For my Danish 101 class, we traveled to Fristaden Christiania (shorted to Christiania). Christiania is located in the Christianshavn kommune (kommunes are like states, they have their own buildings/communities as well as local governments. They are all throughout Denmark; I'm in the Greve kommune). Christiania though, is unlike any other place in Denmark. It's a town consisting of 850 residents with their own set of rules and laws (that are very different from the regular laws). From what I've learned Christiania was established in 1971 as a military area but since then has become a sort of neighborhood. Currently there's a lot of issues with the taxes. Taxes are extremely high in all of the Scandinavian countries. Yet in Christiania, apparently for a long period of time, it was an untaxed neighborhood. I'm not an expert on the subject and things are still very unclear about the town. But going there I really experienced a different side of Denmark. Christiania is probably best known for its "legal" pot. Weed is not legal in Denmark (although a lot of people get Copenhagen and Amsterdam mixed up). But in Christiania it is sold on the street called "Pusher's street" (unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the street because it's not allowed). I don't quiet understand how it works, but while visiting the area we saw the stands of marijuana sitting out. They also had pot brownies and other goods. Apparently the canbis trading started when Christiania was a milita
ry area but the business has stuck around since then. It was very strange walking on Pusher's Street seeing all the different types of marijuana laying out in the open for sale. There are even large green pot plants growing in Christiania.
I wouldn't qualify Christiania as a slum area. It just seems that people live very differently. The town doesn't have cars (they aren't allowed) and its kind of dirty. A lot of the residents don't work (they live off of unemployment). Many of them are old "bikers" and some are from the Hell's Angels gang (there's been a problem in the past with biker gangs). When we visited I noticed a lot of people sitting around, drinking, and smoking. It didn't seem to be a very productive place. The buildings are mostly worn down and there's a lot of graffiti. But some parts were beautiful, like the coastline. Yet I can understand how Christiania can be a problem for the Danish citizens. It costs Denmark a bundle of money to maintain an area (especially since there are a lot of non-working people). There have been a lot of efforts to move people out of there and into regular society. I don't quiet understand it all (I've heard a lot about it from school, my host family and other Danes), but seeing it really proves that it's an entirely different world.
As for me, I don't know what I think about the area. I haven't formed an opinion. I think the idea of a self-governing town is interesting, but I don't know how I would feel about it if I had to pay for it through taxes (while other people just received unemployment money). The oddest thing about the day was the tour guide. The older woman who led the tour moved to Christiania in the 70s and was one of the strangest people I have ever met. She was very loopy and wore her sweatshirt hood tightly around her head. She took us to the Christiania grocery store but I think the sole purpose of that was so she could buy an ice-cream. Even my Danish teacher commented on how odd she was. Some of the comments she made were very strange as well (she did a lot of talking about drugs and the government). My guess is she indulged in some of the weed before the tour.
