Green caravan dreams, or how Berlin lost its mobile homes

Berlin lost a bit of it’s rebellious soul again. Since the 1st of January, most remarkable vehicles are considered illegal because of their high emissions. Until recently, the streets of Berlin were filled with old caravans, self-made buses, hippie vans, mobile homes, and gipsy style movable houses. But new, green policies declared war to the unfiltered diesel-motors. And the streets of Berlin are… cleaner.

What is presented as greening in one way, might be greenwashing in another. Strict emulsion and pollution policies in cities are a good initiative, in my opinion. But the rules only target to older models, while the new cars are not stimulated to become more greener than they are. On the contrary, the ‘green’ sticker on your car gives you the illusion, that your car is green.

As the owners of an old Volkswagen 'Bully', we are lucky to have a gasoline van with catalysator. Our bus got a ‘green’ sticker, the greenest level one can get (there is green, yellow, orange, red, and no sticker for the too dirty outcasts). But what is green about a van driving on gasoline and drinking one-on-ten?

It would be more honest to make emission restrictions for new cars ass well. While the old cars are bullied away and will find a new life in Eastern Europe or Africa, a pressure on new cars could mean something on a global level. If they would have the courage, the Berlin municipality could start to forbid or eco-tax extreme jeeps and other new, polluting car models.

We are meanwhile dreaming of new alternatives for our ‘green’ but polluting travel friend. Recently we found out about the Verdier Solar Power, a Westfalia based, high tech caravan on hybrid and hydraulic power. A wet dream for green travelers, Wesfalia hobbyists, LOHAS, and design fetishists. The red dot award winning design is still only a design, but let’s hope it will be released rather soon!

(images (c) copyright Verdier)

United colors of Shqipëria

Shqipëria? Wait a minute, isn´t that this poor country somewhere in Africa… What, is it really in Europe? Albania, also called Shqipëria, is one of these countries you hardly hear anything about, though it is interesting visiting it! From Macedonia we had the main road through the country to Tirana, more or less a small mountain path going over the tops rather than just over the passes. On the sides of the road wild dogs, farmers with their goats and chickens, hitchhiking families, children selling cherries or a car wash.

Tirana is a strange mix of third world slums and hip, western looks. There is a lot of trendy bars and fashion stores in Tirana, but if you look a bit higher up you often see the old, loose brick walls almost falling down. Discussing the ´surface´ of western capitalism in a shopping street, we heard some chickens just from above a trendy clothing store.
People in Tirana seem to have a good style taste. Old men wear the right old fashioned suits and sixties glasses with thick, black frames. If you see them walking slowly between the palm trees, or playing chess in the parks, you will start to believe you are in Cuba rather than Albania. Young people dress up according to western fashion, and it is quite surprising how much diversity and style one can find here on the streets.

The mayor of Tirana is famous for his project to give buildings a colorful look. It is a rather simple concept: you have a grey, poor, post-communist city without much ancient or old buildings, so you let some buildings be decorated with daring colors and creative patterns. Possibly the hardest part is to make everyone believe this is a good idea to do. But it really, really is. There is no other city we have seen that looks like this.
We tried to imagine how this city looked like fifteen years ago: grey, dirty and poor. Changes have been fast here. Rainbow waves painted on flats, pink and green striped buildings, an American bank painted more colorful than your local squat. But how much of all this color and style is just on the surface, hiding the horror of poorness within?

Moving on

We left Turkey overland, with a bit of pain in the heart. It has been such a good country to travel in, with its hospitality, the surprisingly delicious local dishes, more or less unspoiled countryside, the small men on their donkeys.

We found a beautiful spot on a beach in Greece to stay overnight, though in the morning we noticed it was just next to a large military area, maybe that´s why we got checked by civilian police in the morning. Not all too bad, but this day we were being stopped three times by the police and asked for our passports. And we know we are lucky with our fancy Swedish and Dutch ones, imagine being a Turk traveling through Greece!
Next day we drove to Kavala, a small coast town in Northern Greece. We enjoyed the food and the local atmosphere of the old town, but for the rest we did not find this part of Greece so inspiring so we decided to move on.

