As the perceptive readers will notice i went on a boat tour around Copenhagen today (hence the new photos in the sights section with various sections of boat in them)
this was fun, however i only received a small amount of new knowledge about the city (as Maria had filled me in on ALOT of stuff before my trip even started and was telling me interesting things all the time around the city)
Due to being on one side of the boat, i didnt get good photo opportunities of some interesting stuff. Such as on one side of the harbour is a "free town" housing about 750 people who are simply living on land that used to belong to the military. The first people who lived there kicked down a military fence and have been living their ever since.
As an Englishman i was pleased to find out (or have it repeated because Maria had already told me) that at some point during the past England stole the majority of the Danish navy, we kinda walked off with it. To stop this happening again certain measures were put into effect, houses were built on the canalside that could be used to hide ships, also certain houses along the canal had huge roofs (like the original brewery) in order to hide military ships behind them.
Once we left central Copenhagen the fun ended. There had been this "youth house" which had been a place for people to go who practised graffiti and give people somewhere to put a roof over their heads. Squatters inhabitted it and it was eventually torn down. The squatters went on looking for a "new house" and they planned a demonstration (which happened to fall today) and had encouraged people to turn up, even going so far as to advertise for people in other countries to come along.
The regular bus route home passed more or less next to the protesters "new house" so there were police there closing off roads and the bus had to take a detour. We crawled along with the rest of the traffic for an age. What became most amusing was that this detour (unknown to anyone) took us past where the protesters were regrouping and staging a new demonstration (probably after people were arrested for squatting at the new building)
More waiting as people running from police dashed either side of the bus, and waiting for trucks (like the ones Maria told me about for her graduation) but decked out for the demonstration swung across the street.
We finally got home, getting off the bus sweating and flustered as it had got exceptionally warm in there while stopping and starting. Thomas had the news on when we got back, and apparently 200 people have been arrested AND the police had begun using tear gas at the location we drove through only a couple of moments after we had passed by.
