Loco

I wrote these series of emails back in late 2006 when I travelled around Eastern Europe by train. I started off with a few mates for a month of summer fun, and then I ventured off on my own. I’ve modified the emails a bit so they make sense to a blog reader, but apart from that they are as I wrote them back then…

Hello and welcome to Jamie’s long-awaited witty and concise email documenting his travel so far. First of all, congratulations for getting on the list, I know the selection process was tough but you all got through it. Secondly, sorry if the email is neither witty nor concise; I have been scolding myself for weeks for entertaining the ludicrous notion that it might be and the fact that I have actively marketed it as such simply consolidates my folly. It is much more likely to be verbose and long-winded. If anyone doesn’t want to receive my intermittent rants, please reply with the word ‘Unsubscribe’ in the Subject, and include an 1800 word essay on the pros and cons of hyper-communication in a globalised world.

So I’ve been travelling for about five weeks, and have been on my own for about five days now. Here’s an an abbreviated account of my travels so far…

Paris (one night) - Got told off in our hotel at 2am for repeating very loudly “J’habite en [insert British town in the relevant accent, e.g. ‘Liverpool’ in thick scouse]”

Munich (two nights) - Celebrated my birthday in a classic stereotypical beer cellar playing literally the worst music I have ever heard (a cross between bad nineties commercial trance and Bavarian folk). The Germans at the bar were loving it (and I must admit that when I was drunk I requested Dreamer by Livin’ Joy, and sang along quite ardently).

Prague (three nights) - The city was so beautiful that it inspired us to name my ridiculously large back-pack “Horace Twatbag”, and the associated zip-on rucksack, “Horace Twatbag’s Massive Detachable Ballsack”.

Zagreb (one day and two night trains getting to and from it) - Me and Rich helped a Czech girl find the right train when she was stranded at Salzburg station in the middle of the night. Despite her not being able to speak any English, with the use of a tiny phrase book we managed to discern that she was a probationary officer in charge of a woman who had stabbed her kids to death in their sleep. Nice.

Hvar, an island off Split in Croatia (one cursed night) - Oh how excited we were to get to a sunny picturesque island! And then camp on a rocky quarry that proceeded to get flooded by a massive storm, getting all our clothes muddy and us very pissed off. Needless to say we got the hell out of there.

Korcula, the next island along (three comfy nights) - Leaving Hvar we got hit by another storm so our plans to camp were thwarted. Thankfully a sexy Muslim from Sarajevo offered us a room in the house her grandfather had built. Went to a club playing incredible music where we encountered an Australian who said things like “Do you wanna fuck me for 4.99, mate?” (I’m paraphrasing), referencing the fact that he slept with a prostitute in Budapest for a fiver. He drunkenly opened his heart to me as his relationship fell apart before our eyes. It was a definite moment.

Orebic, on the peninsula of Croatia (six nights) - Camped ten seconds away from a lush sandy beach, looked at fish through goggles, got tanned.

Korcula again (two nights) - Went to a hostel run by a weirdo who’d been on South African Big Brother and thought it was cool to replay the videos of himself on it every night in the bar. He looked like he was made of plastic. He told Rich that his name was “an enigma”.

Sibenic (two nights) - Stayed in a huge city-like campsite that scared the living shit out of me. I thought I was some sort of tourist refugee, forced to live in limbo with a bunch of socially inept Germans. Krka national park however was stunning, and I spotted a snake in the undergrowth. There were also strange hanging caterpillars sent by God to test your reflexes as you meandered through the wood.

Ljubljana (one night, two night trains around it) - Drank lots of coffee, went to a wicked ‘club’ that was more like four buildings in a carpark surrounded by cool graffiti. Played table football and felt incredibly urban.

Berlin (four nights) - Soaked up the history like a massive knowledge sponge. Got so excited that I began repeating the phrase “I live a life of learning”. Felt bloody cultured seeing some modern jazz.

Amsterdam (three nights) - Got very stoned but managed to hold together some conversations, consisting of a lot of bullshit.

And then all my friends left me and it was just me and Horace Twatbag. I got on a train back to Berlin (very stoned) and read about how inadvisable it is to go on a night train to Gdansk, especially if alone, as there is a high risk of getting gassed and robbed in your sleep. Then I got on a night train to Gdansk, after trying to communicate with a load of scary-as-fuck Russians in uniform who were demanding my passport to try and make sure I didn’t stay in the part of the train that would take me to Russia without a visa… I eventually settled down in my cabin with a really sweet Polish Grandma and Grandson, and didn’t get gassed.

It was quite weird being on my own at first but I’m now used to it. The flat I’m staying in is lush (belongs to a family friend). The girl who showed me round is quite sound, if a little abrasive (she’s a good muse for the play I’m trying to write). I went out with her and some of her friends on Friday night. One’s learning English so could hold proper conversation and she’s cool. The club we went to was surprisingly good and reminded me quite a lot of Urban Gorilla (good breaks but a bit of garage unfortunately, wicked cosy venue though, female DJ, which is apparently far from uncommon).

