Christiania and Kolonihave

Today we visited two very different types of green spaces in Copenhagen.  The first, was the psuedo-autonomous area of Christiania which is world famous for its "green light district."  However, we were there to see a different type of green!  The area, to me, is basically like a commune.  It was also a walled area at one point with a man made moat surrounding the land.  The water feature is still there, but the land mass has been turned into a super hippy-ish compound.  The elevated area surrounding the town and separating it from the water contain paths where we spent most of our time.  We walked around the perimeter looking at all the different houses, their gardens, and the green space at the outside of the city.  Some of the cool things we saw were a mini glass green house in the shape of a pyramid, a house in the shape of a semi-circle (called "the banana house"), personal gardens, and tons of graffiti.

The second part of our day was my favorite time so far in Copenhagen.  Our class was fortunate enough to be invited to visit a "kolonihave" of another professor in our program.  A kolonihave is a small, 150m garden in association with the Royal Horticulture Society.  It is separate from the city and apartments but close to other kolonihaves.  Essentially, it is a large area of green space divided into several plots that people are on a waiting list for (the man we talked with waited 18 years!).  Each kolonihave generally has its own little house at the back with a small kitchen or gardening shed.  This one in particular had a Cape Cod style little house that was decorated beautifully.  The garden itself had plenty of grass, areas to lounge in the sun, a squirrel feeder (the squirrels here are red), a barbeque grille, and shaded areas for eating.  Oddly enough, no vegetable plants are allowed. It was exceptional, I LOVED it.