Street performers

Our current apartment is very convenient to two main pedestrian streets in Copehnagen, Strøget and Købmagergade. After a month we were able to recognize most of the street performers and know their acts just by having walked past enough times. There is the Australian guy with the escape artist routine, break dancers, jugglers, and several musical ensembles - most good, a few dismal. The performers are out in the evening after the shops close and before the bars really get going. With summer (unofficially) over here, most have moved on - to where, I don't know. In their absence. One of the regulars has been out of sight for a while now - the older gentlemen with the chess board, clock, and sign saying "test your chess reflexes." Maybe he'll turn up again next summer.

The people on Strøget are of all kinds. Many tourists following the instructions of their guidebooks to walk from Rådhuspladsen to Nyhavn and take in the sights and shops along the way. Others are fashionable Danes out for an evening stroll. There are also the few homeless people, often scavenging returnable bottles in enough abundance to keep them supplied with beer and cigarettes. One of the funniest interactions was when a person offered their 'empty' to the long-bearded shabbily dressed man we'd seen many times riding in the area on his recumbent bicycle. Though the exchange was in Danish, we could tell enough from the body language that he made it clear that he was not a bum and that she could return her own recycleables.

Anyway, what prompted this post was the ensemble we saw this evening on our stroll. At our first pass, we saw a man duct-taping bottles together and tuning them by pouring water in or removing water with a straw. We made a mental note to pass by on our way back to see what it turned into. On the way back (after turning around at the eastern European juggler/tumbler solo act) we found a group of six musicians performing with various combinations of the bottles. Most were Carlsberg beer bottles, but the bass section had 1.5 liter Coke bottles. All were taped together to be played like pan pipes. We didn't recognize the song, but it was well done with several musical lines and two key changes. We contributed to their pusuits before walking home.