Then last night I went out on my own to a drum and bass night I’d seen advertised. Some of it was good, big fat Polish man MCing which was quite amusing (MCing in Polish sounds quite good). The club was really cool. It’s in the middle of a park by the 3.5km sandy beach, apparently it used to be a public toilet! Grimy. Met a bloke there called ‘Kuba’ who is an actor and plays the drums so I’m going to go and discover the Polish underground with him (he was pissed off that the club we were at was going increasingly commercial).

It seems that there is a special group in Polish society (or at least in this part of the country) that calls themselves ‘artists’, encompassing people who paint, act, play music etc. The girls I went out with on Friday have disdain for them and think they’re posers, whist ‘Kuba’ loves it, and says things like “it is impossible for me to do anything with my life except act”. He wears a big tweed jacket and a stripy beanie… He’s got something to say for himself anyway so I’m going to get to know him a bit, and play his drums.

Tonight I’m hopping on the train to Gdansk to meet Agatha (what a name), the girl who is learning English and is really sound. We’re going to a party her friends are putting on with fire (assuming poi and staff etc) and music. Should be good. Have had some bloody great discussions about politics and history for those who are interested.

Agatha’s granddad helped Jews hide during the Second World War and eventually he got shot by the SS. When I was in Berlin I was reminded that 3 million Polish Jews were killed, it’s so unbelievable. And the fact that there were some non-Jews will to stand up against the tidal wave really touched me, and it obviously meant a lot to Agatha. The first shots of the Second World War were fired in Gdansk as the Nazis invaded Poland by sea, and the city was the one area in an active war zone for the longest time out of anywhere, basically the full six years.

Even when the Russians liberated Gdansk from Nazi control in 1945 they continued the destruction of the city because it was at the time called Danzig and therefore they saw it as part of Germany. So obviously after 1945 Poland was under Communist control, and in 1970 the Solidarity movement started when some workers at the shipyard in Gdansk striked. They were shot dead but the movement continued to build until in 1989 it finally executed a peaceful revolution and threw off Communism (in the meantime the late Pope, who was Polish, visited the city and offered his support to the movement).

Now (this was written in late 2006 the country is run by two twins: one as President, one as PM (the former appointed the latter). The government is a coalition and one of the parties in it, the ‘Family Party’ is deeply homophobic (linked to the high levels of Catholicism in Poland). Strangely though, apparently it has the highest levels of membership by gay men out of all the parties (this seems very odd and I want to read up on it). The majority of the population is rural and a lot of them take as gospel what is said by a very powerful priest who has his own radio channel and TV show. The country is supposedly secular but he has a lot of sway and the educated girls I was talking to are very worried about his influence. Also, the aforementioned Family Party has underground militas (not publicly linked to the party) similar to the SA in Nazi Germany, or the RSS in India (Hindu fundamentalists linked to the BJP).

I am interested in trying to get to the heart of what young people see as their political orientation, or duty, since they are the first generation to grow up in the post-communist era. There were some quite heated debates over drinks on Friday night, and in true geeky fashion, I was absolutely loving it.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of Tina Turner’s legal team, I thought it was appropriate to post a picture of the teeny tiny singer in celebration of Loco2’s achievement in being named one of the twenty best travel websites by the Daily Telegraph.

Given the meagre resources that we’ve currently got at our disposal (i.e. me and a laptop), this is a proud moment, and gives us a boost to keep plugging away at growing the site.

Amongst the other sites mentioned was the marvellous walkit.com and our trusty friend couchsurfing. My next blog will be all about my experiences couchsurfing around Eastern Europe.

Having just published Kate’s email, I wanted to show you where in the world she is, and how incredible technology is.

Not only have we been able to receive emails from the boat for the last three weeks (read them all here), but the level of detail we can see with Googlemaps and the satellite tracking the boat is amazing.

I’ve started fully zoomed out so you can see that they are in the middle of the Pacific:

Now here’s one showing the island that they’re anchored next to:

And finally here’s the really amazing one:

Note that the boat didn’t actually sail right across the island as the blue line suggests! The reason it goes across is because the satellite takes a reading every day or so and then draws a straight line between two points.

Thanks of course to Google for making all this possible. If you want to have a play around yourself, you can do so here.

If you’re reading this that means you’re special because the site isn’t officially launched yet. You’ve probably got here via our old site or because you want to travel to one of the marvellous festivals we’re featuring. However if you try and visit the Adventure section, you will for the moment be sorely disappointed. Dry your teary eyes though and do not fear, because we have all sorts of treats in store over the coming weeks.

“What kind of treats?” I hear you blurt out whilst wiping your snotty nose as the sobbing finally subsides. I’ll tell you…

You’ll be able to hear from Kate, who is half-way across the Pacific Ocean in a 44-foot yacht:

You’ll also be able to read her blogs and watch her video diaries from the first leg of the trip on a cargo-ship across the Atlantic.

