boing boing has a post about the "save christiania" gathering on august 30. a friend of mine recently visited christiania, and sent me this in an email journal:
chrisitiania was an abandoned army base that was made home by hippies in the 60?s, it has been allowed its own government and has an atmosphere as happy as the smurfs. there are posters and graffiti everywhere that say ?say no to hard drugs?, one such sign was located right behind the gaurd at the gate. you see in denmark it?s legal to smoke pot though looked down on by many, it?s just illegal to sell it, except on pusher street in christiana, however there have been rumours that the police are going to shut it down so there are gaurds at all entrances with radios to warn in case of a police raid. oddly enough, this small sect of the city with its own governemnt has little to no crime even though it has ?soft drugs? legal and runs itself. there?s alot to be said for that. makes one think. we wandered down pusher street and into the surrounding neighborhood, the houses were all painted crazy colours and the grass and gardens were allowed to grow free, i wouldn?t say they were unkempt, just free. some of the houses were beautiful and some seemed architecturally impossible, something like smurf huts. in fact the whole thing had the happy laid back feel of the smurfs, the smell of marijauna floated as freely as the gardens and the wind carried that and a lady singing opera in her house out into the colorful streets. i took few to no pictures because there was a big sign that had the ghostbuster logo up except a camera was in the ghosts place...