Freetown Christiania - walking outside the tourist zone

Outside the tourist zone in Christiania

So, we walked around, looking at different things in Christiania. There was this lake, where the swans were swimming and there were some ducks, too, and people were relaxing nearby on the ground and drinking beer or taking pictures. Right in front of us, there was this bridge called the Dyssebroen bridge. It connects Christiania’s main part to its more “rural” part to the Amager Side. It’s a pretty usual bridge, not very narrow, build with wood mostly and it’s for the pedestrians, however, I guess, they go there by bikes, too, because it’s large enough to go through there by bike. And there was this wooden tall statue right in front of the lake and it was a face of a man, I guess. it had eyes and eyebrows and nose curved and the mouth was a large hole, where you could go through.

We walked along the lake and followed the pathway. There were these trees around and it was a pure nature. You could call it a forest or something like that. And then there were some houses, which were fully incorporated into this nature and it was like they were just part of it. Though the architecture of those houses was pretty unusual and they call it “architecture without architects. ” There’s this building there in Christiania built with glass and it has just windows and it stands in that forest thing all alone and it’s really hard to believe, that somebody lives there. There were also houses with two stories, and the first one was pretty down below the pathway that we walked on, and it was connected to that pathway with some wooden small bridges and it was really strange.

Anyways, while walking and sightseeing, the rain began and soon it was raining cats and dogs and we got all wet in a couple of minutes. Of course, we continued walking or running, mostly, because there was no place to get inside and many of us didn’t have a raincoat or umbrellas and though others helped us get inside their umbrellas and stuff like that, it was still raining very badly and we couldn’t stay dry in such situation. Some time later we noticed this café, which was pretty large and there were some people inside and we got inside there, too. And we weren’t going to get out of there until the rain had stopped or slowed down a little. I was pretty wet, to be honest, however, I really didn’t want to go home because of the rain and I hoped, that it would stop some time later eventually.

This café, that we went in was a pretty beautiful one. There were all those different cakes and sandwiches and coffee and tea at the counter and they even had a menu and you could just sit there and enjoy everything. There were many paintings on the walls and some sayings, which were pretty awesome. There was this sign or something like that on the top of the wall. It was those three dots of Christiania flag, however, it was on the white wall and the third dot was different - there was a man sitting on that dot, which was kind of a semilunar dot and he was fishing. And he had this hat on and he was smoking a cigarette and it was just like you have seen those men on illustrations. There were many other things there, too. You could even play some pool there, because they had a pretty large pool table and there were some people playing it. The bathrooms were really large, too, and they were clean and painted in red and they were really alright. We stayed there for a while and though I thought about having some hot chocolate or something hot there, the rain had kind of stopped and we decided to continue our tour in Christiania.

Soon the rain had stopped and we walked and walked. People were working around, they were building some things, some of them were building houses, and some of them were repairing them. They also had some beautiful yards.

We also saw their art gallery, where there were many paintings and there were many flowers, too. And those people really were skilled and talented and creative, I must say. They did all those stuff themselves and they had made the place of Christiania not some boring homeless place, but a lively active area with colourful surroundings and environment.

Well, after some time of walking, we kind of lost the trek and then we were somewhere nearby the canals on an asphalt street and we could see the Copenhagen opera building across the canal. Kathrine asked us about the way we wanted to go back, and there were two options. One option was a long way back and the other one was “a very long way” back, so that we had to walk for a very long time in both cases. After some voting, we decided to go with that pathway that we walked through. So that we still went back to the forest and went along the lake and then went to the center, I guess. Of course, it was a pretty long way back and we were all tired and wanted to get back there sooner, but when we got back there, and it was a pretty good weather again, we didn’t want to leave. However, we still left and the others decided to go to Nyhavn or places nearby. I kind of had another plans, so that I went to the other way.

You know, getting out of Christiania there’s this arch, which I told you about, that has a sign of Christiania when you enter it. And while leaving Christiania I noticed, that this arch had a sign from inside, too, and it was a pretty ironic one, saying “you are now entering the EU”.

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