Basel from the beginning
As I promised and planned..I am back with some more detailed report from my "Basel" weeks.
There are many people writing about Basel week. So why do I write about weeks? Because I also had to get somehow to Basel. And I chose one of the longest ways of course =) It was long but it was very enriching and exciting. We started one week before the opening of EGTYF congres. We means around 15 Swedes from UNF, Sasa from Slovakia and our bus and bus drivers. The first day went rather easy. We came to our ferry, boerded and went to Estonia. We landed in Estonia close to Tallin and picked Kadri. It feels like this was real beginning of our time confusion. Instead of 2 hours to Tartu, we counted 7 hours. So of course we arrived rather early. But this was the better case. We arrived 5 hours earlier so we got some food and rest and sight seeing. At 16.00 our estonian friends arrived to joing our tour. It was amazing to see familiar faces. I do not know how estonians do that but I feel very close to them although I see some of them maybe once, twice a year. So they came and our party started. The meaning of going one week before the congress was to visit several places on the way "down" and promote life without alcohol and other drugs. The message wasnt only fighting drugs but also offerning the alternative to drugs - Real party with friends and fun!!! We really had nice party. We created leaflets (directly in the streets of Tartu), we build party tents and had disco on the square, we stopped people, invited them to the party and we also took a picture of some of them which was directly printed out and they wrote on it their name, age and smth that makes them happy.
We repeated this activity in all the places we stopped and it was real success. People were really happy about the pictures and there were many of them who supported our message. It was really pleasure to make party in the streets inspite of hot weather (still better than rain in this case). In the night we had some games with estonians and went to sleeping bags (we slept in a gym).
Next day our tour continued. Some more people on board (6 estonains) Next stop - Latvia. There we changed our plan a bit. Due to the fact that we havent got permission to have a party in the cetre of the town, we joined our latvian friends in demonstration walk through the town a later on we arranged the party out of the town at the street children centre. The experience is unforgettable. So many children, really happy for a single lollypop or music playing, amazed by our fire show.
The weather was with us again. Feeling tired we decided to take it easy next day and not to hurry to Kaunas, Lithuania. The morning was free so we spent it in street of Riga and we left after lunch heavier and noisier by some 9 lativans. In the bus we had a talk show about situation in alcohol advertising in different (participating) countries. The street action in Kaunas was canceled. We didnt have a permission and we were tireeeeeed. So after dinner we had some group activities together, improvisation theater, getting know each other etc. And then shoooop to bed cause our departure time for Slovakia was 6 a.m.
We woke up just to move to the bus and we slept more. We were on the road the whole day and arrived to Slovakia after midnight meaning that we traveled like 19 hours (with some small breaks of course). Slovaks were already waiting for us, we slept in a student house which was for some of the participants real adventure regarding the size and conditions...
Next morning - with a new information that our bus has to stay 10 hours without moving we somehow got into the centre of Bratislava and fixed the party there again. (I met my parents and my dog there - which really cheered me up). We took some more pics, danced some more (it was veeeeeeery hot), heard some words of support and then we left again. We left on time BUT....
Our next destination with some more people in bus (6 slovaks) was Freiburg, Germany (close to Basel) and estimated arrival time was midnight..hmm...OK..let´s say that we were 6 hours late..hmm..Considering all the complications we would have when arriving there (no shower, no bed, bus waiting 10 hours again) we deceided to change our destination, to skip Freiburg and to go directly to Basel. We did it =) We arrived to Basel at 9.30 ready for breakfast and shower and for one more week of great time.
The bus tour was about lots of sitting in the bus but also about seeing different cultures (remember the student house in Slovakia), different people and different reaction of people, exploring the cities and expressing what we believe in - fun without drugs and alcohol!!! It would never happen without UNF´s contribution and that´s why I want to THANK unf also here and send greetings to all partiicipants and organizers. It was unforgettable week..
There are many people writing about Basel week. So why do I write about weeks? Because I also had to get somehow to Basel. And I chose one of the longest ways of course =) It was long but it was very enriching and exciting. We started one week before the opening of EGTYF congres. We means around 15 Swedes from UNF, Sasa from Slovakia and our bus and bus drivers. The first day went rather easy. We came to our ferry, boerded and went to Estonia. We landed in Estonia close to Tallin and picked Kadri. It feels like this was real beginning of our time confusion. Instead of 2 hours to Tartu, we counted 7 hours. So of course we arrived rather early. But this was the better case. We arrived 5 hours earlier so we got some food and rest and sight seeing. At 16.00 our estonian friends arrived to joing our tour. It was amazing to see familiar faces. I do not know how estonians do that but I feel very close to them although I see some of them maybe once, twice a year. So they came and our party started. The meaning of going one week before the congress was to visit several places on the way "down" and promote life without alcohol and other drugs. The message wasnt only fighting drugs but also offerning the alternative to drugs - Real party with friends and fun!!! We really had nice party. We created leaflets (directly in the streets of Tartu), we build party tents and had disco on the square, we stopped people, invited them to the party and we also took a picture of some of them which was directly printed out and they wrote on it their name, age and smth that makes them happy.
We repeated this activity in all the places we stopped and it was real success. People were really happy about the pictures and there were many of them who supported our message. It was really pleasure to make party in the streets inspite of hot weather (still better than rain in this case). In the night we had some games with estonians and went to sleeping bags (we slept in a gym).
Next day our tour continued. Some more people on board (6 estonains) Next stop - Latvia. There we changed our plan a bit. Due to the fact that we havent got permission to have a party in the cetre of the town, we joined our latvian friends in demonstration walk through the town a later on we arranged the party out of the town at the street children centre. The experience is unforgettable. So many children, really happy for a single lollypop or music playing, amazed by our fire show.
The weather was with us again. Feeling tired we decided to take it easy next day and not to hurry to Kaunas, Lithuania. The morning was free so we spent it in street of Riga and we left after lunch heavier and noisier by some 9 lativans. In the bus we had a talk show about situation in alcohol advertising in different (participating) countries. The street action in Kaunas was canceled. We didnt have a permission and we were tireeeeeed. So after dinner we had some group activities together, improvisation theater, getting know each other etc. And then shoooop to bed cause our departure time for Slovakia was 6 a.m.
We woke up just to move to the bus and we slept more. We were on the road the whole day and arrived to Slovakia after midnight meaning that we traveled like 19 hours (with some small breaks of course). Slovaks were already waiting for us, we slept in a student house which was for some of the participants real adventure regarding the size and conditions...
Next morning - with a new information that our bus has to stay 10 hours without moving we somehow got into the centre of Bratislava and fixed the party there again. (I met my parents and my dog there - which really cheered me up). We took some more pics, danced some more (it was veeeeeeery hot), heard some words of support and then we left again. We left on time BUT....
Our next destination with some more people in bus (6 slovaks) was Freiburg, Germany (close to Basel) and estimated arrival time was midnight..hmm...OK..let´s say that we were 6 hours late..hmm..Considering all the complications we would have when arriving there (no shower, no bed, bus waiting 10 hours again) we deceided to change our destination, to skip Freiburg and to go directly to Basel. We did it =) We arrived to Basel at 9.30 ready for breakfast and shower and for one more week of great time.
The bus tour was about lots of sitting in the bus but also about seeing different cultures (remember the student house in Slovakia), different people and different reaction of people, exploring the cities and expressing what we believe in - fun without drugs and alcohol!!! It would never happen without UNF´s contribution and that´s why I want to THANK unf also here and send greetings to all partiicipants and organizers. It was unforgettable week..
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