RE: Bike Tour Diary news from Asha-on-the-road

This is amazing stuff!  I loved reading it!!  Bravo Asha!


 > > Hi All!
> > It's cherry season in Bosnia! Cycling through the
> > mountains in some areas,
> > kids, adults, sometimes even 3 generations will be
> > sitting by the side of
> > the road with big bags of sweet ripe cherries and
> > jars of freshly
> > collected honey for sale. Quite a treat when it's
> > about a hundred degrees
> > out and you're not even halfway up the 20 km of 14%
> > grade in the midday
> > sun. Actually, it's just the last couple of days
> > that have been so hot,
> > before that we were blessed with perfect blue skies
> > and mildly warm
> > temperatures. The ride has been absolutely gorgeous.
> > Lush green hills, a
> > bit of snow left on the mountain tops, butterflies
> > dancing on purple,
> > yellow and white wildflowers in the meadows.
> > But wait... Some of you are probably thinking,
> > "Bosnia? Huh? i thought you
> > were all settled in san francisco?!"
> > Well, yes, i was, for three lovely months, and it
> > was great. But now it's
> > time for Ecotopia Bike Tour again! Remember when i
> > cycled from Warsaw to
> > Ukraine 2 years ago? Same event. Check out eyfa.org
> > for more info. This
> > year it's from Banja Luka, Bosnia, through Serbia
> > and Romania to Moldova.
> > I was expecting it to start in late July like last
> > time, but it started in
> > mid-June instead, so i never made it up to arcata,
> > mid-pen, or to visit a
> > bunch of folks i intended to see while in
> > california. sorry! but i'll be
> > back in the fall most likely.
> > it's been quite a bit different this time, as i am
> > told it is every year.
> > biketour is a non-hierarchical self-organizing
> > thing, so it is whatever
> > folks make it in any given year. it's 6 weeks this
> > time instead of 4, so a
> > lot of folks haven't joined up with us yet. we
> > started with only ten of us
> > (all men but me!) but now we're up to 14 (and
> > another woman just joined.
> > i'm looking forward to more gender balance!). it's a
> > diverse and
> > interesting group, folks from bosnia, portugal, uk,
> > ireland, croatia,
> > germany, austria, and me, the only american.
> > we arrived in Sarajevo yesterday. What a beautiful
> > and interesting city!
> > It sits in a valley, surrounded by green mountains
> > speckled with the
> > 3-story, white stucco homes with red-tiled roofs
> > that are typical to much
> > of the country. We passed out flyers today in the
> > cobblestone pedestrian
> > walkways of the old town, amid the cafes, shops, and
> > fashionably made-up
> > (pink seems the be the color this season) evening
> > strollers. Ecotopia bike
> > tour is all about supporting local environmental
> > campaigns all along the
> > route, and today it was spreading the word about the
> > dangers of
> > introducing phosphates into the environment.
> > Sometimes people recognize
> > us, because the organizers did a good job of getting
> > us on local
> > television, radio, and newspapers. I've been doing
> > more interviews than
> > i'd like, because reporters seem to be drawn to the
> > sole woman, who came
> > from so far away.
> > despite the tranquility and beauty, it's impossible
> > to forget that this
> > was a place at war just ten years ago. bullet holes
> > in the buildings are
> > ubiquitous. on our first day here we got a very
> > serious lesson on how to
> > avoid stepping on a land mine, and every day we
> > check the land mine map to
> > see in which areas it's safe to go pee in the
> > bushes. in the clean,
> > bustling downtown shopping area of a large town the
> > other day, next to
> > fashionable shops and a beautiful fountain, two
> > eight-ish year old boys
> > played with a real gun in the plaza, nobody giving
> > them a second glance.
> > by the campfire on our first night, one of the
> > organizers told stories of
> > growing up during the war. the fighting wasn't in
> > his town, a rarity
> > around here, but he tells of 50 meter lines for
> > food, of which there was
> > never enough, and setting off bombs for new years'
> > instead of fireworks,
> > because it was what they had. the man next to me on
> > the bus, like so many
> > others, had to flee his home, and although his life
> > is in germany now, he
> > tells with a look of longing and sadness in his eyes
> > that he is a refugee,
> > torn from his home, and nothing will ever be quite
> > the same for him. most
> > people seem to feel that nobody won the war, and
> > everyone lost. there are
> > some nationalists who are glad for the breakup of
> > Yugoslavia, but the
> > standards of living across the board are lower than
> > they were before the
> > IMF imposed the austerity measures that caused the
> > economic crash and
> > fanned the flames of cultural differences, leading
> > the richer regions to
> > talk of secession. i guess we can't say no one won
> > the war. the familiar
> > logos on billboards and megastores announce who won,
> > as once-national
> > industries privatize, new markets open for the
> > international corporations,
> > and financers collect their interest payments on the
> > loans to rebuild what
> > NATO and U.S. bombs tore down.
> > so it's been an educational experience, seeing first
> > hand a country
> > recovering from such devastation. but the bulk of my
> > thoughts are not of
> > war or phosphates or politics. mostly i think of the
> > flowers, the
> > mountains, and the lakes we dive into at lunchtime.
> > i think of the smiles
> > on people's faces as they practice their english on
> > us. i probe my fellow
> > cyclists on the details of their lives, and buy the
> > local specialties and
> > the roadside cafes. i listen to the chanting from
> > the loudspeakers on the
> > mosques, and check out what's growing in the gardens
> > in front of people's
> > houses.
> > and i cycle. there's a certain peace that i feel
> > when i'm cycling, my body
> > feeling healthy and suntanned, my mind quieted by
> > the rhythm of the road
> > under my tires, that is hard to equal. perhaps it is
> > equaled by that peace
> > that i feel when i am walking through the bustling
> > heart of a new land and
> > a new culture, eyes bright and wide open, taking in
> > all the details of
> > another of the infinite possibilities of ways we can
> > live.
> > tomorrow we cycle on. i'll write again from
> > somewhere down the road...
> > much love to you all,
> > give each other a big hug for me,
> > asha
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>Never walk if you can dance.
>                            (granpa Rosenberg, "Non-Violent Communication")
>
>
>
>Frodo Tobias Kempf, Weitzgrund 8, 14806 Belzig, Germany, Gaia
>                    0049.17.444.30.550
>            http://photos.yahoo.com/frodoaks
>
>
>
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