Hitchgathering/2011

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Hitchgathering 2011
Home - Slogan Debate - Graphic design - News and press - Workshops - Website


5-8-11 is the fourth edition of the annual European Hitchhiking Gathering. It is going to take place in Kara Dere at the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. (View it on Google Maps.)

General

Organisation & Discussion

  • communication is done via the Hitch mailing list
  • you can help organising, e.g. by signing up for tasks on the TODO list below. Feel free to register for stuff you can't do right now, but you want to do some time later. We'll contact you back. (just put your name/timestamp and, if you don't have an account here, a way to contact you next to the task)

Latest News

Timeline

  1. Different pre-meetings in Berlin, Budapest, Sofia and so on ... initiative welcome!
  2. The gathering: 5/8/11
  3. After-meeting in Turkey?

Pre-meetings

As time is passing by, it is time to start thinking about pre-meetings (and maybe after-meetings)...

Post about these in hitchgathering.org can be read here.

  • Budapest, date: ???, organizing: Maxijazz
  • Sofia, date: ???, organizer: Boyan?
Willing to organize a pre-meeting in Budapest.. Question: should it be just before the gathering (5th August)?.. so all the hitchhikers who choose to go through Hungary could have like a 'pit stop', and if so what would be the appropriate date for it (5-10-15 days before)?--Maxijazz 20:30, 4 April 2011 (CEST)
We thought that we shouldn't make the pre-meetings as close to each other as last year, because some people found it too tiring to travel that fast. Also, we had the idea that a pre-meeting could also last more than a day. Maybe we can decide together also based on when and where other pre-meetings will be held. Sofia is likely (Boyan) which could be 1st or 2nd of August so maybe the 29th or 30th of July? n0id
We should coordinate with other close-by events, such as Road Junky Festival in Romania 15-17 July. --Astikain

After-meetings

Post about these in hitchgathering.org can be read here. A visualisation of the possibilities on a google map can be found on a google map here.

  • Savrane, Krusevac, Serbia (August 8th-10th)

(mileagainst) live in this lovely little village in central Serbia. It's on the way to Guca festival, so its a perfect sleep-over on the way to Guca. Mileagainst has some couch space and huge yard for tents. This post-gathering is confirmed. You can sign-up for it here.

  • Irakli, Bulgaria

There is another lovely beach near Kara Dere, some 25 km south. It is a bit more populated and has a couple of bars and a shop. There is running water as well.

  • Vama Veche, Romania

A definite party spot with a nice beach and quite a few bars and restaurants, just outside Bulgaria on the Romanian side (North of Kara Dere).

  • Kandira, Bulgaria

There is a superb mountain hide-out near Krumovgrad. Details from Tomi (--Astikain 17:29, 29 June 2011 (CEST)).

  • Yeşiltaş, Turkey

In South East Turkey there is a well-hidden village of 800 Kurdish people called Yeşiltaş. Its original Armenian name is Iştazin. There are about 80 houses that are not visible to the road. People are hospitable and they wish that more people would come there to see how they live and tell about their life abroad.

There is plenty to eat in the nature. Moreover, everyone there has a farm there and it's not considered stealing if you eat something from the ground. August is the time when there are a lot of left over fruits in the trees. The mountain water runs in several streams and joins into a bigger river that flows through the village. Water everywhere is not only drinkable, but ice-cold and pure.

When you go there you instantly fall in love with the place. Probably some of you might start thinking ways to help. If someone knows how to create DIY solar panels or hydro-power utilizing the river, the villagers might be more than interested to learn. All the houses are in the grid. Otherwise they are nearly 100% self-sustained. Be prepared to stay longer if largely organic way of living in the mountains is your cup of tea.

Please note: There is no solid waste management and villagers tend to think that the river takes away whatever little trash they might throw in there. Please show a better example. Sometimes the Turkish military bombs the mountain lakes if there are rebels, so it's not recommended to go up there if the villagers say so. Otherwise they are in friendly terms with the rebels. Make sure you have someone with you who speaks Turkish and/or Kurdish. In Yüksekova there is a really cool couchsurfer called Raşit Tümer who might be able to meet up with fellow hitchhikers.

Directions: Yeşiltaş is 44 km from Yüksekova that is the nearest bigger city of around 100.000 inhabitants. From there go to direction of Dağlıca. After you pass the village of Karlı there is a military checkpoint. From there you just follow the road until you come to a bridge over the river. There is a small shop on the left and two roads to Dağlıca. That is the entrance to the village. There are houses on both sides of the road. There are not too many cars on this road after the checkpoint so get as many people in one vehicle as possible (remember it's Turkey, anything is possible!). See Google Map. --Astikain 17:29, 29 June 2011 (CEST)

  • Georgia

Suggested by Mathieu Lecarpentier ([email protected])

TO DO

Misc

Website work

Translation

If you're a translator, browse the website in your language as much as possible.

