Freetown Christiania

Hej people!

This is the third post of my exchange.hahah Apologies to all who have been waiting for me to blog and thank you for your patience!!!!!

As mentioned by Laur, I am going to blog abt Christiania, the state we visited during our Copenhagen trip. Its on the western side of Copenhagen, about southeast of Christianshavn. And it... Rocks. Just because it is different, in many ways.

We actually found out abt this place when the nice guy at the Danhostel reception counter recommended us places to check out in Copenhagen. He encouraged us to pay a visit to Christiania during the day, where we would be able to observe a vast difference in architecture and the way people dressed in Christiania, as compared to Copenhagen city.

He said it was a hippie town and a drug haven, where drug trafficking (especially, Hash) was not uncommon in that area. He went on to explain that the place had a number of police raids in recent months but was safe to move around in Christiania during the day. What a cool recommendation?! We just had to include it in our itinery!

Here... our journey through Christiania follows......

First, Let me show you some pictures of Copenhagen city, the 6th most expensive city in the world, according to Mercer HR "Cost of Living" Survey 2007. (The link is here: http://www.mercerhr.com/costofliving).

Above: Shophouses along the river in Copenhagen City. Yes, they have Royal Canal Tours like our Singapore river tours.

Copenhagen city shopping area. Feels like you are walking down the Orchard Road stretch in Singapore. Only difference? Every building to your left and right is at least a Paragon or Takashimaya. haha/..

Copenhagen City Hall. Beautiful well-preserved architecture.

ok TAKE A DEEP BREATH!
here's Christiania!(compare and contrast)

Streets of Christiania - Old dilapidated buildings, a far cry from what you saw in Copenhagen City. With lots of graffiti.

Below: Side entrance of the "central" area of Christiania. I will tell you abt the "central" area later!

Below: Windows of some of the shophouses in Christiania.

To a large extent, the graffiti is beautiful. They seem to tell a story. Worth pondering for a while. See below for the beautiful graffit!

Above: Mural of some fairy tale and a terrorizing dragon?!

Above: The blue-muscle monster destroys civilization?! This picture is very good for venting your frustration and anger - Laureen shows you how.

Typical street of Christiania: Lots of mad graffiti. Aya - As cool as the Ice Queen amidst the mess.

As u can see, not all murals are abt frustration and anger. At least Yiwen shows you one thats not!
Another graffiti. Neat !

Above: a poster of Christiania, pasted on the walls of the streets.

"Yo!" says the poster.

"Yo!" says Yo Yiwen.

Posters pasted on the street walls. Pi sai!

Ask Yiwen what her hand sign means. Ive no idea either.

Bulldogg?!..

Show me the money..

This is what i call ART. And yes saeed, the wall is huge. at the bottom left, it reads, "FREE YOUR SPIRIT" - probably telling us how the Christianites feel. Murals really speak a thousand words.

Cool background!

They design garbage chutes too :)

Ok... let me show you the Real stuff (1 picture only): Entrance of the "Central" area of Christiania:

Picture above: "No photos allowed". As we entered the "central" area of Christiania, the locals immediately told us (in an unfriendly manner) to put our cameras away. On the right of the picture, you can see a few tourist shops. and it ends there.

When we walked further in, we saw spray paint on walls warning us not to take pictures too. You might have realised by now that Christiania is not a typical tourist attraction. When we walked in, we saw policemen patrolling the area, while the Christianites looked on.

The locals, majority of them in hoods and baggy pants, were not welcoming at all, it is as if we were invading their territory. They appeared to be watching the police, and we could feel the hostility between both parties. There was a bit of "tension" when we walked through that stretch. We decidedly to walk one round and get out of the place, as it didnt feel safe at all. We walked past some eateries and one bakery called "Sunshine Bakery". The shops looked very old, as if they were going to be closed down anytime soon. There was no pavement, no roads in that stretch, locals looked suspicious. No street lights, no skyscrapers, totally no resemblance of Copenhagen city.

