Hot Mess Kayaking: Copenhagen Part 1: The Labyrinth (Where is David Bowie?)

From Linköping I drove to Copenhagen to visit a friend I had met in the rafting/kayaking world.

Again Copenhagen is encouraging people to bike around the city by providing bike lanes everywhere (and by making parking in the city expensive). I was lucky to get free parking outside Casper’s house and even luckier he had a spare bike I could use for the week.

I don’t think I can remember the last time I’ve been on a bike…maybe 2007? People say you never forget how to ride a bike but I was told pretty quickly by Casper I had no balance and was slow like a grandma. The highlight for me was when we were joking around and Casper showed me ‘how not to’ ride into other cyclists on the path.

In Copenhagen in time for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Lots of free bands playing in lane ways and bars.

Fountain in the one of the squares of Størget

Størget, one of the largest shopping streets in Copenhagen

Størget

Just outside of Størget

Canal near Christiansborg Palace

Front of Christiansborg Palace

Christiansborg Palace

This time of year in the city centre you will probably hear more people speaking in English than Danish. Even though I have worked hard to learn some basic Swedish (which makes Norwegian fairly easy to understand), I could not understand even the most basic things in Danish such as ‘would you like a receipt’ or ‘would you like a bag’. It’s written almost the same way but the pronunciation is so foreign to my ears no matter how hard I try to pick up key words. I did speak in Swedish a couple of times and got ‘corrected’ in Danish or people did not understand me. It reminded me of this You Tube video once shown to me by a Norwegian (I have now downloaded Rosetta Stone Danish volume 1!):

Canal in Christianshavn

Christianshavn

Vor Frelsers Kirke

If only people were this into cycling in all major cities

Vor Frelsers Kirke

My second day in Copenhagen was probably the biggest day I’ve had by far! Christiana is the word. A few friends had suggested going to this hippy town and when you look at it on the map it seems very small. When you enter Christiana it’s not like entering any kind of normal town, you are essentially entering the Labyrinth! It’s easy to understand why there are so many restaurants and gardens inside once taking what some might call the full tour. I felt like I was in Nepal again for some of the part with the broken down shacks selling hamburgers and beer. There are also market stalls and wonderful murals to catch the eye. Unfortunately you can’t take any photos in Christiana, not only are you entering the Labyrinth, you are entering a what they call the Green Light District which is probably the reason why it’s hard to find your way out with so many wonderful things to look at!

I felt pretty creative after my mission to Christiana and I got a pretty large tour of Copenhagen seeing most of the sights afterwards and subsequently taking numerous photos that are below.