sorry, no photos again, but just wanted to tell the world that we are FINALLY CROSSING THE BORDER TO MONGOLIA. today! see you on the road, or in Ulaanbaatar on September 7!
After 4 long days in the train with a vicious conductress who yelled us constantly and told us we are dirty f***ing punks, we arrived in the far east. We still managed to rehearse two new songs in the train: „one way road“ written by our Tobi and a new version of „anthem for the already defeated“ from Rock Plaza Central, this time with cardboard guitars and skeleton masks — our zombie song :-) Recordings will be posted… eventually, along with photos… And we performed on the station platforms in numerous short stops over the four days. We can gather a good-sized crowd and make a decent amount of money in 15 minutes between waiting trains and rushing travelers!
Now we‘re getting our Mongolian visas in Ulan Ude — the rules have changed recently — it’s no longer possible on the border. You have to get a visa in any Mongolian consulate or embassy beforehand.
Tomorrow we‘re cycling to the Baikal Lake for a few days before catching a train to Naushki, Mongolia. Then we plan to cycle across the border and the rest of the 400km to Ulaanbaatar, our long-awaited goal for this part of the journey!
We‘re making the leap!
The trains are difficult and expensive, but we found out about a direct train from Moskow to Ulan-Ude with „bagazhni wagon“(!!) and about the possibility to get Mongolian visas directly on the border. (finely, after three or four days non-stop-asking at the trainstation).
So, we‘re off to Moskow by train and will ride the Trans-Sibirian Railway all four days to Ulan-Ude. On the way we‘ll reand or buy two bikes for our filmcrew so we can cycle all together, from Ulan-Ude, shortly seeing the Bajkal lake, down the road to Ulaan Baatar. (around 670 km in 15 daus). That’s good for us, good for the people joining us, and good for the documentary film.
It’s not the slow road any more, but like we planned from the beginning, if we want to work with kids in Mongolia and try yak butter while singing gutterly in an yurt, we‘d have to take the train. We‘ll be 13 peaple in Mongolia and 7 going on afterwords.
And more good news:
2wheels4change is also heading south – 5 people and cycling to ANAPA, and two (Louisa and Verbena) will continue the project in Turkey, possibly going to Israel as well.
(Emphasis on the -cycling- … )
We say it like this, because if we would continue to go to Mongolia at this point, we would
1) send 4 groups of 2 people hitch-hiking 5000 km from Rostov to Irkutsk (aprox. 10-15 days on the road), and
2) send 3 people on a train for 5 days with all 10 bicycles, because
3) the only available tickets on all trains until October cost 300 Euros per person, plus 130 Euros for the bikes and bags. We simply don‘t have 3000 Euros for everyone to take the train.
If we hitch-hiked now,
A) it would still cost us 900 Euros,
B) 4 people would leave the group now, because
C) they would need to return by train from Irkutsk one week after we arrived — for another 300 Euros per person…
and
D) if the hitch-hiking takes too long, or
E) if the Mongolian visas in Irkutsk take longer than expected, or
F) if the bicycles on the separate cargo train via Moscow take too long — or go missing completely,
G) we would need to take a bus from Irkutsk directly to Ulaan Baatar (950km)
and . . . what about our bikes then?
So yeah, we‘re ALL staying together now until our Russian visas expire at the end of September!
Felix, tyle, Tobi, Anja, Bruno, Jakob, Verbena, Oli, Jeremias, Louisa, Lena, Ballak, Jassi and Yuri (who recently joined us in Taganrog, Russia).
Our photos are on the contact page.
Here are a few images from last week, when we met Viktor, a songwriter for a popular Russian band and one-time drummer with InExtremo, and his son:
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We‘re skipping Kazakstan because
Q) only 4 of our bikes would survive the steppe/plains/prairies…
W) one less visa challenge…
R) we would have to take a train to get transit visas for Russia for the people returning to Germany and then take the train out again, and finally
Z) we don‘t want to get stuck in Siberia or in the mountains this winter.
That’s why we‘re heading SOUTH for the winter.
We will cycle to Sochi, Russia, over the next 3 weeks.
Frannie and Kat with the video documentary and two more friends will join us on bicycles, which will make us 18 people soon.
We want to stop in all the little villages to perform our songs and clown sketches. Also orphanages and schools we pass will have a chance to learn from us and perform with us.
At the moment we have 4 accordeons and 3 guitars! a flute, clarinet, slide-trumpet, horn, tuba, and a broken monkey percussion section.
2wheels4change lives on, migrating in a different direction!
