(written May 30, 2024) - Istedgade is the famous prostitution district in downtown Copenhagen. I only saw a few prostitutes on the street in 1982 - there were lots of porn and sex shops - one displayed colourful tiny sweaters hung up on a line that were in the shape of a penis and testicles, and there were porn cinemas showing American porn. It starts on one side of the main railway station, and on the other side was a cinema that showed uncensored versions of popular movies. When I was there Mad Max II and the German film about a child prostitute, Christiane F. were playing. Also on the other side of the station was Tivoli Gardens, with free admission for seniors. It was a garden with cafes and rides for small children. Huset, "The House" in Danish, was a nearby drop in centre founded in 1970 which still exists, where there were lockers for your backpack and info on places to stay. Posters advertised overland bus trips east, I guess as far as Turkey since Iran's 1979 revolution had stopped most of the traffic on the hippie trail to South East Asia.
Freetown Christiania is an old military barracks that was taken over by hippies in 1971. There were wall murals for IRA martyr Bobby Sands and Irish Republican Bernadette Devlin, bare breasted women selling drugs from tables, pot plants growing out windows and vegetarian restaurants. I was there with a Hungarian friend and asked how much a block of hash as thick as a chocolate bar that covered half of the Afghani vendor's hand was and it was only 10 dollar US!
I loved how topless for women was OK in Denmark. I saw a man just wearing shorts plastering his apartment wall from the S-Train and then he turned around and it was a young woman, and in Stockholm women would sunbathe topless in the parks on their lunch hour.
On the last day, rather than getting more sightseeing in, I stupidly watched Quadrophrenia, I think at a cinema that was either part of or near Huset. 'Love, Reign o'er me' kept going through my head all the way back to Guelph.
