My interview with Bridget

So this month I don't have too much news from the Canberra region. There was a zine fair on, but I was unable to attend. My spies tell me there was not anywhere near as many people as at the same event last year.

What I have done instead is interview my good pal Bridget (Screwdriver Guilts, Trees Die Standing), who used to live in Canberra, but is now popping up all over the world...

What first got you started on the idea of making zines?

I honestly have no idea. I always liked cut & paste..

You're living in Austria at the moment....what's the zine scene like?

So far a bit bullshit. There's one infoshop here in Vienna, at the one squat (not a real squat), with a secret knock & stuff before you can get in. I'm gonna keep digging though, I'm optimistic.

And to follow on from that, is it difficult to make zines there- are paper, staplers, glue and photocopiers widely available?

The good news for Viennese zinesters is that there's a super-friendly anarchist printing place that will only charge you material costs, so at least this part of it's totally covered. Meanwhile, due to some stupid scene infighting junk the place is being effectively boycotted by most of the people in the city who could, should & would be using the place.

What's your personal favourites of the zines you have made so far?

I'm kinda keen on ish one of Trees Die Standing (which will totes be reprinted & in our favourite smelbs store before long). For those of you (most of you) who haven't read it, it's about the time I went to the Egypt-Gaza border last June. It's a long story. I interviewed a bunch of people coming out of Gaza, as well as some of the people involved in the tunnels/smuggling trade & learnt a lot about the Bedouin struggle in the Sinai. I also found out that the going price for a Grad missile launcher in Gaza is $50,000, while in Somalia it's only $6,000.

Your zines are mainly based on your personal experiences, without the adventure would there be no zine?

Um yeah, I think so. I hope so! My first few zines (Screwdriver Guilts #1 & 2) were an amalgamation of crap, mostly nothing to do with me. I interviewed some skater in Norway about when THE GOVERNMENT OUTLAWED SKATING FOR LIKE 15 YEARS WTF, & Quan Yeomans from Regurgitator, who can I just mention, is such a dude.

Trees Die Standing #2 is about your experiences in Palestine...what would you do differently if you were to go there again?

Yeah wow! Maybe everything or nothing? I'd probably try to shoplift more in Tel Aviv, & eat (even) more falafel.

What's next on the production line?

So many. I spent some time with the No Borders group in Calais, France last year where European activists are supporting the migrant struggle for freedom of movement... literally hundreds of migrants are stuck in this pissant town in northern France at any given time, trying to smuggle themselves on to a boat to Britain. Basically it's a losing game of trying to stop the cops from beating them up too much during raids, & just to be a friendly face to these people who have gone through such incredible, relentless bullshit. Anyway, as soon as I get time I want to write an “Arabic for Activists” zine especially for Calais, to combat the language barrier (a lot of people there were from Sudan, Iraq etc) & help activists be more effective. I wanna write a “Middle East Vegan” recipe zine, even if no-one reads them – this might have something to do with this fucking Palestinian cookbook I'm editing right now (I say “fucking” because the recipes are so vague it feels more like I'm writing a cookbook than editing). And I want to sit down & write my zine from Iraq/Kurdistan, which I hope to call “All My Friends Are Mountains” because, well, it's often been said that the Kurds have no friends but the mountains... & gosh I like mountains!

What sort of music is the background to these zines?

This is ridiculous but when I was cut/pasting my last zine together it was to the soundtrack of my boyfriend reading me Sherlock Holmes aloud.

Apart from zines, you do a fair bit of other writing, how does making zines fit into your writing game as a whole?

Zines are totes the writing equivalent of um, “me time” - when I get to write whatever, however I like, with no deadlines, word limits or target audiences. Wahey!

What are the best and worst zines you have ever read?

I don't think I've ever read a BAD zine, hey. I have a pretty low threshold for ranty socialist zines or wistful-teenage-girl-growing-up-in-the-Midwest perzines unless they're really well done, but whatevs. Well, actually, I did read a zine once called “Why Nonviolence Protects the State”, but it was actually a photocopy of the un-copyrighted book of the same name, & it was (for me) complete bullshit.

I read a really rad zine once called something like “Why Restaurants Should Be Abolished” which was pretty much what it said on the box, deconstructing the power-plays that define restaurant interactions between customers & staff. Good stuff for anyone who's ever worked hospitality!

Do you think you will find yourself back in Canberra anytime?

