Copenhagen

The flight to Copenhagen, involved stopping at Singapore and Heathrow. Singapore International Airport is hot and quiet at night. There’s nothing to do but sit and wait to be screened by security and let back on the plane. The flight from Singapore is mercifully emptier. A few lucky people are able to stretch out on the flight back, across a row of seats. Not me however.

For the next fourteen hours I’m trying to do two things, sleep or watch something. So I end up watching movies I missed in the cinema. Civil War was too vague with its characters and details over the war which our journalists are travelling through. Furiosa was better, a callback to grander adventure films with character. As far as prequels go, this is the one I take least issue with. I also watched the third season of True Detective, which is a story about memory and loss, but also trying to close the loop on a story of a missing child.

At some point, a flight attendant offered me a warm pastry, which turned out to be mushroom stroganoff. It tasted crude and sour, so I only ate a part. The rest of the inflight meals were ordinary fare, but nothing of the breakfasts offered interested me. I can have a sensitive stomach when it comes to flights. And this was no exception. Because from landing in Heathrow to getting to my hotel room in Copenhagen, I had been completely wrung out. And I’m ninety-nine percent certain it was that mushroom pastry.

Heathrow International Airport is pure pandemonium. Only a semblance of order appears to be present in the number of systems and procedures that have been layered throughout its terminals. And this chaos did not help my intestinal distress.

The flight to Copenhagen is a blur. All I can think of is getting to the hotel.

Hotel Nebo is right near the central station in the city. Old neon sign and mid-century designed. The room is small but fine otherwise. First things first, buy film. I had left my film back home. So it was an opportunity to walk around town and get a feel for the city. Film is expensive in this town. Two rolls of portra 400 and CineStill 800 cost me about 140AUD

The following day we went to Freetown Christiania, an unrecognised micronation which is a commune of what largely seems like artists and makers. But the area has a sordid history of crime and violence since the seventies. This usually revolved around the cannabis trade, which is illegal in Denmark, but seemed to flourish in the Freetown. Recent activities look like the older buildings are coming down and new ones to replace them.

The area is rich with graffiti and street art that either attracts local, regional and international artists. In the morning it’s pretty quiet, as a lot of the galleries and shops don’t open until late morning or well into the afternoon.

Rosenborg Castle is a museum devoted to the Danish royalty and nobility from the Renaissance to about the 1800s. In the basement, there is a treasury with the Crown Jewels and Crown Regalia. The gardens next to the castle are nice, but probably nicer in the middle of the year.

Statens Museum for Kunst – SMK is the national museum of art. It’s a massive building and an all-day affair to explore Danish and European art for the better part of seven centuries. There was a special exhibition of female Danish artists from the 1800s and how they are only being recognised now.