christiania

Christiania, or the Freetown of Christiania... is a residential area unlike any other in Denmark. This mess of historic military buildings, makeshift housing and ramshackle businesses... is home to approximately 1,000 people...
Up until 1961, the 101-acre site that Christiania now occupies was an army barracks. When the army moved out, a group of like-minded Christianshavn residents decided to knock down the fence... and access the land as a playground and open space. Meanwhile, an exhibition... which examined the hippie movement, and an alternative lifestyle newspaper... galvanized Copenhagen's experimentalists. The paper ran an article on the barracks with various proposals for its use, including as housing for the young. This was all the encouragement that hundreds of 'dropouts' from across Denmark needed and soon the site began to fill up. On November 19, 1971, the new residents founded what they like to call the Freetown of Christiania, although it was promptly declared illegal by the authorities. However, the number of residents had already grown to the extent that, despite their best and often most violent efforts, the police failed to clear the barricades.  
In subsequent years, the community formed its own system of government, built schools, shops, cafes, restaurants, various cooperatives and music venues, and embarked on recycling programs and nascent solar- and wind-power projects. 
Christiania is unique. Until very recently it was a community that existed within Copenhagen, but outside of its laws and conventions... Christiania has been under threat like never before... and the first casualty was the world-famous Pusher Street, where soft drugs were being sold openly from stalls like market produce. 
In January 2004 Christiania voted to tear down the booths selling ready rolled spliffs, cannabis resin and other soft drugs - before the government ordered the police to do it forcibly...
Flower power staggers on in Christiania and, by way of evidence, no wall is left undaubed with murals, graffiti and, well, daubs, and large, shaggy dogs of indeterminate breed roam unhindered.
-  Time Out: Copenhagen

sorry for the long background information but i thought you should all know the story about the place where i was today :)

today was a beautiful day! one of the coldest so far but the sun was shining for the first time since i've been here. apparently there was an hour of sunlight on thursday, but being my day off, i had slept through the entire day only to have the sun set within half an hour of waking up. gahh i don't like the short winter days here.

my friend and i went to explore the "hippie commune" of denmark. unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the free state so no pictures! you just have to come here and see for yourself or just keep thinking that it's too good to be true.

christiania (aka hippe commune) is only a small part of a larger island called christianshavn but the entrance into the free state is marked by their own little gate. as soon as you enter, you can smell the hash (what they call it in denmark) everywhere and it is completely different from the rest of copenhagen. groups of people are hovering over trash cans on fire for warmth as well as to light their "doobies" as my friend likes to call it. and they have their own little version of the fun factory with a booth selling spray paint in front. we didn't get to see the residential area but we stopped in to try their own beer named after themselves, christiania.

copenhagen is very small and you can probably walk around it in a day. denmark in general is small. it takes about 3 hours to cross the entire country from east to west. if you fall asleep on the train, you could also very easily end up in sweden in literally one or two train stops. everything is so clean and automatic (no chance of swine flu here). almost all cars are manual and most foods are organic. that is probably why the danes are such tall, beautiful, gorgeous people. i have yet to see an ugly person... even among the older people. and for the amount of beer they drink, they are beer-gut-less (although they say the nation is getting larger as a whole and by larger i mean fat). if i bring back anything, it'll definitely be a higher tolerance for beer. don't be fooled! most danish women can outdrink american men for sure.

and the jayz song was on...
really! they love "empire state of mind" here. it's always playing. yes... they are very up to date with our music and our movies. even the danish bands sing in english so i could very well live in copenhagen :)