Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalising the legal status of the community have led to conflicts, and negotiations are ongoing.
It was really special because it was just in the center of Copenhagen, yet it didn't have the normal feeling of being in a city. It really was like you were in a different country or something. I thought that the sign when you were leaving through the arch was pretty funny. "You are now entering the EU."
After that we walked around some more, passing by the Royal Palace. The guards had the bayonets and bearskin hats doing the super stiff walk back and forth. Here there was a pretty impressive view of architecture, from the center looking at the palace and then directly down the street to your right is a massive cathedral. We popped our heads in for a quick peak and continued to walk on. We were getting hungry so we decided to get a late lunch early dinner. We went to a buffet off the shopping strip. It was a buffet without meat. When I heard that I was like umm ok well what am I supposed to eat! But it was fine, pizzas, pastas, rice, veggies,etc. Could have done with a little meat but what can you do, haha. After the dinner we thought it was time to check out Tivoli.
We walked over and got in line to get tickets. We lucked out here because some old guy and his wife were selling two tickets for the price of one including the unlimited rides ticket. This was perfect because Kristine and I were only planning on going on rides anyway. Christa will be mad at me for saying this but she is a baby about rides so she just got the entrance ticket. Anyway it worked out perfect saved a little money and got right in. It was a visually fantastic landscape inside the grounds, Christmas lights on just about everything. The theme of the place was kind of a fairy tale land meets and old carnival. They did have some rides but probably only two that would really get me going. The first ride we went on was called the Demon. It was just a simple rollercoaster. Really short ride and didn't really give you the whoa factor. Ehh not riding that again especially after waiting for 20 minutes. After that we started walking again to the next ride. They had a Giant Drop, which they called Gylden Tårn, or The Golden Tower. There was no line at all, so naturally I was super pumped. It might be my favorite ride ever. I rode it three times in a row, oh man I loved it. After that we went over to the new ride called Vertigo. It was basically a giant arm that rotates a car that resembles a plane, 360 degrees, like a giant arm on a clock. Top speed was 60 mph. We had to wait a good hour to ride this one because only one of the two arms was working. One car only held 4 people! The wait was definitely worth it though, the whoa factor was definitely present. And plus we had a good view of the nightly fireworks show from our vantage point in line waiting. No wonder why it cost so much to come in. Every night they blow the place up like its the 4th of July! After such a long wait we needed to warm up so we hit up a place to grab a drink and a snack. We had some æble skiver and some gløgg. Æble skiver is a Christmas time pastry of sorts. The best way to describe it is that it is like a pancake-crepe in a ball shape. It is served with strawberry jam and powdered sugar. The gløgg is the warm wine with I want to say vodka in it with nuts and raisins at the bottom. My drink was stiff enough to be carried by a Saint Bernard on a ski slope rescue mission. I wasn't cold after that, no sir...ok, well not quite it was a cold night. The next ride was the big boy spinning swings. This thing took you way up, I mean way up. It wasn't scary but what it was was really cold. Whipping through the air way up there at a pretty good speed. Ok one and done on that one too. Back to the Golden Tower! Again no line. I kid you not I rode it 5 times in a row bringing my tally to 8. It was incredible. Get off and then get right back on no waiting. Basically my theme park dream come true. There were 5 different sides to the ride so I rode them all to get a different view of Tivoli as well as Copenhagen. The view from the top was amazing. Then the free fall....awesome!
The next day we went down to the Copenhagen shopping area. Just the downtown street where stores just went on and on and on for blocks. We just walked around occasionally popping into a store to check it out. But it was pretty slim pickins seeing as it was after Christmas and everything was on sale. After we started getting cold and it was getting later we thought it would be a good idea if we headed for the train station to get home. It had been a really hectic break up to that point. I left the day after our team party for Norway. The day after I got back there were 3 straight Christmas parties. One day off, then we went to Copenhagen. It was really nice to finally get home and sleep in my bed.
The next day was NYE. We didn't really have anything planned. It started getting to a point where we were just going to make a nice dinner and maybe just go outside at 12 and see some fireworks. But nah, it was NYE we had to do something. So we invited Travis and Joakim over. It was good because they were in the same boat as us, nothing to do. But get us all together I'm sure we could get into some shenanigans. One of the soccer guys from Marienlyst named Søren offered to have us over at 12, they had some fireworks. We said ok, after all it was in the same building just around the corner. At midnight WW3 erupted in the streets. Professional grade fireworks being set off by normal people. And every party on our block as well as all the blocks around us that I could see were having their own private fireworks show. It was impressive. If you did a 360 you would see legit fireworks in every single direction. I had never seen anything like it. Didn't seem like the safest of scenarios but we made it out unscathed and impressed with how well the Danes celebrate a new years. After that, we went up to the party that Søren was having and had a few beverages. The night was capped with Singstar. All in all a great holiday season. The only way it could have been better would have obviously been to come home. I think if I do play again next year that will have to happen for sure. I do miss family on the big holidays.
Volleyball started back up on the 2nd of December on a Saturday. We have been practicing since then. The first couple of practices were rough. It's funny how much you can lose in such a short period of time. All the food and drinks obviously didn't help, but my god 15 days off and I felt like I never played before. Each practice was better than the last and we don't play until next Thursday so we have plenty of time to get back into form. After all this is an exciting month for us. On the 24th we face off against Gentofte again for the Pokal Cup Championship which is the Danish Cup Championship. And the following weekend we are going back to Stockholm for the 4 team round robin Nordic Cup Finals. The other three teams are Middelfart from Denmark, Falkenberg and Sollentuna from Sweden. Should be a fun weekend. We are driving again so winning it all is really our only option. Losing then having that monster drive would be miserable. But partying the whole way home would be fantastic. All for now miss everyone from home! I updated my Skype number so I have it for another 3 months. Feel free to call whenever would be good to hear from you all! Hej Hej and Happy New Year!
