GrEaT DaNES oF cOPENhagen

We hopped on a five hour train ride from Stockholm to Copenhagen and had beds booked in a six-bed dorm at the the Public City Hostel which turned out to be a fantastic hostel with a relaxed staff. The guitar-man statue in front was inviting us!

It was a short walk from Central Station Copenhagen to our hostel.

The hostel is connected to a youth center so it was active with kids running around and playing on water slides in the front grass area.  The gigantic kitchen was great for cooking. We rented two cargo-bikes so we could ride around town with all of our equipment and perform at different locations around the city just like we did in Amsterdam.

The tourist shopping walkway near Amager Square was jammed pack with street performers and at times was tough for us to find a spot to perform. We had our first session in Copenhagen in front of the fountain at Amager Square.

There is so much live music in this town – it’s everywhere in the street!

We met so many wonderful people right in the street as well who showed us how to get around and took us with them to the fun clubs and bars.

In Nørrebro at the Northern edge of the city, we rode along Jægersborggade, a quiet neighborhood street which is one of the hippest spots in town.  It is rivaled by Kødbyen, the meat-packing district which is the upcoming area for great bars and excellent food.

One late night, Justin and I lost track of each other and I was taken out into an exclusive membership club by a cool group. This girl had an membership card that looked like an american express card and we went through this fancy entrance area – she took my arm and acted like my girlfriend so she could bring me in with her membership card. It was a two story club filled with smoke on the dance floor, lights, and heavy DJ music.  The place was jam packed with good looking people that were getting down.  A lot of people had there little clicks and I would observe groups of people running into friends – I love checking out how friends interact and being welcomed into a circle.

We had a really fun show at Kings Park and met some great people that day.  Great crowd at the park and an unforgettable sunny day.  The applause was warm and welcoming.

Our new friends at Kings Park told us about this bohemian center called Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania, an autonomous neighborhood and commune that operates under it’s own special law.

Christiania is a squatted military area that was created in 1971; because it is autonomous status, cannabis is sold and traded everywhere inside this compound.  Vendors stand at there kiosks with buckets of different types of marijuana and blocks of hash.  Marijuana is sold in the street there everywhere you look and it is a center for the arts and music.  It looks like there are ruffians walking around, but the community is quite diverse and they just like having there drinks, smoke, and whatever else they might want to do.

There is absolutely no photography allowed within the gates of Christiania and there are signs everywhere with warning.  If you bring your camera out you will have several people come after you – but fortunately the owner of Woodstock allowed me to take a few photographs.  At night there was this massive hip-hop performance with a massive stage and Christiania was jam packed.

Woodstock is one of the most popular bars in Christiania – so we booked a gig there at 420 pm on Friday afternoon.

The crowd was great – a lady asked me for my hat to pass around during the gig and we made some decent loot – probably about 500 krone (crown) and the owner of the bar threw us some additional crown as well because we stirred up a crowd. Performing in Christiania was the highlight of my stay in Copenhagen.  I met some people that spoke to me at an artistic level that can be a rare find for me.  Christiania is an artistic center and there are art facilities, marijuana grow houses, and an excellent hardware store inside the gates that had everything you need for artwork and carpentry.  There are weed plants that grow outside in the open – the special law of Christiania confuses me as cannibis is illegal in the rest of Denmark.

Nyhavn harbor is a popular tourist area because it is so beautiful.

Copenhagen has been so wonderful – the people here are so vibrant, outgoing, and they sure love to drink in the early afternoon.  We rode our bikes all around the city, and our last day we went for a 30 km ride out of town with all of our heavy equipment.  We went searching for this beach area that was suppose to be popular, but ended up mostly riding through posh neighborhoods.

We got lucky on our long bike ride as a gas station attendant told us about this beach bonfire at Fort Charlottenlund in the late evening.

They really know how to celebrate Midsummer’s Day; as most of Europe has summer festivals to celebrate the summer solstice. We would have never found this party if we didn’t venture out of the center of Copenhagen. We mapped our way to the Fort Charlottenlund and found a nice restaurant to relax our bones.  I had a Salmon dinner that was spectacular.

Justin and I were completely exhausted from the long ride hauling our cargo bikes loaded with gear, but we were excited because we were gearing up to perform at this Bonfire party at the beach.  We had a great show on the grass at Fort Charlottenlund and met a lot of young people there.

The party went very late and then Justin and I had to ride another 15 km home.  Copenhagen went beyond my expectations and it was really because of the people.   We are now flying to Paris!  Bon Voyage!