[danskhed07] finishing with hitchhiking

What is this picture? I'll uncover this at the end of the article. So read along...

Few tips for hitchhiking:

• it's hard to hitchhike in the city. Usually we walked to the end of the city and then hitchhiked at the beginning of the road where we had to go
• highways... cars can't stop there so you have to hitchhike before the highway begins. Highway is good choice for longer distances. In general, distance is not a key factor for getting somewhere in time, but this matters: traffic, perfect spot, your mood
  
• spot... find a place where cars can see you and have a time to think about picking you up. Also it has to be a spot where a car can stop!
• gas stations... few times I got a ride while talking with people on the gas station. It's easier to communicate when you can talk
• smile... it's important to communicate with the drivers on the road. Look them in the eyes and smile them. Everybody likes happy people who would cheer you up on the road. If you look like shit, hardly someone will pick you up. Be patient, never give up!
  
• signs... it could be smart to put a sign which says where are you going. Some people won't pick you up 'cause they think you're probably not going on their way. But it's not essential, sometimes I preferred not to have a sign and sometimes it helped not to have a sign. This is less important
• partners... it's a great fortune to be a female or to have a female as a partner. Everybody prefers females rather than males. It's good to hitchhike in pairs. So divide if you have a bigger group. Few times we got a ride for 4 persons, but don't count on it too much
• communicate... while you get a ride, talk to the driver. You can always get interesting information about something. When you both feel more comfortable, ask kindly if it would ok to put you off at some spot which is good for you. Drivers usually do that

My statistics show that almost all of the drivers who stoped to pick us up where former hithchikers. If you happen to drive a car, don't forget to "return the favour".

Svendborg

Elena, Anders (camera-guy) and me hitchhiked to Svendborg. We got a short ride near the entrance of the highway. It took some time. Elena played guitar. Anders mostly filmed. It happened that Jaguar, extremely fancy car stoped. Unfortenutely, the guy was going to Kobenhavn and we were on a tight schedule. It was really heard to reject him :(

We finally entered Svendborg. While driving on the bridge, we could see it's a nice port. Our host took us immediately to a place where we tryed sea-kayaking. Elena&me entered funny suits and enjoyed kayaking. It was very relaxing for the mind. Cool thing is that there are many islands you can visit nearby to go on short trip. On many of them you even have WLAN so you can work there.

Viking style house is a hangar nearby the spot of sea-kayaking.
Great dinner at our hosts, again. It was mexican. Our host has a great job. He's freelance photographer so he traveled through the whole world, took pictures and collected some interesting stories. Elena&him told us about Russian Republic: Tuva, which is very famous for the special technique of throat-signing. Later Elena played few instruments from Japan and China.

Next day Anders&me hitchhiked to Naestved. It was a hard distance to cross and we were only to guys. Along the trip we sometimes saw some of the other people from the group so we waved to each other while some of us were in the car and some where on the street. Somewhere close to Naestved we met&Collette on the same spot. Well, they met us. I though the car was stopping to pick us up, but it was them exiting from the car.


Naestved

In the city we tryed to get hosts. Few people said they'll probably take us but they need to thing about it. Local TV crew was following us on this quest. Unusual experience: I knocked on the doors and when the door opened, I saw a middle-aged fat man in his underwear talking to the mobile and looking at me while I was trying to explain him what I want. He said he'll host us but he needs to talk to his wife when she gets home. He never called us to confirm. I took this picture nearby:

It will remind me to write in another post about something very interesting with snails in Denmark.

Next day we went to a police station. For a presentation. I took some pictures since I was bored most of the time:

On the 1st picture you can see list of subjects which policemen learn in their trainings. They wrote "aliens" instead of "alliance" so I made fun of that. The policeman who held the presentation has 2 houses in Croatia so sometimes we teased each other about some stuff. We learned that Danish police isn't corrupted, they get a lot of money so it's stupid for them to be corrupted. Also, some of the policemen from this station are volunteers in a youth club. They fund raise the money, organise parties & concerts, get a lot of equipment for playing the music, role-playing games, computers... Great job! And they are security at the parties, alcohol isn't allowed for the youngsters.

