nørrebro og christiania

entries made possible by the free wifi - with a 50dkk tuborg at the jernbane caffeen the duke away from the duke.





during the wander yesterday, i noticed two things that would influence my snaps. the streets were crowded so everything i wanted to photograph either had people or thousands of cyclists - i now can deal with machines. i also noticed that most shops don’t open until ten or eleven so getting up early...

and i did, jet lag conquered i was up at eight. problem was the sun wasn’t.

there is this myth of the north that i subsribe to. my evil twin is heading to tobago in january and i cannot understand why. a minor cbc presenter headed to nain last month and i was jealous with rage. while i miss rio de janeiro greatly - i would only go now in winter (their winter - july) - as there is something about being north of the 45th at this time of year. one is aware of the weather but it doesn’t stop anything. well one thing. the sun - or rather light - didn’t bother to appear until some time after nine. it meant i got my free breakfast before heading out and there was no rush. but it diid mean that i had to live up to what i try to do on longer days no stopping to eat while there is light.

the plan was to hit the surreal aspect of the red light district in daylight then head over to nørrebro where supposedly there was a free wifi internet café. it was the usual method of working, walk to a corner, and choose the street where i couldn’t see everything on it. walk to next corner repeat action.

walking i noticed that there was this refusal to believe it was winter for while people were a bit bundled up - it was 0c - they were biking and the café not only didn’t take in their outdoor seating they left it as it people would be sitting in them come dinner - and there were a few. the minor theme of the day was the documentation of taverns.

it is odd how one can misjudge a city by the paths one takes, here am wandering about nørrebro and thinking that is by far the most multicultural city yet. a comfortable lived in city, along nørrebrosgade there were fruit and veg stands, wandering egedage, stopping to photograph a shop buddy comes out to chat - asian from bradford chirps up in english. i think what i am working on is nordic surrealist formalism.

i was expecting to find the streets boring and regular and the is - so far - none of that.


do people still buy film?
yes sure they do.

not finding the free wifi thought that i would head back to the hotel for more film and a wander over to christiania which i did three hours later as i kept finding streets with potential in the pedestrian area of the city - more post card shops and this strange fascination with irish pubs.

the fear of getting lost went as i realised that i had no destination in the first place. i also stopped rushing.


another rule made - no public transport during daylight as they take the same routes or are underground.

felt strange entering the free city christiania, it was like going to haight asbury to gawk. it didn’t make it easier when i saw that there were regular christiania tours and that photography wasn’t allowed along pusher avenue - which was a populated as times square. this was made clearly obvious by the signs with cameras with slashes through them on every building.

felt better when i left the centre. am not sure what i think, i like the idea and liked the places that were further in but it seems that the free city - that was described as a place of creative types. some of the places grew organically some took into account their environment but some now seemed like macmansions. confusion comes in when i wonder what i expected and when it goes too far. it seems that there is an awareness with the environment and a certain ruggedness but does that mean that everyone has to go back to nature. there are quite a few outhouses but also computers. there was a lot of street furniture which made making snaps quite easy but i am not sure that i like them any better than the more subtle oddities found in copenhagen.

it started to snow, but no matter, the light went headed back to the hotel wondering if i could use the digital for some photographs at night.