Dänk 42Ø
2016-07-24 08:05:38 UTC
Dänkbløg: Eurotrip 2016
By Dänk 42Ø
24 Jul 2016
I'm still recovering from jetlag, one or more colds, and swollen feet
from hell, but here is my first post about my latest trip to Europe.
Much of it is a blur due to the plethora of local craft beers and
cannabis, but here is what I remember right now:
Flew from Las Vegas to Copenhagen, then caught another flight to
Amsterdam, arriving at hotel mid-evening. By an amazing stroke of
luck, there was a "coffee house" a block from my hotel! Didn't have a
pipe so had to roll a crappy joint and smoked it there (which was
allowed because they had a back room -- normally smoking pot or
anything indoors is illegal). Unlike Colorado, where public
consumption of pot is illegal, in Amsterdam public consumption is
required because of the indoor-smoking law. I think I found a pipe
eventually, and the 2g of hashish I had left got eaten before I boarded
the train to Antwerp (Belgium is on high alert, so I was extra paranoid
about smuggling anything into the country).
Amsterdam: Marijuana and hashish are semi-legal in the city, up to 5g.
The coffee houses are allowed to keep a total of 500g on the premises
at any one time. They sell much more than that, and how they are re-
supplied is a mystery, one the Dutch police don't seem to care too much
about solving.
Prostitution is also legal in Holland, and in Amsterdam it is confined
to an official Red Light District, where you can see half-naked women in
windows surrounded by red neon. Photography is absolutely prohibited.
It really is a matter of respect for them, as well as their potential
customers or just gawky tourists who might not want to have their
presence there recorded for posterity on someone's Facebook page. There
is also a "Blue Light" area where the "women" in the windows are really
trannies, but I didn't see it. I also didn't see a similar male
prostitution area.
Another drug that is legal in Amsterdam is psilocybin. Magic mushrooms
used to be legal but were outlawed in 2008 after a French tourist took
too much, freaked out, and jumped out a window. But a loophole in the
law only bans the mushrooms; the "scerlotia," the underground mass of
fungi somewhat equivalent to a plant's root system, remain legal, and
also contain psilocybin. "Magic truffles" they call them, and they can
be found in "smart shops" but not coffee houses. They don't taste too
bad, but whether they had any effect is unclear because I was tripping
on LSD at the time (illegal, but readily available). Good acid! 5
euros per hit. 120 micrograms per hit I think he said.
Antwerp: Honestly, I can barely remember a thing. I think I got in at
night, and the next day I visited Bruges, famous for its beer. Which
I think I might have drank too much of (I don't even like beer, but
those dark ales you can never find in the USA are incredible!). I
tripped over a cobblestone and fell on my face. Despite my protests,
medics took me to the hospital to have my nose scanned, assuring me
that medical care was free in Belgium (they still took my HMO card,
though my account shows no charges yet). Nose wasn't broken, just
bruised, scraped, and had bloody snot for days).
Berlin: Last time I was in Berlin was when I was a kid in the mid-1970s,
when my dad was stationed at an American army base in West Germany. I
still remember that visit: the special train through East Germany, the
guards surrounding the train at stops, and seeing the Berlin Wall. The
East side looked so grey and depressing! Today there is a one- or two-
block slab of the Wall kept as a monument, next to a historical museum.
Today, unless you are a local, it is impossible to tell which side of
the city you are in.
So I saw the Berlin Wall, the Jewish Museum (depressing as hell!), the
famous Checkpoint Charlie, and the Mall of Berlin (I had to get a long-
sleeved shirt -- I never realized how cold Central Europe can be in
July!). Next morning I was watching the news in the hotel breakfast
restaurant and slowly grasped what had just happened in Nice. The next
few days were a mixture of shock, outrage, sadness, and paranoia.
Police were everywhere.
My last day in Berlin I checked my luggage at the Central Station,
toured the city, returned and got my luggage, then drank several beers
while waiting for the overnight bus to Copenhagen at 23:00. During
this time I talked to a guy from France, a guy from Finland, and an
extremely drunk man from Greenland (or maybe that was in Copenhagen?).