We continued to Roskilde. Managed to get a ride for 4 people:


Eco-community

Simeone's mother lives in ecological co-housing near Roskilde. This was our stop.

Danes are very ecologically aware, they use a lot of ecological food and implement some sustainable development. But let's talk about this special community.

Notice that houses are build in a square, looking at each other. They are all rented. This people hired a company to build them houses and rent it to them. Special houses, in a way.
On the 1st picture you see solar collector to gain some energy. They are drying the laundry outside, not to waste energy. The grass which you see isn't cut by a machine. They use ponies (small horses) instead who eat the grass.
In this square of houses, they have one special houses which belongs to everyone. They come every evening to have a dinner together to that house. In a special room children can play (this is where some of us slept). Dinner is prepared by one family and next time some other family prepares the dinner for everybody. They are sharing a great deal of their lives together in this community.
There is also a central heating for this community.
It's very usual even for a regular Danish family to recycle the waste so there are 4 baskets in a house (organic, paper, metal cans, plastic bottles).
There is even ecological beer:

Ecological beer doesn't have a preservative so it doesn't last that long but it gives a better taste! I've tryed this in Russia, as well. It really is better, specially when you try the regular one afterwards. On the other picture you can see that in that house which is shared by the community, walls are made of hay.

Remember the picture from the beginning of the article? Scroll up to refresh your memory. While you are in the "shared house" where everybody has a dinner, washes their clothes,... If you enter the toilet, you can see that picture. You can notice that the toilet is different. It has to separated parts:

1. part for pissing
2. part for shitting

They collect the piss, put them in a container, leave there for 6 months (to make sure all the dangerous bacterias from urinal organs are destroyed) and use this later as a fertilizer.
When you use your tooth-paste, you don't just use any. You need to be careful to use the one which is more suitable for the environment.
And so on, and so on....
Special electric plug (in later posts)...



Elena had a birthday. Got a nice candle for a present. Danes like to use candles in the night, very much, it's called something like "huga" ? So we had a cake as well, ha! And pancakes, ha-ha! :)

Next day it was last day of hitchhiking. We were going to Kobenhavn.

20070927 25 fps

Again I saw some interesting movies. I figured that you can watch them on youtube, follow the links:

Big Train: Stareout Final
Funny movie. Staring contest, finals.

Who I Am and What I Want
Brilliant movie. About feeling free. Being yourself.

Few links for the movies from the last post on "25fps":
When The Day Breaks
Harpya

[danskhed07] 1/2

Seulki finally got her bags. We are together again, heading towards the Helle father's farm, in groups, using only one special finger as our tool. It's a big day. There we'll have half-evaluation of the project. We'll have a party as well and a new participant Sergiy from Kiev who had visa-problems.

It's getting harder to use English since we are more on the south, closer to Deutschland. There areas were sometimes ruled by Deutschland and people seem to speak Deutsch more than English.

Our destination was the farm near Varnaes. We got a nice ride:


We arrived, left our bags and went to the farm were we meet the others from the group. There we had our beer, aaah....

Calisto had a video-camera through the whole event. Sometimes he was recording. You can see him exploring the wonders of the nature on the picture above.

Again we had an excellent dinner. Helle's father was a chief cook, after all. Half-evaluation was interesting. We gave a lot of good inputs and a high mark in general. From my perspective the greatest problem was that we've been changing the cities everyday. It was very exhausting, being always on the road and not being able to explore more of the city and meet more people to get to know them and bring the word of our project. Lots of "and", I know :)

Party started. We had a lot of games, some beer & wine, many smiles... One of the games was introduced by Calisto:

It was something like, 2 people playing, looking each other in the eyes, when somebody blinks or smiles, he/she looses. The rules were changing all the time. But we had good fun in the end. I was undefeated :)

Late in the night, we got our final participant: Sergiy(Kiev). We all slept in 1 room, it was fun, few jokes came out. Somebody was listening to Elvis very loud through the night.

