Biking and Jews

Biking is also a way of strolling! In Budapest like all around the world there is a lively biking culture that is linked with underground culture and social change - mostly because it is a way of reclaiming the city.

10 years ago there were only some hardcore cycler messengers with their sexy bikes, a subculture built on hip-hop, hardcore and just being different. Hungarian bikers were there on the messenger contest already 10 years ago in New York!

Since then a lot has changed and today there are over 20 000 people who gather on the yearly Critical Mass events in Budapest, and there are huge biker- community across Europe.

We have organized a biker-stroll today around the city -a kind of illegal critical mass that was beyond the social aspects, also a promotion event for our upcoming festival Bánkitó (earlier also branded as Jewstock). On the festival we have a significant biker-presence, as biking and bikers are linked with the basic values of the festival - subcultres, minorities, activism. The slogan of the festival is "Roll to the lake" - in Hungarian "Tekerj a tóra!" /teckairy' ah torah/ that is an alliterating word combination that includes the word Torah (to the lake), and just like we need to roll the torah - we are rolling on our bikes. We will actually take it lietral and have some contest in two weeks - people will bike to the location of the festival - jsut like last year, which is a good 40 kilometers, partially uphill! Whoever does that will be celebrated on the festival :D Other people take the less literal meaning and associate different (green) things with rolling...

We had a bike with a stereo, and one full of beers and ice cubes :) We gathered in the heart of the city and biked together in the city park.

Unfortunately there was a stupid "accident".... we, have just started our way in the Jewish district when a men in a car hit one biker, and has damaged his bike. He was not going slow, the car was honking, and intentionally hit the biker.

However, nothing is by chance, and it is not "by accident" that this happened. Car drivers do not respect bikers in Budapest, at all. Passangers also kindof hate bikers - so it is almost balck and white: either you are a biker - or you think its weird / dangeous. There are hardly any proper bike roads, even though the city could have done much more in the last decade for this. Not only because I am a biker, but there are so many good examples from different cities - and especially cities with areas like the Jewish district in Budapest. In this area no cars should be allowed, as streets are narrow, and the buldings are valuable. Besides, there are poor public transportation possibilities here, no trams or buses, so you can either walk, or - you could bike - if there would be proper roads... In the last 9 years since I am biking in Budapest I had many incidents, as well, when I was harrased by car drivers and passangers. In most of the cases there was no real cuase for anger, but my sheer existence disturbed them - as I was out of the rule.

Thus there is a real connection for me between minority identity - and biking...
Biking in Budapest is still a statement, and it is a means also to unite people for a good cause, that is more or less independent from everyday politics. However, the biker society is also diverse - there are conservative "national bikers" - whom I have seen on the last Critical mass, coming with red-white-green badges, and so on, with whom I dont hink I have much in common. And there are rasta, hardcore, tattoed guys and girls, but lately all segments of society can be seen on bikes - even businesmen, housewifes or rockers. Members of the Budapest biker community has diversified in the last couple of years, and even though the inidividuals and subgroups are different - on thing unites them: they all love the experience of moving in the city on two wheels.
If you havent tried it - its hard to describe - its a phisical - visual experience, when you can experience the city from different angels, in a different rythm and though a different texture.

Today, right after the incident we have seen a Jewish orthodox family with a bike, some people in the group made remarks about them, some other told not to make fun of them...Not everyone who bikes is liberal and open-minded the same way, however, it is still a symbol in Budapest for progressive, non-conformist thinking, and there are of course many Jews in the biker community as well - especially around Marom and Sirály, where I also belong to.

Last week I have seen a chasid tracker in Jerusalem, it was funny - I wonder where I can learn about the chasid-biker community - but apparently it has started in Budapest, already, which is great! Biking is great - and everyone can acknowledge that, idependent from race, religion or political views. Moreover, if you bike in Budapest you contribute to reclaiming the city! Roll on!

At the Eastern train station

Current perspectives of the Jewish district in Budapest

Text: I have an other stencil, as well

Eastern train station - modell series

see my entry below...

Eastern train station

Train station are tresholds - or passages - people come and go, continuously, they move between different worlds.

Keleti (Eastern train station) and its sourroundings is one of the dark and sometimes surrealistic places of Budapest. It is a place where you can change money with Arabs - if you wanna do that .... and it is not cosidered to be safe around here. There used to be a great fleah market just behind the station, which was supposed to be closed down last year. It was so funny, as at the antrance of the market a huge sign said: "it is forbidden to out your goods on the ground" - and just behind the sign you saw ca. 50 meter long various used staff - packed naturally on the ground. At the entrance, right next to the sign, there were policemena and women keeping the feel of security... in the market you may be able to buy back your stoled bike, or bike-seats, but like on any other flea-market, you could get all kinds of shit. I was there last year, ehen they were about to close it, and many vendors had put up papers saying - we will be selling our stuff a corner aways from here, and they also tried to protest against the clsoure of the market.

Its a multi-cultural place, and opposite to it is a traditionally Jewish area, e.g. the famous "Nefelejcs street", where the protagonist of Faithlessness by Imre Kertész returns back from Auschwitz, and in the end of that street the Bethlen square synagogue, a former center of undergound Zionism, and the location where Marom has been founded, and organized its first festival, on the 1st December 2001.

Some parts have been renovated and it is eclectic.

At the moment Metro 4 is buing built here. The photo was taken in a dark tunnel, next to a surrealistic butcher shop and some shop where you can order your own grave...there is quite a lot of street art around here lately.

Imaginary courses - in times of crisis

One of them would be a course on "Small region usury" the other one is "Crisis communicator course". The crisis communicators' task is to be able to talk about the crisis, so that no one understands it, but everyone believes in it. He needs to go on most of the media in peek time and talk as much as possible about the crisis with the least content of information. After finishing the course you will become fluent in proving fact of crisis even with two contradicting arguments. Only politicans or their relatives can apply for the course....(a course of the IMF)

On the usury course you can learn how to blackmail small villages, how to use weapons, and if u wanna apply you should not read the Bible...is supposed to be also a course of the IMF.
The photo represents the yard of a poor house.

Fake advertisments - a kind of subvertisment

The changes of advertisments that I mentioned before are called "subvertisments"
These I am not sure to count in this category...

They are funny texts, that look like advertisments, but they are selling useless staff.

I found many of them in the Jewish district lately...The first one above tries to sell us some hernia ... it even has a small photo of it.

The second one above says: "Money for sale" - Hungarian, foreign and Japanese ....