Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen Denmark was one city where I was alone for my entire stay. I wandered about the city a bit aimlessly, but I ended up seeing a lot of great things. One particular day I remember stumbling upon a building called “Our Saviors Church”, at least that’s the English translation. The church rises up above the buildings of Christiania, a neighborhood in Copenhagen that I was in at the time. I saw it and it really caught my interest. As I got closer and closer to the church I could see that there were people climbing a spiral staircase that wrapped around the cone shaped tower at the top. I had to get to the top. I went straight to the church and went inside where I bought a ticket to the top for about seven Euro or so.
The climb to the top was amazing. The church was incredibly old and reminded me of an old mine shaft or something. The bell tower of the church was below the actual spire that I was headed to. All of the original machinery for the bell was still in tact and was quite impressive how it worked. The stairs to the top were so varied in how they were constructed, first a spiral staircase with no headroom opens up to a room and you turn around to a very steep staircase which leads to a set of stairs so steep they are almost qualified to be a ladder and so on up to the top. The view from the top was really good. Copenhagen is a really pretty town from that height and I really liked how the apartment buildings were built in squares so they all had nice little courtyards in the center of them.
After leaving the church I went to a neighborhood called Christiania that is famous for being sort of its own country in the middle of Copenhagen. As I walked into the area a sign above me hanging on chains and made of old rotten wood read “Now leaving the European Union” in poor hand writing. I walked down one of the main streets of the town surrounded by very intimidating looking guys hanging out, drunk, and all quite large scary looking chaps. I would say half of these men had a pit bull fit for fighting. These guys that were looking at me quite suspiciously were obviously the drug dealers and pushers of Christiania.
As I walked a little further I saw to my right a man sitting at an old wooden barrel selling bricks of hashish the size of my fist. He had a few of them and was selling them, others around were buying and selling drugs but I kept walking and went to the center of the town. There at the center was a nice little bar and grill. It was a greasy little joint run by some hippies but their food was quite good. After eating and reading some of my book, I decided Christiania gave me a bit of a bad vibe and I left. “Now entering the European Union”. Back at last.
The night before I left Copenhagen I went for a run and ended up running to the fort that guarded Copenhagen in the past from attackers at the coast. It was a large fort with barracks in the center surrounded by the star shaped pattern of large dirt mounds for cover. As I ran around it I was caught in thought of the battles that had happened there which I knew almost nothing about. To think of all the battles around the world that have happened that I don’t really know much about is a heavy thought to bare. It was a beautifully kept area, but as I ran around all I could picture in my mind was men running up and down the barriers slipping in mud and firing canons and mortars at approaching troops, or falling to take their final breaths. I consider myself extremely fortunate that I have never been called to battle or had to conquer such a mind numbing fear as rushing to the front lines of a battle.