After Schengen

2014-12-03T14:20:00+01:00

The "After Schengen" project shows old border crossing points between different states in the European Union.

After the Schengen agreement, most of these old checkpoints remain abandoned and out of service, allowing us to gaze into the past from the present. It causes many reflections, specially in a moment that EU project it is severely discussed.

These places that previously the Schengen treaty, delimited territories and in which the traveler had to stop and show his documents, currently appear as abandoned places, located in a space-time limbo, out of use and out of the time for which they were designed, as these states have opened their borders to the free movement of people.

Border crossings have a function of geographical boundaries, but also an coercitive role, since they prevent the free passage of people between one and another state. So, they are places that, along with a cartographic dimension, are provided with historical, economic and political reminiscences.

These old border crossing points are slowly disappearing; some are renovated and reconverted to new uses, some are destroyed for vandals, and some other just fall down due to the passing of time. So, after some few years there will be no possibility to look at this strong signs and symbols of the recent european history.

Abbreviations:

H - Hungary;

A - Austria;

PL - Poland;

CZ - Czech Republic;

E - Spain (España);

F - France;

P - Portugal.

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Author of text and all the photos is Ignacio Evangelista. More about him you can find on his website.

Azulejos: Patterns of Aveiro

2016-07-18T01:11:30+02:00

Azulejos – are colourful, glazed tiles which today we can find in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries also in some parts of Arabic world. They were invented in Egypt, but the most of them we can find in Portugal. The origin of the name is in Arabic word al zellige (زليج) - which stands for polished or brushed stone. Facades are decorated with them as well as interior of the houses, churches, schools, restaurants, train and metro stations... They are applied on the walls, floors and even on ceilings. Clear Arab influence is seen on the pattern. Often on them we can see floral elements, different geometric shapes, all that miscible in many colours. Later, the Portuguese started adding animal and human figures.

In our photo-gallery we showed you only a small part of the all patterns which can be seen on the streets of “our” Aveiro.

Catalan Atlas

2014-11-20T11:09:34+01:00

The Catalan Atlas is the most important Catalan map of the medieval period (drawn and written in 1375). It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham (also known as "Abraham Cresques"), a Jewish book illuminator who was self-described as being a master of the maps of the world as well as compasses. It has been in the royal library of France (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) since the time of King Charles V. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded down the middle, painted in various colors including gold and silver. The leaves are now cut in half. Each half-leaf is mounted on one side of five wooden panels. The first half of the first leaf and the second half of the last leaf are mounted on the inner boards of a brown leather binding. Each measures approximately 65 × 50 cm. The overall size is therefore 65 × 300 cm.

The first two leaves contain texts in Catalan language covering cosmography, astronomy, and astrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasize the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night.

Here you can download the complete, full-scale printable pdf version of the Catalan Atlas.

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Source: Wikipedia

Madeira Island

2019-08-10T13:05:07+02:00

Birds barking like dogs, lizards pollinating from flower to flower, herbs that have decided to become huge trees. Learning about the islands as laboratories of Life, one is deceived by the thought of being prepared for all kinds of wonders. And then, we experience those wonders with your own senses.

The story begins a long time ago in the Atlantic Ocean, when the African tectonic plate succumbed to enraged magma, and one by one the extinguished volcanic formations began to emerge from the water. It thundered, snapped and wobbled in the cold waters of the Atlantic for millions of years, until the turmoil calmed down and took on its present appearance, and the archipelago assumed its present form.

Although politically belonging to Europe and located several thousand kilometers from Sagres in Portugal - the closest European continental part, the Madeira Archipelago is nevertheless geographically closer to the west coast of Africa, approximately 600 kilometers away. This island family consists of two larger inhabited islands, namely: the head of the water house - Madeira, its significantly smaller but geologically oldest sidekick - the island of Porto Santo, and the two tiny archipelago sub-families of Desertas and Selvaens, each consisting of three islands. The members of the archipelago are not the same age: Porto Santo was formed about three million years ago, while Madeira itself broke the surface seven million years ago. These timelines may seem long, but from Earth's perspective they are almost a blink, making Madeira a group of young islands.

We are naive in believing that we invented hitchhiking. Plants, animals and the rest of the living world hitch rides on winds, clouds, sea currents, floating trunks, and other objects, including the usual vehicles that we use today, such as ships and cars. This is exactly how life world began to inhabit these newly created patches of land, long before man.