There’s Mark and Sarah who travelled to the i-Genius social business conference in Thailand on the Trans-Siberian railway.

Jamie (that’s me) will be providing a full account of his three Eastern Europe festivals in a row extravaganza last year (it was massive).

And of course, you’ll be able to find out about how to do all these things yourself!

If that wasn’t enough, there will soon be an exciting announcement involving a certain traveller named Ed, and an eco-escaper named Laura. Watch this space.

I almost forgot to mention the incredible Rocket Festival Big Red Bus experience which you can book now for the bargain price of £125 on the Rocket page. If you haven’t got your ticket for the festival yet, go to the main Rocket site and check out the rather large line-up. Then come back here and buy your big red bus ticket for the summer festival bus-trip of a life-time.

Now I must go and build the rest of the site. So much to do, so little time!

As we all know from rhymes at school, “in fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, and since then a very large number of ships have crossed the Atlantic and the other seven seas. Unlike the Santa Maria, in the 20th century the vast majority of them have been powered by a fossil fuel of some kind. On Wednesday I read an article in the Guardian about an idea that could change that, at least to some extent. Putting sails back on ships could be a way to make them greener, and crucially for the shipping companies, consume less fuel (which like all fossil-based fuel in the world is becoming increasingly expensive).

Companies such as Skysails are promoting this technology as a cost-saving measure for freight shipping companies, with the slogan “Turn wind into profit” (which reminds me of an amusing advert). Because of the significant contribution to climate change caused by shipping (due to the large number of goods we trade around the world), making freighting by greener must be a good thing (although localising economies so less stuff is shipped is a key part of the solution too).

But how green is cargo ship travel for passengers? Various people have taken this option as an alternative to flying (including Kate, the founder of Loco2; you’ll be able to read blogs about the experience soon) but as yet there is little information available about the CO2 emissions per person because of the fact that the ships are (of course) primarily carrying cargo, not people. This makes it difficult to ascertain the contribution of individual passengers to the overall carbon emissions.

One argument (discussed here) says that because the ship is travelling anyway to get the cargo to its destination, the passengers’ travel is irrelevant, and therefore the journey can be seen as carbon neutral. That’s all well and good whilst we’re talking about a small number of pioneers taking the opportunity to have a trans-Atlantic adventure, but it’s not going to work for large number of passengers (the main risk involved with scaling up passenger numbers is that we’ll go down the polluting cruise ship route).

A way to look at cargo ship travel that takes into account the passenger contribution is to work it out in terms of weight. This is the method that the mighty Barbara Hadrill used to calculate the emissions on her massive adventure to Australia. Barbara worked out that the freight ship leg of her adventure (Singapore - Darwin) produced 285,760 grams CO2 for 2350 miles (see her August 2006 blog).

Calculating in terms of weight is far from an established method, but it is logical, and should help us to think about the comparative advantages of each mode of transport, both in terms of CO2 and fuel efficiency (which is an increasing concern for all of us given massively rising energy costs).

Right off the top of my head, the method goes something like this (I may come back and improve on this as I talk to people about it):

Think about a humble passenger cabin on a cargo ship where all other space is used as efficiently as possible (because the more cargo the ship holds, the more cost-effective the freighting). This is going to be far better in CO2 terms than a decadent cruise ship where not only the cabin, but the whole ship is engineered around comfort and entertainment, rather than simply getting as much cargo (human or otherwise) from A to B on as little fuel as possible. For a cruise ship calculating the CO2 emissions per person is simply a case of dividing the total emissions by the number of passengers (as that’s the only purpose of the voyage), but for a cargo ship we need to take into account the fact that it’s carrying cargo as well.

Let’s assume a cargo ship can carry 3000 tonnes of cargo (that’s 3 million kg) and that a person weighs 65kg (about 10 stone). In this situation (if my calculations are correct) the passenger would be responsible for 0.002% of the overall CO2 emissions of the journey. I couldn’t find a fuel consumption figure for a typical trans-Atlantic journey (the nearest I got was here) but we can safely bet that 0.002% of it isn’t very much. Now obviously this assumes that to carry everyone that efficiently we’d need to cram all the passengers into containers like they were cargo, and that would be mental, but it does give us a useful indication of the terms we can view the issues in.

The basic conclusion (and we probably didn’t need to do such ludicrous calculations to work it out) is that using space more efficiently when travelling is a good thing. What it doesn’t tell us unfortunately, is a comparable CO2 per km figure for passenger cargo-ship travel versus air travel (or other means). There’s still work to be done on this, and I’ll be continuing to dig around places like the New Scientist and sustainable shipping sites to try and find more answers.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with two thoughts:

- there needs to be a clear distinction between greenhouse gases that cause climate change (a very pressing global concern) and other pollutants such as Sulphur Dioxide that cause local environmental damage (an immediate concern for some, but not something that will affect all of us)
- we need to think about the feasible efficiency advances available in shipping/ferries (such as solar power) versus the feasible efficiency advances available in aviation (such as airships) and then make bold decisions about mass transportation on that basis