We entered the country of Macedonia (FYROM for the purists) and found it amazing to see the difference of landscape just changing when you pass a border. From summer we drove into spring again, with fresh green leaves and spring flowers. We climbed the mountains and found a spot high above the beautiful lake of Ohrid, very close to the Albanian border. The lake is surrounded by steep mountains, some with snow peaks, and we realized this was one of our most beautiful spots ever. Such a silent, overwhelming view, and just us here, high above everything. We were a bit afraid for encounters with border police, and in the morning two cars stopped next to us and a group of men, some of them in military uniform, stepped out and… just smiled at us.
We had picturesque expectations of Ohrid from a book written seventy years ago. Ohrid is not that unspoiled anymore, filled with grey architecture from Tito´s times, and new, plastic bars and shops. The old city is still worth visiting with its small houses and old churches, but one realizes the world has changed. The Ohrid you get is the tourist version of what it was once, as with most interesting places.

Making soap and other projects

One day we visited an alternative beach resort nearby. Between the olive trees, small holiday houses lead you to the beach. In between there is small pieces of land where all kinds of vegetables are grown organic. Just before the beach there is a bicycle with a car battery, when you bike for some time there is enough for the beach lamp to glow.

Here we met the two artists who were supposed to decorate the Dedetepe farm instead of us. They were decorating the place and painting mandalas on the small houses. They had a lot of troubles with their bus (imagine a big, old Mercedes van without handbrake or fourth gear, driving through the mountains…) and had to work for their fuel to be bale to drive, we hope they find their way to Italy as well!

Last day in Turkey we spent in a village nearby, our hosts bringing olive oil to make soap with on a fire, Cecilia to paint flowers on a balcony of one of the villagers. Meanwhile Gaya and Frans spent the time on the stairs of the soapmakers house, where the women where baking börek in the outdoor fire oven, and playing with Gaya all the time. The soap is made from olvieoil, which is put on a hot fire, some natural ingredients are added, then this is stirred and heated for a few hours, and then put into the frames to become stif. Wait a few days and you have natural oliveoil based soap!

On the way back from soap making we visited the centre of the environmental organization Bugday, which is still under construction. They choose a great spot for this centre: up in the mountains, with a fantastic view over the olive fields and the sea. The building is half round, but with the terraces it is going to be built in a circle. The building is made with natural materials, with help of old stone masters; as concrete there is used stone pulp and for the roof soil and shells. When it is finished we are sure it will be a very wonderful place for making people more aware of the preciousness of nature.

Tourist pollution

We traveled mainly through inland Turkey and had a lot of welcomes. When we arrived at the coast, we had a hard time to adjust. The whole coast was polluted with large scale ugly tourist flat resorts! The atmosphere changed stunningly. We were not invited anymore, but watched with unfriendly faces, all of a sudden people were not greeting us even! It is hard to say if this is only cause of tourism, or because of social problems, as a lot of citizens in the area might be Turkish refugees from Greece and Balkans, this used to be Greek dominated areas until the twenties. But it was quite a difference, and we felt really unwelcome where ever we went.

One morning we entered a national park. Ok, maybe we should have been warned that the entrance sign said ´picnic area national park´. We paid the 7 Euro entrance fee, expecting wonderful, unspoiled nature. Parking between lying around trash and picnic benches, we realized something was wrong. This got stronger when we found out that the once beautiful waterfall river was used as irrigation system for nearby olive farms, and all not that natural but spoiled everywhere with constructions of concrete! Wherever we walked, we were still surrounded by picnic benches. Then suddenly the path ended with a high barbwire fence and a sign saying this was the end of the picnic area. When we went back to our van, hundreds of tourists were streaming out of their busses. Before we even knew it, we were surrounded by tourists filming and photographing us as if we were some native tribe dressed in traditional clothing. When we told them to stop photographing and tried to walk away, they even stopped us angrily, expressing they were not ready taking pictures of us. This shocking event was for us a quite clear example for how polluting tourism can be. We have seen a lot of pollution from tourism, like lying around trash and all the ugly resorts. But maybe the worst pollution is the mind and culture of people. Time for some cleaning!