From Sochi, we‘ll take the boat to Trabzon, Turkey, and begin the visa process for Iran, Pakistan, India . . . you know, the -slow- road to China, maybe Mongolia, and Japan.
We are 8 musicians who are continuing the project after September and will travel to Asia in 2010/2011. Some of us are still planing to go to North America by boat from Asia when we get the chance.
Contact us if you want to get to know us!
Tel: +7(8)9281624192
Just before leaving the Ukraine, the group was camping in Sedova, a tourist town with muddy but relaxing beaches. In a Mad-Max-race to join the group, Felix, Lena, Louisa and Jeremias hauled their bikes in slow trains 5 days from Berlin to southeastern Ukraine. We were concerned about our passports that had been at the Russian embassy, so Jakob and tyle took the bus up to Ucilvataya/Donetsk, camped with the group from Berlin, stashed the passports that they had been carrying, and rushed back to the main group.
The small group continued on with trains and bikes a round-about way of getting to the border.
In the same time, the group from the Krim split up — Wolf and Pi returned to Germany, and Thimo returned to the group in Sedova.
The boarder crossing at night was short and sweet. Even though we were missing an immigration card from the Ukraine and the boarder police wanted us to pay a large amount of money, after talking with them for ten minutes, we could leave without paying a fine. Boring!
We all met up again in Vjesjelo-Voznjesjenovka, the first Russian town on the main road toward Rostov. There we unexpectedly stayed 4 days, becoming more involved in the local culture. We played several shows, were invited to stay at the Kozaki House (the Kozakis were dissidant partisans during the USSR), and we began give workshops for the many kids who hung around our camp . . . until the police came and told us to leave the border area.
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Now from Togonrog, Juri, from Ukraine and living in Russia, has joined us and will ride with us until Rostov.
20 days on the road since we left Kiev . . . we made around 500 km — that’s 416 km directly on the highway. The rest we cycled going to little towns to play music and to visit orphanages, and going out to beautiful beaches to set up our tents.
In Kaniv, we spontaneously started a show on the street corner and were invited to perform at the orphanage up the hill. So we stayed two days at the beach, creating theater scenes and sand creatures, and finally giving a small show for the teenagers at the orphanage. They were a tough crowd, not wanting to learn anything we had to offer, but they were happy we came and they enjoyed the music.
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Thanks again to Wechsel for the great tent — we expanded it for 10 people!
In Cherkasy, Tobi’s tuba, which was smashed after a mishap on the road, got a complete make-over by a guy who repaired the valves and who stayed up all night getting the dents out.
We met some musicians who cycled with us out to a forest for an all-night jam session with the mosquitos. One person wants to join us in a few weeks. Three people from Kiev called and said that they also want to join us in a few weeks. The group is getting . . . big.
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In Chigirin, there are apartment buildings at the top of the hill before the main part of town. The flats are made of the same slabs of grey cement that are used for the roads. We had to stop and perform for the people in this desolate and unhappy-looking place. They gave us money but we didn‘t want to take it, so we bought ice cream for the dozens of kids who were dancing with us.
We rode into town and took refuge at the bus station when a torrential rain nearly blew us off the bikes. Someone who saw our show invited us to sleep at his empty apartment — back up the hill, in one of the grey buildings we had seen. That was a cultural experience . . . the comforts of running water and electricity don‘t outweigh the stuffy airlessness and cramped feeling of loneliness in these buildings. But we were grateful to get out of the rain after a week on the road.
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In Mikilska, we got the tip to visit an orphanage way out in the countryside. When we arrived, tyle started playing the accordeon and some kids started clapping to Russian songs like „Drysa“ and „Ochi Chornje“. Then some Americans came out and introduced themselves as volunteers from Project Hope. They said that they don‘t want us working with the kids because „it would confuse them“. We „look different“. They explained that „Jesus will be important in the lives of the children“.
We had met some kids in the village, and we still wanted to play for the kids in the orphanage, so we camping just outside of the village. We came back the following day, announcing our show throughout all of the roads. Finally we played for about 8 kids and one older woman. That must of been a sight — as it began to rain, we entered the forest and some of the kids ventured further out of the orphanage to hear us. The American Christians saw us and ushered all of the kids back behind the fence. So we played „New World Order“ for our only audience member: the older woman who blushed and smiled as she pulled on her apron.
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In Svetlobodsk, we met someone from the forestry administration. He allowed us to dry out (again) in his small building by the river and to camp and cook over a fire in his yard. We could stay two days, so took the time to rehearse, record our new version of the song „Gente Impresentable“, and do . . .
a Night Show — white faces in black costumes, mimes and mutes, playing clarinet, tuba and flutes, a drummer drumming brokenly, a dancer in the shadows. The sizable crowd of drunken teenagers, in the rain, was a good exercise in improvisational street theater for us.