Here is the map of the places I've been:
map for the 1st part

Odense

Silvia was again my partner. We decided to go with a ferry and not use a highway to the north.

Odense is very nice city, small, simple, with nice details. Along the streets you find many figures of the characters from H.C.Andersen's stories:


There we finally met our camera team: Pia & Anders. Silvia&me arrived first and met them to have the first contact. This team followed the whole project and will use the recordings to make a film which will be distributed to schools.

Half of our group slept at Ra's place. Ra lives in the famous ghetto eastern Odense. He does many projects which help immigrants to enter the society in a good way and help solving problems which raise out in ghetto. And he seems to be very successful about it. We listened to many stories about his view of Denmark & Danish mentality. Sometimes he's extreme and probably he should be like that to make the world better. It was fun, but also exhausting after few hours. In the evening we visited a youth club. Many immigrants come there to hang out, spend their time in good company, play pool, computers,... go on trips... And finally stay out of the streets, skip the criminal. Next day we visited church in the neighborhood which accepts all the people (from all the religions) in their community. They organise many other stuff, not just religious ceremonies and accept all the people in this projects/events. It was something special, not all churches wanted to do that. It was very good environment for people living there.

I give you 2 more pictures from this post:

[danskhed07] going to the half

We had such a great time during those training days. Now our groups got separated. Some of people I connected couldn't see until the end of the project. Mobiles got useful. Mieneke (Amsterdam) was very often our contact to the north, a spy who gave us reports about how are things going on the other side.

I forgot to mention interesting problem. Seulki (South Korea) lost her luggage. Actually, not her, Air France did that. I think something like 5 days passed when she finally got it. Additional problem was that we were on a constant move so we didn't have a permanent address to deliver the bags :)


Next stop was...

Fredericia

When we all met at the train station, camp leaders told us that editor of "Politiken" didn't like our articles that much. It was a small crisis. We talked about that. Later they told us that it was misunderstanding, everything is ok. Perhaps to cheer us up, or it was true, I didn't actually want to know :) That day I started working with Ramya on an article about Danish drivers. The next day we produced great article, the one which I like the most. Some people seemed to like it as well.

On the train station, a new participant joined us. It was Elena from Russia, coming from a town 500km south of Moscow: Voronyezh. I remember first time seeing her, she felt so happy and smiled every few seconds. I could notice her excitement, looking at her body swinging (with a backpack) and her fingers which were moving fast like when you type on a computer. She actually hitchhiked from Moscow, you can try to imagine her satisfaction coming to the spot where she could join us. I think I was observing her from the beginning to the end of the project, mainly trying to learn something from her and enjoy her presence.
I felt funny, imagine, we have to hitchhike to the next city and than comparing our distance for today and her distance from Moscow to Denmark. Hm... :)

Girls knocked on the doors to find accommodation. Silvia found an old lady who offered to be a host. She turned out to be a mother of a librarian who she met in Kobenhavn. Small world, some would say...

Calisto, Jorge (Nikaragua) and me had an accommodation near the center of the city. Our host met us on the way to his home. We left bags and had sightseeing with him.
Fredericia had an important part in history. It was military city, a strong base. We visited the channel and saw the tower.

On the picture you see drunk man laying on the grass. Some Danes consume alcohol quite a lot!

Later we had long chats with our hosts. Listened to Elvis, talked about many stuff. Our host is a big fan of royal family, has a lot of pictures along with few pictures of his mother and grandmother. Martin, our host, offered us his bad in his bedroom and 1 of us had to sleep on the floor then. 3 of us, the participants, started to actually fight whom would sleep on the floor. I suppose we felt homophobic surrounded only by man. The bad wasn't big either. So I got an idea. I offered Martin to sleep on his bad since he's much older than we and we don't want to discomfort him. So we slept on the floor, everybody wins :)

Next day we walked to the military base. We learned something about military in Denmark. For example, they like to recruit foreigners since they know a foreign language and they can help in communications... :) Also, if you are a member of an army, you aren't allowed to be a porno star, even during your free days. That's a reason why one female private got expelled from the army.
We went to the official military polygon. Had a good exercise there, and a lot of fun, as well. Interesting course. Jorge won me on the course. I'm in a pretty bad shape, although I had a good technique. When I returned from Denmark I started jogging so I can win next time. :)
Next we had a lunch at the base. It was awesome. I could eat as much as I can, which was really a nice gesture. At those times, I was in my phase of eating a lot. Now I'm more on a diet.