Hos Geldiniz!

We left Istanbul and traveled some days on the countryside. We visited an old mosque on a hilltop today, a beautiful place without any of the sultan glamour of the Istanbul mosques. Just round bowls, floors stuffed with carpets, old tombs, praying men and women. As soon as we arrived, we were surrounded by women who praised Gaya, laughed, talked, kissed to her. Some later we were invited to a food party outside the mosque and invited by different people at their homes in Istanbul. We had a nice lunch there and we enjoyed seeing all the people in and around the mosque being themselves, enjoying life. Being invited to a party is maybe not the first thing you think of when it comes to religion, but we felt it was quite an spiritual experience!

Being invited is here part of the culture, though in the cities and tourist areas it is rather rare. Travelling trhough the countryside, we could hardly stop with our van without being invited, or at least with some people gathering around Gaya to praise her. We were quite out of gazolin, we tried a few tankstations but their tanks were emty. When we found one, we were invited to chai (tea) in the small, smoky and dirty office, but sitting there drinking our tea was a wonderful experience. After all it is not about the perfect spot but about the intention.

We had an overnight on a mountain pass, with a view in all directions. The farmer of the fields passed with hiss tractor and stopped. Off course we wondered if he was going to send us away. He stepped out, walked to us, shaked our hands: Merhabba, Hos Geldiniz! (hello and be welcome). He showed us chickpeas from his land and when he was very worried that Gaya gets too cold so we show him our heater. Later he waved to us when he passed by again. We felt welcome.
Next day we drove on a small road, in the villages we felt really watched, we realized here noone came except for people from there. Imagine driving with your camper bus through a small village, everyone stares, you have to find your way between chickens and cows hanging around on the streets. We sweated, but found our way, next to a water well, of which you find a lot in the coutryside, for animals to drink and for humans to wash themselves before prayer (or just for refreshment, off course!). With a view on the close by snow mountain.
Also here villagers welcomed us. Frans and Gaya went into the mountains next day, and when they asked the road in a small village, an small, old man expressed: no road. But he took them through the village, knocked on the doors, organized chai and all off a sudden we were having tea party with half the village.

Later we visited the great Pamukkale sources by night. They are hundreds of meters high chalk clusters, formed naturally. It used to be an old holy source, and on top of it is Hierapolis, a large ancient site with temples, baths and amphitheaters. In the daytime we saw a stream of touring cars, but amazingly we were the only ones who visited it in the magic moonlight. It was spooky to walk in the dark, moonlighted sight between some large tombs and reading a signs: Necropolis North. But also really special to visit one of the worlds largest tourist attractions all alone!
The guard was first suspicious about us: forbidden! Forbidden! No camp! Go! But got on better terms with him, and he promised to watch our car. When we got back after about two hours he was standing just next to our bus. And off course we were invited for tea…

Later we found a overnight spot next to a well again, and next morning a tractor stopped next to our bus, we were invited for breakfast at the farmers house. We had a marvelous breakfast on the ground of a very small, wooden farmers house. Honey, cheese, olives, vegetables, everything came from their own land except for the bread. And they just shared this with us because they liked us to be their guests. Just like that!

Culture shocks from Istanbul

It is quite a kick driving into Istanbul with your own van around 4 o clock pm! Five track roads without street markings, all kinds of vehicles crisscrossing wherever they can go. We got fuzzed around and wondered how big the city would be. Okay, driving into a city of about 16 million inhabitants without any preparation may not be recommendable, and we felt quite lost. Asking people for a map, no one understood, or just started to laugh. Trying to park, roads got stunningly steep and narrow and one moment even some locals thought that our van would turn over!

