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