Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Injured James ponders life in a cafe in Copenhagen

Copenhagen - Malmo

Hej!

Still in Copenhagen as you can tell. Why aren't I instead gallivanting around the city or other towns in Denmark you ask? Because I’ve been silly enough to injure my right knee and left calf, that’s why, being to self absorbed enjoying and walking the sights all over Copenhagen, I’ve overexerted my poor legs. Not to mention the sudden transition from hot Melbourne weather to cold Copenhagen weather has not been friendly to one's joints...

Not a good situation to be in, seeing that I’m supposed to be backpacking and all. Health is the most important thing to a backpacker, for without it you cannot really travel. Having said that, it hasn't stopped me and this Italian guy (Antonio) - who had sprained his ankle - from limping to the Carlsberg brewery for the free tour and beers, both limping on the right leg, arms outstretched, yelling "Beer!" in true Zombie like fashion!

As you can see I’m not the only one to have injured myself. In fact, a girl called Marta (Spanish) has injured her foot from walking too much, and Jason (oz) has lost all feeling in his right heel!

Anyway, Copenhagen is an awesome chilled out place. The city is quite sizable, full of gardens, lakes and canals, peaceful, laid back...the streets are clean, people are friendly, and the city at night is a sight to behold.

I love being in the main pedestrian street mall (1.6km long) at 5pm when it's dark, the smell of roasted caramelized peanuts wafting through the crisp cold air; hordes of shoppers in winter coats hustling and bustling past each other clutching shopping, dinner and Christmas presents; the vast multitude of Christmas lights adorning every nook and cranny, tree and building, colours of white, yellow, green and red, illuminating the clean paved cobblestones; buskers playing all sort of music adding to the festival like atmosphere... there's me, sitting by the fountain with a hot chocolate banana crepe in hand keeping me warm... indeed, these are the moments I truly live for, and appreciate more the beauty of life and what it truly is and has to offer if one were to stop and look, listen, touch, taste it...give life it's due attention, for it is surely a magnificent thing, life - a fragile flame so short, and easily, unexpectedly, and tragically extinguished before you know it.

Sights of Copenhagen include “The Little Mermaid” statue, the palaces and castles, the Carlsberg brewery with the famous elephant statues holding up the Carlsberg brewery tower...also the State of Christiania.

The State of Christiania was a "social experiment" run by squatters who took over a large area of land and the city's abandoned army barracks. What they did was turn it into an area that was outside the jurisdiction of the EU and Copenhagen itself - it has it's own laws, no taxes, people live there in free trade in wooden houses and broken down buildings decorated with artistic graffiti. Here you'd find flea markets, hippies, soft drug dealers (hard drugs were abolished years ago), dirt roads, no cars, the feeling you've stepped out of the EU and back in time. In fact, leaving the place you'd read a sign saying "You are now entering the EU". Clever.

Occasional police raids run through the area, but apart from that the state is pretty much left to its own. Probably due to it being a magnet for tourism.

Did a day trip to Malmo in Sweden with Marta, (Spanish). We caught a bus that went over the very long beautiful silver suspension bridge joining Sweden with Denmark,
I think the longest suspension bridge in the world, several kilometres long, indeed a work of art and ingenious architectural engineering... the waters are of artic white blue colour by day, pitch black at night.

Malmo itself is as chilled out as Copenhagen. The 3rd largest city in Sweden, it's the only city I know that has a picturesque open cemetery in the middle of the town square! The architecture of the place is exquisite, copper roofed ornamented buildings, bronze sculptures all over the place, the many bridges, rivers, canals, gardens...a small outdoor ice skating rink set up in one of the smaller prettier German looking squares under the large trees with it's boughs overladen with thousands of Christmas lights...a sea of large red candles - flames floating over the blackness of the grassy banks in the town square at night, awash with colour and light, is a sight to behold.

I meet a lot of interesting characters on my travels, because I have time left I’ll describe a few:

There’s a Japanese guy here called Nory, who speaks perfect English in true American accent. An ex-hard drug dealer in Washington, he's lived all over the world since the age of 4, from Japan to Africa to America to Europe. Only 18 years of age yet I find him to be a quite worldly, generous, funny character. He's going back to Japan soon to work on a farm. As you do.

Marta is the second Spanish person I’ve become quite good friends with after Erik ("Johnny Depp" look-alike from when I was in Lisbon last year). Marta looks a little like Penelope Cruz. Sorta. A great gal, friendly, a vivacious independent spirit with a good sense of humour - one could easily fall in love with her if you weren't careful. She lives in Pamplona, a final year architecture student with a passion for travel as her father is a ship captain who sails all over the world.

Antonio, as I’ve mentioned before, is not your typical Italian stereotype. A RyanAir steward, looks a little like Jude Law (me and my celebrity look-alike observations - it's your fault Emily! ), is witty, good natured, not sleazy, with a soft heart of gold. A good board game player, he was very sad to part company with us at the hostel.

Anyway, time is now running out, so I’ll keep you all posted on my whereabouts through the rest of Denmark and North Germany soon...

Ciao!

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