Christiania – A unique place in the World
First of all, to say that a site is unique in the world is a very strong statement, and it is assumed that if you have a great knowledge of the rest of the world, that is not quite the case, but I am sure that Christiania is a unique site in the world, first for its history, which is unique, and then because there are no such sites within 2 minutes of european capital, much less a capital like Denmark, one of the most developed countries in the world.
History
Before explaining why Christiania is a unique place, I’ll start by explaining a little about what this place and its history are.
Christiania, ” or free city of Christiania ” is one of the last ” anarchist sites” in Europe.
It is located in the center of Copenhagen, and is a place where during the 70’s some anarchists, painters, artists, and other people who were at that time were a little “out of step” in society.
It all began in the 1970s, when some people started occupying barracks that used to belong to the military, but over time a separate society was formed, with its own rules, and without interference from the state.
This implied that people organized themselves and became self-sufficient in various respects, and the state leaves aside basic duties such as light, garbage collection … which are still in the hands of Christiania residents.
Over time, and with the freedom lived in this space, began the problems with drugs, especially heavy drugs, which had a very negative impact on the image that this place had before the rest of residents of Denmark.
Today the problem of heavy drugs is no longer so threath, and there are many signs that indicate the prohibition of consumption and its consequences.
Since the year 2000 there have been on the part of the authorities an effort to bring more and more laws into Christiania.
Why is it a unique place in the world?
This site is unique in the world, firstly because it sells Cannabis and derivatives, ” freely ” in craft stalls in the middle of the street, then because Christiania is just a few minutes from the center of Copenhagen, which is interesting, and finally by the place itself, which has a very different vibe, with many paintings, houses made “handmade” and a miscellany of people, very funny.
When we got to Christiania, and we took the first steps in this community, we found the paintings we saw very interesting, but we were not expecting what we were going to see next.
As soon as we entered the main street, we saw the first stalls, which were old tables, spoiled washing machines, drums … every bank had 1 or 2 traffickers, who sold what they had, that is, 3 or 4 types of Cannabis, rolled joints coiled with names of the cannabis strains, until that gentleman already at some age who had only a little Hashish.
The Christiania is one of the most visited places in Denmark, which is curious because you see many tourists, some with strollers, others with children, young people, adults, to buy, to smoke, to see …
Living in a largely prohibitionist society with regard to light drugs, we were very surprised by what we saw, a few meters from the center of a European capital.
At first we found everything very strange even, almost as if everything was ” half a theater ”, but little by little we saw that it was really real, until we saw a mega police raid, from nothing came in 15 policemen armed to running with Gopro’s on his head, and all the dealers began to run away with their suitcases where they store the drugs and the scales, or simply drop them on the ground before running.
The police arrested about 3 people and after 10 minutes, everything was as if nothing was past, some of the dealers even queued after a few minutes!
Another thing we found very strange was that we saw most of the traffickers leaving Christiania in the night by taxi, which shows that many of them do not even live there.
There are signs where people are asked not to take photos on the stands, but a quick search on the Internet shows perfectly the type of stands on this site.
However it is not only the sale of Marijuana on the street that makes this site different, this place really has a unique vibe, and while ” sociological experience ” is undoubtedly very interesting, it is a site almost totally outside the sphere of the state, where people have organized themselves to create a place with their own way of life and over the years has shown that the survival of an “anarchist” society is possible.
We really enjoyed visiting this site, and we would advise anyone visiting the Danish capital to take a leap from Christiania.
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