After some desperate hours we found our way, and started to enjoy the city more and more. In Istanbul every kind of shop has its own area, you have whole quarters just for car radios or ship robes, wand we found our home in the music instrument area. In some shops jams sessions were going on, shop owners were playing guitar outside. The main street in our area, Istiklal Caddesi, is broad and just stuffed with people, they say in the weekend there are 5 million visitors per day in the area! Walking this street you get pretty dizzy after a while. It has quite an impact on the ecology of your mind, all this chaos, all this people, and we noticed the enormous contrast with living on the countryside, where the mind gets calm and you forget to hurry. But a huge city does not necessarily mean loose structures. In all the chaos there is a lot of hidden orders and codes. It is just that they seam to differ per street so it is hard as an outsider to read them and adjust to them. A man showed us how a dog was waiting outside a butchers till they came and gave him a bag with meat. The dog always smelled first if the meat was good enough for him. As a special customer, all butchers respected the dog and gave him meat. The dog smelled the bag, took it in his mouth, and walked.

Istanbul carries huge contrasts next to each other, a big shopping street, a yuppie area, and a poorest area are just walking distance from each other. When we entered the poor area, we felt it was not normal that foreigners came here, everyone watched us, and although no one was unfriendly to us we did not feel too comfortable in the small slum-like streets. Around the Istikal Caddesi you have to get deaf for all the street sellers, beggars and restaurant people, but five minutes from there we had a hard time finding a place where they were willing to serve us a dish!

We met some friends´ friends and had a nice time with them. They are buzzy with a project documenting street culture in Istanbul with photo´s and sounds, categorizing them in themes like ´stencil art´, ´little notes´ or ´Don´t leave your trash here or your family is cursed-´signs. Now they want to do the same in Amsterdam and Berlin. It is nice to come to such an enormous city to get to know a few people working on their own crazy ideas, and we started to feel quite at home in the city. Hard decision: nature and culture, but we felt the fuzz of the city was a bit overwhelming and longed for nature again!

Entering a tropical Novi Sad

From Istria we had a long trip to Novi Sad. They are building a highway through the mountains between Rijeka and Zagreb all at once, just everywhere there are huge bridges and tunnels built, and we wondered who finances this, until we had to pay peage (highway fee). After Zagreb there is a certain change of atmosphere. Slovenia looks quite western nowadays, although the countryside is much less polluted by mass tourism or high tech agricultural industries. There is still a small farmers culture and a lot of people grow vegetables and fruits in their own gardens. Istria and the Kroatian coast are more polluted by tourism, and there is a certain welfare ass well. After Zagreb, tank stations started to look crappy, cars drove more crazy, and all of a sudden we were driving in the middle of a Dutch army convoy!

We crossed the first ´real´ border, and unfriendly officers were asking loudly: Gaya Prins Palmer! But off course even they could not refuse to smile after all. And in Serbia, everyone was really, really friendly to Gaya, smiling at her, coming to say hello, talk to her. We are noticing a culture change getting stronger and stronger since we corssed the alps. The more south east we go, the more enthousiastic and open people get towards Gaya, and I guess also towards us.

The political situation in Serbia is insecure since they don´t have a government, and the Kosovo affair still hanging in the air as a sword of Damocles. No one wants to get at power, because no one wants to be responsible for the though decisions to make. The International community have been punishing Serbia a long time, and with the isolation the ultranationalists gained more influence. It seems to be double, on the one hand capitalism is conquering Serbia rapidly, in tow years since we were here, there has been a rapid boom of clubs, cafes, fashion stores, international banks, etc. in Novi sad. On the other hand there is not such a Europe friendly atmosphere. As Serbia is a black sheep for Europe, it is maybe not even so strange that foreigners have to pay a double highway fee (50 Euros for 200 km hobly highway).

