DenmARK

Ok, I saw as much of Denmark as I did Sweden, as I did Norway, which was very infinitesimally small. Still I thought it suits better as a chapter in its own right.

In fact I ended up staying in Malmo just over the water from Copenhagen with Sara-Marie her baby girl Lea and partner Bjorn. Sara-Marie I knew from some time in Ivanka Pri Dunaji where a bunch of us spent a fortnight in a summer camp for Slovakian kids doing anything that would entertain from sports to theatre, art n’ crafts to taking spoons off kids who might use them as a weapon. It was a great two weeks.

After arriving in the late afternoon we still have enough time for a visit to an industrial area, a waterfront walk and some food in the central square. After this we get the bus and make our way out to the suburbs where the family live. The next day we swap Malmo for Denmark and get the train across the Oresund bridge.

Things I saw in Copenhagen:

• A homeless soccer tournament with some fine pieces of skill being played out on one of the cities main squares.
• Christiania. A commune that considers itself outside the Danish state, where cannabis used to be sold openly until things got a bit heavy between rival sellers. Now it is just smoked openly with art n crafts. Extremely chilled out with only three rules: No photography; no selling of drugs and no running (it makes people nervous).
• Nyhavn or New Haven, an old part of town where trader ships from around the world used to dock. With lovely old slanted houses it is as beautiful as any part of a European city might be with relaxed restaurants, homely bars and people sitting quayside with the odd bottle of beer.
• An Australian busker who was making feck all money and who might not yet realise that most people pay in plastic here so have little in the way of change.
• Christianiabikes bikes that originated here. Looking like something that a butcher might cycle if butchers did cycle years ago with a box in the front for to carry, shopping, children or both.
• Sunshine.
• Some nice old town buildings that I don’t know exactly what they were for.
• Some nice old town buildings that I did know what they were for like the Round Tower that I’m told is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe.

 

Things we didn’t see:

• A little Mermaid and Carlsberg.

Back in Malmo we are met by circulating street parties as dumper-trucks full of students wearing sailor hats pump-out music to celebrate their end of school. Every so often a dumper-truck is followed by a car where the student’s parents hold out placards of what they looked like when they were four. It’s like a good natured missing child search. Meeting Bjorn and after another few beers in the square of yesterday catching the last of the evening sun we leave and return home.

The next day in the worst weather since I arrive I make it to Malmo station and board for home. Five friends, seven days, just don't check the bank balance.