This is not a regular walking tour! We invite you to experience the hidden corners of Copenhagen as the guides introduce you to their world. Each guide has created their own special city tour that sheds light on the daily life in Copenhagen from their unique perspective of someone who has experienced homelessness​,​ addiction​​ or other social challenges.

Today's guide is Maynard:
Hi, my name is Maynard and I’m a member of The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. I’ve lived in Denmark since 2001. Former residences include the San Francisco Bay Area, San Antonio and the South coast of Texas as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico, the American Midwest and of course my home reservation of Red Lake in Minnesota. I’m a trained Social Worker-therapist counselor and does landscaping/ gardening professionally. Drug abuse and addiction were central themes in my life between the ages of 15 and 25. Homelessness, short jail stays, selling blood plasma, hitchhiking more than 20,000 miles eventually finding a drug free lifestyle are all parts of my story.

Spirituality as a living philosophy is one aspect of all human Native interactions with our surroundings. Teaching a drug free way of life with Native sweat lodge ceremonies and public speaking are a continuing way of giving back to people wherever I travel.

I’ll give you a tour of the roughest neighborhood of Copenhagen: Vesterbro. Here is prostitution, drug use and homelessness all smacked together. On my tour I’ll share my own experiences of being on the streets and talk about the similarities and differences between Denmark and USA.

To see a picture of Maynard, so you can recognize him on the tour, click HERE

Review:
Maynard is a very lively person despite him having to cling on life with his fingertips throughout a big part of his life. Maynard is a native American. He compares life in America with life in Denmark. After the tour I was very enlightened. And make no mistake: although Maynard has big gesticulations and an almost stand up performance there is depth and a message worth listening to.

Too bad he is a former alcoholic – I would have loved to drink a beer with him 😊

Bent H jan. 2019