from Denmark with rain

We arrived on Friday evening and the air was filled with summer, finally! Got the key to the flat from Stine and dragged all our shit upstairs to the third floor, which knocked us out, and after cruising the net for a while we hit the bed with a big boom. Saturday, woke up early from the light filling the room because of the lack of curtains, but the sky was looming with clouds so I turned around and continued sleeping. Got up finally around noon after hours of half sleep, after conferring with Lynn and Peter we decided to head out for brunch at Bang & Jensen where we all met up. Those brunches are gigantic and after about two hours we were all too full of delicious fruits and pain au chocolait as well as all the other goodies that followed. The man headed out to Albertslund and his old neighbourhood, Galgebakken, to play football with his boys - exiting the cafe he boasted about scoring ten goals, later we found out he didn't even score one. Peter, Lynn and I followed shortly and made a quick stop at Peter's for clothing and a cup of tea, whilst the weather changed for the better and the sun peaked it's head out to warm our faces. After much back and fourth we decided to go to Christiania to see the circus, Spectaculum, which had set up camp out there for the weekend. Not taking the car we walked (Peter cycled) through Assistentens Kirkegård, where famous figures in Danish history such as Hans Christian Andersen (author), Niels Bohr (scientist), Henry Heerup (artist), J.C. Jacobsen (the founder of Carlsberg), Hans Scherfig (artist), H.C. Ørsted (scientist), Ben Webster (musician) and Søren Kirkegaard (author) as well as some of Peter's friends unfortunately. (Note the lack of female figures, other than actresses, shame on history that's all I have to say!) We continued our walk over Nørreport and stopped at Kultorvet for our first of many beers, enjoying the view of the crowds hurrying by. At the table next to us a Norwegian couple were talking about the Norwegian weather, and the girl was knitting to the amusement of Lynn who's a big handicraft enthusiast. After feeling chilled and our feet had recovered we hit the road again and after circa half an hour we arrived through the old main entrance to Christiania. Here we picked up another couple of beers before heading to the beach-like stage on the bank of the lake to watch a group of pseudo-Gypsies perform with song and puppets. Their most frequent puppet was a goat called Patagonia, which ended her part in the show, to the horror of all the children, by loosing a leg. At this point the sun was slowly moving behind a large mist-like cloud hovering over the whole of Copenhagen, but it was still warm and we headed to the main circus area for yet another beer, and a rum on the side:) After a while the sun had left us completely and it started to get chilly, so we decided to hit Spiseloppen a little before our reservation and have an aperitif while we waited for the boy to join us for dinner. The boy arrived just in time for our second white wine and elderflower, his first, and fifteen minutes later our grand meal arrived and we all delighted in silence. Although, over stuffed from the main course Lynn and I had to have dessert, which I, after noticing the ice cream was strawberry, passed on to my boy for him to finish. Happily full of delicious food we headed back to Sølyst, which doubles as a kindergarten by day, for some delightful music from Analogikk, and of course more beer. After running out of cigarettes and unfortunately music we all found ourselves exhausted and started the journey back to the flat. On our way out my eyes fell yet again on an iron sculpture depicting a broke down version of the statue of liberty holding a sign stating 'Ytringsfrihet' (Freedom of Speech), which according to Peter used to stand at the old entrance before they closed it due to the Police being able to rush in and arrest the pushers that used to be located right inside - so they rearranged it and created Pusherstreet, now also called Panserstreet as in panser slang for police, at the centre of Christiania. Unfortunately due to the uncertainty that has surrounded Christiania for the past two-three years Pusherstreet has returned to its former self, a normal gateway in and out of the 'city'. It used to be filled with, on each side, little wooden shelters that the different dealers would sell hash out of, looking more like a market street than a drug dealer's paradise, however, at this point I have to point out that in the 80s hard drugs were banned from Christiania and afterwards only natural drugs, hash, pot, skunk, cactus, mushrooms etc, were dealt in Pusherstreet. Peter said that one of the shelters was taken away by the National museum intact with empty bottles and everything - go national heritage, go!

Back to my point though, the sculpture, I wanted to take a photo of it, although it is prohibited to take photos inside Christiania obviously because of the illegal transactions taking place, but at the time there were no people around and I decided to take my chance for the sake of art. Unfortunately I had turned off the flash and the picture got blurred and too dark, but when I looked up to take another, a guy was setting up candles on it. I asked him if I could take a picture and he sourly replied 'No you can't'. So much for the hippie mentality, and I turned around saying loudly, hoping he would hear, to Lynn 'I just wanted to take a picture of the statue and he just said I couldn't.' And so our evening ended - each couple flagged down a taxi and drove off in separate directions.
Today we were all hoping for good weather, but its raining again so the beach will have to wait for another day. Later the boy and I will have dinner with the boy's parents and grandparents, which will be very nice and cosy I'm sure, and the food will be great as always - jummy!