Copenhagen: One of my ancestors came from here, though I can't imagine
why any modern Dane would want to leave this social paradise. The fact
that they don't use the euro is irritating, and mental conversions from
Danish kroner (US$0.15) are difficult.
Copenhagen (and Amsterdam and most other European cities) have dedicated
bicycle paths between sidewalk and road, and they actually ride bikes to
and from work (or at least to the metro station, another concept alien
to Americans). You rarely see a fat European, even though their stores
are as loaded with as much junk food as ours. There are no Walmarts
with women with five-foot-wide asses hogging the hotdog, chip, and
candy aisles.
There is a district in Copenhagen called Christiania. A 2-zone bus ride
from my hotel (24kr or US$3.70), it is an ordinary residential district.
Mostly. There is one section that has declared itself "Freetown
Christiania," which is similar to Amsterdam's Red Light District, except
it is not officially recognized, but the police leave it alone. There
is a wooden sign marking the outer entrance, lots of beautiful street
art (some denigrate it as "graffiti"), and then a sign marking the inner
"Green Light District" which contains three simple rules: "Have Fun,"
Don't Run - It Causes Panic" and "No Photos - Buying and Selling Hash is
Still Illegal." It also contains a large no camera icon which can be
seen throughout the district.
Despite being an Anarchist commune with no official laws or police, the
no photo rule is strictly enforced. You will have your camera
confiscated, but if you apologize and they feel like being nice they may
just take your memory card. Or they may take the whole camera and kick
you out. Remember that this is an autonomous self-governed commune, and
you are obliged to follow their rules. There is no Belgian law
prohibiting you from taking photos there, and there are no Belgian
police there to help you get your camera back. The true, philosophical
type of Anarchy can only exist when people respect each other. Taking
photos when you've been told not to is disrespectful.
Freetown Christiania consists of head shops and souvenir vendors in the
outer zone, and cannabis vendors (and actual bars) in the inner zone.
Jars of marijuana and blocks of hashish are openly displayed, and the
vendors all wear face masks to conceal their identities. The going rate
seemed to be about the same as in Amsterdam, about 8-10 euros per gram.
(Just for comparison, the black market rate in San Francisco is $20/g,
and $12-$15 for legal in Colorado). The popular oils, shatters, dabs,
etc. in Colorado are unheard of here. THC content is also unknown, and
any edibles will simply list total grams of hash per container.
Along the way to Freetown Christiania there is an avenue filled with
the most beautiful graffiti murals. This is not vandalism in my view,
nor is it the crude gang tags most Americans think of when they hear the
word. There was an ugly concrete wall, and someone used it as an art
canvas. "People's art," I like to call it. Y'see, the elite bourgeois
pigs want to define what art is, then lock it up in museums only they
can afford to patronize. But graffiti is people's art; it is free, it
is there for everyone to see and enjoy for free, and this is why it it
is considered a crime. But if it can survive a century it becomes a
petroglyph and the government will spend billions trying to preserve it.
Another neat thing about these "graffiti" murals is that they are
temporal in nature. There is no formal rule as to how long it gets to
stay there, but eventually other artists are given a chance to use the
space, so the scene is constantly evolving. Photographs (except in
the forbidden zone) are the only record of it. (And you always have
your memories, which may be a bit hazy after visiting Christiania.)
I should also add that a hobby of mine is photographing graffiti
stickers in cities around the world. Again, one man's vandalism is
another man's art. Many stickers are of the "I was here" variety,
often with elaborate signatures. Some are political in nature: for
example, I have seen "refugees welcome" and "refugees go home," some
denigrating local politicians, some protesting a political event
(e.g., the G7 summit last year), some advocating a movement, and so
on. Others are purely artistic, while a large number promote football
teams. (Football is a religion in Europe.) Photo editing is very
time-consuming, but eventually I'll get around to compiling some albums
and post links to this forum. (I also have a GPS logger, so you'll be
able to see exactly where the photo was taken.)