The islands contain small specimens of continental life, which is now in a completely new environment, in this case in the optimal conditions, where it simply ran wild. The temperature on Madeira Island throughout the year ranges from 19 to 25 degrees Celsius, there are practically no predators, nor the cold winters that one way or another force life to slow down. Plus - the area is very small, which makes it especially interesting. Birds no longer need to fly because they do not have to travel great distances for food or to escape, thus saving energy and reducing wings as they eggs lay on the ground. Some herbs from the continent grow into huge trees here, with few pollinators making longer vegetation period more viable.

Particularly important was an encounter with a kind of snail with an identity crisis, that at first glance seems like a slug, responding to irritation by raising its outgrowth flap-like, showing that there is a shell underneath.

One of the unusual occurrences on Madeira Island is that, due to the lack of insects as pollinators, some species of reptiles have found themselves a good place to work and have filled that trophic niche themselves. However, they were not the only ones who have managed to achieve this. Just as a flock of pigeons and sparrows approach you in the park as you share with them your favorite pastries, in some places on this island you can expect that in the same situation, those same lizards will come crawling over your arm, your feet, and even over your head toward your delicious sandwich.

Due to the above specificities and geographical isolation, the island ecosystems are abundant with species that can be found only in this place, known as endemic species. Although the percentage of endemic species here is approximately 19%, which may not be much in comparison with other archipelagos, it is enough to practically step on one wherever you go.

These genetic treasures, which are precious records of the most creative artist proven so far, Mr Evolution, have come under pressure from all sides. And each cause is more or less indirectly related to the action of one species - Homo Sapiens.

The first overseas adventures led to the first interventions in the island's wildlife, when sailors left goats or sheep on the islands (while some savvy and adventurous rats arrived as stowaways) to ensure that a meal would wait when they returned. Now imagine goats arriving to one such place. After rubbing their eyes in disbelief at the abundance stretching before them, the goats started to graze whatever they could, because the plants were completely unprepared for them and had no defense mechanisms. Rats came across a buffet of bird eggs on earth thus destroying endemic vegetation and wildlife.

For human settlement, people find it necessary to demolish the mighty forest that was so uselessly humming, and the first colonists, by systematic burning of the local flora, sent to smoke a large part of the laurel forests that covered Madeira, which gave its name (madeira to Portuguese means wood). The wild was thus converted into pastures, fields or residential areas.

After burning down most of the forests, they realized they still needed them, and began to plant them again. But who will now bother with naturally occurring species and wait for them to reach the biomass profitable for exploitation? Better bring some fast-growing trees, such as, for example, eucalyptus. Planting species that are convenient for economic viability became a common practice, and at first seemed like a good idea. However, time has shown that these trees are known to suppress natural vegetation, which can bring with it a number of fatal consequences for the ecosystem. Starting from the fact that the animals that depend on them cannot use them in the most optimal way, sometimes there are no micro-organisms in the soil that can decompose their leaves and the areas below them become biological deserts, which acidify the soil more than the environment can endure, to the point that a wrongly selected species can cause a higher frequency of fires and soil erosion.

On Madeira Island, one of these species is eucalyptus. Accustomed to harsh conditions in Australia, where it comes from, it is a dangerous competitor for whom even the human brain has failed to find a weak spot. If you cut it, you will only scatter the seeds even more, and a handful of new shoots will emerge from the trunk. Burning does more harm than good because eucalyptus seeds are used to wildfires, so the fire allows them to sprout. Following the inane logic that led to this, perhaps it might be prudent to bring in koalas, to kill the eucaliptus trees. Along with the rest of the island.

"Discovered" some 600 years ago (as if places and people did not exist unless someone drew them on a map), Madeira Island quickly became very densely populated. No wonder - everyone wants to live in paradise. They even transported sand from the continent for the purpose of making artificial beaches (because the local sand was too hard), bringing with them mosquito larvae.

As the whole Madeira Island is in peaks and gorges, it was amazing to see all the inaccessible parts being tamed, the steep slopes of vineyards and some enthusiasts' homes. It's hard to imagine how often guest can visit a person surrounded by a two hundred-meter-deep wooded chasm - which was maybe the purpose of building here in the first place.

Living in paradise has its price, which the islanders had the opportunity to experience in February this year. The storms and enormous floods experienced by the locals were described as "a tsunami that came from heaven". Heavy rains set off down the slopes of the mountain ranges, carrying everything before of them, plunging into inhabited places at the foothills. A large number of houses built by the rivers have been demolished and torn away, and their empty shells can still be seen in some places. More important than bricks and mortar, nearly forty lives were taken by storm.

