European Hippies

Yesterday our other couchsurfing host, Jasper, took us to Christiania, a freetown in the middle of Copenhagen that was formed in 1971 and has survived as a semi-self governing social experiment ever since. It used to be a military bunker that was abandoned back in the day and then when the economic hardships of the late 60's happened, people couldn't afford rent in the city, moved out here, and renovated the old military buildings into colorful homes. About 700 people actually live here, and the rest just eternally hang out. You can buy really amazing smelling grilled hot dogs and hash right next to each other!

I learned all this from Jasper, an excellet tour guide. Apparently it's a big tourist attraction but Kat and I didn't want to go as tourists, we wanted a native in. Jasper's pretty interesting. He's only 20 but has very clear ideas about how he thinks the world should be. He's studying hydro-engineering and plans on moving back to Ghana to have an organic garden and use the skills he's learned in school to help them figure out better ways to irrigate and grow better, and less expensive, food. He told me that last year he moved to Ghana for 5 months to learn to make African drums. He said he was like a Danish African...this is a guy who is quintessentially Danish-blond hair and blue eyes. Oh! And that in the market you can buy water and peanut butter but it all comes in plastic ziplock bags. Haha, wonderful!

Being from Asheville, NC, I've come across so many young Rastafarian kids who come from stable homes that choose to travel around as vagabonds. I'm a little doubtful when I talk to people like that now because it just seems a little disingenuous. However, Jasper seems to be really sincere, hell, he's actually gone to Ghana with a name and a photo that was 10 years old, looking for a guy who would hopefully teach him to make drums. I thought that was great--just going somewhere for 5 months with no concrete plans how to make it work out, but it did.