THUMBS UP !

A hitchhiking challenge to Belgrade

[transeuropahitchhiking]

You WILL stop for me :)

Sometimes tough, sometimes exasperating, always uplifting…

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We shared pasta, beer and what a nice evening together yesterday at Kreuzberg Pavillon in Berlin. The Bingo was getting a new meaning when people started to interview each other.. but why not practicing a bit before hitting the road. In the upcoming days there will be two more opportunities to do so. In Vienna tomorrow on Sunday, and also in Budapest on Tuesday.

[transeuropahitchhiking]

Check out our ready-to-print hitchhiking starter kit at: https://transeuropafestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Hitchhiking-Infokit.pdf It contains our road bingo, all the info and thank-you cards. Now go play!

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Day 1: Driver #1, London, long-time UK resident from Vietnam working for the immigration authorities at Dover Port: “Fifteen years I last did this. Fifteen years! Two guys from Czech I picked up. I asked for their passports because those days I didn’t want to get in trouble from police!

….such a shame with all these cars and the space they have, that none of them stop.”

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First day of hitchhiking on our way to Berlin. We got a lot of rain and a little sunshine.

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“I’ve never seen asian or black people doing this. It’s usually gap-year Europeans you hear about that travel this way…. When I saw you, I thought you were a refugee that needed help… Anyway, I’m glad I helped you. I mean, I’ve never done this before.”

[transeuropahitchhiking]

PRE-MEETUPS

Come and mingle hitchhikers! Our sleepovers will happen in:

25 September - Berlin: Kreuzberg Pavillon, Naunynstraße 53, 10999 Berlin - GMap: http://bit.ly/1OpTYTf

27 September - Vienna: Tüwi Kultur, Peter-Jordan-Straße 76, 1190 Wien - GMap: http://bit.ly/1KlCw0o

29 September - Budapest: Gólya, Bókay János u. 34, 1083 Budapest - GMap: http://bit.ly/1VXtJFR0

They will start at 8 - more or less. There will be free food, free beer and for those who want/need a free place to put their camping mattress and a free shower. We are still looking for a place in Zagreb! - If you know anything, share it with us!

[transeuropahitchhiking]

WHY ALL THIS ?

For most people, movement and migration are limited or even criminalised. For others, travelling and living abroad is encouraged and turned into a status symbol, a consumer good. Movement: Crime? Luxury? A privilege painfully denied to many? A right exercised by some? Can we move past that?

Let’s use the run-up to #TEF15 to reflect on movement and what it can be: crossing borders – visible and invisible -, meeting different people, engaging in transcultural relationships, building new friendships and redrawing solidarity networks.

What’s your story? We will collect those stories and display them before and during the festival, to spark a discussion on the meaning of movement in Europe and beyond.

[transeuropahitchhiking]

HOW IT WORKS

1. Hit the road to Belgrade with your thumb up. 2. Find stories of movement –  stories you will experience yourself or that will be shared with you along the way. 3. Share them with us as you go – in text, in photos and/or in videos. 4. Meet your fellow hitchhikers at our pre-festival meeting events along the road, and share your stories over a meal (or under a shower):

in Berlin, September 25,

in Vienna, September 27,

and in Budapest & Zagreb, September 29.

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If you follow our recommendation to travel light, you may have some space left in your rucksack. And we have a suggestion on how you can use that space in a meaningful way. You may have heard that an increasing number of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrive in Belgrade. At a park in its centre they are waiting for an opportunity to travel north to cross the border with Hungary, entering the EU. An opportunity that may not exist much longer as the Hungarian government is tightening asylum laws and building a fence to keep out refugees. Having endured the horrors of war themselves, most Belgraders show a lot of solidarity with the refugees and help out wherever they can. We asked a local NGO what we could do or bring to help the refugees. Their answer was: Shoes! Good shoes! Shoes in which you can walk across borders and countries. So pack up those hiking boots or trainers that you bought with good intentions but never really used and bring them to Belgrade. Ask your family members, ask your friends! Ask the people whose New Year’s Resolution to exercise clearly failed by now. Ask the people that hated the last hiking trip. Or ask your local shoe shop for a donation! Help make the refugees’ movement easier and bring some good shoes to Belgrade! We will collect them at the Festival.

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First of all, you need as little as possible!

http://hitchwiki.org/en/Packing

Map, cardboard, marker, mobile phone (you know... to contribute here) and maybe a rain jacket.

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Register now for Transeuropa Festival! https://docs.google.com/a/euroalter.com/forms/d/1pl4PRjrkEaq0NFXkqelaqW48odQNdLo3Q-rVYjNXA50/viewform?c=0&w=1 There are also a couple of hitchhiking questions to answer... This would be r-e-a-l-l-y helpful for our organisation and facilitate the handling of the Festival. 

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NYT reporters give insights on the life of refugees in the region.