I managed to escape the clutches of the evil Munich and was soon enroute to the Austrian countryside.But not before I got searched by the reputedly over-fussy southern German cops. A big smile on my face i commented it would be nice of them to chase some real criminals to which they replied that they doubted they could. Soon their brand-new unmarked VW whisked them away surely on the way to catch out someone else who looked different and acted differently to the norm.
I eventually got to the frontier near Salzburg and there i stood trying different spots for a good four hours, my patience wearing thin as the hours progressed and the day grew darker and colder. I eventually engaged a couple of farmers who i encouraged to take me to near Graz where they said they were staying. This turned out to be 200km from Graz and the petrol station they were to leave me at was a deserted isle of light in the midst of dark trees lining the Alpine foothills. I found some food to eat and then searched out what felt like a quiet place sandwiched between a railway and a river. Of course it was all extremely quiet as i set up and it wasnt until i settled and had just pulled up my sleeping bag when suddenly i hear a hooting and feel electricity running through my feet just before a heavy cargo train speeds noisily by. I struggled the rest of the night through the continuous sporadic bouts of speeding trains, like a prisoner of war awaiting his periodical moment of torture with grudgingly exhausting acceptance.
The next day i awake, walk around, take soame pics and then walk over to the supermarket just when some guy calls me over and offers to take me to graz after seeing the sign i was grasping. If only things were always this easy!!! I arrive in graz after an interesting chat with my croatian host. Soon i am back in spektral and then meeting lea and life is good. The sun shone for the next three days as life seemed good. Walking and talking with lea was a glee as always though she looked more distant than other times and Flo was different. New friendships and cool times followed and i cant complain that here in Graz life was good with the Spektral alternative centre being the key to a new community.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Germans rocked me, despite the fact that i didnt know german!
It was strange to come back to mundane rainy England after all the near tropical fanfare of Florida, USA. I was soon off to Berlin where I wanted to see some friends from last year and this was something special. I enjoy the openness of the Germans where people strive to speak English to you even when they are not so fluent and where women are as independent as men in the pursuance of their life goals. I missed the anti-fa and alternative scene here, where students see it as their responsibility to protest for their rights and march in favour of the environment and stand up against the terrible spectre of a rising Neo-nazi faction especially in the eastern regions. I hearkened back to our fun times with Robert and Henry and we had more adventures with these guys. After a few days chilling with my straight-talking friend Kati in Friedrichshain, including a stay in a feminist lesbian woman-only squat known as the XB Liebig where I met some fabulously open people and others who were incredibly insular, I was able to venture north, hitching to Hamburg where there were holding the clima camp. .... I wrote this report for a newspaper so I think you may have already seen it and it best describes the feelings I felt there.
I was a time of learning and of interesting conversations and also set me up to meet other people in the south of Berlin, especially in a small community a few kms south of the capital where I stayed in a chilled community house in a small village where I could feel at home picking up potatoes from the backgarden plot of land or wild herbs to sweeten our salad by the river with this acquantance and her young child. It was strange to feel the calm of the countryside with its leisurely pace and its sound of silence, loveable dogs coming to greet you and old buildings covered in ivy. Sitting there pondering I could see this kind of life becoming my future as a more thriving community model would be an interesting way in which to gratify some hopes and desires.
The next step was a hitch to Leipzig, which went really smoothly and I was able to stay with some friends in the city for a while I also met in the clima camp. Hanging with this couple in their house was fun, despite a few mishaps like a stolen bicycle and the fact they were moving away. Meeting up with some other people from the hamburg camp I was able to find this party in the forest, by a lake under a road-bridge after cycling through dark tracks alone with very little sense of where I was going. The party was well-worked as I can expect from the Germans showing they do not only talk a lot, they also act a lot and put a lot of effort into their activity. It all ended prematurely when the police arrived to shut it down but I was so impressed that everyone seemed so eager to help clear up at the end, despite their alcohol and drug-induced stupor, everyone running around with plastic bags to collect the rubbish, probably leaving the invisible under part of the bridge cleaner than when we first arrived. Within an hour we were off, cycling and walking around town as we got followed by drunken hormone-driven men as we tried to head to the park for the after-party. It was a long road but we finally made it and after some minimal techno we were able to watch the sun rise even staying once the police had arrived to see one of the sunniest days of my German sojourn, while I hung out with a cool possible future travel partner draped in the hot afternoon sun while the grass crept around our feet.
More days of indulgence followed in another park with a jungle party and with some new found friends in different places. I finally concluded that Leipzig was one of the coolest places in Germany, with open people and interesting vibes, perhaps more inclined towards students and leisure than the creativity and activism of Berlin but still a comfortable place to live and grow more in touch with those around you on a more regular basis. It was cool to see these people though many times I yearned to get closer to them by being able to speak their mother tongue, so much so that I vowed to return one day and learn to speak so I could participate in their logical conversation and contribute to their ideological exchange.