Just as the living world of the island nature is a small sample of life from a continent that has been scattered, grown, developed and transformed into a new and specific blend of the old and the exotic, so is the culture of Madeira Island. Inhabited by the Portuguese, with an incredible inclination to put their national flags in places where the concept had not yet been introduced, on Madeira they did not conquer the indiginous culture and turn them into forced volunteers known as slaves because, according to historical data , the island of Madeira was uninhabited.

One of the cultural treasures that flooded the ocean was traditional Portuguese fado music. There are Portuguese fado cafes in Madeira, where you will also find endemic beer, endemic wine, and a real typical endemic drink damn near the drink of the gods - the poncho. Madeiran wine is widely known and could be characterized as an endemic porto - it was brought and grown into something else, specific to this place only, while the poncho is a blend of white rum, honey and lemon with permissible variations, exquisitely combined by vigorous mixing with a special wooden spoon. In fado bars, you can hear the iconic Portuguese guitar used by Carlos Paredes, an instrument with twice as many strings as the standard guitar, still in the race to outsing the turmoil of a living, endless ocean.

While the idea of remote islands brings to mind palm trees, cocktails, beach life and girls in straw skirts, on Madera Island that is not the case. Darwin was only one of many who recognized their importance and who came to his most important knowledge by studying them. The islands teach us how to preserve the little intact nature left over in the continental parts, as nowadays such places have become islands in the anthropogenically altered sea, microcosms with their own rules, evolutionary polygons, biodiversity treasure chests. Being in a place like this and witnessing all its wonders, living in a forest where the nostrils soak up the scent of pristine cleanliness, feeling under the fingertips the furrows on the bark of ancient trees, teaches us that in this world there is enough room for everyone and everything - if we allow it.

School rules and application form

2016-06-05T22:41:47+02:00

Welcome to The Travel Club’s Travel School in Aveiro (15.7-15.8).

The Travel School is slightly different from The Travel House we organised in previous years. If you haven't already, please check out this article that explains the concept of the School.

Before you apply for the stay in The Travel School please read these basic house rules, and if you decide to come, keep them in mind at all times.

Everyone can stay up to three nights in The Travel School.

Mandatory participation in minimum one workshop/discussion/lecture. Our team of volunteers has prepared interesting and useful workshops and other activities, most of which are related to travelling. See the schedule below and sign up for one or more activities when filling out the application form to stay in TS. All workshops last two to five hours.

Be quiet. Don’t play loud music, shout or talk loudly. If we give the neighbours a reason to complain, we will have a big problem.

Be especially quiet in the corridor. When you’re coming or leaving, be extremely quiet in the building. No loud talking, shouting or singing in the corridor. Don’t slam the doors.

Don’t wait in front of the building. If neighbours see crowds of foreigners coming, going and standing in front of their building, they will get worried. If you’re waiting for someone, wait at the bottom end of the street.

Don't come between 01:00 and 08:00 a.m. If your plane/train/bus arrives in that interval, please wait till 08:00 on the airport/bus or train station and then come to the Travel House. Most of the people sleep those hours. You don't want to wake them up and make them angry with you.

No smoking. No drugs of any kind are allowed. You can drink a beer or two, but you mustn’t get drunk. And please don’t come to the School wasted.

No parties. Quiet social activities are welcome.

If you damage anything, you will have to pay for it. We have left a large deposit. In case something gets damaged, we may not get our money back.

Keep your valuables with you. We are not expecting thieves or kleptomaniacs and they haven't visited us so far, but it’s better to be on the safe side. You are the only one responsible for your stuff.

This project is funded by personal donations. Donations aren’t compulsory, but are welcome. There are bills to pay – power, water, Internet – as well as things like cooking oil, detergent, toilette paper etc. If you’d like to leave a donation, put it in the donation box or look for the school staff and give it to them. Nobody will ask you for a donation, or check whether you have donated or not. It's totally up to you, and it's definitely not a precondition for staying in the Travel School. And don’t worry if it’s only symbolic: it will add up.

In the Travel School, there are no guests. Everyone is a host. So,

- if you see something broken, fix it.

- if you see something lacking (soap, toilette paper, cooking oil, detergent etc), buy it.

- if you see something dirty (toilet, bathroom, kitchen, floors, balconies), clean it.

