- alternative
- (17)
-
Cross the Knippelsbro bridge to the Christiania district for a slice of Copenhagen’s alternative side. Founded in the 70s when a group of hippies took control of an abandoned military barracks and abstained from Danish rule, it’s a ‘free city’ within a city. Have a coffee along the waterfront and enjoy the paintings, sculpture and live music that seems to spring up everywhere.
Cross Knippelsbro, one of the two bridges connecting Sealand and Amager.
The classic four-day trek, the Inca Trail, to Machu Picchu now has an adventurous alternative. From Cuzco, I went across the scary Abra Malaga pass by local transport to the attractive warm jungle village of Santa Teresa and visited hot warm springs (very few foreign visitors at the present moment) and stayed with a local family in a rustic adobe lodge where fresh coffee beans were roasted in front of my eyes and papaya picked off the trees for morning breakfast!
The journey from Cusco to the jungle on to Machu Picchu with the local Quechua speaking guide involves one night staying by the hot springs in tents, one night with his family (a great experience!), a horse trek, some trekking and the final descent to Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu. In the morning, rise early before the other travellers and take in this famous lost Inca citadel.
A more varied experience overall, following a different route to the majority of people and great to get to stay with a local family, even for one night!
Santa Teresa is about a fivehour ride from Cuzco. I travelled with the volunteering and alternative adventure travel organisation, Inka Magik, which works with local schools as well as the Cuzco guide and rustic lodge.
A city within a city. Salford is well worth exploring, if only for the great ale pubs and architectural delights off Chapel Street (a three-minute walk from Deansgate). Salford Quays is just the gentrified (read: largely dull) part of a very characterful city.
Chapel Street and elsewhere, Salford
If dreadlocks, piercing and tribal tattoos are your style, there’s Soundgarden. It boasts a surprisingly civilized terrace overlooking the daily ebb and flow of boats and barges, but the inside is almost painstakingly run-down and graffitied, with a buckled pool table and a dartboard pocked with scars. Not as intimidating as it sounds, but hardly appropriate for the blue-rinse brigade. Grungy DJs and live music three times a week.
Marnixstraat 164-166, out west near Rozentheater
+31 (0)20 620 28 53
home.planet.nl/~nijbo143/soundgarden/english.htm
Formerly near metro Filles de Calvaire, Ground Zero records, at 23 rue Ste Marthe, in the 10th, is an excellent shop, specialising in indie, post-rock and leftfield.
It stocks lots of vinyl and carries fliers for gigs. It's a million miles away from the megastores.
Sometimes, you want to see what is really going on in China. My experience was fantastic.
Travel by public transport, go to villages where you are the only outside visitor, meet the rural population and avoid tickets and people trying to sell their gear. I was thrilled seeing Beijing in a different light and had a wonderful experience with Chinafaces.
Andrejsala is the new, trendy district of Riga. If you are visiting Riga then ask around for information about any special parties, exhibitions or clubbing events being held in the bohemian port area of the Latvian capital.
"Prager Frühling" is the German for "Prague Spring". The name refers to the period in early 1968 when the Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek tried to liberalise the country's communist regime by introducing free speech and freedom of assembly. The Prague Spring ended when Warsaw Pact troops invaded on the night of the 20-21 August 1968. But enough of the history lessons. Prager Frühling is currently one of the hippest joints in Munich. There are live bands most nights. And when there are no bands, there are live DJ's or special parties.
Prager Frühling
Leopoldstrasse 27
80802 München
Giselastrasse tube
www.prager-fruehling.info
A visit to the neon bone yard is an opportunity to get access to a Las Vegas rarity - physical history. In a city where everything new is held sacred, and anything old is disposed of, the neon bone yard is the equivilent of the Louvre. Wander around and marvel at the art of neon -and appreciate the size and scale of these masterpieces. An ecclectic mix of the giant silver slipper and Denny's restaurant signs nestle together in the Nevada desert sand.
Tours are private and by appointment only. Its a charitable organisation running the bone yard. Costs are: For 10 people or more its $5 each.
For 10 people and less its a minmum fee of $50 for the group.
Further information and online booking is available at www.neonmuseum.org
Part bar, part puppet show, this one-man-cabaret of a dining experience is for anyone who likes to eat out in truly surreal fashion.
