According to many sources who have travelled to and toured Copenhagen, there are many beautiful and fun sites to visit in the city.  One famous site is the Little Mermaid, a small statue that was made based on the story of the same name, part of the inspiration for the Disney version.

Another site apparently worth visiting is the amusement park Tivoli Gardens, featuring the roller coaster the "Daemon" (Demon).  This coaster has been described, as; exciting, terrifying, mind numbing, intense, and bunch of other synonyms for the word "awesome".  Only down side to the park is the cost, because apparently, the admission fee is different than the fee for the rides so be prepared to spend a pretty penny, or in this case pretty krone.

As far as food goes in Denmark, well be prepared to be overwhelmed by the pure awesomeness that is Danish cheese, ham and dairy products.  According to one source "Fresh Danish butter is not something that can be described, it can only be experienced".  However, the biggest part of Danish Cuisine has always revolved around its bread and Pastries.  Yes you can find Danishes in Copenhagen, yet it is more well known for its fresh peasant bread, served often with the main course.  However, if you have been in the city too long, the food industry, like everywhere else in the world has been globalized, so you can find pretty much any type of food that you want, if you look hard enough.

These three things, fun, food, and culture are the center of tourists world, anywhere they go.  I found that people outside of bloggers and intense tourists a lot about Copenhagen, because it is not exactly the stereotypical first choice of vacation choice.  I mean, some college students don't know what it is, let alone where it is.  However, it seems like a very cool place to me, even if the country is named after a pastry, another example of American ignorance.

Christiania: A Freetown Once and For All?

Entrance to Christiania

Christiania is a large commune and a free community located within Christianshavn, or Christian Town, where people live like hippies. This area was ordered by King Christian IV in the early 1500s to house the shipbuilders. Just like the people of Denmark, Christianshavn is beautiful. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the town was a port that consisted of military barracks, where all of the buildings were warehouses. As the economy crashed, it became a slum. The town attracted many “artsy” types and was recovered. Those old warehouses are now brightly colored, up-market condos. The hippies have since taken over, and Christiania is all about freedom. Christiania is Copenhagen’s second most popular tourist attraction. It is still deeply rooted in its original concept of personal freedom. There are no commercial advertisements; they are illegal. Marijuana is tolerated, but no hard drugs or weapons are allowed.

Christiania's Common Laws

While the information I have gathered is somewhat inconsistent, the inhabitants of Christiania own the land, and therefore do not pay taxes to anyone, don't need building permits, and often build their own homes. They plant their own gardens, and are known for growing and selling weed. Most of the articles and tourist information I have read state that the open places to buy marijuana are no longer standing. There is zero tolerance towards cannabis by the government, but my friend has noted the contrary. Maybe they’re not easily visible on the streets, but if as an outsider she knew about them, then they must not be that hidden. When the police come, the people just scatter.

When researching I saw many idyllic pictures, but I realized that not everything about Christiania is ideal. It looks like such a beautiful, peaceful place to live. I would totally like to live in the carefree, passive world that Christiania promotes. However, after some more digging, I found photos that didn’t show the glorified version of Christiania I was used to. Some of the homes are literally just huts, with no running water or central air. They look like they have been thrown together almost haphazardly.

House in Christiania

There is also a pretty violent subculture. While I doubt that she witnessed this firsthand, my friend told me that if a tourist breaks one of the rules, they will “beat the shit out of him” and remove the person from the community. They are especially sensitive to people having phones and cameras out. Again, they will “literally beat the shit out of you even if you're a tourist and they just see that you have a camera.” If it need be repeated twice, I would suggest not breaking the rules! Weed is illegal (though accepted), so they don’t want pictures taken of the more respectable people that go there to buy it. Harder drugs, on the other hand, are prohibited.

While doing some research, I came across an article from 2004 that states that the Free City of Christiania, “a 32-year-old experiment in communal urban living,” was to be sold and turned into a city like any other. One can assume that this didn’t happen, since my friend was just there this past summer and relayed a lot of this information which points to the contrary. The inhabitants are supposed to pay taxes to the state, but according to a friend of mine, they don’t pay taxes to anyone. Although my friend did spend time with a local, I thought perhaps that there have been some changes that she was not aware of? After consulting some other sources, it seems that “Freetown Christiania” has won its independence after a government ruling. Apparently, in 2011, residents erected fences with signs that stated, “Christiania is closed until further notice.” This was to prevent the Danish government’s attempt to “normalize” the community. After battling for decades, Christiania has won the legal right to run its own affairs in 2011.

Mural in Christiania

Until I began reading user comments on YouTube, travel blogs, etc., I wasn’t really aware of the advantages of undertaking an ethnographic project in our technological age. In Herodotus’ day, there was no technology like we have today. I was able to gather a fair amount of information through word of mouth, but once the Internet was available to us, a quick Google search can bring up all the information you could want. The difference, though, is that reading something online is not the same as experiencing a place yourself, or having someone you know and trust relay information to you.

