Danube Baby!!

Guess what!?!? (and Mums dont kill us...) we got to Bratislava Sunday evening after a sweet ride along the Danube.

There a guy on a bike approached us and changed the course of the trip... He was riding his bike, and asked if we were really going from Sweden to Serbia, so we had a chat and he pointed us to a hostel on the river nearby. It turned out to be a paddling place (http://www.paddler.sk/) and the owner dared us to kayak down to Serbia on the Danube... Of course we laughed our heads off at first but he insisted, saying that people went till the Black Sea like that and it would be awesome for us. Damn straight it would be... after long hesitation and arguing we decided to work out a deal for the bikes and got ourselves two kayaks for THE REST OF THE TRIP!!!

Oh man... the guy guided us on the river on Monday and explained everything about the Danube: current, boats, damns, etc... the photos are from Xavs camera which is waterproof - battery is dead right now and we are in an internet cafe so we will post them asap!!! Crazy stuff and dont know where to start...

We had told Ride for your Rights in Novi Sad that they could have our bikes for their trip, plus we had other plans for july so of course we didnt start paddling to Serbia on the Danube (hehehe, do tell if you bought the story!!). Ok so to tell the real stuff, Bratislava and the whole ride to Budapest was great - but we were always very close to the Hungarian border and apparently that doesnt really represent Slovakia. In fact our Hungarian couchsurfing host just told us that Bratislava was the capital of Hungary for centuries (check wikipedia for the history lesson). We went along the Danube the whole day to Komarno on Monday, with tail wind the whole way, except missing the turn to the right bridge (we couldnt see the river from the track) so we lost about an hour there and made it to Komarno at 8pm. Massive Pizza, camp site, shower, dead.

Today we were on the road in Hungary. With no extra space of the road side, we kept focused on the road and didnt see much of the landscape! AND its so good to have tail wind... only since Vienna we had that since Sweden!! Probably thanks to it we covered around 100km in 5hours. The last 20km were quite intense with fast downhill stuck to the side of the road and quite some traffic!! In the end the city is beautiful and our host is really cool so we-are-happy!!

From now, 3 more days to Novi Sad!

in Vienna, off to Bratislava

We were in Vienna since Friday, and after exploring the city, meeting up with university friends, visiting the Green Expo 2011, eating a lot of food and bouncing around the Danube festival, we'll be on our way to Bratislava in about an hour. More details and photos coming soon - this is the last week to ride to Serbia!!

Forced idle...

Our first couple of days in Prague were action packed and we were stoked to make the Pro Action Cafe happen, however some facts of life kicked in and we have to stay here a little longer than planned. 

Nanond still needed a Visa for Serbia, so we went to the embassy last friday and they told us that with completed forms and an invitation letter from Serbia by monday, we should have it by thursday or friday this week. "Ride for your Rights" were really supportive in sending us an invitation letter very quickly: we are very greatful for that. Back to the embassy yesterday it turned out that after examining Nanond's student visa for Sweden, a visa for the few days necessary in Serbia could be issued on the spot!! No doubt the supporting documents still helped. 

For his part Xav got ill, not to the point of being stuck in bed, but he's not to get back on a bike to do 100km for days in a row just yet... 

SO, to keep to our schedule of arriving in Novi Sad by July 2nd, we will have to take a train to Vienna... it's really a "bummer". In our bad luck we are lucky though - we are staying with family and we will be with MSLS (Xav's master's programme) friends in Vienna where another workshop is in the making. We can also spend some time adding content to our new pages in the tabs above, and finally, some "Riders for your rights" also contacted us to ride our last day with us in Serbia, big thanks for that and we are so looking forward to it!!!

More Czech stuff coming soon: looking forward to explore more of stunning Prague and be back on the road! 

PS. We would like to take this opportunity to say that we didn't mean to offend anyone in saying the "average" (what a word to speak of people anyway!?!) german doesn't speak good english! This was before arriving in Berlin where:

1. We actually spoke to more people and,
2. our german friends waved their finger at us when evoking this comment ;)

Morale of the story: don't generalise! PLUS it's not for us to speak: we only learned a few words like "thanks", "turn left" or "go straight" in Polish, German and Czech so far! We'll add local specialties to our vocabulary!

Workshop in Prague!

Finally the time has come, thanks to Evi for coordination and Will for the spacious office in LOCUS workspace and his participation, we recieved an overwhelming support from more than ten other participants during the Pro-action Café workshop.

Here's a brief overview (see the workshops page for more details):

As a conversational process, the Pro Action Cafe is a collective, innovative methodology for hosting conversations about calls, questions and projects that matter to the people that attend. These conversations link and build on each other as people move between cafe tables, cross-polinate ideas, and offer each other new insights into the questions or issues that are most important in their life, work, organization or community. (Art of Hosting 2011).

