December 9th - Bike Tour

Hi everyone,

I want to point out early in this post that Wednesday was specifically a rest day and a chance to get acquainted to the city.

Ronja and I both woke up late that morning. I asked Ronja the night before if she would take me on a tour of the city that she thought were important to see for a visitor. Ronja and I hooped on our bikes and joined the other 36% of cyclists in Copenhagen and we were off. There are side roads designated to cyclists. Ronja taught me the hand signs that are self explanatory (point out the right hand if you are going right and vice versa). As we were riding, I was learning the rules of the road. It was an amazing experience to be out in the city commuting in a culture doesn't see sustainable efforts as a mandate but something that just makes sense economically and is easy to do. Ronja told me she rarely rides the bus or takes public transportation because of the cost that is continuously increasing. I could see why. We made better headway to the Norreport Station than the Bus ride last night.



The place that Ronja took me to was Freetown Christiania. It is simply an autonomous neighborhood of 850 residents on 85 acres of land. She told me this was a place where the hippies tended to live and congregate. It is a land of settles that have basically built up a society from scratch. For instance, all the houses are built from families or individuals who live in them, which presents a very unique design in comparison to the rest of Copenhagen. Ronja took me on a walk around the lake that she goes to in the spring and summer to wave board. There was an organic restaurant that Ronja highly recommended. As we had lunch, we saw a group of police officers integrating students and anyone else involved in drug trade. This neighborhood has it problems primarily with drugs, but as Ronja tried to show to me that there is a whole other aspect to this place that many are not willing to see or understand. If interested for more info on Christiania , you can visit this Wiki address - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

That afternoon I was swamped with emails about side events in the Bella Center from several list serves I had joined recently. In less than a day, I received 80 emails. There was a topic that I found interesting starting at 8 PM and I thought I would at least try to go into the Bella Center. Hence, I took a side trip independently to the Bella Center where the UN Conference is held. I met my match with security guards at the gate who where only permitting people with UN badges and was quickly turned around to the subway station.

As I was waiting for the subway I realized the crowds of UNFCC officials and Non-Governmental delegates or observers right beside me who had just left the Bella Center. I thought this was an excellent opportunity to engage in conversation with a few of them. I first met Bakir Lozane, UN Non-Governemental Delegate for Lozane Farms in the Republic of Mocambique. He informed me a little about his work in transferring clean technology in Mocambique to advance sustainable agriculture. It turned out the Bakir Lozane of Lozane Farms and Jose Roberto Fonseca of Instituto Eco-Engenho in Maceio, Brazil were both awarded the "One World Award" from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia Foundation on December 11th, 2009. If you would like more information please visit this following web link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/12/prweb3329674.htm

Shortly afterwards, I met a UNFCCC official. I introduced myself and as he ran off to the subway recommended that I get participate in the December 12th demonstration from the Christiansborg Slotsplads (Parliament Square) in central Copenhagen to the Bella Center. The point here is that even though I was unable to attend the UN conference, I could still get in contact with some very distinguished leaders.