I'm coming back to Australia at the end of the year, mostly out of a growing desire to address the political situation & do some intense introspective junk re: being a product of colonialism & how to circumvent it. And Canberra's magnetic pull can only be staved off for so long. Actually zine-wise I'm really fucking excited!!! Australia's zine scene seems to be totally exploding! Kapow!

Anything else to add or anyone to thank?

Thanks Special Agent Dale Cooper, for being you!

You would think I would know travel by now

The next day, my plan was to make my way over to Bratislava again, maybe do some sightseeing, then take the plane to Barcelona. It was going to be great to see the sun. My reading of the bus timetables was totally wrong, and I made another mistake by going all the way to the other side of the city to take the train at the beginning of the line at the Südbahnhof , rather than just continuing on the U3 a little further to Simmering. Had I made that decision, I would have gone to Barcelona.

In the end I missed the plane. On an adventurous trip in a taxi through the streets of Bratislava, I had a bit of a whirlwind tour. “How long does it take to get to the airport?” The taxi man's eyes lit up and he asked if I needed to go fast. I strapped my seatbelt on tightly. I still missed the plane.

What to do now, what to do. I went to the ticket desk and asked how much a ticket on the next plane would be, it was going to Liverpool in England. 350 Euros was the response. They had free wifi at the airport so I browsed that for a while, letting various social media websites know just how much of an idiot I was, whilst searching for a solution. I wasn't so sure. Maybe I could stay in a hostel and fly out the next night. I decided I needed to get moving westward, I had 48 hours to be back in London. I didn't want to miss my plane back to Australia.

Back to Vienna I went. On the trip I wondered where I should go. I thought if I could get a train that was going somewhere overnight, somewhere far away, that would be a good idea. Frankfurt and Munich were sounding good, maybe I could even get through to France. There was a train to Zurich, that sounded like a good option, it cost a whole lot more than my plane that I'd missed though.

I had a couple of hours wait, so I went to an internet cafe for a while. I struck lucky and got talking to my friend Flavio and arranged to meet for a morning coffee in Zurich the next day. He was going to come over from Luzern, about an hour away. I got a kebab for dinner, which is also what I had for lunch. They are so cheap there, it's hard not to eat them.

On the train trip I met a guy who had a much worse day than me. He was working on cruise ships, but had planned to fly to Belgrade, I'm not so sure why. He was turned back by the Serbian authorities, then the Austrians told him his visa only got him one way travel through Austria. He talked them into letting him into the country, he was heading for Linz where his ship was docked. By the time we got to Linz, around midnight the ship had sailed on for Passau. He was also having trouble with the immigration officials on the train. They spent a good while looking at my passport, which was in good order, but they spent at least an hour looking at his. I looked at of the train to see if they would be taking him away, but it seemed like he was walking away, passport in hand.

The rest of the way passed uneventfully. My compartment was shared with some German speaking ladies. They would say things to me that I vaguely understood, I nodded with a stupid grin on my face, then tried to drift off to sleep. I looked out the window at a particular stop, and thought “hey, we're in Liechtenstein. I'm sure many of the Austrians on board wouldn't have noticed that, but they may not have walked across the country from one side to the other.

The next day was once again unpleasant, I decided I wasn't going to bother fighting the freezing cold, and had a day indoors, which I spent getting uni work done. I'm doing a course online, it's amazing having no worries being on the other side of the world to get your assignments in. My one journey outside was to the supermarket around the corner. Coming back in I had a lot of trouble with the key. It mus have taken me half an hour to get back into the house. I was feeling fairly stupid by the time I arrived indoors. I decided not to go out again until Alex came home.

The rain was still coming down, we decided to kick at an indoor sports hall. This was a good move, though it was a bit too warm in there. With no air coming in, or air condition, we worked up a sweat in no time. Verena was sick and Anita was playing lacrosse, so it was just the two of us playing. Alex had some great runs, I don't think I did really, but on these trips, it's always nice to play at all, it doesn't really matter how you play.

The sports centre was a pretty interesting place, you paid a couple of euros to get in, and they had pretty much everything there. Basketball, inline hockey, beach volleyball, a gym, indoor soccer, and most importantly, table tennis. I told Alex I was in form after playing in London. This turned out to be a lie. He beat me time after time, though I did win the final match.

We went out for dinner and I got myself the Austrian equivalent of a mixed grill. It was great, just what I was after really, a huge pile of meat on a plate. After playing footbag and having a small lunch, I was famished. We drank some beers with our meal, then came home fairly early.