Check out this page that explains how to translate what.

This is the order in which to translate. No point putting names there.

  1. Translate the menu structure (super-fast but counter-intuitive. Easier for geeks. Do read the Menu section of the page linked above)
  2. Translate the FAQ in your language (Quick and easy, you can even come up with your own FAQ)
  3. Translate the interface (Not too straightforward, to do while browsing the website and you run into an English word or phrase in the middle of an otherwise translated page). Instructions from the same page.
  4. Translate the content (Anyone can do it, but long and painful)

Other

  • invent new slogans!
  • add a timeline capability to reports and merge them into the 2010 timeline, remove reports
  • make it possible to offer or request workshops (Brainstorm page for Drupal geeks)
    • encourage people to suggest activities
    • have a workshop list on the website
    • suggestions from Evaluation
    • link in a discussion forum
    • ask for interests/offers on registration
  • Similar gimmick for sports, kitchen and music stuff (who brings what?)
     - I will take volleyball ball! - Ania_Szuti

General communication

Most of that is going to be on the internet. But offline comm is welcome if anybody can handle that.

The press releases are ON THE WEBSITE (menu link "press"). If a press release has been written for your language and it is not on the website, put it there. The drafts are here

  • get in touch with hitchhikers in different countries to have local contacts:
    • Tadas for Lithuania
    • Martin for Latvia
    • add more... or add yourself

Social media

Most festivals spread through word of mouth. We can put that on steroids with all that social media thing.

List of micro-bloggers (twitter, identi.ca...) that actually use their account:

  • twitter: sitarane

The idea is to follow each other, to make communication faster.

List of travel bloggers that actually have readers: The idea is to get them to write articles on hitchgathering.

List of people to contact:

Other travel celebrities. The idea is to get them to communicate the gathering to a wider audience.

  • hospex camp organizers
    • Miicoo
  • Nonesee
  • Andrej
  • La Sophiste
  • Tom (Roadjunky)

News spread where & when

  • CS Hitchhiking Group 14th April
  • Finnish media contacts
  • I've messaged The polish club of adventure [1] which is located in Tricity and messaged the guy called 'Pawel' [2] who's organized several massive events all over Europe, mostly attended by Polish people. I'm waiting for the response, we'll see how it goes.
  • Martins from Latvia and Tadas from Vilnius hitchhiking club

Art

Waiting for some designs to emmerge

    • Distribute the files and print it in several places/countries (try to get it for free)
  • track distribution and make it more open; make better use of them --N0id

At the gathering

Being done

Art

Brainstorm page about graphic design

  • new logos and stuff (Sandra)
  • create a flyer to print and distribute (stickers?) (Sandra)
    • two drafts by Mollom can be found here
    • 3 drafts by Zsolt here
    • Contact Robin about last year (you're reading this?): price, can we get the same offer? --N0id

Contact

  • hospex camp organizers
    • Flohfish --n0id (message sent, no response so far)
  • Pat Pong (www.hitchhikingcontest.org) --Astikain
    • Contacted: Thinks the best way to "gather" people into a hitchhikers' gathering is on the road. Is willing to spread some flyers if we make them available soon.
  • Tomislav Perko --Astikain
    • Contacted: might bring 50-100 hitchhikers if we can synchronize with his race

Visa info

Unfortunately, Bulgaria/Romania are NOT within Schengen yet, which means additional visa oppression for people holding Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian or Moldovan passports.

  • Regulations for Russians (might apply for UA & BY as well)
    • Romania: Must apply for a visa in advance, 5 days visa-free transit for Bulgarian, Cypriot or Schengen visa holders. Usual Romanian tourist visa undergoes similar procedure than for Schengen, thus invitation letter, insurance, work book & sufficient amount of cash on bank account needed to submit in the embassy (usual 50 Euro/day). Advise: Get Bulgarian visa, and afterwards apply for (free) transit visa for Romania, if traveling from Ukraine/Moldova.
    • Bulgaria:Must apply for a visa in advance, 36 hours visa-free transit for Romanian, Cypriot or Schengen visa holders. Usual Bulgarian tourist visa undergoes similar procedure than for Schengen, thus invitation letter, insurance, work book & sufficient amount of cash on bank account needed to submit in the embassy (usual 50 Euro/day). Advise: See above.
    • Turkey: New visa regulations for Turkey from April 16, 2011! Check embassy in advance!
  • CHECK IF UKRAINE AND BELARUS HAVE THE SAME REGULATIONS
  • Regulations for Moldovans
    • Romania: Visa free (?) -need to get this confirmed --Platschi 13:08, 14 April 2011 (CEST)

STILL TO DO:

  • Figure out how Schengen people can assist in helping to acquire visa for people who need it
  • ... put this on the website in Russian
  • here is the info from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs homepage, about the visa regime(with the list of states witch need/don't need visa),types of visas and charges

Web-presence

Know any publication that wrote about the festival? List external links: French: http://www.cafebabel.fr/article/33387/troisieme-festival-europeen-d-autostop-au-portugal.html


Promotion: DIY!