Copenhagen's city center is your typical assortment of ancient palaces,
museums, cafés, fashion and souvenir shops. There is an amusement park
called Tivoli Gardens that I didn't get to. I saw some castle built in
the 1600s, filled with portraits of people who probably deserved to be
guillotined. But what they did do (along with the rulers of Amsterdam)
is build a network of canals that allowed for shipping, making both
cities fabulously wealthy from trade. Today's Denmark has an average
60% total tax rate, and it still looks and feels wealthy. Took a one-
hour canal boat ride. Should have taken the Hop on-Hop off bus tour,
but didn't.
The flight back was horrible. Exhausted beyond belief before even
getting to the airport, just recovering from a nasty cold (I must have
been exposed to every virus on earth), still coughing my lungs out from
both the cold and the half-kilo of hashish residue still stuck in my
lungs, and swollen feet that I had to take a diuretic for (so much fun
on a nine-hour plane ride!). Chicago Customs and TSA weren't as bad
as they were last time I passed through in 2009, and the Customs agent
was less rude than usual. (Contrast this with German and Danish
Customs officials, who are exceptionally polite.)
Unable to find a laundromat the night before leaving, I was forced to
sacrifice my jeans, shirt, fanny pack, and anything else that may have
been contaminated with cannabis residue. My body, clothes, and luggage
were squeaky clean when I arrived at the CPH airport.
If I had to do the trip again, I would stick to just Amsterdam and
Copenhagen. Germany is a trip unto itself, and Berlin is interesting
only for its WW2/Cold War past and modern Industrial music scene (which
I never got to see!) Munich is much more fun, and Bavaria (which I
visited last year for Oktoberfest) is so beautiful! But you can't do
southern and northern Germany at the same time -- the country is just
too big. Anyway, after awhile all the castles, cathedrals, dungeons,
etc. all start to look the same.
Here are three photos from the entrance to Freetown Christiania with
GPS coordinates included, taken around mid-July 2016:
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Until we hear the safe word, we will not stop!
By Dänk 42Ø
24 Jul 2016
I'm still recovering from jetlag, one or more colds, and swollen feet
from hell, but here is my first post about my latest trip to Europe.
Much of it is a blur due to the plethora of local craft beers and
cannabis, but here is what I remember right now:
Flew from Las Vegas to Copenhagen, then caught another flight to
Amsterdam, arriving at hotel mid-evening. By an amazing stroke of
luck, there was a "coffee house" a block from my hotel! Didn't have a
pipe so had to roll a crappy joint and smoked it there (which was
allowed because they had a back room -- normally smoking pot or
anything indoors is illegal). Unlike Colorado, where public
consumption of pot is illegal, in Amsterdam public consumption is
required because of the indoor-smoking law. I think I found a pipe
eventually, and the 2g of hashish I had left got eaten before I boarded
the train to Antwerp (Belgium is on high alert, so I was extra paranoid
about smuggling anything into the country).
Amsterdam: Marijuana and hashish are semi-legal in the city, up to 5g.
The coffee houses are allowed to keep a total of 500g on the premises
at any one time. They sell much more than that, and how they are re-
supplied is a mystery, one the Dutch police don't seem to care too much
about solving.
Prostitution is also legal in Holland, and in Amsterdam it is confined
to an official Red Light District, where you can see half-naked women in
windows surrounded by red neon. Photography is absolutely prohibited.
It really is a matter of respect for them, as well as their potential
customers or just gawky tourists who might not want to have their
presence there recorded for posterity on someone's Facebook page. There
is also a "Blue Light" area where the "women" in the windows are really
trannies, but I didn't see it. I also didn't see a similar male
prostitution area.
