Bicycle-Caravan "East":reports
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(en) Report #1, Gödöllö, April 1st - 5th
A group of around 20 cyclists from different countries grew up in the east from Budapest. To be more precise at an organic farm next to a village called Gödöllö, where Sissi the famous Habsburgian Princesse once lived. Most of the people did not know each other before they met at the farm, but nevertheless there were some preparations to be done. The group started to talk about their aims for the caravan and planned some short theatre to be played in the pedestrian zone of budapest. There was also little time to jump into the cold lake next to the Farm.
Soon it was time to leave Gödöllö. During the early hours of April 5 we cleaned up and put everything inside the trailer of the tractor. At around 10 AM the group started towards the meeting point in Budapest.
(en) Report #2, Budapest, April 5th - 6th
The meeting point with some local activist was planned for 1PM. Due to the fact that there were no technical problems on the road, the group reached budapest too early. This gave some extra time to taste ´Langosh`, a Hungarian kind of special bread made out of fried yeast-dough with garlic.
Soon it was time for the theater. Some people dressed up as rich people, as poor people and as security guards. The play allowed only the rich people to enter a certain area which was inclosed. The poor people tried also to enter the area, but they were rejected by the guards. After some minutes of playing, just as they play was ending, the real police arrived at the scene. They took the personal detailes of one of the local participants and asked the group to leave the area. For this they needed at least 10minutes. In this time the group would have already departed. After the play, it was getting late and people were a bit exhausted. So we camped on an island in the river Danube, next to the centre of Budapest.
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(en/de) Photos from Hungary / Fotos aus Ungarn
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(en) Report #3, Bratislava, April 9th - 12th
Highly motivated by a visit to an original "Lenin-Stalin" bar on the way to Bratislava, we entered the city with a nice "dress-up and ring your bell" bike-party-caravan. A lot of people were waving and, due to our funny costumes, no car dared kick us from the street on our way to the anarchist info-shop.
The next day we re-organised and improved the trailer and enjoyed the comfort of a hot shower. In the evening we presented the bicycle caravan and discussed the ideas behind it with the local people. Afterwards, a lot of people came to have a cool party with a local sound system and fireshows.
On Wednesday afternoon some of the group went to a marginalised area of Bratislava and played with the children there whilst others joined an anti-G8 presentation with following discussion.
After the G8 info-event we offered workshops on different topics, for example, how to make paint bombs and how to make gold out of garbage. This was followed by a ska party.
On the two evenings about 50 people visited the anarchist info shop, a place many of them had never been before.
Hopefully our actions have helped support local struggles and make the info shop, which is situated in the outskirts of the city, more popular.
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(en/de) Photos from Slovakia / Fotos aus Slowakien
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(en) Report #4, Brno, April 13th - 16th
We arrived in Brno late on Friday evening. After two days of cycling with fantastic blue skies, beautiful countryside and a fancy-dress border action that left the border police looking very confused, we were happy to reach our destination.
After some mild stress parking the tractor on a narrow street, while being watched by an amused crowd of local people, we were greeted by our hosts, the friendly ProtestFest group and shown to our accommodation.
Friday evening was split between attending a No Respect concert, trying out the famous local beer at a nearby bar, or those exhausted by the day's cycling a much needed early sleep indoors.
Our busy Saturday began with a meeting and preparations for the days demonstrations, dressing up, making banners etc.
A very successful demonstration was then carried out in the afternoon: Dressed as clowns we had an info-table and handed out flyers, all while playing trashy disco pop from the wagon.
The demonstration at the square was followed by a big group cycle around the town, with lots of waving of flags, ringing of bells, shouting and chanting.
Our protest was generally received with friendly smiles and waves of encouragement from the local people. The police, on the other hand, seemed to be more frightened of us than we were of them, fleeing from the square!
In the evening we were given an info-event by our hosts, where we were shown some video clips and photos from some of their actions and some info-films.
Sunday was spent relaxing with several workshops, including an ice cream and castle visit working group!
So after a successful day's action on Saturday and a relaxing Sunday, the group set off on Monday refreshed and revitalised ready for the 120km cycle to our next destination: Pardubice.
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(en) Report #5, Pardubice, April 20th to 23rd
The cycledelic caravan came to Pardubice in the evening of Friday 20th of April. Our local friends/activists had organised beautiful accommodation in a great location just outside of the city in a big garden with a little house in it and a river beside. We were pleased about the good food and drinks they supplied. That evening we had a short plenary to discuss Saturday's action and to introduce some new cycle activists.
