Hello from (Wonderful Wonderful…) Copenhagen :)

Arrived safe and on time again, entirely thanks to Yvonne’s latest driver, Ashtyn Senatu. Ash is from Maryland USA but recently moved with her partner Eugene to Berlin. ‘Eug’ already works at Berlin’s Metropolitan School but (luckily for us) Ash’s new job hadn’t started yet. She responded to an ad Mojo posted online about a guy walking around the EU to Stop Child Sexual Abuse who needed a ‘Road Coordinator’. We had originally planned to have one driver with me for the entire trip but in February he suddenly bought a pub in Canada, so (for now…) we have new folk joining me for different sections of the walk. It’s great in many ways as it helps break up the very long journey and is an opportunity for others to directly contribute to the Road to Change. Without a place to sleep every night this walk wouldn’t be possible and if I had to carry a tent and clothes and food etc I doubt I could walk 50km everyday…Three folk actually responded to the Ad, an Italian, and Australian and Ash. Ash and Eug invited me over for Meatballs one night and we hit it off. A very late night, sampling German beers, ended with me sleeping on their living room floor, only the second night that I’ve not slept in Yvonne since leaving London over three months ago. (I stayed one night in a B&B in France when Mojo got stuck in Newhaven with the wrong passport…) Both Ash and Eug seemed intrigued by the walk so it was a shame Eug couldn’t join us but Ash wasn’t to be alone in Yvonne, she brought their ten month old pup ‘Tembo’. When I say ‘pup’, don’t imagine a wee dog. Tembo is the size of a small dear and has the energy of a five year old boy after a bowl of Skittles. They bought him last year when they were both working in Tanzania and he’s travelled all the way to the US and now here to Europe with them. His name means Elephant in Swahili which really suits him, with his big floppy ears. I had been thinking only the week before, when I encountered a stray dog in the German woods, that it would be great to have a dog with me as I walk, but after briefly holding Tembo’s lead and nearly having my arm pulled out its socket, I gathered he’d be safer keeping Ash company in Yvonne…

I was already a little over tired as I set off on the walk to Copenhagen. The five days spent in Berlin were pretty non-stop. Ariel, who followed me in Yvonne from Amsterdam, left the day we arrived, so I was alone in yet another new city to try and engage with press, media and meet as many people and organisations as possible. Yvonne’s flat tire took three days to sort out and by the day before I was due to start walking again I still hadn’t had time to do laundry. It’s really important that I do that while in a city as it’s almost impossible on the road. It was only six pm but the campsite was very unfriendly and said it was too late to use the machine, I had to come back in the morning…All the other campers I spoke to agreed this was the unfriendliest campsite they’d ever stayed in but with Yvonne’s wheel missing most of the week I was stuck there. They were already one of the most expensive sites I’ve stopped in on the walk but they also wanted another four euro to use the toilet…I’m sure I’ll look back an laugh but when funding for the walk is already limited and I have to turn up to British Embassies in cloths that don’t smell like I’ve just walked for three weeks in them, these factors can make life unnecessarily stressful…

Luckily one of the four international partners who collaborate on Road to Change are partly based in Berlin. ‘Innocence in Danger’, directed by Homayra Sellier (who I ate Snails with in Paris…) has eight offices around the world. They are involved in a number of areas of child protection and healing from trauma, with innovative interactive games to teach children online safety, smart phone apps and training for institutions. They also run artistic retreat weeks, where abused children and their families are given a space to play and create with professional artists from all kinds of disciplines. These weeks sound incredibly liberating for both the children, their families but also the artists who volunteer their time and expertise to help these kids heal. The staff of the Berlin office were also instrumental in coordinating with Ariel to arrange all those press interviews in the small towns as we made our way across the country the week before.

As ever, the British Embassy were also incredibly helpful in setting up an appointment at the Germany Family Ministry and even provided a translator to assist me with the meeting. I have to say, Germany appears to be doing more than any country I had walked through so far with regards tackling child sexual abuse, which I understand is in response to public pressure. There has been so many scandals in the German press of abuse within institutions in the past three years their government needed to act and did so by creating a new independent post to address the issue. Apparently they’ve also spent seven million on four different awareness campaigns. I can’t help but feel this money could have been spent differently, with a few million on one comprehensive campaign and rest channelled into establishing counselling and legal advise services for the more rural areas, but its a start… I began to realise as I walked for two weeks through one tiny village after an other that the focus of the walk is slightly flawed. I aim always to reach the capital of each of the countries, but many Germans that I met while crossing their country said that Berlin is quite unlike the rest of Germany. I guess most capitals are. An cosmopolitan island in the vast rural landscape which actually hosts its majority of the population. I want to look at how I can include the smaller towns in the walk…I’m still thinking about this.

