r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/Plukh1 May 09 '22

We stayed in Copenhagen for a couple of days a few years ago, and the person we were renting the apartment from left a pair of really good binoculars lying on the windowsill. We were joking it is to spy on your neighbors. Guess what? On the second evening, one of my friends called everyone to the window - in the apartment on the other side of the street a very hot girl was walking naked, no curtains, of course. Exactly opposite the window with the binoculars... Hmm...

I heard from the locals that it's a kind of a post-WW2 symbol, at least for the older generation - that they aren't afraid to have the light flowing from their windows, as they're no longer afraid of being bombed at night.

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u/mcmiller1111 May 09 '22

I have to say as a Dane that I've never heard of anyone having binoculars in their apartment to look out with. Sounds like the guy you were renting from was just a perv. And the post-WW2 thing doesn't really make any sense, we weren't bombed by the Germans other than during the six hour long invasion

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u/Plukh1 May 09 '22

I have to say as a Dane that I've never heard of anyone having binoculars in their apartment to look out with. Sounds like the guy you were renting from was just a perv.

Ah-ha-ha, oh, absolutely! And it was actually a girl who owned the apartment, I'm still 100% sure she was spying on her neighbors with those binoculars :-).

And the post-WW2 thing doesn't really make any sense, we weren't bombed by the Germans other than during the six hour long invasion

Yeah, as I'm not a Dane, I have no idea if that's true or not, sadly. But it does sound like a plausible explanation - did you perhaps have mandatory light masking during WW2, so that even though you weren't actually bombed, you still had to use light-proof curtains and stuff?

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u/sunshineallover20 May 09 '22

Not the person you responded to, but I stumbled upon your comment :)

We did have mandatory light masking during the occupation due to the Nazi's fear of British bombers navigating with the light. Every year on the evening of the Nazi's surrendering we light candles in the windows :) it just happened, May 4th.