Another drug that is legal in Amsterdam is psilocybin. Magic mushrooms
used to be legal but were outlawed in 2008 after a French tourist took
too much, freaked out, and jumped out a window. But a loophole in the
law only bans the mushrooms; the "scerlotia," the underground mass of
fungi somewhat equivalent to a plant's root system, remain legal, and
also contain psilocybin. "Magic truffles" they call them, and they can
be found in "smart shops" but not coffee houses. They don't taste too
bad, but whether they had any effect is unclear because I was tripping
on LSD at the time (illegal, but readily available). Good acid! 5
euros per hit. 120 micrograms per hit I think he said.
Antwerp: Honestly, I can barely remember a thing. I think I got in at
night, and the next day I visited Bruges, famous for its beer. Which
I think I might have drank too much of (I don't even like beer, but
those dark ales you can never find in the USA are incredible!). I
tripped over a cobblestone and fell on my face. Despite my protests,
medics took me to the hospital to have my nose scanned, assuring me
that medical care was free in Belgium (they still took my HMO card,
though my account shows no charges yet). Nose wasn't broken, just
bruised, scraped, and had bloody snot for days).
Berlin: Last time I was in Berlin was when I was a kid in the mid-1970s,
when my dad was stationed at an American army base in West Germany. I
still remember that visit: the special train through East Germany, the
guards surrounding the train at stops, and seeing the Berlin Wall. The
East side looked so grey and depressing! Today there is a one- or two-
block slab of the Wall kept as a monument, next to a historical museum.
Today, unless you are a local, it is impossible to tell which side of
the city you are in.
So I saw the Berlin Wall, the Jewish Museum (depressing as hell!), the
famous Checkpoint Charlie, and the Mall of Berlin (I had to get a long-
sleeved shirt -- I never realized how cold Central Europe can be in
July!). Next morning I was watching the news in the hotel breakfast
restaurant and slowly grasped what had just happened in Nice. The next
few days were a mixture of shock, outrage, sadness, and paranoia.
Police were everywhere.
My last day in Berlin I checked my luggage at the Central Station,
toured the city, returned and got my luggage, then drank several beers
while waiting for the overnight bus to Copenhagen at 23:00. During
this time I talked to a guy from France, a guy from Finland, and an
extremely drunk man from Greenland (or maybe that was in Copenhagen?).
Copenhagen: One of my ancestors came from here, though I can't imagine
why any modern Dane would want to leave this social paradise. The fact
that they don't use the euro is irritating, and mental conversions from
Danish kroner (US$0.15) are difficult.
Copenhagen (and Amsterdam and most other European cities) have dedicated
bicycle paths between sidewalk and road, and they actually ride bikes to
and from work (or at least to the metro station, another concept alien
to Americans). You rarely see a fat European, even though their stores
are as loaded with as much junk food as ours. There are no Walmarts
with women with five-foot-wide asses hogging the hotdog, chip, and
candy aisles.
There is a district in Copenhagen called Christiania. A 2-zone bus ride
from my hotel (24kr or US$3.70), it is an ordinary residential district.
Mostly. There is one section that has declared itself "Freetown
Christiania," which is similar to Amsterdam's Red Light District, except
it is not officially recognized, but the police leave it alone. There
is a wooden sign marking the outer entrance, lots of beautiful street
art (some denigrate it as "graffiti"), and then a sign marking the inner
"Green Light District" which contains three simple rules: "Have Fun,"
Don't Run - It Causes Panic" and "No Photos - Buying and Selling Hash is
Still Illegal." It also contains a large no camera icon which can be
seen throughout the district.
Despite being an Anarchist commune with no official laws or police, the
no photo rule is strictly enforced. You will have your camera
confiscated, but if you apologize and they feel like being nice they may
just take your memory card. Or they may take the whole camera and kick
you out. Remember that this is an autonomous self-governed commune, and
you are obliged to follow their rules. There is no Belgian law
prohibiting you from taking photos there, and there are no Belgian
police there to help you get your camera back. The true, philosophical
type of Anarchy can only exist when people respect each other. Taking
photos when you've been told not to is disrespectful.
Freetown Christiania consists of head shops and souvenir vendors in the
outer zone, and cannabis vendors (and actual bars) in the inner zone.
