4-Aug. 6)

Leaving the cold ~15 degree gloominess that was Germany this weekend, I arrived in beautiful Copenhagen on Friday morning after taking the overnight train there from Dortmund using my newly acquired Eurorail pass.
This was my sleeper cart - 6 people to a compartment

After wandering around aimlessly at the train station looking for this "clock tower" for about a half hour or so, I decided to check my email again to verify that I was to indeed meet at the clock tower. Seconds after purchasing my internet credit, I turn around and I see Carina about to do the same thing at the internet cafe. A big welcome hug later and we were on our way to see the rest of Copenhagen.

Outside the train station is Tivoli, an amusement park that's been around for ages. Supposedly it is quite nice inside with many parks, bars and restaurants, but as much fun as it would have been, I would much rather just explore Copenhagen for the time being.

We grabbed some bread, cheese, and some amazing Danish baked goods and headed to her friend Therese's apartment. Carina "lives" there too so she had a key and as expected, Therese (who had just come back from SE asia), her sister, and another friend of theirs, Fleming were still sleeping when we arrived. We set up breakfast, roused them from their slumber and after a couple hours of chatting and eating, we got up to explore Copenhagen.

First up on the tour was Christiania. Christiania was considered a self governed community after hippies and like-minded individuals entered and occupied this former army base in 1971. The ideals was that the place was to be independent from city rules and about peace, love, and happiness. Not to mention drugs too (however "hard" drugs are banned here). The famous street is called "Pusher street" where they used to openly sell hash. Now there is a large smoking paraphenelia market in its place. Photos are also forbidden in this place and takers are subject to personal damage should this happen. The movement to keep Christiania as a colony was largely supported by the public and therefore the city had an understanding with the community. As long as things did not get out of hand and as long as there was public support for the project, they would have their own community.
The flag of Christiania is a red back with 3 yellow dots

Unfortunately, in recent times, the 900 or so residents of Christiania who have built their own homes and have a livelihood here are about to lose their community due to new political action and the city is also trying to remove this piece of Copenhagen history to make space for condos and private commercial space. This is rather sad since when you are in the community, all concept of being in Copenhagen falls away as you enter through the gates. The sign on one of the entrances says it best, "Now entering the EU".

After, I boarded a train to Roskilde to see the Viking museum. Roskilde is a quaint little town more known for its large music festival in June. To my dismay, by the time I arrived, the Viking museum was closed. However, I still took a bus to venture down by the water. It turns out that many of the exhibits are out in the open on the docks and I was able to look as some of the Viking ships and woodwork as well as just hang out down by the water in this beautiful place. After a couple hours, I walked back to the train station and headed back to Copenhagen.
The next day, Therese and Fleming took me out on a walking tour of Copenhagen. I don't remember many of the names of the places that we saw, but they were quite impressive. I'll just comment on the pictures. They also filled me in aspects of Danish life such as the Scandanavian rivalries that exist between everybody and Sweden in addition to their wonderful social systems in place.
Some of the local architecture
Nyborg I believe, which is an area where in the summer lots of people just hang out by the water and enjoy a cool BEvERage or a nice glass of wine.Statue where after graduation, Therese told me all the Danish students dance around him and party. Also note the Swedish soldier positioned under the horse. This was placed there because the lead in the leg was deteriorating and rather then redo the whole structure, they put a Swedish soldier there in its place.
My wonderful tour guides, Fleming and Therese. More of the tour was conducted by Therese who seemed to know somebody who lived near each of our destinations. As Fleming pointed out, she was giving us a tour of her friend's houses.
The Danish palace.Like England, these guards can't move or talk, yet told me to keep my distance. It could have been the bags I was carrying that made them uneasy.The Little Mermaid - it's not as big as you think it would be.

After touring Copenhagen, we headed to Helsinger to see Hamlet's castle.
First we had a cross a bike race. Apparently there was a big one in Denmark at the time.

Shakespeare had based his characters of Hamlet to be living in this castle. Hamlet did not exist.
These cannons are pointed at Sweden should they invade. Fleming really likes to point these interesting facts out to me. One time the sea had frozen over and the Swedes invaded Denmark and the cannons were not of much use since they were more positioned to destroy A Hobbit burrow...or Viking long house.

Carina picked us up there and drove us to her summer home where I met her parents, had a VERY delicious salmon dinner and we spent the evening chatting and enjoying some fine wine and Danish beer.Carina is making breakfast here for us...what a great host!

The next morning, we got up, went for a swim in the sea which was quite refreshing and by the time we got back to Copenhagen, sadly, it was time to go. However, I decided there and then that I would come back the following week because I am in love with Denmark! (at least in the summertime)
Group pictureView from outside the train...I stuck my hand out the window

posted by ktsang @ 10:47 AM