During almost 3 hours in the workshop, which went by so fast, we were overehelmed by the degree of participation and interest the people put in. The projects brought up to the café tables included civic movement of people in Prague 10 and the quest to rise more and more awareness and involvement in taking care of public area and facilities. This is a real example of people movement against what otherwise could become another "tragedy of the commons", and make there voice heard. Thanks Libor for his interesting project. Iva and Vitek of AUTO*MAT presented their projects about improving conditions for cyclists and pedastrians in Prague and the works the NGO is doing. Finally, we also discussed a project Will has in mind, to combine his passion in sustainability and his co-working office business.

The workshop served as two-way lerning for both us two and the participants. At the end of the workshop, we received valuable comments for our improvement. We hope that it served its purpose of inspiring the conversations and provide a good start for the future.

No less exciting and inspiring were other activities from others participants we talked about during the dinnner after the workshop, with traditional Czech beers of course!

Once again, we would like to say thank you to all of you who joined us. We really appreciate the friendship and inspiration form everyone of you. We wish we would have a chance to meet or work together again.


Pics to be up soon :)


In preparation on June 18th, we had a meeting with Evi, our contact person from Prague Green Drinks. We are so excited!

The workspace

Berlin to Prague, the journey continues

It's been almost a week since our last update. Here's what we have been through during this time.

After leaving Berlin on June 13th, we headed south in the direction of Dresden. We took the train out to the outer part of Berlin to avoid the traffic and make it simple for our navigation. The first day took us from Blankenfelde to Grüwalder Lauch. That's over 120 km.

Between Lichterfeld and Lauch Hammer we observed a devastated land of old mining site.

Agrandir le plan

The classic navigation.

A huge coal mining machine in Germany

Camping site view

The next day, June 14th, we headed into Dresden, which took us more time than we thought. On the map it looked not very far, but as we rode through the country roads, it seemed to continue forever! We got to Dresden late in the afternoon and took a train to Pirna. It was almost 7 pm so we decided to end the day, camping at a site near the town. 

View Larger Map

Our way into Dresden

From Pirna, at first we thought about taking a seemingly shortest road to Decin, in Czech republic. A quick check with the people at the camping site confirmed our concern, for that road would take us through very hilly terrain. Instead, the bike path along the Elbe would be easier ride and beautiful. And that was the road we used from Pirna through Decin to Litomerice on June 15th.

Oh and since people seemed quite impressed that we were riding all that distance, we decided to make it more obvious on what we were wearing...

Sweden to Serbia!

Along the Elbe

Bastei

Konigstein

Into Czech republic - Day 10, country Number 4

Dodgy looking night clubs close to the border...

Waiting for rain to pass - biscuit time

Nice view over the Elbe in Litomerice

From Litomerice, we couldn't take the bike path further as it was under construction. Instead we followed a road to Roudnice. There we met another new experience. While consulting our map in the town centre, a old man approached us. He introduced himself as a cyclist knowing the way around the region, then offered to ride with us to the next town. We hesitated at first but after he enthusiastically insisted, we followed him home to get his bike. There we met his wife who sat us at a table and gave us soup and bread! At this point we were not even properly introduced! When finally asking his name, he went to get a business card: Jan is the name, retired engineer, and Eve his wife. After that he lead us on a path along the river again. Within barely 30 minutes of riding, he stopped and proclaimed "and now my friends you will have a beer with me"!!! Loveable guy obviously! We drank and talked about Czech history and culture for a bit, then he seemed properly fuelled because we had a hard time keeping up with him. He lost the way at some point, we went to a factory where he asked a friend directions, and overall he rode with us for over 50 km until we reached Kralupy. We had photo together before we parted. What a nice experience! 

We took the last 25 km into Prague on road 608. The sun was burning, the temperature was over 30 degree celcius and we had some hills to climb but we reached Prague safely. 

Our speedy guide

Prague finally

Karneval der Kulturen!

Yesterday we had a chance to see "Karneval der Kulturen" in Berlin, pretty much a day full of people gathering on the street to enjoy the parade of culture and nice weather. It was amazing to see how many different cultures are mixed together in this city. The number of parade group is over 100 and it ran from mid day to 9.30 pm.

Also we had a chance to meet with a friend of Xav, Maggy and her friends, who are studying master degree in environmental technologies. We introduced the sustainability programs we have in BTH and had some interesting conversation about our trip and sustainability.

Today, we left Berlin in the morning. We decided to use the train instead of fighting our own way out of the busy city. On the train we met a Serbian guy who noticed the Sweden to Serbia writing on our bikes. It turned out that he used to do some long distance biking trip too. He kindly expressed concern by asking "how are your asses?"! A strange and funny question in normal situation, but very common for people who have done such a trip.We separated and he wished us luck for the rest of our trip.

After many questions about how do we keep our butt from pain, we seriously considered writing a blog post on how do we do it!



A lot of people came to the event by bicycle!

Deutschland!

Alright folks! We got to Berlin today via Szczecin, Gryfino, Schwedt, Angermünde, Eberswalde, and Bernau.