We went hitchhiking again. It turned out to be quite difficult. In the city few cars were stooping, but only to enter the houses around us :( We went further and got a ride near the entrance of the highway were Ramya&me met Calisto&Jorge already hitchhiking for an hour.

It was hard but I kept my motivation high. I could say that Jorge wasn't satisfied that Calisto was sleeping all the road most of the time :) The time was passing and we experimented with different methods:

After few hours, a car stoped and picked Jorge&Calisto. They came only to Kolding (took a train later with Simeone&somebody). Suddenly, traffic got extremely low. It was late, sun was setting. We got a ride, after all, until some gas station. There we found some girls going to a town south of Esbjerg, and Esbjerg was our final destination. But while we talked to them in the car, they got distracted by our genius communication skills so they missed a turn on the highway and actually went directly to Esbjerg. Marvelous victory and well deserved ride, I would say, after a tough hitchhiking which everybody from the southern group remembered pretty well.

...west coast

Everybody got late to Esbjerg. Majority of our group stayed at the same home of some wealthy people, although originally it was meant for only 2, they were generous.

...going south

Next day we had to go to Christiansfeld. I had a really hard hitchhiking and didn't manage to get there on time. I was demotivated for sometime during the rain falling on the highway. We were unlucky a bit. So we went directly further to our host in Haderslev. A single guy again. I missed having more fun with hosts.

In the morning, Colette&me hurried up at came to the next city pretty fast. There was a chance to explore the castle, museum and the city itself.

At Helle's mother we had a lunch and met the whole group.

Then we went toward the farm were Helle's father lives. There was evaluation of the half of the project.

20070926 25 fps

http://www.25fps.hr

Today I watched few experimental films on "25 fps" film festival held in SC in Zagreb. The admission was free and films were interesting. Visit the festival if you get a chance.

This are some of my highlights:

When the day breaks

My favourite. Excellent animation. The characters are animals behaving as humans. You can even notice it in their eyes (image, eyes of a cock).
It's life. Daily life. And death. Regular death, on the street, hit by a car. Lots of emotions.

Pas de deux

Animation of a ballerina. The whole focus goes to her movement. You can enjoy the art of human body itself, as well. Feeling the past, visualising the moments in the future.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Special technique used in this film brings a special atmosphere, a horror. All the characters are shaking all the time and sometimes you see a man becoming another man, just exchanging in matters of milliseconds.

Harpya

Great movie! Horror, spooky atmosphere. Begins with a woman-bird saved by a doctor from being killed by some guy. Eventually woman-bird starts dominating home of doctor, eating everything of his, from his hands. It's not a regular pet anymore. When doctor once tryed to escape his home, bird got him at the doors and ate his legs. He used his hands for moving from that point. Once he got a chance to escape when the bird was distracted. He got some food when outside. Bird showed again, tryed to eat it from his hands and doctor wanted to kill her, frustrated. Somebody comes and saves the bird from being killed, again.

Ryan

Nice portrait of the main character with astonishing animation.

[danskhed07] entering Denmark

I've spent few days with my friend David from Halmstad. He came with a car to Gothenburg. We explored some sights along the way to Kobenhavn. The best thing was visiting museum Lousiana near Helsinborg.


My accommodation in Kobenhavn was in "sleep-in-heaven". Nice hostel near the famous cemetery where Nils Bohr, H.C.Andersen and other famous Danes are buried. At the hostel I met first participant of the project: Elena from Moscow, later known as "Elena the 1st". She just came from 2 environment projects on Iceland.

