anføres af christiania

// quotes from christiania

"Hello! I am Italian. Italians are the best lovers you know. I need a woman. I really need a woman. With beautiful lips. Like yours."
‑ An "Italian" guy who spoke with a Danish accent and didn't understand a word I said to him in Italian. Hmmm.

"The thing I like best about living in Denmark is that we can sit here like this, free to talk to new people without being afraid, free to be who we want to be."

"And what do you like the least?"

"That we have soldiers fighting in the world. Little Denmark! What are we doing out in the world! It's just because our stupid little prime minister wants a top job in the UN so he is kissing ass to the Americans."
‑Lyhne, a court jester

"Be careful of your drinks around here. Most people are good but you never know when there is someone bad."
‑Bo, a magician

"I like our royal family because they are just like normal people. Plus I am a court jester and I couldn't be a court jester with no court!"
‑ Lyhne

"Look, I can make this stone disappear!"
‑ Bo, who did

"Christiania is a wonderful place because it lets me develop my art and share my ideas. I could not do the things I do with my art if this place did not exist."
‑ Anders, an african dancer

"Yes, it's a good place for people like us. In other places people just think we are crazy men, but here our performances are appreciated."
‑ Lyhne

"You know, the world is getting better, not worse. Of course we hear more about the darkness in the world because it's getting less and less, so they have to shout louder to be heard: 'look! we are still here!', but most of the people in the world are like you and me. Good people who just want to meet each other and have conversations and help each other. The world is definitely getting better."
‑ Lyhne

"The best thing about Danes, for a traveller, is that we know our cities. When we were in Amsterdam we asked some local people for help and they took us two busses, and one train then we had to walk a long way. They were very kind to us but when we arrived we could see where we had started, it was only ten minutes by foot! But they didn't know their own city and they took us all that way!"
‑ Bo on Danes versus the rest of the world

If you walk about 20 minutes north of Copenhagen's main square, you leave Denmark and enter Christiania. Christiania is a free state, abandoned by the military and taken over by the hippies 37 years ago today.

As you walk in, past the red Christiania flag with three yellow dots, past the grocery store where you get your change in Christianian 'lom' instead of Danish kroner, past the giant snail that embodies the local motto of "hurry slowly", you finally come to a large picture of a camera with a red cross through it. You are on "Pusher Street" and photos of this street are not taken to kindly by the locals for reasons closely connected to the street's name.

I made the trip to Christiania the day before the big bash and got talking to a shop keeper who told me to come back the next day for the party. He said they were preparing for it in the workshop out the back and peeking through I saw a joint rolling factory line. Ha!

As the day dawned on her 37th year, Christiania's inhabitants and friends were setting up stages, rolling joints, cracking open beers and dressing up for the 24 hour party that was about to begin. I chose to visit in the daytime (I'm daring, but not daring enough to visit a drug haven alone at night in a foreign country) and a girl from the hostel came with me.

After some wandering, Chantelle and I found ourselves a spot at the bar, where we ate our free bread, jam and cheese snack and drank the organic Christianian beer, brewed somewhere in Jutland and emblazoned with the Christianian flag. It tasted like Toohey's New.

At the table we were soon joined by a group of the most interesting looking people in the whole place, who are responsible for the quotes and insights above.

It was great to talk to the locals about such a unique place. We chatted to them for about an hour before Lyhne went off to play on one of the stages, Bo wandered away to make snails out of balloons and hide them in potplants, and the others headed off together discussing their latest ideas. We had to move on, so we left Christiania and her colourful fairy folk to the serious business of partying.

It was a little like being in the Magic Faraway Tree, but maybe that was all the pot smoke in the air!