We are planning to do flyers and/or maybe stickers like last year, but also we would like to pass on promotion to everybody. There are endless possibilities to spread the word about the hitchgathering. For example:

  • Tell your friends
  • Tell hitchhikers you meet on the road
  • Write cardboards with hitchgathering.org, the place and date (and maybe more) and place them at popular hitchhiking spots ... be creative and use your colorful markers!
  • Draw your own flyers :)
  • Spread the word around hitchhiking clubs and websites in your country/your language
  • Post on your hitchhiking / travel / nomad blog or website about the gathering
  • Tell your favorite hitchhiking / travel / nomad blog author to write about it
  • Organize a pre-meeting (can be early like May/June/July to raise attention and connect people)
  • Invent a new slogan for this year! http://hitchwiki.org/en/index.php?title=Hitchgathering/2011/Slogan&action=edit
  • The organizers can promote the event on my website: http://festivalfox.com/index.ffx?page=olf -it's free and the event can be listed in many languages!

Done

  • make organisation more visible on hitchgathering.org: atopia (done by Sitarane.mp, thank you!)

Press

Press release written for:

  • English
  • German
  • French
  • Finnish
  • Spanish

Always needs proofreading.

Website

I've looked into that and I'm confused. It's not a view, is it? It's a taxonomy trick. Can some drupal wizard shed some light? --Sitarane.mp

Sort of done, if not for the detail above. I simply removed the 2010 bit. It is now not accessible through menu, and as far as I know, through any other way than knowing the url. --Sitarane.mp

  • The right column is too long --Sitarane.mp
    • I removed the slogans from last year that were cycling under the title and replaced them with the countdown
    • Removed both the "work in progress" block (since we do the orga chitchat on the mailing list AND the "who's new" block that I didn't see the point to. Comment if that makes you unhappy.
  • It's hard for admins to track how each user type sees the website. --Sitarane.mp
    • There's a new block visible only to admins that allows them to 'masquerade' any other user in one click.
  • Clean up the permission/role system --Sitarane.mp
  • Editing posts in plain text is annoying. In particular when one must include an image or a link. The html syntax is a big deterrent --Sitarane.mp
    • I might get into WYSIWYG later, but I hate it and it's a lot of work. Instead, I set up the 'Markdown' syntax as default. It's a bit like the wiki syntax, but simpler and more intuitive.
  • Remove the coordination forum (that we decided not to use anymore in favor of the mailing list) and the old forums from view (no delete!) --Sitarane.mp
  • Thoroughly adapt the website to 2011. Views, menu... --Sitarane.mp

The Location

The gathering will take place in Kara Dere, Bulgaria. Below is the description for the proposal.

Quite big national hitchhiking society. Local support is a snap. Hitching is a blast. Exact location: The Black Sea, Kara Dere (near the city of Biala)

Coords.: 42.892231,27.899687

Have a look at Pictures of Bulgaria

Pros

  • huge remote beach
  • water supply from a spring on the beach (The issue of drinking water: There is a natural spring right on the beach. The only insignificant con is that the nice camping areas in the forest are a bit further on the beach on a 15 mins walk from the spring. But 10 liter tubes do a great job and daily "trips" are just a walk on the beach)
  • perfect shade, as the beach borders with a marvelous forest, where it's cool all day long and in the night it's not windy and sandy
  • people there are generally nice
  • cheap!
  • equally near to (between) the two biggest cities (Varna, Burgas) on the coast line.
  • close to turkey
  • small "bar"(caravan) for beer, fish&chips, etc. on one end of the beach
  • few to none about the mosquito issue
  • the trumpet festival at Guča happens the week after 5/8/11, just 850km to the west

Cons

  • 40 mins walk on a dirt road to the nearest village for food supply (quite easy and pleasant though)
    • There are cars passing by as well on this dirty road, so they can at least bring the bags with food.
  • project for closing the area and building an "Eco Village" (decision and deadline unknown yet)
  • language barrier?
    • I guess there are as many hitchhikers who don't speak Bulgarian as hitchhikers who didn't speak Portuguese. And I guess there are a lot more Russian speakers in Bulgaria than English speakers in Spain.
    • language barrier is absolutely no problem, everybody knows what the thumb means, also city's names on road signs are nearly always in Cyrillic and Latin.
  • Many campers in summer
  • Forget about dumpster-diving here