Now I will describe how attractive the people of Copenhagen are and why this is so

  According to those who have spent time in Copenhagen, the people of this area are very attractive. They are all tall, thin, and fair which is likely the result of several factors. The most commonly noted by both individual sources and the media is their dedication to public health and environmental maintenance. I have been told that the taxes on fatty and unhealthy foods are so high that it is more practical to eat healthy. So it seems to me that the people of Copenhagen eat healthy by necessity rather than by choice and hence they all remain fair and thin. Whereas in Philadelphia the least expensive item to purchase for food is cheese curls, Danes are more inclined to buy produce and bread due to its lower prices at the market. But does is not stand to reason that other foods being taxed to aggressively leads to a limitation of choice for the Danish people? Limitation of their freedom must not be so important when they are so unquestionably attractive and fair.

  However this emphasis on a healthy diet is in direct contradiction with one of the most well-known facts about the Danes. Specifically that they are the largest producer of chocolates and pastries. In fact, the English word for the pastry "Danish" comes to us from the Danes. Even the Copenhagen-ers themselves, in their guides to the city for visitors, suggest that one start their day with a pastry. Since  most people in Copenhagen speak English, all children are required to take eight years of it in school, Americans find no difficulty understanding their media publications. In fact, the Danes are not wholly unlike Americans except that they are all fair and thin. Everyone there wears the most attractive clothes because they are thin enough to fit designer sizes. And the city itself is also beautiful. A traveller from South Africa tells in her blog about a bakery bike tour in Copenhagen. So it would seem to me that the people of Copenhagen bike around their beautiful city all day in their beautiful clothes with adorable pastries in their bicycle baskets.

Sankt Peders Bageri has been open and operating in the same

location (Sankt Peders Straede 29) for almost 400 years

  Many sources, including the Danes them selves, note the importance of biking in the city. It is so popular there that a program exists by which you may rent a bike for the day. It is very much like Philadelphia's car-share program but it does not fill their air with toxic pollution. In fact, the people of Copenhagen are adamantly opposed to pollution. That is why they hosted the Climate Change Summit in 2009. Their city is so clean that prostitution is legal on the grounds that even the working girls are certified clean. And what better entrepeneurial expedition for such an attractive people - to make an honest living by their inherent beauty. But more importantly, the reason that the Climate Change Summit took place in Copenhagen is that they were previously an environmentally-friendly people, even in their most industrialized areas.

  To demonstrate this point, I will talk more on the importance of bicycles in their society. Nearly every person there, young and old, owns a bicycle. They use them to travel everywhere in the city. And people say that is it so safe there that they do not even have to lock their bikes to poles when they go in to stores or cafes. If a citizen does not own a bike they may use one for the day for a very low price because the bike-share program is so well developed. Even non-citizens and tourists may rent bicycles for the day. Since most of the people in Copenhagen ride bicycles, the air is very clean there. In pictures and videos it seems like sky and water there are always blue. Copenhagen is just simply brighter than Philadelphia. The biking program also encourage fitness, hence the people there stay so thin and attractive.

  It follows, then, that people who do so much daily exercise on bicycles must drink water. Copenhagen is famous for its waterways and bays. Because the city is on an island, it is surrounded by water. This leads to fair weather, which in turn leads to their fair complexions. So much for the water and weather there, suffice it to say that the people in Copenhagen are by far the most attractive people in the world.

  According to one blogger, the people of Copenhagen are not only beautiful, but also blissfully unaware of the fact. Therefore they are the happiest people in the world, in addition to being the most beautiful.  In Los Angeles the beautiful people are so self-absorbed that they make themselves intentionally more miserable, as far as I can tell. However, in Copenhagen the people do not fret over attractiveness because they already possess the most beautiful city and peoples. It seems to me, therefore, that when a people spend plenty of time active, out of doors, and around natural bodies of water they will inevitably be the most happy, fit, and attractive people.

Ethnography can be broken down into Ethnicity and Culture. I will address them in that order.

The ethnicity of Copenhagen is rather complex.  The native Danes are more of Nordic descent than German, making them decidedly Scandinavian.  However implications from both media sources as well as personal sources cause one to believe that Copenhagen also has a very vibrant Jewish community.  However, the jury is out on whether or not this is in reference to ethnic Jews or simply religious Jews.  But it may be safely assumed that those of Scandinavian descent command a healthy plurality, if not an outright majority, of the population of Copenhagen.

             The attitude of the Danes towards other ethnicities is interesting.  The media gives friendly coverage to Germanic citizens (located along the border with Germany) as well as a large Dutch minority.  But both the media (as well as an interviewed source) are decidedly hostile towards Arabic encroachment.  While these citizens (or sometimes non-citizens) are classified as “Muslims” the hostility towards them doesn’t seem to abate even if they are of Western faith.  Many parts of Europe, Copenhagen included, have begun to develop an “Us and Them” mentality.  This is evidenced by the fact that many countries in Europe, comparatively socially liberal to the United States, have begun passing harsh legislation targeting Muslims that we in the U.S. find appalling.  A good example would be France’s outlawing of burka’s or Italy’s Mosque tax (both measures that Danish fringe parties with noticeable support have been advocating).  Denmark has also been considering stricter requirements for citizenship, likely due to this same issue.

