Sax In The City

A busker plays a melancholy tune as it’s my last day in Denmark.

So here’s a story. There’s an area of Copenhagen called Christiania, which, in its simplest terms is described as a hippie commune. An area where rules don’t apply and the residents are left to their own devices. It’s an area where drugs are freely grown and sold and the authorities turn a blind eye. (There is even a street called 'Pusher Street'- check it, it’s on Google maps) Guide books talk about ‘free spirits’ and a ‘whimsical’ attitude. You enter under a sign that reads 'You Are Now Leaving The EU'

We took a walk in there, and I can’t say that my experience was whimsical. The drug dealers look like gang members and cover their faces completely with scarfs and hats. There are various thick necked bouncer types, whose main aim seems to be to enforce the ‘No Photography’ rule. In the middle of the al fresco eating area, was a guy standing on his own talking to himself, clearly having a drug induced ‘episode’. Nobody was interested. Another homeless guy was walking around picking up spent cigarettes and joints and stuffing them in his pockets for later. Surely a ‘hippie’ commune would be a bit more charitable to vulnerable people?  Is it a commune or a ghetto? Hippies or anarchists?

I’m pretty open minded, I really wanted to see this ‘free society’, but I took a couple of photos on the way out and was approached and told my camera would be taken off me and smashed up if I did it again.
So much for a utopian dream, just an authoritarian clampdown of a different kind. 
The grass is always greener- if you’ll pardon the pun.
It did spark a great debate that night over a few drinks. 

Anyway, I’m 'raging against the Christiania machine' and publishing my covert blips as extras.