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Published: December 26th 2016
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Before arriving in Denmark, we finished reading “A Year of Living Danishly” by Helen Russell.
Helen had left her high-flying job in London for a life in Rural Jutland with her husband. In her book, she introduced us to many peculiarities of Denmark, including:
1. Hygge: a concept only fully understood by the Danes, although something to do with cosy situations. This still remains a mystery to us. Seems we are not the only ones in the dark as “Hygee Researcher” is actually a thing in Denmark.
2. Freetown Christiana: on the outskirts of Copenhagen there is a free-living commune where weed is openly for sale (it’s true - we visited just to check).
3. New Nordic Cuisine: The Danish produced a “New Nordic Manifesto” in a panic when they felt their local grub couldn't compete in the world gastro-scene. New Nordic Cuisine has debuted dishes such as live ant salad, and bizarrely has become quite a hit, with one Michelin star restaurant Noma in Copenhagen having a waiting list of 60,000 last year.
4. It is a well-known fact that the Danish are the happiest nation in the world (apparently).
5. And a random
one for good measure; beastiality has still not been made illegal in Denmark. Make of that what you will!
We were keen to find out more about this intriguing nation, and had a lot to cram into our 24-hour layover.
Copenhagen is quite a small city, but even so, it has a lot of visitors (seemingly American college students). When we arrived, only one hostel had space, at £264 a night for two dorm beds. Scandalous. We decided we weren’t too old for an all-nighter, it was Saturday after all!
We turned up at Downtown Hostel and asked to store our bags. They were fully booked, but allowed us to use their lockers, and said we could sleep on their sofas if we needed to. The only problem was, the sofas were in the middle of a nightclub with music playing until 5am, and breakfast starting straight after.
We met up with Neil (Viv and Wes’s nephew) who has been living in the city for 3 years, and he took us on a tour of Copenhagen by night. We visited lots of drinking establishments, our favourite being the Shoreditch-style bars in the meat-packing district. Despite being
warned about the prices, we were still shocked when two half-pints of craft beer came in at an eye-watering £18. Good job that the hostel was free!
On the way home we were intrigued to witness a fight between a lady-of-the-night and her client. She was extremely angry about something, although the show was cut short and we were forced to move on when she started delving in bins for something to throw at him. Quite an entertaining end to the evening.
We had a really fun evening with Neil, and managed to sample lots of the local nightlife, with a guided tour of the city at the same time. We arrived back to the hostel around 4am where we again asked if anyone had checked out early… no such luck! We weren’t able to sleep in the hostel at all, but at least we were not outside in the pouring rain (it felt like we had briefly returned to England).
The following day, we were out by 7.30am exploring the streets. We were surprised to see the number of bottles and cans everywhere; in gutters, on doorsteps, in hotel entrances etc. I'd say they would certainly
give the Irish a run for their money.
We met up with Neil again after walking around town to see some of the local monuments, museums, and Tivoli Gardens (which is a strange theme park in the centre of the city).
Neil told us about some of the cool places that are popular in Copenhagen, including a board game cafe where you are also able to drink beers! Unfortunately we didn't have time for a game, so will have to go back.
He also gave us a guided tour through Freetown Christiana, and explained to us how the commune works, the length of the waiting list, and the fact that some people live here and still hold down regular professional jobs in the city. It was entirely alien to us.
Freetown Christiana is exactly how you might imagine Crinkley Bottom to be right now, if it were to be discovered by hippies, rastas, and squatting bums. There were a mixture of these types wandering around in varying states of consciousness, at around 11am on a Sunday. Ganja souvenirs were being sold alongside the real deal, everywhere. No photography is allowed inside unfortunately, so no pictures for
you to look at.
As you walk further into Freetown Christiana, you reach the lake, where ramshackle “eco” houses have been built. We were surprised to see a rather perky young man playing classical music on piano down in this area. It seemed poverty stricken, although apparently people choose to live this way, without proper infrastructure, waste management, electricity, etc. What we found most strange was that it was only a 5-10 minute walk from the glossy side of the city.
As we were leaving Freetown Christiana it only just dawned on us to consider the implications of our innocent wanderings on our afternoon plans. We had basically been strolling around a weed playground all morning. We were due to fly into Miami that afternoon, having flown already between Spain and Denmark in the last 24 hours. We had a flight leaving for Mexico the following morning. We already looked pretty suspicious after a night on the sofa. The last thing we needed was to be stopped at the airport…
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