Starting lines for Tramprennen 2015

Everything new in 2015: Small starting places worked well in the past. The common starting point in Würzburg in 2014 also had its merits. Because we didn’t want to decide between the two and wanted to keep trusting randomness, we mixed the two for a great 2015 combo:

 There will be three starting points and up to 6 routes (two for each starting point) that would lead us to our destination: Omarë in Albania. The number of routes would depend of the number of participants (up to 6).The exact routes will be announced at the starting spot and then be drawn from a hat. Each route would meet the other one on the road halfway through and of course at the final destination.

 Where should you start from? Well, let’s see what our hosts have to say:

 Lasse invites you to Cottbus:

“How did the Gallic village of Cottbus In Asterix defend itself in the Lusatia, little patch of grey on the map amongst green and sand colours? On the land of holwing wolves, digging shovels and the shoeing owls, there is a small 100 000 inhabitants town, that enjoys its environment.

We hear people saying our town “as unknown as Bielefield” or “greyer than Chemnitz”, but that makes us laugh. After all, we know how to appreciate our Fuerst Puckler, famous Neapolitan ice cream, in our gigantic parks. Nature is all around you, wherever you look, with an old small town stuck in the middle of it. The Spree forest should not be missed: it attracts older tourists like mosquitoes to a light. It also offers great culinary delights like pickles, gurken, pickles in garlic, gurken brandy, cornichons and so on… The highway is quiet further out of the city centre and it takes a bit of thinking to find the right spot. But once you found it, it doesn’t take long as there are a lot of locals on the road and only two ways to go: direction Berlin or Poland.

The area is not called the german desert for nothing. Summer is always in the air and it is Caribbean hot. Sunscreen and straw hat are a must in our beautiful bike city…

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(foto: Presse03)

Max to Immenstaad:

63 km long, 250 meters deep, crystal clear water, on one side and the Swiss Alps on the other. We are on Lake Constance. Or exactly at Tramprennen’s starting point IMMENSTAAD. With 6000 inhabitants and also a contemplative cow in this sleepy town.

We are on the pebble beach beside the small tower, the former bathhouse of the castle Kirchberg. At the bus stop in front of the castle you can have a chill or run directly into the water, you are already at the right place for the Pre-meetings. Here we can camp or sleep under the stars right on the beach. For everyone’s well-being, drinks and barbecue food will be available.

The main traffic road between the East and West tangent of Lake Constance is the B31, above the vineyard next to us. The next day, let’s get ready to go, with a quick deep into the cool water, pack the bag, stretch the thumb, go up to the vineyard and there you go towards Albania!’

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Johannes and Dada to Vienna:

“Vienna, Vienna, only you are the city of my dreams forever.” Sung Peter Alexander many years ago in his famous song. And it is not only the Viennese people who say so: the capital city of Austria has been the most liveable city in the world for two years running. The magnificent city centre with the St Stephen’s Cathedral, the Hofburg and City Hall should not be missed.

For young people there are many great parks, the Danube Canal, the relaxing oasis of the Danube island, and heaps of cafes and bars. Good beer and music means you won’t get bored.

Vienna is also referred to as the “gateway to the East”: from there you can be in an hour in Slovakia, the Czech Republic or even Hungary.

And because Vienna is such a beautiful city, this year it will also be tone of the starting point of our unforgettable hitchhiking race to Albania!

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(foto: Omnidoom 999 )

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These three or better four lovely faces will welcome you at the starting line and organise the Premeetings on Friday, 21st of August, where you will get your Hitchpackage and all the infos you need for Tramprennen 2015!

To choose your starting point, you just need to complete this few steps: first register your team on our website (from Friday on), create your team profile, pay for your Hitchpackage (25€) and post us your liability-Waver.

We can’t wait to see you all at the starting line of Tramprennen 2015!

Welcome Pro Asyl!

As the preparations for TR2015 are busting, it is time to introduce you to our new partner:

Welcome to ProAsyl!

This year Tramprennen plans to support ProAsyl as well as Viva con Agua. Because we want to support refugees rights as well as access to water!

Every hitchhiker knows this incredible feeling: Some have butterfly in the belly, or a jumping heart or fizziness in their thumb: it describes the overwhelming excitement of being on the road again, moving freely, crossing borders, and living adventures in foreign places.

