The journey continues...in the Czech Republic

After spending some quality time in Berlin, our plans led us to the Czech Republic where we visited Prague and went to the Let it Roll festival for Drum 'n' Bass music. The Czech Republic had some of the nicest roads we experienced with seemingly endless fields, rivers and woods. We build up ur first camp just one our north of Prague by a river.

The next day we headed to Prague to do some shopping (read beer) for the Let it Roll festival, had a glance at the city and then travelled further to Milovice, a small town near Prague, where the festival took place.

Jan and me having fun while setting up the tents on the festival camping:

We had lots of fun on the festival meeting very nice people, although the music tended to be quite similar on every stage and every DJ played more or less the same tunes throughout the whole festival. So we spent most of the time on the campground, got creative and built our very own table made from beer cans:

As you can see we brought our gas cooker to the campsite, resulting in the most deluxe food at a festival yet (for me at least).

After three days of raving at the festival we went back to Prague to find a place to stay and start exploring the city. Prague really became one of my favourite cities of Europe during that time, with many cultural highlights, nice people, and sites worth visiting.

The campground we stayed on was rather busy and full of beautiful people. Sure it was nice to be able to take a hot shower and have free Wi-Fi aswell. We shared the site with some Belgians, who were on tour with their Baywindow Westfalias:

It was a quite confusing experience to leave the bus behind at the campsite and explore the city by tram and by foot. It feels like coming home when you've made it back to the van after a long day of sight seeing and exploring the city. Since our campground was on a small peninsula, our way into the city included a short ferry ride. The 'ferry' was much more of a tiny boat than an actual ferry and the guy piloting it was a really nice fella. The boat even had a thing to stamp your tickets (which were actual tram tickets).

Taking the subway in Prague is a brilliant experience aswell, since the subway network consists of beautifully designed stations, and the wait for the next train is always a short one.

We had a really good time in Prague, getting to know the city, visiting local bars, meeting new people and enjoying life. After some days we really missed being out in the nature though, so we went on. But I am sure I will see you again some time, Prague.

- M

First post from the road: Serendubity Festival 2015

The first stop of our trip was the Serendubity Festival just north of Berlin. The four of us decided to help out with building the festival site and offering our help whereever it was needed. In return, we were granted free access to the festival. Upon arrival, we were overwhelmed by the location and the people who are part of this terrific project.

The location is a former Soviet Union airfield which now functions as a museum. All kinds of helicopters and planes are part of the museum; these were integrated nicely into the festival.

Helping to build the festival can rather be considered as fun than work. Our tasks ranged from sewing, decorating, collecting fire wood, or helping out in the kitchen. There was a great group spirit and everyone anticipated that they were part of something big.

Since I love carpentry, I commited myself to building a platform to cover some metal wiring sticking out of the earth. I designed the platform to function as a seating area next to the food booths. You can see it in action here:

The festival itself was a huge success. Music-wise everything was on the dub/reggae/roots/jungle side of things. The DJs kept the crowd moving and the food and drinking booths offered delicious possibilities to recover from hours-long dancing.

Beside the possibilities to dance your ass off on one of the outside or bunker stages, there was a huge, nicely decorated chill-out area to relax.

All of us are more than thankful for the possibility to be part of this experience. We met some of the most inspiring people on this festival and had loads of fun there. Thank you guys for making this possible and see you on the Serendubity 2016!

- M

preparations for the trip

In less than a week we'll be heading towards Eastern Europe and the preparations are going well. I am currently making the bus a little more comfy and nicer to live in. This includes doing a little bit of carpentry.