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Moving on to Biletskivka, we stopped to say farewell to the marvelous, the amazing, the one and only
R IIIII C H A R D. The people at the marketplace begged us to set up in front of the market and give them some tunes. That was a great crowd and gave us a lot of energy to say good-bye to our clown Wet Biscuit McGlee with a final show. Well, he says he may join us this winter in Japan . . .
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So now tyle is riding the Camel Hump alone, which is possible but not too comfortable. It’s more fun on the downhill plummets if two people are screaming.
In Kytsevolivka, we got the chance to stay in someone’s yard. The next morning Thimo’s bike was gone, along with some of our bags, solar panel, etc. The people from the town searched everywhere, really upset that we would have a bad image of the Ukraine and of their town. But we explained that things get stolen in Germany, too. In the end, everything was found in a forest and was returned to us. What a nerve-wrecking day in the 30°C shade of the berry trees, filling out police reports. We‘re actually glad the back was stolen in -this- town, where so many people could help us. Thanks!
Now we‘re in Dniprodserzhinsk, heading south. There’s a seat on the tandem, so come join us! All creative repairs are only temporary . . .
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Alyona came up with this short insight on streetmusic in and outside Ukraine. It’s in english / russian.
Nearly 4 weeks Kiev, what a time. When we arrived at Fathers House Foundation in Petrivske, our group had grown suddenly from 13 to 17 people. The camera team gave us a warm welcome, brought a lost sheep back (Friedrich) and did what a film crew does: filming.
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During the next week we offered awide variety of workshops for the kids, like poi, acrobatics, clowning, partner dancing, robot dancing and bicycle-repairs.
| workshops at Otchi Dim | |
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Although the workshops were attended unregularly by hords of kids, the performance we did together at the end of the week for neighbours was a great success. The director smiled like a child in a sweets shop and it was clear that we had to stay for a week longer. In this time we continued our workshops with the children, built poi with them and had time to get to know the kids and their foster family parents even better.
| playground opening | |
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During the time in between giving workshops, we would ride the bus into Kiev and perform on the streets. We met lots of amazing people who offered us places to stay, cooked for us and played music with us. For example, the great improvised show together with Sergej and his wonderful drunk Top Orchestra, from whom we learned a lot. Or Marian and Olga who made potatoes for 17 people in the middle of the night.
We tried riding our bikes into town for the shows, which took a chaotic 35,000 hours or so. That resulted with us continueing to take the public bus the rest of the time… Quite anoying when needed to squeeze a tuba, drums and the rest of the equipment for our shows onto a tiny little bus.
| street shows in Kiev | |
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So many things have happened since we last wrote. We celebrated Verbena’s birthday, giving us the chance to play games for ourselves and filling our faces with a delicious monster of a meal! We said farewell to Jula and Anaelle with a wonderful night show, and they headed back to Germany. „Thanks for sharing this month with us and thanks for being you!“
A few days later was the next good-bye. Frannie, Kat, Despina (the film crew) and Friedrich took their train back. Although they didn‘t really want to leave us. Suddenly and sadly, Felix had to pack his bike on his back and head to Berlin for personal reasons. It was a sad day… „But we‘ll meet again, don‘t know where … don‘t know when, but i know we‘ll meet again, some sunny day…!“ Most wish to return to us again — let’s hope sooner than later.
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After two final workshop days, we had the final show in Kiev with the kids from Fathers House. Because of the very friendly police we had to interupt our show and move two times. (but we kept the instrements playing and the poi’s a’spinnin and dragged our stuff to another place) Which resulted in a big crowd following us. Everybody involved had alot of fun on this day.
| the kids‘ big street show | |
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In one of our night performances we also met Darija and Maxim, who are involved in alot of theatre and art festivals. They organise the Festival Zix-Zix-One in Kiev. They invited us to an Island in the middle of the Dnieper (the river flowing through Kiev) To have an arts exchange gathering with our and their friends. Maxim brought us to the lovely island with his little boat, which looked as if a batalion of paint-ballers had opened fire upon it. We gave a clown workshops for adults in the days there. They also gave some workshops and we had a beautiful weekend with all of them.
| workshops on the island | |
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As a result we made a clowning action in the city. We hope that the new found clowns continue. BABOOSHKAA!!
