Sydney :: Australia
Oh the places I've been.
Places: Sydney.
Coolest thing I did: Bought a little girls car.
Coolest thing I didn´t know: The opinion section of the Sydney Morning Herald is just rife with generational bickering. And I seem to fall into the category somewhere between Generations X and Y, depending on who is writing the column.
As an interesting postscript to my trip, the autonomous enclave of Christiania in Copenhagen has again been in the news. I can't be bothered finding the original link back to what I wrote, so to give you a background, Christiania was an old military base that a bunch of liberal leftist types took over in the 70s and declared an autonomous enclave, seperate from the nation state of Denmark. The Danish government has been rather blase about leaving the hippies and alternative greenie vegetarian types who live there to go about their lives, growing and selling copious amounts of canibus without too much hassling. All that was required was an understanding that they would not move into harder drugs and that they would pay for the utilities that they use. Sounds pretty sweet, and the more cynical would belive that the government was quite happy to have all this going on in one place. As I can also attest to, it's a bit of a tourist haven, so I'm sure they aren't too worried about lots of 20-somethings jetting into Copenhagen and spending their money.
However, it appears that some of the nastier things that go along with the large scale vending of narcotics worry the police. The bikers that were apparently acting as the muscle behind the scenes are into some nastier kinds of criminal enterprise, and the local police are cracking down on harder drugs in a big way. The politicians appear to belive it hypocritical to allow one kind of dealing to go on while trying to discorage others. So a new deal has been struck to allow the community to continue, but to stamp out the drugs trade there. The locals, not wanting their lifestyle hampered, appear to have agreed.
Will it work? Having been there at several times over a week, it seems that canibus is quite intertwined with what the tourists come to Christiania to see. If people just wanted to gawk at a colourful freakish environment I'm sure they'd not bother to cross the canal and go to the Tivolli amusement park. Perhaps the other aspects of the culture, such as art, will become the main drawcard, but while I was there working artists were not anywhere to be seen. There was a bit of a nightlife around, but again, alot of that has to do with the availablity of green stuff rather than the atmosphere of the place. I'm not sure it'll still attract the same crowd, but then again, perhaps that's what the residents want.
Having seen that article this morning made me travel sick again. It seems like such a dull life in comparison I'm leading at the moment, even though it's nice. Most of the time I'd rather be somewhere with a backpack than working. Thank god I (hell, we...hi 'vette) have Canada to look forward too. Otherwise I would have gone mad by now.
I always get this twinge when somewhere I've been is in the news (the Danish royal wedding was full of recognisable places) and it keeps my interest up. Damn, I want to be out there again.