you are now entering the eu.

so read the sign as we exited the small freetown of christiana on saturday night around 2am. it was by far one of the craziest places i've ever been to. we walked around the area for a while saturday evening and it looked nothing like the rest of copenhagen: it was desolate and graffiti-ridden and just strange. when we saw the sign over an arch which said christiana that led to a very creepy looking street (with shady guys standing out in front), we almost didn't go in, but we went to ask a shopowner about it and some very nice woman told us it was perfectly safe and that she lived there, so we went for it. inside was, as rachel's friend maggie aptly put it, like that place in pinocchio where all the bad boys turn into donkeys. it was freakin' trippy to say the very least. it used to be old army barracks and looks like many of the structures aren't meant to be permanent. the shacks are all painted/graffitied, and hash is sold rather openly, although it's illegal and the cops have been busting down on it lately. the nice woman told us to go into this bar so we went upstairs, paid the cover, and sat in a really cool bar with probably all locals. A ska band went on and performed which was really fun, and we drank lotsa local beer (carlsberg and tuborg. i like the latter better). the place was brightly colored, with a youngish crowd of mid-20 year olds, pot was smoked inside, there were some random creepy dudes, including one who was old and wasted and went around with a multi colored duster and literally dusted people.

our guidebooks said that you need to ask permission before taking any photographs, and absolutely NO PHOTOS ON PUSHER STREET. this is the main "street" (if you call the small pathways inside the town streets) inside the town. there was a no cameras sign painted onto a building there. i guess they want to protect themselves against the government which so badly wants to shut them down.

other observations about copenhagen/places i went in copenhagen:
-the kroner, the currency which is about 7.5 to a euro, was annoying to figure out, and the coins which were large (some with holes in the center) confused us because they all looked the same.
-there must be elections right around the corner because there were sooo many posters for the different parties. in fact, two of rach's friends said they met two senators their first night there. i think there's lots of political parties or something. one of the posters was a "no needles" poster which was strange. i think it refers to the fact that Copenhagen was one of the first places to do needle exchange or whatever.
-there are 711s EVERYWHERE. i'm going to look into why that is.
-in case i didn't mention it, i got dragged to the erotica museum, which was exactly what i expected. porn and inappropriate pictures abounded.
-we went to see the ny carlsberg glyptotek museum, the palace with parliament, and the marble church, our last day.

finally, on an unrelated note, i can't usually see who reads my posts, but my counter does tell me if someone searched for something to get to my blog, i can tell what they typed in the search engine. how big brother-esque. (stay tuned for my berlin post with communist points of interest). anyway, someone found their way to my blog by typing in "super long erect nipples". god that makes me happy.