On the 23rd of December last year I jumped on a plane that was bound for Europe. I was super excited for the trip as I had never been to Europe before. I love travelling and I’ve seen my fair share of different parts of the world but I’ve gotta admit, I was G’d up for this trip more than any of the others i’d done previously. Europe had been on my do to list since I can remember and i had a strong feeling that I wouldn’t be disappointed by what its countries have to offer.
The first city I hit was Paris and this place amazed me. The city was trashed, just how I’d pictured it- from the ground up. Everything had graffiti on it, even some of the cop cars. I was baffled by the efficiency of the train system. Having grown up in Brisbane, Australia, I’ve learnt to wait at least 20 to 30 minutes every time I’d catch a train, in fact, through my experiences, I’m convinced that Brisbane city has the worst train system in the world (for day-to-day commuting). I was travelling with my girl, so (naturally) I did a lot of tourist stuff while I was there – sight seeing and checking out all the typical landmarks. I’m not complaining though, to be honest I would never have made the trip in the first place if it wasn’t for her remarkable skills for researching and planning. I spent Christmas in Paris, New Years Eve in Amsterdam and my next stop was Copenhagen, Denmark, to visit two of my good mates; MENIK and STORM.
I arrived at the CPH airport 3 hours late with no phone credit, due to killing time at the Amsterdam airport (bloody Instagram!) waiting to board my delayed flight. After collecting my bag, abusing some public phone booths for not accepting Euros as well as some airport staff who wouldn’t lend me their phone (not that they could understand what the fuck I was saying anyway), I headed through the arrival gates hoping that MENIK had been good enough to stick around- which to my relief, he had!
We didn’t fuck around, within an hour we were on the push bikes headed to a local yard with backpacks full of Australia’s finest. 20 minutes into the ride it starts pissing down rain… It’s 3ºC and windy and I’m in jeans and my Triple Fat Goose, which is doing nothing for me in these conditions. We pushed on with high hopes but the rain didn’t subside. Close to the point of freezing, we flagged the idea of steel for the night and instead rocked a quick roadside on our way back to the fort.
The next day I had planned to meet up with STORM and BATES which was going to be a full day of exploring new grimy territory and getting busy. We checked out some old rundown indoor skatepark which had been left to rot and in some parts burn. You could see the trails where skateboarders and BMX riders had swept needles and beer cans aside to continue using what was left of the ramps. Needless to say this place had copt a hiding from the local writers.
After spending some time taking photos of the filth that surrounded us, we pushed on with our day and met up with Storm to make plans for the night ahead. After this I spoke with BATES who told us to meet him at the Carlsberg Brewery where he was working on some new material for the upcoming show- Streets Of Copenhagen. The Brewery itself was impressive to say the least, it’s actually its own fuckin’ suburb it’s that big! Meeting BATES for the first time was a cool experience, just like many others who are reading this, i’d grown up ogling his work from the other side of the planet, being constantly amazed by the ever fresh content that he produced in abundance. After showing us around the space within the brewery that they had been allocated to transform into a gallery, we got a sneak preview of a lot of the material he had been working on for the upcoming show. Needless to say, his artwork was mind blowing. Out of the blue, BATES points me in the direction of a paint stash that we’re able to raid for some tins to drop a piece together on one of the gallery walls. I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty fuckin’ excited to be rocking this proddy.
A few hours later we’re heading back to MENIK’s to get our kits together for the next mission. We grab a feed and a 6 pack and head on over to his friends place to pick up the sub. This guy was one of the biggest characters I’d met on my travels. He introduced himself and then started a conversation with the others in Danish. I don’t know one word of Danish, but I could tell how fucking stoned this guy was. He would mumble a few words every now and then and then break out into a goofy laugh while fighting to keep his eyes open… he was actually hilarious and was quite entertaining for the long car ride we had ahead of us. When we got to the spot we parked and walked around for a while… we ended up subbing the place for 4 hours before we went in. Our sub had a perfect vantage point on an over-bridge that stretched across the middle of the yard. I don’t know how (laughs), but unfortunately he missed spotting a cleaner who was still going through one of the carriages after 10 minutes of us being in there. Luckily enough, I spotted him no further than 2 metres away from STORM with his back to us. I calmly whispered to STORM, informing him of what the fuck was about to happen before we all picked up our green bags and made a not so sneaky exit. By the look on the cleaners face I think he was wigging more than we were. We headed back to the city with our heads low, realming on the unfinished business. To be honest though, I just felt sorry for the sub, he had been dragged on a 6 hour mission for almost nothing. We dropped him at the station which by then was the next morning so he could get the train straight to work- sleepless and sober. Regardless of the combination of bad luck and weather, Copenhagen was one of the highlights of my trip and I’ll be back for another round as soon as I can.
Photos: Frederik Emil Høyer-Christensen.
