Biketour… in solidarity with refugees in Vienna!

In Vienna we were spolit for choice of contacts and collectivers to meet and network with, including visits to the Vienna Bike Kitchen, and meetings at the Café Gagarin, a collectively run and owned vegan-vegatarian restaurant, and space for, culture, music and politics. We were hosted there for two days and took full advantage of their newly co-funded professional kitchen. – Compared to cooking on rocket stoves and a head tourch…it was sheer luxury! On tuesday we met with some of the orgainisers of the Vienna Refugee Protest Camp, who protest weekly outside the Pakistani Embassy and monastery where many…

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Along the Danube for some PIZZ’A’…!!!

After a long HOT cycle we finally made it along part of the the Danube to Vienna! Tonight we will be hosted by the PIZZA Muhlfeldgasse 12 from 6pm, for their regular sunday skipped pizza and info eveing, where much of the ingredients come from food that would have otherwise been wasted. We hope to share some of our stories and learn from their collective over dinner! Hope to see some of you there.

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Garten der Generationen… one two three!

A few images from an evening at Garten der Gernerationen, an emerging community project experimenting with anti-capitalist ideals, self-organisation and self-sufficiency. After an introduction from one of the founders, who also founded a successful community not far from here, we eagerly offered help with their straw bale house construction … . . . . …and we enjoyed a walk through their emerging community garden before dinner.

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Military zone by dusk to MoA! Farm

Some how I did not take any photographs of this magical place… but there are many by others and they are BEAUTIFUL! The journey to Mottinger Amt (a.k.a.) MoA in Waldviertel was a mixture of picturesque rolling hills and cycle paths past corn fields, idyllic looking villages and the sun setting on the Czech mountains behind us. It then became much cooler and eerier during dusk as we entered the 10km long military zone, only passable after 4pm each evening when target practice was over.  There was reason to feel the comfort in not crossing this barren strip alone, at…

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When things go wrong they often turn out as the best stories

After our partly difficult days in Prague, a big city in which we didn’t have a very secure sleeping place and thus some left the group to stay privately with friends, in hostels our outside in the forest, we were looking ahead to some cycling days until our next project in Austria. We were advised to follow the Greenways route until it first reaches the border and then find our way to MoA! where people were eagerly awaiting us. We were a group of about 45 people, as always the scouts going ahead to mark the route for everyone else.…

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Resilience and Reconciliation (Prague…)

On entering Prague we were joined by someone from the local Critical Mass network, who after a quick rehearsal in how to create a critical mass, decided that the 50 strong cyclists were enough to take on the highway into the capital city of Czech Republic! This was our first self made Critical Mass so far and for some their first, with 3 people setting the pace at the front … S L OOOOO W L Y!… then 10 blockers who smiled sweetly as they blocked off the side roads to let the mass of cyclists through as though we…

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Wagon Tales…Outdoor Cinema

On leaving Usti we made it along the Elbe to a secluded Wagenplatz through a contact we had made in Prague. Here they were preparing for a festival of local community projects, which we unfortunately could not attend but, after supper, which was prepared there for us, we shared some films on their open air cinema. More is written about this and the films in a later post…

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NE RASISMU! Roma Children’s action in Usti

In Usti we were invited to join a group of activists, NE RASISMU!, from Usti and Prague that are concentrating on Roma racism, anti-ciganism, and antifascism, to learn about the situation tere from the people directly involoved. We met the group at one of the biggest ‘ghettos’ in Czech Republic; Predlice in the city of Usti nad Labem. Due to privatization of housing, systematic discrimination and also generally very bad living conditions of Roma people there, the actual situation can be seen as the beginning of humanitarian crisis. The group met us with instruments, circus props and footballs, in preparation…

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