Sunset in Stettin (Szczecin ) Wednesday 8th - end of day 4

Leaving Szczecin yesterday (Thursday) took time! Crazy traffic forced us to stay on the sketchy pavements (some bits were good) for a while. We wondered first whether to keep going south in Poland, but decided small german roads might be better.

Heading to Gryfino, on the very bad bike path.

Bye bye Poland!

We crossed the border with no controls at Gryfino, onto some much clearer roads in Germany indeed - far from big highway traffic! After a quick stop in Schwedt, we camped near Angemünde which was b-eauti-full of lakes, wheet fields and flowers: quite stunning.

The average german doesn't seem to speak good English, even at the tourist offices in Schwedt and Angemünde! We asked a resident watering his garden if we could sleep nearby his house and the lake, but he made us undertand with hand gestures that drunk people might come asking for trouble later at night! LOL!! Maybe he didn`t want us there, but we camped further anyway!

Shop in Angemünde

Ahh the country side!

Our camp site

Day 6: It is by a lake, very pretty morning view



Today we punched out a few kms till Bernau, where we caught a train to inner Berlin. We'll be here until monday morning - fill you in soon!!


Größere Kartenansicht

Yeah!! wind power

Berlin!!!!

The duo reached Poland!

Here we are back again!

After our last post yesterday we visited Ystad a bit, then boarded the ferry at around 9:30pm under rain and thunderstorm. Getting onto the ramp could have cost us the bikes, and we can thank the ferry poeple for yelling "stop!! Danger!" about the big grid our wheels could have got stuck into! So we broke (brakes, not break) and slipped and walked our bikes into the car deck, while being harassed to show our tickets! Phew! Anyhow we got to sleep in comfortable bunk beds and had a polish food apetiser! Oh and we made a drunken polish friend earlier: Mark, a judo fighter recommending us to keep smiling, OK!

Day 4: Swinoujscie to Szczecin

We did over 120 km today, including a couple of wrong turns. Started in gray sky, light drizzle and tail wind, to finish with sun and head wind. We found a camping site then rode into Szczecin - bicycle hell!! Unfinished new pavements, old pavements that seem untouched since the 50s, crazy traffic (half of which is trucks) and little indications. That said, it was fun!

A good night sleep and next stop, Germany!

View Larger Map

 

Ystad! First stage cleared

Finally we made it to Ystad, ready to board a ferry to Świnoujście, Poland. Unfortunately we are in a library in Ystad right now and the computer doesn't let us do much!! Photos will come shortly - here are a few for now.

The first few days went really well, and riding through the countyside gives an amazing feeling of freedom - except when trucks pass you by and you squeeze yourself to the edge of the road! Here's a brief count of the travel so far:

Day 1: Karlskrona to Bromölla
After a kickoff that we will remember, saying goodbye to friends and with some following thanks to everyone who came!!), we travelled through Ronneby, Karlshamn, Solvesborg, etc.. we stopped to camp. A big thunderstorm put us to sleep, we got a little water in the tent, but otherwise all good!


Visa större karta

Day 2: Bromölla to Eljaröd
Yesterday we had quite a trip with a detour to Kristianstad. This is where we bought the bikes, and one needed some gear adjustments - those things are not always built with the best accuracy apparently... As recommended by Johanes, our personal repairman, we went to Åhus and found a beauuutiful beach and icecream :D. That was highway 118, then onto highway 19 we met headwind and a few hills to challenge our legs, but we were rewarded by views, forests and some downhill as well - these highways are not big, but with speed and a bit of traffic, we decided to wear our high-visibility vests. At around 7:00pm we decided to stop, having covered about 90 km and still 36km away from Ystad, we stretched and camped in a big garden by the Eljaröd village pool.


Visa större karta

Day 3: to Ystad!
Covered 36km in 1h30, sweet! Wondered around town, got the ferry booking, internet in this library (found the funniest internet cafe but it was closed, photo coming soon), and we're off the Poland tonight at 10:30.
Butts are not too sore yet, but feeling the muscles work for sure!


Visa större karta

Stay tune!

D-Day! Ideas on Tour, the kick off!

Finally the day has come!

In less than 10 hours from now, we'll be setting off on a journey through Europe on our bikes. It is by no coincident that we selected June 6th, a day when 58 years earlier the liberation of Europe began. It is also flag day of Sweden. This year we'll bring with us sustainability and student mobility.

First stop Kristianstad!

Cheers



Yeah! We covered more than 100 km on the first day, stopping in Bromölla within 20 km from Kristianstad. Special thanks to Christopher and Jonas, our pathfinders.

Preparation! bits and pieces are falling together.

 One of our first activities in this trip to promote sustainability was a meeting with Karlskrona Dialogues - Building Bridges, Crossing Boundaries. We had a chance to present the people there our plan to actually bring sustainability across borders!

This trip would not be possible without our sponsors, supporters and friends.
Today we received supporting equipments, including tent, tools, and first aid kits from BTH. A big thank has to go to Ulrika Wilke from our university.