I passed out quite aggressively last night as soon as my head hit the pillow. The downside of this was that I woke up feeling fairly refreshed around 330 in the morning. I did eventually fall back asleep for a little bit, but such sleep dilemmas are common for me on the first night after a long-haul flight. Nicole eventually woke up to keep me company and we set out just after 7 to get some pastries.
Enroute, we walked by a much quieter Nyhavn. The buildings had a nice reflection in the calm water below as the sun rose above the horizon. Few people were out. In fact, the only people we saw were a few other people with photography equipment and some others with suitcases heading out for their morning flights from Kastrup.
Greg would have been proud of us for exploring our environs at such an hour, even if it was more a result of the jet lag than our yearning to shoot during “Golden Hour.” We took the pastries back to our hotel room before bundling up and heading back outside — this time on bicycles.
We set out toward a building called Copenhill. I had seen pictures of it online and found it intriguing. It’s an eco-conscious powerplant that has a roof made of grass. It is sloped like a wedge to accommodate a large hiking path as well as a ski slope. It was an attempt by the government to be more eco friendly and also have a powerplant that wasn’t just a complete eyesore. It converts waste into clean energy and is meant to be an attraction itself on account of the ski slope and other activities.
Unfortunately, because it was so early, the grassy walking areas and ski slopes were closed, but we did see some people on a massive rock climbing wall that scaled the side of the building. We continued our leisurely bike ride around the city and cut through an area known as Freetown Christiania.
Christiania is essentially a hippie commune dating back to the 70s which is still in use to this day. It has been a bit of a contentious issue with the Danish government on account of people wanting to own the land as a collective rather than pay taxes and such. To my understanding, that’s all been rectified with the residents now paying a sort of rent at below market rates.
It’s evidently the 4th most visited tourist site in Copenhagen. But as mentioned yesterday, when a small statue of a mermaid is the #1 attraction, hippie commune seems reasonable at #4. There wasn’t much to see, honestly. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect. The buildings don’t look great, there’s a lot of graffiti, the people lurking around look stoned, and it smells like skunky weed everywhere. There have been some travel bloggers who have gone to Christiania and acted like they were entering the streets of Mogadishu by speaking in hushed tones and trying to shoot video stealthily, but that is obviously a bit dramatic. Again, it’s a tourist destination, not some crime syndicate.
We passed through the gates back into the European Union, as the sign stated, and were back at our hotel within a few minutes. All in all, a productive morning that involved riding our bicycles through two “countries,” but we weren’t done yet. When we first ventured out on the bicycles, I saw a little boy bouncing on what appeared to be a metal grate, but it was far too springy, so I made it a point to see what that was all about on our way back.
There was a nearby sign in Danish, but it contained the word “trampolin,” and we had all the information we needed to enjoy a few minutes of bouncing. There were about five of these grate-looking trampolines so we were able to bounce simultaneously. We only stopped when a little girl walked over looking interested, and we didn’t want to get in her way, or intimidate her with our spectacular springs, huge hops, brilliant bounces, or jealousy-inducing jumps. It was just a few more blocks from the trampolines to our hotel, where we had a few hours before we needed to checkout. We attempted to warm up in our room before getting packed and readied ourselves for phase two of our journey — Dubai.
passports & pepto bismol 