                The culture of Copenhagen is as vibrant as it is ancient.  Tracing their roots back to the ancient Norse, the Danish culture has a long and rich history of ransacking and killing other, less bellicose cultures.  After the cultural equivalent of adolescence that was the Viking Era, Danish culture blossomed into, well, more warfare.  But what marked the difference between the Danish Viking Era and the Danish Medieval Era was similar to what marks the shift from adolescence to college for American youths today: copious quantities of alcohol.  Yes, it was around this time that the Danish first started making beer.  Beer was such a huge deal in Medieval Denmark that beer was legal tender.  Copenhagen was particularly well-known for its beer (according to a history documentary), floating it down the many nearby rivers to other locations where it would be imbibed by the waiting consumers.

                Around the 1300’s Denmark got into a dispute with the Hanseatic League (a collection of free, democratic cities on the Baltic that formed a trade league).  They fought three wars with the League of which they lost two.  Copenhagen flourished during this period, its harbor welcoming all sorts of ships, including those of the Hanseatic League.  Hanseatic architecture makes itself very present in Copenhagen.

Note the brown building in the center.  The double-peaked roof is characteristic of Hanseatic Architecture as are the multi-terraced roofs.  I learned this by playing a computer game.  You really don’t learn everything in school.

Renaissance Denmark was known for its political system.  The trademark of its political system, popularized by William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet: Prince of Denmark”, is that nobody knew exactly how it worked.  Not even the Danish.  As far as I can gather from Hamlet as well as historical tracts, the King of Denmark was elected except for sometimes when he wasn’t.  But he was only elected by a small portion of the population, except for sometimes when everybody voted.  But also marrying the former King’s wife could make you King, except that sometimes it couldn’t.  And also women couldn’t be elected except for that one time when one of them was.  The moral of the story is this: Be glad you don’t live in Renaissance Denmark.

                The early emphasis that Danish culture placed on equality (initially being a seafaring people) and individual competence (due to their early introduction to modern trade and commerce) as well as their early, if ridiculously confusing, semi-democratic system of government have all given rise to a very egalitarian society.  Common Danish hawking points in brochures are that women earn as much as men in the workplace and are very well-respected, at least by men who aren’t married yet.  The average Danish person, according to the Danish at least, tends to be far more concerned with the well-being of their community than their own.

                Danish culture has taken quite a turn-around in its time.  It went from completely barbaric to relatively civilized.  And it only took one and a half thousand years.   Copenhagen, frequently referred to by the Danish as “The Crown Jewel” of Scandinavia, was at the forefront of this rich cultural development.  The people of Copenhagen are a reasonable people.  That is their most distinguishing trait.  Rather than seek extravagance, they take pleasure in simple comforts.  Thus a sausage shop on “Every corner” according to a friend who visited Copenhagen.

History/Geography/Climate

Copenhagen

-Capital of Denmark

-Located east of the mainland on the island Zealand in the Baltic Sea

-Only Scandinavian Country attached to the European Continent

-Of it's neighbor countries, closest in proximity to Sweden, specifically the town of Malmö

-Population is over 1 million

-The native language spoken is Danish, an Indo-Germanic Language, although English is largely spoken as well

The Gulf Stream has the effect of making the summers in Copenhagen warm relative to its latitude. Another result of this is that the Falls and Winters can become very wet and cold.

During World War II Denmark defied Nazi directives to contain the Jewish population by allowing Jews to escape to Sweden by way of ferry. As a result many of them survived and later returned to Denmark and Copenhagen. As Joe's friend Svetelin puts its it, "so many jews man".

The harbor in Copenhagen, Christianshavn, named after King Christian the 4th is over 400 years old.
The modern part of the Harbor is called the Nyhavn.

Commercial fishing is a major industry in Copenhagen/Denmark.

Denmark was a member of the Hanseatic Trading League

Copenhagen is the home of Carlsberg Beer,  Tivoli Gardens amusement park, which has the oldest roller coaster in the world and the Little Mermaid Statue that influenced the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. The statue has been removed before by local students.

Physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Niels Bohr lived in Copenhagen

The impression I got for Copenhagen from taking part in this project was a positive one. Between all of the people my group members and I interviewed, the general consensus among them was that Copenhagen is a very nice place to visit and the people there are very friendly and pleasant. For Americans however, it is a city that is perhaps forgotten about next to other major cities in Western Europe. As travel agents, when my parents would plan European trips for their clients, Copenhagen was omitted from most itineraries. Also, when I asked my dad if his brother (who lives in Holland) visits Copenhagen or if the Dutch in general go to Denmark he tended not to think so. HoweverI suspect that this is false for younger generations. Joe's friend Svetelin was familiar with Copenhagen and from going on Vice.com the youth culture in Copenhagen looks very lively and would seem to have much to offer.