Just imagine Pulau Ubin with inhabitants and small shophouses, yup, thats what we saw in that stretch. And no, we didnt see people taking drugs of course! They are the pros..

After touring that stretch, we walked back and headed towards the tourist shops. We spoke with one of the shopowner and she explained to us that Christiania was previously used as army barracks. After which they were abandoned and people started moving in to occupy the land. She also explained that the people there resent the government and completely run the state on their own, where they have their own rules and state flag. She also pointed to the stretch we walked through, and said that it was the "central" location for drug trafficking (hash, in particular). No wonder we saw so many policemen patrolling there! No wonder we could feel the most tension when we walked thru that stretch!

Then we asked abt the drug trafficking rules in Christiania, and we got a culture shock. Just liek any other country, drug rules were a Stark difference from Singapore. They fine you for less than 1 kg of drugs, and put you in jail if you are found in possession of more than 1 kg of drugs. Haha, the shopowner even told us she knew Singapore prosecute drug traffickers for lesser than 1 kg. Yup, we have been and will always be well-known for that!

We were glad we were able to learn more about this hippie town from a Christianite, and bought some Christiania gifts from her shop before we left

The dots all join together now, when I wikipedia-ed Christiania. It gave one viewpoint on why the people moved into Christiania - that is, most of the people who first moved into the abandoned army barracks were those who felt the Govt was unfair in housing policies, and could not afford proper housing. Also, they wanted public space for their own use, away from the hustle and bustle of the Copenhagen city.. and very soon, the town developed into a hippie place - with hatred and distrust of the govt instiled in peoples' minds. Their beliefs do not conform to the norm, & they are strong proponents of freedom of expression.

Below is their state flag and their mission:

"The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the wellbeing of the entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and physical destitution can be averted."



Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania.

If you are interested, read up more on the above link.



Here's a picture of the exit sign of Christiania town:



It says: "You are now entering the EU".

On our last night at Copenhagen, some of us went back to Christiania, to take a look at the town at night. Yup, we just couldn't get enough of it!
I do not have the pictures now, but will upload them when i get them.


The feeling was quite creepy. It was a deadlier town at night than it was in the day. The streets were quiet, no cars. When we first stepped into Christianshavn during that nite, we saw a group of guys playing around in the middle of the road. We walked at lightning speed after that. We entered the "central" area of Christiania, and it was pitch dark. The street lamps ended at the entrance of Christiania. There were totally no street lights after the entrance, just small light bulbs lit up outside the small shophouses on that same stretch again. Because it was dark, we could only see clusters of people with hoods hiding at corners, couldnt see what they were doing. The people stared at us too, they must be wondering what these crazy Asians were doing on their territory at night. But no one offered us drugs lar.


& Then ..... we walked past Sunshine Bakery again! and Guess what?! at 11pm, the bakery is still open. The shopowner was mending the shop,and a group of 4 to 5 young boys were loitering at his shop, and they were standing very closely to the shopowner. The last thing that should come to your mind now is, they were buying bread.


Thank god there wasnt any police raids, if not the situation would hav been a lot more messy at night. Everywhere we walked in that stretch, we saw groups of people (abt 4-5) in a circle and standing very closely to each other. We walked fast and took a U-turn back to the entrance of Christiania because we realised we were the only people walking around on that stretch at night. Most were either seated in groups or standing in groups.


How exciting! We left the place VERY quickly and walked back to Danhostel. The speed we were walking at that night in Christianshavn was the fastest throughout our Copenhagen trip.
We were very thankful we reach Danhostel safely that night.


Overall, I would say it was an interesting experience for each of us, as we had the chance to see the alternative side of Copenhagen, totally cut away from the cosmopolitan area, museums, Tivoli, shopping areas, infrastructure. We left Denmark with a different perspective of Copenhagen.
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