It was just a bit annoying to find out that a “1 zone” tram ride in Amsterdam costs 2,60 euro these days. I boycotted that and walked instead – with about 25 kg of extra weight. Then later on I found out I did have my NS kortingskaart on me that can double as an OV chip…

Last week I saw a table full of clothes in front of a church on 128th Street. The ladies babbling on the sidewalk were able to tell me that it’s possible to drop off clothes. Today we went there to bring a first batch of clothes. On the way we found a pile of funny trash and I decided to keep the fancy furry jacket for a party next Saturday.

In the evening I took Nadia and another guest out to our favorite supermarket chain in Upper East Side and we returned home with tons of amazing food.

When we talk about trouble with the economy, we’ve been overlooking an astounding opportunity. Something new is possible for the first time in thousands of years. If you care about the planet, if you care about your kids, if you care about other people, this is something to pay attention to.

While we continue to argue about capitalism and socialism, for the first time a third option is really possible. We can build a more sophisticated, dynamic, distributed approach to organizing labor and resources than has ever been attempted before.

It’s bold and sensible. It has made sense for the past couple of years, when it became clear to me that the deeper ideas behind the sharing of free software and free information are applicable to the real world, the real economy. It was no wonder I met Joe 2 years ago at the CouchSurfing Collective in New Zealand; it was amazing experience to work with him.  His analysis of modern life is razor sharp and combined with his desire for change we could start seeing “actual people, in vicinity to one another, thinking about each others’ needs, and helping each other, in person and on the ground“.

Unlike existing networks based on short messaging (twitter, broadtexter, brightkite, etc), Groundcrew focuses on finding and coordinating like-minded strangers rather than friends. Groups form based on common beliefs, needs, and interests. Broad groups exist for those interested in good deeds, adventures, exchanges, and more.

Another differentiating factor is that Groundcrew aggregates information about members’ immediate availability for action, together with agents’ passions and dreams. This is opposed to other services (twitter, facebook) which work more generally with status updates and feeds.

Meanwhile, 4 hours driving from here hell broke loose.

In recent years I didn’t make an effort, but I used to boycott Israeli products. No Tivall fake meat, no products with bar codes that start with 729. (These days I actually don’t buy Tivall because they put egg in their food.) I did this because I didn’t want to support the economy of a country that is actively oppressing and practicing apartheid.  Now I can see that both Jews and Arabs are hit by a boycott, but I once I leave this country I will be more aware.  For now, I console with learning a lot here.  Not all is black and white.  Most people in the army seem to merely be hanging around, kept silly for 2 to 3 years.  Dressing up in a uniform to enjoy free bus rides – most “soldiers” of the Israeli army are not killing Palestinians at all. Some are put in confinement for breaking silly laws. The first weeks it’s a bit discomforting to see these kids walking around with automatic machine guns, but as anything, you get used to it.  I will never forget the sight of this friendly drunk guy with a gun on his back in a supermarket in Jerusalem.

Buses in Jerusalem are terrible. Bus stops only show which lines are going there, no time schedule, no route information. And then the routes seem to be changing as well, without any form of notice, from one day to the next. Fortunately it’s very well possible to hitchhike inside the city.  5 stars to hitchhiking in Israel. Even now that it’s a bit colder, it just feels like summer in Amsterdam – except for the almost non-existent rain. Even at night you can be sure to arrive anywhere you want.  Just don’t follow Israelis in their strategies. Somehow hitchhikers here seem to have a problem with using signs or showing a thumb. Signs in English are perfectly fine and so is creativity with your spots.  People are keen to pick up European looking foreigners and that brings me to the best part: I’ve met a lot of friendly people here and I’m happy here.

Hi Kumara,

Ok. Great!

I have started using another website for hospitality exchange in April 2004.  Since then I’ve traveled extensively, mostly by means of hitchhiking and staying with local people – in Europe, South America,
the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia, China and currently the Middle East.

I have traveled in India once, but that was in 2001, before online hospitality exchange was widely spread.  I had a completely different traveling experience, it was my first time out of Europe, so I was very unexperienced.  I spent 9 weeks in India though and I had contact with the local population, but I exclusively stayed in guest houses. However, I spent 2 weeks in Udaipur to learn sitar and the teaching space was inside the teacher’s home – so I had food there and was even invited for a Hindu marriage ceremony.

For the short periods of time that I have had a more sedentary lifestyle – renting an apartment and working a day job – my guests were free to use anything they could find in my fridge (which is usually chockfull).

The trucker who took me to Istanbul from the Turkish border helped me find my way in the city, when he left other random strangers continued helping me find my way and (since I hadn’t acquired any Turkish money
yet) pay my bus tickets right up to the front door of a friend with whom I was going to stay.  He was not home and his Kurdish neighbors who barely spoke English invited me to wait in their home, offered me
food,  and I fell asleep on their couch and I woke up there the next morning. Muslim hospitality can be overwhelming.

Unfortunately I don’t have any experiences as a couchsurfer in India. I am looking forward to go back to India some day though.  And though I’ve successfully hitchhiked almost anywhere I am a bit worried about
the possibilities of hitchhiking in India.