It's the choicest blend of beer, bar snacks, party games and singing lavatory available in Tokyo, though definitely not recommended for the overly self-conscious.
Hanasada Bldg. B1F 5-12, Shinbashi 2 -Chome, Minato-Ku, Tokyo.
homepage: www1.ocn.ne.jp/~kagayayy/index_e.html
review: metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/448/bars.asp
The alternative (and best) part of town as far as I can see. Londoners will recognise it as a genuine, more truly independent Camden. Authentic food from many countries, an anarchist bookstore, numerous cafes and clothing stores.
Backs onto Chinatown off Spadina Ave.
Okay. Let me be frank. Club Rub is a fetish club. And before you all reach in horror for the computer mouse, it's not full of freaks and wierdos (although it's best to keep an open mind when delving into alternative entertainment). Held once a month on a Saturday in Houndsditch, London, it is a fetish event - max 400 people, featuring music, dancing, fetish fantasy, licensed bar and 'play' area. You can get tickets or pay on the door. There is a STRICT dress code. I mean S T R I C T! Leather, PVC, transvestite, latex rubber, that sorta thing - but absolutely no streetwear. Let your fantasy run wild. You HAVE to dress up - that's the point! The etiquette is simple - anything goes, but NO means NO.
What strikes you the moment you walk into the place, is the spectacle and friendliness. Oh, and the acceptance. You may be dressed as a transvestite priest but someone will always offer a friendly chat or an indecent proposal. A great place to give your sexual fantasies a free reign, or to just sit back and enjoy the carnival. All ages are welcome- it's attitude that counts, not grey pubic hairs. One thing I guarantee - Club Rub will spoil you for regular 'vanilla' clubs forever!
One of the most loved places for hippies, lefties, backpackers and young artists: the Forest Cafe, run by a DIY collective of artists, is the best place in Edinburgh to hang out in a non-capitalist fashion and meet like-minded people.
With free internet access, an art gallery, vegan and vegetarian food and stunning entertainment and events during and outside of the festival, this is the craziest place in town for dissidents and thinkers.
No matter if you want to watch films, read the latest protesting leaflets, or drop off your clothes and old books in the free shop, the Forest is the space for you. Just around from the university, it constantly changes.
It’s usually open from about 11am -11pm, licensed - sometimes with bring-your-own bottle - and during August it’s open till 3am. Also, it sells famous organic heather ale and seaweed beer.
3 Bristo Place, EH1 1EY;
tel: 0131 220 4538;
theforest.org.uk;
bus stop: 2, 42
Anti-Sonar is an alternative to Sonar which runs in Barcelona at the same time. It's free and much more fun.
Whereas Sonar attracts a moneyed, trendy, international crowd, Anti-Sonar is an anarchic impromptu festival for the scruffier inhabitants of Barcelona who can't afford or simply resent the festival and the hordes of techno tourists that take over the city for the weekend. Don't expect any big name DJs. Expect unrelenting hard techno, and bring your own water, beer, absinthe, and suncream, as you'll be dancing through into the morning.
Usually located on the outskirts of the city near to the Sonar by Night festival site, follow the crowds or ask around
It's one of the best tours in the UK and it is totally free - it's the weirdest tour, but gripping! It's about a dead agnostic physics teacher and her alternative Edinburgh guide - really has to be done to be believed. Takes you to places tourists would never be aware of. I've done the tour and it changed my perception of Edinburgh completely. Suitable for everyone I would say.
A gay bar with an alternative feel, the Metropolitan offers something unique. Rather than being full of Chelsea muscle boys you’re more likely to find a crowd decked out in vintage thrift. They have a great jukebox (New Order, Bjork etc) and if you’re musically inclined they have a queer karaoke night on Tuesday. In the summer they provide a free barbecue on Sundays, which is a bonus with New York being so expensive. Two for one drink specials on Tuesdays.
559 Lorimer St, between Metropolitan and Devoe (take the L train to Graham or Lorimer);
tel: 718 599 4444
Stands for Queer + Alternative. A weekly alternative to the europop blandness of most of Melbourne's gay scene. Indie boys and girrrls galore bouncing to top mocker toons until the smallish hours. They put together an awesome playlist when i was there, including perhaps the best sequence of 6 tracks i've ever heard in a club :)
Thursday nights.
64 Smith Street, cnr of Gertrude St. Collingwood
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