On Saturday morning we got up early to be at the train station in Pardubice for 10 o'clock. While cycling to the train station we had some trouble with the police as two people were riding the same bike together. They were also not pleased that Suki the dog had joined the protest as to ride on a bike with a dog is apparently forbidden in Czech.
The cycle activists were dressed as clowns so the spreading of flyers was a little bit more funny than usual.
After spreading the flyers in front of the main station and in the city together with the Czech activists, we ate some vegan Ghoulash, made by the local "Food not Bombs" group, who cook every week for the homeless people of Pardubice. During this action we had some visitors from the secret police. They tried to record our dialogues with a microphone and also to take some videos.
In the evening of the same day, there was an info-evening and concert in a club in the city. There were about 30 guests who discussed the caravan and listened to the concert by local bands. The rest of the weekend we spent hanging around and preparing for the onward journey, or taking part in workshops.
On Sunday we prepared a banner for animal rights as the 24th of April will be the international action day against the use in animals in scientific research.
The days in Pardubice were beautiful, as was the weather. However, due to a river on the way to Pardubice, half the group ended up vomiting onto the nice garden, so provided everyone is well and able, tomorrow we will tackle the next step towards Wroclaw.
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(en/de) Photos from Czechia / Fotos aus Tschechien
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(en) Report #7 neigborhood watch
Private property always creates problems, especially when you are not willing to hide or can`t hide that you want to use it for a time. And neighborhood watch and sometimes prefer to call the fire brigade and the policew instead of speaking with you. Because of permanent rain we were happy to reach a place in the evening were we could put up our tents on a huge meadow near a small lake. After the first tries of making a fire blue light appeared and a huge car of the fire brigade appeared to tell us that it is forbidden to make a fire, because it is too dangerous. Too dangerous when all the meadow is absolutely wet after two days of rain? But authorities have their own rationality... To protect their rule or protect us from doing such dangerous things they stayed for almost two hours near our campside, sitting in their car and enjoying the blue light of their sirene. But at least they were quite friendly although they didn`t want to take the beer we offered them. Cause it was now after 11pm the first went to bed and only a few stayed awake to cook something for a midnight lunch. In the middle of the night another sirene arrived at our peaceful camp. Now not the fire brigade but the police. The order of their boss was to force us to leave immediately this place because it is private property. Leave this place in the middle of the night, while almost all the people were sleeping, it was raining and the roads were absolutely muddy? No way!After a while of discussion ( a very creative discussion cause we couldn`t speak polish and the polish police could barely speak german or english) the policemen saw that it is impossible for us to leave immediately. What does a policeman do if he has an order but sees that it doesn`t make sense? Normally following the order anyway, because that is his job. But in this case we had luck and convinced them with our charme that we can stay at this place until the morning. At the end it was really a funny discussion and they had respect for that we cycled so long ( it is really hard to imagine for a policeman sitting all the time in his car or in front of his desk) But an authority have to stay an authority and therefore we had to show all our passports. Why? Nobody knows, but again, authorities have their own rationality.... But not all neighbors or landowners call the police cause they don`t want others to touch their holy ground. Two days later we made quite an opposite experience. The farmers were really glad to see us on their field and invited us to some beer self-made liqueur and we invited them to a nice lunch. They also wanted to donate us eggs and a chicken, but you don`t have to take every donation...
(en) Report #8 after border-crossing
After the crossing of the german-polish border even more people joined the caravan. Unfortunately the new members don`t seem to get the sense of a bike caravan. Instead of joining us with bikes they accompanie us 24 hours with their stinky cars. Bah! But they block the streets better than we ever could while slowly following us- what a great help! Probably they don`t have so much fun, sitting all the time in their cars, filming the lunch of the cyclistas or trying to follow them on muddy roads where they have no place to turn. But for us it is great fun to have them( at least always four of them), good for our creativity and good for the health, cause laughing is so healthy... if someone sees them and that is not so difficult, please send greetings from us!
- UM-LB 567
- UM-SY 695
- UM-CX 102
- MOL-E 272
- UER-CR 233
- B-LM 695
If you want to have fun with the police and the cyclist@s come to the Karlshof you are welcomed to do the last part of the caravan with us!