| a rebelous clowns‘ action | |
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The days before and after the island we stayed in an old ruin… i say ruin, it was never finnished. From the Soviet times, not far from Fathers House, where we could relax and organise stuff out of the scorching sun.
| living & playing in Petrivske | |
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A few days ago we said goodbye once again to the kids and people from Fathers House and continued riding our patient bikes again.
| farewell performance in Petrivske | |
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We now head south-east along the river towards the Krim (Crimea) whilst waiting for our next visas. We‘re not rushin‘ yet…
The group got bigger again. Ola from Kiev bought a bike and has now joined us spontaineously after she saw and danced with us at one of the night shows. Two more may join us in the coming weeks. We enjoy the weather and the swimming breaks in the rivers and lakes along the way – the mosquitoes eat us alive but we sing through the pain and will continue as always!
| on the road | |
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(English below)
Мы- организация «2weels4changes” (На колёса- ради перемен!) где вы можете ознакомиться с нашей деятельностью.
Мы путешествуем по Европе на велосипедах, играем на музыкальных инструментах, организовываем воркшопы и тренинги по клоунскому мастерству и театральным техникам.
Нашим главным мероприятием в Киеве будет трёхдневный воркшоп по клоунскому искусству для взрослых. Он будет состоять из трёх частей, обязательных для всех желающий с успехом освоить программу:
- Начало в пятницу в 17:00, встреча участников около Макдоналдса на м. Минская. Первый забор участников, остальные добираются самостоятельно!
Программа до 20:00
- Суббота 10:00-17:00
- Воскресенье 10:00-15:00+ представление в городе с 16 до 19:00 (место проведения уточняйте у организаторов)
Приглашаются все желающие!
Мы предлагаем:
Уроки акробатики, Жонглирование, Пои, Театр, Танцы, Хождение по канату (Слеклайн), Постановка голоса, Скульптурные инсталляции из подручных материалов
И многое другое!
Приглашаем всех участников делиться своими талантами с окружающими!
Мы тоже хотели бы освоить новые умения. Прежде всего –музыку!
Место проведения: Остров, ст. М. Минская, пешком до набережной, от полуострова за лодочной базой будет курсировать бесплатная лодка до острова. (См. карту)
Контакт лодка смс: 0637064045 (reservation).
Участие бесплатное! + стоимость соляры для моторной лодки, делиться поровну между всеми участниками. Пожертвования приветствуются.
Питание: привозится с собой в расчёте на себя и готовиться в общем котле
Также с собой иметь:
-пустые баклажки/канистры для воды
-необходимую для житья и готовки снарягу
-палатку, спальник, каремат
-кружку, ложку, миску, нож
-бутылку воды
-туббумагу
При наличии:
-музыкальные инструменты.
-цирковой инвентарь
И обязательно: Хорошее настроение!
Контакты:
063 260 34 89 (говорит по-английски и по-немецки)
2wheels4change@gmail.com
__________________________________
we invite you to join us for an
Arts Exchange Gathering in Kiev
June 4-6, 2010 (Friday-Sunday)
The people from ZixZixOne and 2wheels4change met after a street show and decided to move to an island in the Kiev river.
The main point will be a 3-day clown workshop for adults who want to use clowning to address social problems. Whoever wants to participate should plan to attend all 3 parts of the workshop:
- Friday 17.00 – 20.00
- Saturday 10.00 – 17.00
- Sunday 10.00 – 15.00, + action in the city 16.00 – 19.00
For everyone else, as well as in the evenings with all participants, we can also offer lessons in acrobatics, juggling, poi, slackline, aerial silk, theater, dance, voice, trash sculptures and other artistic things.
All participants are encouraged to share their own talents with us and each other. We want to learn new things, too — especially new music!
Location: Kiev, Ukraine — on an island in the river.
Metro: Minskaya or
Bus 559: Tsarskaya Ochota
Meeting points: from Minskaya to the island with a boot
- Friday, June 4: 17.00
** Send an SMS text message to 0637064045 or to 063 2603489 to reserve a time for a boot.
The boots can go at any time, when 3 people want to ride.
Costs:
The gathering is free.
Petrol cost for the boat will be passed on to the particpants.
Donations for the organisational costs are gladly accepted.
Food:
Bring water and food stuffs (like potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, tomatos, cabbage, rice, kasha!, etc.) – enough for yourself, so we can all cook together and share food together.
Bring:
- food and water
- equipment for eating and cooking over a fire
- tent, sleeping bag and mat
- toilet paper or toilet water bottle
- MUSIC INSTRUMENTS & CIRCUS STUFF!
Contact:
2wheels4change@gmail.com
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