Before setting of from Berlin, Eug managed to arrange for me to speak with the Child Protection team at his work, Berlin’s Metropolitan School. I was excited by the prospect of directly engaging with some children too, ironically this 10,000mile walk to make life safer for kids means I only really meet adults everywhere I go. After learning so much about the incredible programs for teens generated by Innocence in Danger in Berlin, I arrived at the school with a bunch of materials to share with staff there. They are eager to implement some of these tools into their curriculum and I was pleased that the walk had managed to introduce a school to an organisation who were already in the same city but can now work together to make their kids safer. After our chat, I had a brief opportunity to speak to some of the teens. As usual, when they heard I walked here from London, they immediately asked how I walked from England to France. It’s normally the first thing people ask and is starting to make me wish I’d arranged to walk through the channel tunnel…Folk don’t seem satisfied with the 3000-odd-km I walked because a boat helped me out for 20km of it…

Still…finally I set off from Berlin and was excited to be on the road again with my new mates Ash and Tembo. The walk wasn’t easy, as German drivers all seem very eager to get somewhere and so most of the day I was stumbling through freshly ploughed fields away from the roadside. Two full days were spent just cutting through a national park which was pleasant enough until I came across a Wild Boar (thankfully dead…) I don’t know what damage a boar could do to a man in a kilt but I certainly walked faster for those to days to avoid having to find out. The next day, we discovered Ash’s iPhone had disappeared. Nothing else was missing from Yvonne so we ruled out theft but pulled everything out of every corner trying to find it. No luck :( The road is already long and can be tough but contacting folk at home or staying online makes its bearably. I felt terrible for Ash, new in the county and stuck on the road on this crazy expedition and now without even her friends phone numbers to keep her company :(

Things picked up though as we reached yet another body of water too big for a bridge I spoke to the staff of Scandlines to request permission to walk across their forecourt instead of being driven the 500 meters like the rest of the foot passengers. Thankfully, the staff were all very kind and intrigued by the walk. At the first desk the lady asked if she was being filmed in some kind of wined-up show, as she couldn’t believe I had walked all the way here from London. Permission granted, Ash drove Yvonne with Tembo through the gates and waited with the other vehicles to bored, while I walked across the long stretch of tarmac and up onto the gangway to boat on foot. When I reached the boat, two Danish staff asked to see my ticket. I tried to explain I had paid for a van and two passengers but I had been given permission by the german staff to walk on bored. They welcomed me warmly and waved me passed. I was first on the empty ship and walked around the usual cafe and duty-free shop on the ship before waiting in the foyer for Ash and Tembo to park up and join me. As I waited, they two Danes returned smiling and said the ship would like to invite me and my support team to the VIP area for dinner. I was so pleased, as with all the walking and iphone hunting, Ash and I hadn’t had a chance to eat all day. I felt bad for Tembo. All he got was a bowl of water, while Ash and I were let lose on a massive buffet of nordic cuisine. (And a help-yourself beer tap…) That two hour crossing sailed by and before the second free beer we could see country number seven, Denmark. I had my picture taken with the lovely staff and I understand it was posted on their internal company news site. They have hundreds of staff, so no doubt many survivors working form them. I walked off the ferry and met Yvonne on the first street in Gedser, where we parked up and slept for the night. It would take three and a half days to reach Copenhagen, up one long straight road with generous cycle paths the whole way. At least once a day, a car stopped and offered me a lift, bless them, when I politely declined they would ask where I’m going. “Copenhagen”. The answer always earned me a look of confusion and pity before they drove on without me. Kind folks it seems.

I knew little about Denmark before I got here. Lego and pastry, that was about it…(oh, and they just won Eurovision…)They are EU but not on the Euro so they still use Kroner, which is beautiful but very hard to figure out. The coins have holes in them. A hark back to their Viking routes, when apparently coins where tied with a lace to the belts of the warriors, but although pretty these coins barely have any value today. Copenhagen is also very expensive. Somethings up to eight times what you’d pay in the UK. I’ll fill yous in one the interesting events of my five days in Copenhagen next week, just now I’m in yet another McDonalds using up my allotted 30 minutes of wifi so I’ll be in touch…Stockholm’s calling…

Thanks for reading…

Matty x