@Matt Derrick
i've heard you call dumpsters in the uk 'skips' and dumpster diving 'skipping'? is dumpster diving good out there, or is it rare to find good stuff/food in a dumpster? in the few times i've been to western europe, it doesn't seem like people throw out nearly as much food as we do in the states.
Yeah we tend to call it skips / skipping although occasionally I still say dumpster diving because I read about it long before I did it. Obviously it depends where you are. I find city centres are actually worse. Skips tend to be locked up and totally inaccessible and any time you do find one with stuff in its been deliberately destroyed. An example was a camping store skip, found loads of high quality leather books, waterproof trousers and coats etc, all had been slashed to pieces totally beyond repair. Other large stores throw bleach or paint on produce. Small towns are better as they don't see a lot of dumpster divers so do t feel the need to protect their bins. Saying that city garages seem to be good! The budgens garage by us is full every day, we get pizzas, expensive deserts, loads off fruit and veg and oven meals which is handy now I live somewhere with an oven. It's rare to find alcohol in skips now. If one can from a 4 pack is burst, instead of binning it like they used to, they sell it on for lkike 20 pence less. Wankers.
also, what's your perferred method for getting around? how do most travelers/punks/anarchos get around the uk? driving? living in cars? riding bikes?
We jump the trains. Obviously not in the way you guys in the US do. There's basically no scene for freight hopping here.there are a few freight lines but they are hard to access and jump and if you do so its more for entertainment / an adrenaline rush than to actually cover ground. I have no experience with this but I have a friend who does if you want me to question him.
Our magic words are 'fare evasion'. Some train lines are easier / more chilled than others although in recent years they're all cracking down hard on train hoppers (we still call it that). They're beggining to close the disabled gates so you can't just slip through behind a paying customer, building more gates in between platforms and having stricter ticket checks on route. Its a standard occurrence on this profession to be kicked off trains at several stops and it can take days to travel across a fairlyt small! country if you keep getting kicked off and can't sneak onto another train or avoid the conductor and ends up belong thrown off in all sorts of rural places. Saying that I've also had a great luck and have travelled from right down south to almost the very north of Scotland in a day. A lot of it is just being a cheeky little shit, blagging a lot of employees and having the people skills to twist many peoples arms into letting you get away with it.
someone on stp mentioned that they've train hopped across the uk, but that's the only time ive ever heard of it. is this a common way for travelers to get around for free?
See the above answer!
are buses expensive? is it hard to get into scotland, or ireland from there?
Oh yeah. A lot of cities are also bringing in this stupid travel card shit, like London's osyter card... So you get on a bus with cash and they won't let you on. You have to buy this card (£5) then top it up and tap to travel or use a contactless bank card.
You can travel for free in London buses if you wait for a 3 door bus. Just jump on the back and quickly run upstairs. If the driver does notice he gets on the tannoy and asks you to come pay or he won't leave the stop. Just sit there, Ignore him and eventually the passengers get pissed off and yell at him to move so they generally do. Just like the trains its just a bit of cockiness and confidence.
oh what about squatting? is there still squats in camden (london)? what squats have you stayed/lived in and what were they like?
There's squats everywhere, although its getting harder. In a nutshell, its now illegal to squat residential buildings but you can still squat warehouses, shops, clubs etc. Its not so widespread now and if you want a squat you gotta get off your ass, get a crew and open one. There's not many places you can just show up and find a squat to stay in.
The people living in them vary. Some are just full of rich mummy's boys, squatting because its cool and as soon as there's an eviction they just go home. These are the people that will never resist an eviction, these are also the people who are elitist with their entry policy. To me, a squat should be a free space and if a stranger were to arrive in need of a place to stay, so long as they are respectful and OK to live with they should be given a space if its possible but these kids are judgemental and elitist.
also curious about parties/raves/punk shows, if there is any? do you go to any big festivals or gatherings out there?
I don't go to 'proper' festivals but yes, we have a shit ton of free parties! Bristol is a great place for it we recently had a rig under an old rail bridge!