Now I find myself in Munich after one unsuccessful day of hitching in the rain from Leipzig. I returned to my couchsurfer in Leipzig with my tail between my legs almost ready to use some other form of paying transport for the 400km trip south to the much-maligned Munchen, but I persevered through more rain the next day and after 2 hours of frustration decided to get the next lift onto the A9 even it was towards Berlin. A cool guy hesitatingly picked me up, before going out of his way to drop me at the petrol station heading south. From there it was plain sailing. A VW T3 campervan with some young guys picked me up and drove me 250km south to Nuremberg taking me a bit further than they were going to leave me at the next petrol station and after that the coolest, warmest and most open guy I met for a while who actually worked for the IBM multinational as he tried to escape the mainstream social system drove me all the way to my destination. I stayed with a girl I met by coincidence in south spain in a lovely wooden house near the centre of Munich and partied last night beside a sculpture of a naked guy. The party was innovative because everyone had to bring their own stereo with the DJ plugging his disks into an ipod radio transmitter which was then augmented by using an aerial and sent to other nearby stereos on a hijacked frequency. It was such a cool idea and though people were more snobbish and closed-minded than the other 3 cities I'd visited it was still fun, with some interesting meetings and then a crazy cycle to a wagenplatz (improvised caravan park) to go to sleep at the invitation of some more clima camp companions I found spontaneously onsite.
I need to go now as I will stay there the night again and meet up with some cool guys I met at the clima camp and have arranged to meet with.
This time was enjoyable and I felt right at home among all the caravaners. Their little camp at the end of this parking was colourfully and intricately decorated, no doubt with remnants of parties and passers-by. It was quaint with Mercedes campers as well as larger trailers with a nice sense of community full of travellers and more permanent people. We hung out and played a game for a while and soon went to sleep in a van they offered me for the night. The next day, a slow breakfast helped me get on my way after which I eventually managed to leave for Austria. I knew it was late tho and I would probably not make it...
I was a time of learning and of interesting conversations and also set me up to meet other people in the south of Berlin, especially in a small community a few kms south of the capital where I stayed in a chilled community house in a small village where I could feel at home picking up potatoes from the backgarden plot of land or wild herbs to sweeten our salad by the river with this acquantance and her young child. It was strange to feel the calm of the countryside with its leisurely pace and its sound of silence, loveable dogs coming to greet you and old buildings covered in ivy. Sitting there pondering I could see this kind of life becoming my future as a more thriving community model would be an interesting way in which to gratify some hopes and desires.
The next step was a hitch to Leipzig, which went really smoothly and I was able to stay with some friends in the city for a while I also met in the clima camp. Hanging with this couple in their house was fun, despite a few mishaps like a stolen bicycle and the fact they were moving away. Meeting up with some other people from the hamburg camp I was able to find this party in the forest, by a lake under a road-bridge after cycling through dark tracks alone with very little sense of where I was going. The party was well-worked as I can expect from the Germans showing they do not only talk a lot, they also act a lot and put a lot of effort into their activity. It all ended prematurely when the police arrived to shut it down but I was so impressed that everyone seemed so eager to help clear up at the end, despite their alcohol and drug-induced stupor, everyone running around with plastic bags to collect the rubbish, probably leaving the invisible under part of the bridge cleaner than when we first arrived. Within an hour we were off, cycling and walking around town as we got followed by drunken hormone-driven men as we tried to head to the park for the after-party. It was a long road but we finally made it and after some minimal techno we were able to watch the sun rise even staying once the police had arrived to see one of the sunniest days of my German sojourn, while I hung out with a cool possible future travel partner draped in the hot afternoon sun while the grass crept around our feet.
More days of indulgence followed in another park with a jungle party and with some new found friends in different places. I finally concluded that Leipzig was one of the coolest places in Germany, with open people and interesting vibes, perhaps more inclined towards students and leisure than the creativity and activism of Berlin but still a comfortable place to live and grow more in touch with those around you on a more regular basis. It was cool to see these people though many times I yearned to get closer to them by being able to speak their mother tongue, so much so that I vowed to return one day and learn to speak so I could participate in their logical conversation and contribute to their ideological exchange.