But not everyone has this luck. Political barriers to migration are growing and intolerances are spreading all over Europe. Globally, about 50 millions of people are forced to leave home to escape from wars, torture, violence or the violation of their basics rights. And Europe is not as welcoming as other countries have been with us.

The purpose of Tramprennen is and has always been to promote freedom of movement for all and solidarity amongst people. So it sounded natural to support it as much as we could through an organization that can be trusted.

ProAsyl is a non-governmental human rights organisation, which has been working for more than 25 years for refugee’s rights in Germany and in Europe. As well as informing and raising awareness about it, ProAsyl help refugees during their asylum procedures and support refugees-lead projects that empower them. Last but not least, ProAsyl advocates against inhumane European migration policies and that no one is illegal. If you want to find out more about ProAsyl, check the link.

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We will keep supporting Viva con Agua and its aims to improve access to drinkable water, sanitation and hygiene worldwide. As a reminder, check out the great work that Viva con Agua does.

The donations to Tramprennen will be split 50/50. Half of the money raised will go to Viva con Agua, half to ProAsyl, as easy as that. It is not only about money, it is about spreading the word, promoting solidarity and respect, one hitch at the time.

For the rest of Tramprennen 2015, we will keep you updated!

A lot of funkylicious surprises coming soon!

 

 

Hitchhiking at the Port of Dover

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Rumeiern um Minden – The 2015 Easter Hitch Competition

 

 

 

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Can you find Minden?

We hope so, because the traditional Easter Competition is again just around the corner.

What comes this time after the 60 hour Race, the Costume Competition, the for-an-Apple &’n Egg-swop Race and the Hitch-bingo?

K-Ei Lipkowski invites us to “Rumeiern in Minden”.

All around the town of Minden, Easter eggs are hidden and have to be found. Who brings the most eggs to the pub will be added to the glorious list of the leading teams of the Easter Competition, win the golden Hitch-egg. On the top of that, he/she could get at the pub the Sugar-Egg!

RULES/HOW IT WORKS

Here is the way the game goes, you all potential egg-addicts.

Fundamentals

1) As always the competition is based of trust and good will. We cannot and don’t want to control you. Whoever is cheating is just a bloody idiot.

2) We won’t accept any discriminatory behavior. Respect and Tolerance!

3) Hitchhiking is the only way to go, using public transport is not allowed this year. Well, it is actually not sure that Minden’s got any type of public transport service anyway or that the town is even connected to any other towns (see 5.)

4) You are completely free to choose the type of transport you hitch with (car, bike, boat, train, plane…) as long as you don’t pay for it. Minden stagecoaches are also allowed…

5) You can participate as alone or in a team (recommended). But if you decide to do it as a team, you can’t split on the way.

Start

1) Each hitchhiker and each team wake up in the early morning, treat himself to an heavy breakfast, brush his teeth and can start off.

2)  Starting point: up to you.

3)  Starting time: from 10 in the morning on Easter Saturday (April the 4th) and as late as you want.

Aim

The aim is to find as many eggs as possible. They will be hidden in and all around the town of Minden. They could be anywhere: buried in the backyard of Granny Schröder, at the petrol station with the counter assistant, in the hen house by the local farmers, or in an eagle nest… Anywhere! J

Find the eggs, keep them and bring them to the final meeting point to have a chance to win the Sugar Egg and take the golden Hitch Egg home!

Mode

1) The hide-out of the Eggs can only be reached by hitchhiking

2) At each hide-out there are a certain number of eggs that are consecutively numbered. So no egg thievery or cheating by adding some eggs during the race. The eggs that are in small number in some spots are worth more than others. For example, 6 eggs are hidden in the backyard of Granny Schröder, each is worth one point. At the counter of the petrol station they are 3 eggs that are worth 2 points each.

3) When you find a spot, you can only take one egg at the time. Please don’t remove, eat, destroy or hide better the other eggs, so the other teams can have their take as well! See Fundamental 1)

4) We will let you know the exact locations of the eggs on Friday evening (April 3rd) on our website tramprennen.org and on the Facebook page of Tramprennen. A PDF file with all the detailed infos will be available for download.

5) Our Hitch radius will be +/- 25kms around Minden, but remember that compared to previous years, this time you can’t use public transport. If you or your team want, it is allowed to walk an extra 2 or 3 km.

6) Each egg collected and brought back in one piece is worth one or more point. Our (obviously) independent panel will be in charge of the counting and should start before 6.30pm on Sunday.