Next day at noon we meet with other participants at the central station. On the way I had a nice chat with Elena the 1st. Video from the meeting spot:

Soon more of the participants joined.

We went to a ferry to Europhosjkolen


Europahojskolen (training days)

We had an excellent food here. It was ecological food, full of taste. Students at the school grow the food by themselves. They accept many international students.

At Europhojskolen we spent 3 days of training. We learned some brief info about Denmark, taking photos & writing articles. Pictures from my photo session:


We went for a swimming:

For Laurence (Zambia) it was the first time to enter the sea. He had some learning sessions. I think he had a great experience in total. For him, this trip was actually the first time to go abroad. Not only that, it was his first time to visit the capital city of his homeland. Very soon I made friends with him.



Of course, there was some team building, as well. We all got mobiles so we could stay in touch with the camp leader. Last day we were divided in 2 groups of 10 people. My group went to the south:

Camp leaders were Simone&Helle. They were really great, gave us good motivation on the way. Communication was very good.

Aarhus

So we started to hitchhike. All the time we had to carry tents as well, since we didn't know will we be able to sleep. In the end, we didn't use them. The main reason for that was organisation Servas. They are a peaceful organisation. Their idea is that if you have friend around the world, you won't fight any wars. To accomplish that, you accept travelers to your home, people from Servas, but strangers, since you haven't met them before. It's similar to hospitality club and CouchSurfing.

First city to visit was Aarhus. It is 2nd largest city in Denmark. There is a big university, so young people can expect to have fun there as well. My hitchhiking partner was Silvia from Barcelona. We were really good partners, when I was hitchhiking with her, I always had great success. :) While riding, our driver gave me idea to explore, for the articles: private vs. public schools.
In Aarhus we visited city hall.

On the pedestrian street we talked to the people to fulfill our mission: find what the Danish mentality is. It wasn't easy since there were many people who wanted to talk to pedestrians, usually to sell them something, so it wasn't easy for us to reach people, they thought we wanted to sell something as well. But of course we managed! To talk, not to sell.
I had a nice chat with some girl from Greenland. She came to study in Aarhus. I learned few stuff about Grenland. There are many people who still live as hunters. Many people smoke a lot of cigarettes. Salad is quite expensive. And some (bad) stuff which colonialist (Danes) did to people of Greenland, but I don't feel like explaining them. The girl looked nice so I took picture as well:


Silvia and me came to our hosts. We had excellent dinner, which was quite usual on the trip. Lunch was usually some bread and jam or salami. Our hosts adopted some children from Nepal. Adopting someone from Nepal is also a nice opportunity to go and see the country as well (that's what they said, although I understand this was a minor priority).
In the morning while we ate breakfast, my host gave me the newspapers:

I was famous already. We had an excellent media coverage through the whole event. This picture was taken on the main pedestrian street in Aarhus. This event could be my 5 minutes of being famous, as Andy Warhol said, we all get our 5 minutes. Before this picture, the first day of the event, my name appeared in the newspapers. Siv, girl from Kobenhavn whom I met in Kastel Kambelovac, read my name in newspapers and contacted me through e-mail. So we met in Kobenhavn on a festival.

Aug07

The month of August 2007 will stay in my memory as one of the best journeys I've ever had. For 3 weeks I've been visiting Scandinavia. First few days in Sweden. My plane landed in Goteborg and there I was 1 day until meeting my friend. Then we went towatds south in few days ending in Kobenhavn, Denmark. In Denmark I've spent rest of my journey, mostly participating on great voluntary project. The aim was to explore Danish culture&mentality. Project was named "Pa sporet af Danskheden" (in search of Danish mentality). Not only I've visited south of Denmark, I've meet some very nice people. Some of my toughts about life are now strengthened, mainly influenced upon the people themselves and experience down there.

In following posts I'm going to write about the project itself, about Denmark what I've learned and about people whom I met on the project, probably the most important part. There should be some big posts...