Now I find myself in Munich after one unsuccessful day of hitching in the rain from Leipzig. I returned to my couchsurfer in Leipzig with my tail between my legs almost ready to use some other form of paying transport for the 400km trip south to the much-maligned Munchen, but I persevered through more rain the next day and after 2 hours of frustration decided to get the next lift onto the A9 even it was towards Berlin. A cool guy hesitatingly picked me up, before going out of his way to drop me at the petrol station heading south. From there it was plain sailing. A VW T3 campervan with some young guys picked me up and drove me 250km south to Nuremberg taking me a bit further than they were going to leave me at the next petrol station and after that the coolest, warmest and most open guy I met for a while who actually worked for the IBM multinational as he tried to escape the mainstream social system drove me all the way to my destination. I stayed with a girl I met by coincidence in south spain in a lovely wooden house near the centre of Munich and partied last night beside a sculpture of a naked guy. The party was innovative because everyone had to bring their own stereo with the DJ plugging his disks into an ipod radio transmitter which was then augmented by using an aerial and sent to other nearby stereos on a hijacked frequency. It was such a cool idea and though people were more snobbish and closed-minded than the other 3 cities I'd visited it was still fun, with some interesting meetings and then a crazy cycle to a wagenplatz (improvised caravan park) to go to sleep at the invitation of some more clima camp companions I found spontaneously onsite.
I need to go now as I will stay there the night again and meet up with some cool guys I met at the clima camp and have arranged to meet with.
This time was enjoyable and I felt right at home among all the caravaners. Their little camp at the end of this parking was colourfully and intricately decorated, no doubt with remnants of parties and passers-by. It was quaint with Mercedes campers as well as larger trailers with a nice sense of community full of travellers and more permanent people. We hung out and played a game for a while and soon went to sleep in a van they offered me for the night. The next day, a slow breakfast helped me get on my way after which I eventually managed to leave for Austria. I knew it was late tho and I would probably not make it...
Friday, September 12, 2008
What do Portugal, north spain and florida have in common?
Three weeks ensued when I fixed up my van and passed it through the MOT before I started the long road north on my LT28 to north Spain with an Israeli girl called Hadar who wanted to share the trip with me. It proved good to get some surf in Algarve and meet up with Marc who I had also met in Morocco while in the east we found some interesting eco-farm communities caught up among traditional villages which celebrated their patron saints with style, inviting us to a party with local produce for everyone called Santiago (and us, who weren't). We then continued the road to Leon, the mountainous province where we would be at the rainbow gathering for Spain. Having been there getting to know travellers from around the world was a real privilege though the esoteric nature admittedly put me off a bit as usual. Too much energies and Mayan calendars for my liking...
After two weeks oscillating between the camp and the town to do my work on the internet, these good times came to an end as we danced around fires naked or performed dramas, ran to rainbows hand-in-hand and saw some beautiful sunrises, swam naked in a nearby lagoon, or hung around farting and squirting liquid shit from our vegan-only arses.
Moving west with a motley crew of an Israeli couple and two Slovenians for company we connected with some couchsurfers in La Coruna through the msn and that same night hung out with one of the coolest guys I met. Oscar took all of us into his home for five memorable days never without a dull moment as his music-making and reggae-DJing took us into another dimension. With Patrik from Hamburg who was also Csing with us and his cool neighbour Ana we spent some great days and nights enjoying the Galician warmth of personality. After that we went to the Ortigueira festival, a folk festival which has very little to do with that if you do like most people and head for the forested area on the beach and party all night among tripping young people and various food and ornament stalls. The beach area was particularly spectacular, a small islet floating in the middle of this serene bay with a perfect mouse-sized A-frame breaking in the middle of it – a perfect spot to watch the sun rise or set.
In the end time caught up with me and I had to drive to Gijon, Asturias to leave my van with a surfboard maker (shaper) friend and then catch a bus back to Santiago to catch a ryanair flight to Liverpool at zero euros (plus 40e of taxes of course). Getting there at midnight and hanging with some cool Poles in the airport until morning I arrived bang on time that same morning at my brother Mark's graduation. It was cool to see him graduate with his classmates and along with the rest of the family enjoyed the ceremony while chilling in a beautiful countryside cottage in the countryside. Of course, it was impossible to get there but after some miracles managed to arrive there where we stayed for a whole day and left the next morning with a hire car to drive the family down to a slightly impromptu holiday in Florida, our first time to cross the pond to our much maligned superpower 'ally'.
Getting there we found the Americans to be much more agreeable than I expected, incredibly open, warm and friendly. They were particularly charmed by English accents and it was a pleasure to meet different echelons of society from varying backgrounds. From the rural dwelling Bible-belt Bush-fanatical family we stayed with to the arty single mum of 2 in the city, I found people who had a generally healthy outlook on life.