End

Our final destination and meeting point is at a pub called the Backstage in Minden. You have to be there on Sunday April 5th at the latest at 6pm, otherwise you or your team won’t be in the score ranking!

The icing on the cake..
Klingelingeling, klingelingeling – the milkman’s coming selling eggs:Of course there’ll be some extra stuff to do in this year:
-on the one hand: we have the approved method of the so called Applaus-O-Meter. Have an raw hen’s egg with you and let one of your drivers beautify it artfully. The most beautiful (hen’s!!!)-egg will bring you 4 extra-points on your scoreboard!
-on the other hand: surprise :)

Hiding places: Rumeiern_in_Minden

 

Tramprennen 2014… it’s hard to put into words!

We were standing in a desert beach at the Albanian Adriatic Coast a few hours ago. Although there were no cars at all, it took less than ten minutes to get a ride and get offered coffee once again. Five minutes after that, the driver interrupted a wedding reception so we could try some of the wedding cake.

So what now? We are sitting in an Internet Cafe in Shkoder (still Albania), looking at the fist Tramprennen-Videos, the pictures of those who are still on the road and reading the first updates of those who already returned to “normal life”. The crazy Tramprennen-Time has to end for all of us at some point, even if we hope to take as much as we can from this world where everything is possible.
After the blackout that just erased the text I had written here in Shkoder, it seems like time to say some final words about Tramprennen 2014, even if it’s difficult to punt into words!

It was more or less two weeks ago that we hitchhiked more than 2500 km with 130 people to Macedonia. We arrived a bit exhausted and thrilled to Ohrid, and imposed a state of emergency on this little town including campsite. Macedonia was definitely happy about our visit: the police tried to arrange rides for us, the people working at the border followed the race and convinced a bus driver for us to give us a ride… (still: No Borders! )

Everything started when 132 young people gathered in Wurzburg a couple of weeks ago. It was still unclear for many of us what we would be expecting. This year was a year of changes, since we had new rules, a big and chaotic joint start and it was the first time that some guys from the old school couldn’t take part in Tramprennen. There were many things that didn’t work as expected this year: the beamer at the campsite was only one of them. Registration start, donation tool, liveticker: many things that will hopefully improve in the future.

But still: Tramprennen 2014 was a great success! It was amazing to see that we were all together capable of collecting more than 9000 Euro for drinking water! Viva con Agua was also very pleased and sent a big thank you to all of you. The collected money will be invested by Viva con Agua in cooperation with Welthungerhilfe in WASH projects in India.
The WASH projects are one of the long-term impacts of Tramprennen, but not the only one. We hitchhiked from Wurzburg to Macedonia and on the way, we experienced so much hospitality and willingness to help, that it became impossible to think of any prejudice about foreign places, cultures and people. Drivers opened their doors to us more than a thousand times, they trusted us and so did we: and we were all enriched by these experiences.
What about the destinations? Twenty to thirty batik-shirt-wearing crazy hitchhikers left an impression wherever they went. House projects, abandoned houses and theatres were transformed into accommodation for us. Football tournaments took place, whole town parties were thrown for different routes of Tramprennen. Myriads of impressions and new acquaintances are the things we will remember for a very long time.

Listenting to all the different route dynamics and plenty of stories at the final destination in Ohrid was a great pleasure for everyone in the Organization Team. It showed us once again, that Tramprennen is only a platform where people create their own stories. And that everyone taking part of it: hitchhikers, drivers, hosts or donators contribute to the making and shaping of Tramprennen.

Simultaneously and unfortunately, Tramprennen 2014 reminded us that there are also risks when riding a car. One of the teams had an accident because of a storm this year. Fortunately, nothing terrible happened, but still, at this point a big HEY and greetings to Mia, who will have to spend the rest of the summer with a plaster cast. On top of that, we also had the (baptized by Tue as) “Dickschiss-Massacre of Kotor”, a gastro-intestinal infection that impeded some participants to make it to Ohrid. For them: we hope you heard the big applause you got at the award ceremony at the lake, and once again: we wish you all the best!

Before there’s an internet blackout again, I want to finish with these lines: Tramprennen wouldn’t be possible without an engaged Organization Team. Because we all want Tramprennen to remain being what it is, we would love to hear about all of your ideas, proposals, etc. However, most importantly: we need people who love hitchhiking an want to contribute to keep this hitchhiking project alive!
gro.nennerpmartnull@ofni is always happy about a full inbox ;)

See you soon on the road!