There is a nice term that we will borrow from the Rainbow Gatherings: “drainbows”. Those are the people who just take and don’t give. The Travel School is not a perfect free-for-all. It is a community we’re all building together. Think how you can contribute.

Keep the School clean & tidy! Don’t leave your stuff lying around in mess. Whoever walks in should have an impression of a clean, nice, tidy place. Especially if the owner comes for a surprise visit!

Do not waste resources! No shower longer than five minutes, making meals that are cooked for five hours and needless consumption of any resource. Also, we will recycle the trash in the School.

No pets! Absolutely no dogs, cats, parrots, fish. Parrots that can speak are welcome, though.

If you find any of these rules too hard to follow, you will be asked to leave immediately. We hope you’ll enjoy your stay and help us make this small contribution to global travel culture.

Before you come:

Please let us know when you're coming to make sure that we’re there to let you in.

Make sure to bring your sleeping bag & mat. There are no beds in the Travel School. Only the floor.

Bring a towel.

The address of the School will not be published online. When you notify us that you’re coming, you’ll get the detailed instructions how to find us. Please keep the instructions to yourself and don’t publish them anywhere.

Read the house rules. If you don’t follow the rules during your stay, you will be asked to leave immediately. So it’s a good idea to get familiar with them beforehand.

If you want to stay more than three nights, let us know in the application form and we'll tell you if it's possible.

If you do any sort of creative work – writing, drawing, photography, film, music – and you want to contribute to the Travel School, please mention it. We will publish the best photos, writings, films, drawings etc. on our website and you'll get to stay longer in the School.

Statistics & Guestbook:

We’d like to have some statistics about the Travel School project. Namely, we’d like to know how many people have used it, where did they come from, what their age groups and occupations were, where they are headed after Aveiro, how long they are planning to stay on the road, do they hitchhike or use some other form of transportation etc. So we’ll kindly ask you to make your entry in our guestbook to make this possible.

The application form can be found here.

You are welcome to send a donation to our organisation:

List of workshops (all workshops will be held in English)

15.7 at 19h Mapping Aveiro: Investigating our new town in an interesting and original way

16.7 Travel Writing: Write down your adventures and memories. Learn how to write about your travels in a unique, personalized and original way

17.7 Slavic countries for Dummies: A workshop that reveals the secrets of the “mysterious” Cyrillic alphabet and gives you tips for traveling in Slavic countries generally

18.7 In coexistence with plants: History of parks and their importance in our lives, human-leaded travel of plant species and useful/edible plants that exist in forests of Europe

19.7 Why we travel: Why do we want go there? Why do we really want to go there? Why do we really, really want to go there? We will explore travel motivation; media influence and the inner travel self through creating a personal timeline.

20.7 Creative Cartography: Every map is subjective and incorrect. Let’s put our own stories on personalized maps...

21.7 Mapping Aveiro: Investigating our new town in an interesting and original way

22.7 How to travel Cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome low-cost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

23.7 Slavic countries for Dummies: A workshop that reveals the secrets of the “mysterious” Cyrillic alphabet and gives you tips for traveling in Slavic countries generally.

24.7 Through the streets of Aveiro: Guided walk through the interesting architectural, cultural and historical side of Aveiro.

25.7 What we learn while traveling: A session of sharing experiences from our journeys

26.7 Travel Writing: Write down your adventures and memories. Learn how to write about your travels in a unique, personalized and original way

27.7 A Visit to Bussaco: Investigating this beautiful forest together!

28.7 Let's Act me/we on the stage: A workshop about theatre, public speaking and how to relax and develop self-confidence, must-have for travelling around the world. No previous experience needed

29.7 In coexistence with plants: History of parks and their importance in our lives, human-leaded travel of plant species and useful/edible plants that exist in forests of Europe

30.7 Mapping Aveiro: Investigating our town in an interesting and original way

31.7 Through the streets of Aveiro: Guided walk through the interesting architectural, cultural and historical side of Aveiro.

1.8 Travel Writing: Write down your adventures and memories. Learn how to write about your travels in a unique, personalized and original way.

2.8 Moon and Body Wisdom: We will talk about cycles in the nature: the seasons, Moon and menstruation. The workshop consists of two parts – an open-type day session (guys are very welcome to join!) and a night session which is designed for female participants only. More info here.

