ISTEDGADE = Istedstreet  - AS I KNOW IT

 Istedgade runs from HOVEDBANEGAARDEN - the Copenhagen main train station - to Enghave Plads.

When you mention the name ISTEDGADE then most Danish people and tourists squirm.

I doubt there is one adult in Denmark who does not know where Istedgade is and Thousands of tourists “have to see Istedgade” when they visit Copenhagen.

Why? Because of this:

Most tourist wants to visit Istedgade because of the prostitution and sex shops – which actually only is a few blocks of Istedgade”.

But for me Istedgade has a total different meaning. It has fond memories, because It was my “home ground” for nine years.

After my parents divorced when I was 10 years old, my mom, my sister and I moved to Kongshøjgade 2, 4^th floor to the right, which I just around the corner from Enghave Plads. I graduated from Enghave Plads Skole.

To me Istedgade was just ISTEDGADE. It was interesting.  It was exciting and it was scary at time – all at the same time.

Actually, there is a side street to Istedgade called Saxogade that I WAS scared of, and to this day I still do not understand how my poor mother survived having to WALK there every day in order to do her job at “Det Danske Telefon Compani” = The Danish Telephone company as a telefon dame = Telephone Operator.

She would start at three o’clock in the afternoon and had to walk home at 10:00 p.m. when guys were picking up prostitutes. As a child, I never realized that it must have been no only scary, but dangerous for her to have to walk home every night.

But when I think of Istedgade, it only gives me “warm fuzzy’s” inside.

Why? I walked there A LOT.

Since my mother went to work 15 minutes after I came home from school at 2:15 p.m. and my sister Birgit was at work all day at Tom’s Chocolate factory, I was mostly alone all the time, so my mother gave me winter passes to the Royal Theater and summer passes to Tivoli – which is just on the other side of the Railway station.

So, walking from Enghave Plads to Tivoli was a regular thing for me and I believe I was quite innocent and not really knowing what prostitution was.

I loved the fish stores with “fresh fish”.  The butcher shops. The little curio stores. The shoe shops.  The little outdoor restaurants. etc.

I also liked just walking up and down the street and just look at people’s faces and try to find out “how they were” what they were thinking.

I always enjoyed walking there, not only alone, but numerous of times with my older sister Birgit.

We would watch the beautiful fresh flowers outside the flower stores where they could be bought for just a few “ører”. We also liked looking at all the “things we did not have money to buy”

When my sister and I walked together as TEENS, we would walk arm in arm (Women could do that at that time, without anybody thinking that you were lesbians).

We had this “secret signal”.  If I saw a guy that I thought would be really good for my sister, I would squeeze her arm and she would do the same.

Nevertheless, sometimes we would make fun of that.  If there was a guy that was REALLY UGLY, we would squeeze even harder.  We had a lot of laughs out of that.

Yes, we had some really, really good innocent clean fun walking down Istedgade.  Good memories.

But, for me Istedgade was not only “fun and excitement”, but a place where I learned “compassion”. For me it was “people in need”.  The downtrodden. My heart went out to them.

There were many beggars on the streets and if I had a few “ører”, then I wanted to share it with them.

So even today, when I visit Denmark, I cannot go HOME without having a stroll down Istedgade to relive old memories.

Vibeke Lindhardt

19 March 2017