Most people are very friendly, and the atmosfere was good. It is actually hard to say what is so nice about Novi Sad, but it has something special. Maybe it is the strange magic of the enormous Petrovaradin Fortress (largest fortress tunnel complex of its kind in the world) at the other side of the Danube, maybe just the atmosphere of a rapidly changing city. A city in which youngsters try to live more western than westerners,and where the pourness is expressed only at the backsides. It is off course nice and exotic to see horse and carriages in the streets of a city. And soon enough they will drive around tourists in stead of garbage.

It was great to spend a couple of days with Goran, sitting on his balcony in the evening drinking Hungarian champaign, going barbequing with his friends in the forest, sharing ideas and opinions. Goran has a lot of ideas and plans to realize, which is quite brave in a country where not everything is just possible like that. You need great courage and believe to realize your ideas while swimming upstream! We wish him all the best and if anyone is interested in the support a group of promising cultural activists and creatives in Novi Sad, we will be pleased to bring you in contact with them!

Close to paradise

From Rakitni we traveled to the south of Istria, Kroatia, and visited the Eco Art Centar EIA,
which is located close to the village Bale. We arrived around sunset and we were immediately amazed by the place. You can really see how much energy and care they have put in here. Next day we had a walk in the forest behind the place, which is like a fairytale, with flowers, low trees, big white stones and cliffs. The people from the centar, Igor and Lilly, call it a holy place. In the forest one can find a natural formed stone circle, surrounded by older oak trees, where they also do meditations. Nice to have these miraculous places so close to your home!

Gaya had a lot of encounters with the animals, with the ducks and the chickens, which we got fresh eggs from; the old, blind donkey, who shouted us goodbye when we left; and the ill sheep and her lambs. The sheep was doing not well and couldn’t give milk to her lambs, and the lambs where fed with bottle. Cecilia and Gaya had a special moment feeding them, just before the lambs where brought away to be with other sheep on an ecological farm close by.

It was interesting to see how they made their house and living, with solar panels, catching rain for water, building an outside shower on solar power, etc. During our time there we helped with arranging a volunteer sleeping place, Cecilia painted a road sign for the centar, and Frans picked stones from the land and fixed a part of the road with it.

Just when we were to go we realized our time here was way too short and we wished we could have stayed longer and work and learn more here. But it was also great to be able to visit so short, and still be able to help with things. We would like to go back and then stay for a longer time here!

Geocaching adventures

You liked treasure hunting when you where small, but now you think you are too grown up for it? All over the world there are treasures hidden, in nature areas and in the middle of cities, on the weirdest locations. It is called geocaching, a form of searching and hiding treasures with help of longitudes, riddles and a GPS system. You can be quite sure that treasures are hidden just close to where you are...

Lately we found out about it and we had already our first treasure found (see pic). You can just search look on the internet for their coordinates and description and try to find them. Some are hidden behind riddles or codes, and the sport is off course to find ones that are not too easy to find. Once you found one, you can take something from the treasure box, but then you also have to leave something else. Some treasures travel from box to box all over the world.

We went to find one, and came out in a nature area with water and caves, cliffs and small steep paths. After reading the description again we located the place and found the cach, which was hidden pretty well. It was exciting, and even more when you realzy how many of these are hidden everywhere you could imagine. The game is easily to join, and everyone can hide their own treasures. People finding a treasure usually leave a message in the logbook and inform the one who put the cach that he or she found it.

It is so great to know that people are doing these kind of things. A few years ago we were really into street art, looking around in the cities for nice creations. You create a more developed sense for noticing small objects and drawings. This kind of focuses are nice, you look to the world with other eyes. Treasure hunting is also an interesting way of moving around, while you know somewhere something is hidden, and this makes you looking at everything that could be something. One of the few rules of the game is not to disturb anything and to only hide on places where people are not damaging anything. I believe usually it should be people who also care for the environment, while the caches are often hidden far from the civilized world, so you have to like hiking and being in the nature. Yes, we found another secret movement, and if you are interested, check www.geocaching.com.