There were many immigrants from Latin America, many of whom were not even able to speak English and each with their own story to tell – one rowed for 11 days in a self-made dinghy across the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba to get to the US by crossing through its only southern land border. Maybe the USA gets judged too harshly and looking at it from their standpoint its easy to see how they can get imperialistic, arrogant and naïve to other interests. Their military power is such and their infrastructure is so advanced on every level, from communications network to financial freedom to quality of life it must be easy to forget the rest of the world exists and that they have to care about anything apart from their own feelings like the rest of the Western world. Even issues like global warming and the global distribution of wealth must be so inconsequential to them they are unable to grapple with the concepts involved. I suppose it is a common evil for us in Europe, the Middle East and other countries to demonize them to excuse our own behaviour even on a private level. But the truth is we are just as bad as them and its also possible that some of their interventionism is also based on an idea of getting their hands bloody so that other countries can have a system that is more like theirs. I however cannot just stand by their super-consumerist culture which I found so awkward and unfamiliar, even among the alternative crowd, while the social tensions found in the ghettos are clearly the crunching point of social degradation which makes America a much more racist country than other systems in Europe, even though the nation is inherently an immigrant-populated country which is now closing the door to this stream of open hands.
But on the whole it was good to see some people confronting some of the issues and being open in heart and mind to listen what we had to say. Perhaps ignorance is bliss after all but how can you change a blissfully ignorant nation anyway, if bliss is what everyone wants?
After two weeks oscillating between the camp and the town to do my work on the internet, these good times came to an end as we danced around fires naked or performed dramas, ran to rainbows hand-in-hand and saw some beautiful sunrises, swam naked in a nearby lagoon, or hung around farting and squirting liquid shit from our vegan-only arses.
Moving west with a motley crew of an Israeli couple and two Slovenians for company we connected with some couchsurfers in La Coruna through the msn and that same night hung out with one of the coolest guys I met. Oscar took all of us into his home for five memorable days never without a dull moment as his music-making and reggae-DJing took us into another dimension. With Patrik from Hamburg who was also Csing with us and his cool neighbour Ana we spent some great days and nights enjoying the Galician warmth of personality. After that we went to the Ortigueira festival, a folk festival which has very little to do with that if you do like most people and head for the forested area on the beach and party all night among tripping young people and various food and ornament stalls. The beach area was particularly spectacular, a small islet floating in the middle of this serene bay with a perfect mouse-sized A-frame breaking in the middle of it – a perfect spot to watch the sun rise or set.
In the end time caught up with me and I had to drive to Gijon, Asturias to leave my van with a surfboard maker (shaper) friend and then catch a bus back to Santiago to catch a ryanair flight to Liverpool at zero euros (plus 40e of taxes of course). Getting there at midnight and hanging with some cool Poles in the airport until morning I arrived bang on time that same morning at my brother Mark's graduation. It was cool to see him graduate with his classmates and along with the rest of the family enjoyed the ceremony while chilling in a beautiful countryside cottage in the countryside. Of course, it was impossible to get there but after some miracles managed to arrive there where we stayed for a whole day and left the next morning with a hire car to drive the family down to a slightly impromptu holiday in Florida, our first time to cross the pond to our much maligned superpower 'ally'.
Getting there we found the Americans to be much more agreeable than I expected, incredibly open, warm and friendly. They were particularly charmed by English accents and it was a pleasure to meet different echelons of society from varying backgrounds. From the rural dwelling Bible-belt Bush-fanatical family we stayed with to the arty single mum of 2 in the city, I found people who had a generally healthy outlook on life.
There were many immigrants from Latin America, many of whom were not even able to speak English and each with their own story to tell – one rowed for 11 days in a self-made dinghy across the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba to get to the US by crossing through its only southern land border. Maybe the USA gets judged too harshly and looking at it from their standpoint its easy to see how they can get imperialistic, arrogant and naïve to other interests. Their military power is such and their infrastructure is so advanced on every level, from communications network to financial freedom to quality of life it must be easy to forget the rest of the world exists and that they have to care about anything apart from their own feelings like the rest of the Western world. Even issues like global warming and the global distribution of wealth must be so inconsequential to them they are unable to grapple with the concepts involved. I suppose it is a common evil for us in Europe, the Middle East and other countries to demonize them to excuse our own behaviour even on a private level. But the truth is we are just as bad as them and its also possible that some of their interventionism is also based on an idea of getting their hands bloody so that other countries can have a system that is more like theirs. I however cannot just stand by their super-consumerist culture which I found so awkward and unfamiliar, even among the alternative crowd, while the social tensions found in the ghettos are clearly the crunching point of social degradation which makes America a much more racist country than other systems in Europe, even though the nation is inherently an immigrant-populated country which is now closing the door to this stream of open hands.
But on the whole it was good to see some people confronting some of the issues and being open in heart and mind to listen what we had to say. Perhaps ignorance is bliss after all but how can you change a blissfully ignorant nation anyway, if bliss is what everyone wants?
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