3.8 Twist it, Spit it: A Clumpy-Humpy Ride through Travel Languages: a dive into languages we use when travelling

4.8 Slavic countries for Dummies: A workshop that reveals the secrets of the “mysterious” Cyrillic alphabet and gives you tips for traveling in Slavic countries generally.

5.8 In coexistence with plants: History of parks and their importance in our lives, human-leaded travel of plant species and useful/edible plants that exist in forests of Europe.

6.8 What we learn while traveling: A session of sharing experiences from our journeys

7.8 How to travel cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome lowcost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible

8.8 Body percussions & relaxing brething: Make music with your body only!

9.8 Let's Act me/we on the stage: A workshop about theatre, public speaking and how to relax and develop self-confidence, must-have for travelling around the world. No previous experience needed.

10.8 Slavic countries for Dummies: A workshop that reveals the secrets of the “mysterious” Cyrillic alphabet and gives you tips for traveling in Slavic countries generally

11.8 Why we travel: Why do we want go there? Why do we really want to go there? Why do we really, really want to go there? We will explore travel motivation; media influence and the inner travel self through creating a personal timeline.

12.8 Creative Cartography: Every map is subjective and incorrect. Let’s put our own stories on personalized maps...

13.8 Twist it, Spit it: A Clumpy-Humpy Ride through Travel Languages: a dive into languages we use when travelling

14.8 How to travel Cheap: Let’s see how can we create an awesome lowcost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

15.8 Travel Writing: Write down your adventures and memories. Learn how to write about your travels in a unique, personalized and original way.

The Travel School in Aveiro is closed

2016-08-17T20:55:04+02:00

We are completely sure that you remember the information that Travel House in Athens last year hosted almost 500 people, which was a nice record. At that point we realized that we made it up to maximum number of travellers and also maximum of the energy and willingness that our volunteers gave for this project. Every year same problem and fear – neighbours will tell on us, landlord will kick us out and whole project would be totally ruined. That, unfortunately happened in Tbilisi. In Athens we were lucky with empty apartment next to us, but neighbours under us again complained. Aveiro was different – no complaints by neighbours, no kicking out, no painting the walls – only problems we had were tap in the kitchen that didn’t work some little time and “a little” clogged bath tub.

This year, we realized that it was the time to change the concept. So we did it. In the very west point of Europe Travel House is transformed for 30 days in Travel School. This year we had a new element – workshops. Our volunteers conducted 30 workshops mostly inside the School but also some of them were outside. Locals took part in workshops as well. Besides that, we had more volunteers, less guests and our School was opened one month, a month less than previous Travel houses. Landlord knew that we will have guests and workshops. She saw that we protected the walls and that we will take care about apartment. Whenever she was in short visit we didn’t have to throw stuff, hide shoes and information from walls. All these facts made this year a bit more relax for us all.

Every day was full of activities. Sun, smile, sand, wine, ocean, Aveiro itself – all these things made this Travel School remembered only for good. We learned some phrases in Portuguese, fell in love with tripas, codfish and many, many other delicious Portuguese dishes. Great thing during the summer in Portugal are festivals. Many of our travellers went to or came from some of those festivals. We all visited on in Aveiro. Few days ago, we were even more diligent and repaired colour of the famous I♥Aveiro graffiti.

And now numbers: In our Travel School we had 82 travellers during 32 nights. They were from 25 different countries and 4 continents. On workshops 100 people took part. Total number of overnight stays is 364. This year we didn’t have any campaigns and we didn’t collect money before School. Our aim was to collect all the money from the travellers in the School. We’ve got huge support of our travellers which we can see according to donations. All together we have 823 euros, and from the School is 726. Besides, our guest were buying toilet paper, oil, light bulbs etc. on their own. So, we only spent 20 euros for everyday supplies. Average donation is 9 euros per person, which is double than previous years. This is great motivation for us all to continue developing this project. Thanks to all travellers for that! Our bills are not yet here so all the financial data we will present in next and last post about School. In this moment only thing we know is that rent is 500 euros. Even if we did not have enough money for all bills, the surplus left from last year's house will be enough. Thanks again to all travellers, and to all who actively took part in our workshops, cleaning the house and helped us to bring with smile this project to an end.

Photo: The Travel Club and Jamie Anderson

Travel School 2016 - Aveiro, Portugal

2016-05-16T10:10:24+02:00

After four years of the Travel House, the time has come to change the concept. Join us in the Travel School in Aveiro, on the Atlantic coast in Portugal, an hour from Porto.