Österreich/Bratislava

I was flying from Stansted to Bratislava in Slovakia. I wasn't in the best condition, but I got myself onto the plane. I sat down and went almost immediately to sleep. I woke up as we started our descent after a good snooze. I had slept all the way to Stansted on the bus, then almost all the way on the plane. That meant I was running on about 3 hours sleep. I wasn't in great condition. Outside it was freezing cold and raining. So this is Spring.

I thought about doing a bit of sightseeing in Bratislava, but decided that could wait til I came back from Vienna, on my way to Barcelona. Anyhow, the next train to Vienna was coming in ten minutes, why bother wandering around in the rain. So I went to Vienna and wandered in the rain there. I had no map, not really a lot of idea where I was. I spent a week in Vienna last year, I thought I had a pretty good lay of the land, but as a matter of fact, I thought wrong.

I stopped at a schnitzel haus, I think this was an excellent idea. I wasn't really sure about my plan of attack, I had to wait until my friend Alex finished work, then I would go to his house. I had a long wait ahead. I thought about just checking into a hostel and sleeping there for the first night, but I didn't see any in my wanderings. I was also hoping to find somewhere where I could get free Wifi. I ended up going to Starbucks because you can get half an hour free if you buy a drink. A lot of people had the same idea, it was very warm in there. For a city famed for its cafe culture, I didn't see a lot of cafes in my wanderings.

I wandered down to the Museums Quartier, decided to go to look at a museum. Unfortunately in Vienna, the museums cost money. I went to the Leopold Museum, which is a collection mainly of Austrian modern art. The first painting was a self portrait of a male nude. A pretty full on beginning. I should have known better than to go to a modern art gallery, but once again, it was warm in there. My time in the gallery mainly consisted of sitting down in the chairs at the centre of each gallery with vague looks at some painting.

Once out of there, I decided to just take a train, somewhere. I got on and decided to go to Ottakring, the end of Linien U3. Why not. I got out of the station, walked around the block, and went back to the station. I wasn't sure where to go next, I think I fell asleep and rode the line either way a couple of times.

I got out in the city and wandered around a while, then it was time to call Alex. He was home from a big lunch for his mum's birthday. That evening we went to meet some of the other Footbag players at Verena's house. All the Austrian players were so nice to me at Worlds last year, even more when I visited them in Vienna, it was great to visit them again.

Night bus in Vienna

I went and worked at one of the other hostels in Sydney a couple of months back. It was a pretty good time. On the first night we somehow got into a conversation about falling asleep on late night transport in foreign cities.

One had a London story, one had somewhere in South America, my contribution was from my time in Vienna.

"you know how to get home right Dan"
"yeah, sure, of course".
A trip that should have taken me 15 mintues, turned into a 4 hour ordeal. When my friend Alex had left, he said "haha you'll be out til 5am". Even though I left the place reasonably early, the time I walked in the door was right on 5am.

So I should have taken one bus just a few stops down the road, and then changed for a quick journey, and that would be that. All right, that's that. Right, what's that?

However, I vaguely remember thinking "I'll have to get off soon". Long after, I woke up, completely disoriented and pressed the stop button. I had no idea where I was, but it looked somewhat similar to Campbelltown. I went to the nearest bus stop, but eventually saw a bus turn the corner and realised I wasn't even waiting in the right place.

I finally got a bus back into the city. I had a 24 hour ticket, so I had no reason to explain where I was, why I was there or where I was going. I also didn't have much idea of any of these, but got on the bus and tried to keep sleep away. I opted to get off the bus where I had first come into town (Sudtiroler Platz), but once I got off I walked numerous blocks in the wrong direction. I walked past a hostel, thought I could just stay the night there, but I didn't have my passport and they might have wanted that to check me in.

I went to a nearby bus stop to consult a map, and that didn't really give me any clues. The suburb I was staying in (Kardinal Nagl Platz, 3rd District) had been abbreviated on the map to KNP, and I was in no state to comprehend that.

I thought about waiting til the normal buses and trains which had been so good to me in the daylight hours started up again, and settled down for a snooze. The crazy thing about this is that at no point did I feel unsafe. I had been in Prague a few days before, walking around in broad daylight, and was fearful that every moment may be my last.

After a while sleeping on this hard bench, I looked down the road, saw some taxis, got in one, got it to take me to the door, forked out the cash and went straight to sleep.

This is the only real misadventure I had in a month of travel. I think that is a great success. I had an extensive coverage of travel insurance, but didn't have anything to use it on, however, I don't think I would travel without it. There is so much that could go wrong, I guess I was just lucky.