June 25^th, 2012

Day 37: Copenhagen, Denmark

This morning Stephen and I decided to go on the free walking tour offered by Sandeman’s. It’s the same walking tour that I took in Edinburgh, and also a number one suggestion from a friend who had spent a semester in Copenhagen (shout out to Stephen Nock!) It met at 11 o’clock right outside the Town Hall in the center of the city. Our tour guide’s name was Gareth; originally from Dublin and relocated to Denmark, he was really funny and engaging right off the bat so we knew it would be a great experience.

He started off the tour telling us about the Town Hall behind us and introduced us to the most common theme that would hold true for the rest of the day: Copenhagen burned down. Several times.  Almost all of the buildings and sights that we saw today had once been rebuilt due to fire. There were several great fires that tore Copenhagen apart as well as invasions that left the city destroyed.

He went through the history of Denmark beginning with the Viking times and then explained how Denmark’s central location played an integral role in their industry development and historical success throughout history. Denmark is located in the middle of trading paths from the Western side of Northern Europe to the east. They have tons of coastline which provided a safe and sheltered space for ships to dock and busy harbors to be formed and developed. This key location also made them a target for stronger powers wanting to take over (such as England, Napoleon, and Sweden at various points in their history). As we walked through the city (in the on and off rain), we saw many buildings, churches and statues of key figures in Denmark’s history.

Apparently if you mess with the guards' boxes you can get the shit kicked out of you by them (per law). Luckily, Stephen escaped the wrath of the funny hats.

I think the most powerful part of the walking tour was towards the end when Gareth told us about Denmark’s involvement in WWII. Denmark had been occupied by the Nazis but the government was still allowed to be in power and rule their own people. The Nazis did, however, force the government to make certain laws, one of which was that Jews had to wear a yellow star on all of their clothing. The King of Denmark at the time, King Christian X, didn’t agree to that, though, and fought the law. The Nazis said that since he was not giving into this law, they planned to gather up all of the Jews in Denmark (about 7,000) and ship them off to camps in 3 days time. At this point, the King mobilized all of Denmark’s citizens to call everyone in the phone book with a Jewish last name and tell them to get out before the 3 days was up. Regular people helped to warn the Jews and essentially saved their lives by telling them about the Nazi’s plan and telling them to seek shelter outside of the country. After this mobilization, there was a small number of Jews who were still in the country that were rounded up by the Nazi troops. They were sent off to camps in Germany and Poland. The King wasn’t through with his crusade to save his people though. He made a deal with the Nazis- if he was able to send his officials to inspect the places where his people were being held and they passed the inspection, he would allow the incarceration. The Nazis thought this was a great PR play and cleaned up the camps and redecorated nicely to make it seem like a habitable space. They thought that if the King of Denmark said it was okay, this example could be used for other countries as well. However, the King of Denmark never intended on approving the camps, no matter what they looked like. His officials went to the camps, declared them unfit, and while the Nazis were busy trying to figure out what to do with this reaction, the King’s people loaded up all of the Danish Jews and brought them back to Denmark. All in all, only 42 Danish Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

I was very impressed with this story and grateful that the Danish King went to such lengths to save his own people during the Holocaust. Since all of this information is fresh in my mind since my visit to Auschwitz, it was comforting to hear a ‘success story’ of sorts that came out of such a terrible time in history.

After we finished up the tour, Stephen and I went to a hot dog stand in the main square near Nyhavn and got a hot dog from one of the stands (another thanks to Stephen Nock!) It was incredibly delicious- some sort of hotdog/sausage hybrid with ketchup, mustard, spicy mustard, chopped onions, crunchy onions and pickles. YUM!

Then we wandered our way over to Generator Hostel nearby to see if they had any room for us- we decided to swtich our accommodation to be more central to the city, to have the hostel staff at our disposal for questions and recommendations, and to meet other people. They had room, we checked in, and then headed back to our flat outside the city center to get all of our stuff and move in! It didn’t take that long to get settled in our new accommodation, and after a bit of a rest and meeting a new friend from England, Lee, we decided to make our way over to Christiania for the night.

For those of you who don’t know, Christiania is a ‘free state’ within Copenhagen that has been established since 1971. In simple terms, it’s essentially a hippie commune where weed is legal & everyone is happy and carefree as can be. In my mind: paradise.

We wandered the streets of Christiania for a while, checking out the merchandise that was for sale (mostly drug paraphernalia and tye dye clothes), walking through the woods & around the pond, and taking in the unique culture. It’s a fantastic place, with tents of dubstep-like tunes going all day, vendors selling all different kinds of weed, and a genuinely happy aura all around.

Afterwards, it was raining harder and we tried for a while to find a pub that had cheap food. After little success and a lot of impatience, we settled on a pizza place near our hostel for dinner. With Cappys-like sizes, I was definitely happy with our choice! The three of us headed back to our hostel and grabbed a beer down at the bar. Shortly after, we were all warm and in bed, after a long, cold, wet  (but definitely successful!) day in Copenhagen.

Favorite part of the day: The walking tour. Sandeman’s never ceases to amaze! The stories we heard really gave us a good ‘feel’ for Copenhagen and Denmark as a whole.


Ah, AND! The Danishes. I can't get enough already