Wilderness experience

Nature in the alps is so tres magnefique! It is a wonderful landscape to experience wilderness and come closer to yourself and to heaven. Not for nothing people greet here with `Grüss Got!´. High in the mountains you feel the energy is pure, the water is flowing from fresh melted snow, the birds sing without sorrows, the view is far and bright. Experiencing the wilderness is a good way to recover your senses and fresh up your mind. The beauty of wilderness goes far beyond the world of purposes and usefullness, it simply has value in itself. Something for philosophers and researchers to bother about: what does make this so special? Though when you experience the wilderness itself, one can just feel one with the wild nature as the source of life. That´s something of the mystery where people greet their God for here, high up in the mountains.

We stayed overnight at the foot of some high snow top mountains. Under us a frozen lake, a fresh mountain stream and a marvellous view. It was pretty cold in the night as snow was around us. In the morning we walked up a mountain until the snow was getting up to our knees. In the snow we found traces of different animals, but really not one single human. If it wouldn´t have been so cold, we would have stayed longer, now we moved on, over the Alps, heading for Slovenia.

Brothers and sisters of the rainbow

In the morning we climbed the hill to the hippie camp. On top of the hill was a tipi standing, with a little fire still burning, and around it people sleeping or just waking up. In the shades down we found a base camp with tipi´s and yars, surrounded by small tents.
People were sitting around a leek and some were playing music and singing, while others where doing their dishes. Between the trees children run around and climbed in the trees. Some people were cutting wood, others were making coffee and tea on a fire. We had found a little forest community, looking like a nomad tribe.

There were not too much things were going on. There was the care for food and the campsite, and some spontaneous encounters were happening. There was no goals or forwardedness, people were very relaxed and living the time being. For us, having always another idea to realize, this was not easy to accept, though it is quite a sustainable way of living, not using more of your energy than you really need. The question for us was, is this then a ´good way of living´? We missed creativity and real dedication. We both were also too tired to give a really inspiring input, so decided it was better to go for more silence. It was nice to experience the atmosphere, and we enjoyed the fire in the night, with music, singing and dancing, and a still round moon shining upon us. And it is a nice idea that real hippies are still gathering around in nature all over Europe. We will see if we find more of them on our way…

Travelling for sustainability

One moment we decided to go, just like that. We wished our trip to be something of a research, a learning journey, a documentation of projects and ideas on sustainability. But then we asked ourselves: isn´t driving a car to research sustainability a bit of a contradiction? Shouldn´t we just all stay where we are to save the climate once and for all?

It is a painful question, and all travelers on this planet should at least think about it a bit. Most likely we do not like to ask ourselves this question, and push it away again when it appears. It is a hard topic, because it is about guilt. We just don´t want to be confronted with it, and so we look away. For a long time, environmental organizations, governments and companies have put a large part of the blame for pollution and environmental crisis at the consumers side. The consumer decides. ´A better world starts with you´ carries the hidden threat: also a dirty, spoiled and polluted world starts with you. The message is: If one is to blame, it is you! And most consumers say, yeah, sure, but most pollution is done by companies and governments, let them do something about it. And in the end, nothing really happens.
So let´s stop blaming and putting guilt with it because it does not work and it is not about being guilty but simply about taking your responsibility. A lot of environmental activists and campaigners realized lately that the best strategy is a positive one, in which people feel they can contribute one way or another. The rise of doing good is so extreme, that it changed the whole way products are marketed today. One could bring in a lot of critical remarks, but in essence this is a good and hopeful development, because instead of being guilty you can contribute yourself. So let´s forget about who is guilty and contribute to this planet in a positive way!

What this means in practice is something that could be different for anyone. For us it means to strive to consume when possible products that you know that are not produced by child slaves, with deathly pesticides, gene technology or whatever evil things are practiced. And next to that to choose small, local shops for big mega stores. For our trip we will use a climate compensator program. With this, the pollution you create is counted out and you restore the damage with planting trees (in example treesfortravel). There are nice projects with restoring damaged rainforests, it is not expensive and you travel with the knowledge that your pollution is compensated. Off course no pollution is better, but it is good if you travel anyway. So hey ho, let´s go!