Upon arrival, we caught the local city "S-train" out into one of Copenhagen's suburbs called Bagsværd. There, we met up with the next person on our growing list of generous hosts. His name is Lars, we met him on Couchsurfing, and I would have to say he is the textbook version of a CS host. He's been incredibly warm, welcoming, and conversational, and has some amazing travel stories. We've been thoroughly enjoying sharing our evenings with him in his cozy apartment. I feel very glad that an online community like Couchsurfing exists so that we have the chance to meet wonderful people like Lars through the course of our travels. Last night he even ran out to the store after dinner because he said we absolutely had to try some of Denmark's special Danish licorice! I, for one, had no objections.
During the days, we've been exploring the city at a leisurely pace. We've got a few days here yet, and there aren't so many things to do in Copenhagen that we need to rush through them. Yesterday we window-shopped the main walking street and then strolled through a Christmas market, stopping to purchase only the necessities: some good warm gloves and the cheapest coffee we could find (25 kroner!! which is equivalent to about 5 US dollars).
In the afternoon, we made our way to a special area of the city called Christiania. Also known as "Freetown Christiania" or simply "the freetown", it is a self-proclaimed 'autonomous neighborhood' created in 1971 where Danish laws are not traditionally enforced. Approximately 1000 people live and work in Christiania and operate under their own set of rules-- no stealing, no guns, no hard drugs (although cannabis is widely excepted and sold throughout the area), and interestingly enough, no pictures. Hand painted and graffitied signs reading "NO PHOTO" are ubiquitous, and convey this message loud and clear. We have heard that this neighborhood can be quite a tourist attraction during the summer months, and maybe we caught it on a bad day, but to us it seemed a bit unkempt and unwelcoming. We got the general vibe that it was a place for people who wanted not to be bothered by anyone and that we were no exception. We wandered around for a while, browsed through the make-shift shops, took exactly ZERO photos, and then left. Perhaps we'll give it another shot on another day.
Today we got up and took the S-train across the city to Amalienborg Palace--which is the winter home of the Danish royal family-- to watch "the changing of the guards." Neither of us had ever seen one of these things before, and we didn't really know what to expect. They begin across the city at Rosenborg Castle and march through the city to Amalienborg where they execute the changing of the guard. When the Queen is in residence at the palace (which she was today), the guard performs a more elaborate version of the ceremony, which involves an accompanying band that plays traditional military marches. We both agreed that the band was our favorite part. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes but mostly looked like this:
After that, we decided to head out of the center a little ways to the Carlsborg Brewery for a tour. We've both done our fair share of brewery tours, but this one was different in that it included a whole slew of history- not only on Carlsborg and the founding of their brewery, but also on beer in general, which was pretty cool. It also involved a visit with the horses in their stables, which were originally used to deliver beer throughout the city, but today simply serve the purpose of "ambassadors" (i.e. advertising) for the company and frequently attend different functions and parties where Carlsborg beer is being served.
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