I hold an MSc in mathematics and work as an internet consultant (here and there, now and then), but most of my online time goes into non-profit wikis and other forms of social use of the internet (though I recently started two wikis with which I want to make some money: visawiki.org and cashwiki.org).  The internet offers new modes of sharing, both online and in real life. CouchSurfing is one way.  (I’ve volunteered for the couchsurfing organization for 9 months, but I’m not very happy with the direction chosen by the couchsurfing leadership.)  I think we will see much more of this in the coming years, online systems for coordination that allow people to live their lives in more pleasant ways (check e.g. groundcrew.us).  Besides that I love learning languages and the restriction of only 10 languages on couchsurfing profiles is a bit annoying

Ok.  Good luck!

namaste,
Kasper

My signs were “Arnhem A12 oost” on one side and “Belgrado Istanbul” on the other side.  For an hour or so I received a lot of smiles, especially when I told them my actual final destination.  I had been smiling and walking around to find a ride onto the A12, in vain. Talked to a guy who would be willing to go out of his way a little bit.  Walked back, and then, for the first time in my hitchhike career I was asked to leave the premises (of a gas station at least, some shitty motel manager sent me and amylin away, in the New Zealand rain of 2006).  “Company policy”, the manager said.  “Never experienced this company policy before”, I said smilingly.  When walking to the Rijkswaterstaat property the guy I talked to waved at me and I was back on track. Arnhem with a trucker, Cologne with a Polish businessman, Frankfurt with a Dutch couple picking up a special bicycle with their bio-diesel minibus.

Before Regensburg I was aiming at a HU car when an elderly guy stopped.  “Well”, I thought, “never refuse a perfectly good ride”.  In his seventies, he was still working, driving a big car and, most importantly, picking up hitchhikers at night.  Only one gas station further I wrote down “Budapest” and a couple waved at me.  Their doglets were not too friendly at first, but in Hungary they were quietly sleeping on my lap and my feet.

Romanians must love (second-hand) German cars.  The 1500 km or so from Regensburg to Pitesti was crowded with German numberplates with a little red date mark on the right.  Driven by inexhaustible Romanians, but which language to approach them?  At the gas station in Budapest there was almost no activity and I spent a couple of hours under a plastic sheet.  Since I hadn’t been able to find a ride towards Szeged for a while I decided to take my chances and head to Romania.

Three drivers, many hours on hair rising Romanian roads later it was dark again.  And I got into a local bus, to an unknown destination. In the bus, the first angel of this voyage.  I was dog-tired and sat down.  She asked a question I’ve forgotten and said “d’accord” at some point.  So we switched to French.  We went to check a hotel where the rooms appeared to cost more than 60 euro per night.  A mix of curiosity and suspicion.  I showed her all my papers, my luggage, almost anything I was carrying.  Great to see I wasn’t dragging around too much after 36 hours on the road. A cold shower, a nice room, some food and big eyes. Started walking in the early morning.  Had some local competition/colleague.  In Bucuresti it was not clear.  People were giving me different indications, but I managed to find a truck stop popular with Turks – right next to one of the country’s major continuous traffic jams.

Ahmet was happy to take me to Istanbul.  Fortunately my passive-smoking capacity had been greatly increased.  Bulgaria was not far away.  Nor were the baksheesh hungry Bulgarian border officials. Fortunately (both for me and for them) they didn’t bother me.  Within Bulgaria we took a break at a truck stop and Ahmet and people around him explained to me in Turkish, Bulgarian, Russian and German that the police were checking a lot.  The Turks had decided it was better to drive at night.

We reached the Bulgarian Turkish border at around 3 am.  And we got into Turkey when I made a big mistake.  Never leave your backpack in the vehicle when you are walking slightly further than 50 meter away.

Now I’m left alone in a hostel in Damascus.  A Japanese guy reading, a Chilean couple watching a movie.  The fan whirling back time.  The streets are full of friendliness, excitement.  People genuinely want to meet you here.  I don’t think I’ve been able to explain what hitchhiking is to a single Syrian.  Confusion plenty, but 30 hours in the Axis of Evil I’ve mostly encountered unexpecting and unconditional friendliness.

Bijar came all the way from Utrecht.  Or rather, from Kurdish Iraq. He was on his way to buy equipment for a business he’s developing in the lands of his origin.  He signaled his taxi driver to stop for me right before the border.  He did almost all the talking (and paying) and we wished eachother good luck in Aleppo.

to be continued…

After that I decided I needed some money.  Or cash.  So Cashwiki is a wiki about money. So far it’s just me, and I copied a lot of GFDL and public domain stuff from other places.

All this got me to playing with OpenID on MediaWiki, which I also set up on my favorite hitchhiking website.

Next…

• Last week I contacted Salman of digihitch.com and we can probably show a nicely integrated Hitchwiki on there!
• More syndication, especially maps.hitchwiki.org to other places and vice versa
• More info in other languages besides English
• Most important: continue the do-ocratic conviviality!