Day 14, OT - Did I mention that the Danes like fireworks?

It's virtually impossible to paint a picture of tonight's events, but I'll be a good sport and give it a go.

Imagine a quaint old world city. Add, seemingly, all of the fireworks in Europe. Mix with a wealth of fireworks enthusiasts from the whole of the continent. Remove any level of general rules / oversight / good sense. Watch the show.

Young people. Old people. Children. Men in suits. Well dressed women. In the middle of the street. Lighting giant, professional looking, fireworks.

I'll try to set the scene in a couple of places. 

To make this clear, I live in a very nice part of the city called Frederiksberg. For our Chicago and Boston folks, I think it compares reasonably to Lincoln Park or Brookline. When we went to dinner at around 8PM, a well dressed grandfather and his grandsons were lighting things on fire and watching them explode.

After dinner we made our way to Rådhuspladsen, the main square in the city. It was crazy.

When I think "city" fireworks, I generally think of a bunch of people standing and watching some sort of municipal extravaganza. The fireworks are lit from a boat, or up on a hill, but most importantly, somewhere far away and out of any reach of spectators. Things last around ten minutes, there's a big finale and we all cheer and go home.

Every single firework in the following videos / pictures was lit by, well, just some guy / gal. It was amazing. As we were walking in, I said to Emily, "Why isn't anyone standing in the square? Why are they all surrounding it?". Because Collin, that's where the maniacs light the fireworks.

And just FYI, there isn't any rope. There are no cones or barricades. There really aren't any law enforcement types. At around midnight, I did see a couple of riot squad dudes, but it's entirely possible that they were just in costume.

Here's the scene around midnight.

The other amazing thing? It didn't / hasn't / probably won't stop. Everything smells like gunpowder.

So, do you like fireworks? Do you like danger? Do you drinking outside? Come to Copenhagen next Nytår, everyone should do it at least once.