Jars of marijuana and blocks of hashish are openly displayed, and the
vendors all wear face masks to conceal their identities. The going rate
seemed to be about the same as in Amsterdam, about 8-10 euros per gram.
(Just for comparison, the black market rate in San Francisco is $20/g,
and $12-$15 for legal in Colorado). The popular oils, shatters, dabs,
etc. in Colorado are unheard of here. THC content is also unknown, and
any edibles will simply list total grams of hash per container.
Along the way to Freetown Christiania there is an avenue filled with
the most beautiful graffiti murals. This is not vandalism in my view,
nor is it the crude gang tags most Americans think of when they hear the
word. There was an ugly concrete wall, and someone used it as an art
canvas. "People's art," I like to call it. Y'see, the elite bourgeois
pigs want to define what art is, then lock it up in museums only they
can afford to patronize. But graffiti is people's art; it is free, it
is there for everyone to see and enjoy for free, and this is why it it
is considered a crime. But if it can survive a century it becomes a
petroglyph and the government will spend billions trying to preserve it.
Another neat thing about these "graffiti" murals is that they are
temporal in nature. There is no formal rule as to how long it gets to
stay there, but eventually other artists are given a chance to use the
space, so the scene is constantly evolving. Photographs (except in
the forbidden zone) are the only record of it. (And you always have
your memories, which may be a bit hazy after visiting Christiania.)
I should also add that a hobby of mine is photographing graffiti
stickers in cities around the world. Again, one man's vandalism is
another man's art. Many stickers are of the "I was here" variety,
often with elaborate signatures. Some are political in nature: for
example, I have seen "refugees welcome" and "refugees go home," some
denigrating local politicians, some protesting a political event
(e.g., the G7 summit last year), some advocating a movement, and so
on. Others are purely artistic, while a large number promote football
teams. (Football is a religion in Europe.) Photo editing is very
time-consuming, but eventually I'll get around to compiling some albums
and post links to this forum. (I also have a GPS logger, so you'll be
able to see exactly where the photo was taken.)
Copenhagen's city center is your typical assortment of ancient palaces,
museums, cafés, fashion and souvenir shops. There is an amusement park
called Tivoli Gardens that I didn't get to. I saw some castle built in
the 1600s, filled with portraits of people who probably deserved to be
guillotined. But what they did do (along with the rulers of Amsterdam)
is build a network of canals that allowed for shipping, making both
cities fabulously wealthy from trade. Today's Denmark has an average
60% total tax rate, and it still looks and feels wealthy. Took a one-
hour canal boat ride. Should have taken the Hop on-Hop off bus tour,
but didn't.
The flight back was horrible. Exhausted beyond belief before even
getting to the airport, just recovering from a nasty cold (I must have
been exposed to every virus on earth), still coughing my lungs out from
both the cold and the half-kilo of hashish residue still stuck in my
lungs, and swollen feet that I had to take a diuretic for (so much fun
on a nine-hour plane ride!). Chicago Customs and TSA weren't as bad
as they were last time I passed through in 2009, and the Customs agent
was less rude than usual. (Contrast this with German and Danish
Customs officials, who are exceptionally polite.)
Unable to find a laundromat the night before leaving, I was forced to
sacrifice my jeans, shirt, fanny pack, and anything else that may have
been contaminated with cannabis residue. My body, clothes, and luggage
were squeaky clean when I arrived at the CPH airport.
If I had to do the trip again, I would stick to just Amsterdam and
Copenhagen. Germany is a trip unto itself, and Berlin is interesting
only for its WW2/Cold War past and modern Industrial music scene (which
I never got to see!) Munich is much more fun, and Bavaria (which I
visited last year for Oktoberfest) is so beautiful! But you can't do
southern and northern Germany at the same time -- the country is just
too big. Anyway, after awhile all the castles, cathedrals, dungeons,
etc. all start to look the same.
Here are three photos from the entrance to Freetown Christiania with
GPS coordinates included, taken around mid-July 2016:
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Until we hear the safe word, we will not stop!